From left to right: EADA students Anton Linkov, Mabel Silvestre, Maria Pia Tregear and Juan Pablo Fonseca pose with the REEM robot from PAL Robotics.
On November 24, the Mornings4 Foundation hosted the first ever “Event on the Fourth Industrial Revolution” in Diagonal Zero in Barcelona. Mornings4 works to create a better future by keeping up to date on 4.0 technologies, and promoting positive views of these technologies.
EADA associate professor Dr Athina Sismanidou is one of the co-founders of the Mornings4 Foundation. “What motivated me to co-found Mornings4 was the fact that I have two young children and I would like to see them grow up in a better world,” she says. “Mornings4 was born with the objective to distribute knowledge on new technologies to the general public in order to encourage as many people as possible to participate in building the future.”
MBA participant Juan Pablo Fonseca, who attended the event, certainly felt motivated to get involved in building the future in his home country of Guatemala. “Without a doubt, the Mornings4 conference was a big opportunity to push my entrepreneurial goals because I had the opportunity to meet top developers in innovation,” he said. “The event helped me create relationships with these entrepreneurs with the goal of helping them internationalise and bring their products to Guatemala and other countries in Latin America.”
Innovation expert at BBVA Ignacio Villoch answers the question: Can we learn at the same speed that technology advances?
The event included several speakers including Kim Faura, General Director at Telefónica Cataluña, and Ignacio Villoch, Open Innovation Senior Ecosystem Builder at BBVA. The presentations focused on a wide range of topics including neuroscience, augmented reality (AR), chatbots, big data and holographic screens. Speakers tackled questions such as: How will robots help us in the future? Can we learn at the same speed as technology develops? Can we predict the jobs of the future? Will we still be paying with credit cards in 5 years’ time? What forms of transport await us? What does a digital democracy look like?
Coming from a background in trade marketing, MBA participant Mabel Silvestre was impressed with the presentations that touched on this area. “I learned new consumption patterns, and how virtual reality is helping improve the consumer experience,” she said. “For example, retail can be enhanced by using face recognition on shelves, which interacts with the shopper to suggest different products.”
Another conference attendee, Tatiana Gottlib, saw a clear connection between her classes at EADA and the material discussed at the conference. “I was positively surprised with how most of the event topics had been covered or touched on by our professors at EADA,” she said. “It felt good to come prepared and skip all the initial questions – going directly to the core of the issues presented.” The highlight of the Mornings4 event for Tatiana was the opportunity to network with potential employers in the field in a more informal, personal environment.
According to Dr Sismanidou, education is key in promoting the values and beliefs that drive the Mornings4 Foundation. “The amazing innovations that surround us today are redefining the essence of the human being, but they are also creating very deep moral and philosophical questions,” she says. “Education is an important component in this venture, and the Mornings4 project objectives align well with EADA’s vision to shape the socially responsible, ethical professionals of the future.”
For those who share the values of the Mornings4 Foundation, you can find out more at: