Research news

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

  • The UPC in the top 25% of the QS World University Rankings

    The QS World University Rankings have ranked the UPC 371st in the world, among the top 25%. It also continues to be the 9th university and the 2nd technical university in Spain, and the 4th university in Catalonia. Regarding indicators, it is ranked in the top 10% for sustainability.

  • In the world’s top 60 for the SDG Climate Action, according to the THE Impact Rankings

    The sixth edition of the THE Impact Rankings has been published. The rankings assess the impact of universities’ contributions to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UPC is ranked the world’s 58th for the SDG 13 Climate Action and in the 101-200 band for the SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and the SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.

  • Unite! creates a network of doctoral programmes to boost green hydrogen research in Europe

    The Unite! alliance has created a network of doctoral programmes to explore the integration of hydrogen in the energy sector from the expertise of each university. Coordinated by the UPC and funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Unite! Energy project is the seed of the alliance’s future doctoral school. The first 12 PhD positions have already been announced.

  • Cosmic Research of the UPC’s ESEIAAT is the first Spanish team ever selected for the Spaceport America Cup

    The ESEIAAT’s Cosmic Research student team has presented LUCID, the rocket that has competed in the Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico, US, in June. It is the first Spanish team to ever participate in this competition, which brings together 1,700 students from universities around the world. The rocket was launched the 20th June.

  • The UPC, the best Spanish university in research and innovation according to the U-Ranking

    In the latest edition of the U-Ranking the UPC appears as the top-ranked Spanish university in research and innovation. It has also taken second place among Spanish universities in teaching and in the overall classification.

  • A low-cost robotic arm created by students as an alternative to conventional prostheses

    The ARM2u biomedical engineering team, from the UPC’s Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB), is working on new functions for their low-cost 3D-printed transradial prosthesis. In addition to developing technology to control the prosthesis using AI techniques, they are working to create a hand with fingers and add it to the robotic arm. The team is looking for funding to start marketing the prosthesis and for new carriers to test the prototype.

  • A study led by the UPC and the IEEC has determined the mass and radius of one of the oldest stars in our galaxy for the first time

    A study led by the researcher Alberto Rebassa-Mansergas, from the UPC and the IEEC, has determined the mass and radius of one of the oldest stars in our galaxy for the first time and validated the theoretical mass-radius relations for such stars. The results of this study are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

  • UPC researchers will observe 77,000 stars with the Chilean 4MOST telescope

    Alberto Rebassa, a professor at the UPC’s Department of Physics and at the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), and Odette Toloza, a researcher at the Federico Santa María Technical University (Chile), will lead a team of 30 researchers from 18 institutions around the world to observe and analyse the spectra of 77,000 binary stars. They will use the European Southern Observatory’s 4MOST telescope, located in Chile.

  • The analysis of a meteorite reveals secrets about the birth of the solar system

    The study has been carried out by an international team of cosmochemists and astrophysicists, including researcher Jordi José, from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) and the Department of Physics of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC). Encapsulated in a meteorite collected in Antarctica, the tiny grain – only a few microns in size – has shed new light on the terminal phases of the star’s life and how stars sow the Universe with the building blocks for new stars, planets and life.

  • The UPC has developed a payload for a United Arab Emirates satellite

    The NanoSat Lab at the UPC has developed one of the payloads for a United Arab Emirates satellite that is being developed by the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC), at the UAE University (UAEU) in Al Ain, to explore new GNSS reflectometry and RF monitoring techniques for the measurement of soil moisture and ionospheric scintillation.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • UPCommons among the world’s top 30 document repositories

    The UPCommons open knowledge portal is listed among the world’s top 30 document repositories, 10th in Europe and 1st in Spain in the latest edition of the Transparent Ranking of repositories. In the ranking of institutional repositories, it climbs to the 19th place worldwide and the 6th place in Europe.

  • UPC improves positioning on Webometrics ranking and now holds 280th place globally

    The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has moved up 32 positions on the Ranking Web of Universities and now ranks 280th in the world. At the European level, the UPC has moved up ten positions, and within the Spanish university system it has held onto its place as the country’s top technical university.

  • UPCommons remains among the world’s top 20 in the Transparent Ranking of repositories

    The UPC’s open document repository, UPCommons, is ranked the world’s 20th in the latest edition of the Transparent Ranking of repositories. In the ranking of institutional repositories, UPCommons climbs to the 10th place worldwide and is once again the leader in Spain.

