university

Spain prepared thousands of young people for university by passing the PAU. Four out of ten ended up doing a vocational training degree

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Every July the same scene of thousands of teenagers leaving school is repeated. any of the exams of what was once called Selectivity and, for now, is known as the University Access Test (PAU). For decades, this ritual almost always ended at the same door: the a university. However, in recent years something has changed. The students who take this test no longer do so trusting that your future is assured after a university degree and no longer see Vocational Training as the way out for those who do not want to study. The twist that no one announced. For years, passing the PAU and not going to university was experienced almost as a failure. A waste of talent. Today that stigma has been broken. According to the report Education Panorama 2025prepared by the OECD, 39% of those who enter the economy for the first time Spanish higher education They do so through a higher degree vocational training cycle and only 47% opt for the university route. The figure more than doubles the organization’s average, where only 16% choose this route and 78% go directly to university. These percentages undoubtedly represent a change in mentality more than a statistical anecdote. The FP is no longer the “ugly duckling” of the educational system in Spain. The figures that support the change. According to the latest data collected by the Ministry of Education in the report Vocational Training Student Statistics 2024-2025there has been an increase of 23.5% in the student body in the previous five years, especially highlighting the number of students enrolled in higher grades, which receive 29.8% more students. The contrast with Europe is striking. In Spain, higher vocational training as a gateway to higher education is 33.3%, tripling the European Union average, which remains at 10%. This shift towards training oriented towards learning a profession responds to a specific request that comes from companies. Why young people choose FP and university. According to the report ‘Infoempleo Adecco 2024: Job supply and demand in Spain‘, 47% of the job offers published in Spain, asked for some vocational training degree. It is a figure that grows every year and that begins to compete face to face with the requirement of a university education. Marisa Bermejo, director of Sanitas Campus FP Madrid, declared to The Spanish that “After PAU, young people have to understand that there are several ways to get into a profession.” And he adds that vocational training “allows the development of technical skills from an early stage.” According to data From the Ministry of Education, the employability of Vocational Training is 73%, and with some sectors touching 90%, which places it as a direct access door to the labor market for young people. The sectors that use FP the most. Not all training families grow equally. Administration and Management leads the number of offers, closely followed by Health, with constant demand in laboratories and clinical areas. Commerce and Marketing is also pushing forward, driven by the rise of digital commerce. The fastest growth is carried out by Computing and Communications. It is one of the families with the highest job placement among Higher Degree graduates, where 54.7% find employment before completing two years after graduating. according to the data of the Ministry of Education. In Xataka | Europe is very clear that there are many graduates in Spain. The problem is that they are not what companies need. Image | Unsplash (ThisisEngineering)

The University of Córdoba has found a pesticide in the eggs of up to 14 different wild birds. The only problem is that it has been banned since the 70s.

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One has the intuitive idea that within each egg lies the promise of a story that is just beginning. But it’s a lie. Nature is amazing and elusive and blind and cruel: many eggs, in fact, never even hatch; They end up lost in the countryside or as food for scavengers. For this reason, one day, a group of researchers from the University of Córdoba They decided to collect them and analyze them as what they are: capsules that summarize the chemical memory of the place where they were placed. They collected eggs from bearded vultures, red kites, gray teals and many other species. And inside found everything: from veterinary drugs to heavy metals to all types of pesticides, pesticides and fungicides. Among them were traces of DDT, the organochlorine that we banned in agriculture in the 70s (and could no longer be used as an insecticide in 1994). Curiously, this is not the most worrying thing. What does an egg hide? An egg, as I said, is a photograph of the environment. What accumulates in each bird’s body turns out to be a fairly accurate reflection of what it eats, what it drinks, and where it spends its day. The entire trophic chain is hidden inside each egg. Therefore, when we approach them as the UCO has donewe are not talking about bird problems… we are looking at the chemistry of an entire territory in which we are also. And what have we seen? The most striking thing is not, in fact, DDT (or DDE, its main derivative). Although it is curious that there is a pesticide banned decades ago floating around the environment, it is almost expected: it is what toxicology predicts and why it was ultimately banned. The most interesting thing about the UCO’s work is that it allows us to see, at a single glance, the reality of the pollution with which our mountain coexists. The AGR-125 Veterinary Toxicology group and the Center for Analysis and Diagnosis of Wildlife of Andalusia they used the eggs as ‘non-invasive matrices’ and their data are a canvas that covers many compounds, many birds and a lot of time. There we have found, along with the remains of DDT, commonly used pesticides and fungicides, persistent exposure to endocrine disruptors, heavy metals (such as lead, mercury and cadmium) and, in two bearded vulture eggs, veterinary drugs. And now what? Little, really. The history of DDT shows how difficult it is to work with these realities. As I said, it was banned in agriculture in the 70s, but it remained as an insecticide until 94 and, in fact, It continued to be manufactured (a derivative) in Monzón until 2008. The world of pesticides is a rabbit hole from which rural society never emerges unscathed. Besides, as the authors point outthe concentrations they have found are low. This means that, although we are concerned about the long-term effects, it is very difficult to take extra measures to control the exposure of these birds to these compounds. Luckily, as I also said, this work opens a new door for us to understand what is happening in the countryside and in the mountains. And that, believe me, is already a lot. Image | Kishan Upadhyay In Xataka | We have a problem with pesticides in agriculture. And a bigger one with the panic they generate

