Robotics workshops, interactions with brain-machine interfaces and explanatory approaches to neuroengineering were part of the ISD Brain Week activities, held this Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, at the Spatial Technological Vocational Center of the Brazilian Space Agency, in Parnamirim, and at the Anita Garibaldi Health Education and Research Center, in Macaíba.

The actions were led by scientific initiation, master's and residency students from the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), a social organization supervised by the Ministry of Education, with the aim of disseminating, educating and stimulating interest in the functioning of the human brain.

On Wednesday, through an ISD partnership with the Brazilian Space Agency, students from the Alfredo Mesquita Filho Rural Education Center, located in the rural area of Macaíba, visited the facilities of the Spatial Technological Vocational Center, a Brazilian Space Agency Project. 

There, under the guidance of scholarship monitors from the Federal Institute of RN (IFRN), the students assembled a Rover (a mixture of robot and vehicle), similar to the Rover Curiosity sent by NASA to explore Mars, and visited the planetarium installed in the center.

Working together with other classmates, the 9th year elementary school student, Vinícius Lopes, learned about assembling the rover, connecting the components using power wires and carrying out the electrical installation of the robot vehicle. “I thought it was really cool to learn about how to assemble a robot. It's a different activity than what we usually do at school. So, it was good to have participated”, said Vinícius.

“Nowadays we see that technology is increasingly inserted into our routine. So, it's a way for students to learn more about technology and astronomy by getting their hands dirty, consolidating the content they learn in the classroom with practical initiatives”, commented Adriana Corrêa, Coordinator of the regional unit of the Brazilian Space Agency, responsible for the CVTE

The students also participated in demonstrations on how the human body works based on electrical signals. Master's students from ISD's neuroengineering program used a device that, connected to the muscle of a volunteer student, could capture the body's electrical activity and send the charge to another person's muscle, generating an involuntary reaction.

The ISD Brain Week program ended on Thursday, at the Anita Garibaldi Health Education and Research Center, one of the ISD units in Macaíba. Institute researchers took the workshops close to patients served by the center's care lines. In one of the activities, children with disabilities had the opportunity to control a virtual game using only head movements. Companions and parents of patients treated at ISD also participated in the workshops and learned more about how the human brain works. 

ISD Brain Week is part of Brain Awareness Week, with support from the Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and Dana Foundation. With the theme “Neuroengineering: connecting the brain with technology”, the ISD project is among 8 selected in Brazil and 103 selected worldwide. 

About ISD

The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) is a Social Organization linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC) and includes the Edmond and Lily Safra International Neuroscience Institute and the Anita Garibaldi Center for Health Education and Research, both in Macaíba. ISD's mission is to promote education for life, forming citizens through integrated teaching, research and extension actions, in addition to contributing to a fairer and more humane transformation of Brazilian social reality.