Research news

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

  • Scientists from the UPC investigate reconfigurable and programmable metamaterials

    Creating materials with programmable electromagnetic properties, called software-defined reconfigurable metamaterials, is the goal of the scientists working on the European VISORSURF project, in which the interdepartmental group NaNoNetworking Center in Catalonia (N3Cat) of the UPC participates. It is seen as a revolutionary technology with multiple applications in electronics, medicine, photovoltaic solar energy, optics and other uses that are as yet unimaginable.

  • A device with mobile games and remote medical monitoring for at-home pelvic floor rehabilitation

    As part of the European WOMEN-UP project, the UPC and the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (Spain), along with the Academic Medical Center (the Netherlands) and Kuopio University Hospital (Finland), will soon carry out the clinical trial of a system designed to improve pelvic floor muscle training, a recommended treatment to prevent or treat urinary incontinence. This technological solution incorporates serious games for mobile phones that are driven by muscle movement and remote medical monitoring through a web platform.

  • UPC technology in the design of a road safety barrier that reduces maintenance costs and the impact of accidents

    Researchers belonging to the Concrete Structure Technology research group of the UPC, along with the companies GIVASA, SERVIÀ CANTÓ, EIFFAGE INFRAESTRUCTURAS and Applus+ IDIADA, have designed and built a prototype of a concrete crash barrier for interurban roads that, in comparison with the concrete barriers already in place, reduces the degree of severity of vehicle impact in accidents and therefore of injury to vehicle occupants.

  • UPC patents system for cardiovascular pre-diagnosis—in under a minute—based on contact with user’s hands or feet

    The UPC patented an affordable, easy-to-use electrocardiograph that can provide a cardiovascular pre-diagnosis in less than a minute. It is the first system to measure both the electrical activity of the heart (electrocardiogram) and its mechanical activity (arterial pulse wave) based on data collected via two metal sensors in contact with the user’s hands or feet. The prototype has already been granted patents in Spain, the United States and China, and applications have also been filed in Europe, Japan, Korea and India.

  • UPC presents EMPRÈN UPC Terrassa, with support of Terrassa City Council

    The UPC and the Terrassa City Council have signed an agreement to create a facility called EMPRÈN UPC Terrassa—an initiative that will help UPC students make their business ideas a reality, foster entrepreneurial talent, attract investment, and strengthen the business sector in the city of Terrassa.

  • The UPC steps on the accelerator

    On 11 and 12 November, the six teams of UPC students who have designed and built electric vehicles to participate in university competitions attended Expoelectric, a meeting point to encourage energy saving and efficient driving.

  • UPC project receives ESA’s Sentinel Small Satellite Challenge award and is overall winner of the Copernicus Masters

    An initiative presented by UPC researcher Adriano Camps and Alessandro Golkar, a visiting professor from the Skoltech Institute of Science and Technology in Russia, in collaboration with the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has won the Sentinel Small Sat (S^3) Challenge of the European Space Agency (ESA), the most important category of the Copernicus Masters awards, which have a reputation for being the ‘space Oscars’. The project also received the Overall Winner Award for the best initiative in the Copernicus Masters.

  • Synchrotron light proves the effectiveness of two new drugs against sleeping sickness

    A team led by researchers from the UPC has unveiled the mechanism of action of two drugs, FR60 and JNI18, that cure 100% of mice with sleeping sickness, also called African trypanosomiasis. Using synchrotron light at the ALBA Synchrotron, the researchers observed how these drugs stacked perfectly on the DNA of Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes the disease, blocking and damaging it specifically. The result is that the parasite cannot reproduce and finally dies after 4-5 days. Scientists conclude that the drugs are effective potential treatments against sleeping sickness, which threatens over 55 million people in sub-Saharan Africa countries. These drugs remain patent-free to attract the interest of pharmaceutical laboratories.

  • Quantum internet goes hybrid

    Researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), an associate institute of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), report the first demonstration of an elementary link of a hybrid quantum information network, using a cold atomic cloud and a doped crystal as quantum nodes and single telecom photons as information carriers. The study, published in Nature, demonstrates the communication and transmission of quantum information between two completely different types of quantum nodes placed in different labs. This achievement shows that it is possible to build a quantum hybrid network with heterogeneous elements that is fully compatible with the current fibre-optic telecommunication infrastructure.