university courses dedicated to rare earths

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The West is clear about breaking China’s dominance over the rare earth. But the challenge is not only that, but that Beijing has been cultivating a pool of specialists for decades trained since university. And according to a Reuters investigationthe country has built an entire educational ecosystem dedicated to these critical minerals. What is happening. Every year, several hundred young Chinese study university degrees focused specifically on rare earths, the 17 elements that power many of the advanced devices and technology of our time, from jet engines to electric cars to wind turbines and much more. Reuters identified at least 11 universities and technical centers that offer these degrees, with more than 500 students enrolled per year, in addition to more than 40 specialized laboratories spread throughout the country. Outside of China, according to the same media, there is no center that offers a specific university degree in rare earths. Why it is important. China processes more than 90% of rare earths refined and of the magnets of the world. And apart from mines and factories, people are also needed who know how to extract and separate elements of almost identical chemistry, a technically complex and expensive process. And the advantage of Beijing, in addition to geological and industrial, is that it also has the talent. In detail. Just like details In the middle, a good part of these schools and laboratories are concentrated near the large mines. An example is Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, about 150 kilometers from the largest rare earth deposit in the world. There, the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology trains students who receive more than 100 hours of classes in subjects such as rare earth chemistry and materials science, some taught directly in the facilities of companies in the sector. The industry is so tied to these schools that it is normal for students to start working immediately. “In China, I hired kids straight out of college and they were instantly productive; anywhere else I needed to train them for three years,” explained to Reuters Constantine Karayannopoulos, former CEO of the companies Neo Performance Materials and Molycorp. Between the lines. Some universities openly acknowledge that they are forming geopolitical assets. Li Chaozhong, dean of the rare earth program at Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (JXUST), counted told state television CCTV that these minerals are “essential bargaining chips” in global politics, and that his university’s new program also seeks to ensure that China maintains its global leadership in the sector. JXUST students learn the entire supply chain, from processing and metallurgy to magnets, and work on research projects with companies before graduating. ccontrast with the West. Although the refining of rare earths It was Western dominion. Until the end of the 20th century, the industry practically disappeared from Europe and the United States, and with it specialized training. As the media highlights, mining has never attracted much attention to American students, who often see it as a dirty and old-fashioned sector. In 2023, US institutions They awarded just over 200 titles mining engineering and metallurgy generalists. There are specific exceptions, such as the Colorado School of Mines, which is preparing new research centers with the Department of Energy, but little else. Why is it so difficult to close the gap? China has tightened in recent years export restrictions of technology and equipment for rare earths, and according to sources cited by Reuterswould have limited contact between its technicians and foreigners, going so far as to withdraw passports from some of them. Control was intensified following the “Liberation Day” tariffs announced by Donald Trump in April 2025. And now what. The United States has begun to move, with billions of dollars allocated from 2024 to rebuild their experience in mining and legislative proposals to cooperate with allies in formation. The complicated thing is to build a pool of specialists like the one in China. That is something that is not achieved overnight. Cover image | Dominic Vanyi and Arthur Wang In Xataka | The treasure that Europe was looking for in China is in Jaén: rare earth concentrates of 19.4%

Eric Schmidt warned young university students that AI will change everything. Response from the university students: boo him

