One of the most popular activities was dedicated to the future of robotics, led by researchers Alberto Méndez, Alicia Mora, and Gonzalo Espinoza from the Mobile Robots Group. Visitors had the opportunity to interact with the ADAM robot and compete against it in games likerock, paper, scissors, as well as remotely operate robotic grippers. “Our goal is to explain how a robot perceives its environment and how it interacts with it in a controlled manner,” noted the experts from the UC3M Robotics Lab.

Meanwhile, the TECMERIN research group offered a behind-the-scenes look at contemporary audiovisual production with a workshop on 3D animation. Professors Sagrario Beceiro, Luis Cemillán, and Francisco Jiménez conducted real-time demonstrations using Blender, an open-source software, to teach modeling and lighting techniques, as well as their narrative impact in film, video games, and 3D printing. “We conduct various practical demonstrations with video game characters and 3D environments to show how to integrate different modeling and animation tools in an accessible way, while also introducing the latest developments in generative AI,” explains Francisco Jiménez.

Social Science and Radio Coverage

The UC3M’s presence was not limited to the technology on display at the booth. At the Science Agora, researcher Uxía Carral from the Department of Communication delivered a talk titled “The Psychological Price of Misinformation on Social Media.” In her presentation, she analyzed how false content influences perceptions of reality and can lead to emotional well-being issues. “Understanding these dynamics is key to informed decision-making by citizens,” stated Carral.

The event also featured special media coverage by UC3M’s SONORA association. Its members conducted interviews on-site at the fair, capturing visitors’ impressions of this year’s edition.

UC3M’s participation in this event, organized by the madri+d Foundation for Knowledge of the Community of Madrid and in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), was coordinated by the Office for Science and Innovation Information and Outreach (OIDCI) of the Vice-Rectorate for Communication, Culture, and Transparency.

More information:

Flickr album with photos of the event

Madrid is Science Fair website

On the other hand, the stand will also offer the chance to learn some of the three-dimensional (3D) modeling and animation techniques used in contemporary cinema. “All of this using free and open-source software, Blender, with which we will conduct real-time demonstrations in 3D environments and show some tricks related to texturing, lighting, or visual effects,” indicate Sagrario Beceiro, Luis Cemillán, Francisco Jiménez and Ana Mejón, from the Dept. of Communication and the TECMERIN research group (Television-Cinema: memory, representation, and industry) at UC3M. Furthermore, they will explain the application of generative AI in this field and its visual and narrative impact.

“The psychological price of disinformation on social media” is the title of the talk to be given by researcher Uxía Carral, from the UC3M Dept. of Communication, at the Fair’s Science Agora. “Understanding the psychological effects of disinformation on social media is key to analyzing how this content influences the perception of reality, decision-making, and the emotional well-being of citizens,” notes Professor Carral. In her talk, which will take place at 4:00 PM, she will practically address the main dynamics associated with false or misleading content in digital environments that cause anxiety, depression, or Eating Disorders (EDs), among others.

Additionally, the UC3M SONORA association will be present at this edition of the Madrid es Ciencia Fair to provide special radio coverage of the event, featuring a chronicle and several interviews that can be heard via their website (uc3m.es/radiosonora and radiosonora.es).

The Office of Information and Scientific Outreach (OIDCI) of the Vice-Rectorate for Communication, Culture, and Transparency at UC3M coordinates UC3M’s participation in the Madrid es Ciencia 2026 Fair, a scientific outreach event organized by the madri+d Foundation for Knowledge of the Community of Madrid. Additionally, it counts on the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.

More information:

UC3M website for the Madrid es Ciencia 2026 Fair

The “using std::cpp” conference—promoted by José Daniel García, a professor in the UC3M Department of Computer Science and Engineering and chair of the Spanish subcommittee for programming language standards—has been held at the university's EPS since 2013 (with the exception of the interruption caused by COVID-19). "In this time, it has evolved from an initially national conference into a top-tier international event where the most interesting innovations for software developers are presented each year and experiences are exchanged between engineers from different sectors," explains José Daniel García.This year’s edition consolidates the event’s status as a global benchmark, with high attendance demand that saw registration fill up in record time and a lineup of 22 presentations by leading professionals. Attendees include 10 members of the international committee (ISO C++), who will define the next version of the language (C++26) at a key meeting in London just one week after the event in Leganés.

This year has also seen a push for the participation of female experts in the language, such as Daniela Engert and Frances Buontempo, as well as developers like Berill Farkas, who at just 18 years old will share her programming experience. The event will also serve as a reunion for internationally successful UC3M alumni, such as Javier López (Zimperium, USA) and Gonzalo Juarez (Bolsas y Mercados Españoles).

For the fourth consecutive year, all registration proceeds will go toward funding a full UC3M Alumni Scholarship, enabling a student with an excellent academic record and limited financial resources to cover their tuition costs at UC3M.

The conference will be inaugurated by Luis Enrique García, Vice Rector for Research and Transfer at UC3M; César Huete, Director of the UC3M School of Engineering; and José Daniel García, UC3M Professor and Conference Chair. The event is supported by technology sponsors such as the C++ Alliance, Sea++ software, Qualcomm, JFrog Conan, and Verisure, as well as the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE)

Further information and full program at:
https://eventos.uc3m.es/go/usingstdcpp-2026 

To conduct the research, the team worked with volunteers who participated in experiments designed using virtual reality. During the tests, participants watched videos with and without violent content, while changes in their behavior and voice were analyzed based on the emotions they experienced. “From these recordings, we observed that there were very different behaviors in response to the same stimuli between people who had suffered violence and those who had not,” says the researcher. “It was a serendipitous finding: while looking for something else, we discovered that it was possible to detect whether a person had been a victim of violence simply by analyzing their voice.”

This breakthrough opens the door to important practical applications. On the one hand, the technology could be used as a support tool for the early and non-invasive detection of mental health problems in clinical settings. On the other hand, it could be integrated into digital platforms such as virtual assistants or social care resources. This would facilitate the early identification of victims of gender-based violence and help reduce the problem of underreporting, offering specialized support more quickly and effectively.

“If we can identify signs of gender-based violence when a person calls a helpline, goes to the doctor or a social service, we can act before a fatal event occurs, and even before the person themselves recognize that they are a victim, which would facilitate their psychological recovery, which must begin long before cases reach the media,” concludes Carmen Peláez.

The research is part of the Bindi project, developed by the UC3M4Safety team, which aims to combat gender-based violence by preventing assaults, collecting evidence, and providing early assistance to victims through technology. The UC3M4Safety team is led by Celia López Ongil and Clara Sainz de Baranda Andújar, and includes research staff from the Institute for Gender Studies (IEG), the School of Engineering, and all UC3M faculties, bringing together specialists from more than fifteen areas of knowledge, including engineering, social sciences, and humanities.

“The team has sought to use technology to solve social problems because we believe it can greatly help in the fight against violence and victimization, as well as in helping victims recover from their situation,” concludes IEG director Celia López Ongil, professor in the Department of Electronic Technology at UC3M.

Reyner Fuentes, E., Rituerto González, E., & Peláez-Moreno, C. (2025). Machine Unlearning for Speaker-Agnostic Detection of Gender-Based Violence Condition in Speech. Applied Sciences, 15(22), 12270. https://doi.org/10.3390/app152212270. e-archivo UC3M: https://hdl.handle.net/10016/49236 

In Spain, this is the only project stemming from research developed under European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept funding, as in the case of ISBIOMECH. The EIC Transition grant amounts to €2.4 million, although the company has also attracted private investors, bringing total funding to more than €3 million.

“This project allows us to translate all the basic science we have already developed in previous ERC projects into a commercialization phase with real societal impact,” says Daniel García González, researcher in the Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Theory at UC3M, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of 60Nd.

The technology developed by the company combines magneto-active polymers and artificial intelligence to apply programmable, non-invasive mechanical stimuli to 2D and 3D cell cultures. According to the company, this capability enables researchers and pharmaceutical companies to accurately replicate the physical behavior of various diseases and pathologies, identify new therapeutic targets, and even support the design of new drugs and therapies.

“The goal is that within three years we will have a fully commercial product that we can scale. During this time, the company will work with beta testers who integrate this technology to improve the prototype, which already enables pathologies to be reproduced in a far more efficient and scalable way than other solutions,” says Daniel García González from the company’s facilities at the Center for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA) at the UC3M Science Park – Leganés Tecnológico.

According to its creators, NeoMag can transform the way research is conducted in cancer, neurology and dermatology by offering high-precision in vitro models that accelerate therapy discovery. By integrating it into their workflow, researchers can anticipate therapeutic failures before reaching clinical phases, resulting in massive cost savings and a drastic reduction in animal experimentation.

For example, NeoMag can simulate the mechanical microenvironment of tumors to study invasion and metastasis processes in real time, as well as assess the effectiveness of new drugs under mechanical stress conditions. The platform can also recreate dynamic forces associated with traumatic brain injuries or stroke, enabling neuroscientists to study the response of neurons, astrocytes and microglia in a contact-free manner. In addition, it facilitates the modeling of wound healing, fibrosis and dermal remodeling processes, providing far more predictive models for regenerative medicine and dermocosmetic screening.

Transferring basic science to society

Many pathologies develop or worsen due to mechanical alterations in tissues, and many therapies fail because these factors are not considered during their design or evaluation. “The technology we have developed makes it possible to identify these mechanical responses at very early stages, opening new avenues to understand key biological mechanisms and improve drug discovery processes,” explains Daniel García, who founded 60Nd to take this innovation beyond the laboratory and turn it into a product with real impact.

“This spin-off has allowed us to expand capabilities that were already outstanding from a scientific standpoint with capabilities from the business world, such as being able to sell and explain the impact of this technological solution to potential clients, including other scientific researchers and the pharmaceutical industry,” says Ricardo de la Torre González, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 60Nd.

“This project will require additional funding in the future to scale globally, enabling research teams around the world, both in public and private institutions, to access our solution. The support we have received from the European Commission validates our ability to lead the predictive biology market with NeoMag, which has already earned the trust of world-class laboratories such as the Institut Pasteur in Paris and Imperial College London”, he concludes.

More information:

60Nd website at:
https://www.uc3m.es/ss/Satellite/InnovacionEmprendimiento/es/TextoMixta/1371403497966/
 

ADAM has been built to help elderly people with their daily tasks inside their homes or in care facilities, explains the director of the Mobile Robots Group, Ramón Barber, a professor in the UC3M Department of Systems Engineering and Automation: “We all know people for whom simple gestures, such as someone bringing them a glass of water with a pill or setting the table for them, represent a very significant help. That is the main objective of our robot.”

In the paper presented at IROS 2025 a few weeks ago in China by researchers Adrián Prados and Gonzalo Espinoza of the Mobile Robots Group, they propose a revolutionary approach to coordinate the work of the robot's arms: teaching each arm to perform its task independently (via "imitation learning") and then allowing both to "communicate" through a mathematical system called Gaussian Belief Propagation. This method functions as an invisible and constant dialogue between the arms, allowing them to coordinate in real-time to avoid collisions with each other or with obstacles, without needing to stop to recalculate. The result is fluid, efficient, and natural movement, successfully tested in both simulations and real robots intended for domestic assistance.

Teaching a robot to perform daily tasks remains one of the great challenges in robotics. Traditionally, programming a robot implied writing thousands of lines of code to define every movement. In contrast to this approach, imitation learning proposes a more intuitive alternative: that the robot learns how a person does it by observing and replicating human actions. In this paradigm, the human demonstrates the task (by directly moving the robot's arm or recording themselves performing an action) to teach it, for example, to serve water or organize a shelf. However, simply copying a movement is not enough. If the robot learns to pick up a bottle in an exact position and the bottle is shifted slightly, a system that only imitates will repeat the original gesture and fail. Therefore, the true goal of robotic manipulation is not mechanical repetition, but adaptation and the understanding of movement.

The techniques developed by these researchers address this problem by making the learned movements behave like a "rubber band": if the target changes position, the trajectory deforms smoothly to reach it, maintaining the essence of the action. Thus, the robot can adapt to new situations without losing key properties of the movement, such as keeping a bottle vertical so as not to spill the contents. “The ultimate goal is for robots to stop being simple movement recorders and become authentic coworkers, capable of perceiving their environment, anticipating actions, and collaborating safely in human spaces,” points out Adrián Prados.

Perception, reasoning, and action

In practice, the robot's operation is organized into three phases. First, perception, through the collection of data from the environment via sensors. Then, reasoning, where that information is processed to extract relevant data. Finally, action, when the robot decides how to act, whether moving its base, coordinating its arms, or executing a specific task. To do this, ADAM uses 2D and 3D laser sensors, which allow it to measure distances, detect obstacles, and locate objects, as well as RGB cameras with depth information, which generate three-dimensional models of the environment.

One of the most significant challenges is moving from “seeing” objects to understanding their use and the user's context. Traditionally, this understanding was based on common sense databases. Currently, Alberto Méndez, also a researcher in the Mobile Robots Group, is working on incorporating generative models and artificial intelligence that allow the robot to adapt its behavior to the specific situation and what is happening at any given moment.

Although ADAM is currently an experimental platform, with an approximate cost of between 80,000 and 100,000 euros, the technology is considered mature enough to suggest that, within a timeframe of 10 to 15 years, robots of this type could live with us in our homes at a much more affordable cost.

Beyond the technical advances, this work highlights the role of robotics as part of the solution to population aging, a growing challenge in our society. “Every day there are more elderly people in our society and fewer people who can care for them, so these types of technological solutions are going to become increasingly necessary,” concludes Ramón Barber. In this context, "assistive robots are emerging as a key tool to improve the quality of life and autonomy of people."

Bibliographic references:

A. Prados, G. Espinoza, L. Moreno, R. Barber (2025). "Coordination of Learned Decoupled Dual-Arm Tasks through Gaussian Belief Propagation", 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, 2025, pp. 15917-15924, doi: 10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11246414. e-archivo UC3M: https://hdl.handle.net/10016/49244  

Mora A, Prados A, Mendez A, Espinoza G, Gonzalez P, Lopez B, Muñoz V, Moreno L, Garrido S, Barber R (2024). ADAM: a robotic companion for enhanced quality of life in aging populations. Front. Neurorobot. 18:1337608. doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2024.1337608. e-archivo UC3M: https://hdl.handle.net/10016/46290

The RT-FLOW project (Real-time data-driven flow diagnostics with event-based cameras, GA 101292611) addresses this challenge through the use of an event-based imaging velocimetry system enhanced with data-driven methods, capable of delivering real-time flow field information. “Event-based cameras record only the changes in the scene within the measurement space and therefore acquire information in a more compact manner; they are more sensitive than the cameras typically used in aerodynamic experiments and allow the use of inexpensive illumination sources,” explains Stefano Discetti. Thanks to these features, the project will enable high-frequency, low-latency measurements using compact and cost-effective hardware, facilitating access to advanced aerodynamic testing with quick feedback in both academic and industrial settings.

RT-FLOW aims at changing how aerodynamic experiments are conceived, moving from post-processed diagnostics to experiments capable of integrating flow information in real time. This capability allows flow physics to be observed, interpreted, and exploited during the experiment itself, opening new opportunities for experiment-driven discovery, adaptive testing, and the development of closed-loop flow control strategies that are not readily accessible with conventional measurement methods.

The project will define the requirements for a fast, quantitative flow visualization platform capable of providing real-time feedback. It will also tackle the challenge of scaling data-driven spatial and temporal resolution enhancement techniques to typical wind tunnel operating conditions. Beyond the technical development, RT-FLOW will outline a strategy for commercialization and exploitation, assessing potential markets and application areas.

These research grants highlight UC3M’s commitment to excellence in research. To date, UC3M has secured a total of 22 ERC projects since the programme’s inception (8 Starting Grants, 9 Consolidator Grants and 5 Proof of Concept grants), with total funding amounting to approximately €28 million.

NEXMO has emerged from the MovEDIHub research project, led by Professor Santiago Martínez de la Casa, of the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation at UC3M, in collaboration with the EDIH Madrid Region project. It also represents the foundation for a future university-backed spin-off. “This initiative seeks to accelerate the digital transformation of the sector through data sharing among public administrations, universities, large corporations and startups”, explains Santiago Martínez de la Casa. “The project is particularly relevant in the context of the recently approved Sustainable Mobility Law, which establishes data sharing as one of its core pillars for improving the region’s competitiveness”, the researcher adds.

NEXMO was presented at an event held on 23 January at Espacio Digitaliza Madrid, during which other leading initiatives were also discussed, including the Integrated Mobility Data Space (EDIM) promoted by the Ministry of Transport, the EDINT project developed by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), and solutions implemented by EMT Madrid, Madrid City Council and the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium (CRTM).

The NEXMO ecosystem is open to participation through its working groups, the development of use cases and the exploration of opportunities within the hub. It brings together public administrations, mobility operators, technology companies, universities and other stakeholders in the sector. “Being part of NEXMO means joining a network where collaboration, data sovereignty and innovation become competitive advantages and key drivers for transforming the mobility of the future,” the project’s website states.

More information: www.nexmo-datahub.eu

Eva Rajo Iglesias, catedrática del Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones UC3M, ha sido elevada a Fellow por el Instituto de Ingenieros Eléctricos y Electrónicos (IEEE), por sus contribuciones a las superficies artificiales y su impacto en la tecnología gap wave guide para ondas milimétricas. Esta es una distinción de prestigio que otorga este organismo a una parte muy reducida de sus miembros por obtener logros extraordinarios y realizar contribuciones significativas 

Sara Martín Salamanca, profesora del Departamento del Departamento de Derecho Privado, ha sido nombrada miembro de la Comisión de Propiedad Intelectual nombrada vocal de Sección Primera de la Comisión de Propiedad Intelectual Se trata de un órgano decisor de carácter nacional vinculado al Ministerio de Cultura, que tiene competencias de arbitraje, control e incluso elaboración de tarifas sustitutorias de las entidades de gestión de derechos de propiedad intelectual. La Comisión consta de 5 miembros, entre los que se eligen a la presidencia y vicepresidencia.

Researcher Michele Curnis, also from the Department of Humanities: History, Geography, and Art, coordinates the project Aristotle and Alfonso X the Wise. Analysis and enriched digitization of Las Siete Partidas. The study explores the presence of the Aristotelian tradition in Las Siete Partidas, the most complex legal-social encyclopedia of the medieval period. The research suggests that the use of Aristotelian texts not only sought philosophical legitimacy, but also determined the conception of the monarchy and the guidelines for state administration under Alfonso X. One of the main milestones of the project, in fact, is to verify whether the ideas derived from a cultural heritage known as the “Aristotelian tradition” laid the foundations for the system of government of Alfonso X the Wise. With a view to transferring the results to society, the main objective is to create an Aristotelian-Alfonsine augmented reality repertoire containing the system of sources used in the 13th century for the drafting of Las Siete Partidas.

Ana Mejón, a researcher at the University Institute of Spanish Cinema (IUCE) at UC3M and the TECMERIN research group, is leading the Spanish Cinema Constellations project, which analyzes the transformation of the film industry driven by digitization and the emergence of new technologies in the 21st century. Researchers Asier Gil Vázquez and Rubén Romero Santos (IUCE-TECMERIN) are also participating in this project. The main objective is to redefine and map how the professional structure of contemporary cinema has changed in the face of the mutation of traditional job roles. The methodological innovation of the project lies in the application of the concept of “chronotope,” a tool that allows for a temporal and spatial representation of the different professionals in order to visualize their interconnections, overlaps, and relationships of dependency. The result of this project will be an interactive digital report designed to help interested groups and training centers adapt to the real needs of the current film labor market in Spain.

The main objective of the Ramón Areces Foundation's Humanities Research Grant Program is to promote the transfer of knowledge in disciplines such as history, philosophy, geography, and digital humanities, awarding grants to researchers under the age of 50 who work at Spanish universities or research centers. In its most recent edition, the Foundation has awarded a total of 18 grants in the area of Humanities, three of which have gone to researchers at UC3M, to be carried out between 2026 and 2028.

“Ponte” allows a Wi-Fi router to manage transmissions when operating robotic arms, internal transport vehicles, factory drone inspection systems, or industrial devices. The algorithm assigns each robot the times and frequencies at which it must transmit, ensuring that packets arrive with a guaranteed latency of less than eight milliseconds for machinery control, allowing an operator to remotely control a robotic arm or a loading robot. In turn, the results show that this algorithm can be incorporated into new-generation Wi-Fi routers, allowing the industrial sector to reduce costs by dispensing with specific solutions such as 5G or 6G for certain cases.

Reliable and secure communication

“‘Ponte’ guarantees that the robot connection will not suffer any delays in 99.99% of cases. In fact, in our experiments we demonstrated that a single Wi-Fi router can simultaneously serve 40 devices with robotic control, autonomous guidance and interactive video applications, while always maintaining the required reliability performance,” says another of the authors of the research, Jorge Martín Pérez, from the Department of Telematic Systems Engineering at UPM.

This article has been published as part of the PREDICT-6G project, coordinated by UC3M and developed within the framework of the European Union's Horizon Europe programme (GA 101095890). “With this advance, we will be able to create more deterministic networks, i.e., networks that are more resilient, have less delay, and can predict their behaviour. What’s more, all this will be achieved using standard technology in networks that are already deployed,” explains PREDICT-6G project coordinator Antonio de la Oliva, professor in the Department of Telematics Engineering at UC3M and another of the authors of this research. 

Bibliographic reference: C. Barroso-Fernández, J. Martín-Pérez, C. Ayimba and A. D. L. Oliva. Time-Sensitive IIoT Flows over Wi-Fi: a Network Calculus Approach, in IEEE Internet of Things Journal, PP(99):1-1 DOI:10.1109/JIOT.2025.3623878

The new system features a computing cluster comprising more than 11,500 physical CPU cores based on high-performance AMD processors, as well as 41 NVIDIA A40 GPUs. All these resources are interconnected via a high-speed network and supported by a redundant storage system offering nearly 1,000 terabytes of capacity. “Thanks to this power and capacity, the infrastructure enables the processing of large volumes of data, the execution of complex numerical simulations, and the training or deployment of advanced artificial intelligence models,” explains David Expósito Singh, from the UC3M Department of Computer Science, one of the promoters of this infrastructure together with Professor Jesús Carretero.

Potential applications

“This system will enable us to carry out extremely high-fidelity scientific simulations, ranging from molecular dynamics to aeronautics; to process very large datasets, such as those derived from societal and environmental data, genetic sequencing, or medical imaging; to accelerate next-generation artificial intelligence and deep-learning models, which are essential in areas such as computer vision, robotics, language processing, and automated discovery; and to apply algorithms, develop new theories, and validate hypotheses in timeframes that, on smaller computers, are measured in months and could now be achieved in hours or days,” explains Jesús Carretero.

This scientific infrastructure, which is part of the UC3M Research Support Center (CAI), is not only available to UC3M researchers, but is also open to public research organizations and external users from the business sector. In addition, it provides services aimed at facilitating technology transfer and the development of research projects requiring large-scale computational resources. The C3 offers advanced hybrid High-Performance Computing (HPC) services and reliable data storage, adapting to projects that require both CPU- and GPU-intensive computing.

The new supercomputer has been funded through European NextGenerationEU funds, as well as national and regional grants, including competitive infrastructure projects awarded by the Spanish State Research Agency (EQC2021-007184-P) for research in the simulation of complex engineering systems, and by the Community of Madrid to support research actions related to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, financed with REACT-EU resources from the European Regional Development Fund (REACT-PREDCOV-CM-23475).

More information:

Scientific Computing Center (C3) website: https://www.uc3m.es/cai/C3 

Photos on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCDVAa

This new method estimates the probability that one individual resembles another user based on the data set within the system (e.g., age, gender, interests, etc.), thus providing much more useful information for evaluating and comparing the privacy of its users.

“This approach allows us to examine in greater detail the level of anonymity offered by different digital platforms and understand how small changes in the way data is stored can have a major impact on privacy,” says Rubén Cuevas.

A metric tested through practical use cases

The researchers have applied this metric to platforms such as LinkedIn, X and Meta, and the results show significant differences between them. “We have seen that LinkedIn and X provide greater privacy protection than Meta. We have also found that, with very simple changes, such as replacing a user's exact age with an age range, Meta could improve its privacy level more than tenfold,” explains Rubén Cuevas.

The researchers emphasise the importance of users being aware of the level of privacy provided by the digital services they use in order to reduce the risks associated with leaks or misuse of personal information.

“People should be aware of which databases are storing their information and what protection they provide, as leaks can lead to dangerous practices if the systems are not well designed,” concludes Rubén Cuevas.  

ANTICIPA Project

This project is part of the agreement between INCIBE and UC3M entitled ANTICIPA, included in the Strategic Projects in Spain, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, with funding from the Next Generation-EU Funds. These initiatives are part of the Global Security Innovation Program, included in the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR), through Component 15. Investment 7 Cybersecurity: Strengthening the capabilities of citizens, SMEs, and professionals and promoting the sector.

INCIBE is an entity under the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration through the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, consolidated as a benchmark entity for the development of cybersecurity and digital trust among citizens and businesses. It is also a driver of social transformation and an opportunity for innovation, promoting R&D&I and talent.

UC3M is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching, and innovation. It ranks as the best Spanish public university in employability according to The Global University Employability Ranking and Survey 2026; among the top universities in Spain for its overall performance in the latest edition of the U-Ranking; and among the best universities in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2026. It is also the first university in Europe to achieve dual ACEEU accreditation for its contribution and impact on the industrial and social fabric. It also has other accreditations and quality distinctions, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering and AACSB accreditation in business and finance programs.

Bibliographic reference: A. Merino, A. Cuevas, R. Cuevas. KPN-anonymity: Extension of K-anonymity for user anonymity evaluation on web applications. Array.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.array.2025.100499.

The ROCINANTE project (Taming nonlinear oscillations and turbulence for optimal design and operation of space plasma thrusters), funded with €2 million from the ERC, aims to tackle one of the major challenges in space propulsion: understanding and controlling specific plasma fluctuations inside electrodeless plasma thrusters (EPTs). These devices could revolutionize space travel because they significantly simplify the propulsion system and can operate with virtually any type of propellant, making them especially appealing for long-duration missions that may require in-flight refueling using resources found, for instance, on Mars.

However, current EPTs show relatively low efficiency, largely due to plasma oscillations and turbulence that cause energy losses and damage engine walls. “This is one of the blind spots preventing us from designing truly versatile and efficient thrusters,” explains Mario Merino, principal investigator of the project in UC3M’s Department of Aerospace Engineering. ROCINANTE seeks to understand these phenomena by analyzing plasma fluctuations from multiple angles: obtaining direct experimental measurements, developing a fast and accurate computational model of plasma dynamics, studying how different types of oscillations interact, and exploring —for the first time— the possibility of actively controlling them to mitigate their harmful effects.

To do this, the team will build a specially designed ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) plasma source, equipped with advanced sensors and actuators capable of “listening to” and “seeing” plasma oscillations in great detail, but also altering them. They will also develop an innovative computer simulator —a next-generation particle-in-cell code— to realistically reproduce these phenomena much faster than current tools allow. Through these experiments, simulations, and new data-analysis techniques, ROCINANTE could transform our understanding of plasma dynamics in these devices and pave the way for space thrusters that are far more efficient, durable, and reliable, while opening new research avenues in active fluctuation control.

A new framework for understanding social mobility

The second project selected in this call, EXKIN (Mobility, Sorting and Inequality with Extended Kinship Data), will examine the persistence of socioeconomic inequalities across generations. Its goal is to develop a unified conceptual and empirical framework capable of integrating different measures of intergenerational mobility, from traditional parent-child correlations to multigenerational or surname-based approaches. It will also analyze the transmission of social status across different time horizons.

The research will use administrative records and population databases to reconstruct extensive kinship networks, incorporating links between siblings and spouses. The richness of these structures will provide far more “empirical moments” than previous studies and allow the team to rigorously test predictions derived from the new theoretical framework. Key issues to be addressed include the role of assortative mating, the transmission of skills, and the long-term stability of inequality.

“The project’s findings aim to deepen our understanding of how family environments shape individuals’ life and economic trajectories and to provide tools that support better public-policy design to reduce persistent inequalities,” notes Jan Leonard Stuhler, the project’s principal investigator from UC3M’s Department of Economics.

These research grants highlight UC3M’s strong commitment to excellence in research. To date, the University has secured 21 ERC projects since the program’s creation (8 Starting Grants, 9 Consolidator Grants, and 4 Proof of Concept Grants), with total funding exceeding €28 million.

In addition to this work with students, the study will include interviews with teachers to identify the real needs they encounter in the classroom. Meanwhile, the textbooks used at this stage of education will be analysed to see how publishers integrate work on this skill, which is explicitly included in the LOMLOE (Spain’s 2020 Organic Law amending the Organic Law on Education).

“We know from previous studies that when we start working on these skills in adolescence, it’s already too late. So it is essential to intervene at an early age,” Eva Herrero points out. “Children of the new generations will have to deal with increasingly sophisticated misinformation, and it is essential that teachers have access to real tools to address it in the classroom.”

The project (AMIKIDS-EP - Media Literacy in Primary Education. How to develop children's critical skills to promote a safe digital environment) is part of the State Research Plan formed by a team of 20 researchers in the fields of communication and education, coordinated by UC3M and involving Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad de Valladolid, Universidad de Huelva, Universidad San Pablo CEU, Universidad de Nebrija, Tecnocampus (Catalonia) and Universidad Europea de Madrid. It also has the support of RTVE, the Catalan Audiovisual Council, iCmedia, and the European Association for Digital Transition, entities that will be particularly involved in the results transfer phase and the design of resources for teachers.

More information:

UC3M Research Portal: AMIKIDS-EP

“The advantage of using topological optimization for part design is that you automatically obtain the optimal shape, instead of having to apply different iterations and calculations,” says one of the authors of the study, Abraham Vadillo Morillas, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC3M, whose doctoral thesis is based on this area of research. “In addition, this process has other advantages, such as direct and indirect cost savings. For example, an airplane manufactured with a lighter part than the original will be more environmentally friendly and will make travel cheaper for the passenger,” he notes.

A world of applications to discover

Although the experimental evaluation of these advances has been focused on the manufacture of motorcycle parts, the applications of these methods are much broader, as many sectors can benefit from the reduction in weight of their components, as well as the improvement in their rigidity.

“Any part subjected to loads or vibrations can benefit from these advances: from vehicle components to industrial machinery elements, architectural structures, jewellery and even fashion,” explains another of the researchers, Cristina Castejón Sisamón, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC3M and head of the MAQLAB research group.

The methodology used to achieve these advances consisted of adapting topological optimization to the main manufacturing processes and improving the interpretability and accuracy of the results using new algorithms. In the case of additive manufacturing, the researchers have developed specific methods for 3D printing that have already been used to manufacture motorcycle components that have significantly reduced their weight. 

Recently, the team has begun to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in order to move toward even more autonomous optimization processes. “Our goal is to develop agents that can adjust optimization parameters themselves, in an approach we have called AVM (Adaptive Variable Modelling). In this way, we hope that the new AI-based tools will change the paradigm of mechanical design and enable the generation of optimal parts more quickly, accurately and efficiently,” concludes Castejón.

The doctoral thesis produced based on this line of research was the first related to the MotoStudent competition project in which UC3M participates with its students and the MOTO-MAQLAB-UC3M association. This line of research began more than ten years ago with the aim of supporting students participating in this competition. The results of the research are already tangible in the different prototypes that have participated in several editions of MotoStudent, some of which are on display at the entrance to the Torres Quevedo Building on the Leganés Campus. 

Bibliographic references:

Vadillo, A., Meneses, J., Bustos, A. et al. Improving performance and convergence in topology optimization for print-ready designs. Struct Multidisc Optim 68, 189 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-025-04090-z 

Vadillo Morillas, A (2024). Novel methods in topology optimisation for additive/subtractive manufacturing in the digital environment. Application to motorbike design. Tesis doctoral Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica. https://hdl.handle.net/10016/46241

Participants were asked to walk while listening to three types of footstep sounds: one unmodified, one with footsteps that sounded as if they were produced by a lighter body, and one with footsteps that sounded as if they were produced by a heavier body. In addition, participants answered questionnaires about their body image, possible symptoms of eating disorders, and the breadth of their social support networks.

The results of this experiment showed that people with larger and more diverse social networks were generally less influenced by the sound illusion and tended to be more satisfied with their body image and have fewer symptoms of eating disorders. Conversely, the modified effects of the steps were more intense in people with smaller social networks, leading to the conclusion that body perception and its malleability not only depend on immediate sensory stimuli but are also influenced by the social structure in which the person is integrated. 

“The implications of our study are that your circle of friends influences how you perceive your own body. If you have a wider circle of friends, you perceive your body in a more positive way,” says Anxo Sánchez, a researcher in the Department of Mathematics at UC3M. “People would think that self-perception depends on oneself, but in reality it depends on the number of people who support you and surround you,” explains another of the study's authors, Amar D'Adamo, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science at UC3M.

These findings show that having broad and diverse social support reinforces the stability of body self-perception and protects against the influence of external signals that could distort it. This discovery, in turn, opens the door to new social interventions that serve to promote a more positive body image and mitigate the effects of weight-related stigma.

In addition, the team proposes the use of mobile applications to help people who may suffer from disorders associated with a negative self-perception of their own body: "At the i_mBODY Lab, we develop sensory technologies that allow us to change the perception of the body. We are also very focused on applications because we want to understand how we can use these technologies to support people," explains Ana Tajadura, head of the i_mBODY Lab, researcher at the Department of Computer Science at UC3M and ERC grantee.

This research has been supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant agreement No. 101002711; BODYinTRANSIT project), as well as the BBVA Foundation through its Fundamentos program and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the BASIC (PID2022-141802NB-I00) and SENSEBEAT-DS (PID2023-150259OB-C21) projects. In turn, the project has been funded by the Carlos III University of Madrid and the European Union (Horizon 2020 research and innovation program -Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant Agreement No. 801538).

Bibliographic reference:

D’Adamo, A. Sánchez, A. De Coster, L. Tajadura-Jiménez, A. (2025).Sound effects on body perception vary with the social support network of individuals. iScience, Volume 28, Issue 8, 2025, 113091, ISSN 2589-0042, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113091

This project marks a milestone due to its approach and its team members, which include a notable number of women and Spanish participants. Participants include: Sara García Alonso, reserve astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA); Isabel Vera Trallero, director of the Office of Space and Society at the Spanish Space Agency; and Beatriz Puente-Espada, director of the Aerospace Medicine Training Center (CIMA) of the Air and Space Force. The Spanish team is completed by: Professor Óscar Flores Arias, director of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at UC3M; master's student Huc Pentinat Llurba at TAMU; and the participation of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA).

Cutting-edge science to counteract the challenges of microgravity

During space missions, the absence of gravity gradients causes a redistribution of body fluids towards the head, which can cause vision problems, increased intracranial pressure, and increased risk of blood clots in the neck. To combat these effects, the team tested a technique called Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP), which applies negative pressure to the legs to redistribute fluids back to the lower body and normalize circulation.

“The most interesting thing about this project is that we are evaluating such a promising countermeasure as LBNP in real microgravity conditions. This will allow us to analyze the effectiveness of LBNP in protecting the ocular and cardiovascular health of astronauts, two of the major challenges of long-duration space missions,” says Oscar Flores. In addition to marking a turning point in protecting the health of astronauts, “the validation of the LBNP technique may also open the door to medical applications here on Earth” he adds. 

Throughout the parabolic flight, the effectiveness of this technique will be analyzed by measuring blood circulation in the neck and other cardiovascular and ocular parameters. This collaborative effort is an example of global research with renowned partners in the US, such as the University of California, Davis, and the University of Florida. The project is funded by ESA, NASA, TAMU, and Lockheed Martin Corporation, underscoring its international importance.

The new ERC research project by Daniel García González, from UC3M's Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis, is called MAGMATED (Magneto-Mechanical Technology for Bioinspired Material Testing and Ex-Vivo Diagnosis; GA 101247449). “We are trying to develop a revolutionary technology that could change the way we diagnose diseases and design new biomaterials,” explains the researcher. To do so, they propose a compact and portable solution to accurately analyze the “internal mechanics” of soft materials and biological tissues, such as those used in biopsies.

Instead of using large and expensive laboratory equipment, this system employs soft magnetic materials that hold the sample and apply controlled forces to it in an easy-to-use, small, portable device. By observing how the material deforms under different conditions (thanks to an integrated imaging system), the device's software (based on artificial intelligence and physical models), is able to map how stiffness varies in different areas of the sample. “This technology would allow us to have a portable mechanical scanner of biological tissues,” says Daniel García González.

MAGMATED could have a major impact in regenerative medicine (for the design of artificial tissues with properties similar to natural ones) or in clinical diagnostics (where mechanical alterations can be an early indication of diseases such as cancer or neurological disorders). The researchers plan to test their performance with brain tissue and in cells used as drug vehicles, in order to develop their viability at the commercial level. In fact, they are supported by the spin-off company 60Nd, which develops innovative solutions in the field of mechanobiology.

A new generation of versatile and sustainable space propulsion

The new ERC research project of Mario Merino Martínez, from the UC3M's  Department of Aerospace Engineering, is called NEPTUNE (Tandem Electrodeless Plasma Thrusters for Universal and Versatile in-Space Propulsion; GA 101248669). Its goal is to revolutionize the future of space exploration with an advanced, versatile and easy-to-integrate propulsion system for satellites and spacecraft.

“This Proof of Concept will allow us to optimize and study the commercial viability of a novel plasma acceleration system, the magnetic arch, which is one of the results emerging from our research under my ERC Starting Grant ZARATHUSTRA,” explains Mario Merino Martínez. This Magnetic Arch Tandem thruster, which uses electrodeless plasma sources and magnetic fields to generate thrust without the need for moving parts, can operate with any propellant gas, reducing costs and increasing operational flexibility. In addition, its compact and efficient design promises to facilitate its incorporation into future space missions, both commercial and scientific.

NEPTUNE focuses on four key areas: refining the magnetic design of the thruster, developing a system architecture with commercial off-the-shelf components, collaborating with space companies and agencies to assess its market viability, and establishing a plan for its development and future commercialization. To this end, the team will develop a working prototype that will be tested in real vacuum conditions, analyzing different configurations and gases to optimize performance. The project will also explore business models and strategic alliances to ensure that this technology reaches the market successfully. “This technology promises to open a new stage in space mobility, more sustainable, flexible and accessible,” concludes Mario Merino.

These research grants obtained by Daniel Garcia González and Mario Merino Martínez highlight UC3M's commitment to research excellence. In total, UC3M has obtained 18 ERC projects since the creation of the program (8 Starting Grants, 7 Consolidator Grants and 3 Proof of Concept grants) with an overall funding of more than 30 million euros.

This technique opens the door to new methods of product traceability, document authentication, and enrichment of educational or professional content. Moreover, it all can be done without reliance on visible codes such as QR codes or adding external devices to the document.

Imprinto is part of a broader ecosystem of tools that UC3M and MIT researchers are exploring based on the possibilities of infrared technology. The authors have also developed, and are in the process of patenting, a portable camera, connectable via USB-C to any mobile device, which allows blood vessels to be observed under the skin to facilitate medical procedures. In addition, it allows biometric recognition based on the vascular patterns of the palm of the hand thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms. 

“The system, called VeinGoOne, aims to analyse the images captured in real time, allowing not only 2D visualization but also 3D reconstruction of vein depth using techniques such as stereoscopy or Time-of-Flight,” says García Martín.

Another of the developments presented by the UC3M team is BrightMarker, a system that allows invisible codes to be embedded in 3D objects using fluorescent polymers. This innovation makes it possible to print objects containing hidden digital labels, useful for industrial traceability, advanced logistics or personalized interaction in augmented reality environments without altering the appearance of the object.

These advances are part of a more ambitious vision: replacing mobile phones with augmented reality glasses or contact lenses, capable of recognizing and interpreting the environment using integrated infrared cameras, according to the researchers. “In this near future, technologies such as Imprinto, BrightMarker and VeinGoOne will allow users to interact with physical objects and documents in a digital, intuitive and personalized way,” concludes García Martín.

This research has been carried out thanks to the joint efforts of several institutions, in addition to UC3M, such as Adobe Research, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, MIT, Saarland University and Virginia Tech. 

Bibliographic reference: Feick, M. Tang, X. Garcia-Martin, R. Luchianov, A. Wei Xiao Huang, R. Xiao, C. Siu, A. Doga Dogan, M. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Article No.: 447, Pages 1 - 18, https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713286

The information collected through sensors placed in the soil is analysed by AI models and used to implement better strategies for the early prevention of pests or climatic damage such as frost, drought, hail and periods of torrential rain. “Currently, our predictive models are focused on olive trees and tomatoes, but the methodology developed is applicable to more than 80 types of crops, from extensive to woody,” adds Samuel López.

For data collection, they have designed a wireless sensor that is inexpensive and can also collect data in real time in order to optimize decisions on irrigation and fertilizer application. The latest step in the company's R&D&I has been to develop new AI algorithms and implement new sensors: flow meters to monitor irrigation remotely, rain gauges to monitor relative humidity and ambient temperature, plus anemometers for wind and other radiation sensors. 

“All this data modelling allows us to anticipate the needs of the farm, either in terms of irrigation or air expulsion. At the end of the day, data and AI are there to be used and to make our lives easier, not only helping farmers in their decision-making, but also making agriculture more efficient and sustainable,” concludes Samuel López.

Apart from its applications in the area of intensive agriculture, the technology developed by Plantae is being used in professional gardening and to optimize pitch maintenance at several professional football clubs in Spain. 

In addition to the development of services and new algorithms dedicated to AI, Plantae is focusing on a new NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) sensor. This device aims to distinguish between nutrients, thereby improving fertilization strategies and reducing carbon footprints, a global necessity within sustainability strategies and the fight against climate change.

This start-up has been supported by the Business Incubator of the Centre for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA) at the UC3M Science Park, located in the Leganés Tecnológico Science, Technology and Business Park. 

More information:

https://www.uc3m.es/parquecientifico/cartera-empresas-marcas/plantae

Daniel García González is the only finalist affiliated with a Spanish university. The other finalists are associated with institutions such as the Centre for Genomic Regulation, the Institute for Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) and the University of Chicago (USA).

An industrial engineer and PhD graduate with international distinction from UC3M, García González (Leganés, 1992) completed postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, focusing on the mechanical behavior of brain tissue and its functional response. He currently leads several research projects, including a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant project (4D-BIOMAP; GA 947723), an ERC Proof of Concept project (ISBIOMECH; GA 101081713), and various national initiatives. He has established a multidisciplinary laboratory—MULTIBIOSTRUCTURES Lab (Multifunctional Structures and Biomechanics)—at the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA) within the UC3M Science Park in Leganés Tecnológico. There, he develops novel multifunctional materials and theoretical formulations that integrate mechanics with other physical phenomena, applying them to bioengineering challenges in collaboration with a broad international network. García González has completed research stays at numerous prestigious institutions and is a member of the Young Academy of Spain, where he currently serves as secretary. Among his many accolades, he received the 2023 National Research Award for Young Researchers ‘Matilde Ucelay’ in the Engineering and Architecture category, in recognition of the originality and interdisciplinary impact of his groundbreaking contributions to the development of smart and multifunctional materials and their applications in bioengineering.

In the field of innovation, García González has spearheaded the creation of 60Nd, S.L., a UC3M-backed spin-off specializing in the design and production of instrumentation for simulating biological processes influenced by mechanical stimuli in vitro. The company aims to develop and commercialize disruptive technology to induce mechanical activation in cells using magneto-sensitive materials. This technology opens new avenues for research in mechanobiology and mechanomedicine, with the potential to reduce time and costs in pharmaceutical research phases and to enhance the quality and effectiveness of treatments.

During the Real Madrid vs Baskonia basketball match, held during the afternoon of March 16th, Prosegur Security deployed vigilance devices including cameras, robots and LiDAR sensors in one of the access areas of the venue. The use case called ‘Smart Crowd Monitoring’ showed how with this technology it is possible to build an environment of applications and infrastructure to test and detect anomalous situations that compromise security during mass events. The aim is to improve security at large events by detecting crowds, violent activities and suspicious objects, as well as optimising the coordination and efficiency of emergency teams in critical situations.

During the same match, UC3M deployed different portable devices (bracelets, mobile phones, laptops, etc.) in an access area to the venue, in order to demonstrate the dual use case ‘Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) and Emergency Rescue in Populated Area’. This use case demonstrated how first responders can be effectively coordinated in triage and intervention in the event of a mass casualty incident or large-scale emergency, as well as in the emergency evacuation process, taking into account the pre-hospital care needed by the different victims.

5G SA at millimetre waves and more flexible private networks: the technological key for large events

In all three use cases, Ericsson Spain has been the enabler of the advanced 5G infrastructure, based on a 5G Standalone (SA) network operating in the millimetre wave band at 26 GHz, using spectrum assigned to Telefónica and employing a mobile network core hosted at the 5TONIC premises. Using innovative software functionalities, mobile devices connect directly to the 5G millimetre frequencies in SA, without needing additional 4G or 5G frequencies as an anchor. 

The deployed technology offers ultra-fast speeds and unprecedentedly low latencies, essential features for applications in high-demand environments such as sports events. The deployed 5G infrastructure consists of a portable private network, easy to transport  that can be set up and dismantled in a single day, making it ideal for mass events. It also incorporates Ericsson’s Local Packet Gateway (LPG), which manages data traffic within the private network itself, providing additional security, privacy and latency benefits.

To optimise performance and ensure the operation of the use cases, three 5G antennas were strategically placed. One antenna was located in the basketball court to connect the YBVR cameras, allowing the transmission of immersive experiences, the second antenna was located in the YBVR control room to manage the production equipment, and the third was placed in the access area to the venue, where Prosegur Security devices were in charge of ensuring the security of the event and UC3M devices for the management of emergency situations.

This deployment ensures that each application works optimally, highlighting the potential of 5G SA technology at millimetre waves in real and complex environments. ‘Having an environment such as 5TONIC makes it possible to consider very advanced tests on the latest 5G technologies. Testing real applications in environments as special as the Movistar Arena allows us to understand the type of offers and connectivity solutions that will be necessary in the medium term,’ points out Cayetano Carbajo, President of 5TONIC and Director of Core, Transport, Innovation and Ecosystem at Global CTIO, Telefónica.

‘For the Movistar Arena, the development of technological innovations such as those tested this weekend at our venue are an example of what our partnership with Movistar will mean from now on, a partnership that seeks to be pioneers in improving spectator experiences. We are confident that with the support of our partners we will increase the application of this type of technology at the Movistar Arena in the future,’ said Manuel Saucedo, CEO of Impulsa Eventos e Instalaciones, which manages the Movistar Arena.

‘This demonstration perfectly illustrates the transformative power of advanced 5G on the user experience. Supported by Ericsson’s millimetre wave 5G Standalone technology, the validated use cases create a unique link between the in-person and digital experience that provides added value to attendees. What has been achieved at the Movistar Arena marks a turning point for large sports and cultural events,’ said Manuel Lorenzo, Head of Technology & Innovation at Ericsson R&D Spain.

‘TrialsNet project aims to identify and understand the main challenges in the development of 6G technology, based on the most recent progress of the fifth generation. In this context, 5TONIC has been a key resource to achieve this goal,’ says Marco Gramaglia, Professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Three use cases that will revolutionise live events

Advanced 5G security: Smart Crowd Monitoring (Prosegur Security). In the context of security and safety, Prosegur Security has deployed an advanced vigilance system using cameras, robots and LiDAR sensors. The system uses artificial intelligence algorithms to detect crowds, possible violent activities, vandalism and suspicious objects such as abandoned backpacks. These algorithms, which do not identify individuals or process biometric data, guarantee respect for human rights while improving security at mass events.

Connected Emergencies: Mass Casualty Incident (UC3M). This use case, led by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, demonstrates how 5G technology can optimise the coordination of first responders such as emergency workers, firefighters, police and medical personnel in situations involving multiple casualties. Using smart wristbands connected to the network, vital data (such as oxygen saturation and blood pressure) is collected and transmitted to a central WINGS server in Athens, allowing for quick and efficient classification of victims and optimal management of available resources.

New fan experiences: Immersive Fan Engagement YBVR. Intended to revolutionise the fan experience, YBVR deployed 180° and 360° video cameras on the basketball court to deliver an unprecedented immersive experience inside the venue. Attendees have been able to enjoy multiple streaming angles in real time from their mobile devices, allowing them to select from different perspectives of the game and bring the action closer to their seat, regardless of their location in the arena. Viewers at home can experience the excitement of the match as if they were in the front row, thanks to the use of Virtual Reality (VR) glasses and immersive video on their devices.

5TONIC is the 5G open innovation lab founded by Telefónica and IMDEA Networks. It is a space for industry collaboration to test and refine the different technological components, to contribute, with the acquired knowledge, to the advancement of technology and standards and, of course, to achieve an end-to-end vision of what the networks of the future will be. The lab promotes the development of joint projects, discussion forums, events and conferences, all in a high-impact international environment. The lab has the status of Digital Innovation Hub by the European Commission.

TrialsNet is a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme, specifically within the Horizon-JU-SNS-2022 research and innovation programme. It is executed by an European consortium of 23 members, led by Ericsson Italy and including entities such as Ericsson Spain, Telefónica, Orange Romania and universities such as Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, which seeks to perform use cases with real large-scale test systems to reach the performance limit of existing 5G technology and lay the foundations for the transition to the next evolution of mobile communications networks. TrialsNet, which will run until the end of 2025, aims to improve people’s quality of life by deploying innovative applications based on 5G technology. These applications focus on key areas such as security, health, emergency and entertainment, among others.

The people behind this project have explained that one of the many applications of this new technology is to make networks capable of recognizing if there is a higher concentration of people in a certain area, if an elderly person has suffered a fall at home, or to optimize the distribution of coverage by dynamically adapting to the needs of users.

Other potential uses that MultiX is currently working on are industrial automation processes and home-connected healthcare. “On the one hand, we want networks to be able to coordinate the movement of robots in real time, detecting obstacles and enabling more efficient task management,” explains Antonio de la Oliva. “On the other hand, the project is working on contactless health monitoring in the domestic environment. That is, through connected home devices, it will be possible to monitor vital signs such as heart rate or respiration. In fact, the network could even detect emergency situations, such as a heart attack, and potentially alert health services.”

MultiX is also notable with regard to its focus on sustainability, a key challenge for 6G technology. Therefore, in order to maximize energy efficiency and reduce resource consumption, the project uses artificial intelligence to implement low-power solutions and thus adapt to the requirements of future networks. 

The project will substantiate its progress through two proof-of-concepts designed to demonstrate practical applications of the technologies developed. The first consists of a multilayer digital network twin, aimed at optimizing processes in the field of industrial manufacturing. The second proof will focus on contactless health monitoring in the home environment, with the aim of transforming home healthcare. These technologies, combined with AI, could optimize diagnosis and treatment in health-related matters even from home, according to the researchers.

The MultiX project has been funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme (GA 101192521) and involves: Apple Technology Engineering BV&CO (Germany), BubbleRAN (France), Siemens AG (Germany), Telefónica S.A. (Spain), Networks (Italy), INTEL Deutschland GmbH (Germany), InterDigital Europe Ltd. (United Kingdom), Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecommunicazioni (Italy), the Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (Germany), the Fundació Privada i2CAT - Internet i Innovació Digital a Catalunya (Spain), the IMDEA Networks Foundation (Spain), the Institute for Acceleration Systems and Applications (Greece), NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH (Germany), Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. OTE (Greece), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Universidad de Cantabria and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain). Within this organizational structure, Professor Antonio de la Oliva (UC3M) acts as Principal Researcher, Valerio Frascolla (INTEL) as Innovation Director and Xi Li (NEC) as Technical Director. The project began in January 2025 and is expected to complete its work in June 2027.

MultiX project website:

https://multix-6g.eu

In addition to the software, the system is composed of a specialized electromechanical controller, called “eJamar”, which is capable of measuring, through specialized sensors, the entire range of motion of the hand and wrist, as well as the patient's grip strength. The system, in turn, is able to store this information during each session, so that a specialist can consult the patient's condition and check their progress over time, automatically recording metrics (strength profiles, fatigue, reaction times, etc.) that cannot be obtained using traditional methods. A paper on the development of this system was recently published in the scientific journal Applied Sciences.

During the initial phase of the research, the researchers identified certain requirements that had not been met by traditional upper extremity rehabilitation treatments. “We realized that training games (or serious games) were being used to support rehabilitation treatments, but that there were very few physical devices dedicated to promoting hand mobility and improving grip strength. So, it was precisely from this vacuum that the idea of designing a device to meet this need arose”, explains one of the study's authors, Andrés Fernando Cela Rosero, from the UC3M Department of Systems Engineering and Automation. 

The system, funded by Roboasset, i-REHAB project, which in turn is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and co-financed by the European Union and iRoboCity2030-CM, which is supported by the R&D Activity Programmes in the Community of Madrid, has been approved by doctors and specialized personnel so that this rehabilitation technology is easy to implement in routine clinical practice. “In fact, we have already completed a series of tests with patients in rehabilitation stages and the results are very encouraging”, says another of the researchers, Edwin Daniel Oña Simbaña, also from the UC3M Department of Systems Engineering and Automation. “In this way, by combining a traditional treatment with 30 minutes of exercises with our exergames, patients have improved both their range of motion and their grip strength by up to 100%”, he adds. 

Another advantage of this device is that it can be used in a wide range of cases, from fractures or hand injuries to neurological pathologies such as stroke, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease.

In turn, given the simplicity of the system, the researchers believe that these interactive video games can be a useful tool for telerehabilitation, as they can contribute to reducing the waiting list for patients to access these treatments. For this reason, the authors of the study encourage both health entities and users to try this technology in order to continue working in this line of research.

Bibliographic reference: Cela AF, Oña ED, Jardón A. (2024). eJamar: A Novel Exergame Controller for Upper Limb Motor Rehabilitation. Applied Sciences. 2024; 14(24):11676. https://doi.org/10.3390/app142411676 

Until now, these factors were considered unavoidable shortcomings of the 3D printing process. However, the researchers have managed to control these characteristics by integrating advanced computational tools and experimental trials, which has allowed them to manufacture structures that are sensitive and capable of transforming mechanical signals into electrical signals.

“A key point about this discovery is that it can be extrapolated to other types of 3D printing technology in which softer materials could be used,” adds Javier Crespo, also from UC3M's Department of Mechanics of Continuous Media and Theory of Structures. The researcher is optimistic that it will be possible to design materials that lay the foundations for future advances in additive manufacturing, thanks to the combination of these new computational tools. 

This new research, backed up by extensive experimental validation, provides a reliable approach to minimising the differences between the different behaviours of conductive components and represents a major step forward in the design of multifunctional materials, according to its authors. “For example, in the field of engineering, these structures could be used both for the manufacture of soft robots and for obtaining virtual data that can serve machine learning technologies,” notes Javier Crespo. 

Emilio Martínez-Pañeda, professor at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study, pointed out that “the research opens up endless opportunities, enabling the development of intelligent materials and sensors that could be of great use in the aerospace industry or in infrastructure monitoring.” 

“And not only that,” adds Daniel García-González, “with these new materials we could also create patches or dressings that warn us how many times we are flexing our knee so that, in the event that we have an injury, we are alerted if we are passing certain critical points where we are going to cause damage to our muscles.”

Bibliographic reference: Crespo-Miguel, J., Lucarini, S., Garzon-Hernandez, S., Arias, A., Martínez-Pañeda, E., Garcia-Gonzalez, D. (2025). In-silico platform for the multifunctional design of 3D printed conductive components. Nature Communications 16, 1359. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56707-y

Keeping with the theme of safety, the researcher points out that the flexible material from which the joint is made facilitates the absorption of any impacts that the robots may cause during the performance of their tasks, resulting in increased safety in their interactions with humans. This flexibility also allows for operations to be carried out in confined environments or in handling situations that require greater adaptability to the work environment. “And that's not all: this type of joint can function as an independent actuation module or connected with other joint modules to form a highly functional robotic handling chain,” says Concha Monje.

Another characteristic of the soft joint is that it bends with a constant curvature, which significantly simplifies its mathematical model. This facilitates the design of control systems that allow robust operation at a very low computational cost.

Finally, the researcher highlights the fact that the joint can be manufactured using standard 3D printers, with elastic materials that do not require a large investment, allowing for rapid and very economical manufacturing.

Currently, the UC3M RoboticsLab team is developing a robotic claw whose fingers feature the patented joint design. This allows it to grip objects with a high degree of dexterity, facilitated by the different contact surfaces with which the robotic arm can engage in order to attain said grip.

Referencia de la patente: C.A. Monje, C. Relaño, L.F. Nagua, S. Martínez, C. Balaguer, Eslabón para articulación blanda y articulación blanda que comprende dicho eslabón. P202030726. 19/06/2024. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

https://consultas2.oepm.es/InvenesWeb/detalle?referencia=P202030726

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With this research, financed by the Community of Madrid through the agreement-subvention for the encouragement and promotion of research and technology transfer at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (ORIGEN-CM-UC3M), the aim is to increase the protection of vehicle occupants regardless of gender in the search for a safer and more inclusive future. This is key, since anatomical and behavioural differences could mean women face a greater risk of muscular or cervical injuries due to limitations in the design of current belts during emergency braking, according to the researchers. 

“This project can provide valuable information to improve not only the future safety of autonomous vehicles, but also that of current means of transport such as trains, buses or subways, where sudden decelerations can cause injuries,” says Silvia Santos.

To carry out the study, they have designed a series of tests in which women with different anthropometric characteristics will travel in instrumented vehicles, with sensors that will measure their biomechanical response at the articular, kinematic and muscular level during different situations, such as braking in autonomous vehicles in the direction of travel or in reverse. The data obtained will be analysed with artificial intelligence tools in order to identify patterns that can help improve current safety systems and to analyse how the seatbelt affects passenger safety.

“For this reason, the university is inviting women of different ages and physical characteristics to participate in this study,” says Eva Herrero, from the UC3M Department of Communications, who is seeking collaboration in order to ensure that safety systems are inclusive and effective. “With this research, the university is reaffirming its commitment to the transfer of knowledge to society. In fact, it is thanks to the collaboration of different sectors that this type of synergistic project can be carried out, showing how scientific research can have a direct impact on people's daily lives,” she adds.

Another of the objectives of this project, which also involves the UC3M Department of Communication, is to analyse the presence of gender in institutional campaigns on road safety in order to carry out more inclusive prevention actions. “This will help to highlight all the different circumstances and provide a more comprehensive and inclusive knowledge of road safety,” concludes Herrero, who is also a member of UC3M's University Institute of Gender Studies (IEG).

More information: https://www.uc3m.es/investigacion/origen

"Automatic Content Recognition works like a kind of visual Shazam, taking screenshots or audio to create a viewer profile based on their content consumption habits. This technology enables manufacturers’ platforms to profile users accurately, much like the internet does," explains one of the study's authors, Patricia Callejo, a professor in UC3M's Department of Telematics Engineering and a fellow at the UC3M-Santander Big Data Institute. "In any case, this tracking, regardless of the usage mode, raises serious privacy concerns, especially when the TV is used solely as a monitor."

The findings, presented in November at the Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) 2024, highlight the frequency with which these screenshots are transmitted to the servers of the brands analysed: Samsung and LG. Specifically, the research showed that Samsung TVs sent this information every minute, while LG devices did so every 15 seconds. "This gives us an idea of the intensity of the monitoring and shows that smart TV platforms collect large volumes of data on users, regardless of how they consume content, whether through traditional TV viewing or devices connected via HDMI, like laptops or gaming consoles," Callejo emphasises.

To test the ability of TVs to block ACR tracking, the research team experimented with various privacy settings on smart TVs. The results demonstrated that, while users can voluntarily block the transmission of this data to servers, the default setting is for TVs to perform ACR. "The problem is that not all users are aware of this," adds Callejo, who considers this lack of transparency in initial settings concerning. "Moreover, many users don’t know how to change the settings, meaning these devices function by default as tracking mechanisms for their activity."

This research opens up new avenues for studying the tracking capabilities of cloud-connected devices that communicate with each other (commonly known as the Internet of Things, or IoT). It also suggests that manufacturers and regulators must urgently address the challenges that these new devices will present in the near future.

Bibliographic reference: Anselmi, G., Vekaria, Y., D'Souza, A., Callejo, P., Mandalari, Am., Shafiq, Z. (2024). Watching TV with the Second-Party: A First Look at Automatic Content Recognition Tracking in Smart TVs. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM on Internet Measurement Conference (IMC '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 622–634. https://doi.org/10.1145/3646547.3689013   

The chatbot can be a very useful tool, enabling researchers to perform complex image analysis tasks in a simple and intuitive manner. For example, if a researcher needs to process microscopy images using segmentation models, the chatbot can help select and execute the appropriate model.

The assistant is based on extensive language models and employs a technique called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which enables real-time access to databases. “The main advantage is that we do not train the model with specific information; instead, we extract it from up-to-date sources, minimising errors known as ‘hallucinations’, which are common inaccuracies in other AI models like ChatGPT,” adds Arrate Muñoz Barrutia, professor in the Department of Bioengineering at UC3M and another author of the study. “This ensures the user receives truthful and contextualised information, which is the most important thing for us.”

The BioImage.IO Chatbot has additional advantages, as it is also optimised to work directly with microscopes and other laboratory equipment through an extension system that allows researchers to control these devices using simple commands sent directly from the chatbot interface. “Another benefit of our assistant is that it is open-source,” notes Muñoz Barrutia, “allowing other developers to continue creating new modules and improving the tool.”

The model was refined by these UC3M researchers in collaboration with Ericsson Inc and with significant contributions from Wanlu Lei, Gabriel Reder and Wei Ouyang at KTH’s Departments of Intelligent Systems and Applied Physics, respectively. Team members recently presented it at the I2K (From Images to Knowledge) 2024 congress held in Milan, Italy. This team has successfully integrated the chatbot into cloud-based platforms running on web browsers, enabling real-time database queries for image analysis. According to Fuster-Barceló, this extensibility is one of the chatbot’s major advantages, as it facilitates integration into different workflows, including third-party websites and other research systems.

As for the next steps, the researchers plan to enhance the chatbot’s capabilities with a more versatile AI model, capable of reading scientific articles and assisting in experiment planning. This could pave the way for advanced automation in research settings and, perhaps, greater democratisation in access to complex scientific tools, they conclude.

References: 

Lei, W., Fuster-Barceló, C., Reder, G. et al (2024). BioImage.IO Chatbot: a community-driven AI assistant for integrative computational bioimaging. Nat Methods 21, 1368–1370. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-024-02370-y

Arrate Muñoz-Barrutia, A (2024). BioImage.IO chatbot: A community-driven AI assistant for integrative computational bioimaging. I2K (From Images to Knowledge). October 23-25 2024. Milan, Italy. https://www.i2kconference.org/ 

The next meeting, focused on “Artificial Intelligence and Health”, will be held this Thursday, November 28, from 12pm to 2pm, in the auditorium of the Center for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA) at the UC3M Science Park. This event will address how AI is transforming healthcare, from the analysis of symptoms and the treatment of diseases to the planning of healthcare management systems. Among the speakers at this table are José Manuel Molina López, Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at UC3M; Antonio Artes, Professor of Signal and Communications Theory at UC3M and founder of the startup eB2; Fernando Fernández Rebollo, Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at UC3M and founder of the startup InRobotics; María Muñoz, Business Development Director at Telefónica Tech; and María José Herrero Villa, head of Innovation Ecosystem Development at UC3M's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support Service.

The series will run until mid-December and will hold the rest of the debate at UC3M's Madrid-Puerto de Toledo Campus. It will address a wide variety of topics related to AI, including: public transportation, autonomous vehicles and tourism (on Dec. 2); the economy, from start-ups to the automation of customs processes and the personalization of international trade (Dec. 4); the impact of AI tools on learning and the ethical challenges posed by the creation of synthetic content and authorship in education (Dec. 9).  The series will end on December 16 with a round table to take stock of the topics discussed and reflect on the future of a society increasingly dependent on intelligent tools, as well as the advances and challenges associated with them.

One of the main objectives of SUSTAIN-6G is to develop new solutions to tackle sustainability challenges using the tools provided by 6G communications technologies. The consortium will dedicate considerable time to working on use cases for three specific areas, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“On one hand, the project will develop a more sustainable mobile network technology, and on the other, it will use mobile networks in various sectors to make them more sustainable,” explains Albert Banchs. “Specifically, the research at UC3M will focus on developing more sustainable computing technologies for mobile networks,” he adds.