  • UPCommons among the world’s top 20 open document repositories

    The UPC’s open document repository, UPCommons, is ranked the world’s 20th in the latest edition of the Transparent Ranking of repositories. In the ranking of institutional repositories, UPCommons climbs to the 11th place worldwide and is once again the leader in Spain.

  • Fractus and the UPC create a technological hub to develop deep tech solutions

    Fractus and the UPC have agreed to create the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub, a research centre where deep technologies will be designed and improved so as to develop disruptive technological solutions based on scientific challenges with great potential and social impact. Fractus is one of the first spin-offs that emerged from the UPC.

  • The Vallès School of Architecture presents a construction prototype made from corn and sunflower stalks

    The Interdisciplinary Group on Building Science and Technology (GICITED), linked to the UPC’s Vallès School of Architecture (ETSAV), participates in the cross-border project SAVASCO, which aims to develop new bio-based materials to minimise the environmental impact of construction. In this context, the ETSAV has developed a sustainable building prototype made from corn and sunflower stalks, which was presented on 6 May.

  • A dominant negative sentiment prevails in public perception towards the cruise industry during the COVID-19 outbreaks

    Researchers from the URV and the UPC’s Biomedical Engineering Research Centre (CREB) have analysed more than 34 million tweets and have found a prevailing negative sentiment towards the cruise industry. One of the main conclusions of the study, published in the Tourism Management Perspectives journal, is the need for the cruise industry to reinvent itself and double down on green credentials.

  • Technological cooperation at the UPC to fight COVID-19

    Low-cost ventilators, ICT technology to manage the spread of the pandemic, a campaign to collect tablets and mobile phones for isolated patients in hospitals... The UPC is providing 145,000 euros in funding to support 20 local- and international-scale cooperation projects to tackle the COVID-19 health emergency.

  • 56 cooperation projects under way in year Centre for Development Cooperation (CCD) turns 25

    Fifty-six development cooperation projects are getting under way at the UPC. The projects are supported by the Centre for Development Cooperation, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and 165 members of the university community are directly involved. Part of the funding for these projects comes from voluntary contributions made by UPC students and by academic, administrative and service staff through the 0.7% campaign.

  • The Barcelona Urbanism Laboratory, an observatory of cities

    The UPC’s Barcelona Urbanism Laboratory (LUB) celebrates its 50th anniversary this academic year. The research centre provides a critical and constructive look at the evolution of the metropolis and has become a benchmark in urbanism and regional policy.

  • Two UPC NanoSat Lab missions, ready to be launched into space

    Students from the UPC’s NanoSat Lab travelled to Berlin and successfully completed the final integration of the 3Cat-4 nanosatellite into the Exolaunch deployer that will bring it to space on the European launcher Ariane 6 maiden flight, scheduled for next July 9. A few weeks earlier, another team at the same laboratory completed the RITA/³Cat-6 payload, which will launch aboard the AlAinSat-1 satellite of the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) at the United Arab Emirates University.

  • Semiconductors, at the heart of technology

    The semiconductor ecosystem in Catalonia, a sector that is in a phase of development, comprises around a hundred companies and research entities and some 4,400 professionals. Companies such as Cisco, Monolithic Power Systems (MPS) and Intel have chosen Barcelona as the location for their microchip design centres, and another twenty or so foreign investment projects are expected to follow in the next few years.

  • How do fish choose their leaders? The answer lies in speed

    Researchers from the UPC’s Department of Physics have studied leadership dynamics in schooling fish, discovering that speed is key: individuals tend to align with faster neighbours and ignore slower ones. The study is featured on the cover of the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ (PNAS).

  • Awards to a new generation of surgical meshes, a program for designing buildings and the Process Talks spin-off

    The jury of the 14th UPC Research Valorisation Award, promoted by the Board of Trustees, has recognised 4DPolysense as the best technology transfer project, the NECADA program as the best invention or work for its application in the market and the Process Talks spin-off as the best technology-based company. The Nimble Diagnostics spin-off has also received a special acknowledgement.

  • A total of 117 UPC researchers in the CSIC ranking of the most outstanding female scientists

    117 UPC researchers are listed in the second edition of the CSIC ranking of Spanish and foreign female scientists who conduct research in Spain. The ranking classifies female scientists with an h-index equal to or greater than 18.

  • A NanoSat Lab project selected for the 4th edition of ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! programme

    Developed by bachelor’s and master’s degree students, PoCat-LEKTRON is a twin satellite mission that will be launched into space as part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) training programme.

  • UPC technology at the 2022 Mobile World Congress, from 28 February to 3 March 2022, in Barcelona

    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.

  • 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.