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We are living a curious moment in daily technological life. Well, in many ways, really, but obviously artificial intelligence is something that takes up a good part of the conversation and it seems that there are no half measures. Or wild optimism about how good this technology is for humanity (for the few who are striking gold, rather) or criticism and opposition. Because while Big Tech and technology gurus evangelize about the benefits of AIthere are more and more They oppose this technology and the gluttonous infrastructure it needs to function. And nothing represents that duality as well as the loud booing that Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, received when he spoke about AI in his graduation speech at a university. Schmidt’s speech. In large American universities it is common for them to invite personalities to give the graduation speech and, in Arizona, the chosen one was billionaire Eric Schmidt who commanded Google and Alphabet. He took the stage and, in front of 10,000 students, gave a speech that addressed several topics, but focused on the impact of modern technology on society. Last December, Time magazine selected its person of the year for 2025. And this time, they were the architects of artificial intelligence. So today we find ourselves on the verge of another technological transformation. One that will be bigger, faster and more impactful than what came before. It will affect every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship they have. I know how many of you are feeling about this. I can hear them. There is a fear. There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written. That the machines are already coming. That jobs are evaporating. That the climate is being destroyed. That politics is fractured. And that you are inheriting a disaster that you did not create. And I understand that fear. It’s rational. And it is amplified every day by social media platforms with algorithms that have learned with great precision that fear drives clicks and anxiety drives engagement. But I want to tell you something tonight in the clearest way possible. To talk about the future as if it had already been decided is to give up on the only thing that really matters. They are giving up their ability to act. The future doesn’t just arrive. It is built in laboratories, in college dormitories, in startups, in classrooms, in legislatures. And the people who will build it will be you and people like you. The booing of Schmidt. Depending on whether you are on the most optimistic side or the most critical side of the current situation of artificial intelligence, you will imagine the fragments in which the public could react to the speech, but one thing is clear: graduates do not seem to like being reminded of the world they are inheriting, that a technology that is far from perfect is going to impact all aspects of society (already is doing so, in fact) and that, with a certain hypocrisy, the blame is placed on the social media algorithms that serve as speaker of certain currents of thought. Whatever path you choose, AI is going to be part of it – Eric Schmidt Especially from a person who was in positions of responsibility at Google and Alphabet for more than 15 years, and Google works the way it works. In his speech, the former CEO addressed other issues such as that the same tools that connect us are the ones that are isolating us and more that “the question is not whether AI will shape the world: it will. The question is whether you will have been part of artificial intelligence.” The new Industrial Revolution. The video of Schmidt’s booing is not framed in a vacuum and has not been the only one that has gone viral in recent weeks. a few days ago, Gloria Caulfield received the same treatment from graduates at the University of Central Florida. Gloria is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for Tavistock and Executive Director of the Lake Nona Institute and hit a nerve when she compared artificial intelligence and the moment we live in with the Industrial Revolution. Glory commented that we live in a time of profound change and, unlike Schmidt, he had to stop a couple of times due to the force of the boos. In fact, he reacted by pointing out that it was evident that there was a division of opinion and that he loved the passion of the students. He commented that, in his day, his generation had the same problems with the birth of the Internet and insecurity about the future, but it did not seem to convince the students. There was also applause, of course. Weird climate. These types of positions by personalities who give speeches about AI, as we say, are not isolated. Someone very active in this sense is Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia and a person extremely involved and interested in the development of AI, who also gave a talk recently at Carnegie Mellon University in which he commented that there is no better time to start working on “the job of your life”, which AI is a positive network for humanity because it provides opportunities that favor young people and that AI “will create many new jobs and new industries.” “AI is not likely to replace you, but someone who uses AI better than you could” – Jensen Huang Another example is that of monumental anger of the graduates of calartsone of the most important universities in the world in the arts segment, when the president of the institution began to praise artificial intelligence. The problem here is that, again, young people are not so convinced that AI is going to change their future… for the better. As they point out in Guardiana recent study suggests that about half of young Americans are more worried than excited about the rise of AI in … Read more

5,000 Stanford students have given their love lives to what an algorithm decides. And it’s consuming the university