  • More than 200 students at the UPC's Week of Engineering Competition

    From 25 November to 1 December, the 10th edition of the Week of Engineering Competition (WEC) will be held at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), with more than 200 engineering students enrolled. During the WEC, students from any school of the UPC can get out of the classroom and participate in competitions, activities and group dynamics with companies, to test their knowledge and skills and give them a real work experience for a few hours.

  • UPC students set for first in university space rocket

    The Cosmic Research team, made up of students from three schools of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Terrassa and Barcelona are carrying out a series of trials in order to become the first university students to launch a rocket into space. By 2022 they expect to be able to cross the 100-km barrier.

  • ICFO researchers create an ultradilute quantum liquid made from ultra-cold atoms

    The Institute of Photonic Sciencies (ICFO) researchers create a novel type of liquid one hundred million times more dilute than water and one million times thinner than air. The experiments, published in Science, exploit a fascinating quantum effect to produce droplets of this exotic phase of matter.

  • The UPC’s Gaudí Chair has inventoried 18% of the content for the Gaudí Digital Archive and digitised 11% of the material it will contain

    The Gaudí Chair of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), a documentation and research centre located at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), offered a presentation on the current status of the Gaudí Digital Archive, which will serve as a single, extensive, hyper-connected catalogue focusing on the work of Antoni Gaudí and other architects, as well as architecture and urbanism studies in the 19th and 20th centuries. With a collection of 147,000 items – including drawings, designs, photographs, objects and bibliographic material of great heritage value – the Gaudí Digital Archive will be accessible to researchers and the public online.

  • The UPC participates in the 5GBarcelona initiative to turn Catalonia into a European 5G digital hub

    The Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the i2CAT Foundation, the Telecommunications Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTTC), Atos and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) have presented the agreement they have signed in support of the 5GBarcelona initiative, which aims to turn the city and Catalonia into one of the European digital innovation hubs in the field of 5G technology.

  • ICFO researchers try out a stroke device at the Hospital de Sant Pau

    A non-invasive bedside optical device has been used for the first time at the Hospital de la Santa Creu and Sant Pau in Barcelona to monitor the treatment of patients with acute ischaemic stroke in real time. The mechanism, developed by ICFO researchers led by ICREA professor Turgut Durduran, has the potential to become a future tool for non-invasive medical monitoring.

  • The Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics warns that noise pollution is threatening the natural balance of the oceans

    Within the programme The Winds of Change, the Swiss Ocean Mapping Expedition is making a four-year (2015-2019) journey round the world in the wake of Magellan on board the Fleur de Passion sailing boat. The expedition has already identified many zones of high emission of methane and carbon dioxide between Mactan in the Philippines and Singapore, where the expedition arrived on 13 March. Another project, 20,000 Sounds Under the Seas, is being carried out on board the boat by the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). One of this project’s findings is that the only area of the globe free of noise pollution is between French Polynesia and Australia.

  • The Nativity Facade of the Sagrada Família, in 3D

    The UPC’s Virtual Innovation in Modelling Architecture and the City Laboratory (VIMAC) has participated in creating a digital model of the elevation of the Nativity Facade of the Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (Sagrada Família). The project was led by the assistant architect of the Sagrada Família, David Puig Bermejo. The study will be used to analyse the state of the facade and will form the basis for future studies that will determine the pathologies to be taken into account in the restoration.

  • ESEIAAT-UPC researchers participate in space mission to study gigantic lightning jets

    The Lightning Research Group (LRG) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), based on the Terrassa Campus, is participating in the ASIM space mission to observe, record and analyse the most violent electrical storms that occur in the atmosphere. The aim is to verify data collected by an observatory installed on the International Space Station (ISS), which will measure high-energy terrestrial emissions in the atmosphere, by comparing it to data obtained by the UPC at various points around the planet.

  • Researchers from UPC, Brazil and Australia get the first images and sounds of an observatory installed in the Amazon

    The Applied Bioacoustics Laboratory (LAB) of UPC and scientists from Brazil and Australia have installed in the Brazilian reserves of Mamirauá and Amanã the first two sensors for real-time monitoring of biodiversity in the Amazon. In the framework of the Providence project, this action will help fight the extinction of species in the rainforest.

