Research Café

The Research Cafés are informal meetings, organized by the libraries of the UPC, to learn about and enhance the visibility of the University's research staff projects.

These days bring together doctoral students, postdocs, academic staff and other members of the University and society to promote the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and collaboration between research areas.

Spirit of the research café summed up in one sentence

The spirit of the Research Café of the UPC summed up in one sentence.

The upcoming Research Café

CRITERIA project: Horizon Europe Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks

Order date: November 20, 2025

place: Valentí Masachs Geology Museum, UPC Manresa

Organization: Manresa University Campus Library

Presentations of the projects developed by the doctoral students participating in this European project, from 5 different European universities:

Waqar Ahmad (IST-Portugal): Smart Real Time Exploitation in Open Pit and Underground Mines
Seyed Amir Afzali Fatatouei (IST-Portugal): Enhanced tailing modelling, characterization and exploration
Jakub Skiba (IS-Portugal): Energy reduction in the extraction of raw materials.
Asma Safia Disha (Unical-Italy): Integrated membrane processes for critical raw materials extraction from liquid mining tailings
Tadesse Ayele Zewdie (Unical-Italy): Water Mining: a New Paradigm for Aquifers Contaminated by Mining Tailings Leachate
Elias Manuel Duarte (Polito-Italy): Sustainable recovery of minerals from mining tailings and waste dumps
Shabbir Sania (Polito-Italy): Optimization of excavation and exploitation methods applied to tailings and mining wastes for remediation and environmental purposes
Faramarzi Hamed (Minerali Industriali): Recovery of CRM from mineral processing sub-products or waste
Emircan Uysal (KTH-Sweden): Crystallization for recovery of critical raw materials
Atousa Tayebi (KTH-Sweden): Membrane integration and intensification for recovery of critical raw materials
Abeer Sajid (UPC-Spain): Integration of environmental and social factors in the extraction process of raw materials from tailings and waste dumps.
Seyed Mostafa Taghavi (UPC-Spain): Holistic evaluation of a mining activity, maximizing the raw materials recovery, and reducing the potential impacts.

Registration

Propose your research area for an upcoming edition

Presentation

Research Cafés why and for what?

With the organization of the Research Cafés, from the libraries, we want to:

Promote knowledge and open science.
Promote the social and cultural activity of the different campuses of the UPC.
Improve networking and cooperation in potentially interconnected research.

Organizing meetings focused on interest in research and innovation:

We make emerging research more visible on the different campuses of the UPC.
We will improve support services for research staff, in a personalized way.
We promote libraries as a meeting point and networking between the different groups that do research on the campuses.

Who are they aimed at?

The participation of doctoral students from the campuses of the is particularly interesting UPC, although the participation of other research staff and students doing final degree or master's work is also of great value.

The experience of libraries

As information professionals, we are aware of the diversity of needs and realities of the different groups of the university community and offer to act as network nodes between them to promote collaboration and mutual enrichment.

We also offer informative support in the development and management of open research to make it more visible and accessible.

Research Café held

Research Café 18: Data Security

Data Security

Order date: November 14, 2025

place: Agora Room, Campus Nord

Organization: Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library

The guests were:

José A. Rodríguez - Is your workstation safe yet? (Slides in English)
Javier Parra - On the protection of personal data and the compromise between privacy and utility
Beatriz Otero - Integrating artificial intelligence into cybersecurity for critical infrastructure protection
Jose Luis Muñoz Tapia - Verifiable computing with privacy: verifiable photo application (Slides in English)

Some aspects that were explored in this Research Café were::

data security in the UPC
privacy and ethics in the use of massive data
the challenges of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity
risk prevention against vulnerabilities in devices, systems and infrastructures

presentations (coming soon)

Research Café 17: Ethics and research integrity

Order date: 19 in June of 2025

place: Agora room Campus Nord

Organization: Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library

Several aspects related to research ethics and integrity were discussed, such as:

good practices in scientific publishing
processing of personal and sensitive data
ethics and integrity of research in the UPC

They presented their experiences:

See the presentations

Research Café 16: Artificial intelligence applied to research

Research Café: Artificial intelligence applied to research

Organized by: ETSEIB Library

May 2025

Presented by:

Louis Marco - ADBD - Complex Data Analysis for Business Decisions

Artificial intelligence applied to research

They presented their experiences:

Irene Buj

TECNOFAB - Manufacturing Technologies Research Group
DigiFACT - Group of Centers for Advanced Digital Factory (TECNIO / CIT Network UPC)

Application of machine learning to the prediction of surface roughness in manufacturing processes

Frances Rossi

CITCEA-UPC - Center for Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives (TECNIO/CIT Network UPC)

Artificial Intelligence for Real-Time Optimal Operation in Power Systems

Alicia Casals

GRINS - Research Group in Intelligent Robotics and Systems (Research subgroup UPC)
TecSalut - Health Technology Research Group

The long road from AI to Intelligent Robotics

presentations

Research Café 15: Digital Twins - Digital Twins

Quan: Wednesday, March 19, 2025

On: Agora Room of Campus Nord

Organize: Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library

Introduction: A digital twin is a digital model of a real-world physical product, system or process that serves as a digital counterpart for purposes such as simulation, integration, testing, monitoring and maintenance. It is a technology with applications in many fields, such as: construction, industrial processes, mobility, healthcare, etc.