Peter Merz, Vice President of Nokia Standards, said: “The UN Paris Agreement committed the world to combatting climate change. Every industry must do its part. SUSTAIN-6G will show how the communications industry will apply the next generation of networking to creating that sustainable future, overcoming not just environmental challenges but societal and economic challenges as well.”

Smart grids, telemedicine, and smart agriculture

In the case of smart grids, the consortium will explore how 6G could be used to create microgrids that manage electricity demand. SUSTAIN-6G will also investigate the use of AI technologies for real-time control of distribution networks. This could lead to more efficient and resilient grids that minimize disruptions while providing the flexibility to draw energy from diverse sources as the world transitions to renewables like solar and wind.

In e-health and telemedicine, the consortium will generate new ideas on how 6G can make digital health more inclusive. 6G infrastructure could not only provide a far-reaching infrastructure for securely transmitting and analyzing medical data, but it also could be the foundation for new home-based online assessment services. These networks could improve the diagnosis and treatment process in underserved communities. Meanwhile AI could help detect disease outbreaks at early stages.

The consortium will also investigate how 6G connectivity could be allocated on a temporary basis to enable smart agricultural applications that require high bandwidth, sensing, telemetry, data analytics and automation. For instance, 6G’s edge cloud capabilities could be harnessed to handle high-priority farming-equipment automation tasks during harvests or provide advanced processing capabilities that integrate data from field sensors, climate stations, soil analysis and satellite imagery to provide contextualized information during the growing season.

SUSTAIN-6G has broad representation from industry and academia. The consortium includes network equipment and services vendors, communications services providers, industrial equipment manufacturers, European research institutions and universities, and many small-and medium-sized enterprises. SUSTAIN-6G will kick off in January of 2025 and is scheduled to complete its work in 2027.

“Hay que observar y evaluar el funcionamiento de las estrategias regulatorias ante los avances de la IA e identificar las limitaciones que las soluciones actuales tienen ante el progreso tecnológico, en los valores y la estabilidad democráticos, en la solidez de las instituciones, la protección de los derechos fundamentales, y la inclusión social y la justicia distributiva. Entender y medir las implicaciones de las normas en el mercado y en los esfuerzos para la innovación. Imaginar nuevas formas de regular más dinámicas y adaptativas. Incorporar en el modelo regulatorio los nuevos parámetros sobre los que se desarrollan los “modelos de frontera” más sofisticados. Y, por tanto, reflexionar y proponer un modelo de gobernanza y regulación de una IA de frontera responsable y sostenible·, explica Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, catedrática de Derecho Mercantil de la UC3M y directora de la Cátedra de Investigación. 

Hoy en día, las empresas de todos los sectores son “tecnológicas”, por tanto, todas las organizaciones -no sólo las compañías tecnológicas- necesitan incorporar talento especializado y con habilidades para llevar a cabo su digitalización y el despliegue de tecnologías como la IA. Según un reciente estudio de Microsoft sobre Tendencias Laborales, el 52% de las empresas cree que la falta de personal especializado es la principal barrera para el despliegue masivo de la Inteligencia Artificial, y el 64% de los directivos españoles asegura que no contrataría a alguien sin conocimientos de IA.

Es necesario, por tanto, el fomento de estas habilidades y una correcta formación en IA para potenciar la empleabilidad y acelerar el crecimiento económico. 

Con esta vocación y los fines antes descritos nace la “Cátedra Microsoft–UC3M sobre Inteligencia Artificial, Fundamentos y Horizontes”, en la que se irán incorporando los conocimientos y resultados que se obtengan del trabajo entre la UC3M y Microsoft en proyectos y programas conjuntos de investigación científica e innovación tecnológica. 

“En Microsoft trabajamos para impulsar la adopción de IA responsable para mejorar la competitividad de nuestra economía. Lo más importante para acelerar este proceso, así como la transformación digital de empresas y administraciones públicas, es contar con el talento adecuado. Por ello, fomentamos la puesta en marcha de iniciativas de formación como la que presentamos hoy junto a la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, que potenciará las capacidades y mejorará la empleabilidad de los jóvenes”, señala Gabriel López, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Microsoft en España. 

La Cátedra se anunció en un evento organizado por ambas entidades, en el Campus de Puerta de Toledo de la UC3M y cuya apertura corrió a cargo de la secretaria de Estado de Digitalización e Inteligencia Artificial, María González Veracruz.

“Hay que observar y evaluar el funcionamiento de las estrategias regulatorias ante los avances de la IA e identificar las limitaciones que las soluciones actuales tienen ante el progreso tecnológico, en los valores y la estabilidad democráticos, en la solidez de las instituciones, la protección de los derechos fundamentales, y la inclusión social y la justicia distributiva. Entender y medir las implicaciones de las normas en el mercado y en los esfuerzos para la innovación. Imaginar nuevas formas de regular más dinámicas y adaptativas. Incorporar en el modelo regulatorio los nuevos parámetros sobre los que se desarrollan los “modelos de frontera” más sofisticados. Y, por tanto, reflexionar y proponer un modelo de gobernanza y regulación de una IA de frontera responsable y sostenible·, explica Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, catedrática de Derecho Mercantil de la UC3M y directora de la Cátedra de Investigación. 

Hoy en día, las empresas de todos los sectores son “tecnológicas”, por tanto, todas las organizaciones -no sólo las compañías tecnológicas- necesitan incorporar talento especializado y con habilidades para llevar a cabo su digitalización y el despliegue de tecnologías como la IA. Según un reciente estudio de Microsoft sobre Tendencias Laborales, el 52% de las empresas cree que la falta de personal especializado es la principal barrera para el despliegue masivo de la Inteligencia Artificial, y el 64% de los directivos españoles asegura que no contrataría a alguien sin conocimientos de IA.

Es necesario, por tanto, el fomento de estas habilidades y una correcta formación en IA para potenciar la empleabilidad y acelerar el crecimiento económico. 

Con esta vocación y los fines antes descritos nace la “Cátedra Microsoft–UC3M sobre Inteligencia Artificial, Fundamentos y Horizontes”, en la que se irán incorporando los conocimientos y resultados que se obtengan del trabajo entre la UC3M y Microsoft en proyectos y programas conjuntos de investigación científica e innovación tecnológica. 

“En Microsoft trabajamos para impulsar la adopción de IA responsable para mejorar la competitividad de nuestra economía. Lo más importante para acelerar este proceso, así como la transformación digital de empresas y administraciones públicas, es contar con el talento adecuado. Por ello, fomentamos la puesta en marcha de iniciativas de formación como la que presentamos hoy junto a la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, que potenciará las capacidades y mejorará la empleabilidad de los jóvenes”, señala Gabriel López, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Microsoft en España. 

La Cátedra se anunció en un evento organizado por ambas entidades, en el Campus de Puerta de Toledo de la UC3M y cuya apertura corrió a cargo de la secretaria de Estado de Digitalización e Inteligencia Artificial, María González Veracruz.

Here are ten recommendations regarding certain key issues to be taken into account when it comes to pursuing a successful scientific career in Spain: 

• Funding. There are different funding opportunities available at different stages of a research career. Taking the time to learn about the calls for proposals and applying for them with guidance can help to create and consolidate research groups. There are great opportunities available regarding the frontiers of knowledge and our ability to adapt methodologies from one area of knowledge to others.

• Objectives. During the process of preparing a research project, it is important to consider its purpose but also to pay attention to its alignment with the objectives of the programme and to seek an impact in different areas (generation of knowledge, technology transfer, training of researchers, social awareness of relevant issues, etc.).

• Collaboration. Research should be a collaborative process, where projects carried out in different groups and institutions feed back into each other, providing creative solutions to emerging methodological problems and leading to a continuous evolution of the research field.

• Contacts. During the early stages of a research career, it is important to start developing an international network of contacts. For this purpose, there are numerous mobility grants available at regional, national and international level that facilitate access to prestigious research groups. Other suitable forums for this purpose involve participation in international conferences.

• Publications. When preparing a scientific article, rather than being guided by curricular purposes, it is advisable to reflect on its relevance, impact and the reproducibility of the results provided. As with grants, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the editorial policy and publication format by reading articles in the journal in which you wish to be published.

• Evaluation. There is a global trend, which is beginning to be seen in Spain, for scientific curricula to be evaluated in terms of quality rather than quantity. Thus, factors such as the originality of scientific contributions or their socio-economic impact are becoming increasingly important, as opposed to the number of published results and other quantitative indicators. 

• Entrepreneurship. The scientific knowledge acquired also enables the launch of technology-based companies and spin-offs created on the basis of laboratory results. Although Spain's indicators are good in terms of knowledge generation, there is much room for improvement as regards the transfer of this knowledge to the business sector.

• Patents. It is important to understand and be aware of the different industrial property protection mechanisms and how they work. Aligning strategies for the protection and dissemination of results is essential, because major opportunities can be missed and potential avenues for commercialisation can be closed off. A long-term strategy for the protection and exploitation of results is therefore recommended.

• Public dissemination of science. Clearly communicating the main ideas and implications of R&D&I raises awareness of the value of research, technological advances and their benefits for society. In addition, doing so can have a positive impact on the academic career of research staff, enhancing their profile, reputation and links with companies.

• Science and public policy. There is a growing interest in having scientific advisory mechanisms that allow institutions and government representatives to make scientifically informed decisions in areas of major social importance, such as education, health, energy and industry, among others. In this context, scientific advisors should not prescribe decisions, but rather provide objective knowledge by explaining the implications of each specific action.

El acto contó con la participación de Concepción Cascajosa, presidenta interina de RTVE y profesora del Departamento de Comunicación de la UC3M, que señaló que el objetivo es muy concreto: “Permitir y habilitar que un servicio público esencial, como es la radio, pueda llegar a las personas sordas, que en España son 1,2 millones”. Además, apuntó que el proyecto tiene dos fases: “En primer lugar un sistema de subtitulado y, a continuación, esperamos que también muy pronto la incorporación de lengua de signos”. 

En esta línea, Belén Ruiz, representante institucional del CESyA, remarcó que llevan “muchos años trabajando en hacer que los audiovisuales sean accesibles para las personas sordas a través de los subtítulos y para las personas con discapacidad visual a través de la audiodescripción”.

En el acto también intervinieron Pablo Bustinduy, ministro de Derechos Sociales, Consumo y Agenda 2030; Carmen Jaúdenes, directora de la Confederación Española de Familias de Personas Sordas en España (FIAPAS); y María Jesús Serna, consejera de la Confederación Estatal de Personas Sordas de España (CNSE). 

El servicio “RNE para todos” es una herramienta que se ha desarrollado con fondos públicos y que se podrá sintonizar a través de la Televisión Digital Terrestre (TDT), así como en RTVE Play. La herramienta va a prestar una cobertura inicial del 60 por ciento de la población a través de la TDT, pero se prevé llegar a más del 99 por ciento a medio plazo 

El 13 de febrero del 2023, con motivo del Día Mundial de la Radio, se realizó una prueba piloto mediante la que se emitió durante todo el día, en directo y de manera automática, subtítulos de la programación a través del canal de Radio Nacional de RTVE de la TDT. 

El CESyA es un centro asesor del Real Patronato sobre Discapacidad del Ministerio de Derechos Sociales, Consumo y Agenda 2030 y está gestionado por la UC3M. Está consolidado por la Ley General de Comunicación Audiovisual como uno de los centros estatales de referencia en cuestiones de accesibilidad audiovisual para las personas con discapacidad, y cuenta con la colaboración del Comité Español de Representantes de Personas con Discapacidad (CERMI), cuyo proyecto multidisciplinar consiste en favorecer la accesibilidad en el entorno de los medios audiovisuales a través de los servicios de subtitulado y audiodescripción.

“It is important to create synergies between the university and the company in order to generate maximum value by transforming theoretical research into tangible innovation within the company, and Universia will provide an advanced technological environment, real use cases and a team of experts, both in the corporate world and in AI,” says José Manuel de la Chica, director of Generative AI at Banco Santander.

The resolution of the Ministry provides for the admission of 15 national and 7 international chairs, which will address 10 areas of knowledge: aeronautics and aerospace, agriculture, green algorithms, health sciences, sustainable development, data economy, responsible and ethical AI, music and arts, demographic challenge and language technologies.

The AImpulsa UC3M-Universia Chair, which will include a multidisciplinary representation of researchers from the University, experts in the field from the financial institution and other international scientists, aims to address the challenges of the exploitation of personal data by large technology companies and the ethical implications of data privacy. One of the objectives of its research programme is to create a new personal data economy that is transparent, fair, inclusive and responsible.

“This will make it possible to maintain and improve current economic incentives, while reducing the harmful impact on the most vulnerable people and communities, promoting a new and healthier productive economic fabric based on this new data economy that we intend to explore during the course of the chair. On the other hand, at IBiDat, we are immersed in a disruptive line of research, focused on developing models and algorithms linked to AI that are interpretable and unbiased. The results will be tested in the very stimulating collaboration we have with Universia”, says the head of the AImpulsa Chair, Rosa Elvira Lillo, a professor of Statistics and Operations Research at UC3M and director of the big data research institute IBidat (uc3m-Santander Big Data Institute).

According to the creators of this Chair, in the era of the digital economy in which we find ourselves, large technology companies are accumulating huge amounts of personal data, driving big profits and generating a new data economy, according to the creators of this Chair. An OECD study shows that in the United States alone, these data-based companies had a turnover of more than $60 billion in 2017. In Canada, the amount was around 1.4 billion dollars and in the European Union it was estimated at between 19 and 50 billion euros in 2016. “In parallel to this phenomenon, deep and growing concerns are emerging about privacy, ethics and fairness in the use of this data and in the algorithms that use it to learn and predict,” explains another of the researchers participating in the AImpulsa UC3M-Universia Chair, Rubén Cuevas, Associate Professor in UC3M's Telematics Engineering Department and deputy director of IBiDat.

That is why the AImpulsa UC3M-Universia Chair on Data Economy and Responsible Applied Artificial Intelligence for the Creation of Exponential Value proposes an initiative with an ambitious and advanced comprehensive and technical focus, according to the researchers. Specifically, they have the ambition to be at the forefront of innovation in the application of solutions to ensure interpretability and fairness in AI algorithms by developing advanced and large-scale models. To do this, they will use deep neural networks, reinforcement learning algorithms and natural language processing, as well as simulation models, mechanism design and experimentation of large social and economic systems.  

Their research programme also includes a novel economic analysis of the impact of applying responsible algorithms, with the aim of encouraging the adoption of this type of solution by big data and AI technology companies. Instead of using traditional approaches such as strict regulations or sanctions (whose results may be limited or even counterproductive in some complex scenarios being generated by the new data economy), the researchers propose to develop innovative and scalable economic incentives that encourage companies to adopt and promote responsible AI in the medium and long term. To do this, they will design economic models and mechanisms that take advantage of the most advanced techniques in game theory, mechanism design, economics and information theory and computer privacy to create systems that encourage the adoption of responsible AI, and also penalise the use of algorithms that are harmful to society.

“All of these challenges, and all those appearing on the horizon in relation to the new AI economy, will be continuously explored within the Chair, demonstrating once again that knowledge transfer is fundamental in industry, something we at Universia are firmly convinced of,” says De la Chica.

“At UC3M's IBiDat, we are convinced that the AImpulsa chair will provide significant developments in aspects of AI that have not been explored until now, which will provide more confidence throughout the debate around the use of these methodologies, since our purpose is to move towards a fairer, more explainable and more efficient AI,” concludes Lillo.

“We're tremendously excited to combine our diverse expertise to investigate this cutting-edge question,” said Lesman, principal investigator on the grant. “Our preliminary models suggest cells may be able to communicate over relatively long distances through dynamic motions in the extracellular matrix, similar to how spiders sense vibrations through their webs. But this has never been directly studied before.”

Mortimer, a biologist who studies vibrational communication in animals such as spiders and elephants, will lead the experimental work to record and characterize the hypothesized cell-generated vibrations using state-of-the-art laser vibrometry techniques.

“I'm eager to apply approaches from my research on macro-scale animal communication to eavesdrop on the nanoscale whispers between cells,” she said.

The measured physical properties of the vibrations will feed into computational models led by Zaera to map how the signal propagates through the extracellular matrix.

“My lab's existing finite element models of fibrous materials are well-poised to simulate how the extracellular matrix, with its complex architecture, conducts dynamic mechanical information,” Zaera said.

Finally, the team will study how cells detect and respond to the vibrational signals at a molecular level using live microscopy and biomarkers, advised by Genin, a cell mechanobiology expert.

“From my research on how cells transduce minute mechanical forces during wound healing and fibrosis, I anticipate these vibrations may activate mechanosensitive signaling pathways to coordinate cell behavior,” Genin said.

This new mode of cell-cell communication, if validated, could have important implications for both healthy and disease processes involving cell interaction and collective behavior, from embryonic development to wound healing to cancer metastasis, the researchers said.

“By understanding the ‘language’ that cells use to talk to each other through extracellular matrix vibrations, we may identify new ways to promote healing and block pathological conditions,” Lesman said. “For example, we could potentially program 'messages' to stimulate tissue regeneration, or jam signals that enable tumor cell invasion.”

The research program will involve developing new techniques to 3D bioprint defined cell-matrix structures to control cell-cell distance and orientation. The project aims to show that cells can generate, propagate and perceive complex vibrational information through the extracellular matrix and elucidate the key cell and matrix parameters that govern this process.

“This high-risk, high-reward, interdisciplinary research is only possible through international collaboration,” Genin said. “By combining our complementary expertise, we can pursue this exciting hypothesis at the frontier of cellular mechanobiology in a way that none of us could do alone. Interesting research will come out of this regardless of whether experiments ultimately support our hypothesis.”

The team said this work may open a new paradigm to understand and engineer how cells coordinate their individual activities into collective behaviors, with potential future applications in regenerative medicine, cancer therapy and synthetic biology.

“We're thrilled to have the opportunity to work together on this potentially groundbreaking project,” Genin said. “And we're very grateful to the Human Frontiers Science Program for sharing our vision of using innovative, cross-disciplinary science to explore a potential new pathway for how cells communicate.”

Engineering

In the area of engineering, Daniel García González, professor of Mechanics of Continuous Media and Theory of Structures at UC3M, has won a Leonardo 2024 Grant with his project: “Conceptualization of mechano-electrical sensors using hybrid magneto-rheological elastomers”. This project proposes the design of a new generation of soft mechanical sensors with binary electrical responses to kinematic thresholds, with the ability to adhere to biological tissues and to accommodate large cyclic deformations. For this purpose, a multi-material design framework will be created to allow the integration of autonomous repair responses (through magneto-mechanical interactions) with conductive electrical properties dependent on mechanical deformation.

The implementation of this type of technological applications will allow the conceptualization of soft biomechanical sensors. These solutions have great potential to improve the effectiveness of bioengineering solutions for cardiac or pulmonary pathologies. For example, the lack of ability of the heart to contract or relax properly is known as heart failure, which is often due to changes in the stiffness of the muscle and a weakness in its mechano-electrical response. The devices derived from the proposed project have great potential for integration with biomechanical actuators allowing bidirectional communication between functional biological responses and soft robotics systems. Furthermore, the proposed technology could be used as soft biomechanical sensors to measure kinematic parameters (e.g. joint rotations) during sports or daily activities (especially relevant during rehabilitation periods). 

Computer science and data science

In the area of computer science and data science, Pablo Martínez Olmos, associate professor of Signal Theory and Communications at UC3M, has won a Leonardo 2024 Grant with his project: “THAI: Towards Humble And Discoverable AI”. This project addresses the concern about overconfidence and unreliability in generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). As AI technologies continue to reshape various industries, the project's main motivation lies in mitigating the risks associated with AI's persuasive capabilities, in particular the generation of plausible but unfounded results, known as hallucinations. THAI aims to develop generative AI methods that reduce overconfidence by reducing certainty without solid information. 

This initiative is crucial to maintain the credibility of AI technologies and ensure user confidence by distinguishing between reliable and unreliable AI-generated content. In addition, the project aims to improve security by developing robust training methods that reduce the vulnerability of AI systems to attacks, which could take advantage of overconfidence to extract sensitive information or generate harmful content. Finally, the project aims to identify detectable traces in AI-generated content, making it easier to distinguish between real and synthetic results. These goals collectively contribute to the advancement of more discernible, reliable and ethically sound AI technologies, addressing foundational challenges of generative AI and paving the way for more responsible applications.

The HumanIC network brings together leading academic teams from across Europe with partners from the hospital and healthcare HVAC industry. The aim is to train early-career engineers and scientists to take a new approach to human-centred indoor climate in healthcare environments.

What is a human-centred indoor climate?

Human-centred indoor climate is defined as the micro-environment surrounding and in close proximity to a human body. The concept focuses on human beings and their surrounding environment, which should be understood as a specific micro-environment, rather than the "physical vicinity" of a human body. 

The human-centred indoor climate of hospitals plays a key role in the safe and effective delivery of healthcare. Operating theatres, isolation rooms, treatment rooms and laboratories allow increasingly sophisticated treatments to be administered safely to patients, while wards, consulting rooms and waiting rooms provide essential facilities for patient interaction, comfort and well-being during recovery.

Healthcare associated infections (HAI)

It is estimated that more than 4 million patients acquire a healthcare associated infection (HAI) in the European Union each year. On any given day, some 80,000 patients suffer at least one HAI, i.e. one in every 18 patients in European hospitals.

The global antimicrobial resistance crisis means that HAIs pose an increasing cost and mortality risk. The hospital environment is responsible for 20% of all HAIs, and there is clear evidence that building design and human activities contribute to the transmission of infectious diseases.

Improving the indoor environment of a hospital building can reduce the costs associated with airborne diseases by 9% to 20%. Ventilation and indoor air are of particular concern, and numerous studies show that airflow controls the spread and exposure to airborne pathogens.

The work carried out at UC3M focuses on the experimental study and development of reduced models for complex flows in hospital environments. The fluid field will be studied using advanced experimental techniques such as laser velocimetry. From the field measurements, a simplified airflow model will be identified that will allow the development of algorithms for real-time flow estimation in operating theatres.

The impact of pandemics and climate change

The WHO acknowledged that during the Covid-19 pandemic many hospitals were working over capacity, with patients recovering in rooms that were never designed for them. Added to this, climate change is increasing health demands (future pandemics, heat-related diseases and infections; surgical site infection and mortality), challenging hospitals to maintain comfortable, human-centred thermal indoor climate conditions and, at the same time, driving hospitals to reduce energy consumption.

The HumanIC consortium considers human interactions with indoor environments and how this affects the transient dispersion of contaminants (particularly in protected microenvironments at risk, such as surgery) as a central prerequisite for the safe operation of these facilities. In particular, it is central to eliminating or minimising threats from airborne pathogens while ensuring good thermal comfort. HumanIC will generate new knowledge on the physical transmission processes and interactions between pollutants and airflow, and apply this knowledge to optimise the design of technical solutions and develop novel methods for visualising and controlling the human-centred indoor climate in hospital environments.

The HumanIC project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie programme (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01, project no. 101119726). The project partners are the following:  Warsaw University of Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Aalto University, St. Olavs Hospital, University of Coimbra - Polo II, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Fundación Para la Investigación Biomédica Hospital Gregorio Marañón, University of Leeds, Granlund Oy, Halton Oy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, ActiveTek Medica, REHVA, Drees & Sommer SE, Avidicare AB and Industry.

“Unlike previous research, which mainly focused on the pink tax in consumer goods, this specifically examines gender-based price discrimination in online advertising, revealing a significant correlation between the digital marketing pink tax and a country's level of development,” explains one of the study's authors, Amir Mehrjoo, a PhD student at IMDEA Networks and UC3M.

“This suggests that economic progress does not necessarily equate to gender equality in the digital market and may even exacerbate existing biases,” adds another author, Ángel Cuevas, a researcher in the Department of Telematic Engineering at UC3M.

The study points to some possible explanations for the notable disparity in DMPT between developed and less developed countries. Firstly, higher demand, as in developed countries, women may be the primary decision-makers for purchases (increasing demand and the cost of advertising targeting them). Secondly, the Human Development Index (HDI), which correlates with higher DMPT, suggesting that economic development may exacerbate gender biases. Thirdly, cultural factors, because in less developed countries, traditional gender roles may reduce the focus on advertising targeting women. And fourthly, regulatory issues, because developed countries have stricter regulations on gender discrimination in advertising, but their enforcement may be less effective in less developed countries.

Country and sector differences Middle Eastern and African countries with low HDI do not experience the digital marketing pink tax. “Possibly, the lower internet penetration rates and less developed digital advertising markets in these regions could contribute to this phenomenon. In less developed digital advertising markets, there may be fewer granular segmentation options available, including gender segmentation, which could reduce opportunities for price discrimination,” says Amir Mehrjoo.

The most affected sectors, where advertisers pay significantly more to target women, are hobbies (advertisers pay 64% more to target women in this category), style and fashion (the digital marketing pink tax is 53% higher for women), and travel (they pay 49% more to reach the female audience).

In the long term, the researchers hope that their work will encourage both advertisers and policymakers to take action, such as drafting and implementing stricter regulations and guidelines to prevent these discriminatory practices.

After all, “our understanding of the world is determined by the information we consume, much of which is filtered through algorithms that determine what we see on the Internet,” notes another of the study's authors, Rubén Cuevas, also from the Department of Telematic Engineering at UC3M. “These algorithms, although designed to optimize the user experience, may inadvertently perpetuate biases with significant social consequences. Our research highlights one of these biases, the digital marketing pink tax, demonstrating how seemingly neutral algorithms contribute to gender inequality,” concludes Mehrjoo.

Bibliographic reference: Mehrjoo, A., Cuevas, R. & Cuevas, Á. Online advertisement in a pink-colored market. EPJ Data Sci. 13, 36 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-024-00473-2

Durante los días 26, 27 y 28 de junio se van a llevar a cabo diferentes actividades: 

• Un hackathon para idear soluciones creativas al reto ‘AI Fair Play Hackathon: Ensuring Equality in Language Technology’. Esta actividad está patrocinada por NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH.
• Una muestra de posters de ideas y proyectos innovadores realizados por más de 60 estudiantes. 
• La impartición de más de 15 talleres sobre el uso y desarrollo de diferentes Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC), incluidos aquellos talleres técnicos de entidades como Airbus, Telefónica o Scalian España.
• Una feria de empleo y networking con empresas punteras. 

Asimismo, se han programado dos conferencias magistrales a cargo de Marta Villegas (Barcelona Supercomputing Center) y Virginia Dignum (AI Policy Lab @Umeå University). 

Este evento internacional ha sido celebrado en anteriores ediciones en ciudades como Manchester, Barcelona, Roma o Praga. Mediante esta iniciativa anual, ACM-W crea un foro internacional para compartir proyectos, adquirir nuevos conocimientos, establecer vínculos y, especialmente, poner en valor el trabajo de las mujeres en las distintas áreas STEM. 

womEncourage pretende aportar una perspectiva responsable de la informática y abarcar nuevos espacios de desarrollo, como la inteligencia artificial, la ingeniería software, la ciberseguridad y la interacción entre persona y computadora para que se tengan en cuenta las preocupaciones relevantes sobre el impacto social de las tecnologías digitales.

Más información

Hiili, which means “carbon” in Finnish, is developing a pioneering technology that will represent a notable evolution with respect to the proofs of concept scientifically validated by the UC3M research team. This technology combines Internet measurement techniques and the development of models based on Machine Learning, a discipline in the field of AI that makes it possible to identify patterns in massive data and develop predictive analysis. All this allows for an accurate estimate of the energy consumption of the company's digital activity. Currently, they have an operational product for digital advertising and a prototype to measure the energy consumption generated by the use of AI solutions, such as Chat-GPT or Gemini language models.

“We already offer a product that works with direct measurements of energy consumption, which makes Hiili the solution that provides the most accurate measurements of energy consumption and carbon footprint in this area,” says Rubén Cuevas. In addition, with these medium- and long-term developments, they also want to contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals in the area of sustainability and climate change.

Hiili's ultimate goal is to help companies and public entities measure the carbon footprint generated by their digital activity, with a primary focus on the energy consumption that an entity's activity generates in third parties. “In addition to measuring their carbon footprint, Hiili will provide information that will allow entities to make informed decisions to reduce their carbon footprint without affecting their business KPIs”, says Ángel Cuevas. 

“This collaboration has been evolving over several years. UC3M has been researching digital energy consumption since 2017 and has been a crucial partner for us in our previous company, Cavai. Together with the University, we have started this project with the goal of becoming a leading emissions data company,” says Steffen Svartberg, another of Hiili's founding partners.

To understand their business model, the researchers use a soft drink company as an example, which has a large direct energy consumption due to its own activities (such as the production of its beverages in bottling plants). However, this company also spends a lot of money on marketing activities that have no direct consumption of their own. “When we see an advertisement for the soft drink on our television or smartphone, the company is generating energy consumption that occurs on our devices, on a third party. While the measurement of direct emissions is something that has been developing in many companies and public entities in recent years, the measurement of indirect emissions is a complex technological challenge that Hiili has begun to address,” explains Rubén Cuevas.

This technology is not limited to digital advertising and AI, but is scalable and can be adapted to all digital services, including websites, apps, platforms and other digital infrastructure. This makes Hiili's solution a versatile resource for companies looking to measure, monitor and reduce the environmental impact of all digital activities.

UC3M participates in the share capital of this spin-off in order to contribute to its business development. This minority and temporary shareholding is articulated in accordance with the regulations for the creation of knowledge-based university companies. There are currently a total of 11 spin-offs in which UC3M participates, supported by the programme for the creation of and shareholding in spin-offs, located in the University's Science Park ‘s Centre for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA, in its Spanish acronym).

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The three-day event was attended by representatives of 10 companies and projects that have emerged from research or technologies in which UC3M has collaborated, such as: Applied Innovative Methods, Cassini Geopolitical Consulting, Evidence-Based Behavior, Hiili, Inrobics Social Robotics, Laboratorio Hipermedia, Ownmed Innovation, Seevia Technologies, Unuware and VitroFI Biosystems. These spin-offs develop products and services in the fields of audiovisual accessibility, human behavior, intelligent driving, sports training, international geopolitics, aeronautical meteorology, bioengineered skin, digital advertising, social robotics and digestive medicine.

UC3M's participation in the Madrid City Hall stand is co-funded by the City Council's Innovation and Entrepreneurship area, within the framework of the aid that UC3M receives to promote the creation and consolidation of spin-offs since 2021.

Another company that forms part of UC3M's ESA BIC node (one of the European Space Agency's four business incubation centres in the Community of Madrid), Cedrion, presented its solutions in a space provided by the Fundación para el Conocimiento madri+d. This start-up is dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of ionic wind devices with two main applications: the purification and disinfection of viruses and bacteria through cold plasma in biosanitary environments; and the cooling of electronic components for sectors such as aerospace and automotive. 

YUFE start-up and student competition

Two companies belonging to UC3M's business incubation and acceleration program have been selected as finalists in the start-up competition at this year's South Summit Madrid. On the one hand, Altum Sequencing, a spin-off of the Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital 12 de Octubre (FIBH12O), which has patented a system for the early identification of specific genetic markers of tumors and the quantification of cancer cells after response to drug treatments. On the other hand, Hydra Space Systems, from UC3M's ESA BIC node, has developed an optimised communications solution for connecting devices for the so-called Internet of Things in remote areas, ensuring efficiency and low connectivity costs for sectors such as precision agriculture and monitoring of the sea and the environment.

In addition, the University has facilitated the attendance at this forum of 35 undergraduate, master's and doctoral students from YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe), a network formed by ten young universities at the forefront of research and teaching. Thanks to this, these students who participate in YUFE Ideas Lab (the incubation programme of this network) have been able to receive training in entrepreneurship. They come from five universities of this alliance: Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), Cyprus (Cyprus), Eastern Finland (Finland), Maastricht (Netherlands) and Rijeka (Croatia).

More information: 

UC3M at South Summit 2024
https://eventos.uc3m.es/118081/detail/la-uc3m-en-south-summit-2024.html

‘This patent arises from the problems with existing techniques for aligning the facets (the individual specular elements) of heliostats, as they are either time-consuming or inaccurate,’ explain the authors of the patent. ‘The procedure and system for aligning the facets of a heliostat in a solar field offers an accurate technique that allows for simpler and faster assembly and maintenance in the solar plant compared to other methods,’ they point out.

UC3M also received a special mention in the category of Best Patent by a young inventor (under 40 years of age) for the patent ‘Device and method for characterizing the rough profile of a tissue sample’ (P202030210), by Roberto Fernández, Asier Marcos and Jorge Ripoll, from the University's Bioengineering Department. This invention in the field of microscopy describes a device designed to obtain useful information for the characterisation of rough tissue samples and three procedures to determine different parameters with it, such as the degree of anisotropy of the sample, its roughness frequency and amplitude, and the local average velocity of movement.

"The patented device makes it possible to determine changes in tissue structure indicative of inflammation and tumors using optical technology. This facilitates the early detection of various abnormalities, even before they show visible signs, says the developers.‘This technology can be implemented as a module in endoscopes (in vivo diagnostic tests) and microscopes (in vitro diagnostic tests), demonstrating its diagnostic efficacy in oesophageal or colon cancer,’ they add. 

This is the third edition of the ‘Awards for the Best Inventions Protected by Industrial Property Rights’, which have established themselves as a benchmark for the General State Administration's support for innovation and its protection by means of industrial property rights. The purpose of these awards is to distinguish the protection of research results through patents and utility models granted during the year 2022.

The protection of research results at the University is carried out through its Servicio de apoyo al Emprendimiento y la Innovación (Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support Service), located in the Centro de Innovación en Emprendimiento e Inteligencia Artificial (C3N-IA; Centre for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence), at the Parque Científico UC3M (UC3M Science Park).

AI Methods, S.L., led by Manuel Soler and Javier García-Heras, researchers from the Aerospace Engineering Department, aims to reduce the risk of weather-related events in aviation by promoting greater availability of weather information and better connectivity to provide more frequent weather updates to airlines, air navigation service providers and other organisations. In order to do this, it develops cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) models to predict weather patterns more reliably than is possible when using traditional weather prediction algorithms.

Hiili, S.L., led by Ángel and Rubén Cuevas Rumín, researchers from the Telematics Engineering Department, develops technological solutions that combine Internet measurement techniques and Machine Learning-based models to give an accurate estimate of the energy consumption of a company's digital processes. The first product is focused on the field of digital advertising. Specifically, the level of granularity offered by its system will allow a precise quantification of a company or brand's energy consumption for each advert that it shows to a user. From 2025, according to a European directive, companies will have to report on how their business model impacts sustainability.

Persei Space, S.L., led by Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga and Manuel Sanjurjo Rivo, researchers from the Aerospace Engineering Department, aims to develop and commercialise space products, in both the software and hardware fields, through space propulsion solutions based on electrodynamic tethers. In addition to being lightweight and scalable, space tethers can produce a drag or propulsive force in orbit without using propellant, making them ideal for space debris deorbiting and orbital mobility applications to provide in-orbit services.  

Seevia Technologies, S.L., led by Abdulla Al-Kaff and Fernando García Fernández, researchers from the Systems Engineering and Automation Department, focuses on the creation of high added-value technological solutions, focused on the application of AI and computer vision in the automotive sector, as well as in traffic monitoring and other tasks related to the Smart City concept. Its expertise lies in the development of perception systems based on information from a wide variety of sensors, including LiDAR, radar, cameras and GPS. 

60Nd, S.L., led by the researcher Daniel García González, from the Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis Department, is a spin-off dedicated to the design and production of lab instrumentation for the in vitro simulation of biological processes influenced by mechanical effects. It aims to commercialise a disruptive technology to induce mechanical activations in cells through magneto-responsive materials. This technology allows for new research possibilities in the fields of mechanobiology and mechanomedicine, with high potential to reduce time and costs during pharmaceutical research phases and to improve the quality and efficiency of treatments.

Including these companies, UC3M is currently a shareholder of 11 spin-offs which are supported by the programme for the creation of and shareholding in spin-offs, located in the University's Science Park's Centre for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA, in its Spanish acronym). The other companies are: Cyclomed Technologies, Evidence Based Behavior, Inrobics Social Robotics, Laboratorio Hipermedia, LeapWave Technologies and Power Smart Control. In addition, UC3M is also a shareholder of Sensia Solutions.

Progress within the framework of this project involves the development of huge antenna surfaces that will greatly improve the current resources in this field. “We want to address what we consider to be the most important challenges in mobile communications for our society in the next ten years. Specifically, communications with very low latency (the delay that occurs due to the lag between the transmission and reception of information packets, due to propagation and processing, among other things), with very high data rates and with reduced energy costs”, says Ana García Armada. “To address these challenges, it is necessary to work on a series of innovative architecture and technologies, such as Open RAN (a non-proprietary version of the Radio Access Network (RAN), which allows interoperability between equipment from different manufacturers) or to have native AI throughout the network design”, she adds. 

Possible applications

The project's research team is going to work on several practical scenarios to test what could be achieved with these advances, such as the possibility of having digital twins and full interaction between the real and virtual world, making augmented and virtual reality video calls or holographic images of those present, or even being able to carry out remote tele-surgeries. “We could have an expert in Madrid operating on a person who is in a remote village in the province of Ávila, more than a hundred kilometres away”, says Ana García Armada. 

The project has already started the recruitment process for 15 new PhD students to develop their doctoral thesis, which will be open until this June through this website. “The first part of the thesis will be developed in one of the universities that are part of the consortium, where the most academic and educational aspects will be discussed. And the other half of the thesis will be carried out in one of the participating companies in the telecommunications sector, in order to have a practical vision and bring what has been learned to the market”, explains the MiFuture project manager, Eduardo Alonso Frech, from UC3M's Signal Theory and Communications Department. Ultimately, it is about bringing together universities and industry to achieve a research approach, but also a focus on innovation and knowledge transfer.

MiFuture (ultra-massive MIMO for future cell-free heterogeneous networks) is a project that has received funding from the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks call (GA 101119643). UC3M is coordinating this consortium, which involves research staff from seven countries from the following research centres and companies: the Instituto de Telecommunicaçoes (Portugal), the University of Tampere (Finland), the University of Lund (Sweden), the University Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), Ericsson Research (in Finland and Sweden), Vodafone (Spain), Nokia (Poland), Nokia Bell Labs (Finland), Altys Technology (France) and Keysight Technologies Belgium. In addition, associate partners include Keysight Technologies UK, the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), the NOVA University of Lisbon (Portugal), the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the University of Coimbra (Portugal). 

More information: 

MiFuture project website
https://mifuture.tsc.uc3m.es/index.html

The answer to all these questions is yes, according to the researchers who are part of the RefMap project. In particular, their vision for sustainable aviation is embodied in tangible objectives and concrete proposals. In this three-year project, experts from the general aviation sector come together to marry the two worlds of air traffic management and unmanned aircraft systems traffic management, focusing their research primarily on future aviation business models.

The RefMap multidisciplinary consortium is made up of 11 partners, including universities, SMEs and experts from 8 European countries and its aim is to reduce the environmental impact of airline air travel and unmanned aerial systems by creating a digital service that optimises flight paths at both the individual level (micro scale) and the air transport system level (macro scale).

Using environmental data (such as wind, noise, CO2 and other gas emissions), RefMap's analytical platform will help airlines, airports and regulators to make more environmentally friendly choices. This will lead to stricter, evidence-based environmental policy-making in the aviation sector and the development of new aviation business models in line with the EU Green Agenda.

The first results of the technical work

RefMap's UK partner, the University of Salford, has completed the first in a series of experiments aimed at understanding the human response to drone noise. The ultimate goal is to develop a model to predict the disturbance caused by drone noise and to help optimise their trajectory to reduce the impact on communities.

In addition, RefMap is now able to predict the wind around realistic urban areas, which can be used to explore and optimise UAV trajectories using a low-fidelity computational fluid dynamics model. The Delft University of Technology, together with AgentFly Technologies, have been working on it, and their teams are already planning the next experimental campaign in the Czech Republic to measure the noise emitted by a wide range of unmanned aerial vehicle operations.

In addition, RefMap's coordinator, the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, has developed an emissions method, adapting existing ones for traditional fuels, to take into account sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in different mixing ratios.

Within the framework of this project, a comprehensive and detailed analysis will be presented at UC3M that explores the feasibility and potential of using climate-friendly flight planning as an operational measure to mitigate the climate impact of the aviation sector. “The results obtained so far show that the effectiveness of climate-optimised route planning in mitigating climate impact is closely related to daily weather conditions, thus acting as a crucial indicator,” say the project's researchers, María Cerezo and Manuel Soler, from UC3M's Aerospace Engineering Department.

The RefMap project started on the 1st of February 2023 and is scheduled to end on the 31st of January 2026, coordinated by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. In addition to UC3M, the following institutions are part of the project: AgentFly Technologies s.r.o. (AFT), Delft University of Technology (TUD), DronePrep, Future Needs Management Consulting (FN), Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), S&T, University of Birmingham, University Institute of Lisbon, and University of Salford. The project has received funding from the European Union's HORIZON Research and Innovation Programme and, more specifically, from CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) of the European Commission, under grant agreement number 101096698.

More information: 

RefMap project website

Verifiable computation provides integrity, fairness and privacy, essential properties in applications that outsource data processing tasks. Within the possible solutions, there are general proof systems, such as those used in some blockchain, which have scalability problems when dealing with computations with large amounts of data. On the other hand, solutions designed specifically for these applications are more efficient, but often incompatible with each other, making it difficult to scale them up or integrate them into larger data processing chains.

The study

Researchers have introduced a new framework aimed at bridging this gap by combining the performance advantages of custom solutions with the versatility of general-purpose test systems. At its core is a modular approach to verifiable computation of sequential operations, which is based on a new cryptographic primitive known as VE (Verifiable Evaluation Scheme).

The researchers demonstrate the practical application of their framework in artificial intelligence by proposing a novel VE adapted to convolution operations, capable of handling multiple interconnected input and output channels. "Our protocol can be easily integrated into a data processing chain to enable full verification of, for example, predictions made by convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which are the basis of most artificial intelligence models," says David Balbás, PhD student at IMDEA Software and researcher of this study. In addition, the paper also presents new VEs for image processing, which allow efficient verification of editing or retouching, including operations such as cropping, blurring, rescaling and other more complex operations.

The team has produced a prototype application of its testing systems that is a significant improvement on existing techniques. "Our benchmarking shows that our proofs are five times faster to generate and ten times faster to verify than the best existing solutions so far, in addition to introducing theoretical innovations in the algorithms," explains Damien Robissout, research programmer at Institute IMDEA Software and also co-author of the study.

These results not only improve the efficiency and scalability of cryptographic proof systems but also open up new possibilities for ensuring the integrity, fairness and privacy of data processing tasks in various applications of artificial intelligence and image processing. "Nowadays, this approach is essential in the field of application we are considering, because a technological advance is not such if it does not merit the trust of end users," says another of the study's authors, Maribel González Vasco, Professor of Excellence in the UC3M Department of Mathematics.

The application generated in the study is open source and its modular nature paves the way for its extension and integration into various tools within a data processing chain. In this way, the researchers clear the way for versatile and robust deployment of verifiable computation in applications as diverse as financial ethics, personal data protection or artificial intelligence regulation, among others.

This work is part of the PICOCRYPT project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 101001283).

Bibliographic reference:

Balbás, D. Fiore, D. González-Vasco, M. I. Robissout, D. Soriente, C. (2023). Modular Sumcheck Proofs with Applications to Machine Learning and Image Processing. CCS '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications. Pages 1437–1451. https://doi.org/10.1145/3576915.3623160

"The project identified barriers currently hindering the transitions towards 6G, limiting the network sustainability and the seamless interactions among operators. We plan to break these barriers, using novel techniques based on e.g. artificial intelligence", says another of the researchers who are part of the project, Marco Gramaglia, a lecturer in the UC3M Department of Telematics Engineering. "From UC3M, we're going to lead the architectural definition work, trying to impact the 6G standardization process that will start in 2025; and we'll design solutions for the efficient RAN operation", he says.

By proposing and developing three critical architecture innovations – Global Services Based Architecture (GSBA), Zero Trust Exposure Layer (ZTL), and Continuous Compute Layer (CCL) -, ORIGAMI will create unique global standards, promote green transition, give new impetus to accessibility and inspire innovative applications and new business models, maximizing the exploitation of AI-based Network Intelligence functions. The project will conduct eight real-world demonstrations at six experimental sites and two large-scale international datasets from two major operators, which will validate its technology and research results.

“The environment proposed by ORIGAMI will streamline communication and interoperability at all levels of the network, pave the way for truly global standards, democratize access to extremely heterogeneous computing resources, and allow third parties to securely program their virtual networks in zero-trust environments”, says Dr. Javier García Rodrigo, Project Coordinator at Telefónica Digital Innovation. “This research – Dr. García Rodrigo continues – is probably the first in Europe to holistically address substantial barriers to the success of 6G, from limitations in the control and interoperability of virtualized infrastructure to the lack of adequate support for global operations and billing, which are increasingly common in real-world scenarios”.

The project extends the scope of previous works such as DAEMON, led by IMDEA Networks Institute and based on the 5G architectural model, intending to increase the full potential of virtualization and programmability. To achieve this objective, ORIGAMI will adopt a completely renewed perspective: proposing a novel cross-plane architecture for 6G networks that supports original exposure and computation layers. A framework of functionalities within which actions such as supporting the global operation model of vertical applications, mass IoT deployment, or maximizing the potential of virtualization and programmability stand out.

Marco Fiore, Principal Investigator of IMDEA Networks Institute in the project, highlights the institution’s contribution to this scientific performance: “We bring our expertise in AI-based network function design and network user plane programmability. Specifically, we will work to develop and demonstrate in industrial-level experimental testbeds new machine learning models that can operate on heterogeneous user planes through efficient model design and hardware allocations. This approach will enable more agile access to the capabilities of modern programmable transport domains. For network operators, our solutions will translate into increased speed, accuracy, and scalability compared to the current state of the art.”

The ORIGAMI project is funded by the European Commission (GA 101139270) as part of the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU). Coordinated by Telefónica Research and Development, it involves 31 researchers from 9 countries and brings together some of the main industry and academic players in the mobile telecommunications ecosystem in Europe, such as: NEC Laboratories Europe, Telecom Italia (TIM), EMnify, FOGUS Innovations & Services, Cumucore, IS-Wireless, Net AI, IMDEA Networks, i2CAT and the Technische Universiteit Delft, in addition to UC3M. 

More information

ECOCredGT is implemented mainly in Guatemala, with the support of European partners from Spain and Austria, to establish a national model of digital credentials for vocational training that can then be extrapolated to other countries. Other outcomes of the project include the training of staff at participating institutions, the implementation of micro-courses that promote employability and the creation of an observatory in Latin America to monitor the status of digital credentials and share good practices and success stories.

“The capacity building generated thanks to ECOCredGT will strengthen the foundation for exploring the future issuance of digital credentials for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in a validated ecosystem with international recognition and interoperability”, concludes Carlos Alario. “Although it focuses on a single country (Guatemala), dissemination is expected to reach many other countries within this region. I think this type of project is important in the context of collaboration between Europe and Latin America”, he says.

ECOCredGT (acronym for “Towards a digital credential ecosystem to strengthen actions for job creation”) is a project funded by the European Union (GA 10112912) within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. Coordinated by UC3M, it also involves the Galileo University (Guatemala), the Technical University of Graz (Austria) and the Kinal Foundation (Guatemala). And it follows the path of other previous recent projects in which some of these institutions have collaborated, such as PROF-XXI, MOOC-Maker or E-LANE. The views and opinions expressed in this news story are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the EU or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

More information: 

ECOCredGT project website

Traditionally, social sciences have studied the structure of relationships between individuals in a society (how many friendships a person has, how they cultivate them, how much they rely on them or need them to make everyday decisions, etc.) as a field independent of the cultural context (nationality, ethnicity, language, religion...). The aim of this project is to understand both dimensions in a single common framework. “We are going to consider it all as one thing: culture makes society, society makes culture”, says Anxo Sánchez. 

To do this, the researchers will apply machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to a massive amount of data from three sources. On the one hand, the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), a Yale University database that provides highly detailed information “on almost all the ethnographies published worldwide”, says José Luis Molina. On the other hand, a cultural classification based on the analysis of more than two billion personal Facebook profiles, work that part of the UC3M team has carried out and which has made it possible to “group the world's cultures into different clusters according to their similarity, as well as measuring the distances between cultures”, says the project coordinator. And lastly, our own surveys will be carried out in a dozen countries around the world. 

“We have a very bold plan”, says Christopher McCarty, “which is to understand the origins of this social structure surrounding you and how it interacts with culture. We've already published a first article in PNAS Nexus where we showed that there is a relationship between social structure and culture”. The sample of that study was limited, both in terms of the number of individuals and cultural groups, and wasn't sufficiently representative to draw large-scale conclusions. The great contribution that this new project will incorporate is that the analysis sample will be much larger and more culturally diverse.

According to Molina, this is “the first time” that a project analysing the human condition from the perspectives of personal networks and cultural origin will be undertaken, covering practically all of the world's ethnographies and large cultural groups. “This research represents a new and innovative approach to understanding human societies, offering a promising avenue for future cross-cultural studies, which we hope will contribute significantly to various fields, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, network science and computational social science”, adds Anxo Sánchez.

In addition to this contribution that seeks to bridge the gap between two areas of knowledge, society and culture, the project leaders are convinced that the findings will go beyond academia: “Just as our previous studies have provided important evidence to prevent abusive behaviour in schools such as bullying, we are sure that this new project will have an impact on how to address issues such as, for example, the integration of migrants into societies”, says Sánchez.

The BBVA Foundation's Fundamentals Programme seeks to support exploratory, fundamental and interdisciplinary research on core issues in basic science. After assessing a total of 305 applications, the committees of expert evaluators have awarded five grants of 600,000 euros each in five areas of knowledge: Physics and Chemistry; Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence; Biology and Biomedicine; Environmental Sciences; and Social Sciences.

To do this, the researchers have worked with spheroids to simulate how cells behave in a real tumor under different mechanical conditions. These spheroids consist of groups of tumor cells embedded in a fibrillar matrix whose characteristics can be modulated. “They are very powerful systems that are increasingly being used to study tumor behavior and to study possible therapies”, explains another of the researchers, Arrate Muñoz-Barrutia, a Professor in UC3M's Bioengineering Department.

Thanks to these spheroids, researchers have been able to modify certain biological or mechanical aspects of these tumors in the laboratory and evaluate how these variables influence cell proliferation and migration. They then transformed these observations into mathematical equations implemented in a computational model. In this way, they were able to test in parallel (in the computer simulator and in the experimental model with the spheroids in the laboratory) the variables that influence the growth of these tumors. “Our new multi-compartment spheroid system allowed us to control and modulate the system’s biomechanical properties via collagen density and E-cadherin expression, which are known to play a role in breast cancer progression. It was very exciting to work with this team to see the story come together from both experimental and computational perspectives”, says another of the study's authors, Denis Wirtz, from JHU's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department.

“While experimentally, proliferation and invasion are often measured as two independent parameters, we observed a strong coupling of these processes. Although they could not be isolated using traditional experimental outputs, the computational model allowed us to study these processes independently and gather insights from the biomechanical properties of our system”, adds another of the JHU team's researchers, Ashleigh Crawford.

Future applications of this study are promising, according to the researchers. “If we know which mechanical parameters determine whether the tumor grows more or less, then we could use that data to improve treatment or develop new drugs in the medium or long term”, says Daniel García González. “We think that these studies open the door to the development of technologies that allow us to characterize the mechanics of the tumor, which can add relevant information for the choice of cancer therapy”, adds Arrate Muñoz-Barrutia.

The team of scientists also highlights the importance of multidisciplinary research in this case, since contributions have been made from computational and mathematical to purely biological fields. “My training as a biomedical engineer, studying at UC3M, has allowed me to collaborate in all parts of this research and to create bridges of communication between disciplines that use different terminologies”, says another of the study's authors, Clara Gómez Cruz, a PhD student in UC3M's Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis Department.

This research is part of 4D-BIOMAP (Biomechanical Stimulation based on 4D Printed Magneto-Active Polymer), a project funded by the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant from the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020 (GA 947723). It has also received funding from the USA's National Institute of Health and National Cancer Institute.

Bibliographic reference:

Crawford A.J. Gomez-Cruz, C. Russo G. C. Huang, W. Bhorkar I. Roy, T, Muñoz-Barrutia, A. Wirtz, D. Garcia-Gonzalez, D. (2024).  Tumor proliferation and invasion are intrinsically coupled and unraveled through tunable spheroid and physics-based models.  Acta Biomaterialia, Volume 175, Pages 170-185, ISSN 1742-7061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2023.12.043

One of the specific aspects this Chair will focus on is the development of a set of indicators that will make it possible to define and evaluate territorial cohesion policies. To do this, different dimensions will be taken into account, such as: social welfare, economic dynamism, environmental conservation and political governance. This indicator will be called iCORE.

“All these research activities will be based on semantic web technologies and open and linked data to promote and enhance open science initiatives in relation to territorial cohesion policies,” explains the researcher in charge of the Chair, Javier García Guzmán, Associate Professor in UC3M's Computer Science Department. “The research community will be able to access the generated datasets through access points based on semantic technologies, and citizens will be able to access them through GIS viewers of iCORE information and its comparison with other external entities (autonomous communities and countries),” he adds.

In addition, the Chair will enable permanent collaboration between the Regional Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, through the Directorate-General for Territorial Rebalancing and UC3M. “This Chair will promote research and the development of open data analysis activities, and most importantly, it will encourage research and scientific talent in the field of local administration. Applying innovation to optimise and make the management of public administration more efficient is one of our main priorities,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, Miguel Ángel García Martín.

Within the framework of this Chair, research will be carried out on different artificial intelligence techniques for the exploitation and use of the generated data in the definition and evaluation of related policies. “The first case study advancing on the datasets that are already being generated consists of determining the distance to public services from each of the population centres in the Community of Madrid,” reveals Antonio de Amescua, a professor in UC3M's Computer Science Department and a member of the Chair's monitoring committee. 

Within the scope of the Chair's activity, studies encouraging the creation of talent in the area will also be sponsored, through the granting of scholarships, support for the completion of doctoral theses and final degree projects, the creation of thesis awards and Final Bachelor's and Master's Degree projects, etc.

This initiative has an investment of 300,000 euros provided by the regional government until 2026 and will allow the evaluation of public initiatives for territorial competitiveness and assess the suitability of promoting new businesses that boost local economies.

More information: 

LODCoreMadrid project website
http://lodcoremadrid.es 

Two workshops will be held during the morning, between 10 am and 2:30 pm. Firstly, “How do aircraft contrails affect climate change?”, given by Raúl Quibén Figueroa, Bun-Kim San, Manuel Soler Arnedo and Adrián Zarzoso, researchers from the UC3M Aerospace Engineering Department's E-CONTRAIL project (GA101114795). In the proposed experiments, visitors will be able to create a cloud in a pressure bottle and test the thermal behaviour of two atmospheres when irradiated by a heat source.

“Discover the skills of the TIAGo assistive robot” is the title of the other morning activity at the UC3M stand, which will be carried out by Juan G. Víctores and Francisco José Naranjo Campos, researchers from UC3M's Systems Engineering and Automation Department. They will explain how TIAGo works, an assistive robot that combines perception, navigation, manipulation and human interaction skills, which they are using in the Robotics Lab in several lines of current and future AI-related research.

Two other activities will take place in the afternoon, from 3:30 pm to 8 pm. On the one hand, “AI in smartphones for the biometric recognition of hand veins”, in which Raúl García Martín, a researcher from the UC3M Electronic Technology Department's University Group of Identification Technologies (GUTI, in its Spanish acronym), will show the device that has been designed, patented and manufactured at the University to carry out this vascular biometric recognition from any computer, smartphone or tablet through a USB-C port.

In “True Detective: Are you smarter than AI?”, which will be led by Uxía Carral Vilar, a researcher from the UC3M Communication Department's MediaLab group, there will be a race against time to detect disinformation created by AI. To do this, participants will be able to carry out three tests to recognise fake or real news, fake identities on social networks and detect deep fakes (fake AI-generated videos). The challenge will be to do it in less than 5 minutes.

Other UC3M activities at the Madrid es Ciencia Fair

On the same day at 11:30 am at the Science Agora, Sara Correyero, UC3M alumni and co-founder of the startup Ienai Space, will give a lecture entitled “Are we facing a new space race?” on the proliferation of new satellite launches. Their functions are very diverse, from taking photographs of the Earth to analysing the effects of climate change, including space surveillance or Internet access from anywhere in the world, for example.

Throughout the Madrid es Ciencia Fair, from the 7th to the 9th of March from 10 am to 8 pm and at a separate stand, researchers from UC3M's Autonomous Mobility and Perception Lab (AMPL) (Fernando García Fernández, Abdulla Al Kaff, Armando Astudillo Olalla, Sergio Campos Novoa, Fernando Vela Hidalgo, Alberto Gil Cuadrado, Javier Gómez Eguizabal and Martín Palos Lorite) will be presenting their ERIS test vehicle, which they are using to develop computer vision technologies applied to race environments and smart cities.

The Madrid es Ciencia Fair 2024 is an event organised by the madri+d Knowledge Foundation, of the Community of Madrid, which is designed as a comprehensive sample of scientific and technological innovation in the Community of Madrid from a recreational and participatory point of view. In addition, it intends for its own protagonists (researchers, entrepreneurs, teachers, students...) to show and explain science and its impact on our daily lives. 

More information:

UC3M website about the Madrid es Ciencia Fair 2024

Neuroscience comprises all the basic, experimental and formal sciences that, from different points of view, study the human nervous system. The aim of the new degree is to develop innovative strategies and improve existing ones for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and rehabilitation of diseases in order to guarantee personal and social well-being in the most efficient way possible.

UC3M's Neuroscience degree will have a strong multidisciplinary focus. Sciences such as physics, chemistry, psychology, mathematics and medicine will be interlinked to generate theoretical, but also applied knowledge, albeit in activities different from direct clinical medical practice.

The degree will be taught entirely in English in order to facilitate European and non-European student mobility, promote international agreements and alliances and attract not only national but also international talent, both among students and teaching staff.

In terms of career opportunities, graduates of this degree will be prepared for jobs in the pharmaceutical, health or biomedical equipment sectors, research or diagnostic laboratories, or biotechnology companies, among others.

The recommended candidate profile is A Level Science, as it provides specific training in key areas for the study of neuroscience. This approach develops essential knowledge and skills, optimally preparing students for their university studies.

More information

Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have been trying to find the location of a mobile phone with a single station for some time. Based on a new technology (called 802.11az), which offers more refined and accurate location capabilities, they have developed a prototype router that uses two WiFi devices and a positioning algorithm. The prototype is able to find out the location of a mobile phone 7 metres away with errors of less than around 3 centimetres. In addition, it is able to use the bouncing of the WiFi signal off a wall so the station (or access point, or router) can find the mobile phone.

It would be ideal to be able to locate a mobile phone using a single station, according to the researchers. But to avoid having to use triangulation, the signal from the antenna needs to be able to be very well targeted at the mobile phone it is searching for. And the only way to do so is by using antennas with high directivities operating at high frequencies. Specifically, technologies like 5G/WiFi-7 can use frequencies higher than 20GHz that allow the antenna to be very well targeted at the mobile phone. In addition, high frequencies help to more accurately find out when the signal arrived. All of this makes high-frequency wireless networks the perfect candidate for locating the mobile phone with a single antenna.

Following a study that began thanks to COVID funds from the Community of Madrid to find out, using WiFi, where a citizen with COVID had moved to, the team of researchers from UPM and UC3M set up a project to find the position of a mobile phone with a single station. They therefore came across the 802.11az technology known as next-generation positioning, which, among other things, specifies a new method for locating a mobile phone. “In other words, this WiFi upgrade is designed to let your router know more accurately where you are,” say the researchers. “The way it works is simple: the 60GHz antenna rotates until it locates you in front and then starts a measurement. During the measurement, the router sends several messages to which the mobile phone responds. Each of these messages includes the time it was sent, so the router is able to know how long the signal is in the air and find out how far away you are. The further away you are, the longer the signal is in the air,” they continue.

When the UPM and UC3M researchers started working with 802.11az, the upgrade was still a draft pending approval by the international community. In other words, router manufacturers had no plans to incorporate the 802.11az upgrade. However, PhD students Pablo Picazo Martínez and Carlos Barroso Fernández created a prototype router, incorporating this upgrade, which uses two WiFi devices whose antennas emit at 60GHz (high frequency) and a positioning algorithm they have developed.

“The accuracy of our prototype demonstrates that future routers could find the location of a robot in a factory without the need for a camera or motion sensors, lowering costs in factories,” the researchers say. “As well as knowing exactly where you are sitting in your house,” they conclude.

More information:

Bibliographic reference: Pablo Picazo-Martínez, Carlos Barroso-Fernández, Jorge Martín-Pérez, Milan Groshev, Antonio de la Oliva. IEEE 802.11az Indoor Positioning with mmWave. IEEE Communications Magazine 2024. arXiv:2303.05996. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2303.05996
https://oa.upm.es/76960/1/80211az-mmwv-positioning.pdf

“We began the research on the 29th of September 2020 (after signing a collaboration agreement with the Community of Madrid) and just three days later, on the 2nd of October, the power supply was cut in sectors 5 and 6," says one of the researchers, Jorge Martínez Crespo, Associate Professor in UC3M's Electrical Engineering Department. "We then focused on the impact of this power cut on the homes in these sectors and measured the environmental conditions inside the houses,” he adds.

What they found shows a global overview of high social vulnerability, with extreme situations of cold and heat depending on the seasons. “It is possible, and even common in homes with several indicators of instability (low income, poor building quality, inadequate equipment or homes affected by disconnections), to identify temperatures in the most used rooms below 10°C in winter or even above 40°C in summer,” says another of the researchers, Ulpiano Ruiz-Rivas Hernando, head of UC3M's Appropriate Technologies for Sustainable Development Group.

“These types of measures allow us to identify the circumstances there and should allow political action to resolve these problems,” says Ulpiano Ruiz-Rivas. In this sense, the report recommends restoring the electricity supply in sector 6, which has been without electricity since October 2020. “It doesn't seem justifiable that after the sudden power cut, more than three years ago, no structural measures have been implemented”, say the authors of the study, recently published in the scientific journal Energy Research & Social Science by Ulpiano Ruiz-Rivas and Jorge Martínez-Crespo together with Sergio Tirado-Herrero (Autonomous University of Madrid) and Raúl Castaño Rosa (University of Tampere, Finland). The four of them regret that no diversification of supply has been undertaken, given the existence of other medium-voltage power lines in the area that could alleviate the overload. They also noticed the lack of a tender to develop collective self-consumption facilities from the nearest public facilities.

The power cut also posed a “threat” to other sectors of La Cañada Real, according to the researchers. As a result, the inhabitants of the area looked for alternative sources of supply, such as solar panels or diesel generators, which can be seen today along different points of the route and which represent the fundamental change in terms of electricity generation or production. “As a result of the emergency situation created by the disconnection of the power supply, there is increased instability and the emergence of cases of extreme energy poverty that would be difficult to find in other areas of the EU or in the global North in general,” the project report states.

In order to carry out this research, the analysis of census data of the entire population of La Cañada was combined with a more specific study of a sample of households. To do so, on the one hand, interviews were carried out on energy use and needs and, on the other hand, there were campaigns to measure indoor environment conditions in homes, together with temporary monitoring of the power supply continuity in sectors 5 and 6 of La Cañada. This approach is what has made it possible to visualise and characterise the problems linked to access to energy faced by the population of La Cañada Real Galiana, the researchers say.

A situation generating some controversy in this area is the drug market, which is located approximately one kilometre inside sector 6. “This can logically have an energy impact, because there is a large demand for electricity for the marijuana plantations, but we haven't taken measurements in that area. But what we have been able to measure is the impact of an intervention in a marijuana plantation, with the destruction of the electrical installation in the area and the resulting supply disruption in a certain area, which affects other neighbours who live nearby and who have nothing to do with it”, says Jorge Martínez.

This project has received funding from the 13th Call for Grants for UC3M Cooperation Projects, in addition to support from UC3M's Social Council through two grants for social commitment actions within the framework of sustainable development at the University in the 2020 and 2021 calls.