  • The UPC leads a European project to study the behaviour of complex geometric networks

    The aim of the European project Combinatorics of Networks and Computation (CONNECT) is to understand complex geometric networks such as those that model the internet and the spread of infections. Coordinated by the UPC, the project connects researchers from 14 universities in Europe and the American continent.

  • Researchers from the UPC and the IAC discover one of the most massive neutron stars

    Using a pioneering method, researchers from the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group of the UPC and the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) have found a neutron star of about 2.3 Solar masses—one of the most massive ever detected. The study was published on the 23rd of May in The Astrophysical Journal and opens a new path of knowledge in many fields of astrophysics and nuclear physics.

  • A microchip designed at the UPC is on its way to Mars

    Researchers from the UPC’s Micro and Nanotechnology Research Group participated in the design of a wind sensor that has been installed in NASA's InSight spacecraft to study the interior of the planet Mars.

  • Launch of CYBERCAT, an interuniversity research centre for cybersecurity and data privacy

    The Cybersecurity Research Centre of Catalonia (CYBERCAT) was presented in Barcelona on 8 May. It was set up by seven research groups from six Catalan universities, among them the UPC’s Information Security Group (ISG) and Mathematics Applied to Cryptography (MAK) group. CYBERCAT is intended to become a reference centre that combines the knowledge of all the research groups working in cybersecurity in Catalonia, with over a hundred researchers. The other participating universities are the UAB, the UdL, the UOC, the UPF and the URV, which is the coordinator.

  • Creation of the AMES Group-UPC Chair in design and innovation in the field of new biomaterials

    The AMES Group-UPC Chair, which was created at the Diagonal-Besòs Campus in Barcelona, will work in the field of additive manufacturing of porous metallic biomaterials for use in traumatology.

  • The UPC builds a plant to produce bio-products and bioenergy from wastewater using microalgae

    The Environmental Engineering and Microbiology Group (GEMMA) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has built a 30-m3 pilot plant for the production of bioproducts and bioenergy from microalgae grown in wastewater. The plant has been installed in the Agròpolis, an experimental site located in Viladecans and forming part of the UPC’s Baix Llobregat Campus.

  • A European project led by the UPC involves citizens in the control of air quality

    The UPC is leading the H2020 CAPTOR project, through which a network of low-cost sensors has been installed to measure tropospheric ozone (a contaminant that mainly affects rural areas) in private homes of volunteers from Spain, Italy and Austria. The programme also encourages collaboration between local communities, citizens, NGOs and scientists to stimulate environmental awareness and social and political responsibility in this area.

  • Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton to be awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the UPC

    On Thursday 18 October, the UPC will award an honorary doctoral degree to the American computer scientist, mathematician and engineer Margaret Hamilton, who coined the term ‘software engineering’ 50 years ago, during the NASA’s first Apollo missions. The nomination was approved by the Governing Council and promoted by the Barcelona School of Informatics (FIB), as part of the School’s 40th anniversary celebrations. The event coincides with the first Barcelona Grad Cohort Workshop.

  • Inauguration of Thinx | 5GBarcelona, an open laboratory for testing 5G technologies

    The initiative 5GBarcelona and Telefónica have inaugurated their Thinx | 5GBarcelona laboratory, a facility at startups, SMEs and corporations and designed to test and validate new services and applications with 5G technology.

  • CARNET, a National Research Award for public-private partnership in R&I

    The Future Mobility Research Hub (CARNET) promoted by SEAT, the UPC and Volkswagen Group Research, which focuses on future automotive and urban mobility, has received the 2017 National Award for Public-Private Partnership in Research and Innovation on 15 October.

  • Europe pilots cutting-edge technology to prevent natural disasters in a project coordinated by the UPC

    The Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology (CRAHI) of the UPC is coordinating the ANYWHERE project, aimed at establishing a pan-European multi-hazard platform for faster analysis and anticipation of weather-induced risks prior to event occurrence. It will also improve response management in emergency situations and help exposed populations avert loss of life, damage to infrastructure and economic losses related to these events. For the first time in Europe, the first outcomes of the tools developed within the project will be presented this week in Barcelona.