Master’s Degree in Visual Tools to Empower Citizens

Alumni

These are alumni opinions about the Master Visual Tools to Empower Citizens (MVTEC).
Also take a look at some of the final projects carried out by them.

2nd edition (2022 - 2023)
 

“What are we breathing?”, by Stephanie Adeline, Alexandra Khoo, and Pere Roca Ristol. 

Stephanie Adeline

"I enrolled in this master’s program to break out of my routine as a data journalist and tap into my creative, imaginative, inner unicorn. This program helped me do that and so much more. Not only did I fall back in love with data viz, but I also gained so much more confidence to believe in my ideas, no matter how crazy. The 60 days personal project was honestly life-changing. The workshops helped me believe that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it, as cliche as it sounds. We would come in with a crazy idea and shoot for the moon, not knowing how to build our project. However, with the assistance of our amazing mentors (and ChatGPT), we were able to make our ideas a reality! It was such a rewarding experience to see our sketches, mockups coming to life. The biggest cherry on top of the program was getting to meet my amazing classmates (a.k.a. dataviz dinosaurs) & exceptional teachers and mentors in person in Girona. It felt like a dream”. 

Pere Roca

"My main concern about joining the Master program was the fact that I was feeling already overladed by work. But the curiosity and motivation to expand new horizons helped me to take the good decision and to finally enroll. Mostly interested in the development/techie part, I have to say that even with already quite some experience it was challenging! but rewarding… web-technology evolves very fast and I realised how important is learning the ‘modern way’ of developing. It offers much more! To put in real life your ideas in the workshops and Final Master work was what I enjoyed the most. Interaction with the mentors and classmates was inspiring!"

“Why Singapore will see the haze return after three years”, by Charlene Chua, Joseph Ricafort, and Marina Rovira Boix.

Marina Rovira Boix

"Last year I had the opportunity to do this master's degree. It's been a tough year, balancing personal life, work and study is never easy. But there is always a reward. With this master we covered many visualization possibilities both from the perspective of coding and design. We had a practical and useful look at statistics and mapping. And I had a lot of fun with data ethics subject. I recommend this program if you want to further explore your capabilities and different ways to explore data. The teachers are amazing and I was incredibly lucky of my classmates".

Charlene Chua

"I signed up for the masters programme because I wanted to push the boundaries of what I could do at my day-to-day job as a graphics journalist for a newspaper in Singapore. Even though I’ve worked full time as a graphics journalist for almost three years, I’ve never had formal data journ education. This course was a very good entry point for me as the lessons were curated teach you industry-level tools and relevant applications/frameworks such as JavaScript, observable, d3, Svelte and QGIS. (Just to name a few!)Juggling between a full time job, 3-hour long masters classes (at ungodly hours for folks in Asia), and trying to have a normal life outside of it was a challenge. But it taught me the importance of prioritising my time, and if done right, it’s totally doable.We also had the loveliest, most encouraging mentors and lecturers. They never once questioned our silly or creative ideas, and always provided a safe space for everyone to share their opinion.It wasn’t easy but a very fulfilling 9 months!”

“The Catalan Political Compass”, by Helen Bielawa, Guifré Jordan and Makhan Sacko. 

1rst edition (2020 - 2021)

Highway to #CO2 Hell by Oriol Vidal, Rebecca Pazos, Víctor Garcia and Núria Altimir

Núria Altimir

"From 0 to 100. It's end of June 2021, I have been through the Master’s Degree in Visual Tools to Empower Citizens. It has been a wild and chaotic ride, a mix between obstacle racing, code breaking, and meditative retreat. The road has been bumpy but it took me where I wanted: got a crash course -from the comfort of my home desk- into bits and pieces I had been missing and others I did not know I was missing. It was time to get hands dirty again into coding as much as it was time for me to break bubbles. This is a first tale about the outcome”. (More here)

The Two Cat by Laura Aragó, Sara Chodosh, Rocío Márquez and Ànnia Monreal

Laura Aragó

"Combining my role as a master’s student and my full-time data journalist has been a stressful and incredible journey. These studies have expanded my toolbox with a vast range of new resources. The proximity of the teachers and working side by side with classmates has taught me new ways to face data visualization challenges."

Rocío Márquez

"Taking the MVTEC has offered me the possibility of learning programming, statistical and ethical techniques, to visualize data. And thanks to the teachers and colleagues, I have learned and been able to practice with the best! A lot of knowledge, even to continue learning after the master's degree. I recommend it!"

This is how vaccination progresses in Spain by Spe Chen, Xavier Bolló and Santiago Salcido

Spe Chen

"People do crazy things during the pandemic. And my share of that is juggling between two roles, a master student and a full time journalist, in the past nine months. I've learned so much throughout not only from the program/mentors/classmates but also from myself. Heard that teachers are pretty happy about their first batch of students and will have 2nd soon. Here are some links and attachments I've made, either individually or with my dear classmates, if you'd like to know what I get out of the program or the reason why I am ghosting" 

Xavier Bolló

"Amazed to get to know you is all these unique, talented and motivated, mentors and teachers, too, the highest quality studies I've ever coursed."