To the UPC there is various research projects which aim to create digital twins.

They presented their experiences:

presentations

Research Café 14: Open Science

Quan: October 30, 2024, 12:00-14:00 p.m.

On: Sala Polyvalent, building I, Campus Diagonal Besòs

Organized by: Library ETSAB i EEBE Library

Presentation by: Yolanda Vidal, winner of the First Open Science Award, will present "Open Science to Enhance Collaboration and Global Impact"

Program: They will present their experiences:

Gerard Escudero Bakx (Computer Science Department, FIB)
Open educational resources

Marc Roca Musach (Department of Architectural Representation, ETSAB)
Open Access: Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Benefits

Oriol Prat Bayarri (Technological Development Center for Remote Acquisition and Information Processing Systems, EPSEVG)
Machine learning tools for fish detection and classification at OBSEA

Pol Baños Castelló (Technological Development Center for Remote Acquisition and Information Processing Systems, EPSEVG)
AI algorithms applied on underwater vehicles for fish identification

presentations

Research Café 13: Research data

Quan: 30 May 2024 at 12.15pm

On: Classroom LS11, pavilion L (floor-1) of the ETSEIB

Organize: ETSEIB Library

Presentation: Juan Jesus Perez, Associate Dean for International Relations, ETS of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB).

Program: They presented their experiences:

Gem Mijancos (BIOART - BIOsignal Analysis for Rehabilitation and Therapy)
Data in Biosignals: Our Experience

Louis Marco (ADBD - Complex Data Analysis for Business Decisions)
Data quality: some examples, some tricks, some thoughts

Massimo Cenciarini (CREB - Biomedical Engineering Research Center - BIOMEC - Biomechanical Engineering Lab)
Research data in human movement science: an international view over 2 decades

Oriol Gomis (CITCEA-UPC - Center for Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives - CER-H2 - Specific Hydrogen Research Center of the UPC)
Research in electrical engineering and grid integration of renewables

Research Café 12: Digital Humanities

Research Café 12: Digital Humanities

Quan: April 24, 2024

On: CRAI Library of Philosophy, Geography and History, meeting room.

Carrer de Montalegre, 8.

Libraries that organize: Library ETSAB i CRAI Library of Philosophy, Geography and History (UB)

He led the session: Manel García Sánchez

Program: They presented their experiences:

Arnau Lario Devesa, Carlos Palacín Copado and Oriol Morillas Samaniego del Center for the study of provincial interdependence in classical antiquity (CEIPAC). Digital tools in the study of Greco-Roman economy and society.
Alex Saura. Urban footprints in Cairo: digital overlay of images and plans of a green city in the middle of the desert.
Ricard Garcia Orallo. Port Arrivals Date. Automatic data collection for a large-scale comparative history of 19th century shipping: a Digital Humanities approach to maritime heritage.
Monica Sambade. Spaces dedicated to the gods in early Greece.

presentations Videos

Research Café 11: Equity and artificial intelligence

Quan: November 21, 2023

On: EPSEVG Library

Libraries that organize: Baix Llobregat Campus Library i EPSEVG Library

This Research Café, aimed at students, teaching staff and research staff, dealt with the subject of artificial intelligence from different areas, addressing aspects such as security, education and knowledge.

Moderator: Didac Ferrer, Head of the Innovation and Community Cabinet

Participants:

Videos from the Research Café 11

Research Café 10: Open science - Open science

Open science - Open science

Quan: October 25, 2023

On: Master Classroom. Campus Nord UPC

Libraries that organize: Library of theETSAB i Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library

An informal gathering held during Open Access Week 2023 for PhD students, postdocs and researchers to share research practices and cross-disciplinary ideas on aspects of Open Science such as FAIR data, open source, data privacy and citizen science. He had the presence of Rafael Vidal, delegate of the chancellor in Open Science and Citizen Science who told us about Open Science at the UPC.

Moderators - Ruth Íñigo and Marta Serrat

Attendees:

Rafael Vidal - Open Science at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Inés Aquilué - FURNISH: Co-creating new public spaces in times of pandemics

Rodrigo Alfonso Pérez Illanes - The git versioning system as a tool for supporting research and Open Source development

jamie delgado - FAIR principles and health data, security and privacy

Salvador Capella-Gutiérrez - Open Sciences principles for Life Sciences: is it everything about data?

See the presentations

Research Café 9: UPC Vilanova Research Café

UPC Vilanova Research Café

GIVE YOUR SEARCH VISIBILITY!

