Research news

List of news published in the Press Room on research and innovation

  • UPC researchers reveal why modernist stained glass deteriorates using ALBA synchrotron light

    A team of UPC researchers has studied the materials and methods for producing the enamels used in Catalan modernist stained glass windows, with special regards to their degradation mechanisms. The data obtained at the MSPD beamline of the ALBA synchrotron was key to deciphering the structure and composition of the enamels and assessing their state of conservation with the aim of improving the preservation of this cultural heritage.

  • Scientists sink dead dolphin to study effects on marine ecosystem

    The UPC’s OBSEA Underwater Observatory in Vilanova i la Geltrú sunk a dolphin that was found dead a few days ago on a beach in Blanes to study the effect of the carcass on benthic ecosystems and fish communities in the area. It is an experiment by the UPC, the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

  • UPC study demonstrates the effectiveness of raloxifene in treating inflammatory processes associated with COVID-19

    Researchers from the UPC’s Molecular Biotechnology Centre show that a drug for osteoporosis called raloxifene may inhibit molecules involved in the inflammatory processes associated with COVID-19.

  • The Agricultural Machinery Unit studies the sustainable use of plant protection products in two European projects

    The UPC’s Agricultural Machinery Unit (UMA) coordinates the INNOSETA European project, which aims to establish an innovative thematic network on crop protection and the sustainable use of plant protection products. It also participates in the OPTIMA project for developing intelligent equipment for the safe application of plant protection products. Both are European research projects funded by the H2020 programme.

  • UPC, Esade and IED students join forces with CERN to create innovative solutions to the challenges of the pandemic

    Eight university teams consisting of 42 students from the UPC, Esade and the IED Barcelona present their prototypes after months of work with CERN scientists researching new solutions for the future of humanity.

  • Patient successfully implanted with the world’s first antitumour biomembrane, created by Cebiotex, the UPC’s INTEXTER and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital

    For the first time ever, an antitumour biomembrane made up of nanofibres, biocompatible and biodegradable has been implanted into a patient and has proved safe. This medical and technological milestone is the result of the collaboration between the biotech company Cebiotex, the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, the UPC’s INTEXTER and the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona. Cebiotex is now going to launch a funding round to raise 1.6 million euros to continue clinical trials.

  • UPC researcher Clara Prats and other scientists alert of the need for detailed COVID-19 data in Spain

    Researchers from the UPC, the CED-UAB, the Max Planck Institute and the IDAEA-CSIC alert of the need for detailed population data on COVID-19 in Spain in the scientific journal The Lancet Public Health.

  • The UPC leads a project to develop faster, lower-power processors for artificial intelligence

    The European Commission grants three million euros in funding to the WiPLASH project within the framework of the FET-Open call. It aims to prototype miniaturised wireless graphene antennas in the terahertz band to provide future computing platforms with plasticity and reconfigurability. The project involves seven European universities and companies, under the supervision of Sergi Abadal, a researcher at the UPC’s Department of Computer Architecture.

  • Nearby Computing, a spin-off from the BSC and the UPC, completes a funding round

    Cellnex, Elewit and Lenovo have led a funding round in Nearby Computing, a spin-off from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the UPC specialising in edge computing and 5G networks. The two million euros raised in this seed round will support the company’s growth by boosting its global sales.

  • 16 novel compounds of cannabis identified

    Researchers from the Smart Sustainable Resources research group at the UPC Campus in Manresa have characterised 16 novel compounds of cannabis that had not been identified so far. The discovery has been published in the journal Planta Medica. Characterising novel compounds of cannabis opens the door to discovering new medicinal uses of the plant’s active ingredients.

  • Scientists support the use of ultraviolet light to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission indoors

    An international team of researchers advocates the use of UV-C light in indoor spaces as a way to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 viruses. This solution meets the requirement for fast, scalable and affordable implementation to fulfil the need to disinfect work spaces such as offices, schools, healthcare facilities and public transport, to name a few.

  • The UPC joins the Planetary Health Alliance

    The UPC, through its Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB), is a new member of the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA), a consortium that promotes the planet’s health. The LAB will contribute technology to monitor biodiversity and alert of potential threats from climate change and human pressure on natural habitats.

  • The UPC selected by the European Commission to build the new European university UNITE!

    The University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering - UNITE! is now a fact. The new technological university campus promoted by the European Commission with the participation of the UPC, the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the Grenoble Institute of Technology, the Politecnico di Torino, TU Darmstadt, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and Aalto University is an alliance that aims to create a common space for multidisciplinary training, cooperation in teaching and research, and knowledge transfer between regions.

  • The new European university UNITE! takes off

    The first joint meeting of UNITE!, the University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering, will be held in Darmstadt (Germany) on 5 and 6 November. UNITE! is the new technological university campus promoted by the European Commission with the participation of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC), the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the Grenoble Institute of Technology, the Politecnico di Torino, TU Darmstadt, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and Aalto University.

  • UPC researchers participate in the transformation of the European energy system to adapt to renewables

    Within the framework of the European project FEVER, the UPC’s Centre for Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives (CITCEA-UPC) will develop bidirectional EV chargers and solutions for leveraging the flexibility of energy storage resources and meeting the demand for specific services for the electricity grid to make it safe, efficient and resilient.