More information: 

Martínez Crespo, J., Hernández Jiménez, F., Ruiz-Rivas Hernando, U. (2023). Informe Final del Proyecto "Diagnóstico de los usos y necesidades energéticas de la población de la Cañada Real Galiana". e-Archivo:  http://hdl.handle.net/10016/38662 

Ruiz-Rivas Hernando, U., Tirado-Herrero, S., Castaño-Rosa, R.,  Martínez Crespo, J. (2023). Disconnected, yet in the spotlight: Emergency research on extreme energy poverty in the Cañada Real informal settlement, Spain.  Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 102, August 2023, 103182 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103182 

Two advanced experimentation services from the SLICES-Madrid node (slices-madrid.eu), will be presented at this conference hosted at UC3M. SLICES-Madrid will allow, among other services, large-scale experiments to be carried out with a very powerful Internet of Things (IoT) satellite service with coverage throughout Europe. One of the researchers who has driven this project, Carmen Guerrero, from the UC3M Department of Telematics Engineering, highlights the usefulness of this infrastructure as an instrument for the scientific community in the area of future networks. “They will have access to cutting-edge deployments to carry out experiments that are currently not readily available to scientists in general, or that do not even exist today. In fact, there is currently a lack of access to experimental facilities and SLICES will provide these services to the research community in Europe”.

“This is a very important milestone because it represents that Europe is aware of the need for strategic autonomy in information technologies. We have to join forces to improve their R&D capabilities in this respect,” says Arturo Azcorra, director of IMDEA Networks and professor at UC3M. And he adds: “This is great news, therefore, for the academic and business world, as well as for society. It is a milestone that we can consider global in scope in the field of open experimentation via satellite.”

We are currently experiencing a major technological revolution in the area of ICT. The scientific community is constantly researching new solutions to support this transformation and therefore contribute to improving our lives. As a result, several scientific infrastructures have emerged that offer experimentation services with cutting-edge resources, which are otherwise only offered in industrial R&D laboratories with limited functionality. And it is precisely to combat these problems that the ESFRI SLICES research infrastructure has been launched, providing high-quality experimentation services with emerging technologies in fields such as 5G/6G, the Internet of Things (IoT), Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) or Cloud Computing, for example.

About IMDEA Networks and UC3M

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching and innovation. It is among the best universities in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2024 and among the best universities for the employability of its graduates, according to the latest edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Global University Employability Ranking. UC3M is the first university in Europe to obtain ACEEU dual accreditation for its contribution and impact on the industrial and social fabric, and it also has other accreditations and quality awards, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering or the AACSB accreditation in business and finance programmes.

IMDEA Networks is a research institute for computer and communication networks, whose multinational team works on fundamental science and cutting-edge technology. As a growing, English-speaking institute based in Madrid, Spain, IMDEA Networks offers a unique opportunity to pioneering scientists who aspire to develop their ideas. IMDEA Networks has established itself internationally at the forefront in the development of future network principles and technologies. Our highly-reputed research team is designing tomorrow's networks today.

More information:

Scientific Large Scale Infrastructure for Computing/Communication Experimental Studies: Spanish node https://www.slices-madrid.eu/

The use of microorganisms to control mosquito-borne diseases has been used before. However, most methods to block the development of malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites transmitted by different species of mosquitoes have been based on genetically modified bacteria. The Delftia tsuruhatensis bacteria featured in this new research published in Science, one of the world's leading scientific journals, inhibits the malaria parasite and is naturally present in the environment.

The study's authors came across the microbe by chance, after noticing that a colony of mosquitoes they were using in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) research for new drug development were becoming increasingly difficult to infect with Plasmodium. They later found that all the samples contained a bacterial strain called Delftia tsuruhatensis TC1, which they discovered slows the growth of Plasmodium in the mosquito's intestine, where the parasite develops before moving into the insect's salivary glands. Experiments with rodents carried out at Johns Hopkins University (USA) revealed that this disruption of Plasmodium growth led to a reduction in transmission: only a third of mice bitten by mosquitoes carrying these bacteria became infected, compared with 100% of mice bitten by mosquitoes not repopulated with the bacteria. They also found that mosquitoes only need to eat a few bacteria to be colonised and that, once inside the insect, the bacteria remain there, continually blocking the parasite's development.

Field studies carried out in Burkina Faso and modelling have shown that Delftia tsuruhatensis TC1 has the potential to complement malaria transmission control. In fact, according to the results of the study, this bacterium can reduce the parasite load in mosquitoes by up to 73%, thanks to the production of a molecule, called harmane, which is also found in plants used in traditional medicine in some cultures.

"The identification of a bacteria that prevents the development of the parasite stages that occur in mosquitoes without affecting them provides a novel approach with very little chance of developing resistance, since it is not detrimental to the mosquitoes," explains one of the study's authors, Alfonso Mendoza Losana, currently a distinguished researcher in UC3M's Bioengineering Department and initiator of the project at GSK. "In addition, it is a non-genetically modified bacteria, which allows for rapid introduction in the field," he highlights.

This idea has been patented by GSK and Alfonso Mendoza Losana is one of the two authors of this innovation to reduce malaria transmission. In addition, this research has received funding from GSK Spain, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the British government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Bibliographic reference: Huang, W. et al (2023). Delftia tsuruhatensis TC1 symbiont suppresses malaria transmission by anopheline mosquitoes. Science. 381 (6657):533–540. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf8141 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf8141 

IEEE Fellow grades are conferred for the contributions of the researchers to a particular line of work. In the case of Ana García Armada, from UC3M’s Signal Theory and Communications Department, it is for her contributions to wireless communications transceivers. While in the case of Arrate Muñoz Barrutia, from UC3M’s Bioengineering Department, it was for her contributions to biomedical image processing. Both will take possession of this award from the 1st of January 2024, which is when the appointments are made official. 

Ana García Armada is a professor in UC3M’s Signal Theory and Communications Department and head of the Communications Research Group. With a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering, she is developing her research activity in the field of mobile communications, having led various national and international projects. Her research has resulted in nine book chapters and over 250 publications in journals and international conferences, as well as five patents. She has carried out research stays at leading institutions, such as Stanford University or Bell Labs, among others. She is part of the Expert Group of the European mobile communications platform Network Europe and has been the Spanish representative and Vice-President of the ESA Joint Board on Communication Satellite Programmes 5G Advisory Committee. She is currently the Vice-President of Member and Global Activities of the IEEE Communications Society. She has received an Excellence Award from the Social Council and a Best Teaching Practices Award from UC3M, in addition to the third Bell Labs Innovation Award 2014. She has also received the Outstanding Service Award from the Women in Communications Engineering (WICE) committee, the Outstanding Service Award from the SPCE committee of the IEEE Communications Society, and the IEEE ComSoc/KICS Exemplary Global Service Award. She is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Communications and an Area Editor of the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society.

Arrate Muñoz Barrutia is a professor  in UC3M’s Bioengineering Department and Senior Researcher at the Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute. With a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Telecommunications Engineering from the Public University of Navarre, she has dedicated her research activity to biomedical image processing, with a current emphasis on the development of tools that bring advances in artificial intelligence closer to biomedical researchers. Her research has resulted in five book chapters and over 120 publications in JCR journals and international conferences with proceedings, as well as a patent. In addition to her international experience at EPFL, she has carried out research stays at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and John Hopkins University (JHU). She has received several awards, including the Excellence Award for Young Researchers from the UC3M Social Council, a Leonardo grant from the BBVA Foundation, a Ramón y Cajal contract, and an EPFL Excellence Scholarship to study at the Doctoral School in Communication Systems. She is currently the President of the Steering Committee of the International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) and co-organiser of the IEEE SPS/EMBS International Summer School on Biomedical Imaging. She was an elected member (representing Region 8) of the IEEE EMBS Administrative Committee. She is Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging journal (since 2015) and Executive Editor of the Biological Imaging journal (since 2021).

In Spain, UC3M has been the pioneer in the development of AWES technologies and, working together with CT since 2021, they have developed several projects and infrastructures, consolidating their knowledge of this new technology and positioning Madrid at the top of the AWES industry. In fact, UC3M and the company CT have recently established a joint research chair to strengthen R&D&I work in this field, whose goal for 2024 is to build a complete prototype of an AWE yo-yo machine in Spain.

The new prototype will be manufactured and integrated in the Aerospace Engineering Department's AWES-Lab. Since it is located in the UC3M Science Park, where they also have a hangar, they will have the necessary space to carry out research tasks. "In addition, since the university's startups are located in the Science Park, the AWE research line will be connected to an innovation and transfer environment", said Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, one of the Chair's directors, a lecturer in UC3M's Aerospace Engineering Department. "AWES are disruptive technologies that operate at high altitude and generate electrical energy. They combine classic electrical engineering and aeronautics disciplines, such as the design of electrical machines, aeroelasticity and control, with other more recent and unconventional disciplines related to drones and tether dynamics," he adds.

Furthermore, the chair also promotes the creation of the AWES-Flight Test Centre. "We hope that it will act as a magnet for companies in the industry, given that the idea is to develop an infrastructure where AWE companies can operate their prototypes without interruption, in a controlled environment, and surrounded by an auxiliary industry that provides support," says the other head of the Chair, David Santos Martín, lecturer in UC3M's Electrical Engineering Department.

According to AgustínArjonilla, AWE Systems Manager at CT, "this technology is expected to play a key role in the future due to its lower investment costs. At CT we are committed to embarking on this project, as we have capabilities in all these unique areas within the European aeronautical sector, as well as vast experience in more than 200 national and international renewable energy projects. This is an industry that requires heterogeneous and advanced knowledge both within aeronautical engineering – for example the conceptual design of aircraft, and computing – such as advanced modelling and simulation – and which, finally, requires advanced technologies in the generation, storage and distribution specific to renewable energies".

This opening is the prelude to the Airborne Wind Energy Conference 2024, the world's most important event in the field of AWE technologies, which has chosen Madrid as the venue, with UC3M as the hosting institution.

CT is a leading technology company, providing innovation and engineering services in the aeronautical, space, marine, automotive, rail, energy and industrial plant industries. CT pushes the boundaries of technology through innovation, and takes efficiency to the next level by covering the entire product lifecycle, from design and manufacturing to after-sales support. With more than 35 years of experience, CT's success today is driven by more than 1,800 expert engineers spread across seven countries, on three continents.

UC3M is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching and innovation. It is among the best universities in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2024 and among the best universities for the employability of their graduates, according to the latest edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Global University Employability Ranking. UC3M is the first university in Europe to obtain ACEEU dual accreditation for its contribution and impact on the industrial and social fabric, and it also has other accreditations and quality awards, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering or the AACSB accreditation in business and finance programmes. Its Aerospace Engineering Department is currently developing numerous cutting-edge lines of research, including the AWE systems research group.

"This project aims to determine the effectiveness of combining these sources of information to prevent suicide attempts and to accurately determine the profile of people who repeat a suicide attempt, which will allow us to design more effective prevention strategies," the researchers explain. A study will be carried out with people who have been treated for attempted suicide in one of the seven hospitals participating in the project, distributed among four autonomous communities.

"The combination of artificial intelligence and mobile technologies is key in this project by providing a behavioural marker that is related to the risk of attempting suicide in the short term," explains one of the researchers involved in this project, Antonio Artés, a professor in UC3M's Signal Theory and Communications Department.

The work is based on the fact that, according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), each year, around 800,000 people around the world take their own lives, and many more attempt to do so. Deaths by suicide are a serious public health problem and represent the second leading cause of death in people between 15 and 29 years of age. A significant percentage of people who attempt suicide without success attempt it again during the following year.

The project is led by Dr Enrique Baca-García, head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital, in consortium with Dr Antonio Artés, from UC3M; Dr Miguel Ruiz Veguilla, from the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital-Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBIS, in its Spanish acronym)-Cibersam; Dr Pilar Alejandra Saiz Martínez, from the University of Oviedo; and Dr Víctor Pérez Sola, from the Hospital del Mar.

CaixaResearch for Health Research is a competitive call for proposals, to which 493 were submitted this year, with 33 initiatives selected. The "la Caixa" Foundation recently held the award ceremony for these grants for research projects in biomedicine and health to be carried out in research centres, hospitals and universities in Spain and Portugal.

"The idea is to be able to manufacture protective structures with 3D printing to reduce their cost, minimise waste, personalise their design and offshore their manufacturing, given that it could be carried out in-situ, which would be a great advantage especially for aerospace and defence applications," explains Juan Carlos Nieto Fuentes, Marie Curie CONEX-Plus researcher (GA 801538) from UC3M’s Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis, who recently published this work in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.

"The article presents a new experimental technique launched at the Impact Laboratory of the UC3M Science Park, where we carry out fragmentation tests at impact speeds of up to 400 metres per second," explains another of the authors, José Antonio Rodríguez Martínez, a Senior Lecturer in the same UC3M department who has developed this research within the framework of PURPOSE, a European Union ERC Starting Grant (GA 758056) project.

The researchers have filmed these tests with two high-speed cameras and have also carried out X-ray tomography of the printed material structures, before and after being tested, with the collaboration of colleagues from the IMDEA Materiales Institute, who have carried out the microstructural characterisation of the samples. "Specifically, we have determined the distribution in shape and size of the pores resulting from the printing process and we have investigated their effect on the formation and propagation of cracks, and thus on the energy absorption capacity of the structure," says Federico Sket, senior scientist at IMDEA Materials, who has participated in this study from this research institute together with his colleague Jonathan Espinoza, research assistant at the institute.

The fragmentation experiments were carried out at the UC3M Impact Laboratory using a helium-driven gas gun. Specifically, the researchers launched a circular, conical-nosed projectile weighing about 150 grams that hit a thin-walled tube at speeds ranging from 200 to 400 metres per second (between 720 and 1,440 km/h). In this case, the diameter of the projectile is larger than the diameter of the tube, which expands radially as the projectile advances, until multiple fractures form, resulting in fragmentation of the sample.

"The technique is simpler, faster to use, flexible and has a lower operating cost than systems that use explosives or electromagnetic systems. Our device also allows us to carry out more experiments in less time and thus obtain a number of tests that provide statistically significant results," explain Sergio Puerta and David Pedroche, laboratory technicians from UC3M's Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis, who were involved in carrying out the experiments.

The researchers say that this is a pioneering methodology and hope to lay the foundations for a protocol that will make it possible to systematically determine whether a printed structure is capable of absorbing energy upon impact, based on the characterisation of its porous microstructure and its correlation with fragmentation mechanisms. "This technique will ultimately tell us whether metal 3D printing is a viable technique for building protective structures," says José Antonio Rodríguez Martínez. "In the US there are already specific programmes promoted by the Department of Defence and the Department of Energy to fund this line of research, so we hope that the European Union and the Government of Spain will also develop a long-term vision that will allow us to bring the fundamental research we are carrying out into engineering practice," he concludes.

Bibliographic reference:  J.C. Nieto-Fuentes, J. Espinoza, F. Sket, J.A. Rodríguez-Martínez (2023). High-velocity impact fragmentation of additively-manufactured metallic tubes. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Volume 174, 105248, ISSN 0022-5096, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2023.105248

Owmed Innovation's main technology is the Ostofix device, a system that enables the ostomy patient to control their continence and allows them to decide when to remove the waste material. This means a significant improvement in the quality of life of people with this type of surgery, as it allows an intestinal transit which is as close to normal as possible. The solution doesn't require additional surgery or medical prescription. 

Compared to existing alternatives, Ostfix enables self-management of the expulsion of faecal and urinary material and reduces the risk of staining during collection. This brings about a substantial improvement in the quality of life of ostomy patients, which also has an impact on mental health.

Ownmed Innovation is a company founded by Ana Ye, an alumnus of the UC3M Bioengineering Bachelor's degree. Also part of the entrepreneurial team are Manuel Desco, a professor in the University's Bioengineering and Aerospace Department; Jesús García-Foncillas, director of the Cancer Institute and the Oncology Department at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital; and Joaquín Solanes, director of the SPI Business Consultancy. 

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The SWE Awards is an annual awards ceremony organised by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to recognise those professionals and researchers who are making significant contributions to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines and to the advancement of women in the field of engineering.  

The award ceremony was held from the 26th to the 28th of October in Los Angeles (California). The event brought together more than 20,000 professionals and research staff from these disciplines.

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Smart homes are becoming increasingly interconnected, comprising an array of consumer-oriented IoT devices ranging from smartphones and smart TVs to virtual assistants and CCTV cameras. These devices have cameras, microphones, and other ways of sensing what is happening in our most private spaces—our homes. An important question is, can we trust that these devices in our homes are safely handling and protecting the sensitive data they have access to?

“When we think of what happens between the walls of our homes, we think of it as a trusted, private place. In reality, we find that smart devices in our homes are piercing that veil of trust and privacy—in ways that allow nearly any company to learn what devices are in your home, to know when you are home, and learn where your home is. These behaviours are generally not disclosed to consumers, and there is a need for better protections in the home,” said David Choffnes, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Executive Director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University.

The research team’s extensive study, titled “In the Room Where It Happens: Characterizing Local Communication and Threats in Smart Homes,” was presented this week at the ACM Internet Measurement Conference (ACM IMC’23) in Montreal (Canada). The paper delves for the first time into the intricacies of local network interactions between 93 IoT devices and mobile apps, revealing a plethora of previously undisclosed security and privacy concerns with actual real-world implications.
While most users typically view local networks as a trusted and safe environment, the study’s findings illuminate new threats associated with the inadvertent exposure of sensitive data by IoT devices within local networks using standard protocols such as UPnP or mDNS. These threats include the exposure of unique device names, UUIDs, and even household geolocation data, all of which can be harvested by companies involved in surveillance capitalism without user awareness.

According to Vijay Prakash, PhD student from NYU Tandon who co-authored the paper, “analysing the data collected by IoT Inspector, we found evidence of IoT devices inadvertently exposing at least one PII (Personally Identifiable Information), like unique hardware address (MAC), UUID, or unique device names, in thousands of real world smart homes. Any single PII is useful for identifying a household, but combining all three of them together makes a house very unique and easily identifiable. For comparison, if a person is fingerprinted using the simplest browser fingerprinting technique, they are as unique as one in 1.500 people. If a smart home with all three types of identifiers is fingerprinted, it is as unique as one in 1.12 million smart homes.”

These local network protocols can be employed as side-channels to access data that is supposedly protected by several mobile app permissions such as household locations. “A side channel is a sneaky way of indirectly accessing sensitive data. For example, Android app developers are supposed to request and obtain users’ consent to access data like geolocation. However, we have shown that certain spyware apps and advertising companies do abuse local network protocols to silently access such sensitive information without any user awareness. All they have to do is kindly asking for it to other IoT devices deployed in the local network using standard protocols like UPnP.”, said Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, Associate Research Professor of IMDEA Networks and co-founder of AppCensus.
“Our study shows that the local network protocols used by IoT devices are not sufficiently protected and expose sensitive information about the home and the use we make of the devices. This information is being collected in an opaque way and makes it easier to create profiles of our habits or socioeconomic level,” adds Juan Tapiador, professor at UC3M.

The Wider Implications

The impact of this research extends far beyond academia. The findings underscore the imperative for manufacturers, software developers, IoT and mobile platform operators, and policymakers to take action to enhance the privacy and security guarantees of smart home devices and households. The research team responsibly disclosed these issues to vulnerable IoT device vendors and to Google’s Android Security Team, already triggering security improvements in some of these products.
 

The project for which he has received a Leonardo Grant is based on the study of syringomyelia, a disease that produces an accumulation of fluid in the form of a cyst in the spinal cord, causing chronic pain and loss of function in the arms and legs. It is known that the movement of cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) is related to the development of this disease. In many cases, the channel in which this fluid is located is partially obstructed and hinders its natural movement. However, it is not known how this, in turn, produces a build-up of fluid in the spinal cord. The aim of Coenen's project is to generate knowledge to help in the arrest and treatment of syringomyelia, through theoretical models, numerical simulations and MRI measurements.

The BBVA Foundation's Leonardo Grants aim to support science and culture in order to promote projects by researchers and cultural creators between the ages of 30 and 45 in the intermediate period of their careers. In this edition, 58 personal and innovative projects will be made possible in ten areas of scientific knowledge and culture.

The name of these BBVA Foundation Grants invokes the inspiration of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) as a universal symbol of curiosity and passion for knowledge, openness and continuous exploration of new fields and problems, as well as dialogue between the fields of natural and life sciences, technology, humanities and the arts.

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The company was incorporated in the last quarter of 2022 as a technology-based company (TBC) from UC3M. The driving force behind this business idea was Guillermo Carpintero, professor and director of the University’s Optics and Laser Technology Group. In addition, the entrepreneurial team is made up of Álvaro Jiménez, Daniel Gallego, Alejandro Rivera, Muhsin Ali and Santiago Gómez. All of them are or have been part of UC3M.

The University supports this project as a shareholder and by facilitating innovation through the Programme for Creation and Participation in Spin-offs, located in its Science Park. With the signing of this agreement, UC3M is now a member of six technology-based companies.

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The invitation to Nuria Oliver to give the inaugural lecture is part of UC3M's initiative to focus on AI this academic year. In this context, in his closing statement during this event, UC3M Rector Ángel Arias recalled the need to recover classical values, those included in the university's motto -homo homini sacra res-, in order to face challenges such as those posed by AI. He also announced the granting of 20 of the University's own grants to research transversal aspects of this new technology.

He also confirmed the support and constructive dialogue with the Community of Madrid's Ministry of Digitalisation, which has already announced the Artificial Intelligence Cluster's location in the UC3M Science Park Building. In turn, the University is carrying out research transfer actions in this area through different city councils. In this sense, the commitment to AI is transversal and involves research staff from the School of Engineering, Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Documentation at UC3M.

With this set of measures, and others to be announced soon, UC3M is firmly committed to establishing itself as a benchmark institution in the field of AI.

UC3M, IMDEA Networks and the University of the Basque Country are participating in the Spanish SLICES node (SLICES-ES). Specifically, the first infrastructure open to the European scientific community for testing in the field of telecommunications and with a very powerful Internet of Things (IoT) satellite service with Europe-wide coverage will be established in Madrid. "It is therefore a very important milestone because what it represents is that Europe is aware of the need to have strategic autonomy in information technologies. We must join forces to improve our R&D capabilities in this regard," says Arturo Azcorra, director of IMDEA Networks and a professor at UC3M. He also adds: "This is great news, therefore, for the academic and business world, and for society. We can consider it to be a global milestone in the field of open experimentation via satellite".

During the official presentation of the national Spanish node, which took place at the Hotel Riu Plaza de España, researchers working in areas and platforms related to the Spanish SLICES node at different levels took part. For example, Carlos Jesús Bernardos, professor at UC3M, and Joerg Widmer,  research director at IMDEA Networks, spoke about how it will be used in the development of 6G and in experimentation with millimetre wave networks.

Another of the researchers who has driven this project, Carmen Guerrero, from UC3M's Telematics Engineering Department, highlights the usefulness that this infrastructure will have for the research community in the area of future networks. "They will have access to cutting-edge deployments to carry out experiments that are currently not readily available to scientists in general, or that do not even exist today. In fact, there is currently a lack of access to experimental facilities and SLICES will provide these services to the research community in Europe".

About IMDEA Networks and UC3M

IMDEA Networks is a research institute for computer and communication networks, whose multinational team works on fundamental science and cutting-edge technology. As a growing, English-speaking institute based in Madrid, Spain, IMDEA Networks offers a unique opportunity to pioneering scientists who aspire to develop their ideas. IMDEA Networks has established itself internationally at the forefront in the development of future network principles and technologies. Our highly-reputed research team is designing tomorrow's networks today.

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching and innovation. It is among the best universities in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2024 and among the best universities for the employability of its graduates, according to the latest edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Global University Employability Ranking. UC3M is the first university in Europe to obtain ACEEU dual accreditation for its contribution and impact on the industrial and social fabric, and it also has other accreditations and quality awards, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering or the AACSB accreditation in business and finance programmes.

These awards have a 30,000 euro prize for each category, and distinguish Spanish researchers with noteworthy careers and international relevance in their respective research areas. They also recognise the merit of young people – with a maximum age of 40 – who have accomplished significant achievements in the early stages of their careers. In the latter case, of the 185 nominations received, 97 were men and 88 were women; and the average age of the award winners is 37.

"This award makes me feel very proud of the work I have done over the years and, above all, enormously grateful to all of my mentors, collaborators, the university’s research service and especially to all the members of my group. The recognition is equally as much for them as it is for me. Furthermore, receiving this award gives us a boost of enthusiasm and motivation to continue the development of soft materials that can interact intelligently with biological systems and advance their technological implementation," says Daniel García González.

An industrial engineer and Doctor from UC3M with an international honourable mention, Daniel García González (Leganés, 1992) did a postdoc at Oxford University where he studied the mechanical behaviour of brain tissues and their functional response. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Continuum Mechanics and Structure Theory at the University and leads various research projects: he is PI of an ERC Starting Grant project (4D-BIOMAP; GA 947723), an ERC Proof of Concept project (ISBIOMECH; GA 101081713) and other national projects. He has started a multidisciplinary laboratory at the UC3M Science Park, called MULTIBIOSTRUCTURES Lab, which experimentally develops new multifunctional materials, as well as theoretical formulations which combine mechanics with other physics and their applications to bioengineering problems in the framework of a wide network of international collaborations. He has carried out other research placements in numerous prestigious institutions and is part of the Young Academy of Spain.

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The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grants the 2023 National Research Awards

This need is met by TrialsNet, a European research project that will carry out large-scale experiments on use cases that can improve the quality of life in urban environments. It will use advanced network technology to make progress in three areas: infrastructure, transport, safety and security; eHealth and emergencies; and culture, tourism and entertainment.

"Our goal is to test this cutting-edge technology at both the network infrastructure and application level, on a large scale and with a broad base of real users. We will implement it in museums, airports, hospitals and sports venues to assess both the social benefits and the performance of this technology," says Marco Gramaglia, a lecturer in UC3M's Telematics Engineering Department and a researcher on this project.

The development of this project will help application developers to understand the benefits of current 5G technology and manufacturers to know the necessary features for the applications envisaged in 6G networks in order to focus the next phase of research. "These advantages will allow developers to make the most of current technology and provide operators and manufacturers with a clear direction for future research in the evolution towards 6G. The result will be useful for both industry and academic researchers, as it will allow us to understand what is needed for the next generations of mobile networks," says Gramaglia.

The project also has an Open Call, where new use cases, improvements to existing cases and new network deployments can be proposed.

TrialsNet is funded by the European Union through the Horizon Europe programme (GA no. 101095871), coordinated by Ericsson Telecomunicazioni (TEI) and consists of 22 other actors: Athens International Airport (AIA), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Comune di Torino (COTO), Crossmedia (CROSSM), Dimos Athinaion Epicheirisi Michanografisisis (DAEM), Ericsson Spain (ERC), Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (IMEC), Nextworks (NXW), Orange Romania (ORO), Promozione Per L'innovazione Fra Industria e Università (PIIU), Prosegur (PROS), Real Wireless (RW), Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant'Anna (SSSA), Telecom Italy (TIM), Telefónica Research and Development (TID, in its Spanish acronym), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M),  Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Romania (TUIASI), Wings ICT Solutions (WINGS) and Yerba Buena VR (YBVR).

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On the morning of  Friday 29th, an activity will be held for secondary schools. At 11:15 am in the UC3M Auditorium there will be a theatrical show with talks by researchers on various aspects related to the challenges of a green Europe, such as concentrated solar power, the impact of aircraft contrails on climate change, wireless communications with lower energy consumption or the use of lasers in livestock farming to monitor gases that are harmful to climate change.

During this event there will also be two guided tours to UC3M scientific facilities. On Friday 29th at 6 pm at the UC3M Leganés Campus, visitors will be able to visit an aerospace research laboratory where various techniques are being tested to better understand fluid dynamics and achieve more sustainable aircraft. On Saturday 30th at 10 am there will be another guided tour to a laboratory in the UC3M Science Park to see how tests on technological developments are being carried out to communicate with our cells.

These UC3M activities are part of the European Researchers' Night in Madrid, an event which includes numerous free scientific outreach activities and is being held simultaneously in more than 350 European cities. In Madrid, this project to support the careers of research staff, called MADRIDNIGHT, is promoted by the Vice-Presidency, Ministry of Education and Universities and coordinated by the madri+d Foundation, and is funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme, under grant agreement number 101,061,343.

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European Researchers' Night at UC3M website

"Digital technologies have advanced to such an extent that, often, teachers don't know how to apply and use these technologies to teach better. This is why it's necessary to create centres that support, help and train teachers in these new learning-applied technologies," says Carlos Delgado Kloos, a lecturer in the Telematics Engineering Department and lead researcher of this project.

Throughout the duration of this project, guides and models of advanced CEAs have been developed, focusing on the development of teaching skills in three areas: pedagogy, technology and strategic management. Professionals have also been trained in management and innovation skills to promote cultural changes in teaching and learning. 

In this regard, teacher training plans have been designed for quality management: active and hybrid methodologies; monitoring and assessment strategies through learning analytics; and research on teaching practice itself for continuous improvement. The aim is to train teaching staff to carry out efficient educational innovation processes, both in person and virtually.

"In addition, these centres have benefited from this European funding for the purchase of infrastructure and equipment for the demonstration and teaching of the use of these technologies. These spaces have been created and the means have been deployed to provide this training to the teaching staff at each of the universities," says Delgado Kloos.

Sustainable cooperation between Latin American and European higher education institutions has also been encouraged, building a cooperation network. "It is not limited to these four universities. It is a demonstrator so that other institutions can also learn about it and follow a similar path," says the researcher.

The PROF-XXI project was carried out within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme (GA 609767-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). It was developed from January 2020 to July 2023 and seven partners from five countries worked on it: the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), the University of San Buenaventura (Colombia), the University of Cauca (Colombia), Galileo University (Guatemala), the University of San Carlos de Guatemala, Aberta University (Portugal) and Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier University (France).

"We are now facing another big challenge, which is that of generative artificial intelligence. This will change everything, including education, and although we have to prevent it from being used fraudulently, it will also allow us to go further. Therefore, this is a great revolution that will bring about a big change in education and we are already thinking about how we can respond to this great challenge before us," concludes Carlos Delgado Kloos.

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However, research to date has found it difficult to accurately distinguish these biometric differences between people with and without pain. There have been several factors, such as the scarcity of data related to this issue, the particularities of each type of chronic pain and the inherent complexity in the measurement of biometric variables.

“People with chronic pain often adapt their movements to protect themselves from further pain or injury. This adaptation makes it difficult for conventional biometric analysis methods to accurately capture physiological changes. Hence the need to develop this system”, says Doctor Mohammad Mahdi Dehshibi, a postdoctoral researcher at the i_mBODY Laboratory in UC3M’s Computer Science Department, who led this study.

The research carried out by UC3M has developed a new method that uses a type of deep learning called s-RNNs (sparsely connected recurrent neural networks) together with GRUs (closed recurrent units), which are a type of neural network unit that is used to model sequential data. With this development, the team has managed to capture changes in pain-related body behaviour over time. Furthermore, it surpasses existing approaches to accurately classify pain levels and pain-related behaviour.

The innovation of the proposed method has been to take advantage of an advanced deep learning architecture and add additional features to address the complexities of sequential data modelling. The ultimate goal is to achieve more robust and accurate results related to sequential data analysis.

“One of the main research focuses in our lab is the integration of deep learning techniques to develop objective measures that improve our understanding of people’s body perceptions through the analysis of body sensor data, without relying exclusively on direct questions to individuals”, says Ana Tajadura Jiménez, a lecturer from UC3M’s Computer Science Department and lead researcher of the BODYinTRANSIT project, who leads the i_mBODY Laboratory.

The new method developed by the UC3M research team has been tested with the EmoPain database, which contains data on pain levels and behaviours related to these levels. “This study also highlights the need for a reference database dedicated to analysing the relationship between chronic pain and biometrics. This database could be used to develop applications in areas such as security or healthcare”, says Mohammad Mahdi.

These results of this research are used in the design of new medical therapies focused on the body and different clinical conditions. “In healthcare, the method can be used to improve the measurement and treatment of chronic pain in people with conditions such as fibromyalgia, arthritis and neuropathic pain. It can help control pain-related behaviours and tailor treatments to improve patient outcomes. In addition, it can be beneficial for monitoring pain responses during post-surgical recovery”, says Mohammad Mahdi.

In this regard, Ana Tajadura also highlights the relevance of this research for other medical processes: “In addition to chronic pain, altered movement patterns and negative body perceptions have been observed, such as in eating disorders, chronic cardiovascular disease or depression, among others. It is extremely interesting to carry out studies using the above method in these populations in order to better understand medical conditions and their impact on movement. These studies could provide valuable information for the development of more effective screening tools and treatments, and improve the quality of life of people affected by these conditions”.

In addition to health applications, the results of this project can be used for the design of sports, virtual reality, robotics or fashion and art applications, among others.

This research is carried out within the framework of the BODYinTRANSIT project, led by Ana Tajadura Jiménez and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (GA 101002711).

"Future applications are expected to demand much more bandwidth, as well as much lower and bounded latencies [i.e., they demand immediacy]. The applications include autonomous vehicles, spatial computing and augmented reality," says Carlos Bernardos, a lecturer from UC3M's Telematics Engineering Department and a project researcher.

Due to this requirement, the European consortium that makes up the DESIRE6G project will design and develop a contactless organisation, management and control platform through native integration of artificial intelligence, to support the requirements of extreme URLLC applications (i.e. requiring ultra-fast and reliable communications).

"The project's developments will allow applications such as autonomous driving, industrial robotics, spatial computing or augmented reality to be viable and more efficient. With current technologies, these examples of applications are directly unfeasible or have fields of use which are limited to a narrow set of cases," Bernardos says. Furthermore, this new network architecture is also expected to reduce energy consumption. "Reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of communications networks is a growing concern due to the importance of networks in today's multi-level society."

To achieve this goal, the research team is using terahertz communication, artificial intelligence and machine learning to design new hardware and software components that will be the basis of the new wireless communication system. The system to be developed will be tested in two scenarios using extended reality and a digital twin application (a virtual replica of a product to efficiently adapt new solutions to the real product).

The DESIRE6G project is a three-year project (from January 2023 to December 2025) and is funded by the European Commission's Horizon Europe program (GA 101096466). The consortium is made up of 14 partners including universities, technology-based SMEs and other industry-related organisations: University of Amsterdam (project coordinator), Ericsson (technical coordinator), Telefónica, Nvidia, Nubis, Accelleran, Solidshield, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, University of Oulu in Finland, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, University of Budapest, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, NEC Laboratories Europe and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna.

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"The society aims to facilitate contact between academics, researchers, professionals and students, as well as all people or entities interested or active in this field, as well as to promote the practice of scientific-technical research in the area," explains Isabel Segura Bedmar.

AI and biomedicine

The area of AI has been experiencing a major revolution in recent years. Recent initiatives such as ChatGPT are helping to make society aware of a field of knowledge that has really existed for decades, IABiomed points out. "In the area of biomedicine in particular, this revolution is leading to thousands of global initiatives in which AI plays an extremely relevant role. At a national level, the area of AI in biomedicine has been developing for years, mainly in academic environments, although today many other stakeholders (especially from the business sector) are already part of this revolution", says the Society.

The scientific-technical objectives of this society include promoting scientific activity collaboration among its members, as well as multidisciplinary research in the area of AI in biomedicine. In addition, IABiomed seeks to promote actions to generate resources in terms of infrastructures or services that are of interest to the stakeholders involved in the area, for training, outreach and research purposes. On the other hand, this company will establish links and synergies with companies and other organisations (public and private) in the sector and will actively participate in technology watch activities in the area.

More information: IABiomed website

The research staff who have developed this application, from institutions such as UC3M, the European Space Agency or IGEO (CSIC-UCM), paid special attention so that the developed virtual reality was reliable. "We strive to look for available information on the terrain, the soil texture or the colours that we could see if we were actually in the real scenario. In addition to the effort in implementing the scenarios, the need to check and consult the details we included meant that the development time was longer than initially stipulated," says virtual reality applications developer, Christian Pérez Nicolás, who has a Master's degree in Space Engineering from UC3M.

Virtual reality glasses and controllers are required to use these simulators, as well as associated software that makes it possible to have a fully interactive experience. It is also possible to view immersive 3D videos using a mobile phone and virtual reality glasses such as Google Cardboard. In addition, the virtual reality experience includes a geoethical perspective on the use of planetary resources in a similar way to how they are used on Earth, according to goals and targets 13, 14 and 15 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On the project’s website, where the application will be available for all those interested in "travelling" around the Solar System, you can also find videos showing a virtual reality project prior to NESTOR VR that makes it possible to visit the facilities of a moonbase and carry out real lunar soil spectroscopy missions.

In order to develop this system, several tests were carried out with students from several secondary schools in the Community of Madrid at UC3M's Leganés Campus. "We collected direct feedback with these tests so that the application is as attractive as possible to students," says another of the researchers involved in this project, Sara Guerrero Aspizua, a lecturer from the University's Bioengineering Department. All of this has made it possible to develop these simulations which, as the project's website says, could provide the opportunity to learn about planetary science and experience space adventures on a scale never seen before.

More information: NESTOR project website

This goal is at the origin of the proposal which involved lecturers from the Social Sciences Department (the aforementioned, as well as Ilke Toygür, Işık Özel and Stefano Battilossi), María Luengo (Communication), Natalia Fabra (Economics), Antonio Estella (Public Law), Ángel Cuevas (Telematics Engineering) and Maria José Álvarez (Business Economics). "Thanks to this interdisciplinary dialogue, the goal is to strengthen the role of citizens, politics and civil society in the European policy-making process in order to be able to address the challenges facing Europe more effectively and inclusively," says Juan Antonio Mayoral.

The centre to be set up within the framework of this €100,000 euro three-year grant has three general objectives. Firstly, to strengthen and promote excellence in teaching and interdisciplinary research in EU studies. Secondly, to promote, expand and consolidate a community of academics and relevant social, political and economic actors for the search for inclusive solutions to current EU challenges. And thirdly, to bring the EU closer to society and to Spanish and European students and young people to promote their participation in the Centre's activities.

Specifically, the following actions are planned, among others: the creation of a European degree and minors in collaboration with the YUFE Alliance; updating the contents of existing bachelor's and master's degree courses in an interdisciplinary way; and the organisation of conferences, workshops and research seminars based on a common agenda on the Europeanisation of Spanish law, economics, politics, media and society.

Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence, proposed and hosted by a higher education institution, are sources of reference and knowledge on EU-related topics. They bring together the experience and skills of high-level experts with the aim of developing synergies between the various disciplines and resources of EU studies. They also play a key role in reaching out to students from faculties that do not normally address EU-related issues, as well as policy makers, civil servants, civil society and the general public.

More information:  Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence

The PREDICT-6G project aims to create deterministic networks that ensure the transmission of messages in a given time. The goal is to create a comprehensive solution that improves the services that 6G technology aims to offer.

To do this, the project team has been working since January 2023 on the creation of a multi-technology and multi-domain data plane, an inter-domain control plane using artificial intelligence and a digital twin framework (a virtual replica of a product to efficiently adapt new solutions to the real product). These developments will complement each other to optimise the capabilities of wired and wireless networks. The ultimate goal is the development of a deterministic 6G network solution.

"All sectors can benefit from this technology, since all networks would benefit from being more reliable and predictable. Industrial control systems need networks with deterministic latency and low delay variation. For example, home WiFi has many errors and is not particularly reliable, so improving this technology could provide other types of services such as augmented reality," says project coordinator Antonio de la Oliva, a lecturer in UC3M's Department of Telematics Engineering.

The different functions carried out within the project will be validated and tested at the European events Nokia Budapest Open Lab and Madrid Open Lab 5TONIC.

The PREDICT-6G project is being developed within the framework of the European Union's Horizon Europe programme (GA 101095890). The consortium, coordinated by UC3M, is made up of companies, institutions and universities from seven European countries: Atos Iberia and Spain, COGNINN Greece, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Ericsson Spain, Gestamp, Intel Deutchland, Interdigital Europe, MTU Autralo Alpha Lab, Nextworks, Nokia, Politecnico di Torino, Software Imagination & Vision, Telefónica, Università degli Studi di Padova and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

More information

To advance current networks, researchers and technologists in TERA6G project aim to build wireless information superhighways, increasing the speed of information in mobile networks from 100 megabits per second in 5G to 10 gigabits per second in 6G (that is, 100 times faster) to reduce the waiting time in data exchange by an order of magnitude. “And this will be achieved by, among other efforts, raising the carrier frequencies into the terahertz range”, explains Guillermo Carpintero. The terahertz range, lying between the radio-frequency (microwaves) and optical (infrared) bands, is the last frontier of the electromagnetic spectrum with great potential in the field of mobile communications.

The main objective of this project is to develop the devices enabling high-speed wireless links and which in addition can be controlled so that the operators can turn channels on and off depending on users’ needs. “One of the objectives of the 6G generation is to reduce power consumption, and an effective way to do so is by continuously adapting the capacity of the network to the user demand at all times. For example, when do you need more capacity from communications networks? Basically in the morning, when people are on their way to work, watching videos or series while commuting, as well as in the evening when they go back home becoming idle at night when everyone is covered by their own wifi at home. Therefore, we need devices that allow us to adapt the capacity to the users’ needs to thus save energy”, concludes Guillermo Carpintero.

To do this, the project brings together both hardware developers (those who will create these new wireless photonic devices) and developers of the control layers of communications networks. This project also draws on the knowledge generated in previous European scientific projects developed by the members of the TERA6G consortium within the framework of H2020, such as: ARIADNE, GA871464; FUDGE-5G, GA871668; TERAWAY GA871668; and TERRANOVA GA761794.

With all this, they hope to achieve a secure, uninterrupted communications system that meets key performance characteristics. First of all, it must be agile, providing an ultra-wide bandwidth in the terahertz range used to enable handling a large number of users through MIMO techniques (multiple inputs and multiple outputs, involving a large number of antennas and beams). Secondly, it must be scalable, allowing the number and capacity of communication channels to be adapted to the users' needs at all times. And thirdly, it must be reconfigurable, so that it can combine communications functions with sensing functions that locate the user's location and enable more efficient communication).

TERA6G (TERAhertz integrated systems enabling 6G Terabit-per-second ultra-massive MIMO wireless networks) has received funding from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) under the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement GA 101096949, which will be carried out between 2023 and 2026. Coordinated by UC3M, it has a budget of over 6 million euros and brings together 10 partners from five different countries. Among others, those participating include research centres such as the Fraunhofer Institute (Germany); educational institutions such as the University of Piraeus and the Athens Polytechnic (both in Greece) and the University of Oulu (Finland); SMEs such as LioniX or PHIX (in the Netherlands) and Cumucore (Finland) and large companies such as Intracom Telecom (Greece) and Telefónica (Spain).

More information: 

TERA6G project website

“The aim of this award is to give visibility to women innovators and leaders in the additive manufacturing sector, an area led mainly by men”, explains Alba González. In her case, her research is a direct application of 3D printing in human health. “We have developed innovative hip and pelvic implants for patients with bone defects so complex that they couldn’t have been operated on with the implants available on the market, and thanks to our technology and know-how we have given them back the possibility of walking and having a normal life”, she says.

Alba González Álvarez develops customised implants for complex bone reconstructions in orthopaedic, maxillofacial and thoracic surgery in her research within the framework of UC3M’s CONEX-Plus programme, collaborating with surgeons from different national and international hospitals for the clinical transfer of her research results. “The implants we develop are designed with the specific shape and mechanical-biological properties that each patient requires. And this is achieved thanks to multidisciplinary collaboration between surgeons, engineers, researchers and industry, as well as the effective application of the latest digital technologies such as virtual surgical planning, 3D CAD biomechanical design, additive manufacturing and surgical navigation”, explains the researcher. “This approach to personalised medicine is demonstrating an improvement in the precision, safety and outcomes of complex bone reconstructions”, she concludes.

Alba González Álvarez has collaborated with international surgeons, engineers and companies to develop a wide variety of innovative custom implants that have been successfully used in patients in the fields of orthopaedic, maxillofacial, thoracic, spine and plastic surgery. In fact, last year she won the National Design Award for her custom bone implants. She has worked in companies and hospitals in the United Kingdom and France using biomechanics, 3D printing and 3D CAD design for patients and in 2018 she completed a Marie Curie industrial PhD in spine implant development at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Alba has presented her work as a guest speaker at numerous international events dedicated to surgery as well as technology and innovation. Her motivation, she says, “is to improve patients’ lives by creating pioneering solutions with the application of the latest 3D technologies”.

More information: TCT Awards 2023

“The problem is that there are more and more satellite launches and many of them have autonomous manoeuvring capabilities, forming part of constellations of thousands of objects. Therefore, it is very interesting to be able to autonomously detect these manoeuvres in order to keep track of the real position of these satellites”, explains the researcher from UC3M’s Aerospace Engineering Department, Guillermo Escribano, one of the authors of this work recently published in the journal Acta Astronáutica.

What these researchers have developed is an algorithm that detects and characterises these satellite manoeuvres more effectively. To do this, they use data from sensors that track the movement of space objects (such as telescopes or radars, for example) and combine them with statistical information. “The basic idea is to process all of these measurements and correlate them with objects that we already have in the catalogue”, says Guillermo Escribano. “With this we are able to track them even if the satellites carry out manoeuvres we’re not aware of”, says another of the researchers, Manuel Sanjurjo Rivo, also from UC3M’s Aerospace Engineering Department.

This development could be used to improve the accuracy of space object tracking and cataloguing systems currently in use, which could help to reduce the space debris problem, according to the researchers. In fact, the algorithm has already been implemented by the company GMV, where other researchers who are authors of this paper work, to carry out tracking and validation campaigns for space object cataloguing systems.

In this context, it is essential not only to have an estimate of the position and speed of objects in space, but also to properly characterise the uncertainty of these estimates by considering the information provided by tracking sensors or even by the spacecraft operators themselves. "According to the type of information obtained from tracking sensors, whose data update times range around 12 hours, knowledge of the dynamics is essential. Manoeuvres therefore pose a challenge to current automated association and estimation systems due to a lack of reliable information about how the object moves," concludes Manuel Sanjurjo Rivo. Hence the importance of the developments proposed in the framework of this research.

Bibliographic references:

Porcelli, L. Pastor, A. Cano, A. Escribano, G. Sanjurjo-Rivo, M. Escobar, D. Di Lizia, P. (2022). Satellite maneuver detection and estimation with radar survey observations. Acta Astronautica, Volume 201, Pages 274-287, ISSN 0094-5765.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.08.021

Escribano, G., Sanjurjo-Rivo, M., Siminski, J. A., Pastor, A., & Escobar, D. (2022). Automatic maneuver detection and tracking of space objects in optical survey scenarios based on stochastic hybrid systems formulation. Advances in Space Research, 69(9), 3460-3477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.02.034

The average age of the ten new academics is 38 and there is an equal number of men and women among them. Their profiles cover different fields of knowledge including archaeology, art, sports science, study of materials, philology, physiology, history, industrial, mechanical and aerospace engineering and immunology.

The new academic from UC3M, Daniel García González, is 30 years old and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis. An industrial engineer and Doctor from UC3M with an international honourable mention, he did a postdoc at University of Oxford where he studied the mechanical behaviour of brain tissues and their functional response. He is currently PI of an ERC Starting Grant project (4D-BIOMAP; GA 947723), an ERC Proof of Concept project (ISBIOMECH; GA 101081713) and other national projects. He has started a multidisciplinary laboratory, called MULTIBIOSTRUCTURES Lab, which experimentally develops new multifunctional materials, as well as theoretical formulations combining mechanics with other physics and their applications to bioengineering problems in the framework of a wide network of international collaborations. He has carried out other research stays in numerous prestigious institutions.

With Daniel García González joining the Young Academy of Spain, UC3M now has two members in the institution, after Juan Antonio Mayoral Díaz-Asensio (from the Department of Social Sciences) joined last year.

The Young Academy of Spain was founded in 2019 by seven Spanish researchers who are members of the Global Young Academy. Its main objective is to give visibility to the best young researchers in our country and to encourage vocations at an early age. One of its distinguishing features is that membership of the Academy is limited to 5 years, which preserves the youth of the corporation's 50 academics, with 10 new academics joining each year to replace those whose membership ends that year.

More information: 

Young Academy of Spain:
https://academiajoven.es/academicos/

After the good results achieved last season with their MFT02 single-seater (they won first prize in Cost & Manufacturing, placed second in the skidpad test and third in the Formula Student Spain Engineering Design), this year they have again gone for a traditional aerodynamic package in this competition, which consists of a front and rear wing without the use of fans (to force the flow). "The MFT03 is the result of nine months of hard work and the improvement of a base which is as solid and competitive as last year's car", says the MAD Formula Team. All the aerodynamic components used are optimised through computational fluid dynamics programmes and made of carbon fibre, with the aim of achieving the highest aerodynamic efficiency and reducing weight as much as possible. In fact, the vehicle's monocoque weighs just 32 kg. "We have achieved this with extensive use of pre-preg fibre, a core based on an aluminium 'honeycomb' and very precise autoclave curing cycles, all thanks to our main sponsors: Gurit and Fidamc," they add.

This new prototype will be put to the test at the first official event on the calendar: from the 8th to the 13th of July at the Assen Circuit in the Netherlands. After this first competition, they will take part in Formula Student Austria (in Spielberg, from the 22nd to the 27th of July), in Formula Student Portugal (in Lisbon, from the 31st of July to the 6th of August) and will finish in Formula Student Germany (in Hockenheim, from the 14th to the 20th of August).

A multidisciplinary team

The MAD Formula Team, made up of almost a hundred students from different UC3M degrees, has working groups specialised in different parts of the car, such as aerodynamics, chassis, dynamics, electronics, driving technologies or the powertrain, without forgetting its marketing department or team management. In addition to the various engineering specialities, this is a project that requires extensive interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. For this reason, other fields such as business administration and management, audiovisual communication, economics or journalism, among others, converge. Apart from designing and manufacturing the car, the students also participate in cost analysis, the search for sponsors and programming, among other tasks.

The origins of this UC3M team go back more than a decade, when the vehicle was first conceived, and in 2016 it took part in a competition for the first time under the name Formula UC3M. "Since then, the team has evolved a lot, always with the enthusiasm that new members bring and showing that it is a true pool of talent and innovation, without forgetting all the former members who have made the team grow," says the founder and academic director of the UC3M MAD Formula Team, Daniel García-Pozuelo, professor in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and researcher at the University's "Duque de Santomauro"  Motor Vehicle Safety Institute. "This project", he adds, "is an opportunity for students to develop academically, personally and professionally".

"For me, MAD Formula Team is the perfect complement to my studies at university," says Diego Rosado Barbero, a member of the team's Dynamics Department and a Mechanical Engineering Degree student at UC3M. "Being able to put into practice all the knowledge acquired during my degree is very positive, especially when it comes to such an exciting, ambitious and complete project, both at an academic and human level", he explains.

A university competition

When designing a single-seater of this type, it is important that the vehicle is "safe for the driver, as well as for the team members working around the car, guaranteeing sufficient reliability so that it does not fail before the end of the competition", says Daniel García-Pozuelo. Not surprisingly, one of the requirements for achieving a good score is to complete all the tests.

This competition consists of two types of tests: static, based on aspects such as the design and innovation of vehicle parts, cost analysis and business plan; and dynamics, which take into account the effectiveness and efficiency of the car in aspects such as acceleration, handling, stability and resistance.

Formula Student SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is an international inter-university competition organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), an independent mechanical engineering society based in London (UK) which aims to develop and inspire young engineers to be entrepreneurs and innovators. For this event, teams from each institution conceive, design and manufacture a single-seater car which they then race at renowned circuits such as Assen (Netherlands), Hockenheim (Germany), Montmeló (Spain) and Silverstone (UK), among others. It is a relevant competition at the university and professional level, with the support and collaboration of sponsoring multinational companies, which offers the opportunity to demonstrate and test both the creativity and skills of engineering students, as well as giving them the opportunity to create ties for a future professional career.

More information: nhttps://www.madformulateam.com/

In this context, the NETCOM group of UC3M’s Telematics Engineering Department recently held the first synchronisation meeting of the six subprojects that make up 6G-DATADRIVEN, together with the companies that participate in it. In the meeting, which took place on the Leganés Campus, UC3M lecturer and project coordinator, Carlos J. Bernardos, presented the project’s vision, outlined the steps to follow and developed synergies between the project’s partners. 

“The 6G-DATADRIVEN project provides us with an exceptional opportunity to work on the development and evaluation of the technologies that will shape future 6G networks, together with the most relevant Spanish companies in the sector. This will catalyze industrial innovation in 5G and 6G in Spain, as well as UC3M’s leading position in 5G and 6G network research activities”, says Carlos J. Bernardos.

This proposal is one of the pillars for the deployment of advanced 5G and 6G technologies of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the Spanish economy (PRTR, in its Spanish acronym). The UNICO R+D 6G 2023 programme is funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU Recovery Fund to promote convergence, resilience and transformation in the European Union.

More information:

Project website

This innovation arises from the need to improve surgical procedures in which the technique called “spinal arthrodesis” is used. This technique is applied in operations for multiple spinal pathologies and consists of permanently joining a series of vertebrae together to prevent deformities and pain. However, a critical step during its application is the drilling of the vertebrae for the subsequent placement of the pedicle screws. This step, which is traditionally performed freehand, increases the likelihood that the screws will not be inserted in their optimal position, the duration of the surgery and the risk of complications, such as bleeding and infections.

The software, designed by researchers from the UC3M Bioengineering Department and Digital Anatomics, allows healthcare workers to plan, before the operation, where to place the screws in spinal surgeries. “Our product consists of surgical templates or guides, designed automatically and made of biopolymer, which adapt and copy the shape and anatomy of each patient’s bone. This allows the surgeon, for example, to cut or drill in the exact position”, says Alejando Reyero, founder of the Digital Anatomics company and a UC3M alumnus.

The University’s Biomedical Science and Engineering lab (BSEL) has participated in the development of the software algorithm using artificial intelligence applied to medical imaging. “We have done so from a CT image. The intention is to locate each of the vertebrae independently, that is, to know the exact position of each vertebrae and automatically contour these vertebrae. To do this, we have used public databases where around 200 images already existed. Based on this database, we have trained an algorithm that is capable of learning to locate and segment the vertebrae”, says Javier Pascau, researcher and deputy director of UC3M’s Bioengineering Department.

To date, over a hundred surgeries have been performed using the TOR JIG software. It has been found that the patients who underwent surgery recovered faster, hospital stays were shorter and the understanding of each patient’s pathology, as well as the search for alternative therapeutic options, was simpler and more effective.

Version française (French version)

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

Esta innovación surge de la necesidad de mejorar las intervenciones quirúrgicas en las que se utiliza la técnica denominada “artrodesis espinal”. Esta técnica se aplica en operaciones de múltiples patologías de columna vertebral y consiste en dejar unidas de manera permanente una serie de vértebras para evitar deformaciones y dolores. Sin embargo, un paso crítico durante su aplicación es el taladro de las vértebras para la posterior colocación de los tornillos pediculares. Este paso, que tradicionalmente se realiza a mano alzada, aumenta la probabilidad de que los tornillos no queden insertados en su posición óptima, el tiempo de duración de la intervención y el riesgo de sufrir complicaciones, como sangrado e infecciones. 

El software diseñado por investigadores del Departamento de Bioingeniería de la UC3M y Digital Anatomics permite que el personal sanitario pueda planificar, antes de la operación, dónde van a ubicar los tornillos de las cirugías de columna. “Nuestro producto consiste en unas plantillas o guías quirúrgicas, diseñadas de forma automática y fabricadas en biopolímero, que adaptan y copian la forma y anatomía del hueso de cada paciente. Esto permite al cirujano, por ejemplo, cortar o taladrar en la posición exacta”, señala Alejandro Reyero, fundador de la empresa Digital Anatomics y alumni de la UC3M.

El laboratorio de Ciencia e Ingeniería Biomédica (BSEL) de la Universidad ha desarrollado el algoritmo del software mediante inteligencia artificial aplicada a la imagen médica. “Lo hemos hecho a partir de una imagen TAC. Lo que se quiere es localizar cada una de las vértebras de manera independiente, es decir, saber qué posición exacta tiene cada vértebra y contornear automáticamente esas vértebras. Para ello, hemos utilizado bases de datos públicas donde ya existían unas 200 imágenes. Sobre esa base de datos hemos entrenado un algoritmo que es capaz de aprender a localizar y segmentar las vértebras”, apunta Javier Pascau, investigador y subdirector del Departamento de Bioingeniería de la UC3M. 

Hasta la fecha, se han realizado más de un centenar de cirugías utilizando el software TOR JIG. Se ha constatado que los pacientes intervenidos han tenido una recuperación más rápida, los periodos de estancia en el hospital han sido menores y la comprensión de la patología de cada paciente, así como búsqueda de opciones terapéuticas alternativas, ha sido más sencilla y eficaz.

Version française (French version)

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

Esta innovación surge de la necesidad de mejorar las intervenciones quirúrgicas en las que se utiliza la técnica denominada “artrodesis espinal”. Esta técnica se aplica en operaciones de múltiples patologías de columna vertebral y consiste en dejar unidas de manera permanente una serie de vértebras para evitar deformaciones y dolores. Sin embargo, un paso crítico durante su aplicación es el taladro de las vértebras para la posterior colocación de los tornillos pediculares. Este paso, que tradicionalmente se realiza a mano alzada, aumenta la probabilidad de que los tornillos no queden insertados en su posición óptima, el tiempo de duración de la intervención y el riesgo de sufrir complicaciones, como sangrado e infecciones. 

El software diseñado por investigadores del Departamento de Bioingeniería de la UC3M y Digital Anatomics permite que el personal sanitario pueda planificar, antes de la operación, dónde van a ubicar los tornillos de las cirugías de columna. “Nuestro producto consiste en unas plantillas o guías quirúrgicas, diseñadas de forma automática y fabricadas en biopolímero, que adaptan y copian la forma y anatomía del hueso de cada paciente. Esto permite al cirujano, por ejemplo, cortar o taladrar en la posición exacta”, señala Alejandro Reyero, fundador de la empresa Digital Anatomics y alumni de la UC3M.

El laboratorio de Ciencia e Ingeniería Biomédica (BSEL) de la Universidad ha desarrollado el algoritmo del software mediante inteligencia artificial aplicada a la imagen médica. “Lo hemos hecho a partir de una imagen TAC. Lo que se quiere es localizar cada una de las vértebras de manera independiente, es decir, saber qué posición exacta tiene cada vértebra y contornear automáticamente esas vértebras. Para ello, hemos utilizado bases de datos públicas donde ya existían unas 200 imágenes. Sobre esa base de datos hemos entrenado un algoritmo que es capaz de aprender a localizar y segmentar las vértebras”, apunta Javier Pascau, investigador y subdirector del Departamento de Bioingeniería de la UC3M. 

Hasta la fecha, se han realizado más de un centenar de cirugías utilizando el software TOR JIG. Se ha constatado que los pacientes intervenidos han tenido una recuperación más rápida, los periodos de estancia en el hospital han sido menores y la comprensión de la patología de cada paciente, así como búsqueda de opciones terapéuticas alternativas, ha sido más sencilla y eficaz.

Version française (French version)

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

The University Master’s Degree in Industrial Design Engineering offers multidisciplinary training for engineering professionals interested in innovation-oriented design throughout the entire product life cycle, complying with sustainable development objectives. This master’s degree is suitable for people who want to communicate about industrial products; design, develop and improve products under aesthetic, technical and regulatory criteria; learn about the industrial reality and concepts of sustainable design and production; plan and lead projects adopting sustainability criteria, respect for the environment, digitalisation and creativity; and establish manufacturing processes based on sustainable technologies, with a high level of digitalisation.

The University Master’s Degree in Quantum Technologies and Engineering, taught in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, in its Spanish acronym), aims to train scientists in one of the most promising fields of engineering, whose technological applications could have a major social impact. To do this, it will address issues from basic science to the development of industrial applications. In addition, the master’s degree will have the participation of public entities and leading companies that will help to explore the broad agenda at the frontier of knowledge in this field, focusing on the areas of Computing and Simulation (IBM, Banco Santander, etc.), Cryptography and Communications (Telefónica, INTA, etc.) and Sensing and Metrology (Spanish Centre of Metrology, Arquimea Research Centre, etc.).

Another new UC3M postgraduate course is the Lifelong Learning Master’s Degree in Fundamentals of Law and Disruptive Technologies. It is taught online and responds to a growing demand for specialised training on the meaning and functioning of Law in the face of disruptive technologies. It is aimed at both people who want to improve their skills and professionals in the legal sector, as well as at those who want to start research in this field. The interest and quality of the programme are backed by the academic resources and experience in the field at UC3M by the Gregorio Peces-Barba Human Rights Institute and the interdisciplinary academic unit Dertecnia. 

A wide range of postgraduate courses

UC3M offers a wide range of postgraduate programmes. 70 university master’s degrees are taught in the fields of Law, Economics and Political Science; Business; Humanities and Communication; and Engineering and Basic Sciences, along with 50 lifelong learning master’s degrees, specialist and expert diplomas. Around 10 percent of the programmes are bilingual and around 20 percent are taught in English.

UC3M is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching and innovation. It is among the top 35 universities in the world in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is among the best Spanish universities for the employability of its graduates, according to the latest edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Global University Employability Ranking and the QS Graduate Employability Ranking. UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality awards, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering or the AACSB accreditation in business and finance programmes, among others. 

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women worldwide. In 2020, 2.3 million new cases were diagnosed, which represents around a quarter of all cancers in women. Improvements in radiological diagnosis and early detection programmes have increased the identification of non-palpable breast lesions for which the treatment is conservative surgery. The aim of conservative surgery is to remove the tumour and a small margin of tissue around it, to maintain the breast’s overall shape.

Preoperative diagnostic imaging is of limited use as a tool to guide surgery, as images are acquired in very different positions from the position in which surgery is performed. It is therefore necessary to locate hidden breast lesions before surgery. Currently, techniques to locate lesions before surgery have many limitations and involve additional surgery. 

In this new study carried out by researchers from UPM and CIBER-BBN’s Biomedical Imaging Technologies BIT group, in collaboration with the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital, the HM Sanchinarro Hospital in Madrid and UC3M, an alternative or complementary methodology is provided to current preoperative localization methods used in clinical practice using an optical scanner that allows determining the position of the tumor in the position of surgery.

The results obtained using clinical case data demonstrate the possibility of obtaining a precise location of the tumour from a single preoperative image and minimally altering the preoperative protocol.

The developed technique has been implemented for inclusion in a tool capable of presenting the intraoperative scene to the surgeon with three-dimensional models of the surface and the lesion, as well as its projection on the skin. In this way, a quick and intuitive reading of the intraoperative scene can be provided to guide tumour resection. The results are promising and comparable with existing methods which involve significant changes in the preoperative image acquisition protocol.

According to Felicia Alfaro, a UPM researcher participating in the study: “By enabling a new non-invasive way of locating lesions before surgery, future applications of this work can have a significant impact on clinical practice. For example, avoiding additional surgery, reducing the psychological impact for the patient and reducing preoperative protocol costs”.

According to another of the researchers participating in the study, Javier Pascau, from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), “unlike previous studies in the literature, our method has been validated in a realistic patient population with different characteristics regarding breast size. This new solution offers the surgeon intuitive guidance to locate the tumour, something we hope to improve in the future by introducing visualisation based on augmented reality”.

Bibliographic reference: O. B. Zamora, M. H. Conde, S. Lizarraga, A. Santos, J. Pascau, M. J. Ledesma-Carbayo (2022). Breast Tumor Localization by Prone to Supine Landmark Driven Registration for Surgical Planning, in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 122901-122911, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3223658.

Dual-comb systems work by interfering light from two optical sources, called optical frequency combs. This mixing process generates a signal, called an interferogram, at a speed that, until very recently, was too fast to be captured even by very high-speed cameras.

The research team for this patent has developed a system based on a dual-comb electro-optical source made with fibre optic components. The main part is a dual-comb illuminator capable of generating two frequency combs that interfere at much lower frequencies than can be obtained with other systems. This makes it possible to detect that signal with any camera that has sensitivity in the emission range of the dual-comb system used. In addition, it is capable of working in different frequency ranges (near-infrared, mid-infrared and terahertz).

The technologies based on frequency combs used to date made it possible to analyse a single point of the sample, towards which the light source was sent. The system patented by the UC3M research team makes it possible to spectrally analyse the entire sample and is pioneering in terms of the measurement used because it uses a dual frequency comb instead of the spectral interrogators that current hyperspectral cameras are equipped with.

From this characterisation it can, in addition to identifying the compound, analyse other parameters such as its temperature, pressure and concentration. “The need arises from the shortcomings of current technologies, in which the measurements are very slow and optical absorptions are not identified precisely enough. The high optical resolution with which we can characterise the entire sample with our technology is essential when we work, for example, with gases”, says Pedro Martín Mateos, lecturer in UC3M’s Electronic Technology Department and project researcher.

