Research news

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

  • 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.

  • Tuberculosis has shaped human society since the Stone Age

    Researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), the Comparative Medicine and Bioimaging Centre (CMCiB-IGTP), CIBERES and the UPC have discovered, by means of a mathematical model that combines biological, anthropological and historical data, that not only have humans continued to survive despite tuberculosis infections, but tuberculosis has probably played a key role in shaping human society as we know it. The article has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

  • 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 entrepreneurial ecosystem shines again at 4YFN

    From 26 to 29 February, the UPC’s entrepreneurial talent once again showcased itself at Four Years From Now (4YFN). Over 40 technology-based companies driven by UPC students, graduates and researchers participated, with 16 of them presenting their entrepreneurial projects at the University’s stand. The other spin-offs and start-ups associated with the University were present at other stands or engaged in scheduled activities.

  • 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 co-drafts a pilot plan to improve tuberculosis control in Nigeria based on mathematical models

    Researchers from the Barcelona School of Agricultural Engineering (ESAB) on the Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels are co-drafting a pilot plan to improve the diagnosis and control of tuberculosis in the city of Gombe, north-east Nigeria. The project, lasting ten months, received funding in the latest call for grants from the UPC’s Centre for Development Cooperation (CCD).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • A study on transforming waste paper into secondary raw materials has received the Best Innovation prize

    A scientific study on transforming waste paper into secondary raw materials, presented by a UPC team in collaboration with ACCIONA Construcción’s Technology Centre and TECNALIA, has been awarded the Best Innovation prize by the World Road Association.

  • Unite! presents the White Paper on Open Science and Innovation

    It provides a university open science and innovation governance model and five policy recommendations for fostering a new university scientific knowledge cocreation and transfer policy.

  • New photonics and AI tools for the diagnosis of ocular, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases

    Led by the UPC’s Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development, an international consortium of universities, hospitals and companies is developing new technologies based on light and AI to improve the diagnosis of several diseases.

  • An oceanographic campaign validates innovative technologies for managing marine ecosystems

    The UPC’s Technological Development Centre for Remote Acquisition and Data Processing Systems (SARTI) has participated in a campaign to test novel technologies to enable the deployment of stations and vehicles for monitoring the marine environment and providing real-time data. Experiments were conducted off the Catalan coast up to 350 metres deep as part of the PLOME project.

  • The VIMAC virtually reproduces the architectural evolution of the medieval complex of Barcelona’s Palau Reial Major

    The UPC’s Virtual Innovation Laboratory for Modelling Architecture and the City (VIMAC) has performed laser scanning and drawn up the plans of Barcelona’s Palau Reial Major, a work that has allowed researchers to explore and accurately virtually reproduce the architectural evolution of the medieval complex over the five golden centuries of the city as the capital of the Mediterranean, and unveil previously unknown details. The work is part of the virtual historical restitution projected at the exhibition “La metamorfosi medieval, segles XIII-XV” extended until 5 January 2020 at the Tinell Hall in the Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA), on the Plaça del Rei.

  • UPC researchers create an app to monitor outings with children during the lockdown

    The Data Management Group (DAMA-UPC) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the spin-off Sparsity have developed the app SafeWalkNearby to help to monitor the distance and the duration of outings with children under 14 to public spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

  • Two UPC cutting-edge research projects selected under the MIT-Spain ”la Caixa” programme

    Quantifying vegetation response to climate change with statistical models and studying atmospheric electricity using small uncrewed aerial vehicles. These two projects involving UPC researchers have been selected under the third MIT-Spain ”la Caixa” Foundation Seed Fund, an initiative to foster knowledge and cutting-edge research between Spanish universities and research centres and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.