Research news

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

  • The UPC joins the EIT Manufacturing knowledge and innovation community

    The UPC has joined EIT Manufacturing, Europe’s largest manufacturing innovation network. Promoted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), it pursues the digitalisation of industry in the context of circular economy.

  • The UPC participates in a €25-million European project to improve the response to climate change-related emergencies

    The UPC’s Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology participates in the European project RESIST, which aims to improve preparedness for weather emergencies and thus increase resilience to climate change. RESIST receives EU funding under the Horizon programme.

  • Barcelona will implement a UPC-designed sustainable construction system

    The UPC’s Architectural Rehabilitation and Restoration (REARQ) research group and the Interdisciplinary Group on Building Science and Technology (GICITED) have developed a construction prototype to extend buildings sustainably that will be tested for a year before being implemented on a large scale in apartment blocks in Barcelona. The 'Regenerar Barcelona' proposal has been selected by the Barcelona City Council.

  • Artificial intelligence for increased navigational safety

    The Centre for Language and Speech Technologies and Applications—part of the UPC’s Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence research centre—and the CIMNE’s Center for Innovation in Transport participate in the OCEAN project, which aims to increase navigational safety. Researchers from these centres will develop algorithms based on signal processing and machine learning to detect obstacles at sea.

  • Unite! will work with Ukrainian universities on the green transformation of campus

    The Unite! alliance, of which the UPC is a member, will work with Ukrainian universities on developing a green campus model. The aim of the collaboration is to contribute to Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction process and its integration into the European Union.

  • Innovative solutions for muscle injuries, autonomous driving and beach safety at MWC 2023

    The UPC, through the Innovation and Technology Centre (CIT UPC), presents its technological capabilities and cutting-edge projects at MWC Barcelona 2023, which takes place from 27 February to 2 March. Its technology will be shown at the University’s stand in the Catalonia pavilion of the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via venue. At the same time, the UPC will be participating in 4YFN, the innovation ecosystem’s international meeting, which features over thirty technology-based spin-offs and start-ups led by UPC students, alumni and research staff.

  • Adriano Camps and Marta Guardiola win the Duran Farell Technological Research Award

    Professor Adriano Camps, director of the UPC’s NanoSat Lab, and MiWEndo founder Marta Guardiola have won the 13th Duran Farell Technological Research Award. The jury also presented an honourable mention to IBEC researcher Zaida Álvarez.

  • The UPC and the Castelldefels City Council inaugurate DroneLab, a unique laboratory and flight facility for UAVs

    On 11 November, the Drone Research Laboratory (DroneLab) was opened on the UPC Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels. Pioneering in Spain and Europe, it is a multidisciplinary facility for conducting tests and validating and training UAV-based applications. The new laboratory, which is part of the Mediterranean Technology Park, is intended for research and teaching purposes but also for the business sector.

  • 1-minute exposure to monochromatic light modifies neural connections

    A study led by researchers from the UPC’s Terrassa School of Optics and Optometry (FOOT) shows that 1-minute stimulation with blue, green or red light activates several visual and non-visual brain regions. The study opens new avenues for better understanding the impact of light stimulation on brain function and its use to treat visual dysfunction, depression symptoms, circadian rhythm disruption, migraine and memory or attention disorders.

  • WEAVE spectrograph begins study of galaxy formation and evolution

    More than 500 astronomers from all over Europe, including members of Catalan universities and research centres—the UPC and the ICCUB—have designed and planned a total of five years of operations for the WEAVE spectrograph, a powerful instrument recently installed at the Canary Islands observatory. Combined with Gaia’s measurements, it makes it possible to study a wide range of cases in stellar and galactic science. The first observations show unprecedented aspects of the collision between the galaxies at the heart of Stephan’s Quintet, 280 million light-years from Earth.

  • Power electronics solutions to modernise the power grid

    The UPC’s CITCEA coordinates the European iPLUG project, under the Horizon Europe programme, to develop power electronics solutions to allow a smooth integration of multiple renewable sources, energy storage systems and loads in the distribution grid.

  • ICFO awarded the National Innovation Award

    The award from the Department of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia and the Foundation for Research and Innovation of Catalonia (FCRi) recognizes the creation of ICFO’s technology spin-off, LuxQuanta.

  • The UPC participates in the research programme for the future quantum internet

    The new research programme coordinated by the ICFO, in which the UPC and other entities participate, aims to develop technologies for the future quantum Internet.

  • Climate change adaptation plan for ports of general interest in the Balearic Islands submitted and prepared by the LIM of the UPC

    The plan commissioned by the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) proposes adaptation measures and pathways to prevent possible risks from the rise in sea level as a result of climate change.

  • Unmasking the microscopic fingerprint in finite-temperature features of a one-dimensional Bose gas

    A team of researchers from the UPC in Barcelona and the EPFL in Lausanne have built a new theory to explain finite-temperature properties in terms of microscopic excitations of bosons in one dimension.