This system makes it possible to analyse the chemical composition of a complete sample and can be used in many sectors. To date, it has been tested for the detection and analysis of gases, as well as for studying the characteristics of different foods and materials, such as plastic. “We have already demonstrated its usefulness for the study of gaseous samples. This would be useful for the development of more efficient burners or for safety issues. We have also used it for the analysis of certain foods and even for drying wood, and we are starting to develop a system that will allow us to monitor combustion processes with new fuels or alternative fuels, such as hydrogen,” concludes the researcher.

Version française (French version)

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

Until now, this team of researchers had made several advances in the design and manufacturing of these structures, but they were very limited in terms of shape-design and programming of intelligent responses. The work presented in their latest study, published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, has allowed them to open up new possibilities by developing a novel4D printing methodology. “This technology allows us to not only control the way we print three-dimensional structures, but also to give them the ability to change their properties or geometry in response to the action of external magnetic fields, or the ability to modify their electric properties when they deform”, explains one of the researchers, Daniel García González, head of the ERC 4D-BIOMAP (GA 947723) project and associate professor in UC3M’s Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structure Theory.

This type of printing is complex since the material to be extruded transitions from liquid to solid during the printing process. It is therefore necessary to understand the material dynamics to adapt the manufacturing process and obtain a material which is sufficiently liquid when it flows through the printer nozzle but, at the same time, solid enough to maintain a specific shape. To this end, they have developed an interdisciplinary methodology that combines theoretical and experimental techniques allowing them to build the printing device from scratch, both the physical part of the device (the hardware) and the computer programmes that allow it to be controlled (the software).

A self-healing material

The researchers have also developed a new material concept that is capable of healing itself autonomously without the need for external action, according to another recent publication in the journal Composites Part B: Engineering. “This material consists of a soft polymer matrix embedded with magnetic particles with a remanent field. For practical purposes, it is as if we had small magnets distributed in the material, so that, if it breaks, when the resulting parts are brought together again, they will physically join recovering their structural integrity”, says Daniel García González.

Thanks to these advances, which have led to several registered patents, these scientists have been able to print three types of functional materials: some that change their shape and properties in response to external magnetic fields; others with self-healing capability; and others whose electrical properties (conductivity) vary according to their shape or deformation. With the first type of material, they have developed smart substrates to transmit forces and signals to cellular systems, so that they can influence biological processes such as cell proliferation or migration. These materials can also be used to design soft robots whose performance can be controlled by magnetic fields.

The combination of materials with self-healing capabilities and whose electric conduction properties vary with deformation opens up enormous possibilities in the development of sensors. “We can think of sensors that, attached to our body, collect information about our movement from variations in electric conductivity. In addition, the material’s self-healing capability allows the design of sensors with binary signals. For example, if we have had a knee injury and need to limit rotation to a maximum value, we can incorporate a small band of this material over our joint. This way, when we exceed this maximum rotation, the material will break showing an abrupt change in its electric properties, thus providing a warning signal. However, when returning the knee to a relaxed state, the material's healing capability will result in recovery of the electric signal. This way we can monitor our movements and warn of risky conditions after surgery or during rehabilitation periods”, says Daniel Garcia González.

Bibliographic references:

Lopez-Donaire, M.L. Aranda-Izuzquiza, G. Garzon-Hernandez, S. Crespo-Miguel, J. Fernández-de la Torre, M.;  Velasco, D. Garcia-Gonzalez, D. (2023). Computationally Guided DIW Technology to Enable Robust Printing of Inks with Evolving Rheological Properties. Advanced Materials Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202370012

Garcia-Gonzalez, D. Ter-Yesayants, T., Moreno-Mateos, M.A., Lopez-Donaire, M.L. (2023). Hard-magnetic phenomena enable autonomous self-healing elastomers, Composites Part B: Engineering, Volume 248, 110357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2022.110357

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This new R+D+i map is useful for research staff and the industrial sector interested in creating synergies with the University.

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According to the study’s results, the cheapest rates include buying direct traffic to a website, getting “likes” on Instagram or getting views on multimedia platforms. For example, 1000 “likes” on Instagram cost 1.3 euros, while 2 euros can get 1000 views on YouTube or 1000 plays on Spotify. Interestingly, several services are offered for free so customers can check their quality and thus be convinced to invest in different ones. This way, for less than 9 cents you can get 1000 views on TikTok, SoundCloud or Instagram/IGTV. Buying Instagram followers is more expensive: for 4.3 euros you can get 1000. And then there are other more expensive services because they involve some personalisation, such as reviews on Google or TripAdvisor, which range at around 1 euro per text.

As Narseo Vallina-Rodríguez, associate research lecturer at IMDEA Networks and another of the work’s authors,  says, “potential consumers of this type of service can be anyone depending on the type of review: from influencers who want to promote their channels on social media to brands trying to promote the visibility of their products”.

This study, recently published in the scientific journal Computers & Security, is part of a wider research project on the ecosystem of services that provide fake activity and identity services on the internet. The aim of this research is to quantify and analyse the evolution of the global market price of services that (re)sell artificial interactions on social media and content distribution platforms, something that has rarely been studied in academic literature, according to the researchers.

Some platforms regularly provide reports on what they call “inorganic behaviour”, especially to report the volume of deactivated accounts and the purpose they served. However, the total volume of fake interactions on current platforms is unknown.

Is there any way to detect this fraudulent use of social media? “Platform providers can implement proactive measures to detect and identify accounts used to generate fake reviews. In the past, efforts were made to detect fake accounts on social networks such as Twitter, which were very effective and could be implemented to tackle this problem. However, it is a very costly effort”, explains Vallina-Rodríguez. 

To carry out this study, the researchers identified a significant sample of interaction resale panels (more than fifty) and collected data every day for 4 months on their service catalogue and the evolution of their prices. Once all this data was filtered and standardised, it was processed to analyse the service catalogue, the evolution of prices, the factors affecting the latter and the buying and selling activity in specialised forums.

Bibliographic reference: 

Nevado-Catalán, D. Pastrana, S. Vallina-Rodriguez, N. Tapiador, J. (2023) An Analysis of fake social media engagement services. Computers & Security, Volume 124, 103013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2022.103013 

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The opening talk, which will take place on Thursday the 2nd of March at 9:00, will be given by the president of the Spanish Association of Video Game and Entertainment Software Production and Development Companies (DEV, in its Spanish acronym), Valeria Castro, co-founder of one of Spain’s biggest indie video game studios. Subsequently, as a commitment to the fusion of art and technology, in the UC3M Auditorium you will be able to see an extract from the Forms String Quartet work, a concert for a string quartet, electronics and digital imaging created by the audiovisual research studio Playmodes.

The talks programme includes more than a dozen speakers from UC3M who will talk about their research on topics such as: vocal biomarkers for disease detection; metaverse law; body transformation experiences with smart clothing (wearables); the operation of turnstiles, cards and recharge points in the Madrid Metro; intelligent materials for biological cell control; or the use of generic user data on social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

There will be an exhibitors’ area at the fair, where attendees can find 25 stands, sponsored by firms such as Accenture, Airbus, Banco Santander, Idealista, Ikea or Zara, among others. In addition to showcasing the new technologies they use, the companies will take advantage of the event to recruit talent and evaluate the CVs of those interested in working or doing internships with them.

On Tuesday the 28th of February, T3chFest Ed Day will also be held, a day aimed at students in their final years of secondary education or studying technology-based A-Levels, so that they can discover more about the impact that technology and engineering have on our daily lives and on society. This insight into technology will be carried out through talks and practical workshops on scientific-technological outreach taught by UC3M research staff.

More information: T3chFest website 

To do this, a Google live transcription system and a subtitling tool developed by CESyA, called Mercurio, will be used. This system allows live subtitling of the radio thanks to voice recognition and natural language processing tools. The sound, which is collected during the broadcast, is processed and sent to the DTT signal synchronised with the generated subtitles, so that everyone can have equal access to the radio programming broadcast by the National Radio.

This collaboration between RTVE and CESyA was created to respond to the needs of deaf people, ensuring their rights and in compliance with the public service entrusted to both entities.

CESyA is an advisory centre for the Royal Board on Disability of the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 and is managed by UC3M. Consolidated by the General Law on Audiovisual Communication as one of the state centres of reference in matters of audiovisual accessibility for people with disabilities, it has the collaboration of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI, in its Spanish acronym), whose multidisciplinary project consists of promoting accessibility in the audiovisual media environment through subtitling and audio-description services.

UC3M is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching and innovation. It is among the top 35 universities in the world in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is among the best Spanish universities for the employability of its graduates, according to the latest edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Global University Employability Ranking and the QS Graduate Employability Ranking. UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality awards, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering or the AACSB accreditation in business and finance programmes, among others.

On the 14th of February at 11am, there will be a gymkhana on data science dedicated to the climatologist Eunice Foote, one of the first researchers on the greenhouse effect. This year, the theme of the gymkhana responds to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13: "Climate Action". It is aimed at secondary school students to develop students' critical thinking, promote the scientific method and raise awareness of the importance of data interpretation and analysis in everyday life.

On Tuesday the 21st of February at 11am, “The Sound of The Wind: a colloquium talk on Physics and Music” is scheduled at the UC3M Auditorium. This event will address the communicating vessels between both disciplines from the time of Pythagoras to the present day. The speaker, Almudena Martín Castro, a physicist and pianist, will be taking part in the event, and will narrate interesting facts about wind instruments, their origins and evolution throughout history in an entertaining way. Excerpts of classical works and soundtracks will be performed by the Alma Ensemble wind quintet.

From Monday 13th of March to Thursday 16th of February, the UC3M Women in Science and Technology #STEAMfemenino programme will take place at the UC3M Science Park, an initiative by the Association of Spanish Scientific and Technology Parks (APTE, in its Spanish acronym) and led by UC3M, a member of APTE, in the social environment of Leganés. During these days, there will be a series of workshops focused on improving four SDGs (6, 7, 10 and 11), technological visits to six LeganésTecnológico companies and a video contest. In total, 200 students and tutors from Leganés secondary schools are expected to take part in the programme, thanks to the collaboration of the Leganés City Council. The workshops are being organised with the Créate Foundation thanks to the sponsorship of AEQ, Avizor, Solusoft and Thales.

The research compiles a three-year dataset (from 2019 to 2021) with information from the Facebook pages of 234 political parties. The authors made use of the 2019 European Parliament elections and 18 other electoral processes to create and validate their models: “Our methodology benefits from being a low-cost execution process that measures ideology and polarisation”, adds another of the researchers, Ángel Cuevas, Senior Lecturer in UC3M’s Telematics Engineering Department. Given that data from a social network is used, it is possible to observe changes in political trends in each of the countries analysed, and to see the evolution of these changes month by month.

All of the information can be found on a freely accessible web portal, called EU Political Barometer (https://eupoliticalbarometer.uc3m.es).

The data available from the 1st of January 2019 makes it possible to compare different European countries, and is also useful for studying the degree of polarisation.

This research project is funded by the Community of Madrid through the "Encouraging Young PhD Students' Research" line of the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M (EU-MEASURE-CM-UC3M), within the framework of the V PRICIT (Fifth Regional Plan for Scientific Research and Technological Innovation).

Bibliographic reference: Caravaca, F., González-Cabañas, J., Cuevas, Á. et al. (2022). Estimating ideology and polarization in European countries using Facebook data. EPJ Data Sci. 11, 56. Published: 22 November 2022. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-022-00367-1 

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This proposal, led by Belén Ruiz Mezcua and Lourdes Moreno López, professors in UC3M’s Computer Science Department, has three key areas: detecting problems currently encountered in terms of accessibility, offering support to Public Administrations regarding cognitive and sensory accessibility (such as help guides or other types of documentation), and designing a proof of concept that provides good practices and design guidelines to be applied to an emergency healthcare service that meets the needs of all people with disabilities.

The other project that has received funding, called “The class for all, to ensure accessibility in education (Access2Class)”, aims to reduce communication barriers that make the communication process difficult or impossible and create an obstacle for people with sensory disabilities (hearing and cognitive) accessing information in the field of education.

These difficulties have worsened for students with sensory disabilities as a result of the online classes that were taught during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Therefore, this project’s research team, led by José Manuel Sánchez Pena, professor in UC3M’s Electronic Technology Department, seeks to create a platform to facilitate the teaching of accessible online classes, with a system of channels with automatically generated subtitles, audio description and sign language.

James F. Kurose is a Distinguished University Professor in the School of Information and Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Wesleyan University. He has been a visiting scientist at several institutions, such as IBM Research, INRIA, Technicolor,  Sorbonne University and the University of Paris. His lines of research include computer network architecture and protocols, sensor networks and multimedia communication and network measurement, among others. He has received several awards, including the IEEE Infocom Award, the ACM SICOMM Lifetime Achievement Award, the ACM Sigcomm Test of Time Award and the IEEE Computer Society Taylor Booth Education Medal. He has been deputy director of the US National Science Foundation and deputy director of Artificial Intelligence in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is a member of the IEEE, the ACM and the US National Academy of Engineering. In Madrid, he is a member of the board of trustees and the scientific committee of the IMDEA Networks institute.

Alain Molinari is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Solid Mechanics at the University of Lorraine. He has a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg and a PhD in Science from the University of Metz. He has been “Professeur chargé de cours” at the École Polytechnique in Paris and invited professor at foreign institutions such as the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the universities of California at San Diego, Brown and Johns Hopkins, among others. He has done research in various fields of Solid Mechanics, especially in the field of materials subjected to extreme conditions, such as very rapid deformation phenomena, high speed forming processes or multi-scale modelling of dynamic damage, among others. He has been associate editor of several scientific journals, such as 'International Journal of Plasticity' and 'Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics'. He has organised and participated in many international conferences and committees and is the author or co-author of some 250  research papers. Molinari has received several awards: he was Millikan Distinguished Professor at Caltech, Distinguished Scholar and Gledden Senior Fellow at the University of Western Australia, as well as receiving awards such as the Spiru Haret Award from the Romanian Academy of Sciences and the John Rinehart Award for his work on high strain rate phenomena. He held a Chair of Excellence at UC3M between 2009 and 2011.

More information:  UC3M Honoris Causa

Functionally graded materials are capable of withstanding large thermal increases, which makes them particularly suitable for the construction of an aircraft fuselage or for the different components of an engine (both aircraft and rocket). In addition, they can inhibit the propagation of cracks and fissures. This property makes them useful in defence applications, such as the development of materials that are more resistant to high-speed impacts in order to improve the performance of protective structures, according to the researchers. Interest in functionally graded materials is also growing in biomedical applications, such as bone implants made from these materials that achieve optimal mechanical behaviour with the desired bone biocompatibility. "These types of materials, due to their characteristics, are going to bring about a revolution in the field of structural engineering. We are going to achieve more efficient, sustainable and cheaper materials, because they tend to minimise production costs and times (eliminating excess material) and allow for the customisation of mechanical properties for specific applications," emphasised Guadalupe Vadillo.

UC3M researchers are going to focus on modelling the behaviour of these materials; specifically, in the development of the computational aspect that has to do with numerical simulations. This will serve as a basis so that other project partners can subsequently use this data to develop and optimise these materials.

There are now 3D printers that can print not only polymeric and metallic materials, but also ceramics. When it comes to combining several materials in the same structure, as investigated in this project, the main challenge relates to how to optimise the properties of these composites by combining the best characteristics of each material. The aim is to spatially vary the mechanical properties in such a way that the response of the structure to a given industrial application can be customised.

DIAGONAL (Ductility and Fracture Toughness analysis of functionally graded materials) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Staff Exchanges (SE) project coordinated by UC3M (GA 101086342) that will run from 2023 to 2027. It involves ten universities and research centres: four European beneficiary institutions (UC3M and Universidad de Sevilla, in Spain; the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, in Poland; and the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, in Italy) together with six partner institutions: four from the United States (University of Florida, Northwestern University, Texas A&M University, University of Minnesota Twin Cities), one from Australia (Monash University) and one from Brazil (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria). The MSCA-SE projects aim to create networks to promote the exchange of knowledge between different universities and research centres at an international level by encouraging the mobility of its members through research stays and outreach activities (scientific conferences and symposia, courses, seminars, etc.).

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"By applying artificial intelligence, we can predict short-term changes to the amount of sulphur dioxide present in the atmosphere and the dynamics of thunderstorms around airports," says Manuel Soler, from UC3M's Department of Aerospace Engineering, who is heading up the project. In fact, within the framework of this project, tests have been carried out with the new prototype at two European airports, Brussels and Milan.

The information provided by this new early warning system is of great help when it comes to decision-making by operators involved in air traffic, such as controllers, pilots and other participants in the aeronautical sector.In the event of an emergency due to natural phenomena, this system will allow them to access information -which has been tailored to their needs - through an interface that displays the data in a simple and intuitive manner. "In the field of artificial intelligence and in the age of data, it can still be difficult to access all the information (which is often very heterogeneous), process it and store it in a way that makes it accessible. This has been the main challenge we have faced in the project," says Manuel Soler.

Another notable and innovative aspect of this project - in which scientists and technology experts from Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the UK have collaborated - lies in the consideration of climate impact as an additional harmful effect. "Although it does not put the safety of the aircraft at risk, it does put the planet at risk," according to the researchers. They have thus been able to identify the areas where the passage of aircraft has the greatest impact on the climate by contributing to global warming.They call these areas 'ECHO areas'. "This tool for identifying and predicting ECHO areas is at an early stage of development but has great potential for use by air network managers and Air Navigation Service providers, allowing them to designate certain areas as 'ecological' and to take certain decisions, such as limiting or regulating traffic therein," adds Manuel Soler. This information could also be passed on to airlines so that they can integrate it into their tools and develop more environmentally friendly flight plans.

As a result of this research, collaborations have been established with other European scientific projects, such as FlyATM4E, focused on optimising trajectories for greener aviation, and ISOBAR, aimed at predicting imbalances between capacity and demand in airspace. These collaborations have led to new lines of research that combine the early warning platform developed by ALARM with other potential features that are of great interest in today's aviation sector, such as fog prediction or the effects of condensation trails (the linear trail of clouds left behind by some flights in certain atmospheric conditions) on climate change.

ALARM (multi-hAzard monitoring and earLywARning) is a project funded by SESAR Joint Undertaking, which is supported by the EU H2020 Programme (GA 891467), and which has been developed over the last two years. It is coordinated by UC3M and involves partners from five European countries: the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), the University of Padua (Italy) and two small companies in the aeronautical sector, the British company SATAVIA and the Italian company SYMOPT.

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Engineering: Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Telematics Engineering, Thermal and Fluid Engineering, Systems Engineering and Automation, Continuum Mechanics and Structural Theory, Electronics Technology and Signal and Communications Theory.

Law: Private Law, Public State Law and Private Social and International Law.

Physics and Mathematics.

The presentation of this technological map took place on the 25th of October 2022, at an event on the “R+D+i Challenge in New Space”. The event was attended by, among others, the principal of the UC3M Polytechnic School, Paloma Díaz, and the commissioner of PERTE Aerospace, Miguel Belló.

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In addition, the research team has developed intelligent controllers based on artificial intelligence techniques, which allow these joints to be able to support different loads at their end while carrying out their tasks. These controllers estimate the load that the robot has picked up and ensure precise positioning so that the joint maintains its integrity. “We are able to estimate the deformation they are undergoing by measuring the material itself. This measurement of the deformation is necessary to know what position the joint is in, what stresses it is undergoing and to be able to act and control it”, says the researcher.

One of this project’s contributions is at the healthcare level. For example, people who need robotic assistance to carry out certain tasks will be able to have robots which are safer and more versatile in their movement.

As part of this research, ‘origami’-style joints based on paper folding have also been developed. Acetate and carbon nanofibre sensors were used for this. “There is an innovative line that deals with origami, which are deformable volumes that allow mobility of the joint itself”, says Concha Monje.

All of these developments are being implemented in the TEO humanoid robot, belonging to the UC3M Roboticslab, which already has a soft neck-like joint. “Soft robotics is expected to have a direct impact on the development of robots. It is already a reality that small and medium-sized international companies are investing in the commercialisation and development of this type of robotics, and the figures are expected to rise”, the researcher concludes.

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This special mention was given to UC3M for its STEM for Girls UC3M initiative, a programme to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) vocations among girls and young women and encompasses four fields of work: mentoring activities, competitions, technological workshops and performing arts. It has received funding from the FECYT and the Women’s Institute.

The Pioneras_IT Award was created in 2019 by the COIT Women’s IT working group with the aim of increasing the visibility of female talent in the technological field and, in particular, in the telecommunications field, traditionally dominated by men. By highlighting the professional careers of several female pioneers, it aims to stimulate scientific and technical vocations among girls and young women for the future.

In the first workshop, which will be held at UC3M’s Higher Polytechnic School (EPS, in its Spanish acronym) on the 5th and 6th of October, both teachers from UC3M’s COSEC (COmputer SECurity Lab) research group and professionals from the sector will participate to provide an overview of possible jobs associated with this discipline. In this way, students interested in finding work in this sector can learn about different specialisation profiles in this field and, in turn, headhunters can improve candidate search techniques.

The rest of the workshops for the 2022/23 academic year, which will be held at the EPS on different dates until next July, will focus on topics such as cryptography, cybersecurity risks for public employees, protection against hackers or the development of blockchain technologies, among others. You can view the full programme on the event’s website. In addition, as part of the CyberCamp UC3M–INCIBE, other activities will take place until 2025.

About CyberCamp

CyberCamp is the reference event for the development of cybersecurity and the digital confidence of citizens and entities created by INCIBE. Since 2014, it has been established as a free initiative for all audiences that has promoted the culture of cybersecurity through different meetings. In this new stage, which begins with the events held at UC3M, CyberCamp maintains its participatory essence and is committed to promoting the development of knowledge and skills of people and organisations in the field of cybersecurity.

About INCIBE

The National Cybersecurity Institute is an entity under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, established as a reference entity for the development of cybersecurity and digital confidence of citizens and companies. It is also a driving force for social change and an opportunity for innovation, promoting R+D+i and talent.

About UC3M

UC3M is a Spanish public university that excels in research, teaching and innovation. It is among the top 35 universities in the world in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is among the best universities in the world for employability, according to the THE Global University Employability Ranking. UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality awards, such as the EUR-ACE seal in the field of engineering or the AACSB accreditation in business and finance programmes, among others. It has exchange agreements with universities in 60 countries on 5 continents and is a member of international European networks of excellence such as YERUN (Young European Research Universities) or YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe).

• Engineering: Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Telematics Engineering, Thermal and Fluids Engineering, Systems Engineering and Automation, Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis, Electronic Technology and Signal Theory and Communications.
• Humanities, Documentation and Communication: Communication and Geography.
• Law: Criminal Law and Public State Law.
• Economics: Economics, Business Economics and Statistics.
• Social Sciences: Social Analysis.
• Mathematics and Physics: Physics and Mathematics.

This new R+D+i map will create synergies between the University and the industrial sector.

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During the morning of Friday 30th, two activities will be held for secondary schools. First, at 11 am in the UC3M Auditorium, there will be a theatrical show with talks by researchers on various aspects related to our well-being, such as water, pollution caused by aeroplanes, the health of our cells or technology’s impact on our body’s perception. Secondly, at 12 pm in another space on the Leganés campus, there will be a talk on the artificial skin which is manufactured by 3D bioprinting in UC3M’s research laboratories.

During the afternoon of Friday 27th September, two other activities will be held. A webinar on diversity, equity and inclusion in the field of open science will begin at 5 pm, while at 6 pm on the Leganés campus, there will be a workshop and demonstration on how to reduce the environmental impact of aeroplanes.

Two activities will take place on Saturday 1st October. At 10 am there will be a guided tour of a laboratory at the UC3M Science Park to carry out tests with magneto-active smart materials that can stimulate our cells. In the afternoon, at 5 pm, there will be a webinar explaining how to combine different disciplines (biology, engineering, chemistry...) and solve common problems.

These UC3M activities are part of the European Researchers’ Night, an event which includes numerous free scientific outreach activities and which is held simultaneously in more than 350 European cities. In the Community of Madrid, this project is promoted by the Ministry of Science, Universities and Innovation, coordinated by the madri+d Foundation and funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme, under grant agreement number 101,061,343. This project to support the career of research staff aims to raise awareness of their role and the importance of their work for society’s well-being.

More information:

European Researchers' Night at UC3M website

The presentation of this technological map took place on the 7th of July, 2022 at an event chaired by the journalist Cristina Gallach, who is currently the special commissioner for the Spanish Government’s Alliance for the New Language Economy. UC3M research staff, such as Victoria Pavón, Paloma Martinez and Carlos Balaguer, and representatives from the business association AMETIC, the National Library of Spain and Telefónica also participated.

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One of the main differences between the first study, carried out in 2016, and the current one is the period over which the analysis is carried out. In this study, in addition to quantifying the short-term impact (referring to the 2018-2019 academic year), a longer period of time has also been taken into account, between 2000 and 2018. Another difference is the breadth of the Madrid university sector considered. The current report analyses six public and eight private universities which had academic activity during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Short-term contributions

In 2018, the Madrid university sector as a whole generated income (gross value added) that accounted for 3.15% of the regional GDP. Of this percentage, 1.83% is attributable to universities and 1.32% to students, visitors and conference attendees. This represents 3.38% of the total wage income received by families in the Community of Madrid in that year. Furthermore, the Madrid university sector contributed 103,182 jobs, which corresponds to 3.42% of total employment in the region.

Impact of the pandemic

From the data collected for the 2020-2021 academic year, it is estimated that the Madrid university sector’s contribution to the regional GDP in 2020 was 2.67% and the total jobs generated accounted for 2.78% of employment (compared to 3.42% in 2018). With this rough estimate, the report concludes that, regarding the economic impact of 2018, the contribution to regional GDP decreased by 15% and the contribution to employment by 19%. This is due to the drop in students enrolled in the 2020-2021 academic year, as well as in visitors and conference attendees, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tax contribution

As a whole, taxation via personal income tax and VAT of graduates from any of the Madrid universities (public and private) in 2018 was 7,665.1 million euros.

On the other hand, by comparing the additional tax revenue of those who completed their studies in 2018 in one of the Madrid public universities with the 932.6 million euros that these universities receive from the Community of Madrid, it can be deduced that with the additional taxes paid by graduates, €5.8 would be returned annually to Madrid society for each euro invested by the Community of Madrid in the funding of public universities.

Long-term impact

In the period between 2000 and 2018, all Madrid universities (public and private) contributed 0.4 percentage points to the economic growth of the Community of Madrid. In other words, 19% of the average total growth of the Madrid economy in that period is attributable to contributions from the region’s universities.

This second edition of the study was directed and coordinated by Rosario Romera, a lecturer of Statistics at UC3M and a member of the Interuniversity Institute "Advanced Research on Evaluation of Science and Universities" (INAECU, in its Spanish acronym), a joint centre created by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, of which the universities that make up the 4U Alliance are currently members.

Furthermore, if the vehicles that didn’t pass the inspection had done so, an additional 13,517 road accidents, 11,643 injuries and 146 deaths would have been avoided.

From an environmental point of view, MOT centres have prevented 575 premature deaths due to exposure to particulate matter (PM). If all passenger vehicles were to pass an MOT, 207 premature deaths due to exposure to particulate matter could be avoided in a year.

The number of vehicles that didn’t pass the MOT rose in 2021

The report reveals worrying data on the number of vehicles that didn’t pass the MOT in 2021. In terms of passenger vehicles, the percentage that didn’t pass the MOT reached 26.48%, given that at least 4,717,227 of the inspections that should have been carried out didn’t take place. This represents an increase of 64.04% compared to 2017.

In terms of light goods vehicles (VTML, in its Spanish acronym), 54% didn’t pass the MOT, corresponding to 3,242,570 mandatory inspections. This represents an increase of 82.12% compared to 2017. As for mopeds and motorcycles, the percentage that didn’t pass the MOT was 65.1%, as 1,535,722 mandatory inspections weren’t carried out. This is an increase of 11.42% compared to 2017.

Relationship between the MOT status, road accident rate and age of the vehicle fleet

This study, which updates the previous one carried out in 2018, also shows the substantial increase in the number of vehicles involved in road accidents with fatalities whose MOT had expired at the time of the accident. It also highlights the correlation between the severity of road accidents and the age of the vehicles involved; showing that, between the fifth and sixth year of activity, the number of serious road accidents (with fatalities) related to technical faults is increasing substantially. Hence the importance of vehicles having their periodic roadworthiness tests up to date.

These conclusions were presented at UC3M’s Madrid-Puerta de Toledo campus, in an event in which the General Director of Industry and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Galo Gutiérrez Monzonís; the president of the Road Safety Commission of the Congress of Deputies, Juan José Matarí; and the professor and director of the UC3M Mechanical Engineering Department, José Luis San Román spoke, accompanied by the president of the AECA-ITV, Alejandro Pastor, and the managing director of the association, Guillermo Magaz.

However, most public databases only contain the frequency of resistant pathogens, which is aggregated data calculated from MIC measurements and predefined resistance thresholds. “For example, for a given pathogen, the antibiotic resistance threshold may be 4: if a bacterium has an MIC of 16, it is considered resistant and is counted when calculating the resistance frequency”, says Pablo Catalán, lecturer and researcher in the UC3M Mathematics Department and author of the study. In this regard, the resistance reports that are carried out nationally and by organisations such as the WHO are prepared using this aggregated resistance frequency data.

To conduct this research, the team has analysed a database which is ground-breaking, as it contains raw data on antibiotic resistance. This database, called ATLAS, is managed by Pfizer and has been public since 2018. The working group led by UC3M has compared the information of 600,000 patients from over 70 countries and has used machine learning methods (a type of artificial intelligence technique) to extract resistance evolution patterns.

By analysing this data, the research team has discovered that there are resistance evolution patterns that can be detected when using the raw data (MIC), but which are undetectable using the aggregated data. “A clear example of this is a pathogen whose MIC is slowly increasing over time, but below the resistance threshold. Using this frequency data we wouldn’t be able to say anything, since the resistance frequency remains constant. However, by using MIC data we can detect such a case and be on alert. In the paper, we discuss several clinically relevant cases which have these characteristics. Furthermore, we are the first team to describe this database in depth”, says Catalán.

This study makes it possible to design antibiotic treatments that are more effective in controlling infections and curbing the rise of resistance which causes many clinical problems. “The research uses mathematical ideas to find new ways of extracting antibiotic resistance patterns from 6.5 million data points”, concludes the research author. 

Bibliographic reference: 

Catalán, P., Wood, E., Blair, J.M.A. et al. Seeking patterns of antibiotic resistance in ATLAS, an open, raw MIC database with patient metadata. Nat Commun 13, 2917 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30635-7 

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The idea of this project is to be able to carry out studies replicating complex biological processes through a new virtually assisted experimental system, which allows non-invasive and real-time control of the mechanical environment. Biological cells and tissues are continuously subjected to mechanical stress from their surrounding substrate, so analysing and controlling the forces that influence their behaviour would be a milestone for the “mechanobiology” community.

The system proposed by 4D-BIOMAP is based on the use of extremely soft magneto-active polymers that mimic the stiffness of biological materials. Thanks to their qualities, magneto-active materials allow researchers to carry out unrestricted monitoring of biological substrates, as the applied mechanical changes during experimentation can be reversible.

“Supported by the computational model, we have used all this basic science to design a smart actuation system which, coupled to a microscope developed within the ERC, allows us to visualise the cellular response in situ. In this way, we have consolidated a comprehensive framework to stimulate cellular systems with magneto-active smart materials”, says Daniel García González. This proposed framework paves the way to understanding the complex “mechanobiological” processes that occur during dynamic deformation states, such as traumatic brain injury, pathological skin scarring or fibrotic remodelling of the heart during a myocardial infarction, for example.

Researchers from the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, Imperial College London and the Instituto de Investigacion Sanitaria Gregorio Marañon de Madrid (Gregorio Maranon Health Research Institute in Madrid) have participated in the scientific paper describing these advances, recently published in the journal Applied Materials Today. Within UC3M, lecturers Miguel Ángel Moreno, Jorge González, Clara Gomez, Maria Luisa López and Ángel Arias from the Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis Department, as well as Arrate Muñoz and Diego Velasco from the Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department are participating.

4D-BIOMAP (Biomechanical Stimulation based on 4D Printed Magneto-Active Polymer) is a five-year project funded by the European Research Council with 1.5 million euros through an ERC Starting Grant from the European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 (GA 947723). This research project applies a multidisciplinary perspective, involving knowledge of disciplines such as solid mechanics, magnetism and bioengineering and combines computational, experimental and theoretical methodologies.

More information: 

Moreno-Mateos, M. A., Gonzalez-Rico, J., Nunez-Sardinha, E., Gomez-Cruz, C., Lopez-Donaire, M. L., Lucarini, S. Arias, A., Muñoz-Barrutia, A., Velasco, D. Garcia-Gonzalez, D. (2022). Magneto-mechanical system to reproduce and quantify complex strain patterns in biological materials. Applied Materials Today, 27, 101437. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352940722000762

4D-BIOMAP Project website: www.multibiostructures.com

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The laudatio on Zoya Popovic will be given by the lecturer Luis Enrique García, from the University’s Department of Signal and Communications Theory. Ehud Kalai’s laudatio will be given by the lecturer José Luis Ferreira from the UC3M Department of Economics. 

Honoris Causa Profiles

Zoya Popovic holds the Lockheed Martin Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder (USA), where she has been a Distinguished Research Professor since 2015. She received her bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and her PhD from Caltech in California (USA). She has been a lecturer at the Technical University of Munich (Germany) or the Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space (ISAE) in Toulouse (France), as well as holding a Chair of Excellence at UC3M during the 2018/19 academic year. She has graduated over 65 PhD students and currently advises 20 PhD students. Her research interests include high-efficiency power amplifiers and transmitters, high-performance microwave and millimetre-wave circuits for communications and radar, medical microwave applications, quantum sensing and metrology and wireless power. She has received two IEEE MTT Microwave Prizes for best scientific journal papers, the White House and US National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow Award, the Issac Koga Gold Medal from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the Terman Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) Research Award. She was elected as a foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006 and this year, 2022, she has become part of the US National Academy of Engineering. She has a physicist husband and three daughters.

Ehud Kalai is Professor Emeritus of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at Northwestern University. He is a prominent mathematical economist known for his contributions to game theory and its relation to economics, social choice, computer science and operations research. Born in Palestine in 1942, Ehud Kalai moved to the USA in 1963, where he received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967 and a PhD, also in mathematics, from Cornell University in 1972. After a period as an assistant lecturer at Tel Aviv University, he moved to Northwestern University, where he held the James J. O’Connor Chair of Decision and Game Sciences from 1975 to 2017. In addition, Professor Kalai held the Oskar Morgenstern Chair at New York University in 1991. Throughout his career, Professor Kalai has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Sherman Fairchild Prize from the California Institute of Technology in 1993 and the status of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Paris Dauphine University in 2010. In addition, in 2013 he received the Game Theory Society prize for work on the interrelationship between Game Theory and Computer Science, which bears his name (Kalai Prize) and in 2017, the Israel Science Foundation organised a seminar in his honour at Tel Aviv University. Professor Kalai has published more than 60 papers in high impact journals, as well as 14 chapters in books, which have obtained more than 10,000 citations. His academic contributions can be divided into different fields: cooperative and non-cooperative game theory, social choice theory and computer science.

Currently, the Y-Balance Test (YBT) and Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT), two clinical assessment exercises to determine the risk of injury to the patient’s lower limbs, are used. They are carried out manually, with oversized systems that aren’t easily transportable and require constant supervision by physiotherapists.

This new device consists of a platform on which the patient rests the foot of the limb undergoing treatment. The platform contains extendable arms, with presence sensors at each end. During a YBT exercise, the other foot has to go over them. Another set of sensors is attached to the patient’s tibia using a calf brace, which measures the lateral tilt and loss of verticality of the kneecap during the YBT test. When the patient is in a position that may be potentially harmful or damaging, the detector communicates this to the base. All this data is sent to the patient’s mobile device through a Wi-Fi connection.

“These measures are helpful for physiotherapist work. They help to personalise the exercises to be carried out with each patient. In addition, the system’s portability and connectivity significantly reduce the specialist’s constant clinical supervision”, concludes Ricardo Vergaz Benito, from the UC3M Department of Electronic Technology.

More information:

Vergaz Benito, R., Lomas Jiménez, S. y Rodríguez Sanz, D. (2022). Dispositivo para rehabilitación de rodilla (ES 2 850 357 B2). Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (Spanish Patent and Trademark Office).

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His research has been pioneering in one of the fields of Applied Mathematics, called “numerical integration of Hamiltonian problems”, and in geometric integration for solving differential equations while preserving their properties.

He is currently a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Spanish Society of Numerical Methods in Engineering, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) and a distinguished member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is also a full member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Valladolid.

He has won several prizes and awards, such as the Dahlquist Prize, the Iberdrola Prize of Science and Technology; the Royal Academy of Science Award; the Castilla y León Scientific Research Award; and the Gold Medal of the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil). He has published nearly a hundred papers in international journals.

The Rei Jaume I Awards were created in 1989 by the Valencian Foundation of Advanced Studies and the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian Government), with the aim of bringing scientific and business entities together in order to promote research, scientific development and entrepreneurship in Spain. The juries are made up of eighty people, including more than twenty Nobel Prize winners.

During the pandemic, the emergency services faced an excess of requests for their services. In particular, the ambulance service was overloaded with requests which led to an unprecedented deterioration in response times. This had an impact, not only on the management of ambulances for transporting COVID-19 patients, but also on the transfer of patients with other serious and urgent conditions.

“The general objective of the Ambulate-CM multidisciplinary project is to design an advanced, sustainable and dynamic solution for managing the ambulance service in pandemic situations”, explains Beatriz López Boada, from UC3M’s Mechanical Engineering Department. This multidisciplinary project – in which engineering, social science, statistics and business administration researchers participate – seeks new strategies and protocols to achieve an agile and efficient response from ambulances which guarantees prompt and adequate care of patient transfers.

State-of-the-art home care with IntCARE-CM

As well as the increased demand for ambulances, another obvious consequence of the pandemic has been the pressure on the hospital system. The IntCARE-CM project focuses on the technological and biomedical field in order to care for patients outside the hospital and provide them with quality care at home. The aim is to develop a comprehensive care and home care system for the early identification and monitoring of patients through the use of artificial intelligence, automatic fitness monitoring technologies and care robots, among others.

“With the help of technology, we want to provide patients with quality healthcare at home”, says Antonio Artés Rodríguez, from UC3M’s Signal and Communications Theory Department. This project deals with five research projects that aim to study new ways of linking technology to a more effective treatment of different types of patients, primarily infectious patients, cancer patients, patients with mental health problems and those with cognitive impairment.

PredCov-cm a system for predicting the spread of viruses

The aim of the PredCov-CM project is to develop a system which allows different information sources to be combined in order to model future scenarios for the spread of COVID-19, or other similar contagious diseases. “This involves the development of innovative performance methodologies in the field of data analytics. In addition, a comprehensive approach will be taken which combines epidemiological, social, economic and media analysis aspects”, says David Expósito Singh, from UC3M’s IT Department. PredCov-CM will make it possible to monitor viruses and assess the effectiveness of the political or social action taken to mitigate the effects of pandemics.

The Community of Madrid has signed 12 collaboration agreements with the region’s six public universities and six IMDEA (Madrid Institutes for Advanced Studies) foundations, through which it will invest 49 million euros in 26 major studies for research into the SARS-COV-2 virus and the COVID-19 disease. This aid comes from the REACT-EU resources of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), funded as part of the European Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and includes the purchase of the necessary equipment to expand the capabilities of the working groups and promote the modernisation of laboratories.

The second award-winning project was Urbanmate, launched by David Fernández, a Bachelor's Degree student in Telecommunications Technologies Engineering at UC3M, Inés García, a Bachelor's Degree student in Sound and Image Engineering at UC3M and Alex Cirebea, a graduate in Tourism from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC). This entrepreneurial team received the SpainCap Viability Projection Award, with a prize of 1,000 euros, advice and free access to the annual training course for venture capital professionals. Urbanmate seeks to develop an application to digitise residential developments with the aim of facilitating and optimising space reservations and procedures related to the neighbourhood community.

Through its Business Acceleration and Incubation Programme, UC3M has been collaborating with the Junior Achievement Foundation in the Startup Programme inter-university competition since 2009. The University participates in the mentoring and training of entrepreneurial projects, by carrying out a business plan which analyses the viability of the different business ideas.

The Junior Achievement Foundation is an international, US-based, non-profit organisation, for the promotion of entrepreneurial training, financial education and job preparation. Since 2001, the Foundation has been working in Spain with schools, business organisations and governments to promote and develop youth entrepreneurship.

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AR experiences allow us to materialise and interact with all the senses and with a large amount of information which is invisible as it is embedded in the devices around us and in the different environments we inhabit. However, so far, graphical or textual information, provided by conventional network analysers or instructions from a remote operator, is complex for most people.

The Telefónica and UC3M team’s project takes key aspects into account, such as the inhabitants of each home being able to see a Wi-Fi signal coverage map and other contextual data that helps them better understand the infrastructure around them, perceiving the services that are available through intuitive visualisations.

“Augmented reality can improve many processes by making the invisible visible, but responsible innovation requires understanding how people perceive this technology and what expectations or fears they have. Working with the Telefónica team has allowed us to focus on a real use case but at the same time apply a research approach which puts people, in our case families, at the centre of the innovation. It has been a challenge for us to combine different ways of working in order to achieve results very quickly”, says Paloma Díaz, professor and researcher in the UC3M IT Department.

“Our goal was to improve the user experience and augmented reality allows us to simplify processes, such as the one provided by this solution, compared to other currently available solutions which are more complex”, says Antonio Guzmán, director of Digital Home at Telefónica. “As we always like to say, it’s about making technology more human and making people’s lives easier. We’re very satisfied with the results obtained and, what’s more, we believe that reducing the distance between companies and universities is crucial for growing in talent and impact on society”.

University-company binomial

The digital revolution is changing the way that new knowledge is created, developed and transferred and, therefore, how we innovate. Today, more than ever, connected spaces are needed to share knowledge and learning, that is why it is vital that companies and universities work together in order to generate impactful developments.

After many years of collaboration with the university and great results, Telefónica has gone a step further and has decided to explore new forms of cooperation and partnerships through its Open Innovation Campus area, whose mission is to be a two-way bridge between the academy and business. As a result of these synergies, in 2021 the Immersive Technologies LabStudio was created, made up of researchers from the UC3M IT Department and Telefónica experts for the development of projects. 

UC3M maintains relationships with companies and institutions, with the aim of transferring its R&D and identifying the demands for solutions or challenges to accelerate business innovation. This collaboration between the university and the business sector is carried out through contracts, chairs, R&D&I centres, meetings and forums, or its own programmes such as Lab4pymes.

More information: LabStudio | Research Project Telefónica Spain Agreement (uc3m.es) 

This sensor works by using reflectance spectroscopic techniques, that is, using light beams and photodetectors to analyse the vehicle’s surroundings. “Our sensor is based on a double-frequency optical comb, optical means for directing the comb’s output beam, a photodetector and a receiving optic”, explains Marta Ruiz Llata, PhD in Electrical, Electronic and Automation Engineering at UC3M. Based on the light signal received, this electronic photodetector analyses the radio frequency spectrum of the detected signal and translates it into a visible image of the condition of the road.

Until now, other techniques and models for detecting the condition of the asphalt already existed; the novelty of this innovation is that it allows real-time recognition. “Other systems that use more than one emitter with different wavelengths can’t be used to measure road conditions with a moving vehicle, since the required integration time is too long”, says Pablo Acedo Gallardo, PhD in Telecommunications Engineering at UC3M. 

More information:

M.Ruiz Llata, P. Acedo Gallardo, O. E. Bonilla Manrique, J. E. Posada Román, P. Martín Mateos, “Road Condition Sensor and Method for Detecting the State Condition of the Roadway”, EP 3 742 155 A1, European Patent Office, 25th of November, 2020.

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中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

E.T. PACK-Fly aims to solve this problem by developing a device capable of deorbiting, that is, decreasing the altitude of the orbit of the space debris until it is eliminated during the reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere. Unlike conventional propulsion systems, the E.T. PACK-Fly equipment uses a disruptive technology, known as an electrodynamic space tether, that does not require propellant. This electrodynamic tether is a very thin aluminium tape (about two centimetres wide and a couple of kilometres long), which works by using the plasma around the Earth and the geomagnetic field to generate an electric current. This electrodynamic effect results in a force known as the Lorentz drag. This force deorbits the satellite up to the reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, where it is eliminated by the heat generated by this process. The tether is the fundamental part of the deorbiting device which, since it does not require fuel, is small and light. It is also designed to stabilise the attitude of the satellite, and to control the deorbiting manoeuvre in order to avoid possible collisions with other objects.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has funded the E.T. PACK-Fly project through its EIC Transition programme. With a duration of two and a half years, the project will start in September 2022 and it aims to prepare the flight model of a deorbit device to be launched into orbit in 2025. RFA and SENER Aeroespacial have already signed the launch service agreement. The E.T. PACK-Fly project is the continuation of the E.T. PACK project, also funded by the EIC. A first prototype of the deorbit device was developed and built in the framework of E.T.PACK.  “We are very grateful to the EIC for the trust it has placed in us and its commitment to the development of technologies that allow a sustainable use of the space environment”, says Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, Associate Professor at UC3M and coordinator of the E.T. PACK and E.T. PACK-Fly projects. "It is important to invest in disruptive technologies that can mitigate the proliferation of space debris while generating wealth and new business opportunities," he concludes.

Furthermore, Lorenzo Tarabini, director of the E.T.PACK-Fly project at SENER Aeroespacial, points out: “This project gives us the opportunity to build and qualify for space, through a complete series of tests, a light, compact and completely autonomous platform for deorbiting the final stages of launchers. The E.T.PACK-Fly platform is expected to be launched in 2025 with RFA to demonstrate its proficiency and pave the way for commercial exploitation of deorbiting technology.” In the same vein, the CCO at RFA Jörn Spurmann adds that “we are very pleased that this innovative initiative will continue to receive funding to take it to the next level. Space debris removal is one of the most pressing challenges in space and it is part of RFA's philosophy and vision to enable sustainable solutions like E.T-PACK”.

More information
E.T. PACK project website

Another project is "Building an ecosystem for research and development in non-terrestrial networks (satellite and HAP) and B5G (3GPP rel. 17 and later)". Its objectives include the development of a proposal for the architectural integration of NTN (Non terrestrial networks) with 3GPP R17.

The third selected project, "Data-driven Next Generation Networks (B5G and 6G) for Sustainable Manufacturing and Emergency Response," focuses on designing a system architecture that evolves and enriches current 5G systems to support manufacturing industries, making them more sustainable and benefiting from the massive use of data, as well as emergency systems.

The "New technologies for the sustainable development of 6G in extreme environments" project, will investigate the use of highly innovative technologies to increase the range and 6G networks sustainably in terms of their environmental impact and cost in extreme circumstances, either due to difficult access, aggressiveness of the environment, time requirements or level of protection of the natural environment.

On the other hand, one of the objectives of the "Sustainable orchestration of vRAN, UAV and 6G surfaces" project is the design of an architecture for the sustainable orchestration of radio access networks (RAN).

The sixth project, "Preserving the privacy of multi-tenant networks", aims to create a set of appropriate tools for exchanging data between parties in a multi-stakeholder scenario.

The "Cloud Native Network Functions for 6G" project will create a new infrastructure ecosystem to efficiently support the new software paradigm, as well as the design of new virtual network functions that benefit from this ecosystem.

Finally, a project to promote Telecommunications Engineering studies has received funding, entitled "Activities for promoting Telecommunications studies and attracting talent, both nationally and internationally".

These projects are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.

In order to capture as much solar energy as possible, it is essential that these heliostat facets are properly aligned. "An alignment error of just two milliradians in these heliostats produces about a 30 percent loss in a plant's annual energy production," explains Alberto Sánchez González, professor in the UC3M Department of Technical and Fluid Engineering. Currently, there are several techniques to align heliostat facets: on-sun, mechanical and optical. However, these techniques have a number of drawbacks, such as their imprecision, their unique viability under ideal laboratory conditions and/or the large amount of resources required (time and personnel). "The objective of this research has been to create a procedure for aligning heliostat facets in a simpler, more accurate and more cost-effective way than in previous systems," says José Carlos Castillo Montoya, professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation.

The method patented by both researchers uses the reflection of a nearby (reference) heliostat on the target heliostat, seen from a camera located on the back of the reference heliostat. In this way, regular imaging by the camera makes it possible determine if there is misalignment (deviation from the ideal orientation of the target heliostat facets), in which case the corresponding adjustment would be carried out. "The images taken by the camera are compared with those that should ideally be seen in the absence of misalignment. The theoretical optical model, which generates the ideal images, also makes it possible to determine the alignment error in each of the facets", explains Sánchez. "This method is much simpler than similar methods based on placing a camera on the upper portion of the tower, as the distance between the camera and the heliostat is reduced, thus improving accuracy," concludes Castillo.

More information:

Castillo Montoya, J. C. y Sánchez González, A. (2022). Procedimiento y sistema para alinear las facetas de un heliostato de un campo solar (ES 2 891 178 A1). Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (Spanish Patent and Trademark Office).

This work, published in JAMA Dermatology magazine, reports the efficacy of gentamicin in achieving a significant production of plectin in the patient's skin cells. "Gentamicin intravenous treatment in the patient increased plectin levels in her skin and slightly decreased skeletal and respiratory muscle weakness. Overall, it had a positive impact on quality of life," says Marcela del Río, professor in the UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering, director of the Chair and head of the CIBERER group.

This study, developed by a multidisciplinary group of researchers and clinicians, has made it possible to treat a patient with an urgent need to improve her condition. The Asociación DEBRA-Piel de Mariposa (DEBRA-Butterfly Skin Association) has also collaborated in its development.

Bibliographic reference:

Martínez-Santamaría L, Maseda R, de Arriba MDC, Membrilla JA, Sigüenza AI, Mascías J, García M, Quintana L, Esteban-Rodríguez I, Hernández-Fernández CP, Illera N, Duarte B, Guerrero-Aspizúa S, Woodley DT, Del Río M, de Lucas R, Larcher F, Escámez MJ. Evaluation of Systemic Gentamicin as Translational Readthrough Therapy for a Patient With Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex With Muscular Dystrophy Owing to PLEC1 Pathogenic Nonsense Variants. JAMA Dermatol. 2022 Mar 2. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2022.0112. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35234827.

Bolling MC, Has C, Bruckner AL. Understanding the Potential Promise and Pitfalls of Intravenous Gentamicin as a Therapy for Epidermolysis Bullosa. JAMA Dermatol. 2022 Mar 2. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2021.5630. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35234816.

During the development of the HITCOMP project, components made from a thermoplastic base have been shown to be more efficient, from the perspective of their thermal properties, than thermosetting composites. A known property that makes them very useful is that they can be recast, reshaped, processed and recycled, without the need for any additional curing process in order to harden and set. In addition, they are more versatile, cheaper and eco-friendly materials than conventional thermosetting composites and have a longer service life, thanks to their high resilience —they can be recycled or repaired more easily— and fatigue resistance —wear and tear— and corrosion. The introduction of these materials would mean having safer and lighter aircraft which consume less fuel, improve energy efficiency and reduce their emissions.

To get the most out of thermoplastics in the aerospace industry, due to their capacity to melt and deform when overheated, it is necessary to determine their behaviour when subjected to heat, fire and mechanical loads. The HITCOMP project has developed a test laboratory with new infrared (IR) thermography techniques in order to obtain accurate and non-intrusive measurements of the actual temperature of materials during fire tests. The ultimate aim is to conduct virtual tests on thermoplastics and compare their performance in real applications with those of conventional thermosetting composites.

“The aerospace sector is undergoing a transition to a more electric aircraft. This involves more heat and eventually fire sources, increasing the heating effect on the structure”, explains Fernando López, lead researcher and coordinator of the HITCOMP project, from the UC3M Department of Physics. "In this context, our project aims to establish an innovative methodology which allows a characterisation of thermoplastics that involves fewer resources and improves the prediction of their behaviour and resistance when subjected to mechanical loads or fire and high temperatures."

The measurements obtained by infrared thermography allow computer simulations to be carried out, which virtualize testing to select this type of material in the aeronautical industry. Its implementation is expected to "significantly reduce the number of validation tests, which are mandatory and greatly increase the cost and delay the approval of this type of material in the industry." The IR models and equipment have already been transferred to the Airbus company so that it can study their industrial application.

During the research process, the team has also developed a new method —inspired by the previous results of UC3M's Sensors, Remote Detection and Infrared Imaging Laboratory (LIR-InfraRed LAB)— which allows the use of these infrared imaging techniques to remotely determine the thermal properties of these materials, without contact.

The HITCOMP project has been funded by the Horizon 2020 programme as part of the 2020 call for proposals for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), and is part of the 2019 European Union Clean Sky 2 announcement. Likewise, it is supported by the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA, in its Spanish acronym), the high-tech IR company, Sensia Solutions and the Airbus Fire Lab.

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La OIE es un concurso individual de programación algorítmica para estudiantes de educación secundaria, bachillerato y grado medio o equivalente, que se celebra anualmente y da acceso a la Olimpiada Informática Internacional. Este año, por primera vez, la OIE se ha celebrado en todas las Comunidades Autónomas. 

Este reconocimiento del Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional posibilita la expansión del concurso a más centros educativos y estudiantes del territorio nacional, con el objetivo de impulsar la informática en las etapas preuniversitarias.

Más información sobre CODDII

As part of this chair, UC3M and INDRA's Radio Frequency, Electromagnetism, Microwaves and Antennas research group (GREMA in its Spanish acronym) aims to develop, totally or partially, the following lines of work: advanced technologies for components integrated in microwave and millimetre-wave bands; electromagnetic systems modelling for the creation of so-called "digital twins"; design and development of active antennas in microwave bands, antenna arrays and antenna measurement planning and strategies; study of disruptive systems and technologies, with emphasis on the development and integration of transmitters and receivers in radar and communications systems (radars and quantum sensors); development of antennas and satellite communications systems, quantum communication systems and photonic and radio integration technologies.

"The innovations provided by this chair are linked to the development of innovative technologies such as 6G, satellite, defence and quantum computing technologies, taking into account the sustainability aspects which are currently required", says the head of the chair, Daniel Segovia, Professor of the UC3M Department of Signal Theory and Communications.

The University will contribute to the development of these activities by providing teaching and research staff, as well as the scientific-technical and administrative infrastructure. In turn, Indra will provide the technical and documentary support that is needed.

This study analyses the physical characteristics of this celestial body and the possible effects that its approach to Earth may have. Gabriel Borderes-Motta, a researcher at UC3M's Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering, explains that “collision is not the only possibility in approach events like this one. The gravitational interaction between a planet and a body such as Apophis can change the shape of the body, break the body into pieces, disintegrate possible loose stones on the asteroid's surface, or even remove other bodies orbiting the asteroid (such as rocks, satellites, or rings)... Our study focuses on the last two possibilities: what happens to the possible stones on the surface and the asteroid's orbit."

How to experiment with an asteroid

Research in the space sector presents the challenge that, in most cases, it is impossible to directly experiment with space materials. For this reason, numerous investigations are approached from the field of mathematics and physics, taking the greatest possible number of variables into account.

The research team responsible for this study has analysed both the physical aspects of the asteroid —among them, its shape and the characteristics of its gravitational field—, as well as the factors that can influence its trajectory and its slope angle, such as the radiation pressure or disturbance inflicted due to its proximity to Earth.

To carry out this piece of research, the team has carried out a set of numerical simulations —two simulation environments with three experimental cases each— using a disk of 15,000 particles of different sizes in the close environment of Apophis as a sample. The objective has been to try to predict how the particles orbiting the asteroid will react to different situations and how these assumptions may influence the behaviour of Apophis.

The first set of simulations was designed considering only the gravitational disturbance of Apophis in 24-hour periods over 30 years. The second set of simulations included disturbance caused by solar radiation pressure. Three cases were proposed in both sets, in which the asteroid had different densities. “We evaluated a 340-metre polyhedron with a uniform density in three different cases. In each case, the starting point was a different particle density, from highest to lowest”, says Gabriel Borderes-Motta.

From these simulations, it was concluded that the asteroid's slope angle was greater at low densities (4°) than at high densities (2°); in addition, the lower the particle density and the higher the solar radiation pressure, the fewer particles remained intact. In other words, in a scenario where Apophis has a low density, approximately 90% of the loose stones would be removed from its surface during the approach to Earth. In addition, the results have shown that Apophis's approach could slightly affect the tides and cause some landslides on the asteroid's surface.

The team hopes that the asteroid's approach to Earth in 2029 will be an opportunity to improve the 3D model used to run space simulations, as well as to allow them to more accurately investigate and predict the effects on Apophis's surface. All of this would mean an increase in knowledge about asteroids, which would allow us to be better prepared in the event that new celestial bodies pass close to Earth.

Bibliographic reference:

G Valvano, O C Winter, R Sfair, R Machado Oliveira, G Borderes-Motta, T S Moura. (2022) APOPHIS – effects of the 2029 Earth’s encounter on the surface and nearby dynamics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 510, Issue 1, February 2022, pp. 95–109.  https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab3299

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In this work, recently published in the world's leading scientific dermatology journal, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, researchers have, for the first time, successfully designed and generated DNA oligonucleotide aptamers with high affinity and specificity for the FPR2 receptor (Formyl Peptide Receptor 2). "The activation of this receptor has been able to effectively trigger the wound repair process in a humanized experimental model”, explains the work's main author, Dr. Marta Carretero, a CIEMAT researcher within the framework of this Chair.

The aptamers used in this study are single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides that adopt a three-dimensional structure, giving them a high affinity and specificity for the FPR2 receptor. By activating it, the researchers are also able to activate the tissue repair programme, in other words, the biological process that is severely impaired and hampered in patients with skin ulcers. "This work represents nanomedicine's success in an area in which conventional therapeutic strategies have not yet achieved expected results despite multiple attempts", says UC3M professor, Marcela del Río, director of the UC3M-CIEMAT-IIS-FJD Research Chair.

This work has been carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from the UC3M-CIEMAT-IIS-FJD Research Chair, the CIBER of Rare Diseases and the Aptamer Group of the Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria [Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research] (IRYCIS). All of this has been carried out within the framework of NanoSmell (Artificial remote-controlled odorants), a research project funded by the European Union's H2020 Programme (GA 662629) within FET-OPEN. This type of call supports R+D+I that explores new foundations for breakthrough technologies.

Bibliographic reference: 

Arriba MDC, Fernández G, Chacón-Solano E, Mataix M, Martínez-Santamaría L, Illera N, Carrión-Marchante R, Martín ME, Larcher F, González VM, Del Río M, Carretero M. FPR2 DNA Aptamers for Targeted Therapy of Wound Repair.  J Invest Dermatol. 2022 Jan 1:S0022-202X(21)02688-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2021.12.026. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34979109.

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During the afternoon shift at the University's stand, from 3pm to 8pm, attendees will be able to learn symmetric cryptography (data encryption and authentication techniques) through Crypto Go, an educational card game created by the researchers themselves. "We want to teach, in a fun way, the security risks we face if we browse the Internet without safeguards and how cryptography allows us to protect our communications", says the researcher responsible for this activity, Ana Isabel González-Tablas, from the Computer Science Department at UC3M. Attendees will be able to learn the rules of Crypto Go, which consists of 108 cards representing 6 types of cryptographic tools that each player can combine in different ways, looking for combinations that provide reliable data protection with the highest possible level of security. The game has several levels and can be used for beginner's cryptography activities, training of professionals in this sector or, if you have some cryptography knowledge, for the sheer pleasure of playing.

That same day, 2nd of March, from 4:30pm to 5pm, in the Agora at the Madrid esCiencia Fair, an interactive and informative talk will take place about the relationship between archaeology, cinema and video games through the vision of two icons in these areas, Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. "The heroes and heroines of archaeology in film and video games are intergenerational references worldwide. Their courage and physique draw you in, but the scientific realities and experiences in their decisions and actions, such as the significance of being astonished, what facts and data are crucial, the capricious link between knowledge and luck, or that perseverance lays the foundation for the discovery are barely noticed", points out the person in charge of this activity, researcher Carlos Maciá-Barber, professor of Journalism at the UC3M Communications Department. In his talk, he will show the links that exist between different archaeological investigations and various aspects of this, such as Hollywood movies or some popular video games.

Other UC3M activities carried out in collaboration with the madri+d Foundation

During the four days of the Fair, from the 2nd – 5th of March, in a space next to the stand for the madri+d Knowledge Foundation, of the Community of Madrid, the MECATRAN research group from UC3M will show its instrumented vehicle, a buggy equipped with sensors and actuators that, in the last few years, have been incorporated into mass production vehicles, in order to improve their safety and comfort. "These systems, which have traditionally been developed to help drivers drive the vehicle, play a key role in self-driving cars", says the head of the MECATRAN research group, MaríaJesúsLópez Boada, professor in UC3M's Mechanical Engineering Department. These vehicles make up different networks, such as intra-vehicle and inter-vehicle networks. "On the one hand, the latter network uses shared service platforms and cloud computing, reducing information storage and the computational load on the vehicle. On the other hand, intra-vehicle networks seek to identify both vehicle and road conditions, which is essential for safe driving, vehicle and road maintenance and efficient traffic management".

Furthermore, several researchers from European scientific projects at UC3M will be at the stand for the madri+d Knowledge Foundation, of the Community of Madrid, with various activities. On the 2nd of March, Fabio di Cosmo, CONEX-Plus researcher at the UC3M Mathematics Department, will hold a workshop to talk about the relationship between group theory and some mathematical puzzles in the form of games. On the 4th of March, several activities will take place. Firstly, Carlos Romero Villarreal, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie researcher at the UC3M Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering Department, will perform an experiment to learn how to generate hydrogen, the clean energy of the future. Secondly, Manuel José López Morales, Early Stage Researcher of the H2020 TeamUp5G project in the UC3M Signal Theory and Communications Department, will perform an experiment to understand the gain of 5G antennas. Thirdly, Diego González Morín, also an Early Stage Researcher of the TeamUp5G project, will hold an exhibition on the capabilities of extended reality using virtual reality glasses.

In addition, a UC3M spinoff, Inrobics Social Robotics, will present its healthcare rehabilitation solution, an autonomous robotics system based on Artificial Intelligence. This activity will take place on the 2nd of March at the stand for start-ups collaborating with the madri+d Technology-Based Entrepreneurship Area.

The Madrid esCiencia Fair 2022 has been designed as a comprehensive display of scientific-technological innovation in the Community of Madrid from a recreational and participatory point of view. It brings together scientists, professors, entrepreneurs, programmers, artists and other professionals from the R&D&I sector, who provide first-hand knowledge of concepts in the field of research in the new era of digital transformation. In addition, it aims for its own participants (researchers, entrepreneurs, teachers, students...) to be the ones who show and explain science in all its beauty and its impact on our daily lives. This event is organised by the madri+d Knowledge Foundation, of the Community of Madrid, and, in the case of UC3M, has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT, in its Spanish acronym) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

"Our contribution consists of the design and development of a fully automatic system, based on computer vision techniques, which allows us to characterise the cells under study by analysing videos captured by biologists using the intravital microscopy technique", says one of the authors of this work, Professor Fernando Díaz de María, head of the UC3M Multimedia Processing Group. Automatic measurements of the shape, size, movement and position relative to the blood vessel of a few thousand cells have been made, compared to traditional biological studies that are usually supported by analyses of a few hundred manually characterised cells. In this way, it has been possible to carry out a more advanced biological analysis with greater statistical significance.

This new system has several advantages, according to the researchers, in terms of time and precision. Generally speaking, "it is not feasible to keep an expert biologist segmenting and tracking cells on video for months. On the other hand, to provide an approximate idea (because it depends on the number of cells and 3D volume depth), our system only takes 15 minutes to analyse a 5-minute video", says another of the researchers, Ivan González Díaz, Associate Professor in the Signal Theory and Communications Department at UC3M.

Deep neural networks, the tools these engineers rely on for cell segmentation and detection, are basically algorithms that learn from examples, so in order to deploy the system in a new context, it is necessary to generate sufficient examples to enable their training. These networks are part of machine learning techniques, which in turn is a discipline within the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In addition, the system incorporates other types of statistical techniques and geometric models, all of which are described in another paper, recently published in the Medical Image Analysis journal.