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It’s Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. in Palo Alto and the silence of the Stanford dormitories is broken by a simultaneous notification: it’s Date Drop. In seconds, the hallways are filled with students who, according to The Wall Street Journalthey “huddle” on their screens with a mixture of anxiety and hope. Ben Rosenfeld, a residential assistant, describes the phenomenon as an “all-consuming force”: Students talk about nothing else while they figure out whether their destiny that night is a free drink date at the On Call Cafe or an anonymous complaint on the forum Fizz. What began as a simple class project has escalated into a massive sociological phenomenon that has hijacked campus social life. The numbers are compelling: in a university of approximately 7,500 undergraduate students, more than 5,000 have already surrendered their love lives to the decisions of this algorithm. From a class assignment to a startup millionaire. The architect of this obsession is Henry Weng, a computer science graduate student who coded the platform in just three weeks. As detailed TechCrunchwhat Weng started as a tool to help his colleagues has transformed into The Relationship Company, a startup that has already raised $2.1 million in venture capital. The list of investors includes Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga and of the first investors of Facebook), Elad Gil (of the first investors in AirbnbStripe and Pinterest) and Andy Chen (former partner of Coatue). Success. The premise has been so successful that it has transcended the walls of Stanford. The service has expanded to ten other elite universities, including Columbia, MIT, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. Weng, who curiously took a subject called “introduction to clowning” that taught him to “delight in failure,” seems to have found a winning formula far from failure. “Our matches turn into real dates at ten times the speed of Tinder,” assures TechCrunch. Optimizing love in the age of fatigue. The success of Date Drop It is not a coincidence; It is symptomatic of an exhausted generation and an environment obsessed with efficiency. As they point out in The Wall Street Journal, It’s a very Stanford solution to a very Stanford problem. On a campus where students are high achievers (high achievers) obsessively focused on academic and professional success, organic social interaction has atrophied. “People have difficulty starting conversations in general, and much more so for romantic interactions,” student Alena Zhang explains to the outlet. But the problem goes beyond Stanford. An analysis of Forbes reveals a general crisis In the world of digital dating: 78% of users report emotional or mental exhaustion from using traditional apps. He ghosting (suffered by 41% of those surveyed) and the feeling that the profiles are a catalog of lies have created chronic fatigue. Added to this is the “Paradox of Preparation” (Readiness Paradox). Generation Z wants to find love more than any generation before it, but they feel paralyzed by the fear of “public failure.” They have replaced asking for a face-to-face date with asking on Instagram, entering a cycle of infinite “testing.” Date Drop it seems to break that paralysis by externalizing the decision: you no longer have to choose and risk public rejection; the algorithm chooses for you. Goodbye to Swipehello to the data. The application is radically different from the mechanics of Tinder. There are no photos to compulsively swipe left or right. The process, detailed on the website itselfbegins with a 66-question questionnaire designed to capture the essence of the user. It’s not just about superficial tastes, but about deep values ​​and political stances: “Is having children essential for a fulfilling life?”, “What are your core values: ambition, curiosity, discipline?” Weng explains that the system uses standard economic “matching theory” combined with an Artificial Intelligence that is trained with feedback (feedback) of the appointments that occur. However, the most innovative—and Machiavellian—feature is the social component. The platform allows friends to play Cupid. Wilson Adkins, a freshman cited by him WSJdiscovered that his friends had “conspired” through the app to match him with a girl from his residence. The algorithm validated the conspiracy with a compatibility score of 99.7%. Not everything is perfect in data heaven. Despite the enthusiasm and millions of investment, the road is not without obstacles. Date Drop It’s not the first attempt to automate love at Stanford. In 2017 he was born The Marriage Pact, a similar project which has already generated 350,000 matches. According to the WSJthe creators of this original project sent a “cease and desist” letter to Weng in November, alleging that the marketing of Date Drop It seemed too familiar to them. Furthermore, technology has limits compared to logistical reality. Gabriel Berger, another student, says that, although he had a great connection with his matchestheir schedules were incompatible: he was vice president of his fraternity and she had dance rehearsals. “We are not interacting well,” they concluded. For her part, Mila Wagner-Sanchez, freshman interviewed by Business Insideradds a note of realism: the novelty fades. After a fun first date (with a friend), and a second matches who never wrote to him, the pressure of midterms caused the app to take a backseat. “I would be open to trying again,” she says, but academic life sometimes outweighs algorithmic curiosity. Optimizing loneliness. Henry Weng has ambitious plans. He sees his company as a “Public Benefit Corporation” intended to facilitate not only romance, but “all meaningful relationships,” including friendships and professional connections. Perhaps the best summary of this phenomenon comes from Madhav Abraham-Prakash, a junior who helped bring the app to campus. Although Date Drop He hasn’t gotten him a girlfriend, he has given him connections on LinkedIn. His justification for The Wall Street Journal sums up the spirit of a generation that doesn’t want to leave anything to chance, not even fate: “I would be sad if my soulmate was here and I couldn’t find it. Or if my co-founder was here and I couldn’t find it, or if my business partner was … Read more

