Team Members at CiTIUS Bring Biomedical Engineering Closer to the Public

Members of CiTIUS — Carolina, Constanza, Marta, and César — participated in Ciencia Singular, held on November 8 at Santiago de Compostela.

As part of the event’s science outreach activities, the group presented an interactive demo designed to bring biomedical engineering and signal processing closer to the general public. The installation, nicknamed the Bioxogos, used electromyographic (EMG) signals — the electrical impulses generated by muscle contractions — to control a servo mechanism that regulated the airflow between two fans connected by a tube.

Inside the tube, a ping-pong ball moved back and forth depending on the strength of each participant’s muscle activity. The challenge consisted of contracting the muscles with just the right intensity to push the ball toward the opponent’s side, turning the experience into a fun, competitive game that illustrated how biological signals can be transformed into physical motion.

The demo drew a steady crowd throughout the day, but it was the children who truly brought it to life. Drawn by the challenge of a “virtual arm wrestle,” they lined up eagerly to test their strength, laughing as the ping-pong ball darted back and forth through the air tube. For many, it was their first encounter with the idea that the body’s own electrical signals could control a machine

With initiatives like this, the team contributes to the outreach mission of Ciencia Singular, showing that scientific research can also be accessible, interactive, and inspiring for younger audiences.