The software that implements the system is versatile and can be adapted to other problems in a few weeks. "In fact, we are already applying it in other different scenarios, studying the immunological behaviour of T cells and dendritic cells in cancerous tissues. And the provisional results are promising", says another of the researchers from the UC3M team, Miguel Molina Moreno.

In any case, when researching in this field, researchers stress the importance of the work of an interdisciplinary team. "In this context, it is important to recognise the prior communication effort between biologists, mathematicians and engineers, required to understand the basic concepts of other disciplines, before real progress can be made", concludes Fernando Díaz de María.

More information:

Crainiciuc, G., Palomino-Segura, M., Molina-Moreno, M., ..., González-Diaz, I., Díaz-de-María, F., Hidalgo, A. Behavioural immune landscapes of inflammation. Nature 601, 415–421 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04263-y  

Molina-Moreno, M. González-Díaz, I. Sicilia, J. Crainiciuc, G. Palomino-Segura, M. Hidalgo, A. Díaz-de-María, F. (2022). ACME: Automatic feature extraction for cell migration examination through intravital microscopy imaging. Medical Image Analysis, v. 77, 102358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102358 

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The EU's data protection strategy is setting an example for the rest of the world in terms of legislation and innovation. Its current priorities include promoting the development of products and services based on personal data which the user has control over. To do this, it is necessary to have a regulatory framework, accompanied by policies and tools that facilitate its implementation.

"PIMCITY's PDK offers companies the tools to exploit user data in a respectful way”, says one of the researchers participating in the project, Rubén Cuevas, from the UC3M Telematics Engineering Department.

PIMCITY.eu is a project that develops the PIMS (Personal Information Management Systems) philosophy in a practical way and in which, in addition to UC3M, the Internet Users Association (AUI), IAB Spain, IMDEA Networks, Telefónica and other European partners participate. As Pérez Subías, president of the AUI, explains: "The PIMS philosophy allows individuals to manage, control their data, know by who, how and what their data is used for, know the value they generate and share the benefits".

Through this PDK you can store personal data, manage consents, know the value of the data, import, export or anonymise data sets. Its use is free, all software is open source and it is available in the PIMCity GitLab repository.

The PIMCity project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 871370. In addition to UC3M, the Internet Users Association, Ermes Cyber Security, Fastweb, IAB Spain, IMDEA Networks, NEC, Ku Leuven CiTiP, LS Tech, Politecnico di Torino, Taptap, Telefónica and Wibson participate in the project.

More information:www.pimcity.eu

Generally speaking, “higher levels of news consumption via traditional online media is associated with higher purchasing power and higher levels of education. On the other end of the spectrum, higher levels of Facebook consumption are associated with lower purchasing power and lower levels of education,” notes one of the study’s authors, Iñaki Úcar, researcher at the UC3M-Santander Big Data Institute. 

Researchers highlight some of the possible consequences of this difference in use: “As platforms, such as YouTube, or social networks, such as Facebook, have been used to spread misinformation, and the relative use of these platforms is higher in areas where the population has lower levels of education and lower-income, the effect of this misinformation is likely to have affected these areas more,” explains Esteban Moro, from the UC3M’s Department of Mathematics.

The paper, recently published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface uses anonymous aggregated telephone data in France to predict census variables. Researchers believe that, due to globalization, these results could apply to countries with similar cultures and of similar wealth, such as countries around Europe and North America.

The digital gap in usage that they have detected is particularly large for certain types of services, such as social media, audio and visual streaming, email, and consumption of news content. “This is a rather surprising result, especially given that the analysis has been carried out in dozens of cities in a developed European country, where it could be assumed that digital gaps would have been closed due to the omnipresent availability of access to mobile broadband,” notes another of the study’s authors, Marco Fiore, a researcher at the IMDEA Networks Institute.

In this study, scientists have demonstrated, quantitatively and on a large scale, the validity of hypotheses on the heterogeneity of mobile services usage by different socio-economic groups for the first time. “Prior to our study, these hypotheses had only been validated using qualitative studies on small groups of individuals. Demonstrating that this phenomenon is valid for hundreds of thousands of users is an important step forward,” concludes Esteban Moro.

More information: Ucar, I. Gramaglia, M. Fiore, M. Smored, Z. Moro, E. (2021).  News or social media? Socio-economic divide of mobile service consumption. December, Volume 18 Issue 185 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0350

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Participants can register directly using the electronic form on the website (see below). Each student may choose one workshop per day among the 13 workshops on offer (5 more than last year). These sessions will focus on topics such as the accessibility of technology, 3D organ bioprinting, app creation for the digital city, cryptography and cybersecurity, electronics, atomic emission spectroscopy, photonics, microchips that are used in biology, spatial sound, and telecommunications, among others. 

This experience aims to bridge the gap between the university world and secondary school students to provide them with information about the degrees offered by the UC3M in this field. The workshops aim to promote STEM career vocations and reinforce students’ skills in the area of technology. 

More information:  UC3M Technological Fridays Website

The biochip enables in vitro skin culture to be grown inside the biochip. It is divided into two overlapping channels, separated by a porous membrane: blood flow is simulated in the lower channel; skin is generated in the upper channel, which is nourished by the culture medium that flows through the lower channel via the membrane. “All flows are controlled by highly accurate syringe pumps and the procedure is performed in a cell culture room and a sterile environment. The biochips are incubated in a humidity-controlled atmosphere with 5 percent CO2 and a temperature of 37°C,” explains another of the scientists involved in this line of research, Ignacio Risueño, from the UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering.

This platform and the techniques developed have been tested in a proof of concept that consisted of the generation of a three-dimensional skin with its two main layers. The dermis was modelled using a fibrin hydrogel, while the epidermis was created using a keratinocytes monolayer that is seeded onto the fibrin gel. In addition, the researchers developed a new method for controlling the height of the dermis based on parallel flow, a technique that allows an in-situ deposition process of the dermal and epidermal compartments.

This research work does not have a clinical objective but rather is aimed at replacing animal models in medicine and cosmetic testing, as these tests could be carried out on this microfluidic platform directly. In fact, EU directives forbid the manufacture of cosmetic products that have been tested on animals and encourages the application of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) in animal research.

“Although it cannot be directly applied to a patient in a clinical setting, it would allow studies on personalised skin models to be carried out. This would consist of taking cells via a biopsy of a patient and creating the skin model in the microfluidic device using their skin cells. This could be used as a patient-specific check to look at a particular patient’s response to a treatment or medication,” say the researchers.

Both the biochip and protocols developed could be extrapolated to any other complex tissue that has the same structure as skin. In addition, it could be used to model tissues consisting of a single monolayer of cells more easily, as in most “organs on a chip”. This cell culture system simulates the main functional aspects of living organs but on a microscopic scale, which can be used to develop new drugs and a lower-cost alternative to testing on animals in toxicology studies and clinical trials.

Future challenges lie in securing a mature skin, in other words, a skin with a completely differentiated epidermis, with all of its layers. In addition, integrating biosensors that enable the condition of the skin to be monitored in real time could be studied, as well as trialling this model as a testing method.

This line of research, which has led to various publications in Scientific Reports and other scientific journals, includes research staff from the UC3M, the UPM, the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT, in its Spanish acronym), the Hospital Clínico San Carlos, the Hospital Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute and has been carried out within the framework of the BIOPIELTEC-CM project of the Community of Madrid.

More information:

Valencia, L., Canalejas-Tejero, V., Clemente, M. et al (2021). A new microfluidic method enabling the generation of multi-layered tissues-on-chips using skin cells as a proof of concept. Sci Rep 11, 13160 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91875-z

Risueño I, Valencia L, Holgado M, Jorcano JL, Velasco D. (2021). Generation of a Simplified Three-Dimensional Skin-on-a-chip Model in a Micromachined Microfluidic Platform. J Vis Exp. May 17;(171). doi: 10.3791/62353. PMID: 34057438. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34057438/

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It would be used in a similar way to current antigen sensors: a sample of the patient’s saliva is dissolved in a buffer solution and then placed on to the sensor’s surface. The measurement would be available in a few minutes. “The advantage over current antigen-based sensors is the greater sensitivity and specificity of the photo-electrochemical sensor measurements, which are comparable to more complex measurements, such as those from fluorescence-based sensors, and they are simpler, cheaper, and faster than PCR-based sensors,” says the research’s lead author, Mahmoud Amouzadeh Tabrizi, CONEX-Plus researcher at the UC3M’s Department of Electronic Technology.

The science behind the aptasensor 

A photo-electrochemical sensor can be likened to a solar cell or the process of photosynthesis: in both cases, given the presence of light (photons), a specific material (or molecule) is able to generate an electrical current (electrons). “In our case, we used a surface that contains graphitic carbon nitride-cadmium sulphide quantum dots (C3N4-CdS) with photoactive properties. It is on this surface that a specific receptor is immobilised in such a way that, in the presence of the target molecule, it binds to the bioreceptor, thereby reducing the current generation associated with the presence of light. On this particular sensor, the bioreceptor  used is an aptamer that is capable of interacting with the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, hence the name photo-electrochemical aptasensor,” explains Mahmoud Amouzadeh Tabrizi. The results of this and other research by the group concerning the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva were recently published in several scientific journals, such as Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical and Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

“The idea now is to supplement these results, using the research group’s experience, with the development of comprehensive biomedical instruments and diagnostics in order to create a high-sensitivity and specificity, portable and potentially low-cost diagnostic system that can eventually be used in clinical practice,” notes another of the authors, Pablo Acedo, head of the UC3M’s Sensors and Instrumentation Techniques Group (SITec). “We are seeking a diagnosis similar to those currently available when reading blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes, for example. We are also aiming to contact companies that may be interested in these developments,” he adds. 

A critical factor when manufacturing this type of nanomaterial-based electrochemical sensor involves correctly characterising the surface of the material and the receiver that is immobilised on the surface. In order to do this, researchers have used various techniques and technologies, such as scanning electron microscopes (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). “The results obtained from using all of these techniques allow us to ensure that both the manufacture of the desired photosensitive nanomaterial and the immobilisation of the bioreceptor has been properly carried out,” says Pablo Acedo. 

This research is being undertaken within the framework of the BIOPIELTEC-CM (New Technologies for the Manufacture and Optimisation of Tissue: Skin as a Model System; P2018/BAA-4480) project. This consortium, which has received funding from the Regional Government of Madrid and the European Union, aims to bring together leading research groups from the Madrid region to face one of the most significant technological challenges within the biomedical and biotechnological field: developing technologies that manufacture tissue and organs, as well as organ-on-a-chip systems, and the optimisation of all of these technologies for their clinical and industrial application. In addition to this, the research has been made possible thanks to Mahmoud Amouzadeh Tabrizi joining the UC3M as a CONEX-Plus programme researcher, funded by the university and the European Commission through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Actions (GA 801538) as part of the European Horizon 2020 Framework Programme.

More information:

Tabrizi, M.A. Nazari, L.Acedo, P. (2021). A photo-electrochemical aptasensor for the determination of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 receptor-binding domain by using graphitic carbon nitride-cadmium sulfide quantum dots nanocomposite. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 345, 130377, ISSN 0925-4005, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2021.130377 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092540052100945X 

Tabrizi, M.A. Fernández-Blázquez, J. P. Medina, D.M, Acedo, P. (2022). An ultrasensitive molecularly imprinted polymer-based electrochemical sensor for the determination of SARS-CoV-2-RBD by using macroporous gold screen-printed electrode. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Volume 196, 113729, ISSN 0956-5663, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2021.113729. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956566321007661 

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These bio-residues are characterised by high humidity, which requires a drying pre-treatment process before they are processed using conventional thermal technologies (such as pyrolysis, gasification, or dry torrefaction). “This is not an economic option, as a significant amount of energy is used for the drying pre-treatment. In order to solve this, hydrothermal biomass carbonisation (HTC) could be an interesting technology that could be used to process this waste, as the drying pre-treatment is not needed,” explains Jesús Gómez Hernández, from the UC3M’s Department of Thermal and Fluids Engineering’s Energy Systems Engineering research group.

He is one of the authors of an article that was recently published in the scientific journal Renewable Energy, which details how HTC can be used in conjunction with a solar power facility to make the process more sustainable and extract energy from pine residues, corn stover, or rice husks, for example. “The products obtained could be applied to energy production processes, the improvement of soil substrates, supercapacitors, and bio-refineries to create a fossil-fuel-free economy, opening a technological path toward a circular economy,” say the authors of this paper.

The HTC consists of a thermochemical treatment in order to process the biomass in a reactor with hot water (between 180 and 250 degrees) at a high pressure (from 10 to 40 bar) to obtain a high value-added product: hydrocarbon. “In other words, the natural process for the formation of coal from biomass is reproduced under laboratory conditions,” explains Jesús Gómez Hernández. The main drawback is that HTC requires a lot of energy. It is at this point that researchers have introduced an innovation by using another renewable energy source: solar energy.

“Our work analytically models an HTC process for twin-screw reactors coupled to a linear beam-down solar field (LBD) in order to be sustainable in terms of energy,” note the researchers. The system would operate roughly as follows: two sets of reflective mirrors redirect the solar rays to another secondary mirror that concentrates all the solar energy on the screw reactor, which is installed on the floor due to its weight. They have found that this could extract energy in a renewable and sustainable way from different lignocellulosic biomasses, the most abundant raw material for bio-fuel production available on Earth.

More information: 

J.V. Briongos, S. Taramona, J. Gómez-Hernández, V. Mulone, D. Santana (2021). Solar and biomass hybridization through hydrothermal carbonization,Renewable Energy, Volume 177, Pages 268-279,ISSN 0960-1481, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.05.146. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148121008296

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This reveals a potential privacy issue, according to the team of researchers, made up of José González-Cabañas, Ángel Cuevas, Rubén Cuevas, Juan López-Fernández, and David García. “It allows hyper-personalised ads to be created that may have a greater effect on the user who receives them,” explains Ángel Cuevas, from the UC3M’s Telematic Engineering Department.

This issue exposes users to new risks that arise from the combination of interests. There are two types of data within this framework: firstly, data that directly reveals an individual’s identity (such as their ID No., phone number, or email address), which require the individual’s consent in order for companies to use them, and secondly, data that cannot be attributed to a particular user, such as their interests, gender, or age. “What if we can identify an individual using Facebook without their permission just by combining their interests?” the researchers ask. 

From a theoretical point of view, these scientists have demonstrated that very little user information, only four rare and specific interests, make them unique in a database consisting of billions of users. Previous studies have pointed to this, however, they worked with a much smaller database of users, of about one million users. This ability to segment users in a very specific manner is called “nanotargeting” by the researchers and in practical terms, it has been demonstrated that this can be done on Facebook with almost zero cost. In other words, reaching an individual user among the 2,800 million active profiles on the social network is possible.

To do this, researchers conducted an experiment: they created 21 advertising campaigns that were intended to reach three of the authors of this work. “On the one hand, we are the advertiser on Facebook and, on the other, the advertisement is targeted at each of us. We built a model to see how many interests we would need in order to reach a specific person with a high probability, then we validated it using the campaigns,” explains another researcher from the UC3M who wrote this work, José González Cabañas. “By combining 5 random interests, the ad did not reach the chosen user. However, the probability of success increased as the number of interests rose to 7, 9, etc. We saw that in the real experiment, 20 and 22 interests guaranteed success. However, only 4 interests are required, if they are very rare and specific interests.”

From a marketing point of view, this option could be extremely useful for companies that want to create hyper-personalised campaigns for their customers. However, from a user protection perspective “what we are actually asking the advertising platforms is that they take steps that prevent nanotargeting from being carried out. In this sense, the advertising platform should, in accordance with parameters defined by the advertiser and estimations provided by the platform, ensure that the advertisement may reach a group of at least 1000 users, for example, in order to protect an individual’s privacy and avoid nanotargeting,” concludes Ángel Cuevas.

More information: Unique on Facebook: Formulation and Evidence of (Nano)targeting Individual Users with non-PII Data. José González-Cabañas, Ángel Cuevas, Rubén Cuevas, Juan López-Fernández, David García. IMC '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM Internet Measurement Conference November 2021 Pages 464–479. Published:02 November 2021. https://doi.org/10.1145/3487552.3487861
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3487552.3487861

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“By using specific geometric arrangements, such as topology, we broke this rotational symmetry so that the sound can slide through the whispering gallery in a fully controlled manner. In addition, we also added gain, a property that allows the wave to be amplified in order to break the chiral symmetry (an object’s property of not being superposable with image)”, notes one of the researchers, Johan Christensen, from the UC3M’s Department of Physics. 

These laboratory tests have demonstrated that when these elements are applied, the resulting sound resembles to the sound of a high-intensity laser beam. This effect could have a significant impact on highly controllable sound guidance and sound direction and could be applied in medical and industrial imaging. In addition to this, this process could also be carried out using other types of subjects, such as light, in future research.

This study was developed with Nanjing University (China), where empirical research tests were conducted. “While at the UC3M, we developed the theory to help us acquire a basic understanding of the physics involved, the work carried out by our Chinese collaborators consisted of wrapping carbon nanotube film around the artificial network elements that form the whispering gallery and connect them to the appropriate electrical circuitry,” explains Christensen.

This study was carried out within the framework of PHONOMETA (Frontiers in Phononics: Party-Time Symmetric Phononic Metamaterials), a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant that is being directed by Johan Christensen (GA No.: 714577). 

More information:

Hu, B., Zhang, Z., Zhang, H. et al (2021). Non-Hermitian topological whispering gallery. Nature 597, 655–659 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03833-4

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For example, we know if they are raising their arm, but we also know if they turn their spine to compensate for difficulty when doing so. All of this information is compiled and entered into the clinical reports that are generated,” says Fernando Fernández, professor at the UC3M’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering and founding partner of Inrobics.

The objective is to improve rehabilitation therapies using imitation-based activities and a series of exercises, as well as provide additional tools for health care staff to optimise these sessions. “For example, for patients like children, interacting with a robot is like playing with a toy. They never think they are going to the hospital for rehabilitation, they think they are going to play. This is the added value that we offer. On the other hand, we are also able to enrich the therapist’s working situation, as they often lack tools adapted to specific patient’s profiles,” says José Carlos Pulido, founding CEO of Inrobics.

In addition to this, the platform, which has been designed by paediatric professionals (cognitive and functional diversity) along with geriatric professionals (active ageing and accompaniment), can also be used at home as a remote rehabilitation resource to improve family balance and quality of life.

The Spanish National Hospital for Paraplegics (Toledo) is the first centre to conduct a clinical trial using these artificial intelligence tools, which have been used with paediatric patients.with spinal cord injuries.

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This new surgical navigation system has been developed by engineers from the Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering at UC3M, in collaboration with the Departments of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Neurosurgery, thanks to funding from Instituto de Salud Carlos III under grant PI18/01625.The development and validation of the navigation system have been published in Scientific Reports journal and other publications, as it is the first research to apply personalized planning and surgical navigation to the treatment of craniosynostosis.

Craniosynostosis is a congenital defect affecting 1 in every 2000 live births worldwide. It is a condition in which one or more of the skull’s sutures fuse prematurely, resulting in cranial deformities and asymmetry of the baby’s face. These deformities can cause an increase in intracranial pressure which prevents the brain from growing and developing correctly. In these cases, surgical intervention is necessary to normalise the morphology of the patients’ cranial and orbital regions, avoiding functional and aesthetic problems during later growth.

Surgery to treat craniosynostosis involves cutting the affected bone tissue, reshaping it in the most appropriate way, and replacing it on the patient’s cranium in the correct position to achieve the desired cranial morphology. Accuracy when reshaping and positioning the bone is essential, as slight variations can have an adverse effect on the patient’s long-term functional and aesthetic results. 

Until now, this procedure has been based on subjective assessment and previous experience of the surgeons. After years of working on this project, researchers at the Hospital Gregorio Marañón and UC3M have developed a workflow based on virtual pre-operative planning, tailored to each patient, and surgical navigation technology. 

The triple guidance and navigation system allows surgeons to estimate the exact position of bone fragments, with millimetric accuracy, during the surgical intervention. A high-resolution screen, positioned close to the surgical field, allows medical staff to visualize a three-dimensional representation of the actual position of the bone fragments with respect to the target preoperative plan. This enables surgeons to confirm that they are meeting the objectives defined while planning the surgery and allows them to make unlimited corrections to ensure an optimal outcome. 

In addition to this, this system integrates augmented reality visualization, allowing virtual planning images to be superimposed directly onto the surgical area. This visualization technique substitutes the use of external screens in the operating rooms, allowing surgeons to visualize all the information on the surgical field. This ensures that the surgical team will achieve good aesthetic and functional results for the patients. This augmented reality solution is based on previous work in collaboration between UC3M and the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology at Hospital Gregorio Marañón.

This system has already been used on a total of 7 patients, obtaining optimal surgical results in all of them. According to researchers working on this project, integrating this system into clinical practice will ensure greater accuracy and repeatability in these open cranial modelling surgeries. In addition, the dependency on surgeons’ experience and subjective assessment during the procedure will also be reduced. 

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón are currently working with researchers at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, United States to introduce these new advances in the planning and treatment of craniosynostosis. This surgical navigation and guidance system is an international reference in technological innovation, applying research results to daily clinical practice.

Related scientific publications:

D. García-Mato, S. Ochandiano, M. García-Sevilla, C. Navarro-Cuéllar, J.V. Darriba-Allés, R. García-Leal, J. A. Calvo-Haro, R. Pérez-Mañanes, J.I. Salmerón, J. Pascau.  “Craniosynostosis surgery: workflow based on virtual surgical planning, intraoperative navigation and 3D printed patient-specific guides and templates” Sci. Rep., vol. 9, no. 1, p. 17691, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54148-4 

D. García-Mato, R. Moreta-Martinez, M. García-Sevilla, S. Ochandiano, R. García-Leal, R. Pérez-Mañanes, J. A. Calvo-Haro, J.I. Salmerón, J. Pascau., “Augmented reality visualization for craniosynostosis surgery” Comput. Methods Biomech. Biomed. Eng. Imaging Vis., vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–8, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681163.2020.1834876

García-Mato D, García-Sevilla M, Porras AR, Ochandiano S, Darriba-Allés JV, García-Leal R, Salmerón JI, Linguraru MG, Pascau J. Three-dimensional photography for intraoperative morphometric analysis in metopic craniosynostosis surgery. Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2021 Feb;16(2):277-287. doi: 10.1007/s11548-020-02301-0. Epub 2021 Jan 8. PMID: 33417161. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11548-020-02301-0

Pose Díez de la Lastra A, García-Duarte Sáenz L, García-Mato D, Hernández-Álvarez L, Ochandiano S, Pascau J. Real-Time Tool Detection for Workflow Identification in Open Cranial Vault Remodeling. Entropy (Basel). 2021 Jun 26;23(7):817. doi: 10.3390/e23070817. PMID: 34206962; PMCID: PMC8303376. https://doi.org/10.3390/e23070817

D. García Mato, A. Porras, S. Ochandiano, G. F. Rogers, R.García-Leal, J.I. Salmerón, J. Pascau, M. Linguraru. Effectiveness of Automatic Planning of Fronto-orbital Advancement for the Surgical Correction of Metopic Craniosynostosis, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery - Global Open: November 2021 - Volume 9 - Issue 11 - p e3937 doi: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000003937 https://doi.org/10.1097/GOX.0000000000003937

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Laboratory experiments used for this type of study, partially developed at the Institute of Volcanology in Rome, reproduce both the evolution of the shear strength on a point of a fault and the propagation of the seismic rupture on temporal and spatial scale. 

This provides information about the deformation processes that control seismic mechanics. “We are able to measure the exact point at which the phenomenon is happening. In addition to this, we can determine the increase in temperature in very small areas, which would not be possible using other techniques. The techniques we have used in this research can withstand extreme situations and temperatures greater than 1,200 degrees,” notes Carmen Vázquez, lecturer at the UC3M’s Department of Electronic Technology and one of the researchers taking part in this study.

Optical fibre was used to measure the temperature between two tectonic faults during an earthquake, as this technique can be used to take measurements in environments that are difficult to access. 

It is also an economical technology and allows measurements to be taken remotely. “We have two stones; in one stone we made a hole that we fed the optical fibre through, we then measure the temperature on the contact surface between the two surfaces. This simulates a seismic test, in other words, what might happen during an earthquake or volcanic process,” says Arántzazu Núñez-Cascasm, a Juan de la Cierva Visiting Professor at the UC3M’s Department of Electronic Technology and researcher on the project. 

The technique used for this study can also be used in other industrial sectors. “It could be applied to industrial machine processes where friction occurs between two materials which causes a sharp increase in temperature. It would allow us to know whether the machine processes are adequate and, therefore, whether the work tool is being damaged or if there will be any subsequent breakages,” concludes Carmen Vázquez.

Bibliography: Aretusini, S., Núñez-Cascajero, A., Spagnuolo, E., Tapetado, A., Vázquez, C., & Di Toro, G.(2021). Fast and localized temperature measurements during simulated earthquakes in carbonate rocks. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(9). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091856 

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“Over the past five years, image analysis has been shifting away from traditional mathematical- and observational-based methods towards data-driven processing and artificial intelligence. This major development makes detecting and identifying valuable information in images easier, faster, and increasingly automated in almost every research field. When it comes to life science, deep-learning-, a subfield of artificial intelligence, is showing an increasing potential for bioimage analysis. Unfortunately, using the deep-learning models often requires coding skills that few life scientists possess. To make the process easier, image analysis experts from several institutions have developed deepImageJ. An open-source plugin described in a paper published this month in Nature Methods", explains one of the project's principal investigators, Arrate Muñoz Barrutia. She is a professor at UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering and senior researcher at IISGM.

Using neural networks in biomedical research

This type of artificial intelligence involves training a computer to perform a task by drawing on large amounts of previously annotated data. It is like CCTV systems that perform facial recognition or mobile-camera apps that enhance photos. Sophisticated computational architectures called artificial neural networks are the basis of deep-learning models. Multiple processing layers form these networks, and the layers can mathematically model the data at different levels of abstraction.As previously commented, developers train the neural networks to solve specific research purposes, such as recognising certain types of cells or tissue lesions or improving image quality.

Once trained, the information needed to perform the task, called the neural network model, is stored as a structured file in the computer and can be easily reused with deepImageJ. Namely, deepImageJ enables researchers worldwide to apply them with just a few clicks. “This application bridges the gap between artificial neural networks and the researchers who use them. A life-sciences researcher can now ask an IT engineer to design and train an automatic learning algorithm to carry out a specific task. The scientist can then use the development easily through a user interface, without seeing a single line of code,”observedDaniel Sage. He’s a researcher from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne(EPFL Center for Imaging) in Switzerland, who is supervising the project’s development. 

Open-source, collaborative software

The plugin is released as open-source software and free of charge. It is a collaborative resource that enables engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and biologists to work together more efficiently. Namely, researchers worldwide can contribute to improving deepImageJ by sharing their user experiences, proposing improvements, and requiring updates. 

“Our objective is for this resource to be used more and more by researchers from any conventional computer and without needing to have any programming knowledge. So that as many researchers can use the plugin as possible, our research team is also developing virtual seminars, training material, and online resources. The materials are designed with both programmers and life scientists in mind so that users can quickly come to grips with the new method. The more users who employ the tool, the more interaction between developers and biomedical researchers will be enhanced. This interaction will thus accelerate the dissemination of new technological developments. Above all, the advancement of biomedical research,” Professor Muñoz Barrutia pointed out. 

Publication in Nature Methods

The study’s principal authors are Arrate Muñoz Barrutia (UC3M and IISGM) and Daniel Sage (EPFL Center for Imaging). Estibaliz Gómez de Mariscal (UC3M and IISGM), Carlos García López de Haro (UC3M and IISGM), Michael Unser (EPFL Center for Imaging) and LaurèneDonati (EPFL Center for Imaging), and collaborators from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology inStockholm (Sweden), Wei Ouyang and Emma Lundberg form the collaborators' team. They have been made possible for the deepImageJ project's development and most relevant advances to be published inNature Methods. The latter isa monthly scientific publication reviewed by editors from the Nature Publishing Group,providing relevant information on new scientific techniques and laboratory methods.  This work has received financial support fromMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, AgenciaEstatal de Investigación, of the Spanish Government, European Regional Development fund, the COST action NEUBIAS, 2017 Leonardo grant of the BBVA Foundation, EPFL Center for Imaging, Erling-Persson Family Foundation and Kunt and Alice Wallenger Foundation. 

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Therefore, in the context of climate change, “if people perceive it as an imminent risk, the social norm of saving energy on heating and/or air conditioning within households may increase, which would lead to lower emissions; however, as long as the perceived risk does not pose a threat, or decreases, these social norms are adhered to less,” note the authors of this paper, which was recently published in the Nature Communications journal.

Another case where the results of this study could be applied is the COVID pandemic. “Since the vaccinations have been implemented, society perceives the risk as being lower. This leads to two things that align with our study; on the one hand, in groups where there were not many people complying with the regulation of wearing a mask, such as among younger age groups, this norm has suddenly disappeared. On the other hand, however, older people continue to wear them outside, even when it is no longer compulsory to do so. In the case of the latter group, a habit has been formed due to previously strict mask wearing regulations (we should also consider the pressure exerted by those wearing masks on those who did not),” notes Anxo Sánchez.

In order to conduct their research, the scientists designed a social experiment consisting of 300 participants, who were split into groups of six. They were asked to make one decision every day for a month: they were asked to contribute a number of points (as if they were money) in order to prevent a catastrophe. If they did not “invest” enough, the catastrophe would strike and everyone would lose their points. They were then asked about their expectations in regard to what other participants would contribute and what others expected of them, which allowed scientists to identify the social norm and to study the behaviour of those who assimilated these cooperative norms. 

This study is framed within the context of collective (or emergent) phenomena observed in complex systems, with a perspective inspired by physics. In this sense, each individual had their own expectations and norms, but modified them by observing others, and only when these expectations and norms were shared by many people did they become social norms. 

More information:

Bibliography: Szekely, A., Lipari, F., Antonioni, A. et al. Evidence from a long-term experiment that collective risks change social norms and promote cooperation. Nat Commun 12, 5452 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25734-w  More info: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25734-w

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The new knowledge map incorporates 44 research groups and the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Joint Institute - Santander Big Data Institute (IBiDAT, in its Spanish acronym), which carries out cross-section scientific work related to the area of Health Sciences and Engineering, both at a national and international level.

This report is compiled of interdisciplinary R&D and involves different areas of knowledge, in addition to bioengineering, it includes areas such as physics, mathematics, other engineering or social sciences disciplines, such as statistics, economics, law and documentation.

UC3M R&D in the area of biomedical technologies and health sciences

The aim of this project is to develop a new system software for future Exascale computers in order to optimise massive data handling operations so that applications can run faster and therefore perform better. "It is quite a ground-breaking project when you look at what has traditionally happened in high-performance computing. This is because, for the first time, we are dealing with the optimisation and readjustment of the I/O system while the applications are running," says Jesús Carretero, a lecturer in the UC3M’s Department of Computer Science and head of the ADMIRE project at the University.

The main technological challenge facing the research team on the ADMIRE project involves creating software that optimises I/O management, i.e., information flows. This software must be able to adapt dynamically to computational requirements and the ways in which information is stored. For this, a global software layer is needed that interacts with all the components of the system in order to coordinate them. Essentially, it must be able to adapt and manage in an efficient and dynamic manner the storage resources available. This can be achieved by means of machine learning at all levels of the system hierarchy.

The project aims to streamline all the data movement in a computer, as well as to minimise this movement between the storage system and the compute nodes. This requires creating a new layer of system software and adapting applications. "High performance computing typically involves what's called offline running. In other words, users can leave their jobs running, for hours or days, and after a certain amount of time it is completed and the results are delivered. What our project proposes is that, while these jobs are running, the operating system itself can optimise the performance of the system so that they run faster," says Carretero. 

This research project, funded by the EuroHPC JU (GA 956748), involves fourteen partners from various European countries: the UC3M and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain; DataDirect Networks, ParaTools and INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique) in France; Forschungszentrum Jülich, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Max Planck Institutes and Experts and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, in Germany; the Italian companies Cineca, E4 Computer Engineering and CINI (Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l'informatica), the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden; and the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center in Poland. 

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The system has been created using commercial LED lights which light up in spectral ranges, from ultraviolet to infrared, and is programmed to be controlled via a user interface. This system is made from 3D-printed modules, each of which has its own particular function.

One of the advantages of this device is that it is easy to reproduce, which reduces the cost of simulators that are currently available on the market by a third. “The simulators currently on the market are large and expensive, and also have a limited maintenance and service life. This model seeks to serve a niche market: public and private research centres who have an interest in creating a team that is dedicated to measuring the degradation of experimental cells at a low cost; and solar energy companies who want to develop their own products,” says Eduardo López Fraguas, a PhD student at the UC3M and the main driving force behind Sunbox.

Its main application is characterising solar cells. However, it can also be used in other sectors, such as the textile industry, which needs to analyse how a material reacts to a certain type of light.

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Researchers have already developed an initial strategy for planning routes and preventing collisions for drone swarms in three-dimensional environments, in an article published in the Sensors journal. In order to do this, they first designed a 3D model that simulates an urban environment, where they established take-off and landing zones. Then they tested a planning algorithm that was responsible for calculating optimal, fluid routes for a set of drones. Finally, they implemented different measures (flights at different altitudes, distance control, etc.) to obtain a strategy for avoiding possible collisions.

Researchers at the LABYRINTH project are developing these technologies within the framework of U-Space, a new European drone air traffic management system led by the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) initiative. This new framework is designed to integrate low-level drone operations, below 120 metres (400 feet), safely and efficiently into European airspace.

“Air controllers use ATM (Air Traffic Management) to safely manage the traffic of commercial aircraft. Similarly, developing an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system that allows drones to share airspace with other drones and aircraft is imperative,” explains Francisco Valera, another scientist taking part in this project and a member of NETCOM (Networks and Communications Services) at the UC3M. This research group, along with Telefonica I+D and the IMDEA Networks Institute, recently presented an experimental study about the use of mobile technologies in drone networks in the Sensors journal.

Possible applications

Drones can be useful in different applications, such as delivering and transporting goods, monitoring in different environments, or accessing places that are difficult to reach in emergency situations, for example. However, there have been concerns about the safety of these flights until now, which have limited their use and it is often illegal to use drones in certain public areas. It is estimated that by 2035 there will be approximately 400,000 drones flying within Europe, so the biggest challenge in this regard will be safely managing drone traffic in cities and other areas with high levels of congestion.

The foreseen applications within the LABYRINTH project framework concern different environments in Spain. For example, work is being undertaken with the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT, in its Spanish acronym) to use drones to improve road transport, analysing aspects such as speed control, measuring the distance between vehicles, identifying license plates, and following up on and providing support in the event of accidents. Another initiative with the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA, in its Spanish acronym) is intending to use drones at airports to control unauthorised access, inspect tracks, or use them as a deterrent against birds. In the case of managing emergencies at large gatherings (such as at concerts or sporting events), a collaboration with the SAMUR-Protección Civil of Madrid is in place for pre-emergency surveillance operations (identifying exit routes, medical care points or danger zones, calculating street capacity) and assistance with medical operations (faster routes to incidents, transporting specialised material or medicine).

LABYRINTH (Ensuring drone traffic control and safety) is a project funded by the European Union’s H2020 Programme (GA 861696) that is being coordinated by the UC3M. This R&D&I consortium is made up of 13 research centres and industrial partners from 5 countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, and Italy). The Spanish institutions that are participating, along with the UC3M, are the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT), the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), the SAMUR-ProtecciónCivil of Madrid and the companies Expace on Board Systems, Inncome, PONS Seguridad Vial and Telefonica I+D. The Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority (Italy), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), and the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) are also taking part in the project.

More information: Website for the LABYRINTH project

Bibliography: 

Blanca López, Javier Muñoz, Fernando Quevedo, Concepción A. Monje, Santiago Garrido, Luis E. Moreno (2021). Path Planning and Collision Risk Management Strategy for Multi-UAV Systems in 3D Environments. Sensors. Key: A Volume: 21, N. 4414 (2021), p. 1-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s21134414

VictorSanchez-Aguero, Luis F. Gonzalez, Francisco Valera, Ivan Vidal y Rafael A. López da Silva (2021). Cellular and Virtualization Technologies for UAVs: An Experimental Perspective. Sensors. Volume 21(9), N. 3093; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s21093093 

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Quantification of the cancer cells that remain after treatment allows relapses to be anticipated and subsequent treatment to be adjusted to the individual, reducing mortality levels. “On the other hand, this system allows us to develop more and better drugs and helps us avoid using unnecessary treatments, which also reduces the cost of healthcare,” says Barrio.

Cancer is currently the third leading cause of death around the world. In 2020, 2.7 million people were diagnosed in the European Union and 1.3 million lost their lives because of this disease. In addition to this, the total cost of treatment within Europe amounted to 199 trillion Euros, according to data provided by the company. 

Altum Sequencing is working with the UC3M to train predoctoral staff by adding to its team of PhD students from the University over a period of three years. The UC3M’s Industrial PhD programme is facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration for the development of big data techniques, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, with the aim of accelerating the results of biomedical research. In addition to providing training, Industrial PhD programmes promote the transfer of knowledge and synergies between the University and the industrial sector.

This spin-off of the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid is also collaborating in different clinical trials and has marketed this technology with a Chinese company to be used in the Asian market.  

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He has designed the methodology for this project which includes numerical simulations and mathematical models that will be validated using high-speed impact experiments. “The success of this proposal would be a real revolution in the design and calculation of metal impact protection structures used in the aerospace, aeronautics, automotive, and civil safety industries, allowing 3D printing to be used to optimise its resistance, reduce its weight and, thus, its manufacturing and maintenance costs,” says the researcher.

The BBVA Foundation’s Leonardo Grants aim to support science and culture in order to promote projects belonging to researchers and cultural creators between the ages of 30 and 45 who are in the intermediate period of their careers. These grants support 59 innovative personal projects in 11 areas of knowledge. This is a highly competitive call for proposals, as 1,615 applications were received, from which the projects considered to be of the highest excellence were selected by an evaluation committee comprised of independent experts.

The name of these BBVA Foundation grants draws inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) as a universal symbol of curiosity and passion for knowledge, the opening up and continuous exploration of new fields and problems, as well as dialogue between natural and life sciences, technology, humanities, and the arts.

More information:

59 Leonardo Grants awarded to Researchers and Cultural Creators in 9 areas of science and culture

Currently, traditional storage systems cannot manage the extreme scale of this data, say the researchers. “The biggest challenge for new massive computing infrastructures is not their computing capacity, but rather processing and moving data,” explains Francisco Javier García Blas, associate professor at the UC3M’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering and ASPIDE coordinator. It is at this point that the results obtained within the framework of this European R&D&I project can be particularly useful, as they contribute to the definition of a new programming model, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), and of methodologies for expressing data-intensive tasks in Exascale systems. “In addition to this, practically all of the software being developed is freely available to the community,” he adds.

The framework developed in the ASPIDE project can be used for facilitating the design of software that is commonly used in supercomputing and Big Data-related sectors. The framework has two big benefits. First, it improves the performance of applications using task scheduling, data locality, and intensive parallelism techniques. Second, it implements a processing infrastructure, namely AIDE, which provides a flexible development mechanism of data-intensive application.

Researchers have applied the advantages of these utilities and programming mechanisms to multiple use cases used in the project with a direct reach and impact at a societal level. On the one hand, they have accelerated the massive processing of magnetic resonance studies, which are used to gather metrics about the brain’s microstructure and connectivity, in order to improve the diagnosis of mental illnesses. In addition to this, they have applied Deep Learning techniques to the automatic detection of parasites in beehives, with the aim of improving the bees’ quality of life and preventing the decline of this pollinating species. Finally, the technology developed has also been applied to massive data processing in urban environments and mobile telephony industries.

ASPIDE (ExAscale ProgramIng models for extreme Data procEssing) is a project funded by the EU H2020 Programme (GA 801091) that is coordinated by the UC3M. This R&D&I consortium is made up of both academic and industrial institutions, as well as of health research institutions from six European countries. Its project partners include the University of Calabria (Italy), the Universität Klagenfurt (Austria), research centres such as the Poznan Supercomputing and Network Centre (Poland), and the Institute e-Austria Timisoara, companies such as BULL/ATOS (France) and INTEGRIS S.p.A. (Italy), and institutions such as the ServicioMadrileño de Salud (SERMAS) in Spain.

More information:

The ASPIDE project website 

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With a Degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, a Master’s Degree in Communication Systems and Digital Technologies, and a PhD in Applied Acoustics from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, the UC3M lecturer, Ana Tajadura, has undertaken research at various international centres, such as the “Lab of Action & Body” at the Royal Holloway, University of London (United Kingdom), at the NTT Communication Science Laboratories (Japan), and at the University College London’s Interaction Centre. During her career, she has led multidisciplinary teams and projects that focused on advancing research into the perception of our bodies using technology, as well as designing body-centred interfaces that support people’s needs. In this regard, she has worked with doctors on studies with physically inactive people, those with chronic pain, eating disorders, and those who have suffered strokes.

The other recipients of the Banco Sabadell Foundation Awards were as follows: The Award for Economic Research was awarded to Monica Martínez Bravo, Doctor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for her contributions to the field of political economy and economic development; the Award for Biomedical Research went to Guadalupe Sabio, Doctor at the University of Extremadura in collaboration with the British Medical Research Council in Dundee, for her contributions to the understanding of why obesity causes cardiometabolic diseases.

Por su parte, Cyclomed Technologies está desarrollando un acelerador de partículas, de fácil uso e instalación, que permitirá realizar desde la producción hasta la aplicación de isótopos radioactivos para marcar anticuerpos. El isótopo radioactivo es un átomo inestable que al desintegrarse emite una huella que se puede detectar. Los anticuerpos marcados por estos isótopos permiten iniciar medicinas personalizadas y tratamientos específicos para cada persona. Así, este desarrollo ayudaría a la mejora del diagnóstico, tratamiento y seguimiento de la evolución de la enfermedad de cada paciente. Además, reduciría costes y aceleraría el proceso industrial del desarrollo de fármacos. Esta spin-off cuenta con el apoyo de CIEMAT y la UC3M, de la empresa industrial ANTEC, de Chasing Science, la Fundación para el conocimiento Madri+d y el Parque Científico de Madrid, así como Mind the Gap-Fundación Botín y NEOTEC- CDTI como principales inversores.

Con la firma de este acuerdo, la UC3M  participa en seis empresas de base tecnológica. Todas ellas están apoyadas por el programa de creación y participación en Spin-offs de la Universidad, ubicado en su Parque Científico.

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Por su parte, Cyclomed Technologies está desarrollando un acelerador de partículas, de fácil uso e instalación, que permitirá realizar desde la producción hasta la aplicación de isótopos radioactivos para marcar anticuerpos. El isótopo radioactivo es un átomo inestable que al desintegrarse emite una huella que se puede detectar. Los anticuerpos marcados por estos isótopos permiten iniciar medicinas personalizadas y tratamientos específicos para cada persona. Así, este desarrollo ayudaría a la mejora del diagnóstico, tratamiento y seguimiento de la evolución de la enfermedad de cada paciente. Además, reduciría costes y aceleraría el proceso industrial del desarrollo de fármacos. Esta spin-off cuenta con el apoyo de CIEMAT y la UC3M, de la empresa industrial ANTEC, de Chasing Science, la Fundación para el conocimiento Madri+d y el Parque Científico de Madrid, así como Mind the Gap-Fundación Botín y NEOTEC- CDTI como principales inversores.

Con la firma de este acuerdo, la UC3M  participa en seis empresas de base tecnológica. Todas ellas están apoyadas por el programa de creación y participación en Spin-offs de la Universidad, ubicado en su Parque Científico.

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In addition to this, by receiving a single optical signal, the system can also monitor temperature changes in the fibre core, energy distribution using optical means at different network points, and the state of the communication channel used within the fibre. “If lots of energy is sent, the temperature inside the fibre might increase and, therefore, could be damaged. This system helps us know how much energy we are sending and make sure that the infrastructure we are using to send that energy is in good condition and we are not damaging it,” notes Vázquez.

The system can also be integrated into the communications channel itself, with minimal insertion losses and monitoring on a different control channel to the channel being used to send energy. Currently, there is no commercial system that integrates this type of technique, according to the research team.

This patent has been created in collaboration with the ITEAM-UPV’s Photonics Research Labs, who manufactured the semi-reflective mirrors embedded in the optical fibres. “Fibre-manufactured devices monitor the power reaching the nodes in real time, while indicating the temperature, without affecting the power of the data being transmitted. This is the basis for the technique developed by the UC3M group,” notes Salvador Sales, professor and researcher at the ITEAM-UPV. 

The results of research published recently in the Journal of Lightwave Technology scientific journal, which is co-edited by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the IEEE Photonics Society, show some of the applications that the developed invention may have.

This patent has been developed within the framework of a wider line of research, which has obtained a set of results. BlueSPACE (5G PPP BlueSpace Project Grant 762055) is a three-year European research project, led by Eindhoven University of Technology, that aims to develop next-generation wireless technologies. BlueSpace aims to contribute technologies to increase the speed of the current network, while seeking to reduce energy consumption by using centralised technologies and multicore fibres. The UC3M’s contributions to remote light-power have been evaluated in order to be part of the innovative technologies funded by the European Union and of Innovation Radar, an initiative from the European Commission.  

Bibliography: 

Fahad M. A. Al-Zubaidi, Student Member, IEEE, J. D. Lopez Cardona, D. S. Montero y C. Vázquez  (2021). Optically Powered Radio-over-Fiber Systems in Support of 5G Cellular Networks and IoT. Journal of Lightwave Technology. https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2021.3074193 

Patent Reference:

https://consultas2.oepm.es/InvenesWeb/detalle?referencia=P201931134 

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The MAD Formula Team, made up of more than fifty students from different degrees across the UC3M, has working groups that specialise in different parts of the car, such as aerodynamics, chassis, dynamics, electronics, driving technologies or powertrain, as well as their own marketing department and management team. In addition to the different engineering specialities, this project requires a wide range of interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. Other branches, such as business administration and management, audio visual communication, economics, and journalism, among others, have come together. In addition to designing and building the car, students take part in cost analysis, searching for sponsors, programming, and more.

This UC3M team was founded a decade ago, when the vehicle’s conception began, and participated in the competition in 2016 under the name Formula UC3M. “Since then, the team has continued to improve and grow, with the enthusiasm of new members and demonstrating that we have a true pool of talent and innovation based on the careers former members have gone on to,” says the founder and academic director of the UC3M’s MAD Formula Team, Daniel García-Pozuelo, lecturer at the UC3M’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and researcher at the University’s “Duque de Santomauro” Institute of Motor Vehicle Safety. “This project is an opportunity for students to develop academically, personally, and professionally,” he adds.

“In my opinion, the MAD Formula Team is the perfect complement for my university studies,” says Diego Rosado Barbero, leader of the team’s Marketing Department and UC3M Mechanical Engineering Degree student. “Being able to put all of the knowledge I’ve gained during my studies into practice is a very positive thing, especially when it comes to such an exciting, ambitious, and comprehensive project, both at the academic and human level,” he explains. 

Safety and reliability

It’s important that when designing a single seater car like this one, the vehicle is “safe for the driver, as well as for the team members working close to the car, ensuring it is reliable enough that it won’t fail before the end of the competition,” says Daniel García-Pozuelo. However, one of the requirements to earn points in this competition is completing all of the tests.

The competition is made up of two types of tests: static, based on things such as the design and innovation of the different parts of the vehicle, cost analysis, and business plan; and dynamic, which take the car’s effectiveness and efficiency into account, in terms of acceleration, driving, stability, and endurance. 

Formula Student SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is an international competition for universities organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), an independent mechanical engineering company based in London (United Kingdom) that aims to stimulate and inspire young engineers to become innovators and entrepreneurs. For this event, teams from each institution create, design, and build a single seater car that they then compete with on world-renowned circuits, such as Assen (The Netherlands), Hockenheim (Germany), Montmeló (Spain) and Silverstone (United Kingdom), among others. This is an important competition at both the university and a professional level, it is supported and sponsored by multinational companies, providing an opportunity for engineering students to demonstrate and test their creativity and skills, as well as giving them an opportunity to develop relationships for their future career. 

More information: https://www.madformulateam.com/

Cada año, se reta a grupos de un máximo de cinco niñas a desarrollar un plan de negocio y una aplicación móvil para solucionar un problema de su comunidad y dar respuesta a una necesidad social relacionada con las áreas de educación, igualdad, medioambiente, salud, paz o pobreza. Este año, a pesar de las complicaciones, las jóvenes y sus mentores han conseguido sacar adelante sus proyectos. Este evento que organiza la UC3M está pensado para que los equipos puedan exponer sus proyectos y el público asistente de forma virtual pueda intervenir y preguntar en directo por las aplicaciones y su desarrollo.

La bienvenida de esta jornada virtual correrá a cargo de la vicerrectora de Estudiantes e Igualdad de la UC3M, Mónica Campos. A continuación participará la responsable del Programa STEM for Girls UC3M, Celeste Campo, vicerrectora adjunta de Promoción de la Universidad. Posteriormente intervendrán los cinco equipos semifinalistas a nivel mundial en las categorías senior y junior. Después participará la General Manager of Europe at CoverWallet, an Aon Company, Elena Gonzalez-Blanco García. Clausurará el evento Alicia Mancheño, de Power to Code, embajadores regionales de Technovation Girls.

La Universidad integra esta actividad en su programa STEM for Girls UC3M de fomento de vocaciones tecnológicas y científicas, dirigido a niñas y jóvenes de secundaria y bachillerato. Este programa se ha desarrollado a lo largo del curso 2020/21 en cuatro ámbitos de trabajo: actividades de mentoring, competiciones, talleres tecnológicos y artes escénicas. Esta actividad, además, cuenta con apoyo del Ministerio de Igualdad a través de la Convocatoria anual que realiza el Instituto de las Mujeres.

Esta jornada se podrá seguir a través del canal de YouTube de la UC3M: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xcf9xmesVA 

Este año los equipos participantes podrán exponer sus apps en una feria virtual que se desarrollará del 11 al 13 de junio, en la que intervendrá con una ponencia Sara Guerrero, profesora del departamento de Bioingeniería de la UC3M. Enlace Feria Technovation Girls.

Más información: Web del evento Technovation Girls 2021

Optimising strategies to measure turbulent flows is a key element in today’s industry due to the critical role that turbulence plays in many industrial applications. In this regard, obtaining more precise information about its dynamics would allow us to use it in real-life contexts, such as in the transport sector. Turbulent flows affect the forces opposing the movement of all types of vehicles, for example, such as cars, airplanes or ships, so understanding them better can help improve their performance and reduce their impact on the environment, the researchers note.

For the time being, techniques for measuring turbulent flow in experiments only provide “a partial description of their velocity, temperature, or pressure,” states Stefano Discetti. This new ERC project’s objective is to use artificial intelligence and data mining techniques to develop a new generation of measuring tools so that a more complete description of their dynamic behaviour can be obtained, and then having more information on how to control them.

One of the methods being used is volumetric particle image velocimetry, which makes it possible to obtain a 3D reconstruction of the movement of a fluid following the motion of particles, made visible by a laser light. Within the framework of this research, scientists hope to use data provided by high sampling-frequency point probes to complement the 3D description with dynamics in time. In addition to this, algorithms based on artificial intelligence will be developed to improve the accuracy of particle image velocimetry technique. In a recent work published by these UC3M researchers in the Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science journal, they presented a novel approach based on data mining to achieve this goal.

High-precision and time-resolved measurements will be used to obtain pressure fields by applying fundamental fluid mechanics equations. With this, they hope to define compact models that can be used to describe the behaviour of flows accurately and develop control logics. “These results could provide new tools which have the potential to bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and characterisation and control of flows in real-life applications, which could lead to an improvement in processes and reduce the environmental impact of different industry sectors, especially the aeronautical industry,” notes Stefano Discetti.

The NEXTFLOW project (Next-generation flow diagnostics for control) will last for five years and is being funded by the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant within Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (GA 949085).

Bibliography: Cortina-Fernández, J., Sanmiguel Vila, C., Ianiro, A., & Discetti, S. (2021). From sparse data to high-resolution fields: ensemble particle modes as a basis for high-resolution flow characterization. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 120, 110178.

More information: NEXTFLOW project website

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Increasing conventional power voltage levels to higher values is necessary in order to deal with these power levels. These voltage magnitudes in equipment that operate at high altitudes result in undesirable ionisation processes, such as the appearance of electric arcs, due to the low air density. A phenomenon that can damage other electrical circuits and structural components.

This is why it is necessary to detect these electric arcs as quickly as possible, so that the circuit can be disconnected before it is damaged. This is the focus of the “High Power Switching System and Arc Detection for High Voltage and Direct Current Embedded Networks (HV-NET)” (“Sistema de conmutación alta potencia y detección de arcos para redes embarcadas de corriente continua y alta tensión (HV-NET)”), led by ADS with the participation of the UC3M’s Diagnosis of Electrical Machines and Insulating Material (DIAMAT, in its Spanish acronym) research group, including professors Guillermo Robles and Juan Manuel Martínez Tarifa. 

The system currently under development allows electric arcs to be detected by means of a lightweight and low-cost sensor (essential in aerospace environments), designed specifically for this application as well as a signal processing system implanted in an acquisition card. In addition to the aerospace sector, the UC3M and Airbus project could be implemented into photovoltaic power plants.

With the results obtained thus far, the DIAMAT-ADS research team has applied for a European patent and are being considered to present their research at various international conferences and in magazines.

The sideslip angle is the angle formed between the vehicle's alignment and the direction of its motion relative to its centre of gravity, while the roll angle is the rotation of the vehicle in relation to its longitudinal movement. "The innovative feature of this research project is the design of an 'observer' that makes it possible to simultaneously estimate the vehicle's sideslip and roll angles for a network-induced control system with transmission delay, based on a communication structure activated by events and combined with neural networks," explains one of its authors, Beatriz López Boada, professor in UC3M’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, who recently published the study in the journal "Nonlinear Dynamics" together with colleagues from the School of Transportation Science and Engineering at Beihang University (China).

To estimate these properties, the observer uses measurements from sensors that are already available in most series production vehicles, which would reduce the cost of its implementation. These sensors provide information on steering wheel rotation and roll or travelling speed, which makes it possible to estimate the aforementioned angles. The device also employs artificial intelligence tools, using what are known as neural networks which assess the non-linear behaviour of the vehicle and perform an initial estimate of the results.

The design presented by these researchers is also capable of adapting to external phenomena, i.e., disturbances which are not vehicle-dependent, but which affect its dynamic behaviour, such as adverse weather conditions or uneven terrain. Furthermore, this data is relayed through a communication network, which delays signal transmission. This delay and an event-triggering condition have been taken into account in the design of the estimator, which limits the amount of data sent to the network, preventing it from being overloaded.

This research project has been carried out as part of the EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030, promoted by the European Commission. The goal of this initiative is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on European roads by half within a decade and to zero by 2050. To this end, it is supporting the roll-out of various projects, from the improvement of infrastructures and vehicle safety technologies to actions focused on the behaviour of drivers and emergency services.

It is also part of the national project Intelligent Driving Safety System under an IoT platform with low-cost devices (IoT4SafeDriving) [RTI2018-095143-B-C2], funded by the Spanish State Innovation Agency, part of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Researchers from UC3M’s Dept. of Computer Science and the Dept. of Signal Theory and Communications and Telematics Engineering at the Universidad de Valladolid were also involved.

Bibliographic reference: López Boada, María Jesús; López Boada, Beatriz; Zhang, Hui (2021). Event-triggering H-infinity-based observer combined with NN for simultaneous estimation of vehicle sideslip and roll angles with network-induced delays. Nonlinear dynamics, vol. 103, Feb. 2021, pp. 2733-2752 ISSN: 0924-090X https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-021-06269-7 e-archivo UC3M: https://e-archivo.uc3m.es/handle/10016/32207

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Compared to other existing platforms, Collaborative Health innovates in the use of a search analogy, in other words, a passive sonar, which reports pertinent data and potential risk in a given area. 

The project has already concluded, and the tool is currently being deployed in Ecuador and Spain for the detection of diseases such as COVID-19, Influenza and Zika virus. Juan Miguel Gómez Berbís, a lecturer in UC3M’s Computer Science Department and lead researcher on the project, says that "at such a critical time in this pandemic, collaboration and information exchange among scientists is more important than ever". 

The development of the project was complex and involved a collaborative effort: "We are convinced that in the times we are living in, it represents a significant milestone and is a tool that will help citizens and health authorities to identify, prevent and act in advance of any outbreaks of new or existing diseases", says Ignacio Martinez, director of Communications and Business Development at Dantia Tecnología. Two other researchers from UC3M's Software Engineering Lab (SEL) group, Antonio de Amescua Seco and Lisardo Prieto Gonzalez, also worked on the project.

This technological device is fitted into accessories worn by the user and identifies situations of threat by means of physiological variables such as heart rate, temperature and skin conductance, and physical variables such as voice changes or sounds from the surrounding environment. The system analyses these variables in real time and, if it determines that a situation is dangerous, sends alerts and requests for help to a previously defined circle of people.

The device was developed by UC3M4Safety, a multidisciplinary team focused on detecting, preventing and combating violence against women. The team consists of UC3M researchers Clara Luis Mingueza, José Carlos Robredo García, José Miranda Calero, Maria Ángeles Blanco Ruiz and Manuel Felipe Canabal Benito.

About Explorer UC3M Space

Explorer UC3M Space is an initiative aimed at supporting entrepreneurship within the framework of Banco Santander's Explorer programme "Jóvenes con Ideas" (“Young People with Ideas”). The aim is to inspire and promote start-ups, providing the young people involved with connections to help with the internationalisation of their projects and their pursuit of funding. This year, the percentage of women who took part in the Explorer UC3M Space programme was 54 percent, the highest percentage of all the programme's editions to date. 

More information on the programme

The so-called magneto-active polymers are revolutionising the fields of solid mechanics and materials science. These composites consist of a polymeric matrix (i.e., an elastomer) that contains magnetic particles (i.e., iron) that react mechanically by changing their shape and volume. “The idea is that the application of an external magnetic field leads to internal forces in the material. These forces result in alterations of its mechanical properties, such as stiffness or even shape and volume changes which may interact with the cellular systems'', explains Daniel García González.The researcher recently published a scientific article in Composites Part B:Engineering about this topic with his colleagues from the UC3M’s Department of Structural Analysis and the Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. In this cross-cutting collaboration, motivated on original experiments, they propose a model that provides theoretical guidance to design magneto-active structural systems that could be applied in epithelial wound healing stimulation.

The magneto-mechanical response is determined by the material properties of the polymeric matrix and magnetic particles. If these processes are controlled, other engineering applications could be developed, such as soft robots that can interact with the body or a new generation of artificial muscles, notes the researcher, who explains the potential of this technology with a comparison: “Let's imagine someone who is on the beach and wants to step forward quickly. However, the sand (the mechanical environment) makes it a little more difficult for them to move forward than if they were stood on tarmac or an athletic track. Similarly, in our case, if a cell is on a substrate that is too soft, it will make it more difficult to move. So, if we are able to alter these substrates instead and create this athletic track for cells, we will make all of these processes develop more efficiently.”

4D-BIOMAP (Biomechanical Stimulation based on 4D Printed Magneto-Active Polymer) is a five-year project funded with 1.5 million Euros by the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant within the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020 (GA 947723). This research project is being approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, involving knowledge from disciplines such as solid mechanics, magnetism, and bioengineering. In addition to this, computational, experimental, and theoretical methodologies will be combined.

Bibliography:

D. Garcia-Gonzalez, M.A. Moreno, L. Valencia, A. Arias, D. Velasco (2021). Influence of elastomeric matrix and particle volume fraction on the mechanical response of magneto-active polymers. Composites Part B: Engineering, Volume 215, 108796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2021.108796.

D. Garcia-Gonzalez, M. Hossain (2021). A microstructural-based approach to model magneto-viscoelastic materials at finite strains. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 208-209:119-132, 2021.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2020.10.028

Website for the 4D-BIOMAP project: www.multibiostructures.com 

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The 5G technology being implemented within the framework of this project will increase the speed (compared to current 4G communication) by ten, as well as decrease latency (the delay in the propagation of information packages within a network) and increase the reliability of communications. “All of this will make applications such as the self-driving car, augmented reality or the connection of multiple devices to the Internet a reality, in what is called the Internet of Things”, explains the project’s lead researcher and coordinator, Carlos J. Bernardos, from the UC3M’s Department of Telematic Engineering.

The aim of the 5Growth project is validating the benefits associated with this technology in real-world environments (departing from the laboratories where the initial 5G tests were carried out) and using specific applications. This will allow 5G technology to be used in environments previously disregarded for mobile communications technologies, such as factories of the future which “will have levels of automation and precision that have never been seen until now, thanks to 5G”, says Carlos J. Bernardos.

5Growth is an R&D&I consortium funded by the European Commission, coordinated by the UC3M. The project began in June 2019 and will run for 33 months. There are 21 institutions from seven European countries working on the project, including universities and research institutes, (in addition to the UC3M, the Centre TecnològicTelecomunicacions Catalunya, the Instituto de Telecomunicações, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Polytechnic University of Turin, and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies), global providers (Ericsson, InterDigital, NEC, Nokia), operators (Telefónica, Telecom Italia, Altice Labs/Portugal Telecom), vertical industries (COMAU, EFACEC, INNOVALIA), and SMEs (Mirantis, Nextworks, Telcaria).

madri+d Award for the Best Idea

In addition, In this edition of the awards, the start-up ienai SPACE, which is part of the corporate portfolio of technology-based companies belonging to the Incubator in the UC3M’s Science Park, has been awarded the madri+d Award for the Best Idea for the development of electric propulsion modules for small satellites.

This company, driven by three former UC3M students who received their PhDsfrom the University, Sara Correyero Plaza, Daniel Pérez Grande and Mick Wijnen, offers scalable propulsion systems that are fully tailored to the needs of each client, as well as support and consultancy services related to platform architecture and mission analysis.

13th edition of the madri+d Awards

“These thrusters have a cylindrical ionization chamber that is open at one end, through which plasma is ejected and accelerated, guided by an applied magnetic field”, explains the lead researcher for this new project, Mario Merino, from the Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering at UC3M. His goal is to unveil the physical foundations of these thrusters in order to understand the mechanisms involved in the electromagnetic heating of the plasma and its particle transport, increasing their efficiency.

A plasma has its own characteristics that are not observed in solids, liquids, or gases, so it is considered another state of matter. Understanding the role of turbulence and the interaction of the plasma with the electromagnetic fields and with the thruster walls are some of the key objectives of this project. “We are also going to investigate a new geometry for electrodeless plasma thrusters for the first time, based on a patent of the University”, notes Mario Merino. This new geometry would avoid many of the problems that current cylindrical thrusters have, such as the fact that they do not have complete magnetic shielding of their walls. “A lot of plasma is being lost to the back wall, causing the inefficiency of the thruster”, he adds.

The thruster that the researchers intend to develop would solve this problem with a new U-shaped geometry and a toroidal magnetic field (in the form of a “doughnut” deformed at one end) that would protect all thruster walls from the direct impact of the plasma. “It would meet the propulsion needs for space missions at very different powers and with multiple propellants, in Earth orbit as well as for missions to the Moon or Mars, in a cheaper, more efficient and more durable way”, scientists note. 

Researchers will use a multidisciplinary methodology within the framework of this project. On the one hand, they will develop state-of-the-art models and simulations of the plasma and electromagnetic fields. On the other hand, they will conduct experiments in the University’s Plasma and Space Propulsion and Team’s (EP2) vacuum chambers in order to directly observe how these thrusters work, using a complete range of plasma diagnostic systems. Finally, they will use advanced data-driven analysis techniques that will allow to squeeze out a great deal of information from simulation and experimental data.

“The ZARATHUSTRA project will also allow us to train at least six young researchers in cutting-edge simulation and experimentation techniques in plasma physics, propulsion system development, and other related areas, reinforcing the capabilities of EP2 at UC3M, which has extensive experience in research and innovation on various space propulsion technologies”, adds Mario Merino. 

ZARATHUSTRA (Revolutionizing Advanced Electrodeless Plasma Thrusters for Space Transportation) is a five-year project funded by the European Research Council with 1.5 million Euros through an ERC Starting Grant within the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme (GA 950466). 

ERC Zarathustra project website

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Other challenges include creating a network of networks, in other words, a digital ecosystem that connects all available data sources, and developing an energy-optimised digital infrastructure with the aim of reducing the environmental footprint of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The project also aims to produce efficient and affordable solutions for global service coverage, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of communications. Finally, the project aims to achieve extreme bit rates and extremely low (imperceptible) latencies. 

