July 12, 2020 - 10:39h] Notes of the Director. Weekly Report (XVI). COVID-19

Dear Community;

We are just a few days away from finishing what will surely have been one of the most atypical courses of recent years. The pandemic is still active and we must take extreme precautions in any of our daily activities in order to reduce the risk of infection. Fortunately, we do not currently have any active cases in our community, although we do have colleagues who have been ill and are still suffering the consequences. Before we continue, encouragement to everyone!

At the School we are already in the middle of the Resumption Phase. This week almost 500 young people took the University Admission Tests (Selectivity) without incidents with an impeccable organization. At the same time, all the re-assessment exams for the autumn term have already been taken, with the spring term exams remaining to be completed shortly.

Also, tomorrow, Monday, the final exams of the Master's Degree in Organizational Engineering (last final exams of the School) will end, and the Support Group that has been created to provide telephone coverage for the final exams in remote, will also finish its work. It has been 4 weeks of support and assistance (from 8:00 to 21:00 uninterruptedly) where it has been found that over time the incidences have been drastically reduced. I guess we’ve all been learning from each other. I think it is fair to use this writing to make a public thank you to Joseba Quevedo, Blanca Tejedor, Mari Albareda and Sisco Vallverdú. Thank you so much.

From next week until the end of July we will be in the period of defenses of TFE (Final year project). A total of 452 and all will be telematic, which implies a very big organizational challenge. Gradually the dates of presentations agreed between the 3 members of the court will be published. Remember that the date will be published at least 3 days in advance.

Next Friday we will do the last Standing Committee of the course. In this one the Academic Calendar of the course 2020/21 will be presented and voted. It will be proposed to start the next academic year on 14 September for the degrees and on 21 September for the master's degrees. With one exception. Having such a late selectivity this year, means that the majority of new students in Q1 will not be able to enroll at the second half of September, so we are forced to delay the beginning of Q1 of all grades to September 28.

In this same Standing Committee, the organization of classes for September will be presented. Last week's Governing Council approved the maximum occupations of the UPC's teaching spaces. Summarizing, it was agreed that the theory and problem classrooms can be occupied with a maximum of one person every 2.5m ² and / or 50% of their maximum capacity; that computer rooms can be occupied by one person per computer; and that the teaching laboratories will be able to occupy at the rate of 1 person every 2.5m ² of total surface (allowing the work by pairs). All this with the obligation to wear a mask in the event that a distance of 1.5m between people cannot be maintained. With these premises, provisional schedules have been made which are in revision phase by the departments.

With regard to theory and laboratory groups, we already have a definite distribution of attendance, while for the computer rooms and laboratories we are holding a round of meetings with all the Departments of the School to agree on their occupation, subject by subject and laboratory by laboratory (we believe that, due to its size, the vast majority of laboratories will be able to go to 100% practice group). Next Wednesday we hope to have it finished.

Advance you that in terms of attendance in large and medium group classrooms, thanks to the great capabilities of our classrooms and the magnificent work done by the Academic Planning, it has been achieved that all courses go to 100% attendance in class (maintaining the stipulated security measures and with compact schedules) minus the Q3 of GREFI (Common Phase), the Q5 of GREEIA (Electronic Degree) and the Q4 and Q6 of GRETI (Degree in Industrial Technologies). For these courses the attendance of students in theory classrooms will be 50% (we will give more details with the schedules), making an installation of cameras in classrooms so that the other 50% can follow the classes in remote, if any.

Comment, also, that the Rector's Office has provided us with a specific financial heading to "tidy up" our auditoriums by improving the openings (windows) and the acoustics of the rooms for teaching. We are talking about spaces with a capacity of 290 people where will be held classes of 60 (maximum safety distance).

Strictly following the safety rules approved by the Governing Council, the risk of infection at the UPC must not be greater than in any daily activity, on the contrary. However, in the event that a person from the PDI is unable to take a face-to-face class due to a medical prescription (ASPY certificate), he / she must contact Management to articulate, together with the corresponding Department, the procedures and systems that maintain the academic activity.

We remind you that we have 76 Learning Scholarships available for School Students related to tasks of academic collaboration with Departments. You can find all the detailed information at information on Scholarships in TAAIESE .

Finally, remember that within the Teaching Model that we have planned for the next year, we are in Scenario A - Limited attendance (50% maximum capacity per classroom), although finally we are very close to Scenario B – Total Attendance respecting as much as possible all the established security measures (attached “Teaching Model” updated with the last UPC Governing Council). It should be borne in mind that a new period of confinement can begin at any time, with which we could move to Scenario C- Non-presence almost instantly. The School is preparing to deal with this possible eventuality, and we ask each subject coordinator to have a contingency plan prepared for a hypothetical change of scenery from one day to another.

Thank you very much, lots of encouragement, good health and a big hug to everyone. Please be very careful and stay safe!

Xavier Roca

Director of the ESEIAAT