Using facial recognition to hunt for copycats seemed like a good idea. This Valencian university has just discovered that it was not

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Educational centers that decide to do online exams face a challenge: without being able to monitor students in person, how do you ensure that they do not copy? A Valencian university found the solution with a sophisticated video surveillance and facial recognition system. Well, the joke has paid off. Resolution. In the summer of last year, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) filed a complaint against the International University of Valencia o VIU for the use of facial recognition and recording to conduct online exams. As reported in À Puntthe resolution has already arrived and the VIU is going to have to pay 650,000 euros The system. In the VIU evaluation regulationsit is detailed that a “facial recognition technology system” will be used in the online tests. This system consists of the use of two cameras (which the student must provide), one to monitor the student and another for the environment, ensuring that there are no other people in the same room. The software is constantly capturing and analyzing images in real time to verify the student’s identity through AI. At the same time, the program is responsible for controlling the screen and even the devices connected to the computer with which the test is carried out. Two fines. The 650,000 euros are actually the sum of two fines. The first, of 300,000 euros, is for having failed to comply with the article 9 of the GDPR which prohibits the processing of biometric data with few exceptions. The second, which amounts to 350,000 euros, is due to a breach of the article 5.1c of the GDPRwhich maintains that personal data must be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary.” The AEPD considers the use of facial recognition for this purpose to be disproportionate. Consent discarded. One of the exceptions to article 9 of the GDPR and which the VIU tried to rely on is that “the interested party gave explicit consent.” It is true that the students had agreed to use this control system, the problem is that they were not given any alternative: either they accepted, or they did not take the exam. The AEPD does not “consider the mandatory acceptance of general conditions upon registration to be valid consent”, which is why it rules it out in its resolution. The VIU also tried to take refuge in the “essential public interest”, another of the exceptions of article 9, but the AEPD has rejected it because there is no specific law for the processing of biometric data in the educational context. The university invoked the university law that says that universities must verify that students have acquired a series of knowledge, but the AEPD has also rejected it as insufficient. Wow, we have to pay. It’s not just the VIU. There is other universities such as the European University, Isabel I, La Rioja or Burgos that also use similar systems that combine cameras and facial recognition. During the pandemic there was no choice but to opt for online training and this prompted the appearance of video surveillance systems in exams, which raised the eyebrows of the AEPDwhich in 2021 already warned that biometrics could not be used to monitor exams. This resolution is the first that imposes a large fine, so it is assumed that universities will make changes if they do not want to go to the cashier’s office. Open door. The AEPD does not close the door to the use of biometrics as fraud prevention in the educational field, including AI systems. However, he points out that according to the European Union AI Regulationbiometric data is considered high risk, which does not prohibit its use, but does not give express permission to use it in this context. In Xataka | I’ll take the exam online for €20: the new student situation is an open bar for cheating Images | VIU, Pexels

The big problem with putting solar panels on crops is shade. The University of Jaén has found a solution