  • International cooperative agreement aims to fast track advanced material solutions to solve global challenges

    ICFO and Advanced Material Pandemic & Future Preparedness Taskforce sign MoU to facilitate solving global challenges using advanced materials.

  • The UPC, the 36th best young university in the world in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking

    In the 2021 edition of the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking, which lists the world’s best universities under 50, the UPC is ranked 36th in the world. The University climbs two positions among European universities to the 11th place. It also remains the 3rd best young Spanish university and the top Spanish technical university.

  • Two UPC nanosatellites in orbit to study polar regions and provide Earth observation images by using artificial intelligence

    Two small satellites created at the UPC’s Nanosat Lab have travelled to space from Kourou, French Guiana, on 2 September (at 3.51 a.m. on 3 September Spanish time) to carry out the FSSCat mission, which received the ESA Sentinel Small Satellite (S^3) Challenge award in 2017. The main objective of the mission is to monitor polar ice and soil moisture while testing intersatellite communication systems in order to create a future network of federated satellites. The ɸ-sat-1 technology demonstrator is also on board, it is ESA’s first artificial intelligence in space and it will filter out images of the Earth that are not suitable for use because of cloud cover.

  • QuantumCAT, the quantum technology hub led by the ICFO, launched

    The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), which is linked to the UPC, leads the new Catalan quantum technology hub QuantumCAT, a consortium of research institutions and industry partners for promoting technology transfer and innovation projects.

  • The Doctoral School welcomes new students and presents the special awards

    A total of 31 doctoral degree holders have received the 2020 special doctoral awards, with which the UPC’s Doctoral School recognises the best doctoral theses defended in the 2017–2018 academic year. The awards have been presented during the welcome event for new doctoral students, broadcasted live on the UPCtv channel.

  • A team of bioengineering and computing experts outlines how the creation of text mining and artificial intelligence tools can advance biomaterials research and development

    The application of text mining technologies will increase the ability to extract information from the growing biomaterials literature, and deep learning tools will help to identify implicit links between substantiated information, as well as make predictions and recommendations. This comment article by authors from the BSC-CNS, the UPC and the IBEC has been published today in 'Nature Review Materials' magazine.

  • Smallest cavity for light created by graphene plasmons

    Researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) –a research institute affiliated to the UPC—, MIT, Duke University, Paris-Saclay University and the Universidade do Minho report on the smallest cavities ever achieved for infrared light using graphene and metallic cubes of nanometric size. The study was published in Science.

  • The UPC’s BIOCOM-SC Group explores the use of artificial intelligence to forecast the evolution of COVID-19 in Europe

    The UPC’s Computational Biology and Complex Systems Group (BIOCOM-SC) partners with Facebook Artificial Intelligence to train, test and calibrate new artificial intelligence models developed by the company to forecast the evolution of the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and Austria. The aim of the Group, with the collaboration of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute and the support of Facebook, is to check whether the algorithm can be adapted to make one-month predictions, first in Southern Europe and then in Europe as a whole.

  • A computational model to understand the dynamics of tuberculosis lesions within the lungs

    Researchers from the UPC and the Institut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP) have developed a virtual lung model using computational modelling techniques to study the dynamics of tuberculosis lesions within the lungs. These are the first results to be published by the 3Rs Programme at the Centre for Comparative Medicine and Bioimaging (CMCiB), which aims to minimize the use of animals in preclinical research. The results of the study have been published in the journal Plos Computational Biology.

  • Discover the UPC’s Doctoral School

    Visit the Doctoral School website to find out more about the programmes leading to a doctoral degree that allow you to develop the skills and competencies needed to conduct quality research in a changing world.

  • International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, at UPC

    The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) host the 15th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, from 20 to 23 October, on line.

  • The ICFO and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute create a joint laboratory

    The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute have created a new joint laboratory that focuses on advancing the use and development of photonic technologies to understand, diagnose, monitor and treat paediatric diseases. The alliance seeks to provide innovations that improve the quality of life of children with severe pathologies and is made possible thanks to the support of the Joan Ribas Araquistain Foundation, the Cellex Foundation and the Torró Solidari RAC1 by Torrons Vicens.

  • EAR to the WILD, a groundbreaking smartphone application for the real-time monitoring of marine biodiversity

    On 8 June 2020, the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) launched EAR to the WILD, an innovative application that monitors ocean biodiversity from any mobile platform. The app listens to marine life from any smartphone, anywhere in the world. EAR to the WILD detects and warns of potential threats to the ocean by transmitting information in real time to dedicated cloud servers, where artificial intelligence techniques are used to continuously analyse the data received. The first vessel to take EAR to the WILD on board, the Swiss sailboat Mauritius from Fondation Pacifique, left Brittany, in France, for the Arctic on 9 June.

  • The BSC and the Hospital Clínic will use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the evolution of COVID-19 patients

    They will create an AI model based on information from more than 3,000 clinical reports generated by the Hospital Clínic during the acute phase of the pandemic. The project, promoted by the Spanish government, is open to the collaboration of more hospitals.

  • The UPC’s Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics studies ocean noise pollution in Antarctica

    The UPC’s Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) is leading a scientific expedition to Antarctica to deploy permanent acoustic sensors for monitoring the effects of climate change and human activities on polar ecosystems.