In order to achieve these objectives, the research team will split the project into three phases: the first will define trends and identify gaps, use cases and requirements for technology enablers; the second will define the project’s architecture and will develop the first set of solutions; and the third and final phase will develop and demonstrate the final versions of the vision, architecture and technology enablers using concept tests.

Hexa-X started on the 1st January this year and will run for two and a half years. Many of its results are expected to be incorporated into future 6G devices that will be launched in 2030.

More information

The ALARM project, which involves scientists and technologists from Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, considers that the environmental impact should be treated as a further hazard. “One of the ALARM project’s key ambitions is to produce overnight predictions of potential hot spots, meaning areas with high potential in terms of their combined carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other emissions that affect climate change”, notes Manuel Soler. In other words, this warning system would develop an information service that contains the critical areas and points that aircraft should avoid in order to reduce the impact flights have on global warming, which can occur, for example and in a very visible way, when aeroplanes produce the so-called contrails (the linear trail of clouds that some planes leave behind in certain weather conditions).

The project aims to create a prototype which can assimilate a wide range of atmospheric data collected by terrestrial and satellite observation systems. It will combine all of this with Artificial Intelligence algorithms to improve the forecasts that are currently used. “This system will create alerts that will be shared via aeronautical communication channels, so that controllers, pilots and other players in the aeronautical sector can access this information quickly in the event of an emergency”, explain the project’s researchers.

The ALARM (multi-hAzard monitoring and earLy wARning) project, which will run until the end of 2022, receives funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme (GA 893204) and is one of several projects within the research and innovation portfolio managed by SESAR Joint Undertaking. The project is coordinated by the UC3M and is composed of partners from five European countries: the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Royal Belgian Institute of Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), the University of Padua (Italy), and two small aeronautical companies: SATAVIA (United Kingdom) and SYMOPT (Italy).

More information: The ALARM project website

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A system for the lexical simplification of Spanish texts

The EASIER project, of the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies Group (HULAT) in the UC3M’s Computer Science and Engineering Department, has developed a system that helps people, primarily those with intellectual disabilities, to better understand texts. The system provides a lexical simplification of Spanish texts, offering different aids for understanding. It also detects complex words in the text and helps the user to improve their reading and comprehension of the text by using simple synonyms, a definition, or a pictogram for every complex word that is detected. 

The EASIER web platform can be accessed from any digital device and has extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. The tool is accessible within the regulatory framework of the (WCAG) 2.1 Standard and it is easy and intuitive to use, following cognitive accessibility criteria.

Innovative Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning methods, as well as Easy Read and Plain Language resources, have been used to develop and assess this solution. In addition to this, people with intellectual disabilities have participated in its implementation by evaluating the cognitive accessibility of the interface and the suitability of the system’s functionality. “Without the participation of people in the design and development processes of products and service, there’s no real social impact,” notes Lourdes Moreno, researcher from the UC3M’s HULAT group and project leader. 

An app to detect crises in autistic people

On its part, the PETRA project, developed by a research team from the UC3M’s Signal Theory and Communications Department, seeks to improve the communication of people who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These people interact with others in a different way than most and have certain communication issues (verbal and non-verbal), as well as limitations when it comes to understanding the emotions and intentions of others.

In order to improve their relationships in a social environment, the PETRA project has developed a free mobile application, called cuidaTEA, that is capable of characterising the behaviour of these people, finding personalised patterns, and detecting changes that allow crisis episodes associated with, for example, anxiety, sleep or behaviour disorders to be predicted. In order to do this, the cuidaTEA mobile application uses different sources of information on mobile devices (steps, app usage or usage time) which are processed by artificial intelligence algorithms. “In this way, we are trying to improve these patients’ communication skills via a system that, automatically and in real time, generates a direct alert to their caregivers’ mobile phones, so that they know how they are”, explains Pablo Martínez Olmos, professor at the University’s Signal Theory and Communications Department and lead scientist on the project. 

The application is already available on iOS and Android and, currently, is in the experimental phase of clinical trials, in collaboration with the Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital Health Research Institute. 

Call for Indra-Universia Foundation grants

The Call for grants for Research projects in Indra Technologies, in collaboration with the Universia Foundation, has been consolidated over five editions as the first call of its kind in Spain. Indra has contributed to the development of more than 60 projects within the framework of its Accessible Technologies, an initiative launched more than 15 years ago as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, that aims to reduce the digital divide and put innovation at the service of people with disabilities.

About Indra

Indra is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and the technological partner for core business operations of its customers worldwide. It is a world-leader in providing its own solutions in specific segments in Transport and Defence markets, and the leading firm in digital transformation consultancy and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America through its affiliate Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive offer of its own products, with a high-value, and with a high innovation component. At the end of the 2020 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of €3,043 million, almost 48,000 employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in over 140 countries.  

About the Universia Foundation

The Universia Foundation, powered by Universia, sponsored by Banco Santander through Santander Universities, is a private, non-profit organisation that has focused its work on educational and work-related guidance, diversity and fairness, the digital transformation of universities, entrepreneurship, and impact measurement of the university ecosystem according to international standards (SDGs) for more than 10 years. It has been an Employment Agency, in collaboration with the Spanish Public Employment Service, for the implementation of employment mediation activities since 2012. On an international level, it is a Global Compact signatory, committed to adhering to the United Nations Global Compact Principles.

About the UC3M

The UC3M is a Spanish public university which excels in teaching, research and innovation. It ranks among the top 35 universities in the world in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and appears in the Times Higher Education (THE) 150 Under 50 ranking. It has more than 870 agreements with universities from 56 countries, among which are some of the best in the world, according to the Shanghai Rankings. 20% of its students are international students. The UC3M is a partner of the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) alliance, one of the networks selected by the EU in its European Universities Initiative. The UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality distinctions, such as the EUR-ACE label in the field of Engineering and an AACSB accreditation in Business and Finance programmes, among others.

“While current efforts to integrate Network Intelligence (NI) into mobile networks aim to fine-tune machine learning solutions so that they can be adapted to network environments, DAEMON is updating the approach and aiming to update network architecture so that it supports NI operations”, says project coordinator, Marco Fiore, Research Associate Professor at the IMDEA Networks Institute.

Progress achieved in this project is expected to be applied to practical network environments to enable high performance, while also making efficient use of underlying radio-electrical and computing resources, reducing the energy footprint of mobile networks, and increasing their reliability.

The DAEMON (aDAptive and sElf-Learning MObile Networks; network intelligence for adaptive and machine learning mobile networks) Project is being coordinated by the IMDEA Networks Institute and is being undertaken from January 2021 to December 2023. It is being funded by the European Union’s H2020-ICT-2020-2 call for information and communication technologies. This research consortium is comprised of researchers from the UC3M, as well as other institutions, such as the IMEC (Belgium), the University of Malaga (Spain), the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), and important participants from the industry, such as world-leading manufacturers, such as NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH (Germany) and Nokia Bell Labs (Belgium), leading operators such as OTE (Greece) and Telefónica I+D (Spain), as well as innovative SMEs such as ADLINK Technology (France), Software Radio Systems (Ireland) and WINGS ICT (Greece).

En una serie de trabajos previos, este grupo investigador español había conseguido notables avances encadenados en la eficacia de distintas estrategias de edición genómica, llegando a alcanzar los niveles de producción de colágeno VII necesarios para una aplicación clínica realista en células madre adultas. 

Corrección precisa del gen causante de la enfermedad

En el trabajo que ahora se publica en la prestigiosa revista Molecular Therapy, se describen nuevos avances en tecnología de edición genómica para la corrección de las mutaciones causantes de la epidermólisis bullosa distrófica recesiva. Estos desarrollos tecnológicos han sido también objeto de una solicitud de patente.

El nuevo abordaje, que emplea herramientas CRISPR/Cas9 combinadas con la transferencia de las secuencias de reemplazo génico mediante un vector adenoasociado, da lugar a una corrección precisa y eficiente del gen COL7A1 en células de piel con capacidad de regenerar la epidermis a largo plazo y de restablecer la adhesión dermo-epidérmica. 

La demostración de eficacia y precisión de este nuevo protocolo de edición genómica permite pensar en futuros ensayos clínicos basados en esta metodología que se abre paso en la terapéutica de enfermedades raras.

Referencia bibliográfica: “Correction of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa by homology-directed repair-mediated genome editing”. Bonafont et al. Molecular Therapy DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.02.019

It is estimated that around 500,000 civil works for the installation of wiring, piping and other small-diameter underground scoring are carried out in Europe each year. These works are typically carried out by opening a ditch, extending the pipeline, then filling in the ditch. “The advantage of this robot is that it is possible to carry out the same drilling work without having to open a ditch, which prevents noise, pollution and inconvenience for citizens”, the researcher notes.

Within the framework of this project, funded by the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Innovation (GA 731968) and in which scientists from Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom are participating, the system has been tested under laboratory conditions. In particular, several underground drilling tests on land in northern Germany as well as in the Community of Madrid have been carried out.

The system prototype has caught the attention of the private sector, of both European and north American companies, and is currently continuing to be developed with the aim of starting tests in real urban environments. Researchers estimate that it could be ready to operate in cities within 2 to 3 years.

“The use of innovative localisation, mapping and navigation techniques, along with sensors and geo-radars, allows the systems to be adapted to different fields”, explains the project coordinator Carlos Balaguer, professor at the UC3M’s Department of Systems Engineering and Automation and one of the directors of the RoboticsLab. Introducing these advanced robotic technologies which have cognitive and control capabilities has multiple possible applications, adds Professor Balaguer: “It will increase Europe’s competitive edge in search and rescue operations (landslides), mining, civil applications (such as water, gas, fibre optics lines), exploration techniques, mapping, etc”.

BADGER (roBot for Autonomous unDerGround trenchless opERations, mapping and navigation) is a European R&D&I consortium, coordinated by the UC3M, in which researchers and technologists from the Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (Greece), the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow (Scotland, United Kingdom), IDS GeoradarSrl (Italy), Robotnik Automation SLL (Spain), SingularLogic S.A. (Greece) and TRACTO-TECHNIK GmbH&Co.KG (Germany) are participating. 

More information: www.badger-robotics.eu

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This information is available via the Accessible Cultural Agenda (ACA), a comprehensive website and free application for IOS and Android. This tool allows you to check the cultural offerings tailored to those with sensory disabilities, including film screenings, theatre shows, museums and live events, from your smartphone or tablet. In addition to this, the ACA lets you filter your search by region and type of accessibility service: subtitles, audio description, or Spanish sign language (LSE, in its Spanish acronym).

Results from the Autonomous Communities 

According to the results of the ACA 2020, Catalonia offered 2,339 accessible film screenings for those with sensory disabilities, consolidating itself as the Autonomous Community with the highest number of accessible film screenings; closely followed by the Community of Madrid with 2,138 accessible screenings, Andalusia with 1,547, the Valencian Community with 980 and the Canary Islands with 909. The latter has been the only Autonomous Community that has increased its number of accessible screenings during this period. In fact, the Canary Islands has increased its number of accessible screenings by 76% compared to its overall screenings since 2014.

“The pandemic has affected the entire population, but people with disabilities in particular,” says Belén Ruiz Mezcua, director of CESyA and professor at the UC3M’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. “Until 2019, we were optimistic that accessible screenings were here to stay. Now we fear that these services, which ensure that all citizens are included in culture, are in danger,” she adds.

Between January 2014 and now, there have been a total of 340,030 accessible film screenings in Spain. Approximately a third of this total took place in the Community of Madrid, which has offered 103,481 accessible film screenings over the past six years. Catalonia ranks second with 54,862 accessible screenings, followed by Andalusia with 42,369, the Valencian Community with 34,589 and the Basque Country with 31,476. On the other hand, the Balearic Islands came last with only 24 accessible screenings since 2014. 

More information:

Accessible Cultural Agenda website 
http://www.culturaaccesible.es

On Friday 12th February, a theatrical performance of “El Enigma Agustina” will be broadcast live on YouTube at 11am, aimed at high school students in the 3rd and 4th years as well as undergraduate students. This activity focuses on a female scientist who lived in Spain in the first third of the 20th century and addresses topics such as relativity, quantum mechanics and cosmology, as well as issues related to the history of Spanish science. Educational centres can participate as spectators, as well as being able to choose students to take part in the virtual colloquium about the documentary with two of its protagonists, communicator, Natalia Ruiz Zelmanovitch, and astrophysicist, Manuel González García. UC3M Deputy Vice-President for Equality, Rosario Ruiz Franco, has also planned a closing speech. In order to take part in this event, you must have previously seen the documentary “El enigma Agustina”. Registration and more information are available on this website.

In addition to this, an online exhibition about female STEM researchers (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) who try to inspire and awaken curiosity for girls and young women in science has been organised. The exhibition has been structured in two parts: firstly, a website with 15 virtual panels about female researchers at the UC3 School of Engineering summarising their scientific area, describing the scope of their research and choosing a prominent quote related to R&D&I; secondly, another area with 17 virtual panels with information about important women in the history of science and technology, such as Frances Arnold, Elizabeth Blackburn, Anita Borg, Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, Hipatia de Alejandría, Sally Kristen Ride, Hedy Lamarr, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Ada Lovelace, Lise Meitner, María Mitchell, Grace Murray Hopper, Margarita Salas, Vera Rubin, Karen Spärck Jones and Jill Tarter. All of this information is available on this website.

These activities are part of STEM for Girls UC3M, a programme that promotes STEM vocations for girls and young women in collaboration with the Institute of Women at the Spanish Ministry of Equality. One of the programme’s main objectives is to familiarise high school students with role models who inspire them to choose their university studies without gender biases. To do this, the programme comprises four areas of work: mentoring activities, performing arts, competitions, and technological workshops. More information is available at www.uc3m.es/stemforgirls

Collaboration with APTE

The UC3M’s Vice-President of Students and Equality, Mónica Campos, will announce STEM for Girls UC3M during an online conference on 11th February at 3.30pm to highlight Spanish initiatives that promote women’s talent in science, technology, and innovation. This event is being organised by the Association of Science and Technology Parks in Spain (APTE, in its Spanish acronym), through the coordination of the Spanish Technological Platform for Disruptive Technologies (DISRUPTIVE). More information and registration are available on this website.

You can also visit the “Mujeres que cambiaron el mundo” (Women who changed the world) online exhibition, which aims to highlight women’s contribution to R&D&I throughout history. The UC3M developed this exhibition within the framework of the second edition of “Women in Science and Technology”, an initiative promoted by the APTE. This exhibition is structured in three parts. Firstly, there are eight panels with information about important women in the history of science and technology, such as Ada Lovelace, Alice Ba, Arlene Sharpe, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Cristiane Nusslein-Volhard, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Hedy Lammar, Hipatia de Alejandría, Katherine Jackson, Lene Vestergaard Hau, Marie Curie, Margarita Salas, Rita Levi-Montalccini, Rosalind Franklin and Valentina Tereshkova. Secondly, there are two panels about the scientific activity of researchers and technologists at the UC3M. Finally, there is a third panel showing the work of 24 young women in STEM who work at companies in the University’s and Leganés Tecnológico Science Park. All of this information is available in Spanish and English on the following website.

The design they have suggested is to emboss crosses on a hydrogenated amorphous thin-layer silicon solar cell, specifically, on the transparent conductive layer where the light enters. Then, dielectric material nanospheres fill these crosses. By doing so, the light that reaches the cell is effectively redirected to its active area, the place where it is transformed into an electric current by the photoelectric effect. Using this technique, more light can be captured in the solar cell, generating up to 40% more of generated current, according to their calculations, which have been published in a paper in the Solar Energy journal.

In this work, researchers have been able to determine the correct material for the nanospheres, such as zinc oxide, as well as the correct size so that it’s possible to manufacture them currently: a radius of 210 nanometres (the thickness of a human hair ranges from 60,000 to 80,000 nanometres).

“The key to achieving this effectively in certain “colours” is choosing the correct sizes and materials”, explains one of the study’s authors, Ricardo Vergaz, lecturer at the UC3M’s Department of Electronic Technology. “We have evaluated thousands of possible sizes and refractive indices, the most important optical property of the spheres’ material”, he adds.

The strategy: combine diffraction and resonant effects

Embedding the spheres into the crosses, and therefore, bringing them slightly closer to the active layer below, increases their effect greatly, the researchers highlight in the study. In addition to this, they have found that the combination of the effect of the crosses and spheres is what causes this improvement. If the crosses are separated, or the spheres are reduced, the effect declines dramatically.

“We have tried to enhance the diffraction produced by the crosses by the resonant effects of the spheres themselves,” notes another of the study’s authors, Braulio García-Camara, a researcher at the GDAF. “The contrasts between the refraction indices of the nanospheres and those on the lower layers allow us to exploit the effects we were looking for. Once this design can be implemented into manufacturing, a significant improvement in performance will be achieved in solar cells installed in future solar fields,” he concludes. 

Another advantage of this design is that the effects produced allow the thickness of the active layer to be reduced in order to generate the current efficiently, saving material during the manufacturing process. “By reducing this, the extraction of electrons generated by light is also more effective, as they have less path to cross where they could be reabsorbed”, they highlight. In addition to this, the absorption that occurs in the layers surrounding the active layer has a warming effect, which can allow its defects to be reduced in the long term.

More information: 

Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy, Eduardo López-Fraguas, José Manuel Sánchez-Pena, Braulio García-Cámara, Ricardo Vergaz (2020). Boosting ultrathin aSi-H solar cells absorption through a nanoparticle cross-packed metasurface. Solar Energy, Volume 202, Pages 10-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2020.03.075

The opening of this new laboratory kicks off the process of integrating the avionics system into the deorbit device. The consortium will have the first complete prototype of the device ready by late 2022 and plans to mature it in a later project that will end with an in-orbit demonstration by late 2024. The goal is to have the system operational in 2025. 

E.T.PACK consortium includes UC3M (Coordinator), SENER Aeroespacial, the universities of Padua (Italy) and Dresden (Germany), the Fraunhofer Institute (Germany) and the Spanish company Advanced Thermal Devices. E.T.PACK has also received support from the Government of the Community of Madridthrough one of its Industrial Doctorates.

E.T.PACK, an autonomous deorbiting kit

The main goal of E.T.PACK is to develop an autonomous deorbit device or “kit” based on electrodynamic tether technology. The small kit will be mounted on satellites in the future. Once activated from the ground, the kit will deploy an electrodynamic tether that will interact passively with the Earth's magnetosphere, producing a drag force that will cause the satellite to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up. The electrodynamic tether, a very thin aluminum tape of about a couple of centimeters wide and a couple of kilometers long, uses the ionospheric plasma and the geomagnetic field to generate an electrical current that, thanks to an electrodynamic effect, gives rise to a force known as Lorentz drag. This force deorbits the satellite and produces the re-entry, thus contributing to the sustainable use of the outer space. 

SENER Aeroespacial engineer’s Sergio Garcia González, also PhD candidate at UC3M supervised by Prof. Gonzalo Sánchez-Arriaga (E.T.PACK coordinator), is responsible for the integration of the avionic system into the kit. Mr. García explains that "there are already systems for deorbiting satellites, but they use conventional propulsion, which increases their cost. Because space debris is a growing problem, institutions like the European Commission and the Government of Community of Madrid are sponsoring research to find effective, low-cost alternatives. Our space tether system could be one of those solutions." 

The reality is that, at present, no country requires companies to the deorbit their satellite at the end of life. The system proposed by E.T.PACK aims to reverse this trend by providing a light, low-cost and highly effective system.The deorbiting kit will be able to communicate with the ground, stabilize a satellite of mass up to 1,000 kg and control the deorbiting maneuver to prevent collisions with other objects.

SENER and the UC3M have a successful history of collaborations, including HIPATIA, the evolution of the helicon plasma thruster for space propulsion; the development of photon technologies; and a demonstration CubeSat mission, along with other innovations for the space sector.

Electrodynamic Tether technology (video): https://youtu.be/MkP2LJQnE_U

The second prize was awarded to the project “Solar Heaters: Clean heat in industrial processes”, developed by Darío Pardillos Pobo. This entrepreneurial proposal suggests the use of preheating raw material in industrial processes, using thermo-solar technology developed and patented by the UC3M. This idea can be applied in the asphalt industry, which could reduce its environmental impact as well as production costs.

The third prize was awarded to Alejandro Matías Delgado-Ureña Ocaña and César Sebastián Muñoz for their proposal “Agricop: Analysis of specific crops using hexacopter and satellite images”. This business idea is intended to facilitate farmers’ access to decision-making solutions based on satellite and/or drone-generated image analysis. This precision farming solution offers users the possibility to optimise crop parameters, increasing their productivity. This project is being presented by a multidisciplinary team that has already developed a prototype and tested it at the UC3M’s Science Park.

By awarding these prizes, the University supports the entrepreneurial spirit of its undergraduate students, helping drive innovation and business creation. This call is aimed at Final Dissertations related to entrepreneurship subjects that have obtained the TFG-EMPRENDE certificate from the UC3M during the academic year in which the call took place.

In this work, published in PLoS Computational Biology, researchers from the UC3M and UCM have now used a combination of mathematical modelling, numerical simulations and a topological analysis of data extracted from simulations and experiments in order to understand how cancer cells invade healthy cells. “A simplification of the early stages of cancerous metastasis is that tumor cells move as a collective and displace a group of normal cells in healthy tissue,” explain the paper’s authors, Luis L. Bonilla and Carolina Trenado, from the UC3M Department of Mathematics, and Ana Carpio, from the UCM Department of Applied Mathematics.

“By selecting the right cell groups and using an appropriate software and cellular dynamics, we have been able to simulate the way in which cancerous cells invade healthy tissue,” the scientists note. In order to carry out this simulation, they have used data from previous experiments and a Voronoi diagram (named after the Russian mathematician Gregory Voronoi) to conduct an irregular tessellation in which cells are polygons that do not overlap and have no spaces between them. In the model, the centers of cells are subject to forces of a different origin, the researchers explain, some maintain tessellation and optimize the area and perimeter, others are inertial forces of biological origin, and there are active forces aligning the speeds of neighboring cells, as well as friction and noise.

In order to automatically track the progression of the barrier or boundary between cancerous and normal cells, researchers have used topological data analysis techniques, which are being used for the first time in this type of study. “Based on a series of successive images from experiments, as well as numerical simulations, topological changes in the interfaces have been grouped, plotted, and classified automatically as the cancer cells progress,” note the scientists.

The techniques developed within the framework of this study can be scaled up to a larger volume of data, if these studies were to be carried out on a larger scale. In addition to this, these same techniques may be relevant in the field of tissue bioengineering to study how the biophysical characteristics of different materials affect organ and tissue regeneration.

Bibliography:  Bonilla LL, Carpio A, Trenado C (2020) Tracking collective cell motion by topological data analysis. PLoSComput Biol 16(12): e1008407.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008407

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Previous scientific research, such as Sture Forsén’s study in 2013, has pointed to several defects that may have affected the metronome, causing it to function slower, which would have led the composer from Bonn to choose faster marks than those actually proposed. In order to validate this explanation, researchers from the UC3M and UNED have systematically compared the metronomic marks with contemporary interpretations. This requires physical skills to model the metronome mathematically, analyse data, computing, usability, and, of course, music skills. Overall, they have analysed the tempo and its variations for each movement of 36 symphonies interpreted by 36 different conductors, a total of 169 hours of music.

“Our study has revealed that conductors tend to play slower than Beethoven indicated. Even those who aim to follow his directions to the letter! The tempi indicated by the composer are, in general, too fast, to the point that, collectively, musicians tend to slow them down,” says Iñaki Ucar, one of the authors of this research, data scientist at the UC3M’s Big Data Institute, and clarinetist. This slowing down follows, on average, a systematic deviation, so it is not random, but conductors tend to play consistently below Beethoven's marks. “This deviation could be explained by the composer reading the scale of the apparatus in the wrong place, for example, under the weight instead of above. Ultimately, this would be a problem caused by using new technology,” says Almudena Martín Castro, the other author of the study, user experience designer and pianist, who carried out this research within the framework of her Bachelor Thesis for her Degree in Physics at UNED. 

In this study, researchers have developed a mathematical model for the metronome based on a double pendulum, perfected with three types of corrections which take the amplitude of its oscillation, the friction of its mechanism, the impulse force, and the mass of its rod, an aspect that had not been considered in previous work, into account. “With the help of this model, we developed a methodology for estimating the original parameters of Beethoven’s metronome from photographs that are available and the patent outline,” the work explains. In addition to this, they dismantled a modern metronome to measure it and use it to validate both the mathematical model and methodology.

The researchers tried to identify a “break” in the metronome that gave rise to the slow tempi usually followed by musicians. They tried to change the metronome’s mass (it may have been damaged and a piece may have fallen off), move it onto the rod, increase the friction (the metronome may have been poorly lubricated) and even testing the assumption that the apparatus may have been misplaced, leaning over the piano while the composer was creating his music. “None of the hypotheses matched what the data told us, which is a homogeneous slowdown in the tempi on the entire scale. Finally, we considered the fact that the deviation matches the size of the metronome’s weight exactly, and we also found the annotation ‘108 or 120’ on the first page of the manuscript for his ninth symphony, which indicates that the composer doubted where he was reading at least once. Suddenly, it all made sense: Beethoven was able to write down a lot of these marks by reading the tempo in the wrong place,” they explain. 

This methodology could be applied when investigating the work of other classical composers, as they are able to extract the tempo from a musical recording and clean up the data so they can be compared. “Studying the relationship between the tempo played and marks from other composers would be very interesting, or even looking for the ‘correct tempo’ for composers who did not leave any metronomic marks. Is it possible that there is an average tempo at which people usually interpret Bach's fugues, for example?” they ask. 

More information: 

Bibliography: Martín-Castro, Almudena; Ucar, Iñaki (2020). Conductors’ tempo choices shed light over Beethoven’s metronome. PLOS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243616

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In addition to this, the application allows you to enjoy the Madrid Christmas lights without being there just by searching through the list of available streets. Each of them gives a description of the lights in this area and its representative image.

The “Accessible Christmas” tour is made up of twenty spots that can be visited, including the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and Plaza de Canalejas, and offers three audio description formats; one that uses real voices, one with synthetic voices, and one that uses adapted language for younger audiences.

Ultimately, the goal of “Accessible Christmas” is to allow everyone to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere in Madrid.

This system has been developed by teaching and research staff in the HULAT research group, which belongs to the UC3M’s Computer Science and Engineering Department, whose main activity consists of carrying out R&D&I projects related to natural language processing technologies, information retrieval and extraction in several application domains, search of answers systems, usability, and accessibility of user interfaces.

Download links:
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Android

Sensory technologies

“BODYINTRANSIT: Sensory-driven Body Transformation Experiences On-the-move” is the title of the research project being led by Ana Tajadura that has secured ERC funding for the next five years. Its aim is to establish a new fundamental knowledge base about “Body Transformation Experiences” (BTE), using new sensor-based sensory feedback devices. The results of the project could find application in the design of new medical therapies (for example in the case of chronic pain, stroke, etc.) and also in the world of sports, robotics or virtual reality.

The knowledge of how to create BTE using sensory signals and its effects on people is limited, as up until now, research has been conducted in highly controlled environments. This project aims to transfer these findings to real life settings for application to specific practical problems. To do this, methodologies from different areas of science will be combined, from cognitive neuroscience focused on the multi-sensory perception of the body to physical computing for signals, going through data modelling and human-computer interaction.

This European ERC CoG 2020 call, with a success rate of 13 percent, gives 655 million Euros to 327 research projects across the continent (chosen from 2,506 proposals). The UC3M is one of seven Spanish universities that has secured funding for this call.

Following this new grant, the UC3M has 12 ERC projects (8 Starting Grants and 4 Consolidator Grants) with a total funding of almost 17 million Euros from H2020. The UC3M is ranked among the top 20 Spanish organisations for economic return within the scope of H2020, among the top 5 institutions in the Community of Madrid, according to the latest report from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI, in its Spanish acronym) at the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

More information: Consolidator Grants ERC 2020

In addition to this, during the day, a theatrical webinar will take place at 11am, organised by the UC3M Arts Classroom and aimed at higher education centres, titled: “How can research and performing arts help you communicate better?” Different performing arts tools will be presented that can be used to improve communication in various fields, from interpersonal relationships to video conferences. After this, various lecturers from the University will share some key elements for improving communication from the field of audio-visual communication, history, sound and telematic engineering, or journalism.

From 5pm to 8pm, four webinars and online workshops, offered in Spanish and English, will be conducted by teams of researchers participating in European scientific projects at the UC3M that will address various topics, such as: “Your smartphone knows how you feel: emotions and the digital age”, “Learning about genetic editing for good through immersive technologies”, “Discovering a science shop: A participatory experience”, and “What do you know about 5G?”

These UC3M actions are part of the European Researchers’ Night, an event comprised of various free activities of scientific dissemination and which has been held simultaneously in more than 300 European cities since 2005. In Madrid, this project is promoted by the Ministry of Science, Universities and Innovation, coordinated by the Madri+d Foundation and funded by the European Union as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, with grant agreement number 953.820. Its main objectives are bringing the researcher and the general public closer together, so that they can understand their work and their benefits to society, promoting scientific vocations among students and promoting the entrepreneurial spirit.

More information:  The European Researchers’ Night at the UC3M Website

Arturo Azcorra is also one of only two academic members of the 5GPPP Partnership Board, a joint committee between the European Commission, industry and academic entities that has made European 5G technology a reality. He has also directly contributed to 5G technology thanks to his research (he was the coordinator of projects such as 5G-Crosshaul and 5G-TRANSFORMER) with inputs adopted by 5G standards and commercial products (5G midhaul, the 5G eCPRI standard, the architecture of the 5G control plane based on NFV/SDN, and the 5G emergency system with augmented reality developed for SAMUR). Together with David del Val (CEO of Telefonica R&D), he co-founded the 5TONIC research laboratory, which helped Spain become a pioneer in 5G technology development in Europe, and which has contributed to projects such as swarm intelligence used to control fleets of AVGs from the edge of the network.

His CV includes his position as a designer, founder and long-standing director of the regional research network, REDIMadrid, as well as founding and managing the International Research Institute, IMDEA Networks (ranked fourth in Europe in the “Mobile Computing” and “Measurements and Performance Analysis”, according to CS rankings). As the founder and first president of the Scientific Society of Telematics “ATEL”, he was a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley and MIT, as well as general director of the CDTI (responsible for leading industrial research in Spain, mainly in the engineering disciplines). He is an academic at the European Academy of Sciences “Academia Europaea”, which brings together the most distinguished scientists from Europe, including 70 Nobel Prize winners. He was the only Spanish member of the Steering Committee of the IEEE INFOCOM Congress (the most prestigious congress in Computer Communications).

With more than 150 publications and 6 patents, his scientific contributions have been incorporated into standards or have been turned into commercial products, such as the “Residential Gateway” (in millions of homes) or the procedure for generating Ppv4 addresses. He has been the coordinator or lead researcher in more than 30 projects, mostly European projects, as well as over 10 contracts with companies. He has obtained more than 15 million Euros of competitive funding to finance his research.

START’s objective is the development of research algorithms for optimising air transport networks in terms of their resilience (the system’s recovery capacity) when facing this kind of disruptive phenomena. “The storms we are analysing in this project are convective, typically cumulonimbus (a type of cloud), which are very energetic and dangerous for an aircraft in flight, so pilots tend to systematically avoid them”, explains the project’s coordinator, Manuel Soler, from the UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. In addition to heavy rain, these storms often present hail, lightning, and thunder, and may eventually block airports or large airspace corridors.

“It is important that, when developing these algorithms, they are resilient, in other words, they can automatically react to storms and recover the system. In this way, flights could be planned with the knowledge that there is a chance that storms will occur in a particular area, even if the specific place and time are unknown,” the researcher explains. In addition to this, the system will also take other factors that may cause uncertainty when planning flights into account, such as the different aircraft models being used, their weight and cargo, gusts of wind, or take-off and landing attempts.

Scientists anticipate that the final result of this project will be a flight planning software that will improve air transport system indicators, reducing delays, increasing their capacity, and improving safety. It will also improve airlines’ economic indicators by reducing their costs and increasing their revenue with improved flight timing.

On a methodological level, this project requires a multidisciplinary approach. On the one hand, scientists will use Artificial Intelligence to characterise the uncertainty of all of the elements that make up air traffic, using an epidemiological model to simulate how delays in the system spread at the network level. On the other hand, they will use Big Data (data science) to analyse how large volumes of information can be processed continuously, in addition to the development of these flight optimisation algorithms.

START (A Stable and resilienT ATM by inTegrating Robust airline operations into the neTwork) is a European scientific project funded by the European Commission (GA 893204) that started this year and will run until 2022. It is being coordinated by the UC3M and has partners participating from five European countries: Boeing Deutschland (Germany), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the French National Civil Aviation School (France), the flight planning company Flightkeys (Austria), the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña (Spain) and the Istanbul Technical University (Turkey). 

More information: START Project website www.start-atm.com

• START (traduction française / french translation)

• START (中文翻譯 / chinese translation)

STEM4GirlsUC3M is a programme aimed at promotingtechnological and scientific careersamong girls and young women in secondary level education. It has been running since the 2018/2019 academic year with the implementation of various technological workshops, a mentoring programme, the exchange of experiences between researchers and students and a performing arts project. This activity is also supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT in the Spanish acronym) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the Institute of Women and Equal Opportunities.

The awards ceremony was held digitally and was inaugurated by Ruth Pindado, Director General for Women inthe Castilla y León Regional Government. During her address, she welcomed the creation of these awards, which will provide "greater social recognition for the integration of our young women into what are known as the STEM disciplines".

The judging panel for this first edition of the STEM Talent Girl Awards was made up of experts and executives in the technology sector, such as Isabel Blanco, Minister for Family and Equal Opportunities in the Castilla y León Regional Government; Javier Rodríguez Zapatero, Chairman of ISDI; Elena Díaz-Alejo, Manager of Corporate Citizenship and Institutional Relations at Samsung; Alberto Gómez Barahona, President of the Universidad Isabel I; José María de la Torre, Managing Director Southern Europe, Chairman and Board Member of Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Cristina Vall-Losada, Head of Global Corporate Communications; David Calle, CEO & Founder of BeUnicoos; and María Jesús Prieto, a telecommunications engineer from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

More information at: https://talent-girl.com/stg-awards/

In Arts and Humanities, the UC3M is ranked amongst the 400 best universities on an international level, according to WSR 2021 Arts and Humanities of the THE, while it ranks in the top 500 for Computer Science, according to the WSR 2021 Computer Science.

The University also holds notable positions in Social Sciences (WSR 2021 Social Sciences) and Engineering (WSR 2021 Engineering), being placed within the top 600 worldwide. In addition, the UC3M also holds an outstanding position worldwide (in the Top 800) in Physical Sciences, according to WSR 2021 Physical Sciences.

This classification by subject uses the same methodology as the THE’s World University Rankings. To do this, they analyse thirteen performance indicators in five important fields: teaching, research, scientific reunions, international impact, and the university’s relationship with industry.  The methodology has been recalibrated to adapt to the different academic fields analysed.

More information: THE Ranking by Subject 2021 Website

The average age of the 59 grant holders selected in this call is 38.5 years old. In terms of the geographical distribution of the work centres, they are divided among 13 autonomous communities: 17 have been awarded to residents in Madrid, 11 in Catalonia, 10 in Andalusia, 5 in the Basque Country and Galicia, and the rest are distributed among Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and León, the Valencian Community, Murcia, and La Rioja.

Projects from the UC3M

Miguel Artola Blanco is a Postdoctoral researcher “Juan de la Cierva” at the UC3M’s Department of Social Sciences. His research project seeks to open up a new perspective into the study of the Interwar period by exploring the relationship between inequality and the triumph (or failure) of democracies. He is researching three countries (Spain, the United States and France) with different trajectories and who had different experiences of solutions during this period. The research focuses on the middle and working classes, understanding that they were key actors in the changes that occurred in these decades. It aims to connect three areas that have been studied separately thus far: the economic changes that these groups experienced, the stability (or bankruptcy) of each of these political regimes, and the new institutional framework of social and labour policies.

Stefano Discetti is aLecturer at the UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. His research focuses on techniques for improving the aerodynamic efficiency of methods of transport, which are responsible for approximately 29% of the total CO2 emissions generated by humans. Given that a large percentage of the energy needed to travel is due to aerodynamic resistance, his project proposes tapping into advances in Artificial Intelligence in order to achieve real-time closed loop control of aerodynamic flows. The research will consist of two parts: a theoretical study and computational simulations of learning techniques for their application in fluid mechanics and adapting these automatic learning strategies to experimental environments.

Eva Herrero Curiel is a Lecturer of Journalism at the UC3M’s Department of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication. Her research project will study how teachers in secondary and further education in Spain work with their students from the perspective of the media: what they teach them, the methodology they use, and their perceptions of the students’ use of media and social media. Once the information has been collected, proposals will be made to implement actions within curricula that will help promote media literacy among students in order to foster a more critical thinking and consumption of media and the information they generate. According to international studies, 64% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 around the world consider digital media (including social media) their main source of information.

Violeta Ruiz Almendral is a Lecturer of Financial and Tax Law at the UC3M’s Department of Public State Law. Her project aims to investigate the constitutional system of distributing powers between the state, autonomous communities, and local bodies in terms of financial and tax matters, considering the current model designed by the Spanish Constitution and integration into the European Union, as well as its evolution in practice. The research will analyse the dynamic functioning of the constitutional system of territorial financing, and the implications the system has on financial powers - both those relating to income (taxes and duties) as well as expenses (flows that make up the local and regional financing systems) and examining the main judicial questions raised through an examination of disputes,mainly in the courts (Court of Justice of the European Communities and Constitutional Court).

“The aim of the UC3M’s aerospace engineering area is to use the hangar as a teaching space that has two objectives. Firstly, we intend to establish an exhibition area for aeronautical and aerospace components, equipment and systems. Secondly, we want to have a small drone flight area. Having this exhibition area is very convenient for teaching as it allows students to get to know, visualise and touch real structures. The horizontal stabilizer that Airbus has just donated to us will be the main feature of this exhibition, which we will complete with other components and systems,” Pablo Fajardo stated.

The horizontal stabilizer, also known as the tailplane, is the small wing that sits on the tail of the aircraft and the component which keeps the aircraft balanced on its traverse axis. The piece that was donated to the University by Airbus belongs to the A320 aircraft family, weighs 700kgs and measures 12.5x4.5m (similar to the length of a bus). 

A multidisciplinary team made up of more than 40 people worked on its design at the Airbus Commercial Aircraft plant in Getafe. The UC3M and Airbus are collaborating on the academic as well as the R&D&I fields from the Airbus-UC3M Joint Technologies Activity Centre. The transfer of knowledge and technology in the aerospace sector are being promoted through this joint action space. The centre aims to contribute to improving productive framework competitivity and economic and social development.

The Starting Grant 2020 announcement will distribute 677 million Euros in total between 436 researchers from 23 European Union and associated countries, with a success rate of 13.3%. Spain is the fifth country in the European Union in number of awarded grants with 23 researchers who will receive an average of 1.5 million Euros in funding for a maximum of 5 years to develop their projects. The UC3M has obtained three new Starting Grants thanks to projects submitted by professors Stefano Discetti, Daniel García González, and Mario Merino Martínez. 

After the success of this recent announcement, the UC3M now has 11 ERC projects (8 Starting Grants and 3 Consolidator Grants) with almost 15 million Euros of funding in total, provided by the European Research Council via the Horizon 2020 Excellent Science (H2020) programme.

The UC3M’s Projects

Stefano Discetti is a researcher at the UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. Within the framework of his ERC project, called NEXTFLOW (Next-generation flow diagnostics for control), he aims to improve the capabilities of flow measurement techniques, which are essential when designing and improving many industrial applications. “It is difficult to obtain complete measurements of the behaviour of fluid flows as each experiment usually provides only a partial description of the velocity, temperature, or pressure distribution”, Stefano Discetti explains. Data mining and artificial intelligence will be used within the framework of the project to obtain a more complete flow description by combining the advantages of different measurement techniques and to extract simplified models for flow control directly from the data. These findings could provide new tools and concepts for flow measurement with potential to shorten the distance between laboratory experiments and the characterisation and control of flows in real applications. This could contribute to an improvement in processes and a reduced environmental impact in different industrial sectors, especially in aviation. 

Daniel García González is a researcher at the UC3M’s Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis. His ERC research project is called 4D-BIOMAP (Biomechanical Stimulation based on 4D Printed Magneto-Active Polymers). The project aims to develop a new methodology that will allow for simulating pathological processes where mechanics plays an important role, such as in wound healing or the central nervous system’s response. These methods will then be used to design devices that interact with the human body in different ways, i.e., promoting cell migration or mediating electrophysiological responses. “It is an interdisciplinary project where the problem is addressed from different approaches that involve diverse disciplines such as solid mechanics, magnetism and bioengineering, while combining computational, experimental and theoretical methodologies,” the researcher explains. In the medium to long term, the results obtained from this project could contribute to developing nano-robots for drug delivery or a new generation of artificial muscles, among other experimental systems. 

Mario Merino Martínez is a researcher at the UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. The object of research of his ERC Starting Grant project, called ZARATHUSTRA (Revolutionising advanced electrodeless plasma thrusters for space transportation), are space plasma thrusters, a booming field of aerospace engineering. It focuses, in particular, on thrusters that do not rely on electrodes which may erode over time. This project aims to unravel the physics of their operation and innovate their design. For this purpose, a multidisciplinary approach will be followed to investigate the mechanisms behind the electromagnetic heating of the plasma and its turbulence and anomalous transport, and to carry out a proof of concept of a new class of thruster previously patented. “If everything develops correctly, a new aerospace technology could be developed at the university by a new circle of young researchers within the Space Propulsion and Plasmas Team,  trained in the latest techniques. In addition to this, we may be able to apply this understanding to other areas in the physics of plasmas, in nuclear fusion by magnetic confinement,” Mario Merino explains.   

More information:  ERC Starting Grants 2020

“The greatest challenge that scientists are facing is how to reach this frequency range, which sources to use and which connectors to employ, given the serious limitations of current technology.  TERAMeasure aims to revolutionize high frequency technology by developing connectors that operate continuously over the entire range from 30 GHz up to 3000 GHz,” Carpintero emphasizes. This will be achieved by combining photonic integration and silicon micro-structuring technologies to develop a new range of broadband contactless interconnections. “Being contactless is a fundamental feature of our solution because  at high frequencies the size of the connectors is approximately a few hundred microns (similar to the diameter of a hair root), making them very delicate. This feature will protect the connectors from damage as well as enable  contact independent of the quality of the physical contact.”

Disruptive applications

Frequencies in this range have numerous applications, including analysis of tissues and materials. Molecules and compounds exhibit resonances within this range of frequencies, enabling us to identify their presence (using spectroscopy techniques).Within the framework of this project we aim to demonstrate the potential of our contactless interconnections for  analyzing skin, searching for subcutaneous cancer and  monitoring the healing process of  severe burn injuries in collaboration with a group from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC in its Spanish acronym). Another field of application to be explored within the framework of the project is silicon integrated circuits used in manufacturing quality control with Protemics, a project partner in this field,which benefit from the use of higher resolution images at high frequencies when locating manufacturing faults. 

TERAMeasure was recently presented at an EPIC Webinar on Microwave Photonics andis a European Commission Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Open project. These projects are intended to develop breakthrough research to create new technologies which go beyond the current state of the art technology.

TERAMeasure (Non-contact millimeter and Terahertz frequency measurement paradigm for instrumentation and sensing applications unlocking metrology-grade results) will run until mid-2023. The project has received over 3M€ funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 862788, it is being coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, funded by  an approximate 3M Euro budget and involves the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute for Telecommunications (Germany), Anritsu EMEA (United Kingdom) and Protemics GmbH (Germany).

More information: 

Website for the TERAMeasure project

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

UC3M is in charge of managing the Madrid hub where it is currently working on creation of a specific program to accelerate, during the years of the project, a total of 20 start-ups and scale-ups that carry out their activity in one of the four areas that the program encompasses: space-related projects for a digitalized Europe (Big Data, IoT, Smart Cities and Smart Transport), space-related projects and applications to solve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); space-related projects in defense and security (Cyber, Big Data, Fintech);  and spacetech projects. 

In the first edition of the HUB-Madrid Acceleration program, which will begin in September, the companies chosen will have access to on-line training and mentoring for three months on issues related to the space market and channels and opportunities for financing. In addition, activities and events at the national and international level will take place, as well as sessions regarding knowledge, management and processing data from the observation platform for the Tierra DIAS Environment.  Likewise, the European Space Agency (ESA) Technology portfolio will be delved into, along with work in obtaining European program funding, such as the SME Instrument for innovative projects.  

With the startup of Go2Space-HUBs new initiatives are expected to be generated that complement those currently being undertaken at the European level, and foster the creation of applications and solutions that entail growth and commercialization of scalable and profitable solutions.   

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

In contrast to the current system of “respeaking”, presently in use and which requires someone to introduce and send the transcription, the system developed by UC3M carries out the process in the cloud, and requires almost no human intervention, infrastructure or specific location.  “The system analyses results in real time from several voice recognizers and constructs a final transcript with results that are superior to individual results from the individual systems,” García Crespo pointed out.  

This software is in accordance with subtitling regulations and produces a maximum of 37 characters in two or three lines, as the norm requires.  Furthermore, it automatically includes punctuation and identifies the correct terms used in each area, which have been added individually by region to obtain a more efficient transcript and reduce the errors produced by other similar systems.

This comprehensive system automatically and continuously gathers user activity through a mobile phone or any other smart device, providing information about mobility, physical and social activity, mobile phone use, sleep data and emotional state.  For mental health patient care, it provides healthcare personnel with the patient’s state in real time in order to improve care and treatment, while at the same time optimizing efficiency in hospital and appointment management, which contributes to lowering mental health treatment costs that today in Spain exceed 80,000 million euros annually. 

The shareholder team of eB2 is mostly made up of University researchers.  With the signing of this agreement, UC3M forms part of the social capital and governing entity for the technology-based company.

With the addition of this company, UC3M now participates in four spin-offs and which are supported by the UC3M Business Incubator and Accelerator Program. The other three companies are Laboratorio Hipermedia, Power Smart Control and Sensia Solutions.

Further information

For two years both research groups have divided their work into two parts.  On one hand, the Evolutionary Computation and Neural Networks (EVANNAI) Group at UC3M has focused on applying artificial intelligence techniques to select the best model or combination of models for each meteorological situation, location and time horizon, as well as obtaining prediction intervals to estimate uncertainty in the forecasts. On the other hand, the Atmosphere and Solar Radiation Modeling (MATRAS) Group at UJA has focused on design and improvement of different solar radiation forecasting methods, for which they have used different methodologies such as cloud chambers, satellite images and meteorological models.  

The most striking result obtained in this research is that the optimal modeling combination lowers the forecast error by around 30% with respect to the best models in each time horizon. “This is the first time that five independent models have been compared and thanks to artificial intelligence and mathematical processing we have been able to reduce the margin of error in each forecast horizon, which represents an economic savings because it reduces the cost of solar energy integration,” explained the project’s coordinator, David Pozo, Full Professor of Applied Physics at UJA.

“The use of artificial intelligence and specifically machine learning techniques enable the forecasts of different models to be automatically and efficiently integrated, with the model itself providing the best forecast for each time horizon. Furthermore, the use of evolutionary optimization techniques allows quantifying uncertainty for each of the forecasts. Incorporation of these new techniques into the context of renewable energies has led to important improvements with respect to the initial techniques,” explained those leading the study at UC3M, Inés M. Galván and Ricardo Aler, Associate Professors in the Computer Science and Engineering Department.

The researchers have determined the moment of the time horizon during which each model is more reliable, as occurs for example with the use of satellite images during the first two or three hours or the use of the numerical weather prediction model after the fourth or fifth hour. And among others things, it has also concluded that forecasting near coastal areas is more difficult even within the margin of an hour.

Part of this study has been published in two articles in the scientific journal Solar Energy, and another part isin the review process for other journals. The project has been supported by funding from the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness, and with collaboration from the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon and Abengoa Solar.

Bibliographic references: 

Rodríguez-Benítez, F. J., Arbizu-Barrena, C., Huertas-Tato, J., Aler-Mur, R., Galván-León, I., & Pozo-Vázquez, D. (2020). A short-term solar radiation forecasting system for the Iberian Peninsula. Part 1: Models description and performance assessment. Solar Energy, 195, 396-412.

Huertas-Tato, J., Aler, R., Galván, I. M., Rodríguez-Benítez, F. J., Arbizu-Barrena, C., &Pozo-Vázquez, D. (2020). A short-term solar radiation forecasting system for the Iberian Peninsula. Part 2: Model blending approaches based on machine learning. Solar Energy, 195, 685-696.

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

The most vulnerable areas, according to the proportional concentration of at-risk groups, are Castellón, Cantabria and Gipuzkoa. Likewise, Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, and Navarre are the areas which have the least hospital coverage in relation to their vulnerable population, according to the conclusions of the study.

“The analysis of indicators which affect the evolution of the virus or risk in a particular geographic area in isolation could lead to incorrect conclusions or biased assessments. The multi-variable rates provide a more comprehensive analysis”, the report indicates.

Extracting multi-variable rates facilitates a broader analysis of the evolving behavior of the COVID-19 pandemic based on several factors such as, the area, the population’s mobility or possible propagation of the virus in relation to the phased recovery of commercial and industrial activity, for example.

From 25km to 5km a day during isolation

At a national level, the population’s mobility decreased from 25 to 5 kilometres per person per day during the isolation period, a decrease of approximately 80%. In addition, the study finds that the restriction of all non-essential activity began to significantly affect mobility about 5 days later. 

“These results can help institutions and the community analyse various indicators and better understand the COVID19 pandemic”, explains one of the report’s authors, Rubén Cuevas, a professor at the UC3M’s Telematics Engineering Department. This research has been carried out as part of the TAPTAP Digital-UC3M Chair. “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to use our geospatial engine, called Sonata Location Intelligence (LI), to gain an understanding of the population’s mobility, demographic significance and interactions with points of interest or essential services, such as hospitals, pharmacies or supermarkets, during the isolation period”, notes Álvaro Mayol, Partner and Chief Product & Technology Officer at TAPTAP Digital.

This tool enables additional analyses with regard to other issues related to COVID-19. “Because the data provided by TAPTAP and its partner, Predicio, is global, we are now working on a scientific article which compares population mobility patterns in different countries”, notes Rubén Cuevas. 

More information: TAPTAP COVID-19 Report

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa is a rare congenital disease caused by mutations to the COL7A1 gene. Depending on the intensity of the condition, patients can present with fragile skin, blistering, ulcers,skin and mucosal inflammation and other consequences such as infections, malnutrition,and a heightened risk of skin cancer. Nonsense mutations today represent 11% of the mutations underlying human genetic diseases. 

“It is essential to be able to find new compounds that are more powerful and less toxic than those now in use. We have the tools and capabilities to identify from among the large number of compounds to be tested some that will meet that requirement”, explains the lead researcher for the project at the University, Dr. Fernando Larcher from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Group (TERMeG) in UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering.

“We believe that innovative approaches are essential to find novel treatment opportunities for patients suffering from severe diseases with unmet medical needs. We are convinced that this collaborative research project will add substantial value to our ongoing research efforts to find treatments for this and other severe genetic diseases”, commented Thomas Huber, Research Director at Almirall.

Olga Genilloud, Director of Science at MEDINA Foundation emphasized that “a multi-disciplinary project approach is a unique opportunity to contribute our natural product libraries for the identification of possible starting points for the development of new products to treat this disease.”

Almirall will lead the project, contributing its compound library, strong capabilities in assay development and its extensive experience in research and development of new drugs. MEDINA Foundation provides access to its one-of-a-kind library of microbial extracts and its high-screening capacity platform as well as its extensive experience in drug discovery. The CDTI is financing this collaborative program under its individual R&D project financing initiative, created to pursue its mission to promote innovative research in Spain. UC3M’s bioengineering group brings to the collaboration its proven expertise in genetic disease and in the generation of patient-derived in vitro models of epidermolysis bullosa.

The research will be carried out in several areas. Firstly, different propagation scenarios of COVID-19, or new epidemics, will be simulated on both a national and European scale. Secondly, the effect of implementing targeted vaccination campaigns in the population will be assessed considering factors such as the effectiveness of the vaccine and possible mutations of the coronavirus. Thirdly, the influence of climate conditions on propagation of the epidemic will be studied. Fourthly, they will aim to help develop isolation and social distancing policies for the population, analysing their effectiveness and considering both the extent and length of different periods of infection which may occur in the future and possible levels of collective immunisation.

Researchers will use Epigraph, a pre-designed and pre-validated large-scale simulator, to conduct their research. This technology tool allows them to recreate the social characteristics of different population groups (students, workers, the elderly and the unemployed), their relationships in different environments (at school, in the workplace, at home and during their free time) and a transport model that simulates the spatial dynamic of propagation of the virus between different regions. The EpiGraph also includes an interaction model between the propagation of COVID-19 and meteorological and climate factors, such as the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity level.

The mission of the ISCII, from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, is to contribute to improving the health of all citizens and fight against illnesses through the promotion of research and innovation in the Health Sciences and Biomedicine and through the provision of scientific and technological services and educational programmes aimed at the Spanish National Health System.

The UC3M is a Spanish public university which excels in teaching, research, and innovation. It ranks 34th globally in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is featured in the Times Higher Education (THE) 150 Under 50. It is the top university in Spain and third in Europe for the number of students participating in the Erasmus Programme. It has more than 870 agreements with universities from 56 countries, among which are some of the best in the world, according to Shanghai Rankings’ Academic Ranking of World Universities. 20% of its students are international students. The UC3M is a partner of the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) alliance, one of the networks selected by the EU in its European Universities Initiative. The UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality distinctions, such as the EUR-ACE label in the field of Engineering and an AACSB accreditation in Business and Finance programmes, among others.

Recently a new family of electrodeless plasma engines has been designed to solve part of these problems.  Nevertheless, as an incipient technology, it brings some other issues with it. “These engines have a cylindrical ionization chamber that is open on one side, where the plasma accelerates due to an applied magnetic field. The drawback is that the magnetic field also thrusts part of the plasma against the back wall of the ionization chamber, leading to losses in efficiency,” Merino pointed out.   

The new engine patented by UC3M solves this problem by modifying its design: instead of having a cylindrical chamber, it has a U-shaped ionization chamber and a magnetic field designed in concordance with it, which would minimize the losses of plasma on walls.  “The two sides of the "U" expel streams of plasma in a shape we have baptized as a “dual magnetic nozzle”, Merino continued. 

This engine would resolve the efficiency and durability problems of the space engines that currently exist, and would provide greater flexibility to the mission by deflecting the plasma stream magnetically, without the need to use mobile parts. Additionally, it would meet the needs for propulsion in carrying out space missions in different earth orbits, such as that of the Moon, or Mars, in a less costly, more efficient and durable way.   

Reference: M. Merino "Motor espacial de plasma sin electrodos con geometría en U", Spanish Patent Office, PCT patent ES2733773 (2019)

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

For its part, InvestIA Capital is a software investment tool developed by Alberto Huertas Ramírez and Miguel Bernal Moya, students in the UC3M bilingual Computer Science and Engineering program. This system’s objective is to assist patrimony, investment funds and SICAV managers, among others, in improving their annual performance.  The technology developed for this software is based on Artificial Intelligence, and within this branch, the continuous and interconnected learning called Deep Learning. This project was awarded the PwC prize, endowed with 1,000 euros, and the Science Park of Madrid Prize, which offers six months’ free space in their facilities. 

Unigow is a collaborative platform whose aim is to connect university students and baccalaureate students to help and assess the latter in their choice of degree studies and university.  More than one thousand students have volunteered to help and another thousand have requested information.  This project, promoted by Alejandro Cañada Hinojosa, a student from the UC3M Management and Technology degree program, has been awarded the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) prize, which classifies if for the GSEA Madrid competition, and the Madrid Emprende prize, through which the Madrid municipal government offers it space in its business incubator.

UC3M, through its Programa de Aceleración e Incubación de Empresas (Business Startup and Incubation Program), has collaborated with the Junior Achievement Foundation in the interuniversity Startup Programme since 2009. The University participates in tutoring and training entrepreneurs through developing business plans that analyze the viability of the projects’ different business ideas.

“Our article shows that hydrogen flames are capable of propagating in very narrow spaces of a millimeter or so, creating an undesirable and dangerous situation,” explained Fernando Veiga, one of the researchers who has carried out a large share of the experimental work.   

Using hydrogen as a fuel can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but its storage and transport can hold certain risks. In this study, researchers have empirically shown that the gas can burn in unexpected situations. For that purpose, the team tested dilutions of gaseous fuel in a space just a few millimeters wide and found that the hydrogen could burn steadily even when its concentration was only 5% in volume.  

Fractal structures

Hydrogen flames are almost invisible to the naked eye and emit very little radiant heat, which makes them difficult to detect.  To do so, the researchers used a special method to trace their movement and a high speed camera to track the path of the flames during their propagation.  They confirmed that they form a fractal path as they propagate, that is, they adopt a geometric form whose basic structure is repeated on different scales. “The video recording reveals this fractal path, which precisely permits the flame efficient access to new fuel as it burns,” Mario Sánchez Sanz pointed out.

Hydrogen constitutes a clean and efficient energy, and as such, energy generation technologies based on its use will significantly increase in the near future.  Accordingly, “their design and safety protocol will have to take these new ways for propagation into consideration,” observed Daniel Martínez Ruiz, professor at the ETSI Aeronáutica y del Espacio (The School of Aeronautics and Space Engineering) of the UPM. 

These results can be useful for engineering teams that design hydrogen storage systems, who will need to take into account its extreme flammability, even in very narrow spaces. Hydrogen fuel cells are used as a source of energy in cars and motorcycles, for example. “A hydrogen leak and its accumulation in a confined space could lead to these types of flames,” added Mario Sánchez Sanz. 

According to the researchers, more studies of this type are needed to assess safety in relation to leaks in hydrogen-powered vehicles and other related devices. Above all, within  today’s context of needing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change, it seems imperative to accelerate development and use of hydrogen-based energy technologies. 

Bibliographic references: F. Veiga-López et al. (2020): Unexpected Propagation of Ultra-Lean Hydrogen Flames in Narrow Gaps. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 174501.

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

This genetic condition is caused by mutations of the COL7A1 gene, which codes for collagen 7, a protein that is essential for the attaching of the epidermis to the dermis. In Spain, there is a high prevalence of a mutation which is localised in the exon 80 gene (it is present in approximately 50% of Spanish patients), which justifies the development of a precision therapy targeted at this region of the gene. Until this product was developed, CRISPR/Cas9 molecular tools lacked the necessary effectiveness for a realistic clinical application in adult stem cells, such as haematopoietic or skin cells. Therefore, these strategies couldn't compete with conventional gene addition therapies using viral vectors. 

This advanced therapeutic product, which uses the CRISPR/Cas9 tool in a highly efficient way, was successfully confirmed by a preclinical model of disease and was published in the Molecular Therapy journal in 2019. This new medicine  complies with two of the most sought-after properties of developing new therapies at present: biological security and therapeutic effectiveness. 

With this, CIBERER has already promoted 10 orphan drugs which have been designated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), four of which have also been designated by the American agency (FDA).

EMA designation as an orphan drug has advantages, such as receiving commercial authorisation for 10 years, in which similar products cannot be commercialised, the availability of free or reduced cost assistance protocols, free scientific advice, and exemption of payment for designation. In addition to this, the entities that develop orphan drugs have access to specific EU grants and member state programs.

About CIBERER

The Centre for Network Biomedical Research (CIBER) is a consortium dependent on the Carlos III Health Institute (The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities) and is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In its Rare Diseases research area (CIBERER), CIBER is the reference centre in Spain for the research of rare diseases. Its main aim is to coordinate and promote a basic, clinical and epidemiological research. It also encourages research in laboratories to reach out to sufferers of the condition and provide scientific answers to questions that arise from medical staff and patient interactions. CIBER is made up of a group of more than 700 professionals and integrates 60 research groups. It also relies on 18 linked clinical groups. 

www.ciberer.es

About the UC3M

The UC3M is a Spanish public university which excels in teaching, research and innovation. It ranks 34th globally in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is featured in the Times Higher Education (THE) 150 Under 50. It is the top university in Spain and third in Europe for the number of students participating in the Erasmus Programme. It has more than 870 agreements with universities from 56 countries, among which are some of the best in the world, according to Shanghai Ranking's’ Academic Ranking of World Universities. 20% of the students at the UC3M are international students. The UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality distinctions, such as the EUR-ACE label in the field of Engineering and an AACSB accreditation in Business and Finance programmes, among others. 

www.uc3m.es

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

The health emergency caused by the expansion of COVID-19 has clearly shown the need for hospital material such as ventilators, which are an indispensable element for patients admitted to the ICU suffering from greater respiratory distress. There are ventilators available for foreseen emergency situations, known as automatic or mechanical “ambu-bags”, a provisional solution that is not suitable for long-term care of patients in the ICU. For this reason, there is a need for ventilators with the necessary features to treat patients with the coronavirus who require intensive care. In Spain there is currently not sufficient industrial production of these devices and the international market does not have a sufficient supply to cover the needs during these days of the emergency nor for the coming months.

Researchers from the UC3M and the HGUGM have finished the assembling the first units of the prototype. Tests and validations using the prototypes on pigs will begin and, at the same time, the homologation process of the Community of Madrid, in accordance with current regulations and following procedures established by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Healthcare Equipment. With the actual operation of the first ventilator units, the EC Marking will also be advanced, which will extend their international homologation and will allow these products to remain and be useful in our healthcare system once the current emergency situation is finished. 

This project can contribute to the creation of a national industry with a certain production capacity and autonomy to respond to needs such as those today. Especially in the face of new waves of the virus, which are a definite possibility until a large-scale vaccine has been created. In fact, campaign promoters are in contact with companies who may be interested in manufacturing, thus increasing the production capacity of equipment that is designed for accessible manufacturing, even with the complex specifications of ICU equipment. This is achieved because technology will be open, and it has been designed with components that are available from different suppliers. In doing so, an alternative to the high-end ventilators in the ICUs will be provided, thus giving a quicker and more economic response to COVID-19 patients who share very delicate pulmonary pathologies. 

The ICU ventilators proposed within the project’s framework function in mandatory mode and in assisted mode: the first meets the needs of patients with greater respiratory distress, who cannot breathe on their own; while with the second, the machine does not force the patient to breath, but rather assists them at their rhythm and rounds out their effort, continuously measuring the flow, volume and pressure of air that is inhaled and exhaled.  Furthermore, this ICU ventilator carries out positive pressure control at end expiration (PEEP), a fundamental feature for COVID-19 patients so that their lungs are not damaged.  The system informs the specialized medical staff at all times through a control panel about ventilator parameters and integrates a visualization of the graphics for lung pressure and air volume to facilitate checking that the patient is adequately ventilated. 

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

Biomass encompasses, in general, residues and waste from agriculture, forestry, livestock and industry that have energy generating potential, as well as the organic matter in water treatment sewage sludge and municipal solid waste. The project’s proposal is to carry out the biomass torrefaction process in a low oxygen-content  atmosphere, using air instead of nitrogen, reducing the cost and partially burning the gasses released during torrefaction in order to get the energy necessary to reach the desired temperature and to significantly reduce the air’s oxygen content.

The main objective is to enable the technology to be used at the local level, which will allow the biomass torrefaction process to be undertaken in areas close to those of production, with subsequent savings in transport.

At the same time, locating the combustion process closer to where the biomass is produced would allow farmers and livestock owners to transform their residuals and waste into quality fuel, and thus help to boost the economy for these sectors.

The MIT-Spain“la Caixa” Foundation Seed Fund program was established with the objective of fostering partnerships between research groups of excellence in Spain and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Collaboration with MIT is highly valued as it is one of the top research institutes worldwide.

For the third edition of the program’s call for proposals, which opened in 2019, a total of 25 projects from 23 public institutions were presented. After evaluation by a committee of experts, 12 of these projects were selected in the fields of health, global economy and energy. The call is endowed with a total amount of over 300,000 euros to cover travel expenses and stays in Spain and in Boston for starting up the research projects.

This initiative is aimed at research that represents an important contribution to the corresponding area of study, demonstrates complementarity between the MIT team and the Spanish institution, involves significant participation by undergraduate and graduate students, and is likely to be sustainable beyond the funding period.

