UPC technology at the 2022 Mobile World Congress, from 28 February to 3 March 2022, in Barcelona
The project involving bacteria that recover metals from electronic devices is led by the researcher Toni Dorado.
Research coordinated by the researcher Óscar Casas focuses on non-invasive cardiovascular monitoring.
The team led by the researcher Gil Serrancolí has created an app to measure knee instability.
Artificial intelligence and music
UPC technology also reaches the MWC from a cultural perspective, with an after-work performance joining music, experimentation and artificial intelligence by the Catalan DJ and producer AWWZ, which she developed with the researchers at the University’s Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDEAI) research centre. The show was featured in this year’s AI and Music S+T+ARTS festival.
The UPC presents cutting-edge technologies and initiatives applied to a range of sectors at its own stand in this edition of MWC Barcelona, the international conference on mobile technologies that takes place in the Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via exhibition centre, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. The University is also present at 4YFN, a point of reference for entrepreneurship and technological innovation, which is taking place at the same time in the same venue.
Feb 28, 2022
The technology and innovation that the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) presents at the Mobile World Congress (MWC Barcelona 2022) are the result of the research carried out by research teams in a range of fields of application. The solutions on show include data analytics in complex systems for managing drinking water supply networks, the use of bacteria to recover metals from mobile phones and medical data logging for increased precision and better diagnosis. In the last of these areas, applications are on show that enable cardiovascular function to be monitored non-invasively, the instability of injured knees to be controlled, the effects of movement disorders to be recorded by mobile devices and the risk of developing cerebrovascular disease to be assessed.
The projectes are presents in the stand of the CIT UPC, the Technology Center of the UPC (number 4C1, Hall 4, Booth 26, in the Digital Catalonia Pavillion) at the Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via exhibition centre (Av. Joan Carles I, 64, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat).
Complex data analytics for effective distribution of drinking water
The Advanced Control Systems research group of the Supervision, Safety and Automatic Control Centre (CS2AC), coordinated by the researcher Vicenç Puig and located on the Terrassa Campus, presents a computer tool for analysing sensor data in complex drinking water networks. It is an artificial intelligence system based on algorithms that improves the efficient and sustainable water management of the water supply network.
Bacteria that recover metals from electronic devices
A team from the Biological Treatment of Gaseous Pollutants and Odours Group (BIOGAP) and the Smart Sustainable Resources (SSR-UPC) research centre, coordinated by the researcher Toni Dorado, who is a professor at the Manresa School of Engineering (EPSEM), has developed and patented a biotechnological process for recovering metals from electronic devices much more easily than is typically possible with current highly expensive and polluting industrial processes.
Non-invasive cardiovascular monitoring
The Instrumentation, Sensors and Interfaces (ISI) group of the UPC, in research coordinated by the researcher Óscar Casas, a professor at the Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC), has developed a very low cost electronic system that allows a patient’s cardiovascular function to be monitored in the shortest possible time and without the need for electrodes to be placed on the chest. These features make it easier for untrained people to use them in extra-hospital settings.
An app for controlling knee instability in injured people
An Android mobile app can be used to identify knee instability in people with injuries to this joint. Surgeons need only place adhesive markers at three reference points on the knee and record a video with a mobile phone while they perform laxity tests in order to identify the anteroposterior translation of the patient’s knee. This allows them to quantitatively compare, in a straightforward manner, the instability of both knees, because the information that is processed is displayed in the app in the form of a graph.
The project is coordinated by Gil Serrancolí, a member of the Simulation and Movement Analysis Lab (SIMMA Lab) and a Serra Húnter researcher and professor at the Barcelona East School of Engineering (EEBE).
An app for analysing disorders related to Parkinson’s disease
Antonio José Sánchez Egea, a Serra Húnter researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Multimedia Applications and ICTs Laboratory research group who is also a professor at the EEBE, is leading a project to develop an electronic health application, which uses the inertial sensors of mobile phones and usable devices to record patients’ kinematic motion disorders, with usable devices and artificial intelligence. The inertial data that are recorded are analysed and classified in real time in a web server, in which patients’ medical history is also stored, to provide, through the application, information that may help to doctors to make decisions.
A tool to support the diagnosis of brain malformations
Andrea Barroso, a UPC graduate in Biomedical Engineering, is developing an accessible, intuitive and easy-to-use web platform for health professionals that can assess the symmetry of brain hemispheres as an indicator of the presence or absence of certain veins. This tool for visualising and characterising cerebrovascular patterns serves to support the decisions of medical staff when they diagnose malformations or strokes and may be used as a complement to other clinical tests.
The UPC is the university with the greatest number of technology-based companies at the MWC and Four Years From Now (4YFN), where it will also have its own stand (6D51.A and 6D51.B in Hall 6). In total, 25 entrepreneurial initiatives that have arisen at the University are present at the two international events. At the MWC, eight consolidated spin-offs promoted by UPC research staff, alumni and students will show the technology they are marketing from their own stands: Exheus, HumanITCare, Inmersia Computers, Ludium Lab, Miwendo Solutions, QBeast Analytics, Sense4Care and The Predictive Company.
Participating in the 4YFN are 13 start-ups and spin-offs: Barrel.cloud, Bio2Coat, ELEM Biotech, Finboot, Kreios Space, Lovelymaps, Mapsi Photonics, MeetOptics, myReach, Nuwe, WeCaria, WIVI Vision by e-Health Technical Solutions and Zymvol.
At this showcase, the UPC will also present the business acceleration and incubation programmes that it coordinates in the fields of urban mobility and space technologies and projects. One of these is the EIT Urban Mobility Acceleration Programme, promoted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which aims to facilitate new solutions in the field of urban mobility. Since 2020, 15 companies have been promoted, some of which are also present at 4YFN.
Another is the European Space Agency’s Barcelona Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC Barcelona), an incubation programme that aims to accelerate up to 18 local companies. The initiative is promoted by a consortium coordinated by the UPC that also includes the Mediterranean Technology Park and the Government of Catalonia, and which has the support of Barcelona Activa, the Barcelona Provincial Council, Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona and the Baix Llobregat County Council.