  • A study demonstrates the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 concentration in wastewater and the cumulative incidence over waves during the pandemic

    Cetaqua and the BIOCOM-UPC research group develop a mathematical model to predict SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Catalonia using wastewater-based epidemiology.

  • New magnetometer designed to be integrated into microelectronic chips

    Researchers at the UPC’s Department of Electronic Engineering have developed a new type of magnetometer that can be integrated into microelectronic chips and that is fully compatible with the current integrated circuits. Of great interest for the miniaturisation of electronic systems and sensors, the study has been recently published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering, a Nature Publishing Group journal.

  • UPC’s INTE research for improving the detection of radon gas in the atmosphere and soil to monitor its impact on health and climate change

    The researchers Claudia Grossi and Arturo Vargas, from the UPC’s Institute of Energy Technologies (INTE), and other European scientists are studying how to improve radon gas measurements in the atmosphere and soil to better control its impact on health and the environment.

  • Collaborative robots to harvest table grapes developed

    Researchers from the UPC’s Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (IRI) and the Agricultural Machinery Unit (UMA) are working with other research centres and European companies to develop collaborative robots to harvest and prune table grape vines.

  • European award for the ANYWHERE project, coordinated by the UPC’s CRAHI

    The 2022 Resilience Award of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs went to ANYWHERE, a project coordinated by the UPC’s Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology (CRAHI) that strengthens societal resilience to extreme climate-induced events through innovative technology.

  • Researchers discover a catalyst to remove emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas

    Researchers from the UPC, the University of Udine (Italy) and the ALBA Synchrotron have discovered a palladium and platinum catalyst, the first to eliminate methane emissions from transport and other human activities to reduce global warming. The study has been recently published in Nature Communications.

  • UPC researchers coordinate the creation of a compact magnetic sensor to reduce noise on large space missions

    The UPC’s Space Science and Technology Research Group (CTE) has coordinated the development of a compact and low-power magnetic sensor to reduce noise based on magnetic field modulation using microelectromechanical resonators (MEMS). Created jointly with the ICE-CSIC and the ICCUB, it is the result of the MELISA project, promoted by the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), and will serve as a sample to validate the feasibility of this technique on the LISA mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) to detect gravitational waves in space.

  • The UPC, among the world’s top 100 in four subjects according to the 2022 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects

    The UPC maintains its position among the world’s 100 best universities in four subjects (Instruments Science and Technology, Atmospheric Science, Mathematics and Civil Engineering) and is the top Spanish university in two (Atmospheric Science and Water Resources) in the latest edition of the ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

  • The BSC selected to host one of the first European quantum computers

    The European Union’s supercomputing consortium has chosen the BSC-CNS as one of six centres that will host the first European quantum computing network.

  • Researcher Maria Pau Ginebra awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council

    The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded UPC researcher Maria Pau Ginebra an Advanced Grant to study the mechanisms of biomaterial and bacteria interaction and to develop surfaces that can fight infections and promote bone regeneration. The study will also have a great scientific and technological impact in very diverse fields such as catalysis, water purification and protein separation.

  • Researchers find that chemical communication between living beings obeys the linguistic law of brevity

    A recent study shows that the chemicals used by living beings to communicate obey the linguistic law of brevity: just as the most used words in human language are shorter, the most frequent infochemicals in ecosystems tend to be shorter carbon chains. The study is co-authored by UPC researcher Antoni Hernández-Fernández and it delves into interspecies chemical communication.

  • Digital twins for a more efficient, reliable and safe construction industry

    Researchers from the UPC’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which is linked to the Barcelona School of Civil Engineering, are leading one of the work packages of the European project ASHVIN, an initiative that aims to make a more efficient, reliable and safe European construction industry by using digital twins. The project is already being implemented on a bridge on the Plasencia-Badajoz high-speed line and in several buildings in Barcelona.

  • Engineering students from the UPC create a 3D-printed functional robotic arm

    The Arm2u biomedical engineering team, from the UPC’s Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB), has designed and manufactured using 3D printing technology a customisable transradial prosthesis that responds to the user’s nerve impulses.

  • Boosting new gas plasma-based treatments for cancer

    Exploring the possibilities of atmospheric-pressure plasmas to develop and consolidate new medical therapies is the main objective of the PlasTHER network, an initiative funded by the European Union under the COST Actions. Led by the UPC, the network brings together research groups, the medical community, industry and patient associations from 24 European countries who will work in the coming years to launch new treatments for cancer, tissue regeneration and repair, emerging infectious diseases and others.

  • Unite! receives more EC funding for its deployment

    The Unite! alliance, made up of the UPC and other leading European technological universities, will receive more funding from the European Commission, under the Erasmus+ programme, to become a driving force for the advancement of a green and digital Europe. The implementation of future European degrees, a new mobility model and the development of a Unite! European Doctoral School are some of the key projects to be deployed in the new stage.