Francesc Torres wins the elections for rector of the UPC

Francesc Torres wins the elections for rector of the UPC
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Francesc Torres was proclaimed rector on 21 November

According to the final results, Francesc Torres, a full professor with a degree in Telecommunications Engineering, obtained 50.23% of the votes and will be rector of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) for the next four years.

Nov 29, 2017

Of the 4,083 votes cast, representing 12.47% of the university community, 300 were blank and 93 void. By groups, the results were broken down as follows:

· Teaching staff with a doctorate and permanent ties to the University
(1,325 persons representing 51% of the weighted vote). Of this group, 69.16% voted. Francesc Torres obtained 48.91% of the weighted votes (404) and Enric Fossas 51.09% (422).
· The rest of the teaching and research staff (3,215 persons, representing 14% of the weighted vote). Of this group, 11.57% voted. Francesc Torres obtained 47.31% of the weighted votes (158) and Enric Fossas 52.69% (176).
· Bachelor's and master's students (26,409 persons, representing 24% of the weighted vote). Of this group, 6.23% voted. Francesc Torras obtained 65.34% of the weighted votes (969) and Enric Fossas 34.66% (514).
· Administrative and service staff (1,788 persons, representing 11% of the weighted vote). Of this group, 63.67% voted. Francesc Torres obtained 27.13% of the weighted votes (284) and Enric Fossas 72.87% (763).

The ordinary procedure for election of the rector is regulated by Article 69 of the UPC Statutes and by any other applicable regulations, such as the University's Electoral Regulations. Candidates for the post must be acting full university professors providing services to the UPC. The rector is elected directly by the university community through free and secret universal suffrage. Full information on the provisional results can be found at the Electronic Election Headquarters.

Francesc Torres
Francesc Torres (Eivissa, 1962) is a full professor with a degree in Telecommunications Engineering (1988) from the UPC’s Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB), where he teaches and does research in the field of radiocommunications and Earth observation. He started his professional career at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Holland, where he worked from 1988 to 1989. He has been head of studies at the ETSETB (1998-2000), coordinator of the MERIT Erasmus Mundus international research master's degree (2006-2009) and director of the Department of Signal Theory and Communications (2013-2017). He received the Award for Improving Quality in University Teaching (1997) of the UPC's Board of Trustees for the Radiation and Guided Wave Laboratory at the ETSETB.

Through the Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSLab), he has participated in more than 70 contracts funded by government bodies and industry, mainly for the development of the ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) explorer, the first satellite led by Spanish industry (EADS-CASA Espacio), which has provided data for studying the water cycle and improving climate models since 2009. He has authored more than 200 papers published in prestigious international journals and presented at international conferences, and he has received several recognitions as a member of the RSLab: the Duran Farell Prize of the Board of Trustees (2000), the City of Barcelona Prize (2001), the prize of the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineers (2004) and the Aeronautics Prize of Barcelona City Council (2011). He was the founding vice-chair of the SMOS Barcelona Expert Centre (2007-2010) and also had a sabbatical year as an external consultant of the GeoSTAR project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, California in 2005-2006. He is a member of the UPC's María de Maeztu Unit CommSensLab.

In the professional field, he has participated in initiatives with several professional associations. For example, he collaborated in the creation of the Catalan branch of the Official College of Telecommunications Engineers from 2000 to 2002, promoting the profession by organising the reports ‘75 proposals for the development of the information society in Catalonia’ and ‘Study of the socio-professional situation of telecommunications engineers in Catalonia, 2002’. He also participated in the organisation and moderation of several conferences organised around Catalonia in collaboration with the provincial and county councils.


The candidature

Francesc Torres presented his candidature under the slogan “The university that listens”. He wishes to promote excellence in research, technology transfer and teaching from a standpoint of diversity, and to endow the UPC with a more federal structure. He believes that teaching and research staff, administrative staff and students should all participate in establishing and sharing the objectives of the UPC.

The new rector's slate is composed of professors Jordi Berenguer, Gabriel Bugeda, Santiago Gassó, Francesc Torres, Agustín Fernández, Santiago Silvestre, Juan Jesús Pérez, Juan Jorge and Núria Garrido.