Dear Community,

Another week has passed, the eighth, and soon it will be two months since we had to leave school to begin confinement. Well looked at, it looks amazing. Today, health data looks promising, despite the uncertainty of a possible regrowth, after easing confinement restrictions. The numbers of people infected and affected on a daily basis are falling, and we hope that they will continue to be so, but we must not forget that the figures often hide what is, really, important: people. For everyone who is still in a delicate situations, courage!

There are still many uncertainties about the immediate and medium-term future, although some aspects are gradually being clarified. At the State, level there is already a roadmap, that defines the unblockdown phases, but we still do not know the dates of transition from one phase to another and whether all areas around us will do so at the same time. Even so, accompanied by a hazard of regrowth and new confinements that does not leave us at all. We will follow closely how the situation evolves, and we will inform in an official form. Remember that besides ESEIAAT i TAIEESE’s websites, e-mails, and social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) we have a new communication channel, Telegram, with the profile “ESEIAAT_UPC” and we encourage you to follow it.

At UPC’s level, important documents have been made public this week, which we will mention below due to their relevance.

On one hand, our Rector has issued a statement explaining the 4 axes of work in this new stage (video).

1. Take care of our community.

2. Attend to specific incidents of non-face-to-face teaching, prepare for the end of the 19-20 academic year, and plan the next academic year considering the most plausible scenarios.

3. Establish an unblockdown plan to gradually recover face-to-face activity.

4. Become key agents in the social and economic reconstruction of our country, as a public university that we are.

The Rector has also signed a new resolution (Resolution 752/2020, May 7) which establishes the Academic Criteria for the adaptation of the face-to-face teaching format to the non-face-to-face in order to complete the course in the context of the state of alarm. This official document includes, in an integral way, all the actions carried out so far, as well as those planned, in order to adapt to non-face-to-face teaching. It is highly recommended reading document, as it establishes the action framework, the recommendations and the limitations caused by the current situation.

Another document has not yet been made public for all the community to which many efforts have been expended this week: the unblockdown Plan and progressive reactivation of the UPC’s activity. It hopes that this document can be presented and approved by the UPC’s Governing Council to be held on May, Thursday 14. From our side, the School has already prepared collective and individual protection measures for when begins to buildings the reactivation access to the buildings.

Regarding the registration of the changes that have undergone the School spring subjects, it is necessary to complete it in the face of the Accreditation processes of the different degrees. So far, we have validated around 300 Addendum documents in the Teaching Guide that you have sent us. We thank your effort, but the work has not been concluded yet.

Despite our desire to simplify processes as much as possible, we have been asked that it is essential that all spring subjects have an Addendum. Although in practice you have not made significant changes to the Teaching Guide, it is necessary a written record and in a public form that both the teaching methodology and the assessment methodology become non face-to-face. That is, it is necessary to state explicitly how the classes are adapted, and whether the non-face-to-face assessment tests are asynchronous or synchronous, in class schedule or on the date and time set in the examination calendars.

Anyone who has already received their validated addendum, does not need to do anything else, but those Coordinators who have not yet done so, should send it to us as soon as possible. You can find the Addenda model in the e-mail sent from direccio.eseiaat@upc.edu on April 17 entitled "Addendum to ESEIAAT Teaching Guides". If you do not have it, contact sotsdirectora.eseiaat.algaba@upc.edu.

Internally and with regard to the School’s activity, after finishing the bulk of synchronous partial evaluations, we now have a second test of fire: next week begins the period of defenses of Final Works Research (TFEs) of extraordinary call and we will use a completely new online procedure. All the necessary information is on the School’s website in this new page. In this occasion there are "only” about 100 jobs affected and we hope that the whole system works properly because in June there will be more than 400 TFEs. For any incident or recommendation on the courts to improve the procedure, please contact tutoria.tfg@upc.edu or tutoria.tfm.eseiaat@upc.edu and we will consider it for the June call.

In the same direction, on the TAAIESE’s website (https://taaiese.upc.edu/ca/calaix-estudiant) a new section has been opened for students, “Contributions to Improve”, where we want to collect the improvement proposals that you consider opportune, as main users of the different procedures that have had to be implemented to make the transition to the non-face-to-face teaching. The aim is to be able to canalize these proposals to analyze which of them can be put into practice, especially in anticipation to this situation that can be extended to the next four months…

This last sentence is very important. Over the last few weeks, we have been able to adapt to stop the blow but now we need to include the forced non-face-to-face as a variable in our system. At the moment, we are preparing the end of the course with a certain advance and knowing, more or less, the conditions. Nevertheless, at the same time, we need to be, really, aware of the difficulty of the situation and we need to study different scenarios for the start of the school year for next September.

It is likely that next fall (September) we will not be able to start the course in a "normal face-to-face" way. We do not know at this time when the "new normality" will be installed, or what its limitations will be in terms of safety distance, maximum capacity, needs for clean points, etc.

At both school and UPC’s level, have been working on with different hypotheses, although most of them point towards a hybrid teaching model where face-to-face teaching sessions can coexist with remote teaching, until we have a definitive solution to the health crisis. Despite the vagueness, without a doubt, the experience we have all gained in the last 2 months will be very useful for us to adapt. As always, we will keep you informed as there are certainties on the subject, but we want to be transparent and make it clear that this is on the table at the UPC, in case it is necessary. Our intention is that the rules of the game of the new course are defined, or planned as possible during June, at the latest.

Finally, I want to thank the whole ESEIAAT community again for the great effort they are making, week by week. Moreover, I will do it again with every post because I am aware that it is needed to recognize that you are making a remarkable effort, despite the accumulated fatigue and the nerve-wracking moments we all go through. And I think we need to enjoy the good times and share them, even in the distance. Today I want to share with all of you the joy of having seen and heard personally (even through a screen) a colleague of ours who a few weeks ago was struggling between life and death in a very, very critical situation. Now, fortunately, he is, almost recovered at home. We have not heard of any transfers from our colleagues, but we do know that some of you have lost someone close to you in recent weeks, and we want to send you our consolation and support.

Once again we ask you to please stay safe and be safe!!!!

A big hug,

Xavier Roca

ESEIAAT’s Director