“Newton Room Galicia Open Day” celebrates the first successful 18 months from the opening of the permanent Newton Room in Ourense

Ourense (Galicia), June 14, 2023 – Boeing, Tecnópole, the Xunta de Galicia and FIRST Scandinavia have celebrated today the “Newton Room Galicia Open Day”, a full day of visits to the permanent Newton Room celebrating its first year and a half of existence.

The Newton Room Galicia was brought by Boeing and the Norwegian non-profit organization FIRST Scandinavia to Spain exactly 18 months ago, when this innovative concept was launched inside the Galician Technology Park to offer high-quality learning experience in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to students aged from 14 to 16.

Since its opening in October 2021, the Newton Room Galicia has hosted 93 institutes from all Galicia provinces and over 2,500 students. In the school year 2021-2022 30 schools and 907 students participated in this innovative experience, while in the school year 2022-2023 the Newton Room has so far welcomed 63 schools and 1,631 students.

A large, permanent and fully equipped learning space, the Newton Room is located in the province of Ourense, inside Tecnópole, Galicia’s Technology Park in San Cibrao das Viñas, and is open to students from every Galician districtand also from outside ot the region. A 4th flight simulator was recently acquired by Tecnópole in addition to the other three simulators that have been part of this learning experience since the beginning.

We have taken amazing steps forward since the establishment of this Newton Room Galicia, the first permanent Newton Room in Spain, only one year and a half ago,” said Eduardo Carrillo de Albornoz-Braojos, Boeing Research & Technology-Europe Strategy and Operations Director. “Thanks to our solid partnership with the Galician regional government, and due to the strong demand from schoold and teachers, we are confirming our enduring commitment to Galicia and to our local partners, leaving a further testament of our strong commitment to Spain and its communities.”

The Director of GAIN (Axencia Galega de Inovación), Patricia Argerey, commented that “it’s fundamental to promote scientific-technological interest since youth and in this approach the Galician Aerospace Centre has a variety of activities to offer, one of which is the Newton Room, to promote the talent, with special attention to girls.”

“The Newton Room has been a great success, not only because of the number of participants and the fact that semestral places were booked within 24 hours. It is worth remarking that almost half of the participants are young women and that, following the activity, a large number of students evaluate the idea of starting a STEM career. Moreover, Tecnopole has customized this activity so that the flight mission is set in our region, with the help of the Galician Emergency Services 112” Tecnópole Director, Javier Taibo, commented.

The Newton Room at Tecnópole is the first to be permanently established in Spain and is a format that has been hugely successful in Norway, which has over 40 permanent rooms distributed across the country. The Newton Rooms are particularly suited to rural locations and allow students to hone their skills in STEM subjects under the supervision of specialist teachers.

The Galician Government’s support for this initiative is part of the autonomous program for the promotion of scientific-technological vocations 'Flying high, adding vocations', in which Boeing collaborates, which in turn is also an industrial and technological partner of the Xunta in the Galician Aerospace Pole with projects such as Traffic Management and Safety for Shared Air Spaces.

Boeing and Galicia

Boeing has been an active partner of Galicia since 2018, when Boeing Research & Technology-Europe, based in Madrid, was awarded aproject launched by the Xunta de Galicia under the pre-commercial public purchase formula to address the “Management and Security of traffic for shared airspaces” within the framework of the “Civil UAVs Initiative.” The main objective of this 18-month project, called “Galician SkyWay”, was the development of technological solutions tothe operational and security challenges involved in the deployment of unmanned systems in shared air spaces. The implementation of this project included a series of key activities in the socio-economic framework for the Galicia Region, including an agreement with the Vigo University, the organization of “Drone Days” for students at the Rozas Airport Research Center, and the establishment of a flight simulator in the Boeing laboratory on the Ourense campus. All this, in addition to the establishment of a Mobile Newton Room in Lugo in 2019.

Boeing in Spain

Boeing has been present in Spain for more than 88 years, serving the needs of commercial airline customers and maintaining a long-standing collaboration with the Spanish aerospace industry. Boeing has also been a longtime supplier of airplanes, helicopters and systems to the Spanish military. Boeing Research & Technology-Europe, which is led from Madrid, produces innovative ideas to meet the needs of Boeing and its customers in areas such as model-based engineering, avionics systems, airspace and autonomous operations efficiency, materials and manufacturing technologies.

The Newton Concept

The Newton concept is developed and administered by the non-profit foundation FIRST Scandinavia in collaboration with teachers, academic institutions and corporations. A Newton Room is a well-equipped, inspiring STEM classroom with focus on education of high quality. The purpose is to provide as many children as possible with good experience and feeling of mastery with science subjects. The education is varied and focuses on practical activities. Over 40 Newton Rooms have been established in Norway, Denmark and Scotland, and through the partnership with Boeing the concept has been introduced internationally.

Parque Tecnolóxico de Galicia (Tecnópole)

Tecnópole promotes knowledge and innovation in business activity. Active collaboration links are maintained with universities, research centers and companies with the aim of promoting i+D+i activities and business development and competitiveness. In the scientific and technological dissemination field, a young innovative talent show called Galiciencia has been organized each year since 2006 to celebrate Science Week. Thanks to this initiative, other activities have also been developed such as T2W and Aulas Tecnópole to teach high schoolers about innovative entrepreneurship skills. Tecnópole also runs summer camps and has a well-established relationship with schools in the region.