On our last day in Barcelona, we went back to the pharmacy where my wife left one item she bought yesterday. No question asked and she was given the missing product without a problem. The level of trust they had was unbelievable.
we wandered around looking for a university in the area. The compound was surrounded by high walls and big doors. So I thought they must be highly guarded with tight security. But curiosity broke that fear of breaching security. The classes has started apparently in this university so students just come and go. It was open and no one was stopping these three curious foreigners from entering the premises. We went through the big doors to the Rector’s office and the main office holds beautiful arts, sculptures and paintings . I was intrigued by the statue of Averrous aka Ibnu Sina.
Nothing more could I ask for when I was there inside the university. What a magnificent place. It was like two different worlds when you stepped inside.The vibes seemed surreal and I was both deeply touched and extremely happy. Academic has been preserved to be exclusive and highly protected. It has been narrated in the history that the house of knowledge was protected by four walls and scholars delivered the subject within its compound. Freely and exclusively. I stood there to witness such a beautiful environment that was preserved until today. As if I was back in those ancient days when university was highly respected. Like a monastery of some sort where I could hear the hymns of the monks.
In this modern world, University of Barcelona is in the forefront of research in computer science and health sciences. Extra info from AI search……
The University of Barcelona (UB) has a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science, particularly in their application to health and medicine. Research is organized around several key groups within the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
🧠 Key AI Research Groups
· Artificial Intelligence and Bio-Medical Applications (AIBA): Focuses on Deep Learning, Medical Imaging, and AI for Health to solve clinical problems .
· Machine Learning and Data Science Lab (MLDS): Dedicated to Machine Learning, Data Science, and Computer Vision algorithms .
· WAI (Volume Visualization and AI): Specializes in Computer Graphics, Virtual Worlds, NLP, and Human-Computer Interaction .
· AI in Medicine Lab (BCN-AIM): Aims at Trustworthy AI for healthcare, including fairness, explainability, and mental health applications .
🔍 Core Research Areas
· Machine Learning & Deep Learning: Covering neural networks, generative models, uncertainty estimation, and online learning .
· Computer Vision: Includes medical image analysis, food recognition, and egocentric vision .
· Natural Language Processing (NLP): Focused on chatbots, conversational agents, and text mining from social networks .
· Ethics & Trustworthy AI: Research on bias mitigation, fairness, privacy, and auditing opaque models .
· Health & Biomedical Applications: Applying AI for disease prediction, medical imaging, and personalized treatment .
So I sat there contemplating the perfect solution to the problem of finding a perfect environment for learning. The air was serenely quiet and I could hear the little stream of water in the garden. And students sat among the greens having lunch and chill. Some people are luckier than others and I wish that was me.
But it was time to go. I left the place with a heavy heart because I may not return and this learning haven will only be in a memory. Someday I would reflect on this journey and say to myself how lucky i am to have been to a heavenly place over the rainbows where people learn and seek knowledge.
Bye-bye Barcelona.