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In search of fulfilling the decarbonization goalswe are filling the field with solar panels. Giants like China can do it combining other activities well, but in the case of smaller countries, things change. Spain is an examplewith a field irrigated by crops that is also being plagued by panels. Now, a research team from the University of Jaén has found the key to continue deploying solar panels without interfering with crops. A panel with minimal shading that does not compromise its energy generation. The agrovoltaics. Different reports have pointed out how the temperature will increase by 1.5 to 3.2 degrees If we continue the same as until now. For this reason, the European Union marked the milestone of 30% of its energy comes from renewables by 2030 to, in 2050, achieve climate neutrality. Wind is important, but what almost all countries are embracing is photovoltaics. The price of the plates has fallen to the ground thanks to the China overproduction and it has begun to be deployed massively. The problem is what we mentioned: it takes up a lot of space, which opens a direct conflict with the farmland. There, agrovoltaics is becoming established as a solution to place panels that do not interfere with the cycle of some crops, and mixes with beekeeping and the livestock. But if we want to continue expanding photovoltaics, panels that provide less shade are needed. Panels and photosynthesis. That is where the solution devised by the University of Jaén comes into play. In a study Published in Science Direct, researchers detail a technology that allows a panel to efficiently generate electricity, while allowing crops to receive enough light to perform their optimal photosynthesis cycle. To do this, the team has taken into account two technical parameters: the average visible transmittance and the average photosynthetic transmittance. In practice, they indicate the amount of light useful to the plants that reaches them after passing through the panel, and they point out that different studies estimate that, for most crops, the minimum value should be around 60%. In that spectrum, plants produce normally. Status of the “transparent” panels“The photovoltaic industry has been working on this for some time. There are two approaches: Non-wavelength selective panels: They are those that absorb a large part of the solar spectrum and achieve transparency by reducing the color of the material or leaving gaps between the cells. With them, transparency is not adequate. Wavelength Selective Panels: They are those that absorb, above all, ultraviolet and near-infrared radiation, but allow a large part of the visible light to pass through. It is what the plants need and, in this case, the transparency of the panels is greater and more suitable for crops. RearCPVbif. In the two groups the industry is testing very different technologies, from polycrystalline silicon to organic cells and color-sensitized panels, but the Spanish team’s approach is somewhat different. The semi-transparent photovoltaic modules They are the STPVs, but what is proposed by the University of Jaén is a system called RearCPVbif, or “Bifacial Rear Concentrator Photovoltaic.” Unlike conventional semi-transparent designs, this technology concentrates and redirects reflected light towards the back of the bifacial cells, generating an increase in electrical production without reducing optical transparency, which is what allows light to reach the plants. It is an STPV, but with rear optical concentrators. In statements to PV-MagazineÁlvaro Varela-Albacete, co-author of the research, points out that STPV technology is being underused and that, with these rear concentrators, there is “a substantial increase” in energy generation without compromising optical transparency. “And how much is the transparency factor? 60%, according to the study, so it would be suitable for most horticultural crops. Next steps. In the study they also mention that they have taken into account that a crucial aspect for agricultural viability is thermal behavior, indicating that, in their tests, the cell temperature was below 70 degrees. This is important so that the panels do not create a “greenhouse” that affects crop patterns. And most importantly: this technology has already attracted attention. Numerous promising studies are published throughout the year, but their application is not always clear. In the case of this ReadCPVbif technology, the co-author of the study, Eduardo Fernández, points out that they are already engaging in conversations with different organizations to accelerate the development of the technology. Now, the route hour includes an evaluation of the benefits for crop growth, with different test campaigns on real crops. In any case, it aims to be a particularly relevant technology in the intensive horticulture that occurs in regions of Spain such as Almería, where apart from the sea of ​​plastic, also the photovoltaic sea is rising. If the two things can be combined, it would be a great step for both sectors. Images | University of Jaen, Σ64 In Xataka | Almería has been Europe’s great “sea of ​​plastic” for years. Now it wants to be another sea: that of solar panels

There are those who think that the housing crisis can be solved by building. At the Polytechnic University of Catalonia they believe they are wrong

