Five New ICREA Acadèmia Distinctions for Excellence in Research at UPC

Five New ICREA Acadèmia Distinctions for Excellence in Research at UPC
The ICREA Acadèmia program has been promoting and rewarding excellence in research at Catalonia's public universities since 2008, contributing to the strengthening of research by researchers in an active and expanding phase of their careers. For the first time, the Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR)—under the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya—has taken over the management of the program. In the 2024 call, 50 professors from the Catalan university system were recognized, including five scientists from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC): Elaine Armelin, Oriol Gomis, Antonio González, Luca Pelà, and José Luis Tamarit.

Hydrogels for Water Purification and Energy Generation with Solar Light
Professor Elaine Armelin Diggroc, Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Professor at the School of Engineering of Barcelona East (EEBE), will dedicate the ICREA grant to intensify research initiated with the TherGel project. This project focuses on the development of thermosensitive hydrogels with applications in solar desalination of water and their potential as multifunctional materials for biomedical applications. The grant will allow the research to progress toward the simultaneous generation of potable water and energy from solar light (the so-called solar-driven technology).

Hydrogels have various applications: they are used as contact lenses or in agriculture to retain water and nutrients for plants. For these materials to absorb solar radiation, a photothermal material, such as conductive polymers, must be incorporated. The research will also promote the reuse of these synthesized materials in other applications, aiming to minimize the environmental impact of waste generation at the laboratory scale and support a circular economy for the final product when it reaches the market.

Elaine Armelin is a researcher in the Innovation in Materials and Molecular Engineering - Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies (IMEM-BRT) group and the Technio Innovation in Materials and Molecular Engineering Structural Integrity, Reliability, and Micromechanics of Materials (IMEM-CIEFMA) group. She is a member of the Barcelona Multiscale Science and Engineering Research Center (Maria de Maeztu Excellence Unit) and a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Innovation in Electrical Grids
Professor Oriol Gomis Bellmunt, Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and affiliated with the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB), focuses his research on electrical grids based on renewable electricity generation and power electronics. Modern power systems are increasingly dominated by power electronics. Power converters are present in dominant renewable energy generators (wind and photovoltaic solar), energy storage systems, transmission systems (HVDC and FACTS), electric vehicle chargers, and many industrial applications. It is expected that power electronics penetration will reach very high levels, even up to 100% in some systems.

Professor Gomis' research over the next few years will focus on studying these systems with power converters, particularly understanding the grid when it is dominated by converters (with specific controllability and overload limitation characteristics), designing the grid as a system of subgrids (AC and DC) and converters (generation, storage, and charging), and grid-forming converters that allow the grid to operate without traditional synchronous machines. The goal is to contribute research in these areas and collaborate closely with manufacturers and operators to transfer research results to the market.

Oriol Gomis is a member of the Center for Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives (CITCEA-UPC) and one of the founders of eRoots Analytics, a spin-off from CITCEA-UPC focused on developing software for analysis of modern electrical grids.

New Computer Architectures
Professor Antonio González Colas, Chair of the Department of Computer Architecture affiliated with the Faculty of Computer Science of Barcelona (FIB), focuses his research on new architectures for future computer systems, devices that will be integrated into most systems we encounter in daily life.

These computer systems will showcase a rich set of capabilities similar to human cognitive tasks, such as understanding the environment (e.g., vision and language processing); learning from data and experiences, making autonomous decisions, and taking proactive actions (e.g., autonomous vehicles); and interacting with people via easy-to-use interfaces, including voice and high-fidelity graphics.

Professor Antonio González's approach to designing these new architectures will be based on three pillars: simplicity, minimal data movement, and specialization of both hardware and software. The ultimate goal is to devise new domain-specific architectures for cognitive computing and graphics that provide rich user experiences in these two areas.

Antonio González leads the Microarchitecture and Compilers (ARCO) research group, where his research focuses on computer architecture. He was the founder and director for 12 years of the Intel Barcelona Research Center. He has been the principal investigator in over thirty research projects and has received an ERC Advanced Grant. These projects have produced innovations resulting in 53 patents and a long history of transferring research results to commercial products, especially microprocessors and computer systems.

Hybrid Simulation of Cyber-Physical Structures
Professor Luca Pelà, Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and affiliated with the School of Civil Engineering of Barcelona (ETSECCPB), will dedicate the ICREA Acadèmia distinction to intensify his research in hybrid simulation of cyber-physical structures, an innovative technology that combines physical laboratory experiments with numerical simulation on computers. This cutting-edge structural testing technique allows for virtual representation of the behavior of a complex structural system (such as entire buildings, bridges, or large infrastructures) while conducting physical testing (load testing) of a structural element that composes it.

The research will foster new lines of research and innovation in the construction sector, such as the development of digital twins of real structures, the design of safer and more resilient infrastructures against natural hazards and climate change, the study of the behavior of new materials and construction processes, and the promotion of sustainable construction. Experimental research will be conducted at the Lluís Agulló Technology Laboratory for Structures and Materials (LATEM) at UPC, where Luca Pelà is currently the scientific coordinator of the LATEM 4.0 project, recently funded with €1.2 million through the NextGenEU/PRTR program. This project involves the development of a high-capacity testing facility (the first of its kind in Spain and the European Union) for hybrid simulation of cyber-physical structures.

Luca Pelà is part of the Research Group on Structural Analysis and Technology (ATEM). His research focuses mainly on the seismic safety and resilience of existing structures and infrastructures, as well as the inspection, analysis, and restoration of historical constructions in cultural heritage. He has been actively involved in technology transfer to construction companies and public entities, contributing particularly to studies on the analysis and conservation of various heritage constructions, including five UNESCO World Heritage sites in Catalonia.

Improving Energy Efficiency in Cooling Systems
The ICREA distinction for Professor Josep Lluís Tamarit Mur, Chair of the Department of Physics and affiliated with EEBE and the School of Telecommunications Engineering of Barcelona (ETSETB), will allow him to intensify efforts to achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by improving cooling and heating through phase transitions in solid-state materials. To achieve this, materials with optimal properties for replacing current materials will be explored, using the barocaloric effect, experimentally demonstrated in 2010. Specifically, the effort will focus on materials with order-disorder transitions and significant entropy changes that allow for substantial heat exchange.

Josep Lluís Tamarit leads the Materials Characterization Group (GCM), where he investigates phase transitions in various materials, mainly organic materials with pharmaceutical interest and applications in solid-state refrigeration, as well as the dynamics of disordered phases. He is the director of the Multiscale Science and Engineering Research Center.