The OPTIC Network (OPTIC) and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome announce a partnership to promote the common goal of advancing technology for humanity. Their Memorandum of Understanding, signed on March 18, 2022, opens the doors for collaboration and participation in activities of the respective institutions.
The OPTIC Network (OPTIC) was founded in 2012 under the aegis of the Dominican Order as a non-profit organization contributing to the development of human-centric technologies, in accordance with a Christian anthropology and ethics, and with the Catholic Social Teaching. OPTIC fosters research in social sciences and humanities on the topic of science and technology.
The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (also commonly known as the Angelicum) is a teaching and research institution of the Order of Preachers. Originating from the first Roman stadium set up by St. Dominic in the 13th Century and from the 16th-Century Collegium Divi Thomae, it was first granted pontifical status in 1908 and was elevated to the rank of Pontifical University in 1963, by Pope St. John XXIII. Today it offers programs in Italian and English, and forms about 1,000 students per year – lay and religious – from about 100 different countries in its faculties of Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law and Social Sciences and in the ISSR Mater Ecclesiae.
In 2019, OPTIC and the Faculty of Theology co-organized a one day seminar on the topic "Artificial Intelligence and Christian Anthropology".