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Spain has a problem with housing. That is an (almost) objective fact. The CIS says so, which places it as the great concern of the Spanish, but a quick review of the newspaper archive arrives to confirm it. During the last months few topics have generated more political debate or have taken out so many people on the street such as difficulties in accessing a home. What is no longer so clear is how to solve this “crisis” residential area recognized by the Government itself. Should we build more houses? Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? Do we need more land to build? Usually the answer to those three questions is a strong ‘yes’. Now a new study signed by two professors of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and published in a magazine linked to the Ministry of Housing points out that perhaps we were wrong. What has happened? That two professors from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), Blanca Arellano-Ramos and Josep Roca-Cladera, have published a study about the problems that Spain is facing in terms of housing. The report in question is titled ‘Five theses about housing policy in Spain’ and is included in a monograph of CyTETa magazine published by the Ministry of Housing. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that the text questions many of the ideas rooted in the real estate sector, such as that our country suffers from a housing deficit or needs more land to build. While the Bank of Spain (BE) estimates 700,000 homes the mismatch between supply and demand, the study questions whether there really is a ‘hole’ in the market or that prices will go down if we build more. Is there a housing deficit? As already indicated in its title, the article is structured around five theses. And the first addresses precisely that point: Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? The question is interesting because it is one of the most deeply rooted ideas in the sector. The Bank of Spain itself has calculated that it would be necessary 700,000 houses to meet residential demand. For Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera the reality is quite different. In his opinion, one cannot talk about a deficit without first taking into account the excess of housing accumulated between 2011 and 2021 and the stock of vacant properties. The researchers remember that between 2011 and 2021 the housing stock exceeded the growth in the number of homes by 959,554 units, generating a considerable pocket. In fact, they assure that in 2021 the “accumulated excess” was close to 8.1 million properties, a “‘cushion’ more than enough to absorb temporary housing deficits such as the one produced during the 2021-2024 period,” recalls the UPC in the statement in which he reports the study. What does that mean? That for researchers it is not so obvious that Spain suffers from a shortage of new housing. In their analysis they also remember that a good part of the excess of houses and apartments corresponds to second homes and empty homes. The INE itself estimates that at least in 2021 there were 3.84 million of uninhabited properties, 14.4% of the real estate stock. That percentage far exceeds what most experts consider “desirable” (5%), but at least in the statement The UPC does not address another fundamental aspect: the distribution of these wasted properties, if they are located in stressed markets, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga, or in centers where demand is minimal or even non-existent, in the case of emptied Spain. What if we build more? That is the second question the researchers address. What if we build more homes? Would prices be reduced? Their response is once again skeptical to say the least: increasing buildings will not lead to greater social equity nor will it serve to soften prices. “On the contrary”, slide the UPC note. “According to the authors of the study, the solution is not to build more new homes so that the laws of the market balance prices. In addition to having serious environmental effects, what favors is the real estate bubble like the one that occurred around 2000.” What happens in other neighboring countries? Among other arguments, Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera recall that the rise in prices is not a problem exclusive to the Spanish market, but rather something widespread on the continent. So the question is obvious: if the increase in prices is due to the imbalance between supply and demand, do the majority of EU countries share that same problem? “Is there simultaneously a restriction of supply in relation to demand occurring throughout Europe in relation to demand that explains the increase in residential prices? It does not seem that this is plausible. Therefore it is not reasonable, prima facieturn to the scarce construction of new housing as the main cause of the price of housing”, they reflect the authors before remembering that Spain has invested a higher percentage of GDP in construction than the European average. Do we need more land? The researchers also question whether in Spain the problem of lack of accessibility to housing can be explained by the scarcity of land. And to prove it, they go to the newspaper archive: between the late 90s and the early 2000s, buildable land was made available in the country, which allowed for “massive construction” of residential housing. This boom was not accompanied, however, by a reduction in the price of the square meter. Quite the opposite: residential prices increased, as in other parts of Europe. If Spain saw housing prices rise between 1996 and 2008, it was not because there was no land on which to build or build new homes. “Spain became more urbanized than ever and the result did not represent a reduction in prices, on the contrary,” underlines the UPC in your statementwhich recalls that between 2000 and 2012 Spain was the European country with the greatest “consumption” of land: more than 2,400 square kilometers (km2), almost as … Read more

We thought Stanford, MIT, and Harvard were leading in AI. There is a Chinese university that surpasses them all

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To the northwest of Beijing there is a university campus that is not only the most prestigious in the country, it is also one of the most influential universities in the world in science and technology, even surpassing institutions of the stature of MIT or Stanford. It is called Tsinghua and some of the most important technological projects of the moment are being developed there. Change of focus. Tsinghua has been in operation since 1911, although it was not until 1952 when it became a polytechnic university. Among its former students there are figures of the stature of Nobel Prize in Physics Chen-Ning Yang and President Xi Jinping himself. From its inception, Tsinghua’s focus was the training of Chinese students who were going to continue their studies in the United States. Today that approach has completely changed. In the midst of an AI career, there is a nationalistic spirit and students tend to stay and develop projects in their native country. Leaders. They count in Bloomberg that Tsinghua University stands toe-to-toe with the best universities in the world. According to the US News rankingis the best university in the world in engineering, chemical engineering and electronic engineering; has second place in civil engineering and nanotechnology; It is third in materials science and fourth in computer science. There it is nothing. Intellectual property. Tsinghua is also the university with the most papers on AI among the 100 most cited and leads in patent registration, outnumbering MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard combined. According to LexisNexis data analyzed by Bloomberghave registered 4,986 patents on AI and machine learning in the last 20 years. In 2024 alone they registered 900 patents. However, according to the Stanford AI Indexthe most influential patents remain in American hands. Startups. The university not only focuses on training, it also has a startup incubator called X-Lab from which at least 900 startups have already emerged since it was created in 2013. They are currently very focused on projects related to artificial intelligence. The founders of startups such as Moonshot AIthe creators of the model Kimi K2either Sapient Inca startup that develops “hierarchical reasoning models” based on how the human brain works. They affirm that it is the way to achieve AGI, a different approach to that pursued by companies like OpenAI with LLM or WLM (world models). that LeCun recently defended. Chip war. Efforts are also being made in Tsinghua to give China a boost in the technological war with the United States. The clearest example is the chip created by a group of university scientists and it is 3.7 faster than NVIDIA’s A100. Not only that, the chip, called ACCEL, is also much more efficient. At the moment its mass production has not been achieved, but the innovation is there. Image | Tsinghua University In Xataka | Four decades ago, China decided to invest in training millions of engineers. Today that plan gives it an advantage in the race for AI