“Thanks to this system we can automatically detect and alert a  person who stands out from the rest due to an abnormal body temperature, enabling this process to be carried out in a quick, comfortable and functional way,” explained Francisco Cortés, Sensia Solutions CEO, who is also a researcher in the LIR-Infrared Lab at UC3M.

This system consists of three elements: a HIGIA thermal camera, a temperature reference pattern with calibration certification, and an interface for PC control and viewing through SENSIA’s RedLooksoftware. “Once installed at a facility’s entry point, the system is able to function with other elements in the access area, such as turnstiles or automatic doors, without the need for an individual to be monitoring. Accordingly, if the system detects a body temperature higher than the established threshold, the turns tile will automatically block so as to impede entry of the individual in question,” Cortés pointed out. 

This system is now commercially available and has already been installed to screen the body temperature of employees in Spanish companies, such as Repsol, Petronor and Iturri. This solution has been designed based on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard for medical imaging equipment IEC 80601-2-78: 2019.

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

Thanks to the magnetisation of cork, the ease of capturing particles with the help of a magnet allowing them to be positioned in a particular place to, for example, modify rigid polymers when an area needs to be more ductile than the rest as it is going to be subjected to impact is added to the inherent advantages of the material, such as its low weight an impact resistance. Using the magnet, a greater number of magnetic cork particles are put in a certain place to achieve greater flexibility. 

It can also be used to remove contaminants captured by these particles from a liquid. “One of its uses would be to absorb heavy metals from water. In other words, removing contaminants from water”, notes Abenojar, although she points out that this application is still being studied.

The magnetisation of other polymer and ceramic materials, such as silicon carbide or boron carbide, that could be used as sensors are currently being tested.

This patent has led to another application from the University of Porto under the title “Methodology and apparatus to manufacture functionally graded joints using magnetized micro particles” (application number: PAT354/2019). “Moreover, the patent is being applied for in Europe as well as the US in order to transfer it to a company that will manage it”, Abenojar concludes.

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

Researchers and technicians from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the University Hospital Gregorio Marañón (HGUGM) have designed and developed a new ventilator prototype for Intensive Care Units (ICU) in the fight against the health crisis caused by COVID-19. The assembly of two units has just been completed in order to start animal tests and homologation processes.

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Research into a new high-precision radiology system for the coronavirus

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is participating in a research project together with the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón (HGUGM), the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria San Carlos and the company Sedecal Molecular Imaging (SMI), project coordinator, to develop a new high-precision radiology system for coronavirus pulmonary involvement.

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Researchers develop a computer simulator that recreates the spread of COVID-19 in Europe

A team of Spanish researchers have designed and validated a simulator to enable study of the evolution of the COVID-19 illness in Spain and in all Europe, based on parameters such as climate, social distancing policies and transportation. This research work has been carried out by scientists and technologists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Centro Nacional de Epidemiología (CNE) and the Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), in conjunction with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS).

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The effectiveness of social distancing strategies in the face of an epidemic has been analysed

The complete isolation of the population in the face of an epidemic such as COVID-19 is a strategy that requires subsequently adopting active measures in order to maximise its effectiveness, such as conducting large scale diagnostic tests, isolating people with symptoms and identifying those with whom they have had contact. This is one of the main conclusions from a study conducted by a team of researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the University of Zaragoza, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the ISI Foundation in Italy.

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A device to treat sleep apnea adapted for use as respiratory support for COVID-19 patients

A team of researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Hospital Gregorio Marañón have adapted and evaluated an apparatus normally utilized to treat sleep apnea for its use as respiratory support for patients with COVID-19. The device could aid seriously ill patients before they are admitted into critical care, as well as providing support for patients who are progressing favorably in an intensive care unit.

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Manufacturing protective screens against COVID-19

3D printing systems are being used to manufacture protective screens that can be used to help combat COVID-19 in the Madrid Community.This initiative has been started by researchers from the UC3M Department of Systems Engineering and Automation and the UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering, in coordination with the University’s Technical Office and with collaboration from the IT and Communications Service, having already distributed the first units to hospitals, civil protection teams, police, and nursing homes in the region. 

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Innovations developed by start-ups and spin-offs linked to UC3M

Start-ups and spin-offs linked to UC3M through the Business Incubation and Acceleration Program–such as SENSIA Solutions, AEON-T, Luz WaveLabs, ionIDE Telematics, and APTENT Soluciones- are currently working on different lines of activity to help manage and combat COVID-19.  These lines include 3d printing, subtitling to facilitate remote work for persons with hearing disabilities, and smart devices installed in hospital beds for making video calls.

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UC3M spin-off develops a thermographic camera that measures body temperature at a distance

A spin-off from the LIR-Infrared Lab (Laboratorio de Sensores, Teledetección e Imagen en el Infrarrojo) at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), SENSIA Solutions, has adapted its thermographic camera technology, called HIGIA, in order to manufacture a new high precision system for measuring body temperature that can be used to detect fever in individuals accessing facilities, in the wake of the healthcare emergency brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Low income workers will be disproportionately affected by COVID-19

Low income workers in developing countries face a higher risk of income loss during the COVID-19 isolation as it is more difficult for them to work from home. This is one of the results of a new international, economic study in which researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have participated whose results provide useful information for planning post-pandemic de-escalation.

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Computer simulations to improve social measures against COVID-19

Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have been granted funding by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Carlos III Health Institute, ISCIII) for a research project related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. In this context, a set of computer simulations will be carried out which will allow researchers to assess different scenarios of propagation, the effect on the climate or the effectiveness of targeted immunisation, among other things. Its results, which are expected to be obtained in the coming weeks, could help improve mitigation strategies for the virus in Spain and Europe.

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A geospatial analysis identifies the areas most vulnerable to COVID-19

A report based on a geospatial analysis conducted by researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in collaboration with TAPTAP Digital, using additional data from Predicio and Tamoco, identifies the areas in Spain that require increased measures of protection against new outbreaks of the COVID19 epidemics.

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After arrival of the first  devices on March 28, a small number of them were sent to the Servicio de Medicina y Cirugía Experimental del Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón de Madrid to analyze their function. This service is headed by Dr. Manuel Desco, who is a professor in the UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. From that date until April 7, this unit and the Servicio de Neumología del Gregorio Marañónworked on exploring the optimal use for this machine in managing the COVID-19 crisis. They likewise counted on support from BBVA in obtaining components (3D printed connectors with collaboration from Accenture), sensors (an oximeter borrowed from the Hospital Universitario de Getafe) and direct communication via Skype with technicians from the Yuwell manufacturer in Nanjing (China), in addition to support from the group of collaborators at Respiradores4all (www.respiradores4all.com).

As a consequence of this collaborative effort, these devices have been able to be adapted and classified without the need to use any additional component.Thus, instead of pressurized air, the device can supplya mix that is rich in oxygen,providing the oxygen and pressure needed by the patient. Accordingly, it could be used in the fight against COVID-19, if this is ascertained in the hospitals where the equipment is distributed. If this is the case, the devices could be used, first, for patients whose condition is deteriorating to the point where they need to be admitted to intensive care (so that admission can be delayed or even avoided),and secondly, for patients who are in the ICU, but whose condition is not excessively compromised, in an assisted mode, or for patients who are in the process of being taken off them the conventional invasive ventilator to make the conventional ventilator available for other patients.  In these cases, the device could be effective in relieving pressure on the hospital’s ICU services, as well as in treating patients in other wards.

Within the framework of this project, the researchers seek to combine Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Tomosynthesis (with low dose x-ray imaging)to develop a low cost device able to substantially increase the diagnostic accuracy of the radiology, up to levels comparable to that of a CAT scan. Furthermore, this system would offer much greater availability and would be more versatile, and could even be installed in vehicles or in portable triage tents.

“The incorporation of IA algorithms can contribute to facilitating diagnosis, accelerating image analysis and reducing the dose of radiation the patient receives”, explained the project’s principal investigator, Manuel Desco, the researcher from the Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department at UC3M and the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón at HGUGM.

The general objective of the initiative is to adapt technological developments already on course to meet the specific needs of radiology imaging required by the COVID-19 epidemic. The project is estimated to last six months, and when finished, its aim is to have a new completely functional radiology system, capable of making “quasi-tomographic” X-ray studies.

This system has numerous advantages over current approaches. First, it allows greater diagnostic accuracy in radiology, which is critical for the clinical management of the patient. Secondly, it increases availability of diagnostic tools at an affordable cost. Third, it facilitates the epidemiological characterization of the outbreak, improving detection of pulmonary involvement. Fourth, it simplifies the work of the radiologists. Finally, it guarantees optimization of the dose administered to the patient.

According to the first results obtained, the researchers point out that the possible number of cases in Spain could be greater than those detected at the national level, which would situate Spain as currently having more than three million people affected, including asymptomatic cases.

Another scenario that has been simulated is reincorporation to the workplace, finding that if workplace reincorporation is not accompanied by social distancing and personal protection, the epidemic would very likely be reproduced, with between three and fourteen million people being infected during the second curve, depending on the social distancing policy applied.

This simulator is able to recreate the social characteristics of diverse groups in the population (students, workers, seniors, and the unemployed), their relationships in different environments (school, work, home, and leisure) and a transportation model that simulates the spatial dynamics of the spread of the virus between different regions.  In addition, EpiGraph also includes modeling of the interaction between the spread of COVID-19 and climate and meteorological factors, such as temperature, barometric pressure and humidity levels. 

This work has been coordinated in the ARCOS (Computer Architecture, Communications and Systems)research group at UC3M, with experience in real-time simulation of systems and high performance computing, among other research lines.  In addition to the participation of scientists and technologists from BSC-CNS and ISCIII, there has been collaboration from the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention.

Further information

Along these same lines, the companies AEON-T and Luz WaveLabs, from the UC3M Science Park, are working with 3D printing to supply parts, mainly protective visors for healthcare personnel. Distribution is being managed through their own channels.

At the same time, the start-up ionIDE Telematics, has installed its smart devices, called ionPad, in several hospitals in Spain, so that hospitalized patients can communicate with their families through video calls and telephone calls. The tablet also has an extensive catalogue of audiovisual and entertainment content
incorporated.

Finally, APTENT Soluciones, a UC3M spin-off linked to the Spanish Center for Subtitling and Audio Description (CESYA), has made its services available to facilitate remote work for individuals with hearing disabilities through subtitling and interpreting with sign language in real time, for online meetings and video
conferences.

A team of more than ten people are currently working in shifts at the UC3M’s School of Engineering. They are strictly complying with personal isolation requirements and the use of individual protective equipment enforced by health authorities. The supply of materials and distribution of production are primarily being coordinated with services from the Leganes City Council, who is providing support for the collection and transport of materials needed to produce the screens.

The 3D printer model that is currently being used is approved by the Department of Health of the Community of Madrid, according to the subgroup of the Community of Madrid Coronavirus Makers (https://covidmadrid.com/). Printing models, instructions for calibrating equipment, forms to register units that are being created and distribution groups that have been set up to organise transport can be found on their website.

Furthermore, various companies from the UC3M Science Park are following this line of work in a supplementary way. AEON-T and Luz WaveLabs use 3D printing to supply parts, mainly the protective visors for health care personnel. They manage the distribution of the material they produce through their own channels.

“Before the need to adopt measures to contain and eradicate the current COVID-19 pandemic, we have simulated the evolution of the epidemic in a real-world population, in this case within the area of Boston. Our models show us that a new wave of infection is highly likely in almost all scenarios. The fundamental conclusion is that passive containment policies should be combined with other more aggressive measures,” noted Yamir Moreno, theoretical physicist, co-author of the study and responsible for the Group of Networks and Complex Systems (COSNET) at the Institute of Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) at the University of Zaragoza.

To conduct this research, the team of scientists used real-world mobility data from mobile phone users within the US,provided by Cuebiq Inc’s Data for good programme. Cuebiq Inc. is a company that records the locations of its users and aggregates them anonymously. They also analysed data from a Boston area census to construct a joint network of locations in three layers (community, schools and homes) and used the SIR model to model the spread of epidemics. “We are also currently working with real-world mobility data in New York City, which is the current epicentre for the epidemic in the US”, Esteban Moro noted. “If high resolution mobility data is available, our approach can be easily replicated for new cities or countries to measure the impact of social distancing strategies before the epidemic”, he added.

This research seeks to obtain data that will help to evaluate the impact of social distancing strategies that have been adopted in different countries in an effort to fight COVID-19, as well as define how long they should be in force and which are the most effective measures. They also analyse the probability that a second outbreak could occur later or the best way to prepare for a hypothetical second wave. 

These preliminary results have just been published under a Creative Commons license on a website so that they are available to the authorities and scientific community, that can be used to contrast, update and optimise the analysis with new data. The company Zensei Technologies S.L., based in Madrid, is also collaborating on this project in response to the health crisis caused by COVID-19.

More information: Effectiveness of social distancing strategies for protecting a community from a pandemic with a data driven contact network based on census and real-world mobility data. David Martín-Calvo, Alberto Aleta, Alex Pentland, Yamir Moreno, Esteban Moro. https://covid-19-sds.github.io

Noticia en chino (chinese version) - distancing COVID-19

The opening ceremony, which will take place at 9 a.m. on Thursday 12th March, will be attended by the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque, as well as UC3M’s President, Juan Romo, the Head of the Polytechnical School, Daniel Segovia, and other university representatives. It will be followed by an opening show that combines art and technology directed by “Chagall”, a Dutch musician and interpreter living in London. 

115 activities over three days

A total of 82 presentations will take place in five different locations during the first two days of TechFest 2020. Thursday 12th starts with a conference given by researchers from the UC3M and the IMDEA Networks Institutes, which has recently received an award from the Spanish Data Protection Agency for its article about pre-installed software on Android devices. This year, scientific educators, such as Ignacio Crespo, Manuel Toharia or Santi Cremades, are expected to attend, along with the dozens of presentations about different technology developments. Scientific journalists specialised in science and technology subjects will also participate, such as Laura Chaparro, Pampa García and Patricia Fernández de Lis, or those specialised in data and research, such as Mar Cabra or Kiko Llaneras. 

The fair will have an exhibition zone in which attendees can find 25 stands, sponsored by companies such as Accenture, Airbus, Ericsson, Fictizia or Microsoft, among others. Companies will use the meeting to recruit talent and assess CVs of those interested in working or doing internships with them, as well as demonstrating how new technologies are used.

Saturday 14th March will be dedicated to learning from different perspectives. There will be 20 workshops on the topic of cutting-edge technologies, as well as a Hackathon, a group competition in which they implement ideas into projects that connect technology to the sustainable development purposes. There will also be an area with stands, providing information about different technological communities and projects. Lastly, there will be various talks throughout the day introducing new technologies in a freely accessible way for family audiences. This aims to facilitate the reconciliation and approach of technology to new generations.

More information: Web T3chFest

The MOOC is aimed at civil servants, technology and private sector professionals and citizens interested in learning concepts and necessary tools for confronting the new cyber security challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. It lasts for six weeks and will be open until the 31st of May, with an estimated required work of participants of five to seven hours a week. Issues such as cybercrime and cyberwarfare, as well as various techniques and computer forensic tools, inverse engineering and cyber defence, and the most common types of malware and how to manage possible vulnerabilities, are some of the matters that will be addressed.

This online cyber security course from the UC3M was launched in English for the first time on edX in March 2017 and has had three reissues (the last of which is currently available under the title Cyber Security Basics: A Hands-on Approach). The original course has already accumulated more than 65,000 students registered in the four editions, being one of the UC3M’s most successful MOOCs.

The course is coordinated by Lorena González Manzano, full Professor of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the UC3M and has had the participation of other lecturers and researchers from the UC3M’s Computer Security Lab (COSEC) such as, José María de Fuentes, Juan E. Tapiador, Pedro Peris López and Arturo Ribagorda. For this new edition, part of the teaching material has been updated to provide resources in Spanish, as well as to incorporate translated content on the edX platform. On the other hand, the IDB has been in charge of undertaking the revision of the instructional design to improve the learning experience of the course and to reach the region of Latin America with the utmost ease.

MOOCs are free courses that are open to anyone and their quality is guaranteed by the institutions that teach them. They can act as a complement for students in the classroom, as guidance for future students and to divulge knowledge on a global level.

Since 2014, both the UC3M and the IBD have participated in edX, a digital education platform which has become an international model, promoted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to offer their MOOCs.

Founded in 1959, the IDB is one of the main sources of long-term funding for the economic, social and institutional development of Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also undertakes cutting-edge research projects and offers political consultancy, technical assistance and training to public and private clients throughout the region.

The UC3M is a Spanish public university which stands out in teaching, research and innovation. It holds the 34th place on a global level in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is included in the Times Higher Education (THE) 150 Under 50. It is the top university in Spain and third in Europe for the number of students undertaking the Erasmus Programme and holds more than 870 agreements with universities from 56 countries, among which some of the best universities in the world, according to Shanghai Rankings’ Academic Ranking of World Universities. 20% of students at the UC3M are international students. The UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality distinctions, such as the EUR-ACE label in the field of Engineering and AACSB accreditation in the Business and Finance programmes, among others.

For more information:

Cyber Security Basics: A Hands-on Approach. Learn to think like a hacker but act like a cyber security expert.

Start date: 10th of March 2020.

The UC3M’s Joint Degree in Science and Data Engineering and Telecommunication Technologies is aimed at students interested in data sciences and artificial intelligence and the technologies that support them, such as programming in different languages and environments, digital business models, data cyber security and telecommunications, as well as cloud solutions for IT and storage, among others. These studies offer the student a wide view of applications in the field of data analysis and the secure storage thereof. Both degrees are based on two instrumental disciplines, maths and IT, and they share some common roots in the statistic processing of information. The Degree is taught in a bilingual format, having specific lab classes for practising in smaller groups and offering the possibility of undertaking internships with the leading companies in the sector.

The UC3M’s Joint Degree in Physical Engineering and Industrial Technology Engineering is aimed at students who wish to participate in the creation, design and implementation of the technology of the future, both in research centres and high level international technology companies. To do so, they will learn the basic principles of Classic and Modern Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as the application thereof in well established areas of Engineering, such as Mechanics, Electronics, Electricity and Automation, as well as in other areas where scientific and technological developments advance jointly such as Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing and Biomaterials. The degree is taught in a bilingual format, having specific lab classes for practising in smaller groups and offering the possibility of undertaking internships with the leading companies in the sector. It also allows direct access to the Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering, which enables the regulated profession of Industrial Engineering to be exercised.

New international joint degree

The UC3M’s Joint Degree in Business Administration and Management (ADE, in its Spanish acronym) and ESCP Business School’s Bachelor in Management is aimed at students with a high level in languages, who wish to undertake ambitious training and international experience to recognise the necessary tools to be able to manage any business in a global manner. This new joint degree is a 4 year programme which is taught in 3 different countries: students will study on either the London or Paris ESCP campus during the first year; the second year is split between the UC3M (first semester) and ESCP Business School (second semester on the campus based in Madrid), the third year can be studied on the Paris or Berlin ESCP campus and the entirety of the fourth year at the UC3M. The admission requirements for the 15 places to be offered (10 for the ESCP and 5 for the UC3M) are focused on the students’ academic marks, their motivation and their language level (Spanish, English and French).

The UC3M is a Spanish public university which stands out in teaching, research and innovation. It ranks 34th on a global level in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking and is included in the Times Higher Education (THE) 150 Under 50. It is the top university in Spain and third in Europe for the number of students undertaking the Erasmus Programme and holds more than 870 agreements with universities from 56 countries, among which some of the best universities in the world, according to Shanghai Rankings’ Academic Ranking of World Universities, can be found. 20% of students at the UC3M are international students. The UC3M has numerous accreditations and quality distinctions, such as the EUR-ACE label in the field of Engineering and AACSB accreditation in the Business and Finance programmes, among others.

For more information: www.uc3m.es/grados

This workshop, organised by lecturers from the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation at the UC3M, is aimed at students in their fourth year of Compulsory Secondary Education and first and second year of A-Levels. It is not necessary for those registered to have prior knowledge of robotics and programming in order to take part in the workshop. The attendees will learn to control the motors of a small mobile robot through an Arduino control panel with basic movement commands.

This low-cost robot model is equipped with a servomechanism movement system which provides it with navigation abilities for simple environments. All the students attending RoboticAULA will be able to learn how to control it while assimilating programming concepts. “We give them some simple steps with a programming template that they will complete in order to generate movement in the robots”, explain the lecturers who will provide the workshop, from the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation at the UC3M.

During the activity, each participating group will have to carry out the task of navigating an obstacle course without crashing and park in the indicated area. They will be introduced to programming with Arduino and they will learn the basic control of a mobile robot and how to solve problems in a simple and dynamic way, focusing their efforts on the selection of better strategies and encouraging teamwork.

This ranking assesses the performance of the universities in five categories: teaching and learning, research, transfer of knowledge, international position and contribution to regional development. Within this framework, the performance of the institutions is compared using 36 indicators which are graded from “A” (Very good) to “E” (Weak).

In this sixth edition, the UC3M has ostensibly improved the number of indicators in which it has received the highest performance rating, having received 10 “A” grades (3 more than last year). They are distributed over the different categories in the following way: three in international position (student mobility, foreign language study programmes, international doctorate degrees); three in transfer of knowledge (entries coming from private resources, entries of continuous professional development, industrial co-patents); two in research (entries in external research, post-doctorate posts); and two in regional commitment (graduates working in the region, joint regional publications).

This international ranking includes the results of 1,711 universities from 96 countries worldwide (22 more than the previous edition) and analyses more than 12,500 study programmes. Based on empirical data, the U-Multirank compares institutions with similar profiles and allows the user to produce personalised rankings by selecting the indicators according to their interests and priorities.  The data included in U-Multirank come from different sources: the universities themselves, bibliometric data banks and international patents, ministries and surveys from more than 100,000 students from the participating universities.

U-Multirank, promoted by the European Commission, is supported by the Fundación Bertelsmann, the EU Erasmus+ Programme and the Santander Group. It is developed through an independent committee led by the Centre for Higher Education (CHE) in Germany, the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) of the University of Twente, the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of the University of Leiden (both in the Netherlands) and the Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo (CYD) in Spain. This organisation, in charge of gathering the data sent to U-Multirank, publishes the CyD ranking as well as the CyD report.

U-Multirank report on the Spanish universities

It identifies the research activity of a total of 25 research groups, 3 laboratories and the UC3M Institute - Santander Big Data in the field of AI. Additionally, it includes infrastructures, patents, technology and other capacities.

The R&D&I compiled in this document is of a multidisciplinary nature and includes the work undertaken in engineering (aerospace, electronic, computer science, systems, automation and telematic) and in other very diverse fields of knowledge, such as law (social and international, private and public) and humanities.

Contact: comercializacion@uc3m.es 

R&D&I UC3M map in the field of artificial intelligence

All the experiments carried out are based on sensors that should be cooled, almost reaching the lowest reachable temperature of -273ºC. These sensor cooling systems make the production of sensors that carry out these experiments extremely complicated both technologically and in terms of costs. “The innovation of this research resides in the fact that there is no need for cryogenic conditions and work at room temperature is possible, so that it allows us to create a small and light signal sensor (the dimensions of which may be similar to those of a conventional smartphone) which makes its use easier in applications for which the current technology is unfeasible or exponentially increases the complexity and cost, such as in space probes for observing the Earth, of astronomical sources or imaging equipment for disease diagnosis”, explain the researchers who will undertake the project in the UC3M’s Signal Theory and Communications Department.  

The agreement will last for three years. After the signing of the agreement, the Vice President for Science Policy of the UC3M, Juan José Vaquero, thanked the SENER Foundation for its support of this project and highlighted "the importance of creating links between universities and companies to promote an industrial network in which technology transfer is transversal in its applications, as well as an option to retain the talent of our young people in Spain". On his part, the President of the SENER Foundation and Vice President of SENER, Andrés Sendagorta, stated that "the support of this research project by the SENER Foundation is a very clear materialization of its foundational objectives, of the search for scientific knowledge and its application to improve people's lives. Furthermore, it is a way of promoting the relationship with the University, in order to advance in a joint work in effective and efficient projects". 

Applications of the technology

The device resulting from this research could be applied in three main areas; biomedicine, climate change and weather prediction and astronomy and cosmology. In the area of biomedicine, it could be used for analysing living tissues, in a non-invasive and innocuous way, to detect cancerous or potentially cancerous cells through imaging. This could be translated into a simple, painless and early method of skin cancer detection (something fundamental in the prognosis of this type of illness). Likewise, this technology could be used for controlling and monitoring people with diabetes, in the early diagnosis known as “diabetic foot”.

Regarding the study of climate change and the prediction of natural disasters, it will allow us to create observational images of Earth from which we can learn about certain meteorological phenomena (such as storms and explosive cyclogenesis), in order to obtain more information regarding these occurrences and with an earlier warning. This will allow meteorologists to make better predictions of the formation and behaviour of atmospheric phenomena, establish better and more reliable prediction models and anticipate their effects. 

In the field of astronomy and cosmology, experts require extremely sensitive signal sensors that capture very weak signals, such as those that come from the hypothetical Big Bang and that can be used to obtain more information about the origin of the universe. Nowadays we have sensors that detect these types of signals, but with certain limitations: they use very complicated, cumbersome and expensive technology; in addition, they have to operate in cryogenical conditions so that the signal is not contaminated by other sources such as our own galaxy (generally known as foreground emissions). This new device would allow these weak signals to be detected, in many cases imperceptible for conventional sensors and, in addition, do so while eliminating the difficulties raised by cryonics, both for its use on earth and for use during space missions.

According to the results of the ACA from 2019, Madrid offered 24,304 cinema sessions adapted for people with sensory disabilities and became established as the autonomous community with the greatest offer of adapted cinema, followed by Catalonia with 17,174 accessible sessions, Andalusia with 12,508, the Valencian Community with 11,829 and the Basque Country with 6,475. 

In 2019, the screening offer with services adapted for blind and/or deaf people has increased by 1.71 per cent, that is to say, 1,507 accessible screenings more than in 2018. “Accessibility has come to stay”, states Belén Ruiz Mezcua, general manager of the CESyA and professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the UC3M. “In 2014, when we founded the ACA, there were only around 5,000 accessible screenings. Now there are nearly 85,000 more sessions and the figure increases each year”, she adds.

From January 2014 to December 2019, there were a total of 332,957 adapted cinema sessions in Spain. Approximately a third of this total corresponds to the Community of Madrid which, in the last five years, has held 101,343 accessible screenings. Catalonia takes second place with 52,523 screenings, followed by Andalusia with 40,822, the Valencian Community with 33,609 and the Basque Country with 30,983. On the other hand, the smallest figure corresponds to the Balearic Islands with 24 screenings since 2014, followed by Cantabria, Murcia, Extremadura, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, where there are still no accessibility services.

More information: 

Web de la Agenda Cultural Accesible

“The Chair intends to address the image of the female technologist in a familiar way, not only stressing the important references in research but also those technologists that develop their academic and professional careers in this field. We wish to communicate that technological development has a fundamental human and humanist perspective in digital transformation”, comments the head of the Chair, Paloma Díaz, a professor from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the UC3M.

In addition, the framework of the Chair is intended to raise awareness of the importance of incorporating women into ICT studies to overcome the current gender gap in this field. “When an important, higher skilled, more stable and higher paid part of the labour market requires programming and computing skills, a portion of the population (women) being automatically excluded for subjective reasons represents a problem. As well as the fact that we do not have more diverse teams with which to provide different perspectives on the use of technology that avoid bias”, points out Paloma Díaz.

The collaboration of the UC3M with a key company in the ICT sector such as Telefónica will allow a wide variety of extra activities to be offered to students at the University, such as training courses, innovation encouragement and talent spotting events and the possibility of carrying out tutelary Undergraduate and Master’s Dissertations. A fundamental characteristic of the activities to be promoted will be emphasising the transdisciplinary nature of technology and its contribution to addressing the digital transformation of society in a sustainable and inclusive way.

This chair will reinforce the efforts and initiatives that have already been carried out by the UC3M with the aim of contributing to increasing the ratio of women undertaking Engineering studies and to draw attention to the presence of women in areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

El viernes 14 de febrero por la tarde tendrá lugar otra actividad organizada especialmente para esta efeméride: una edición especial de los Viernes Tecnológicos de la UC3M para la promoción de vocaciones STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) en niñas y jóvenes. Dirigidos a chicas de 4º de la ESO y 1º y 2º de bachillerato, estos talleres impartidos por profesoras e investigadoras de la UC3M persiguen despertar el interés por estas disciplinas, así como romper los estereotipos de género. La familia acompañante que lo desee tendrá la posibilidad de conocer la Universidad a través de una visita guiada a los laboratorios de la Escuela Politécnica Superior, previa solicitud en el formulario de inscripción.

Estas dos actividades forman parte del Programa STEM for Girls UC3M, que cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT) del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y del Instituto de la Mujer. Uno de los principales objetivos de este programa es familiarizar a las alumnas de secundaria con referentes en los que inspirarse a la hora de decidir, sin sesgos de género, los estudios universitarios que quieren realizar. Para ello, engloba cuatro ámbitos de trabajo: actividades de mentoring, artes escénicas, competiciones y talleres tecnológicos.

Exposición en Madrid

El martes 11 de febrero tendrá lugar la presentación en el campus de Madrid-Puerta de Toledo de la UC3M de la exposición “Mujeres que cambiaron el mundo”, que se podrá visitar durante toda la semana en el hall principal del campus. El objetivo de esta exposición es visibilizar la contribución a la I+D+i de las mujeres a lo largo de la historia. La UC3M ha desarrollado esta muestra en el marco de la segunda edición de “Ciencia y Tecnología en Femenino”, una iniciativa promovida por la Asociación de Parques Científicos y Tecnológicos de España (APTE).

La exposición se estructura en tres partes. En primer lugar, ocho paneles con información sobre quince mujeres relevantes en la historia de la ciencia y la tecnología: Ada LoveLace, Alice Ba, Arlene Sharpe, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Cristiane Nusslein – Volhard, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Hedy Lammar, Hipatia de Alejandría, Katherine Jackson, Lene Vestergaard Hau, Marie Curie, Margarita Salas, Rita Levi-Montalccini, Rosalind Franklin y Valentina Tereshkova. En segundo lugar, dos paneles sobre la actividad científica de investigadoras y tecnólogas de la UC3M. Por último, un tercer panel expone el trabajo de 24 jóvenes con carreras STEM que forman parte de empresas del Parque Científico de la Universidad y de Leganés Tecnológico.

The standard treatment of tuberculosis consists of the combined administration of three or four antibiotics, all of which were developed more than 60 years ago. The minimum duration of treatment is six months, although if the infection is of the resistant type, the treatment needs to be e extended to about two years. "The appearance of these bacteria resistant to conventional treatments forces us to look for new drugs which, in combination with others which are in use, can fight the new strains," the researchers explain. "This represents a challenge for Europe as well as a global issue, since if we do not fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, the disease could become a global problem."

ERA4TB focuses on a drug’s development phase which begins once a new potentially effective drug has been identified and runs until the first clinical trials. This phase, in which the safety and efficacy of the compound are verified and the best dosage is determined, is a process that costs between 10 and 20 million euro and can last up to six years. Therefore, if a new treatment is developed in which four compounds are combined sequentially, the waiting time is more than twenty years. The ERA4TB project proposes abandoning this sequential scheme in order to adopt a parallel development pathway that allows for the simultaneous research of more than a dozen potentially effective molecules against tuberculosis. This approach, which would take the form of an adaptive collaborative network, will allow ERA4TB to optimise the costs of developing new drugs against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and, more importantly, to significantly reduce the times taken developing the new combined treatments needed to eradicate this epidemic, the researchers say.

“We are very excited about the launch of ERA4TB, a unique collaborative project in the field of tuberculosis, in which the experience of public partners and a portfolio of promising preclinical candidate drugs from pharmaceutical companies come together in order to accelerate the development of new clinical candidates. The ultimate goal is to provide an innovative and distinctive combination regimen for the treatment of tuberculosis, which can play a key role in the programme for the eradication of the disease," says project leader David Barros, vice-president of Global Health R&D at GlaxoSmithKline and head of research at the tuberculosis unit.

The project has two significant goals. First, to take at least six new antibiotics to clinical trials as well as two combinations of these which are safe and effective treatments against any form of tuberculosis. And, secondly, to guarantee that the network created in the project is sustainable so that the capacities and the collaboration built between experts and institutions last over time and become well-established in Europe, so it can also be used for the development of other drugs to fight antimicrobial resistance.

One of the keys to achieving these objectives lies in the collaboration between the 31 partners that make up this consortium, who come from the academic world, the pharmaceutical industry and from non-profit organisations who specialised in the fight against tuberculosis. “This is a major initiative that consists of partners from Europe and the US and which will make Europe a centre of knowledge in this area of research. The collaboration between institutions is evident in that both industrial partners and non-profit entities bring to the consortium their own compounds which are potentially effective against tuberculosis, so that the research into the effectiveness of these molecules and their combinations might begin from the first day of the project,” the researchers explain.

Stewart Cole, scientific leader of ERA4TB and President of the Institut Pasteur, said “ERA4TB has assembled an impressive array of resources to seamlessly harness the agility and innovation of academia with the pragmatism and professionalism scientific expertise of pharma.  I am confident that this powerful European initiative will speed the path to tuberculosis elimination.”

Spain, a force in the fight against tuberculosis

“The ERA4TB project will turn Spain into an important pole of research against tuberculosis at a global level, due to the significance and the number of organisations that form the main core of the initiative,” says Juan José Vaquero from the UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering and coordinator of the project.

Four of the Spanish participating entities are located in the Madrid region: the UC3M, the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS in its Spanish acronym), GlaxoSmithKline and Synapse Managers. In addition to coordinating the project, the group led by Professor Vaquero at the UC3M is responsible for the initiative’s biomedical imaging activities. This group plays a very active role both in the development of new diagnostic imaging equipment and in the implementation of artificial intelligence technologies, such as deep learning, which allow the researchers to quantify the progression of the disease by interpreting the images acquired. The SERMAS, through the Pharmacology Department of the La Paz University Hospital and its Clinical Trials Unit (UCICEC) will be responsible for coordinating the studies of the first administration to humans planned within the project. It will also make its hospital infrastructure (La Paz and La Princesa University Hospitals and the San Carlos Clinic) available to the consortium to carry out the necessary studies. The GlaxoSmithKline company is leading the project and providing scientific resources and a significant number of the new compounds which are to be investigated in the project. The company Synapse Managers, specialised in international biomedical research projects, will be in charge of managing the consortium.

Lastly, another Spanish organisation is participating in the initiative, a mixed team of researchers from the ARAID Foundation and the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR). A facility will be fitted out in the latter organisation which is unique in Europe in the public field dedicated to Hollow-Fibre Infection Model (HFIM) technology, a bioreactor in a level 3 biological safety environment that allows for the manipulation and investigation of human pathogens, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In addition, the team from this university will develop a new system of analysis which will allow for the identification of antibiotics with the capacity to interfere with the systems by which the bacteria interacts with the infected patient.

ERA4TB (European Regimen Accelerator for Tuberculosis) is funded by the European Union (EU) Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 (GA853989) and by the European pharmaceutical industry through the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). It is conducted under the auspices of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public-private partnership between EFPIA and the EU to accelerate the development of better and safer medicines for patients.

The kick-off meeting of the ERA4TB project is being held in Madrid on the 29th and 30th of January, 2020 and shall be attended by representatives from most of the member institutions, which are: in Spain, the UC3M, as coordinating entity of the project, and GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development SL (GSK), the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS), Synapse Research Management Partners S.L. and the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR); in Germany, Evotec International GmbH (EVT), Forschungszentrum Borstel, Klinikum Der Universitaet Zu Koeln (UKÖ); in Belgium, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (JANSSEN), Sciensano (SCI); in Denmark, Gritsystems AS (GRIT); in the US, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), TB Alliance (TBA); in France, Bioaster Fondation de Coopération Scientifique (BAR), ImaBiotech SAS (IBT), Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (IDMIT), Institut Pasteur de Lille Foundation (IPL), Institut Pasteur (IPP); in Ireland, Critical Path Institute, Limited (C-Path); in Italy, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Universita degli Studi Di Padova (UNIPD), Universita degli Studi Di Pavia (UPV); in Latvia, Latvijas Organiskās Sintēzes Institūts (IOS); in the Netherlands, QPS Netherlands BV (QPS); in the United Kingdom, University of Dundee-Drug Discovery Unit (DDU), The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Public Health England - Department of Health (PHE); in Switzerland, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Foundation Innovative Medicines for Tuberculosis (iM4TB); and in Sweden, Lund Universitet (LUND) and Uppsala Universitet (UU). In addition, the project consists of five other collaborating partners from the US, which are: Cornell University (CORU), Colorado State University (CSU), Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH), Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

More information:

Project website: www.era4tb.org

ERA4TB project (chinese version)

Now, the European Union has granted a project to a consortium led by SENER Aeroespacial which will continue the development of the HPT in the framework of the European Union Research and Innovation Programme, Horizon 2020 (GA870542). It is the project HIPATIA (HelIcon PlasmA Thruster for In-Space Applications), in which the Spanish scientific team SENER Aeroespacial-UC3M is going to collaborate with Airbus, the National Centre of Scientific Research, both in France, and the company Advanced Space Technologies in Germany. This consortium began its activity on the 1st of January 2020 and will work jointly for the next 30 months to test the functioning of the new prototype for its use in small space platforms, aiming to fit the needs of the market. As a first activity, representatives of all the organisations involved in the project met for the first time in the SENER Aeroespacial premises in Tres Cantos (Madrid) and in the UC3M on the 28th and 29th of January.

A thruster for small satellites

In the words of Mercedes Ruiz Haro, Coordinator of the HIPATIA project and Project Manager in the Flight and Avionics Systems Division at SENER Aerospace: “HIPATIA is a step further towards the development of HPT technology for commercial uses. At the end of this project, financed by the European Union, we will have a completely validated propulsion system ready for the first demonstration of its potential in orbit”.

“Bearing in mind the relatively simple and resistant design of the HPT technology, the HIPATIA project has the potential to offer an affordable thruster solution for small satellites that weigh less than half a tonne and require less than 750 watts of electric propulsion power”, explains Pablo Fajardo of the Plasmas and Space Propulsion Team (EP2) from the UC3M’s Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department.

This model could be used in future constellations of non-geostationary satellites, a new idea that is in the development process and entails important initiatives. For example, to deploy groups of satellites located in different orbital planes at an altitude of 1,200 km to provide internet broadband with global coverage, which includes all people living in areas where these types of connections are not currently available.

Functioning of the HPT thruster

The HPT thruster is comprised of an antenna that emits radiofrequency waves within a cylindrical chamber where hot plasma is generated, and a magnetic nozzle that supersonically accelerates said plasma. It is a device without grids, electrodes or solid nozzles, which provides big advantages in terms of operating simplicity and extension of useful life.

Being an electric propulsion device, the helicon plasma thruster uses less propellant than a chemical rocket engine, which allows for a reduction in satellite launch costs and, for the same price, increases their effective load capacity. At the same time, this is expected to present a higher thrust capacity per unit of power than other electric propulsion systems, such as Gridded Ion Engines and Hall Effect Thrusters, reducing spacecraft maneuvering times.

In the framework of the HIPATIA project, the HPT prototype that is going to be tested is optimised for its application in a medium power range of 400-600 watts. This technology “could be of value for different types of satellites or for interplanetary journeys”, points out Pablo Fajardo. In the future, versions of higher power HPT could be used for manned missions to Mars or freight vehicles between Earth and the Moon, as well as possible space debris disposal programmes or refuelling in space.

In the framework of this project, scientists and technologists will face challenges related to the integration of a complete electric propulsion system, formed of a thruster unit, another for radiofrequency and power generation and control, and a unit for propellant flow management.

HIPATIA project (chinese version)

Within the framework of this agreement, the research staff of the UC3M and the CIEMAT will be able to collaborate on national and international scientific projects, share their facilities and equipment, carry out activities of knowledge and scientific results transfer, train researchers in the field of integrative biomedicine and organise joint activities to promote and spread scientific culture. In addition, UC3M students can choose to undertake internship programmes and carry out their dissertations, final master’s projects and doctoral thesis in the CIEMAT facilities.

The lines of research developed by this UC3M-CIEMAT Joint Unit are very diverse: from genetic diagnosis and Epidermolysis Bullosa treatment to gene editing for the treatment of diseases using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, through the 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs or the development of new advanced instrumental and material techniques for modelling, diagnosing and treating the most common diseases, among others.

The UC3M-CIEMAT Joint Unit is formed of various groups of researchers from both organisations. On one hand, the Unidad de Modelización de Enfermedades Cutáneas (Skin Disease Modelling Unit), led by Fernando Larcher, CIEMAT researcher. On the other hand, the Unidad de Medicina Regenerativa CIEMAT-CIBER de Enfermedades Raras (CIEMAT-CIBER Rare Disease Regenerative Medicine Unit), the manager of which is Marcela del Río from the Epithelial Biomedicine Division of the CIEMAT Department of Basic Research and lecturer from the UC3M’s Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department. Finally, the UC3M’s Integrative Biomedicine group, led by José Luis Jorcano, lecturer from the University’s Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department.

Climate change research

The UC3M is conducting various research projects related to the fight against climate change. The Sociology of Climate Change and Sustainable Development research group is studying the relationship between social activities and climate change, analysing socio-political and economic trends and proposing strategies for mitigation and adaptation, for example. At the “Pascual Madoz” Institute of Land, Urban Planning and the Environment, they are conducting a line of research related to land planning, environmental management and the climate. The UC3M has recently launched the Energy and Environment Economics Laboratory, EnergyEcolab, to carry out quality research on issues related to energy and environment economics and, in particular, on the design of policies to stimulate the energy transition towards low carbon economies.

At the UC3M’s Higher Polytechnic School, numerous R&D projects related to the climate are also being conducted. The Experimental Mechanics, Calculation and Transportation (MECATRAN) research group is carrying out environmental, recycling and waste management studies, as well as in traffic engineering. In the Infrared Remote Sensing and Imaging Sensors Laboratory (LIR), they are investigating and innovating regarding the use of infrared technology for the detection of gases from traffic or from leaks in industrial environments. The Power Control research group is developing electrical power systems in the field of renewable energies, an area in which the Electrical Power Networks and Systems research group is also working, where the integration of renewable energies into the electrical system and market is being analysed. For its part, the Suitable Technologies for Sustainable Development Group is investigating passive solar systems, photovoltaic-wind electrification and biodigestion, while the Thermal Engineering, Energy and Atmosphere research group is studying energy recovery and sustainability technologies and the reduction of atmospheric emissions from machines and thermal engines, among other aspects. Finally, in the Energy Systems Engineering research group, renewable energies such as thermal solar energy or thermochemical processes of solid fuels (such as gasification and biomass combustion) are being analysed.

The UC3M also participates in various European research projects related to environmental issues within Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme. As part of the IMPRESS 2 project, scientists from the University are investigating hyperspectral techniques for the detection of polluting emissions from the combustion of biomass in industrial processes. In the SciShops.eu project, the UC3M has created a “science shop” focused on environmental issues, a format that aims to create spaces for intermediation between the scientific community and the general public. The European Research Council (ERC) has funded two UC3M projects related to environmental issues under H2020: the objective of the ELECTRIC CHALLENGES project is to analyse the design of regulatory instruments that minimise the costs of energy transition towards low carbon economies; the RIVERS project has obtained funding from the ERC in order to generate innovative knowledge at the University with regard to human rights in relation to different ways of relating to water by indigenous groups.

Climate and responsible consumption actions

The UC3M is committed to incorporating the objectives and values ​​of sustainable development in a transversal manner in all its actions. During 2019, the University has focused on – among others - SDGs 12 (Responsible production and consumption) and 13 (Climate action), which relate to some of the topics that are being discussed at the Madrid Climate Summit (COP25).

In relation to SDG 12, the UC3M has collaborated with the Madrid City Council to promote the city's sustainable food strategy (within the framework of the Milan Pact). Furthermore, it has promoted the use of reusable cups and compostable containers in the cafeterias of the University to replace disposable containers, in addition to making progress as regards the responsible management of waste generated on campus.

In relation to SDG 13, “Climate action”, the UC3M has conducted environmental awareness campaigns aimed at the university community, focused on saving water, energy consumption and reducing the consumption of single-use containers and plastic bottles. These containers are in the process of being replaced with glasses and glass jugs and water fountains have been installed in the campus buildings to promote the use of reusable bottles.

In recent years, another set of actions related to sustainability have been undertaken, encouraging changes so as to promote a more sustainable energy consumption. For example, the interior and exterior light fittings have been replaced by LED technology and more energy efficient equipment. In addition, sustainable mobility has been promoted with the installation of parking lots for electric motorcycles and bicycles, places for recharging electric vehicles and others for use by shared vehicles. In addition, on the Getafe and Leganés campuses there are stations for the respective municipal bicycle rental services.

The UC3M is a Spanish public university which is recognised for its teaching, research and innovation. It ranks 34th worldwide in the QS ranking of the 50 best universities in the world under 50 and is included in the Times Higher Education (THE) 150 Under 50. It ranks first among universities in Spain and third in Europe for the number of students participating in the Erasmus programme and it has more than 870 agreements with universities in 56 countries, among which are some of the best in the world according to the Shanghai University Ranking. 20% of UC3M students are international. UC3M has received numerous quality accreditations and awards, such as the EUR-ACE label in the field of engineering and the AACSB accreditation in business and finance courses, among others.

The application of augmented reality assists the medical personnel attending the emergency in three aspects: on the one hand, it shows you how to get to the geographical position where the patient is; on the other hand, it allows accessing to clinical parameters at real time and when they are needed to bring easier medical decisions; and finally, it allows sending a video stream taken in situ at the emergency site to remote medical centers to enable assistance from other centers or doctors who can help in the specific case. All this is achieved using intelligence on the edge of the network (also known as Edge computing), one of the technologies that will allow 5G to have the precise characteristics to offer services with a minimum delay and a great transfer of data, as the augmented reality has.

As for technological elements, the system is composed by the smartwatch mobile device that monitors the patient's constants and connects to a 5G mobile; by an evolved patient monitoring and emergency monitoring center from which the patient’s condition in whom an alarm has been activated is checked, as well as the status and location of SAMUR-PC emergency equipment and from where it is carried out all coordination of the emergency device. Additionally, the ambulances are equipped with technology that allows real-time monitoring of the case and the sanitary professionals to obtain additional valuable information thanks to the augmented reality glasses.

The technology and proof of concept of this 5G-based emergency system has been developed within the European project H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER, coordinated by UC3M, in which Telefónica, SAMUR-PC and Ericsson also participate (together with 14 other institutions of first level). The technology developed includes very relevant aspects for the advancement of 5G, such as the dynamic orchestration of resources, including the automatic deployment of functions in the "edge" and the multi-domain federation between operators.

"Testing this type of advanced 5G emergency response systems at 5TONIC is essential to validate and demonstrate the advantages that these systems will provide. In the immediate future in which monitoring and health applications for people in mobile phones and smart watches It is increasingly common and advanced, integration with mobile networks and health care systems, enables automation scenarios and emergency coverage never seen before," explains 5TONIC Vice President Arturo Azcorra, Director of the IMDEA Networks Institute and Professor of the Department of Telematic Engineering of the UC3M.

“5G technology would allow us to have a lot of information before our arrival, such as the patient's location and clinical data. In addition, we could explore other possibilities such as automatic alerts in certain pathologies such as hypoglycemia, hypoxia situations in respiratory patients, loss of consciousness, etc. All this in relation to the possibilities that 5G offers us to monitor a large number of chronic patients such as heart, hypertensive, respiratory or diabetic patients,” says Javier Quiroga, Head of the Organization Support Division of SAMUR-PC.

"5G technology, thanks to its ability to dynamically adapt the network to meet demanding latency and capacity requirements (both in terms of bandwidth and computing), will be able to have a direct impact on society, improving response times to health emergencies. The use of these 5G technologies also makes possible the integration of augmented reality mechanisms, which have a direct and extremely useful application in the case of medicine" affirms the 5G-TRANSFORMER project coordinator, Carlos J. Bernardos, Professor of the Department of Telematic Engineering at UC3M.

UC3M projects

César Huetes Ruiz de Lira is a tenured lecturer in Thermal and Fluid Engineering at UC3M. His project aims to give new impetus to the development of nuclear fusion energy as a means to achieve a potentially inexhaustible source of safe and environmentally friendly energy. In this way, it will seek to develop a theoretical model that allows us to overcome the high inefficiency of current strategies for achieving nuclear fusion. In short, the project seeks to identify the optimal conditions necessary to make use of fusion energy in a more efficient and sustainable manner.

Pedro Peris López is a tenured lecturer in the Department of Informatics at UC3M. His project (CARDIOSEC) aims to design cyber-security solutions for the new generations of Implantable Cardiac Devices (ICDs), such as pacemakers and defibrillators. In 2001, wireless connectivity was incorporated into ICDs with the result that these devices can now be monitored remotely while the patient is at home. However, and this is where CARDIOSEC would be very useful, it is crucial that we ensure that only authorised entities can access this monitoring and protect communications against unauthorised listening via the radio channel.

Pedro Riera Sagrera is a lecturer in Political Science at UC3M. His project seeks to investigate the partisan impacts of electoral systems from a comparative perspective. It aims to study the effect of the different types of electoral regulations on the greater or lesser successes of the various political parties depending on their ideology. It will also address the concept of partisan bias whereby most electoral systems tend not to be neutral, with certain political parties being over-represented, as far as seats are concerned, even in the case of a hypothetical percentage balance of votes obtained by each of them.

This innovative service will reduce the diagnosis time, optimise the prescription of the most adequate antibiotic and, in the long-term, reduce sanitary waste. Potential clients are hospitals and medical teams, users of this system. “Our idea is to start developing it in the hospitals of Madrid and, subsequently, expanding to the rest of Spain.”, states Eva Sarachaga, the promoter of this entrepreneurial initiative.

BAR-ID was created in the framework of the Master in Biomedical Technologies Management and Development of the UC3M, which has been studied by the four people who make up the team: Alonso Parrón, Eva Sarachaga, Josep Martí and Laura San Felipe.

The Explorer university entrepreneurial program ‘Young People with Ideas’, in collaboration with the EY Foundation, gives 20,000 Euros to the best entrepreneurial project led by a woman and grants access to the ATENEA acceleration program, dependent of the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Equality, that connects with entrepreneurial women with high potential to consultants, resources and the knowledge that they need. The tenth edition of the national final of this call was held on the 8th November in the Ciudad Grupo Santander in Madrid.

The objective of this project is to test and validate the real performance of 5G systems in vertical industries, as can be Industry 4.0 (highly connected and automated), the eHealth environment (which employs Information and Communication Technologies -ICTs- in terms of diagnoses, prevention and monitoring of patients) or the audiovisual entertainment sector (which uses network technologies to facilitate different types of streaming at events). In addition, “we will try to optimise the performance of these networks using automation and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions through the field tests”, adds Bernardos. 

An example of automation and AI solutions that they will evaluate is the deployment of applications that allow the facilitation of maintenance and remote operation of a set production process in a factory. This can require algorithms that are capable of deploying the necessary resources automatically using AI, explain the researchers.

5G pilot test

In this way, nine use cases of 5G will be tested in four vertical industry settings in Spain, Italy and Portugal in the fields of Energy, 4.0 Industry and Transport. In the case of Spain particularly, the tests will be carried out in one of the Innovalia headquarters and the 5TONIC infrastructure will be used, a laboratory jointly founded by IMDEA Networks and Telefónica for research and innovation in 5G networks, in which the UC3M also participates.   5TONIC will also be used in the evaluation phases and pre-tests.

The 5Growth project forms part of the third phase of the H2020 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) initiative, a joint initiative with the European Commission and European industry in the field of ICT, the objective of which is to offer solutions, architecture, technology and standards to the next generation of communication infrastructures, known as 5G.

5Growth receives funding from the European Commission and it is expected to be carried out between June 2019 and the end of 2021. This R+D+I consortium, coordinated by the UC3M is made up of 21 companies from seven European countries. The team integrates global providers (Ericsson, InterDigital, NEC, Nokia), operators (Telefónica, Telecom Italia, Altice Labs/Portugal Telecom), vertical industries (COMAU, EFACEC, INNOVALIA), SMEs (Mirantis, Nextworks, Telcaria) and research universities and institutes (CTTC, Instituto de Telecomunicações, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Polytechnic University of Turin, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, as well as the UC3M).

For more information: Project website

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

During the event, Juan José Vaquero alluded to the gender gap in scientific careers and highlighted "the capacity of science and technology parks to promote STEM vocations and thus contribute to creating a more competitive innovation system". Paloma Domingo highlighted FECYT's work in the different phases of the cycle of women in science and innovation, from the earliest ages to research courses, generating interest and providing them with real experiences, helping research centres and universities to create more transparent and egalitarian cultural environments.

The exhibition, open to the public during the month of October in the UC3M Science Park, is structured in three parts. The first consists of eight panels with information on 15 women relevant to the history of science and technology: Ada LoveLace, Alice Ba, Arlene Sharpe, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Cristiane Nusslein – Volhard, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Hedy Lammar, Hipatia de Alejandría, Katherine Jackson, Lene Vestergaard Hau, Marie Curie, Margarita Salas, Rita Levi-Montalccini, Rosalind Franklin and Valentina Tereshkova.

The second is made up of two panels showing the scientific activity of the UC3M researchers, Natalia Fabra and Concha Monje, and the technologists Ana Pérez, co-founder of the start-up Canard Drones, and Isabel Ferrando, head of innovation at Thales España. Finally, a third panel presents the work of 24 young people studying STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), who are part of companies in the University Science Park and Leganés Technology Park.

During the inauguration, the three workshops that will take place as part of the "Science and Technology from a Feminine Perspective", a programme that will be developed with the UC3M which aims to promote scientific vocations among high school students in the Community of Madrid, were also announced.

The conference was organised by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support Service (SEI) of the Vice-Chancellor’s office for Scientific Policy, in collaboration with the Student Guidance Centre of the Vice-Chancellor’s for Students and Equality of the UC3M. The project is financed by the Aid Scheme for the Promotion of Scientific, Technological and Innovation Culture 2019 of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology - Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; and by the Scheme for Common Entities 2018 of the Community of Madrid and the European Regional Development Fund - ERDF of the European Union.

More information:

https://eventos.uc3m.es/38341/detail/ciencia-y-tecnologia-en-femenino.html

This has been achieved thanks to the development of systems of artificial intelligence and perception which have been incorporated into the vehicle. They were worked on by a multidisciplinary group from the University’s departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Systems Engineering and Automation under the management of the “Duque de Santomauro” Institute of Motor Vehicle Safety. “One of the main technological challenges we have faced in this project is that it travels around a mountain, which is an unstructured element and causes problems regarding the localisation of the vehicle itself.

Other problems have occurred with the perception and the control the bus has, since practically the whole environment is dark. There are some steep gradients there and we need to be completely sure that the vehicle is capable of climbing and descending them without any problems”, states Pablo Marín, a researcher of the Institute of Motor Vehicle Safety at the UC3M.

On an environmental level it eliminates local emissions, being designed on an electric platform. But also, the systems of artificial intelligence and perception allow the optimisation of consumption in movement. “That is to say, an electric vehicle with a driver wouldn’t be as efficient as our system will be, as it relies on predictive navigation adapted in every moment to the circumstances we find along the route”, explains San Román.

The project is currently in the technical demonstration phase and will begin to run in May 2020. “We are working towards the standardisation of autonomous vehicles, that provides timely certification that vehicles with this type of automation can travel on Spain’s motorways without issues and with the highest level of security”, points out Javier García Guzmán, researcher and lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the UC3M.

Future lines of research follow its implantation in other natural environments focused on tourism, such as the Segóbriga Archaeological Park, and the development of methods that serve as a base for the standardisation of autonomous vehicles. 

CITIES Timanfaya (reference code: 2018/00543/001) is being developed within the framework of the “Smart Islands” project, which has the aim of making local tourism more sustainable. Alongside the UC3M, the Spanish Road Association and 2RK, the following companies are participating in the project: Albufuera Energy Storage, Cesvimap, GMV, SGS-GMR, Mapfre and VTI.

The prototype has recently been unveiled in the UC3M’s Science Park on the occasion of the European Mobility Week during the day of “Mobility trends in Smart Cities”, organised by the University in collaboration with Legánes Town Hall.

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

The research team has demonstrated that the image we have of our own body changes depending on the stimuli we encounter, such as olfactory. Exposure to different smells can make us feel slimmer or more corpulent.

Another sense that influences this is hearing. Through a device adapted to a pair of shoes, developed by the UC3M in 2015 in collaboration with University College London and the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, they have analysed how our perception of our body changes when the frequency spectrum of steps taken during physical activity was modified in real-time. “By increasing high frequencies, people feel lighter, happier, walk in a more active way and as a result, they find it easier to exercise”, explains Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, a lecturer in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the UC3M and one of the authors of both investigations.

This technology, based on the audio stimulus, that was used successfully both in 2017 to treat people with chronic pain and in 2019 to promote physical activity, is combined with olfactory stimuli in the current investigation to show that both senses combined have a large influence over the perception we have of our body image. “Image distortions can cause detriments to physical and emotional well-being. The research in cognitive neuroscience has shown that peoples’ perception of their bodies can be changed through visual, tactile, proprioceptive and audio stimulation”, points out Tajadura-Jiménez.

These results will allow new and more effective therapies to be designed, such as virtual reality experiences or the development of interactive clothes or portable technology, for people suffering from body image disorders in order to improve their self-esteem and re-calibrate distorted feelings about their body weight.

In the future, the aim is to carry out research in a clinical setting (as the current test was carried out on healthy people), to determine if the effects differ according to gender and to try out the effects of other kinds of scents.

Bibliography

Brianza, G., Tajadura-Jiménez, A., Maggioni, E., Pittera, D., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., y Obrist, M. (2019). “As light as your scent: Effects of smell and sound on body image perception”. En la Conferencia IFIP sobre Interacción Humano-Computadora, pp. 179-202. Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-29390-1_10

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

The first thing the scientists did as part of their research was to indicate, through a simulation, the specific position of each phalanx in order to depict particular signs from the Spanish Sign Language. They then attempted to reproduce this position with the robotic hand, trying to make the movements similar to those a human hand could make. "The objective is for them to be similar and, above all, natural. Various types of neural networks were tested to model this adaptation, and this allowed us to choose the one that could perform the gestures in a way that is comprehensible to people who communicate with sign language,” the researchers explain.

Finally, the scientists verified that the system worked by interacting with potential end-users. “The deaf people who have been in contact with the robot have reported 80 percent satisfaction, so the response has been very positive," says another of the researchers from the Robotics Lab, Jennifer J. Gago. The experiments were carried out with TEO (Task Environment Operator), a humanoid robot for home use developed in the Robotics Lab of the UC3M.

To date, TEO has mastered the fingerspelling alphabet of sign language, as well as a very basic vocabulary related to household tasks, this researcher explains. One of the challenges the scientists now face in order to continue developing this system is "the rendering of more complex gestures, using complete sentences", says another member of the Robotics Lab team, Bartek Lukawski. The robot could then be used by the approximately 13,300 people in Spain who use sign language to communicate.

The broader objective is for robots of this type to become household assistants that are able to help with ironing (TEO also does this), folding clothes, serving food, and interacting with users in domestic environments. In addition, "these robotic hands could be implemented in other humanoids and they could be used in other environments and circumstances," says Jennifer J. Gago. "The really important thing is that all of these technologies, all of these developments that we contribute to, are geared towards including all members of society. It is a way of envisaging technology as an aid to inclusion, both of minorities and of majorities, within a democracy", Juan Víctores emphasises.

More information:

Jennifer J. Gago, Juan G. Victores, Carlos Balaguer. Sign Language Representation by TEO Humanoid Robot: End-User Interest, Comprehension and Satisfaction. Electronics 2019, 8(1), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8010057 UC3M e-Archivo: http://hdl.handle.net/10016/28159

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

“The drone we have developed for the project has a thermal camera, an optical camera, and four sensors which allow us to identify the temperature of the device in the environment, the drone’s different controllers enable us to determine the internal state of the equipment and the communication system is provided by Telefonica to receive this information in real time,” UC3M professor Fernando Garcia pointed.

The communication towers are capable of detecting the origin of a fire in a perimeter of up to 15 kilometers.  A hangar with the drone is located inside the towers, to which the thermal sensors, when the outbreak of a fire is detected, send an alarm with its exact location.  The drone autonomously flies to that point, even in conditions of limited visibility, and gathers optic and thermal images of the fire, which it sends in real time.

The system also lets the emergency center control the drone to gather information and track the burned environment.  Once its mission is complete, the drone returns to its hangar and recharges automatically. “It’s a totally novel solution, based on robotics and automation, which won’t remove anyone’s job, but will instead offer a new tool for emergency services, providing added value and allowing them to operate more safely and to control the situation,” the UC3M researchers affirmed.

This initiative, which has been tested on a trial basis in conjunction with the emergency services of the Madrid Autonomous Region, is the first step toward development of technological services that help to prevent forest fires.  Its objective is to stay one step ahead of the information, improve decision-making and turn around the statistics that show Spain as the European country most affected by forest fires, according to data from 2018.

中文翻译 (chinese translation)

According to Joaquín Roca, lecturer in the area of Electronic Technology at the UPCT, “a robotic device, developed by researchers from the Carlos III and in charge of aspects such as helping to cook and feed the person, among other things, actively collaborates with the robotic assistant being developed by the UPCT”. Researchers from the UPCT will develop another device, which will be a mobile robot that will interact with the UC3M’s device and send it information on the mood, vital signs and activity levels of the person, among others. Both devices will work cooperatively, according to the researchers. 

The subproject by the Carlos III “Heterogeneous Social-Mobile Manipulator Robot Intelligent Teams for Elderly-People Assistance (HEROITEA)", is coordinated by Ramón Barber Castaño and Santiago Garrido Bullón, main researchers from the UC3M, assigned to the Robotics Lab, one of the leading centres for Robotics and Automation, nationally and internationally. “This subproject includes tasks of perception, planning, robot navigation and grip, which will involve a big task of integration”, they say. At the same time, both the universities’ robotics systems will need to be integrated, the researchers point out. 

The subproject by the UPCT, "Robotic-based Well-Being Monitoring and Coaching for Elderly People during Daily Life Activities (RobWell RTI2018-095599-A-C22), is led by Óscar Martínez Mozos, a Ramón y Cajal researcher from the UPCT, from the Department of Electronics, Computer Technology and Projects. 

The device they aim to develop is half-way between a virtual butler and smart speakers, similar to Google’s, Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. For its design, the researchers have compiled the opinions and needs of voluntarily students from the Mature University at the UPCT and associates of AFAL (Association for Family Members and Sufferers of Alzheimer’s of the Region of Cartagena). This project was presented at the 10th Training day for “Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative illnesses. A 21st century challenge.” The first prototype is being developed in the Final Degree Project of a student studying a degree in Industrial Technologies, José Antonio Jiménez Viuda. 

This multidisciplinary project integrates knowledge on Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Home Automation, Biomedical Engineering and Psychology. 

“Space debris is one of the major challenges that the aerospace industry will have to take on in the future. These are elements that have been left in orbit as a result of human activity in space, such as the upper stages of rocket launchers and dead satellites,” explained the E.T.PACK Project coordinator Gonzalo Sánchez, Ramón y Cajal researcher in the UC3M Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department. Its objective, when the project will conclude in three years, is to have a prototype of the deorbit kit that could be matured in a next project and be tested in a demonstration flight. This innovation, which has captured the interest of ESA and industries in the space sector has led to two national patents whose European versions are currently under evaluation.

The key to their functioning lies in the low work-function  tether. It consists of an aluminum tape coating with a special material that allows it to emit electrons when illuminated by the Sun.  The space tether deorbits the satellite thanks to a passive mechanism known as Lorentz force. One of the main challenges of the project is related to materials science, because “the coating on the aluminum tape must have very special characteristics and an important research effort has to be done in  thermionic materials, that is, those that readily emit electrons when they are heated,” Professor Sánchez Arriaga explained.

The aluminum tape has some very singular characteristics: a width of 2 centimeters, a thickness of 50 microns (less than a human hair), and several kilometers in length. It would be rolled up in a reel during the launch of the satellite, and would be deployed in orbit to complete its purpose: lowering the satellite’s orbit until it produces its reentry. “It is a technology with a highly disruptive potential. A low work-function tether transform  orbital energy into electrical energy while it deorbits the satellite without using any type of fuel,” continued Sánchez Arriaga. “Unlike current propulsion systems, a low work function tether does not need propellant and uses natural resources in the space environment, such as the geomagnetic field, ionospheric plasma and solar radiation,” he added.

