SpeakApps, the innovative language learning portal developed by a team of faculty from the UOC, has won a silver medal at the prestigious international 2014 Learning Impact Awards organized by the IMS Global Learning Consortium, a non-profit organization promoting use of learning technologies in higher education. The main aim of these awards is to recognize the best innovative initiatives in technological applications that contribute to improving education worldwide.
The UOC’s IN3 joined the network of NoC research centres (Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers). The NoC encompasses different interdisciplinary research centres that focus on researching the Internet and the knowledge society.
The academic career of Professor Manuel Castells was recognized with the Eulalio Ferrer International Prize. The prize, awarded by the University of Cantabria (UC), the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), the University of Guanajuato and the Fundación Cervantina de México, recognizes the academic and research work of public figures in the fields of humanism, literature and social sciences.
Israel Rodríguez-Giralt, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences and IN3 researcher, received the Amsterdamska Award from the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) for his book Disasters and Politics: Materials, Experiments and Preparedness (Wiley-Blackwell 2014), which he co-edited with Manuel Tironi and Michael Guggenheim.
The project Participative project for the advancement of research on rare diseases, launched by a UOC research group, Sant Joan de Déu – Barcelona Children’s Hospital and the CIBERER Biomedical Research Centre, was awarded the solidarity prize by the Honda Foundation.
Two mobile applications developed by the UOC's Office of Learning Technologies have won awards in LTI App Bounty, an international competition organized by the IMS Global Learning Consortium, an institution that works to develop technologies that improve open and online learning around the world.
The UOC received the Ignasi Fina Occupational Health Award from Barcelona City Council. This award is for companies and institutions introducing new systems, actions or measures to minimize risk at work. The jury highlighted the improvements involved in teleworking with respect to the UOC's staff's health and safety, and the fact that its labour model could be introduced at other companies and institutions.
The project on rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism developed by Sant Joan de Déu - Barcelona Children’s Hospital, the UOC and the Biomedical Research Networking Centre (CIBERER) received the Hinnovar Award for the platform Metabolic Commons. The award was presented by Novartis laboratories, in collaboration with ESADE and the Spanish Society of Healthcare Executives (SEDISA).
Josep A. Planell, President of the UOC, received the award given by the Society for Biomaterials, “for his excellence in the research, vision and diffusion of the science of biomaterials, widely recognized among the scientific community”.
The UOC received a special mention from Barcelona City Council at the first Barcelona Prizes for Businesses Offering Innovative Measures for Balancing Time, Work and Family Life for the way it organizes work and uses teleworking. The prizes are designed to celebrate those companies making efforts to improve their staff's work-life balance.
The UOC was one of fifty organizations shortlisted for an award in the Customer Orientation category and thus named an Ability Company and Organization. The Telefónica Ability Awards thus recognized the UOC as a stand-out organization for its development of products and services for people with disabilities and its achieving the highest levels of satisfaction and loyalty among the disabled. Thanks to this nomination, the UOC now forms part of Club Ability.
