News

The jury of the 15th UPC Research Valorisation Award has recognised DigiPatICS as the best technology transfer project, Permanently Polarized Hydroxyapatite as the best market-ready invention and Virmedex as the best technology-based company. A special mention has also been given to the collaboration between the CDEI and Girbau, focused on the design and simulation of industrial laundry machinery.

Rubén Bonet, co-founder of Fractus, reflects in an interview with VIA Empresa on Fractus’s journey since it was founded as a UPC spin-off, and highlights the “a lot of work to be done” that Catalonia still has in patent applications. In this regard, he specifies that, with the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub, the goal is to contribute a small part “so that the technologies that emerge, in this case from the UPC, find their path and reach the market.”

BCN eMotorsport, sponsored by Fractus within the framework of the Deep Tech Fractus-UPC Hub, has consolidated this summer as the first university team in the State in electric vehicles, after achieving, at the Hockenheim Ring circuit in Germany, the second best result in its history with the CAT17X single-seater.

With this initiative, Fractus promotes the connection between university and business to empower young talent in disruptive technologies.

BCN eMotorsport has managed, for the first time, to complete the Formula Student 'Endurance' endurance test at the Red Bull Ring circuit (Austria), where it competed with the CAT17X vehicle from July 20 to 24: 22 km of route with electric battery. It has also obtained very good results in other tests at the Austrian circuit and is now preparing to continue participating in the competition at the Barcelona-Catalunya (Montmeló) circuits, from August 5 to 10, and at the Hockenheim Ring in Germany, from August 18 to 24.

The 'From Lab to Market' program, a joint initiative of Fractus and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) promoted by the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub, is consolidating itself as a driver of technology transfer. This is highlighted by the article published in the digital newspaper 'Gaceta de Salud' dedicated to this initiative, which has as its main objective to shorten the gap between university research and market needs, with a particular focus on the health sector, and which is already bearing fruit.

Jordi Berenguer, new Vice-rector for Transfer, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UPC, highlights in a recent interview with The New Barcelona Post the importance of promoting a university model that guarantees that research has a real impact on society, especially through collaboration with business and the creation of jobs. He highlights the Fractus experience as a paradigmatic case of innovation successfully transferred from the university to the market, and claims the key role of spin-offs as a driver of the country's economic and technological transformation.

The digital publication 'Emprendedores' highlights in this news four calls that help develop projects or business ideas, among which is the Next Frontier Founders program. Promoted within the framework of the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub, it is aimed at university 'spin offs' or 'start-apps', which arose on the initiative of the UPC community and which is open until July 15.

This article from El Periódico, published on May 30, explains how industrial engineering, telecommunications, computer science and mathematics students prepare for the Formula Student competition, where they test the vehicle they have worked on all year on different European circuits. This summer, the BCN eMotorsport team, made up of students from ETSEIB and ETSETB, two teaching centers of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), will do so with the CAT17x, which incorporates technology from Fractus, one of the sponsors of this vehicle, to improve the telemetry system of this electric and autonomous vehicle.

Strengthening UPC start-ups and spin-offs and helping them attract funding is the aim of Next Frontier Founders, a programme designed to prepare and connect entrepreneurs with investors to grow their tech-based businesses. UPC entrepreneurs who have launched a company—or are in the process of doing so—can apply to take part in this programme between 2 June and 15 July.