While we wait for solid-state batteries, the University of Córdoba has an idea for the electric car: human poop

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The automotive industry has launched itself into electrification arms. Be with the hybrids, plug-ins either 100% electricthey all have batteries, and the key to convincing more users of make the jump from your combustion car is guarantee greater autonomy. The solid state batteries are one of the technologies in researchbut there are other very promising ones such as lithium-sulfur, and the University of Córdoba believes that there are two secret ingredients to improve the formula. Urine and excrement. Li-S. They are not new. We have been talking about the lithium sulfide batteriesand while we find the economy of scale necessary for solid-state ones to establish themselves, lithium-sulfur ones are one of the hopes for electric cars. They have twice the real energy density of lithium-ion, sulfur is extremely abundant and economical compared to critical materials such as cobalt or nickel, It is not something that China controlsit is safer because the risk of thermal runaway is lower and the environmental impact is reduced. They are not perfect, since the conductivity is low, the manufacturing processes are not as optimized as those of current alternatives and, above all, the current useful life is very limited: although they are moving forward In this sense, just 300-500 charge cycles compared to between 1,000 and 3,000 for lithium-ion batteries. However, as we say, they have become a promising technology, and the University of Córdoba wants one of the ingredients in the battery to be… poop. Batteries from waste. The Chemical Institute for Energy and the Environment, or IQUEMA, of the University of Córdoba has published a study in which they test the potential of sludge from a municipal treatment plant when converting it into activated carbon. It is an essential material for lithium-sulfur batteries, since it works as a conductor, and they consider it to be the answer to the challenge of optimizing the electrodes of these batteries. As we said, sulfur has advantages, but one of the great deficiencies is its conductivity index. This requires active carbon and other conductive matrices that are expensive to produce. But of course, if this conductive matrix is ​​created from waste that all cities in the world produce no matter what, things change. Villaviciosa de Córdoba. To do this, IQUEMA has used sludge from the wastewater station of Villaviciosa de Córdoba. This plant uses a treatment system that generates a sludge with an interesting composition to carry out the experiment: It is rich in organic matter. Also in metals, nitrogen and phosphorus. Combining them can create a material with a good electrochemical performance index. The process is as follows: Drying: the mud is dried and pulverized. Chemical modification: Potash is added as a chemical agent to make the material more porous. Pyrolysis: the mixture is subjected to temperatures of 800º to convert the organic matter into activated carbon. Mixture with sulfur: thus it is trapped in the active carbon matrix and the last step would be to integrate it into the battery electrodes. Promising. The researchers have found that the activated carbon obtained has ideal properties to be used as a material in these batteries. Its porous structure and nitrogen doping improve the transport of electrons and ions, and the resulting material has a high sulfur content. This allows the battery to have great electrochemical stability. That is to say, one of the big problems of this technology, the low conductivity of sulfur for the cathode, is something that mitigates the matrix created from the Villaviciosa de Córdoba sludge. And because its raw material is what it is, it is easier to recycle than other conventional batteries for which you have to develop tadjacent technologies for sustainability. According to the researchers, it is an avenue worth exploring because “triple the storage capacity of a lithium-ion battery”. “It is a great advance that we achieved from a waste that we considered problematic” – IQUEMA researchers Beyond the poop. Considering the results, it is likely that we will see more studies in the same direction. It is something that solves a double problem: the municipal waste management by converting it into a key material to solve one of the challenges of lithium-sulfur batteries. And the interesting thing is that IQUEMA has not remained only in the sludge of the sewage treatment plant. Previously explored the potential of agroindustrial byproductslike the olive pits and avocados, but also almond and pistachio shells. The problem is that these materials are already in demand in other sectors (such as composting or heating), and that is where the great advantage of human excrement lies: “no one” wants them. Images | ACE, Thomas Freres In Xataka | No, China has not turned off the tap on batteries for electric cars. The reality is much more complex

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