Research news

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

  • The initiative 5GBarcelona, at the Mobile World Congress

    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) participate in 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. The 5GBarcelona strategy is present at the Mobile World Congress 2018, which will be held from 26 February to 1 March at Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue.

  • 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.

  • UPC cements position as Spain’s top university in innovation and technological development

    According to the 2017 edition of U-Ranking, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has maintained its position as Spain’s top university in innovation and technological development in the performance ranking and moved up to number one in the ranking based on volume. It has also maintained its position as the number two Spanish university overall and moved up among the top three in teaching and research.

  • 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.

  • The UPC, SEAT and Volkswagen Group Innovation look for new strategies to improve the performance of the powertrain and batteries of future electric vehicles

    The UPC’s inLab FIB collaborates with SEAT and Volkswagen Group Innovation (Wolfsburg, Germany) in the Predictive eBoost project, focused on designing new strategies, based on machine learning algorithms and data analysis, to improve the efficiency and performance of electric vehicle motors and batteries.

  • The WOMEN-UP project launches a MOOC on eHealth applied to female urinary incontinence

    The Female Urinary Incontinence and eHealth MOOC is a free online course on urinary incontinence in women and on the techniques and technologies available to enhance the effectiveness of medical treatments (eHealth). It will be available online from 14 January to 15 March.

  • Maria Pau Ginebra, Eduard Alarcón, Marcel Guardia and Maria Teresa Martínez-Seara receive the 2018 ICREA Acadèmia distinctions

    UPC researchers Maria Pau Ginebra, Eduard Alarcón, Marcel Guardia and Maria Teresa Martínez-Seara are four of the forty-five researchers who received the 2018 ICREA Acadèmia distinctions on 30 April at the Palau de la Generalitat. The event was chaired by the minister for Business and Knowledge, Àngels Chacón, and attended by the minister for Universities and Research, Francesc Xavier Grau, and ICREA director and UPC professor Antonio Huerta.

  • The UPC among the world’s top 50 in Architecture, Art History and Civil Engineering in the latest edition of the QS Rankings

    In the 2024 QS World University Rankings by Subject the UPC is ranked the world’s 26th best in Architecture, in the 21-40 band in Art History and 40th best in Civil Engineering. It is also listed among the world’s top 100 universities in seven additional fields and is the top Spanish university in seven subjects.

  • The UPC launches #looopers, a science outreach series on YouTube

    “Nanoquè? Nanosatèl·lits!” (Nano-what? Nanosatellites!) is the first video in the series that the UPC has launched on its YouTube channel. Teaching and research staff and students have collaborated to reach out to young people and encourage them to take up STEAM vocations.

  • A researcher from the UPC’s ESEIAAT leads a European project to create four advanced support centres for the textile industry in Morocco and Jordan

    Mònica Ardanuy, a professor of textile engineering at the Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering (ESEIAAT) and a researcher in the TECTEX research group at the UPC, is leading the European project FOSTEX, which aims to create four advanced support centres for the textile industry in Moroccan and Jordanian universities. FOSTEX received one million euros in funding from the European Commission and aims to have these centres operational by 2022.

  • A nanosatellite developed at the NanoSat Lab of the UPC has been placed in orbit with six experiments on board

    The launch, funded by the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), took place at 5:28 a.m. from the Sriharikota space base (India)

  • New discovery in the behaviour of high-speed particles

    Researchers from the UPC and the University of Massachusetts analyse how particles moving at high speeds undergo a transformation from quantum to classical behaviour at temperatures above the anomaly threshold.

  • Mobile-recycling bacteria star in the new #looopers episode featuring researcher Toni Dorado

    Microorganisms found in wastewater are capable of separating metals from electronic waste through a process known as bioleaching, which is cheaper and cleaner than traditional processes and helps recover precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. Researcher Toni Dorado, a professor at the UPC-EPSEM, unveils the secrets of this technology in a new episode in the #looopers series on YouTube.

