Guiomar Corral, Director of La Salle Digital Engineering School (ETSELS), is the winner of the GrausTIC award for ICT Women 2023. The award, which she received at the ICT Day in Catalonia, held in the Telefónica Tower (Barcelona) on November 16, 2023, recognizes the woman who has stood out the most in promoting innovation, technology and digital transformation in the environment of her profession during the last year.
The jury of the ICT Day in Catalonia 2023, made up of thirty professionals and leaders of the sector in Catalonia, has recognized the work of Guiomar Corral and has awarded her for a notable series of merits:
- Participation in the launch of the Degree in Health Engineering, in which she was involved as Academic Director of the Engineering Degrees, standing out for the promotion of female talent, with 70% of the students being women.
- The promotion of innovative transversal projects, with the collaboration of the Euroleague, between Engineering and Management students; and transversal projects aligned with the SDGs in the core subject Thought and Creativity.
- The organization of important national and international research and information and communication technology conferences, such as the recent JITEL 2023.
- The work to link the campus students with the business world, through visits to leading companies in the sector, and to promote entrepreneurship with the endorsement of La Salle Technova, the innovation park of La Salle-URL.
- The commitment to training in new technologies, key to the development of society, such as artificial intelligence and the metaverse.
- The promotion of internationality with study trips, coordinating the first study tour in Japan for engineering degree students.
- Accompaniment to doctoral students and researchers to achieve their projects, as in the case of Álvaro Heredia, a doctoral student at La Salle-URL who won the inter-university competition 'Thesis in 4 minutes'.
"I am very grateful to GrausTIC for the recognition, which serves to prove the constant good work we do from the La Salle School of Engineering and from the La Salle-URL campus to train creative and innovative students, expert engineers who, thanks to their skills, knowledge and values always leave a positive mark on their environments and contribute to building a more just and sustainable world," explained Guiomar Corral after collecting the award. The award-winning ―graduate, MBA and doctor in Information and Communication Technologies and their Management from La Salle-URL― is Director of the ETSELS since this academic year and is an expert in network cybersecurity, internet technologies and the application of artificial intelligence to solve problems related to security, both in smart electrical networks and in IoT networks.
This year's event, focused on artificial intelligence
The ICT Day in Catalonia organized by GrausTIC focuses the event each year on the most relevant topic of the moment in the field of ICT. This year, the event was titled 'Artificial Intelligence: Apocalypse, Salvation or Simply Evolution?' and has brought together nearly a hundred experts from various fields to reflect on artificial intelligence (AI) from a wide range of points of view and perspectives, thinking about its infinite applications, its implications and how it can affect current and future societies.
One of the panels of experts, on AI and education, included the participation of Xavier Canaleta, Director of Educational Innovation at La Salle-URL, who explained that "artificial intelligence is an opportunity and must also be presented as a challenge when training teachers". Furthermore, Josep Maria Garrell, President of the European University Association and member of La Salle-URL, has been one of those in charge of opening the ICT Day. For his part, the Rector of the URL, Josep Rom, participated in the closing ceremony.