Quan: May 18, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. at 13.00:XNUMX p.m.

On: Workroom 6 of the EPSEVG Library

Libraries that organize: EPSEVG Library

An informal meeting to share and give visibility to the research of the doctoral students on the Campus and to promote their interaction and integration on the Campus.

They will conduct the session - Hernán Alberto González Rojas and Maria Hortènsia Álvarez Suau.

They shared their experiences:

Núria Martínez, Txus Melo (International Office and Resources, Finance and Services Unit, EPSEVG): Welcome to the campus: services and useful information
Gerard Batet Xaus (SARTI): Developing a miniaturized bidirectional acoustic tag
Heribert Pascual Saldaña (CRAAX): A decentralized edge-based AI-assisted solution towards a proactive ambulatory oxygen delivery therapy
Marco Francescangeli (SARTI): Fish community monitoring with cabled seafloor platforms
Francis Albert Tortosa (AMPC): Study of pigment alterations in Roman wall paintings [online format]
David Lázaro Rodríguez Lima (SARTI): Optimization of the McEliece Cryptosystem
Rina Liang (CITES): Design for sustainability transition
Ayaz Hussain (CRAAX): Predictive Analytics-based Strategies for Cyber-Security Provisioning in complex ICT systems
Mojtaba Godhrati (SEPIC): Microgrid
Erick David Chavez Pereda (GAECEQS): Study and identification of mechanical parameters while cutting soft tissues with vibrating hypodermic needles

presentations View the videos

Research Café 8: Cities and sustainable communities

ODS 11. Cities.

How to make cities and communities more sustainable and resilient.

Quan: May 11, 2023, from 9:30 a.m. at 14:00 p.m.

On: Hall of Degrees ETSAB

Libraries that organize: Library of theETSAB i Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library

An informal meeting with PhD students, postdocs and researchers to share, with a coffee in hand, research practices and ideas in a transdisciplinary way.

He will lead the session - Blanca Arellano

They will present their experiences:

Cossima Cornadó: Codesign and Cofabrication to improve living conditions in El Raval neighborhood
David Requejo: Drinking water in Barcelona through the lenses of sustainability
Marcel Hurlimann: Building a safe haven for our society against natural hazards
Monica Aguilar and Javier Parra: Mobilytics Project
John Matthew: air quality
Victor Diaz Asensio: El paisaje como modelo / Landscape as a model
Qianhui Zheng: Practice and evaluation of sponge city strategies for flash flooding mitigation in Mediterranean coastal cities, a case study of El Poblenou, Barcelona
Gonzalo Piasek: Urban regeneration policies: what are the limits of citizen engagement?

presentations View the videos

Research Café 7: The new era of efficient and sustainable buildings

SDG 7: The new era of efficient and sustainable buildings.

Energy engineering and architecture creating synergies.

Quan: May 4, 2023, from 12:00 a.m. at 14:00 p.m.

On: Campus Diagonal Besòs. Polyvalent Classroom Building I

Libraries that organize: Diagonal Besòs Campus Library i Library of theETSAB

An informal meeting with PhD students, postdocs and researchers to share, with a coffee in hand, research practices and ideas in a transdisciplinary way. This edition of the Research Café, organized by the Diagonal-Besòs Campus Library and the Oriol Bohigas Library of theETSAB, focuses on energy: how to create sustainable and energy-efficient buildings.

Drive session - Herminio Martinez

They present their experiences:

Kasper Moth-Poulsen: Solar Thermal Management Materials
Letiane Beninca: Multi-objective optimization of residential multifamily buildings to minimize cooling and heating simultaneously
Edgardo Saucedo: Sunbright buildings: generating solar energy in our cities
Paul Espinoza: The Electronic Building Book: a tool to promote the rehabilitation of buildings in Spain

presentations

In this Research Café, projects where energy engineering and architecture create synergies were presented. Projects linked to the ODS Affordable and non-polluting energy.

Research Café 6: Seas and oceans

Order date: 19 October 2022, 9.30am-13.00pm

place: EEABB, Sala Mercabarna. campus Baix Llobregat

Organization: Baix Llobregat Campus Library i EPSEVG Library

Network tracking: #SDGs, #researchcafeUPC, #marsoceans, #seasandoceans and also live feed from twitter

Moderator: Lourdes Reig Puig

Participants:

Pedro Arnau del Amo

Marcos Paulo Araujo da Silva

Adriano Camps Carmona

Oriol Carrasco Serra

Steffen De Vreese

Ahmad Falahzadeh

Guillem Figueras Manzanares

Vicenç Gracia Garcia

Núria Jimenez Garcia

Cesca Ribas Prats

See the presentations View the videos

In this Research Café, projects will be presented where technology is put to the service of the seas and oceans, and which are linked to the ODS objectives Underwater Life i Action for the climate.