  • Students from ESADE, IED and the UPC present prototypes and solutions to improve urban mobility at CERNS

    Eight teams of students from the UPC —of the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB)—, from Esade and IED Barcelona have presented, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), at Geneva, their projects and prototypes the projects and prototypes created to improve the sustainable development of the cities through the urban mobility, challenge faced in this year's edition of the Challenge Based Innovation (CBI).

  • The UPC participates in the new spin-off Smart Tower, a service for monitoring transmission towers remotely and autonomously

    The UPC’s new spin-off Smart Tower, led by the researcher Lluís Gil, provides remote and autonomous monitoring of transmission towers. The technology-based startup has received the support of The Collider, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona innovation programme that connects scientific and entrepreneurial talent to create technology-based startups.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Exploring connections between AI and music: Sónar and the UPC introduce the #ThinkingLab

    On Thursday 13 May, a panel of groundbreaking artists and leading experts in artificial intelligence have explored the connections between AI and music in a live-streamed event and that has marked the first activity of the #ThinkingLab created by Sónar and the UPC, ahead of the S+T+ARTS AI and Music Festival that is taking place in Barcelona this autumn.

  • The UPC is contributing to the fight against COVID-19 with several research projects and 3D printing of medical supplies

    In response to the COVID-19 health emergency, UPC research groups and centres are working on several scientific projects to tackle the spread of the virus. Additionally, a number of professors, researchers and students are sharing their knowledge and 3D-printing equipment to make masks, respirators and face shields for hospitals.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • UPC performing well in the latest international rankings

    In the 2019 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, the UPC remains in the 601-700 range—in which it has been ranked since 2017—in the Top 1000 list. In the recently published 2019-2020 CWUR World University Rankings, the UPC ranks 443rd out of nearly 20,000 universities analysed around the world. Additionally, in the SIR Iber ranking it takes 16th place among the best Ibero-American universities. In the Ranking Web of Universities (Webometrics), the UPC climbs from the 297th to the 275th place worldwide and is the top Spanish technical university.

  • 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.

  • The UPC among the world’s top 25 in Architecture and the world’s top 35 in Civil and Structural Engineering according to the QS WUR by Subject

    In the new edition of the QS Word University Rankings by Subject, the UPC is ranked the world’s 22nd in Architecture and Built Environment, and 35th in Civil and Structural Engineering. It is also Spain’s leader in both subjects. The ranking, which analyses indicators related to research and reputation, also features the University as the Spanish leader in the following subjects: Telecommunication, Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Computer Science and Information Systems; Statistics and Operational Research; Art and Design; and Materials Sciences.

  • The UPC shines at the 2024 MWC

    The UPC once again shone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC Barcelona) with its own stand, where it presented an AI-based application for diagnosing malaria, smart fabric with applications in healthcare, a non-invasive device for monitoring animals’ cardiovascular systems and a virtual assistant for applying for social assistance from your mobile device, to name a few.

  • 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 NTU Ranking places the UPC among the top 125 universities in the world in engineering

    The UPC is in 445th place in the world in the latest edition of the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, published by the National Taiwan University (NTU), also known as the NTU or Taiwan Ranking. The UPC is 122nd in the world in the field of Engineering and has maintained its position among the top 100 universities in the world in the subjects Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Civil Engineering and Computer Science.

  • The EIT Innovation Community in Urban Mobility is presented in Brussels

    On 24 January the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) presented in Brussels the EIT Innovation Community in Urban Mobility, headquartered in Barcelona, with the UPC as one of its technology partners.

  • A new H2020 project led by the UPC aims to improve the production of hydroelectric power

    Xavier Escaler, a researcher at the UPC’s Centre for Industrial Diagnostics and Fluid Dynamics, is leading the European project AFC4Hydro, which aims to design and validate an active flow control (AFC) system for hydraulic turbines to monitor the structural health of turbines in real time and improve their performance. The idea is to develop technologies that allow the growth of renewables in the European integrated electricity generation system.