E.T.PACK (828902) is a FET-OPEN project coordinated by UC3M and funded by the European Commission with a budget of three million euros, which was launched in March of this year. Research groups and companies from three European countries are participating, such as the Fraunhofer Institute and the Technische Universität Dresden, in Germany, the University of Padova, in Italy, and the Spanish companies SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas, and Advanced Thermal Devices.

中文翻譯 (Chinese translation)

HBO IN does not involve any additional cost for the subscribers to this television platform and is available for mobile devices with Android and iOS systems. Yo use it, you choose the episode of series in the app, select the accessibility you want (audio description or adapted subtitles) and then press synchronize. “The system we have developed allows excellent synchronization with the audio from the episode in question, even if there is background noise, as may occur in a home,” explained Professor Ángel García Crespo, director of the UC3M "Pedro Juan de Lastanosa" Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico y Promoción de la Innovación (Institute for Technological Development and Promotion of Innovation) and the SoftLab research group.

This same technology is also used in Spanish movie theaters, under the name Whatscine, to make movies accessible for persons with hearing or sight disabilities, without the need to go at special times or on specific days.  For this purpose, it enables reception of an accessibility system that is selected directly in the smartphone, or in its absence, specially-designed transparent glasses.

This tool allows that persons with sensory disabilities to be fully integrated into the cinema and television environments, without interfering with the audio or video for the other spectators. "Our goal is to foment inclusive leisure,” observed Professor García Crespo, “so that movies, from the moment they are released, have accessibility integrated into them.”

This Fundación BBVA grant program for scientific research teams seeks to boost basic, translational or applied research in areas of pronounced social interest.  The initiative is based on the support of excellence and innovative talent, with the selection process undertaken by committees of experts in each of the fields.   

An algorithm to monitor psychiatric patients

The UC3M projects receiving these grants are within the framework of two areas.  In the area of Big Data, the project led by the Full Professor from the University’s Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Antonio Artés Rodríguez, focuses on the creation of an algorithm that characterizes the behavior of psychiatric patients. For that purpose, data will be collected on a large scale to determine patients’ mental states and as such help patients under psychiatric care more efficiently.  The researchers will gather the data of patients- who previously have given their consent, guaranteeing their privacy- in collaboration with the Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz. This information will be obtained through mobile phones, which monitor patients’ mobility, activity or sleep. Afterwards, through Deep Learning, these disperse and heterogeneous data will be used by the researchers to transform them into interpretable models that can be of help to these patients.  

The impact of this research is that it will enable the patient’s state to be evaluated automatically.  A psychiatrist will be able to determine their behavior beyond the confines of the office, and as such, be aware of how the patient reacts to a treatment or to therapy to know if it is working or if there is some pattern change, and accordingly make an appropriate decision. The methodology in this study is not only applicable to psychiatry, but rather can be extrapolated to any field in which human behavior is relevant, such as finance, medicine in general, security/safety, advertising or marketing.  

Social networks as a source for behavior analysis

The other UC3M research project awarded a grant from BBVA is within the framework of the area of the Economy and the Digital Society.  The team, led by the UC3M Full Professor of Economics, Ignacio Ortuño Ortín, is made up of engineers and economists and uses social networks as a source for research data.  It is based on the idea that the information that users put on their social networks can be used in the same way as it is in surveys, in order to create a large database on preferences and behaviors.  In this way, the team will analyze the (aggregated and anonymous) information that Facebook provides on the preferences of its 2 billion users to draw up maps and measure the cultural distances between different social groups.   

The aim of this analysis is to determine, for example, the degree of integration of immigrants in a certain society (comparing the interests of the immigrants with those of the local inhabitants.) The researchers have gathered a large quantity of information from social networks and have established that is more complete than traditional surveys, according to which they believe that they would be able to develop stability indexes for every country in the world, including those where survey data is usually scarce.

Every year, Technovation Challenge challenges groups of a maximum number of 5 girls to develop a business plan and a mobile application in order to solve a problem in their community and respond to a social need related to the areas of education, equality, the environment, health, peace and poverty. For twelve weeks, from January to April, the participants get together every week, either in person or remotely, in order to work on their project alongside the mentors that come from the world of technology, who volunteer to guide them in this process.

In the regional final which is being held for the second year running at the UC3M, the teams will present the applications in a short pitch of around four minutes to a panel of judges made up of experts from ABB, Amazon, Capgemini, Everis, Microsoft, Mioti, Mirada and Telefónica, among other companies. They will also showcase their projects at a science fair and spend the day with their mentors and families.

145 teams will be taking part in this event, coordinated and organised by Power to Code, regional ambassadors of the Technovation Challenge, 50% more than last year, made up of 577 girls. In the final there will be 97 junior teams, made up of girls between the ages of 10 and 14; and 48 senior teams, with girls between the ages of 15 and 18. What’s more, 240 mentors and over a hundred people from the panel of judges will be intervening. Nine teams will be chosen as regional finalists and will attend the virtual global semi-final, which will then decide which teams will attend the 9th Technovation Challenge World Summit, which will be held in August in Silicon Valley (USA). There, 12 teams from all around the world will present their applications and business plans to a panel of experts from the technology industry for the opportunity to win scholarships and advance in their education in STEM degrees.

The UC3M incorporates this competition into its STEM4GirlsUC3M programme for the encouragement of technological and scientific vocations, aimed at girls in secondary school and sixth form. Funded by the Women’s Institute, this programme has been developed throughout the academic year 2018/19 with the holding of different technological workshops, a mentoring programme, the exchange of experiences between researchers and students and a performing arts project.

For more information: The UC3M Technovation Challenge 2019 website

This R+D+I programme includes the development of intelligent fibre optic sensor networks for the measurement of temperature, deformations or vibrations, the development of active high precision sensors using LIDAR technology, photonics systems that help to overcome different sensory disabilities, the development of different biomedical technology and high performance photonic circuits and devices based on materials which will be used in future third generation solar cells. For this, multiple technologies will be used, such as: distributed acoustic sensing, fibre Bragg grating, pyrometry with fibre optics, polymeric microstructured fibres, multinucleated fibres, organic photonic integrated circuits (PIC), silicon PICs, solar cells made of perovskites, nitrides or hybrid materials, sub-wavelength technology, micro-spectrometers, liquid crystals, visible light communication (VLC), remote fibre power (PoF), high frequency lasers and frequency combs.

In this new project, with lines of direct application in the future European research programme Horizon Europe, over 70 researchers from public universities in the Community of Madrid are collaborating, among them the UC3M (who is leading the programme), the Universidad de Alcalá Henares (UAH), the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) or the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC); as well as the Spanish National Research Council (in the Spanish acronym: CSIC), 28 national and international partner research groups and a large number of companies, from start-ups and SMEs to multinationals in various technological fields.

The programme, affiliated with previous networks such as COST TD1001, COST IC1208 and European projects such as RAPTADIAG, INTERREG-SUDOE and BRITESPACE, is taking on a period of four years (2019-2023) and is funded with over a million euros. It is a continuation of the SINFOTON-CM programme (Sensors and Instrumentation in Photonics Technology in the Community of Madrid), in which over 110 researchers from four Madrid universities took part (UAH, UC3M, UPM, URJC), as well as the CSIC and over 25 partner companies and groups.

The project has five main goals, which are framed in the epicenter of 5G development in its new standard known as New Radio (NR), that is, the interface that connects the device with the base stations. The project will begin with identification of the key 5G NR technologies and the benefits that could be achieved, as well as monitoring their evolution. Then, a series of technologies and algorithms will be developed to improve radio access in 5G NR. Lastly, a link budget analysis will be made of the various areas to assess the improvement in coverage and quality, followed by validation with field testing and final conclusions.

The agreement was presented Friday, April 12, on the UC3M Leganes campus, in a ceremony attended by UC3M Vice-President of Scientific Policy, Juan José Vaquero, and Technology Director at Vodafone Spain, Ismael Asenjo, among other representatives of both entities.

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, an aggressive subtype of epidermolysis bullosa, is a rare disease resulting in severe skin fragility, characterized by the continuous formation of erosions and blisters on the skin and internal mucous membranes, as well as fibrosis and diverse complications such as pseudo-syndactyly (fusion of the fingers) and an elevated risk of developing metastatic squamous cell carcinoma. Dealing with this disease represents a challenge for health professionals and a great effort on the part of patients and their families.

This disease, of a genetic origin, is caused by mutations in the COL7A1 gene, which codifies for type VII collagen (C7), a protein essential for dermo-epidermal adhesion.  In Spain, there is a high prevalence of one of these mutations, located at exon 80 of the gene (present in approximately 50% of the cohort of Spanish patients), which justifies the development of a precision therapy targeting this region of the gene.   

Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9

The authors of this study have applied the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, which in this case is employed to safely and accurately eliminate from the stem cells of the skin of patients the exon 80 of the COL7A1 gene, which contains the pathogenic mutation. This leads to the production, from the edited cells, of a functional C7 variant.

Transplantation of a bioengineered skin equivalent carrying patients’ cells “cured” using this new technology has shown to be capable of regenerating completely normal tissue in a reliable preclinical model of the disease.

Until now, the molecular tool CRISPR/Cas9 lacked the necessary levels of efficiency for realistic clinical applications using adult stem cells, such as hematopoietic or skin (epidermal) stem cells. Therefore, these strategies could not compete with conventional gene addition therapy using viral vectors. “However, this study showed that the new non-viral gene edition approach developed was even more effective than viral gene addition therapy for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa,” the study’s coauthor, Fernando Larcher, from CIEMAT, pointed out.  In addition to its effectiveness, the strategy turned out to be safe by virtue of the absence of undesirable effects on the rest of the patient genome.

In this work, in which UC3M researcher-in-training José Bonafont participated, within the framework of his doctoral dissertation, scientists from the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (Spanish National Cancer Research Center – CNIO)) and Heidelberg University (Germany) have collaborated. The study was made possible thanks to funding from DEBRA- International (UK); Era Net Erare (European Union); Spanish Acción Estratégica en Salud (ISCIII); Spanish Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación; and also from the Community  of Madrid (CAM).

Reference article:

Clinically-relevant correction of Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa by dual sgRNA CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing. Jose Bonafont, Ángeles Mencía, Marta García, Raúl Torres, Sandra Rodríguez, Marta Carretero, Esteban Chacón-Solano, Silvia Modamio-Høybjør, Lucía Marinas, Carlos León, María J. Escamez, Ingrid Hausser, Marcela Del Río, Rodolfo Murillas, Fernando Larcher. Molecular Therapy. Doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2019.03.007 E-Archive: http://hdl.handle.net/10016/28318

Version en Chino (Chinese version)

This project, named “Science is coming: the science that is creating your future”, will address topics such as self-driving vehicles; therapy robots that help with children’s rehabilitation by combining robotic platforms and artificial intelligence; predicting human behaviour through the development of models of social systems in the real world; the new generations of mobiles which will use wireless communication at the speed of light; the protection structures that can be produced with 3D printing; and cures for rare illnesses through tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

These videos combine three aspects to try and draw in the youngest generations, according to its creators. Firstly, they use humour to make them funny. Secondly, they explain scientific discoveries made by researchers at the UC3M who have a direct practical impact on the improvement of our quality of life. And thirdly, they pose ethical dilemmas arising from technological developments.

“Young people live in an audiovisual world surrounded by devices that continually bombard them with attractive content that catches their attention. If we want to send a message that they find attractive and that motivates them to study and get involved with science, we need to use the channels they are used to and do it in a way that entertains them while they’re watching it”, explains Carlos Santiuste, from the UC3M’s department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis. “If we want to improve our society we need to invest in research and, for this, it is essential to know how important it is for society’s future”, adds Santiuste.

Science is coming: the science that is creating your future

1. Self-driving vehicles, with José María Armingol: https://youtu.be/gyDjjLIdemU

2. Therapy robots, with Fernando Fernández Rebollo:  https://youtu.be/ifU_kWqcAvQ

3. Predicting human behaviour, with Anxo Sánchez: https://youtu.be/Yoy8BVRjuSE

4. Communication at the speed of light, with Guillermo Carpintero: https://youtu.be/QUXW258z7zU

5. Printed protection structures, with José A. Rodriguez: https://youtu.be/kOt7RnuepRA

6. Rare illnesses, with Marcela del Río: https://youtu.be/vI6RLRv4ZNE

Bioprinting, smart homes and Big Data

Those attending will be able to see first-hand what a 3D bioprinter capable of creating totally functional human skin is like and how it works, made by researchers from the UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. This skin is able to be transplanted to patients and used for research and tests of cosmetic, chemical and pharmaceutical products. The activity is called “3D Bioprinting, a new way of making organs”.

“Talking to my smart home”, consists of a demonstration in real time which will show how the “Internet of Things” works, where there is a digital interconnection with everyday objects. For this, a team of female researchers from the UC3M Department of Telematic Engineering will show how communication protocols work, which allow us to turn on a light bulb or control air conditioning from other devices connected to the internet, such as our mobile phones.

Lastly, there will also be another activity at the stand which this time is based on Big Data. In the workshop “surfing in a sea of data”, carried out by female scientists from the UC3M IT Department, the visitors will learn to search for information among thousands of pieces of data using semantics and virtual reality. Those attending will be able to select and categorise data published on the internet on a certain topic of interest through an immersive bubble chart, which can be viewed in a virtual reality environment, exploring the information it contains in an innovative and fun way.

Other activities

Cryptography, the art of writing in a secret code or enigmatically, attempts to alter certain content with the aim of making it unintelligible to non-authorised receptors in order for it to be confidential. Lecturer from the UC3M IT Department, Ana Isabel González-Tablas, proposes playing with these techniques, presented with artistic elements and related to science as well as technology. This gamification session, which will take place at 19:00 in the Science Corner, an auditorium of the hall where different talks and workshops will be given, proposes learning symmetric cryptography through a card game (Crypto Go).

The following day, on Friday 29th March from 10:00 to 15:00, CONEX (CONnecting EXcellence) researcher from the UC3M Christopher Meir will be at the stand for the Madri+d Foundation for Knowledge and the Community of Madrid’s Department of Education, in a space aimed at promoting the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions and the European Researchers’ Night. As part of this talent attraction programme of the University, which is supported by the European Union (Marie Curie Actions from FP7 GA no. 600371), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and Santander Bank, he is developing a research project in the department of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication in order to analyse the impact of StudioCanal’s audiovisual production and other European studies. In this presentation he will show how European cinema has been changing in recent years, through family films such as The Little Prince, Paddington and Shaun the Sheep, and the specific effects of this change on audiences.

The Madrid Fair for Science and Innovation aims to gather the whole educational community and the main actors in the Community of Madrid’s research field. Its aim is to disseminate science and research, and show how they influence society’s economic development. What’s more, it looks to encourage scientific vocations and the creative, entrepreneurial spirit in young people, breaking down gender barriers from early ages. Those attending “Madrid for Science and Innovation” will not only see, but they will also do, touch, try and experiment first-hand, as the fair is supposed to be a place for taking part in science live and in person.

"The international standardisation bodies have set requirements for 5G and its development which involve achieving maximum data rates for the user of tens of gigabits per second, with latencies (the sum of time delays within a network) as small as one millisecond and with up to one million devices connected per square kilometre, while at the same time reducing its energy consumption. In order to meet these ambitious targets, we need to come up with new solutions for transmission, managing radio resources, assessing applications by means of exhaustive simulations and developing prototypes which confirm the feasibility and improvement of the performance of these communications networks. This is what we shall be working on within the framework of the TeamUp5G project," explains its coordinator, Ana García Armada, head of the Communications Research Group and professor from the UC3M’s Department of Signal Theory and Communications.

The TeamUp5G project is unique because part of it is devoted to research and another is devoted to training. In fact, it comprises a comprehensive European Training Network (ETN) for 15 new PhDs in signal processing and innovation of 5G mobile networks. "We are going to train future European leaders so that they are experts in 5G technologies. As well as gaining expertise about this technology, they will know how to create companies, they will be familiar with aspects concerning ethics and communication and they will have comprehensive capacities to advance the knowledge and create employment and prosperity in Europe,” adds Ana García Armada.

This research ETN is seeking to find dynamic and novel solutions to three of the major challenges faced by 5G mobile networks: interference and waveform management, the reduction of energy consumption, and the dynamic management and optimisation of the spectrum. "The project focuses on 5G from a very transversal perspective, that is, starting with the most basic transmission technologies, looking at how the network is organised and even covering video applications and how to apply 5G in communication with drones,” explains the research team.

Massive antennas, millimetre bands and small cells

On the one hand, the project is seeking to develop energy-efficient algorithms and protocols in order to improve the deployments of "small cells". A set of these small base stations allows us to obtain the same coverage as with the traditional highly powerful base stations, but with significant energy savings and in a much more sustainable manner. In addition, it allows us to increase the capacity of the network so that users can "navigate" with greater speed. However, in order to get these networks of small cells to work, we still need to solve certain technical problems which are being worked on within the framework of TeamUp5G.

On the other hand, they are also investigating the application of massive antennas (massive MIMO), which consists of using hundreds of antennas in base stations, a much larger number than what is currently the norm. "Paradoxically, all these antennas together can consume less than one on its own, and providing the same service. In addition to this energy saving, it has enormous advantages in terms of high capacity, in relation to the speed of user data and the number of simultaneous users that there may be in a certain area," explains Ana García Armada. The theoretical bases of this new idea are clear today, however a significant amount of technology (both hardware and software) needs to be developed so that its potential advantages come to fruition.

Lastly, the project is looking into the use of millimetre frequency bands in order to improve the use made of the electromagnetic spectrum. The scarcity of bandwidth in the frequencies traditionally used (which are shared so as to provide different services, such as television, security, GPS, WiFi, bluetooth, etc.), has led to the search for solutions in areas of the spectrum that had never been used for communications in mobility. "In the range of millimetre frequencies, between 30 and 300 GHz, in particular, there is a large amount of bandwidth available in order to enable new applications of enhanced video, augmented reality and virtual reality, among others. The use of these high frequencies involves many technical complications which need to be resolved and it is here where this project will look to contribute,” explains the manager of the TeamUp5G project, Raquel Pérez Leal, researcher from the UC3M’s Department of Signal Theory and Communications.

TeamUp5G, New RAN TEchniques for 5G UltrA-dense Mobile networks, is a project of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme which is being carried out, within the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (reference number 813391), between the year 2019 and 2022. Under the coordination of the UC3M, 18 research institutes and companies from seven countries are participating: Denmark (Aarhus University); Greece (Alexander Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki, University of Western Macedonia); Spain (LiPhi Technologies, NOKIA Spain SA - Bell Labs, Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo SA, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Norway (TELENOR ASA); Poland (Innovative Solutions Slawomir Pietrzyk); Portugal (AUDAX: Centro de Investigação e Apoio ao Empreendedorismo e Empresas Familiares, Instituto de Telecomunicações, ISCTE IUL: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Projecto Desenvolvimento Manutenção Formação e Consultadoria, Universidade de Aveiro, Universidade da Beira Interior, Universidade Nova de Lisboa); and Switzerland (Eclexys SAGL).

More information at: TeamUp5G project website

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

This workshop, organised by lecturers from the UC3M’s department of Systems Engineering and Automation, is aimed at students in their last year of secondary school and their first and second year of sixth form. Those taking part do not need to have prior knowledge of robotics or programming. Those attending will learn to control the motors of a small mobile robot using the Arduino control panel with basic movement commands.

This low-cost robot model is equipped with a servomechanism movement system that gives it navigation abilities in simple settings. All students attending RoboticAULA, irrespective of their level and knowledge, will be able to learn to operate it whilst taking in some programming concepts. “We will give them some simple steps with a programming template that they will complete in order to generate the robots’ movements”, explain the lecturers who will teach the workshop, from the UC3M’s department of Systems Engineering and Automation.

During the activity, each group taking part will have to complete the task of going around an area of obstacles without crashing and parking in the right space. Some of the knowledge acquired with this activity includes an induction to programming with Arduino, the basic operation of a mobile robot and the solution to problems posed in a simple and dynamic way, focusing their efforts on choosing the best strategy and encouraging group cooperation.

Some of the noteworthy activities that BioMad will be carrying out are those geared toward improving  the efficiency and sustainability of regional scientific- technological capabilities; dialogue between agents from the regional, national and international.R+D+I systems; international promotion and representation of the Region’s capabilities for the benefit of general interest, fundraising and distribution of resources; access to international calls and undertaking specific calls for distribution of resources; and creation of alliances with other regions, among other actions.

Other European initiatives similar to BioMad are Uppsala BIO (Sweden), Medicon Valley (Denmark and Sweden) and Medicen Paris Region (France). In the Madrid region, there are more than 48,700 people working in research, technology transfer centers, science parks and biotech, pharmaceutical and healthcare technology companies.

The signing of the agreement launching BioMad was held at the Real Casa de Correos. It was attended by the president of the Autonomous Region of Madrid with the rectors from the following universities:  Alcalá, Autónoma de Madrid, Carlos III de Madrid, Complutense de Madrid, and Politécnica de Madrid;  the directors of the following hospitals: Ente Público Hospital in Fuenlabrada, Fundación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Hospital Universitario Clínico San Carlos,  Hospital Universitario de Getafe, Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesús, Hospital Universitario del Sureste,  and the foundations for Primary Care biomedical research for the Autonomous Region of Madrid.    

At the fair there will be an exhibitors’ area where those attending will be able to find over 25 stands, with sponsorship from firms such as Accenture, Airbus, Infojobs, Decathlon, Idealista and Microsoft, among others. What’s more, as well as showing the new technology they are using, the companies will use the event to recruit talent and evaluate the CVs of those interested in working or doing internships with them.

The poster includes two competitions: one on programming, with six tests of increasing difficulty; and the T3chFest Hackathon, a competition in teams, the topic of which will be “the Internet of Things in the rural world”, which will be carried out the previous weekend along with other technological workshops aimed at a family audience. During these workshops, a stands area has been set up, with information about different technological communities and projects, and other open-space area, so that those attending can share knowledge. With the aim of bringing technology closer to the new generations, free introductory talks will also be given.

This year the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Initials in Spanish: FECYT) is collaborating with the event. On Friday their team will present “Science Truck”, a new science dissemination project starring youtubers – who will be in the Auditorium – which will be played live in secondary education centres. There will also be a presentation on the Thursday on #ScienceinParliament, with the promoter and the president of this independent citizen initiative, Andreu Climent and Eduardo Oliver. Its objective is to make science and scientific knowledge one of the sources of information in the formulation of political proposals.

82 presentations in two days

During TechFest 2019 a total of 82 presentations will be held on five different stages. The morning session on Thursday 14th will kick off with a talk on the design of a video game to disseminate astronomy from the hands of its creators, Sara Gil Casanova and Fernando Liébana, also the co-designers of two apps for learning about the universe and women who have done research on it. After that, the latest winner of the European Commission’s women innovators prize for her work as the head of multinational company from Zaragoza Lebelium, Alicia Asín, will talk about “the keys for a new revolution” that includes the Internet of Things which, according to her, will transform each and every sector we work in. Following this, researcher from the Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering, Cristina Quilez, will talk about the reality of bioprinting skin and other organs. In this afternoon session, UC3M researchers from the UC3M4Safety team will show the work they’ve carried out on Bindi, a system to prevent, detect and avoid attacks on women using intelligent sensors. Afterwards, a researcher in Artificial Intelligence from Australia, Karin Verspoor, will talk about her experience among penguins in the Antarctic, where she recently went on a trip to in order promote the role of women in science.

The following day, Friday 15th, the morning session will begin with a talk by Paco Martín Fernández, a researcher from IBM in New York (US), who will talk about the reality of quantum computers and how they are used for programming. Later it will be the Newtral team’s turn, a team of journalists lead by Ana Pastor that aims to verify news stories in order to combat fake news. The technology of digital special effects used in the cinema will also be touched on, thanks to Carolina Jiménez García’s conference, an important person in the field who has worked under the instruction of directors such as Ridley Scott, George Miller, Peter Jackson and Tim Burton, among others. Afterwards, a team of degree students from the Universidad de Vigo will present a system for the prevention, detection and monitoring of forest fires named Fireback, with which they won Telefónica’s Think Big prize in the national technological competition HackForGood (H4G). In the afternoon, among other proposals, attendees can meet Conrad Roset, creative director of the video game of the year, GRIS, a work of the Barcelona studio Nomada Studio winner in the category of video games in the latest edition of the Annie Awards, the equivalent of Oscars in the world of animation.

For more information: Web T3chFest

Recessive dystrophic epidermolisis bullosa and the Kindler syndrome are diseases that cause fragility of the skin, caused by mutations in essential genes to attach the two layers of the skin. Patients with these diseases suffer from chronic erosion and wounds on the skin and mucosa, which causes terrible scarring and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma to develop. On the other hand, xeroderma pigmentosum is a disease characterised by high sensitivity to ultraviolet light, due to a deficiency in the DNA repair mechanisms, meaning patients are 110,000 times more likely to develop skin cancer.

This study, recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology, sheds light on the underlying molecular mechanisms of the diseases and presents new pharmacological targets that are useful for the treatment of associated effects. This possibility of treating patients therapeutically (for example, with drug repositioning) is a clinical priority in order to improve their quality of life.

As well as the aforementioned entities, researchers from the U726 of the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (Initials in Spanish: CIBERER) lead by Doctor Susana Puig at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, Dr. Raú de Lucas at the Hospital La Paz of Madrid, Hospital Sant Pau of Barcelona and the Príncipe Felipe Research Centre of Valencia, in collaboration with Doctor Joaquín Dopazo’s team from Hospital Virgen del Rocío of Sevilla (also from CIBERER).

The winning team of Space Apps 2018 was Pillars of Creation, made up of post-doctorate researcher from the UC3M-Santander Big Data Institute, Iñaki Úcar, along with four Spanish professionals: Almudena M. Castro, UX/UI designer at MásMóvil; José Luis Martín-Oar, services designer at BBVA; Juan Martínez, ILS engineer at Airbus; and Rosa Narváez, UX/UI designer at Propelland. The project has been awarded the Best Use of Science award, for the solution that “makes the best and most valid use of science and/or scientific method”.

“In the beginning, we couldn’t believe it. In the end, you start to realise that, among so many projects in the world, it is really difficult to stand out; so it was amazing to achieve this recognition from an institution like NASA. What’s more, we are proud and so excited about the fact that, out of the six possible awards, we’ve won the one for best use of science”, comments Iñaki Úcar, who is a Doctor in Telematics at the UC3M.

Gamification and citizen science

Their proposal, named Galaxy Quest, consisted of the design of a space exploration game for mobile devices that uses gamification and the concept “citizen science” to help process the large amounts of data that the Hubble space telescope produces every day. On the one hand, the application’s points system provides the user with incentives to improve the experience of the game; and on the other hand, it ensures that the data collected are valid for NASA and help the neural networks of Artificial Intelligence to improve automation in the future when classifying images from the universe.

“Galaxy Quest is a game that is supposed to be addictive, easy to play and that at the same uses science to help NASA manage data”, explains Iñaki Úcar. Although in the framework of this competition, the manner of explaining and disseminating the project was very important. “NASA put a lot of emphasis on knowing how to sell the idea. The team were very in tune with each other and whilst some were focusing on the scientific part, others were working on explaining it well”, he adds.

For more information: https://2018.spaceappschallenge.org

“AWES are disruptive technologies that operate at high altitudes and generate electrical energy”, explains Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, Ramón y Cajal research fellow at the department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering at the UC3M. “They combine well-known disciplines from electrical engineering and aeronautics, such as the design of electric machines, aeroelasticity and control, with novel and non-conventional disciplines related to drones and tether dynamics”, he adds.

Within this framework, the UC3M researchers have presented a novel flight simulator for AWES in a scientific article recently published in Applied Mathematical Modelling. “The simulator can be used to study the behaviour of AWES, optimise their design and find the trajectories maximizing the generation of energy”, explains Mr. Ricardo Borobia Moreno, aerospace engineer from the Flight Mechanics Area at the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and studying a PhD in the department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering at UC3M. The software, owned by UC3M, is registered and can be freely downloaded and used for research purposes by other groups.

Along with the simulator, the researchers have developed a flight testbed for AWES. Two kitesurf kites have been equipped with several instruments and key information, such as the position and speed of the kite, attack and sideslip angles, and tether tensions, have been recorded throughout many flights. The experimental data were then used to validate different software tools, such as the aforementioned simulator and an estimator of the different parameters characterizing the state of the kite at each instant. “The preparation of the testbed has required a significant investment of time, effort and resources, but it has also raised the interest from a large number of our students. Besides research, the project has enriched our teaching activities, as many of them have carried out their undergraduate and master final projects on AWES”, comments Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, who teaches the Flight Mechanics course in the Aerospace Engineering Degree at UC3M.

A growing sector

Research activities and the creation of new companies related to the generation of energy at high altitudes, that is to say, at over 500 metres, by using kites and drones have grown significantly in the last few years due to the financial support from the European Commission and private companies such as Google, among others.

UC3M group. launched in 2015 thanks to a Leonardo Grant funded by the BBVA Foundation, is pioneering in Spain. Afterwards, it has been supported by the GreenKite project (ENE2015-69937R), funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, that is currently underway. “Our activities include the flight tests and the estimation, control and simulation of AWES”, points out Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga. “In the project, an interesting transfer of technology and knowledge is being carried out, from the world of aviation, such as the flight test methods, to the world of airborne energy”, notes Ricardo Borobia Moreno.

For more information:

Bibliography: Sanchez-Arriaga, Gonzalo & Pastor-Rodríguez, Alejandro & Sanjurjo Rivo, Manuel & Schmehl, Roland. (2018): A Lagrangian Flight Simulator for Airborne Wind Energy Systems. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 19, pp 665-684, 2019. First published version available online: 4-jan-2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2018.12.016

Versión en Chino (Chinese Version)

Later, in the afternoon of Friday 15th February, seven technological workshops aimed at girls in their final year of secondary school and bachillerato (A-Level) will be taught by female lecturers from the University at the School of Engineering on the UC3M Leganés campus. The workshops will cover topics from 3D bioprinting to cybersecurity, as well as the construction of planes, designing apps, the internet of things, micro-robotics and materials technology. The workshops will be extremely practical and participative in nature, with the aim of boosting future scientific and technological vocations among female students.

The University is completing this programme of encouragement of scientific vocations among girls and women with mentoring sessions. Since the last academic year, the UC3M has taken part in the Technovation Challenge, an entrepreneurship and technology programme that aims to inspire girls and young women between the ages of 10 and 18, to bring them closer to innovation and close the current technology gender gap. University students will take part in the project, acting as mentors supporting different teams of girls and young women, working with them to develop an app focused on social areas such as education, equality, the environment, peace, poverty and health. The University, along with Power to Code, will hold the final of the regional Madrid competition on 18th May on its Leganés campus.

As the fourth pillar of this programme of activities encouraging vocations among girls and young women, the university is organising “Shadowing” sessions carried out by female lecturers and researchers from the UC3M. They involve work-experience days with students in their final years of secondary school during which they share their experience with the girls, explaining their research step by step. The girls participating in this programme will also attend an open day in the University’s laboratories. This activity is carried out in collaboration with the Asti Foundation’s STEM Talent girl Programme.

These initiatives of the UC3M to encourage scientific vocations among young women are financed by the Women’s Institute and supported by the UC3M’s Social Council, through its financial aid scheme for actions of commitment to society.

Further information: ST3Moment for girls Web

The companies selected by the ESA BIC Community of Madrid programme will have specific support for their entrepreneurial technology-based projects within the framework of a European project. Furthermore, they will have the opportunity to associate their brand with those of institutions that are already established in technological sectors and in entrepreneurial environments. The two innovative projects selected for the UC3M incubator are Aeon-T and Polar Developments.

Two start-ups from the aerospace sector

Aeron-T offers technology for the manufacturing of pieces of composite materials. The start-up works to implement the use of these materials on an industrial scale in the automotive sector, with the consequent reduction of operational costs. What is more, it is in itself a solution for the manufacturing of certain types of pieces for the aerospace sector, where quality is fundamental for the correct operation of machinery.  

The company Polar Developments develops portable, fold-out structures for the installation of photovoltaic solar panels, easy to transport and set-up. The simple use and easy transport of these solar panels would bring down installation costs of this type of clean, renewable energy.

The UC3M is offering support to a total of nine start-ups from the ESA BIC incubation programme of the Community of Madrid. Among the strategic partners of the ESA BIC programme are the Official College of Telecommunication Engineers (Initials in Spanish: COIT), Clúster Aeroespacial de Madrid, the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (Initials in Spanish: INTA), the company KIM and the four science parks of the Community of Madrid affiliated with the programme, including the UC3M’s science park.

For more information: NODO UC3M-ESA BIC Madrid Region

His research team demonstrated, for the first time, that human skin can be produced via new three dimensional printing techniques. This skin "can be transplanted to patients or used in the business world for testing chemical, cosmetic or pharmaceutical products since it is produced in quantities, times and prices which are perfectly compatible for these uses".

The jury, led by Rafael Pérez-Santamarina, manager of the Hospital Universitario La Paz, and made up of professionals from different areas within the health sector, recognised initiatives, professionals and private institutions from the Community of Madrid health sector. Prizes were thus also awarded in other categories, such as: Civics, Patient Care, Medical Innovation, Private Institution, Excellence in Pharmacy, Organisation in the Service of the Patient and Professional Career.

The objective of these awards is to recognise the work of companies, projects, initiatives and professional careers in the different sectors of the Madrid economy. The sector selected for the first edition of these awards was the health sector. The goal was to recognize the work done in a sector which, in addition to being a cornerstone of the welfare state, is an engine for spending which stimulates the economy. The Special Award for Health was given to the Community of Madrid’s Department of Health for providing citizens with a universal, personal, humane and quality health care.

The EASIER project is being carried out by the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies (HULAT) research group - formerly known as the Advanced Databases Group, LaBDA) - from UC3M’s IT department. The objective is to develop a solution in order to facilitate accessibility to knowledge for people with intellectual disabilities in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). In order to do so, they aim to provide a system that adapts to each person's comprehension skills by means of a lexical simplification of the textual content in Spanish, taking into account the accessibility guidelines (WCAG) related to the language, complying with the regulations in Spain and the Easy-to-Read guidelines.

For the development of this system, they will use innovative methods of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning. Then, by means of the web tool, called EASIER, users will be able to enter a text or the URL of a website so that the system can generate a version with simplified text that is easier to understand. In addition, an extension for browsers will be developed that identifies complex and unusual words on a website, providing a simpler synonym. "This proposal has a great social impact, since it facilitates the integration of people with intellectual disabilities through innovative applications in different areas such as social, cultural and political integration, in addition to education and employment integration," says the researcher leading up the project, Lourdes Moreno, from UC3M’s HULAT group.

An app for detecting crises in people with autism

Meanwhile, the PETRA project, proposed by researchers from the Signal Processing and Learning Group (GTSA in its Spanish acronym) from UC3M’s Department of Signal Theory and Communications, seeks to alleviate particular communication difficulties that some of the people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (TEA in its Spanish acronym) have. In general, these people’s capacities for interaction with others are considerably different from the usual. They present abnormalities in communication (verbal and non-verbal) and have certain limitations when it comes to understanding the emotions and intentions of others.

To improve the relationships that these people can have with their social environment, the researchers are proposing the development of a free mobile application, called eB2-TEA (evidence based behaviour for TEA), which is capable of characterising their habitual behaviour regarding the use of the mobile device, identifying personalised patterns and detecting changes that allow you to predict episodes of crisis. "In this way, we aim to alleviate the deficiencies in these people’s communication skills through a system that generates, automatically and in real time, a direct alert to their caregivers’ mobile phones," explains the scientist heading up the project, Pablo Martínez Olmos, a researcher from UC3M’s GTSA. "All the processing is local to the device and, by not sending data to any computer server, anonymity is also guaranteed," he adds.

The aim of Indra and Fundación Universia’s grants to research projects in accessible technologies is to promote the development of innovative technological solutions that improve the quality of life and the social and labour integration of people with disabilities. The evaluation criteria were the technological innovation and excellence of the proposed solution, its viability in terms of becoming a reality, its practical use in an actual labour inclusion environment, the number of possible beneficiaries and the potential of internationalising the initiative. Other factors taken into account were whether the resulting solutions are free or low cost for end users and whether they planned to involve people with disabilities in the development and validation of the project.

“The impact of the weather forecast and the uncertainty associated with aviation is very high. It is estimated that between approximately 20 and 30 per cent of delays in Europe are related to the weather, with estimated losses of around 180-200 million euros a year”, explains lecturer from the UC3M department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering, Manuel Soler Arnedo, head of the TBO-Met project at the UC3M. In fact, in just 2017 losses of 215 million euros were estimated for the 2.1 million minutes of delay time caused by extreme weather conditions.

TBO-Met’s aim is to optimise the trajectories of aircrafts, in order to avoid problems with flight safety and delays. For this, meteorological uncertainty has been studied, that is to say, weather conditions that are difficult to predict, such as hail, severe ice build-up and lightning, which can cause considerable damage to aircrafts. The project is focused on understanding, characterising and reducing uncertainty. For this, two main problems have been focused on: the analysis of sector demand in terms of the number of planes that should be operating, and trajectory planning, taking into account the uncertainties of the weather forecast and storm activity.

The TBO-Met project is made up of two research teams from the UC3M, the Universidad de Sevilla, the Loddron Universität Salzsburg (in Austria), the Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, (Spanish State Meteorological Agency, initials in Spanish: AEMET) and MeteoSolutions GmbH (in Germany). It belongs to the European research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, and is part of the SESAR project (Single European Sky ATM Research) for the improvement of air traffic (reference number 699294).

For more information: https://tbomet-h2020.com/

Versión en Chino (Chinese version)

“We had never seen anything like this, and we were quite surprised about what was happening”, comments Óscar Enríquez, lecturer from the UC3M Thermal and Fluids Engineering department and four times winner of the Gallery of Fluid Motion. “After several additional experiments, we observed that alcohol, somehow, allowed the anise oil to get inside the drop of water and form an emulsion (a collection of small drops of oil) within the drop. At the same time, the alcohol went in and mixed with the water, which caused the drop to grow, get less dense and be able to float”.

The other audio-visual piece from the UC3M that won the competition is called “Premixed flame oscillations in narrow channels”, and it was made by researchers Fernando Veiga López, Daniel Martínez Ruiz and Mario Sánchez Sanz, also from the Fluid Mechanics research group, and shows the effects of the fuel-air relationship in the form of a propane flame.  

When the fuel-air relationship of a flame in a reduced space is increased beyond a critical value, thanks to the acoustic waves that are activated within the recipient, the front of the flame experiences dramatic waves. The team says that the work is relevant for engines and combustion chambers in gas turbines, which often experience the so-called thermoacoustic oscillations that can affect their operation.

The ‘Gallery of Fluid Motion’ competition is held as part of the American Physical Society’s annual meeting, the most important in the world for fluid mechanics. This competition, which intends to use the images’ ability to mix science and art in such a way as to attract the general public’s attention on research topics, is largely inspired by “An Album of Fluid Motion”, a book with black and white photos published in 1982 by Stanford engineering professor, Milton Van Dyke, who died in 2010.

For more information:

Videos from the Gallery of Fluid Motion

This project has been chosen out of the 52 winners of each Explorer centre in the country, who were awarded an immersion trip to Silicon Valley (California) to visit leading companies in the technology sector. The panel of judges who chose the best projects was made up of representatives from Banco Santander, CISE, SECOT and other collaborating organisations.

Woman Explorer Awards 2018

Another initiative, launched by the UC3M has got to the final of the Woman Explorer Awards 2018. It is called Frame, a project that uses drones equipped with artificial intelligence ready to be deployed immediately after any type of catastrophe. The result is a map that identifies which routes are still accessible for evacuation, which bridges and buildings have collapsed and which sections of the population are the most affected. The entrepreneurial team is formed by Sara Ramos Colmenarejo and Andrés Prada González, both UC3M graduates of Aerospace Engineering and Audiovisual System Engineering. As well as this acknowledgement, Sara Ramos has won the Madrid City Council Women Entrepreneurs Award, Innovatia 8.3 competitions of the European Social Fund, as well as the world hackathon ActInSpace by ESA, Airbus and CNES.

In this edition of Explorer 83,000 euros in prizes has been granted in order to boost the development of the best entrepreneurial initiatives. The prizes are awarded after a period of five months of training and mentoring in high performance centres distributed over universities and institutions throughout Spain, as well as Portugal and Argentina, in order to improve the abilities, business strategies and entrepreneurial skills of all the participants, over 1200 in 2018.  

The new edition of this programme for 2019 is now open and the registration deadline ends on 12th December 2018. It is open to young entrepreneurs, from 18 to 31, who want to develop an innovative idea.

For more information: Web de Santander Explorer - Emprende UC3M

According to the UC3M head, José María Armingol Moreno, professor from the Systems Engineering and Automation department, the research professorship “will help the transfer of technology, which in the field of computer vision is carried out by the Intelligent Systems Laboratory, helping Álava Engineers to develop new products related to image processing by computers”.

In the words of José María Almazán Gómez, vice-president of Grupo Álava, this professorship constitutes a strategic vector of competitive growth for Grupo Álava: “We see computer vision as a technology that enables our new 4.0 value proposition for and by industry. It is a technology with great potential for development that impacts practically every link in the manufacturing industry value chain”, he comments.

New image technology

The professorship will propose the development of applications for the capture, display and analysis of images from different sources, offline as well as online. This will require the use of SDK and API tools (a type of collection that contains the elements necessary to create an application) specific to image analysis, generating and debugging code in order to achieve the best result for each application. There can be different types of technology used for image capture, such as conventional cameras, thermal or multi-hyperspectral imaging devices or picture transfer protocol such as GigE Vision, USB3 Vision, Camera Link or CoaXPress. In this respect, subsystems for “embedded vision” will be developed that combine cameras, processors and graphics cards along with the necessary application software, according to each project.

The professorship will try to publish and communicate the results of their research to citizens. Additionally, it will organise joint activities related to the promotion and dissemination of scientific culture and technological advances.

In order to carry out these campaigns, the messages are sent out to Facebook users based on various factors, such as their gender, location or political allegiance. What has been proven is that this micro-targeted advertising on social media was highly effective in persuading undecided voters to support Trump as well as in convincing Republican supporters to turn out on polling day.

In particular, it increased the probability that a non-aligned voter would decide to vote for candidate Trump by at least five percentage points, according to the results of the study. On the other hand, “the results show that Clinton did not manage to increase support among her potential natural voters nor boost their participation in the elections. Unfortunately, we do not have the necessary data to be able to understand why it worked for Trump and not for Clinton”, two of the authors of the paper point out, Ángel and Rubén Cuevas, researchers from the UC3M Telematics Engineering department. This disparity shows there are other variables to consider in addition to the presence of social media.

In Trump’s case, the impact of the campaign was strongest among voters who used Facebook regularly, those who used this social media as their main source of news and among voters without university or college-level education. Specifically, political micro-targeting was particularly effective when based on ideology, gender or educational level, much less so when based on race or age. “Our results show that learning about politics on Facebook does not make voters more informed, but does make them less likely to change their voting choice, which is very in line with the concept of political polarisation. This effect is particularly visible among men, Republican voters and people with a low level of education”, confirms one of the authors of the paper, Federica Libernini, from the ETH Zurich department of Economy, Technology and Business Management.

The results of this study have recently been presented at various international conferences, such as the Workshop on Political Economy held in October at the Universidad Libre de Bozen-Bolzano (Italy). “This paper contributes to an incipient body of literature that is using Facebook data, in a completely privacy-preserving manner, as a novel and highly valuable data source to address important socio-economic questions”, add Ángel and Rubén Cuevas.

“Thanks to predictive analytics, companies like Facebook offer a toolkit for targeting voters at an extremely granular level based on their previous online behaviour. These online campaign channels are potentially very powerful political instruments. It is therefore vital that we understand how political campaigns on social media work, their impact on voter behaviour, and, ultimately, on election results”, comments another of the authors of the paper, Michela Redoano, Associate Professor in the University of Warwick Department of Economics.

Another of the researchers from this multidisciplinary team, Antonio Russo, from the previously mentioned ETH Zurich department, points out that Facebook’s impact on turnout “suggests that social media has great potential for stimulating the political participation of people who would otherwise have lost interest in politics. In a world where confidence in democracy is dwindling, I believe this is good news. However, we still have much to learn about whether the information that voters are exposed to on social media really helps them make informed choices".

This research project used mainly two sources of data. On the one hand, they obtained directly from Facebook the cost of displaying advertising on the platform according to the different demographic factors and the political position (conservative, liberal or moderate) of the targeted users of an advertising campaign. On the other hand, they used results from election interviews carried out by American National Election Studies (ANES) on 2414 voters who were interviewed before and after the 2016 North American presidential elections. In this case, they were asked about their political ideology, gender, educational level, age and other data, as well as who they were voting for at both points in time. In addition, they were asked about their use of Facebook in order to find out if they were exposed to the electoral adverts on it. This data was then crossed-referenced and the results were analysed.

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

This way, it has been possible to implement a big data management strategy as a support mechanism for the RTVE’s audience analysis team’s decision making. Although this kind of approach has been taken in other contexts, this is the first solution for the media sector that binds together the processing of big data and its analysis using different techniques into one sole platform.

The collaboration established between RTVE and the UC3M through the Research Chair has also been used to create a flexible and multidisciplinary collaborative environment, encouraging the achievement of business objectives by means of the transfer of technology and knowledge. Furthermore, it has been used as an educational setting to carry out academic work and scientific outreach activities.

This collaboration has been consolidated through the renewal of the Research Chair as a strategic action for RTVE as well as for the UC3M. The new objectives are set as a more in-depth intelligent analysis of big data for the prediction of audience and content impact. The results of this challenge reveal an improved knowledge of the audio-visual business, serving as a key element to improve the public service of content of RTVE and encouraging research and innovation in key areas of knowledge, such as: Automatic Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

To date, SENER and the UC3M have manufactured a prototype of the helicon plasma thruster, which was firstly ignited in 2015 at the Electric Propulsion Laboratory premises of the ESA. After this first start up, the system design has evolved and several updated prototypes have been tested at the UC3M facilities, which will be reflected in this new engineering model that SENER and the UC3M are already developing, thanks to the ESA contract.

The helicon plasma thruster is an innovative technology for electric in-Space propulsion that could be a competitive alternative to the current thruster technologies and therefore awakes the interest of several companies and institutions, including ESA.

The helicon plasma thruster is constituted by an antenna that emits radiofrequency waves in a cylindrical chamber where a hot plasma is generated and a divergent Magnetic Nozzle, where the plasma is supersonically accelerated. This device has no grids, electrodes or solid nozzles, which introduces great improvements in terms of simplicity of operation and extended lifetime. At the same time, the HTP is expected to provide high thrust-to-power ratio per unit than other electric propulsion systems, like ion thrusters and Hall motors, reducing travel times.

Therefore, these kind of thrusters can provide optimum levels of propulsion performance for certain space missions, especially full electric spacecrafts. Given current trends, which are headed toward this type of vehicle, a wide range of missions could benefit from this new technology: in the short term, telecommunications satellites in geostationary orbits, as well as satellites in low-Earth orbit and constellations in medium Earth orbit. And, in the future, higher-power versions of the HPT could be used on manned missions to Mars, orbiting service platforms (like the Space Tug project) or payload vehicles between Earth and the Moon, as well as future programs to remove space debris or refuel in space.

中文翻译 (Chinese translation)

The grant-awarded projects should focus on improving the experience of telecommunication users through six lines of research: the study of the behaviour of the networks and the search for solutions that will improve the network coverage and access speed, the prediction of infrastructure failure, the recommendation of personalised rates, the carrying out of emotional readings through the use of digital textual language, user satisfaction studies and the server performance analysis.

The inauguration event, which took place on the UC3M’s Colmenarejo campus, was attended by several representatives of the UC3M and the company, such as: Meinrad Spenger, Chief Technology Officer of the Group; and Alberto Galaso, the director of HUB Digital. The directors of this new professorship are the lecturers Miguel A. Patricio, Antonio Berlanga and José M. Molina, from the UC3M’s IT department.

This event will provide a forum for the discussion of the hottest topics in robotics. Professor Cecilia Laschi, coordinator of the IROS 2018 Programme Committee, says that "interdisciplinarity and work on the frontiers of knowledge are key elements of modern robotics, which today is organised into multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, sociologists, doctors."

The slogan of this year’s edition, Towards a Robotic Society, reflects the advance of robotic technologies in a technological society. The conference will therefore feature, in addition to the technical presentations, presentations of the latest advances in the coexistence of robots with humans, personal and assistance robotics for people with disabilities and the elderly, human-robot interaction, etc. According to Professor Carlos Balaguer, the chairperson of IROS 2018 and a professor at the UC3M, "we will probably begin to share our daily tasks with robots in much less time than we think, and while this interaction will initially be 'strange', over time it will become increasingly fruitful."

The event will feature more than 1,250 papers, three plenary presentations and 20 main talks by the most prominent researchers in the robotics field, including Professor Marc Raibert, CEO and founder of the Boston Dynamics company. In addition, IROS 2018 will host 48 workshops and 8 tutorials, as well as 10 international robotic competitions in the areas of autonomous cars and domestic robots among others.

This year’s slogan - Towards a Robotic Society - reflects the advance of robotic technologies and their impact on society. For this reason, in addition to the technical presentations, the conference will present the latest advances in the coexistence of robots with humans, personal and service robotics for people with disabilities and the elderly, human-robot interaction, the integration of automatic learning systems, smart robots, the use of cognitive systems, etc. According to Professor Carlos Balaguer, "we will likely begin to share our daily tasks with robots in much less time than we think, and while this interaction will initially feel 'strange', over time it will be increasingly fruitful."

IROS 2018 will be a forum for discussion of the latest issues in robotics. Professor Cecilia Laschi, president of the IROS 2018 Programme Committee, said that "interdisciplinarity and work on the frontier of knowledge is fundamental for modern robotics, which today is organised in multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, sociologists and doctors." In that regard, the conference will be a place for meeting and discussion of the future of robotics for R & D policy makers, scientists, businessmen, sociologists, psychologists, economists and jurists who will discuss employment, roboethics, education and, in general, the social change this new robotic society will generate.

"IROS 2018 in Madrid will be a unique and privileged showcase for the promotion of Spain as a country involved in technological development, digitalisation and innovation," says Professor Balaguer.

IROS is sponsored by the two major robotic science societies in the world: the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) from the USA and the Japan Robotics Society (JRS). It is also supported by the European Union through its Directorate-General for Digitalisation (DGCONNECT). It is also sponsored by the main companies from the sector and related technologies.

The UC3M is an innovative public university which is committed to improving society through cutting-edge research and high-quality teaching, in accordance with the most stringent international guidelines. It is the highest ranking Spanish university and the 22nd worldwide in the QS ranking of the 50 best universities in the world which have been in existence for less than 50 years. It also features in the THE World University Rankings and places highly in the student mobility ranking of the Erasmus+ programme.

The study also points out that if all vehicles on the road in 2016 had passed these obligatory tests, 8800 accidents, more than 7000 injuries and 81 deaths could have additionally been avoided. In economic terms, this would have meant a saving of around 290 million euros.

This report, which is an update of a previous one from 2012 and now includes an exhaust emissions analysis, underlines that MOTs also reduce exposure to atmospheric pollutants, which could prevent around 406 premature deaths every year. In economic terms, this means a saving of 485 million euros (resulting from the avoidance of deaths caused by air pollution). To this figure we would also have to add another 330 million euros that MOTs contribute to road safety in different ways, according to the data released in the study.

For the development of this report, the ISVA of UC3M has evaluated 20.28% of the 13,575,378 MOT tests carried out nationally on cars; 21.55% of the 969,867 carried out on motorcycles and mopeds; and 6.68% of the total number of tests carried out on the 3,374,714 light vehicles intended for the transportation of goods.

Older vehicles are the most unsafe and present a high number of serious defects, especially in the areas of lights and indicators, followed by axles, wheels, tyres and suspension. Furthermore, they are also the most damaging to the environment.

AECA-ITV reminds us that this study has been fuelled by social concern due to the continuous increase in the number of traffic accidents (23% from 2012 to 2016), the impact of pollutants produced by vehicles on citizens’ health and the environment, and how MOTs can contribute to reducing this figure by guaranteeing the correct state and maintenance of these vehicles.

“These results reveal the surprising importance that sound and movement have on body representation. We don’t just feel and see our bodies, we also hear ourselves whenever we interact with solid objects,” explained the main author of the paper, Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, researcher from the UC3M’s Computing Department and UCL Interaction Centre (University College London).

The findings could have implications for studies already using sound for rehabilitation for people with poor proprioception – the sense of the position parts of the body in relation to other parts – including those who have Parkinson’s Disease or have suffered a stroke. “This is a really promising avenue for applications for clinical conditions where people suffer from chronic pain or other conditions linked to distorted mental body representations such as anorexia nervosa”, added Ana Tajadura-Jiménez.

How humans perceive their body size is highly flexible, even beyond the ages when we stop growing. Most previous studies into this used sensory feedback on or about one’s body but this study shows that even the movement of objects around us is used to compute our body size. Although in adults the size of the body does not often change much, the mental representations of these sizes can change very quickly. This "recalibration of the mental representations of the body" has been investigated in many studies that have shown that our bodies try to maintain a representation of the body consistent with the sensory signals received. “As these mechanisms are understood, they inform the design of sound-based technology to support novel therapies for such conditions,” added co-author Professor Nadia Berthouze (UCL Interaction Centre and UCL Psychology & Language Sciences).

Sensory experiment

For the study, three groups of people participated in laboratory experiments: the participants, while standing and blindfolded, were invited to drop a ball from head height. The researchers artificially introduced different delays in the time interval that the ball takes to reach the floor and produce sound and vibrations in the floor. “Results show that as the perceived time it took the ball to hit the floor increased, so too did the participants’ perception of their body height and leg length”, explained co-author Prof Ophelia Deroy, professor at Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich (Germany). In other words, participants felt higher and act like their legs were longer.

“This is not only valuable for clinical applications but could also inform the development of technologies for motion controlled games where players take on a larger character on screen” said another researcher, Dr Norimichi Kitagawa, from The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) telecommunication company.

In this research, in addition to the work developed by UC3M, UCL, LMU and NTT, researchers from the University of London (United Kingdom), the Ritsumeikan University (Japan) and the Yoshika Institute of Psychology (Japan) participated. This research has had the support of the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom, The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad of Spain and the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom.

Bibliographical reference:

Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, Ophelia Deroy, Torsten Marquardt, Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze, Tomohisa Asai, Toshitaka Kimura y Norimichi Kitagawa, Audio-tactile cues from an object’s fall change estimates of one’s body height. PLOS ONE. UC3M e-Archive: http://hdl.handle.net/10016/27120

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

The researchers found that the number of active women on Facebook across countries grows faster with the amount of people with a Facebook account than the number of active men. In addition, they found that countries with a lower Facebook Gender Divide are more rapidly approaching gender equality in economic terms. “We interpret that as an indication that equality in Facebook access might help to close the economic gender gap,” says David Garcia, the first author of the PNAS article. “Women seem to benefit more from using Facebook than men”.

The researchers highlight the significance of the data available on social networks given its enormous potential as a monitoring tool when it comes to examining social problems with cultural, demographic and political implications: "Using this data and through cheap, fast and extensive analyses, we can take a simple snapshot of such significant problems as unemployment, health and the gender gap in hundreds of countries," explains a co-author of the study, Esteban Moro, a professor in UC3M’s Mathematics Department and current visiting professor at MIT’s Media Lab.

"Our study shows how the socio-demographic information available on social networks can be of great value, since it can be used to generate metrics at the global level (such as the Facebook Gender Divide), based on a methodology which is extraordinarily cheap and common to all the countries analysed", points out another of the authors of the study, Rubén Cuevas, from UC3M’s Telematic Engineering Department.

Ranking by country

The Facebook Gender Divide shows that countries with a large gender gap on Facebook are mainly concentrated in certain parts of Africa and Asia (see map). In terms of ranking, the countries with greatest inequality are Chad, Yemen and Bangladesh, where the imbalance in favour of men using Facebook is very strong. On the contrary, ex-Soviet countries such as Moldova and Belarus have the lowest worldwide values of the Facebook Gender Divide. For their part, Spain and the US have a similar values (-0.27 and -0.28 respectively), since women in these countries have a slightly greater tendency to use Facebook than men.

The study, published in the latest issue of PNAS and titled “Analysing gender inequality through large-scale Facebook advertising data”, was carried out by researchers from UC3M, the Complexity Science Hub Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna in collaboration with colleagues from Australia’s national scientific agency, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), the IMDEA Networks Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Further information:

Analyzing gender inequality through large-scale Facebook advertising data. David Garcia, Yonas Mitike Kassa, Angel Cuevas, Manuel Cebrian, Esteban Moro, Iyad Rahwan, Ruben Cuevas. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1717781115

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

For this, they have developed a distributed control system which allows to synchronise and regulate the electrical voltage and frequency of the wind turbines of the offshore wind farm. This allows the transmission of energy to the general network through a HVDC link with a diode rectifier station. "It is less complicated, cheaper and more flexible than other current solutions", explains one of the authors of the patents, Santiago Arnaltes Gómez, head of the UC3M Power Control Group.

This new system synchronises the wind turbines without using any additional element, since it uses the wind turbines’ capacity to contribute to voltage and frequency control. One of key factors is the use of diode rectifier stations, which allow to reduce the cost of the offshore rectifier platform by up to 30 percent, according to some studies. "What we have managed to do is to provide the technical feasibility necessary in order to use this kind of rectifiers, since at the moment wind turbines still cannot work with them," explains another of the authors of the patent, José Luis Rodríguez Amenedo, from UC3M’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

The researchers have developed three patents in relation to this system, which they have validated by means of simulations, small-scale laboratory prototypes and proofs of concept. The next step is its commercialisation and industrialisation. "Our main clients would be large electricity companies that have the capacity to make these diode rectifier stations," said the researchers, who has been supported by the UC3M Science Park in the management and commercialisation of this new technological solution.

Globally, the integration of offshore wind farms into mainland electrical systems is currently being put forward as a way of reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the fact that a significant proportion of the large offshore wind farms planned are located far from the coast, a connection using HVDC links (in direct current) is technically and economically more suitable than a HVAC transmission system (in alternating current).

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

To detect these leaks, Sensia has developed an innovative product that combines two technologies (Sniffer and Optical Gas Imaging) connected via bluetooth which traces and measures the amount of gas emitted. "To carry out an inspection in a facility, we record a video with our devices, which allows us to ascertain with precision whether a fugitive gas emission is occurring or not. If so, we then use other devices that allow us to measure the amount of gas that is leaking," Cortés adds.

With this technology, Sensia is providing a solution to this problem at an affordable price. In addition, its deployment in operation and maintenance tasks could reduce the carbon footprint that stems from gas leaks by up to 70%.

According to the company, the device is intended for industrial use, although it may be used in the home environment for monitoring potential leaks in boilers or vehicles powered by gas, for example.

One of the factors which have facilitated the development of this product is Sensia’s connection to UC3M and its Science Park. This has enabled it to "be at the cutting edge globally," according to Cortés. "Thanks to all the research that has been conducted at the university over many years, ours is the only company in the world providing solutions related to the detection of fugitive emissions which are genuinely affordable," he adds.

After two years of development with European funds, this system is already commercially available. This is one of the most significant accomplishments of Sensia’s GaSeS project and the outcome of the project’s first year in SME Instrument (reference number 756346), a Horizon 2020 call. Horizon 2020 is a European research programme which provides aid to companies for the development of a project through all its phases, from the evaluation and viability of the concept, to its commercialisation and the application of its findings.

Website of Sensia Solutions in the UC3M Science Park

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

The transport network now presented flexibly interconnects distributed 5G radio access and core network functions hosted on in-network cloud nodes. This configuration is achieved through the implementation of a control infrastructure coupled with a unified data plane, encompassing innovative high-capacity transmission technologies as well as novel deterministic-latency switch architectures. "The data plane is like a muscle, while the control infrastructure would be like a brain. Thanks to their integration we can move a huge amount of data in a very short time, and we can do it by controlling how long it takes to perform this process," explains one of the researchers.

“It has been truly an honor to oversee one of the most ambitious 5G transport network research and development efforts to date,” said the Coordinator of the 5G-Crosshaul project, Arturo Azcorra, Professor at the Telematics Department of UC3M and Director of IMDEA Networks. “The successful results of the 5G-Crosshaul project have advanced scientific knowledge and the international standardization of 5G systems. They have ultimately contributed to an increase in Europe’s global competitiveness in 5G.”

The 5G-Crosshaul solution was demonstrated and validated through 18 experiments integrating multiple technology components from the project partners. Real-world trials took place at sites in Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and Taiwan, and delivered sub-millisecond latency, tens of Gbps throughput, and proven energy and cost savings of up to 70%, depending on the deployment scenario. The trials also demonstrated fast service deployment time in the order of minutes, taking advantage of SDN (software-defined networking) and NFV (network function virtualization) concepts.

“The 5G-Crosshaul project has delivered a novel transport network that provides overall resource optimization and brings capital and operational expenditures to a reasonable return of investment,” said Xavier Costa, Head of 5G Networks R&D and Deputy General Manager of the Security & Networking R&D Division at NEC Laboratories Europe. “The level of innovation achieved has set the stage to deliver the huge increase on the available bandwidth and the ultra-low-latency required by the fifth generation of network technologies.”  

Following the final project review that was held at the R&D+i 5TONIC laboratory headquartered at IMDEA Networks and performed by independent experts appointed by the European Commission, the 5G-Crosshaul project was reported to “have fully achieved its objectives and milestones and delivered exceptional results with significant immediate or potential impact”. The EU experts’ report also highlighted the production of 91 scientific publications in several prestigious journals, 74 presentations in international venues, 28 demonstrations (including several made at flagship events such as the Mobile World Congress) and 35 contributions to international standardization bodies, amongst other results.

The report continued to note that “several key innovations have been identified, and some of them have been mapped to products for exploitation. The project has so far registered five patent applications. Future exploitation plans are expected to emerge from the partners, outside the project umbrella and based on these innovations.”

“Throughout its lifetime, the 5G-Crosshaul project has successfully delivered 60-plus technological and informational contributions to the advancement of 5G standards,” said Paola Iovanna from Ericsson and the project’s Innovation Manager. “The project produced radical technological innovations, several directly mapped to products, setting this project as one of the most groundbreaking and unique projects to date.”

“The project’s relevance will go well beyond its impressive track record of having brought together a diverse set of parties from all parts of the 5G ecosystem to deliver advanced research complemented with an innovative set of demonstrations,” said Thomas Deiß, from Mobile Networks, Nokia. “In the ongoing and upcoming 5G rollouts – not just in the EU, but globally - the importance of the transport network must not be overlooked; 5G-Crosshaul made significant contributions towards that recognition, while keeping a holistic perspective on all technologies that are shaping the mobile transport networks of the future.”

This 5G-Crosshaul project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement Nº 671598. For more information on the project please visit: http://5g-crosshaul.eu

Project Azor

The first of these, named Azor, is a system which offers a comprehensive solution for capturing and editing multi-camera video through wireless technology. It was created by the UC3M research group Procesado Multimedia in collaboration with LabHipermedia, a spin-off owned by the University. The technology can be used for recording conferences with several cameras simultaneously or for analysing sporting events without the need for a large amount of technical or human resources or cables. The project innovated the capturing of several video signals at once through a wireless connection and the simultaneous editing of all the signals.

Project GoAll-PervasiveSUB

The second project, named GoAll-PervasiveSUB, was presented by the UC3M research group Softlab and aims to promote accessibility for deaf-blind people through a software which makes communication easier. Deaf blindness is one of the most severe disabilities but this application makes deaf-blind people less lonely and therefore removes one of the main obstacles which affect these people. This innovation makes watching television through GoAll possible. This is a pioneering global application which provides a personalised subtitling system adapted to the reading capabilities of each person.

BIT Audiovisual, organised by IFEMA, is an event open to Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American universities and companies who aim to exhibit the changes and trends in the image and sound sector, as well as drive commercial activity through exhibitions, demonstrations, talks, workshops and training sessions.

Each year, Technovation Challenge challenges these groups of 4-5 members to develop a business plan and a mobile phone application to solve a community problem and to provide a response to a social need related to the areas of education, equality, the environment, health, peace or poverty. Over twelve weeks, from January to April, the participants meet weekly, in person or remotely, to work on their project. They are mentored by volunteers from the world of technology who guide them in this process.

This year, UC3M is hosting the regional competition at which all the teams will present their apps, in a short pitch of about seven minutes, to the rest of the participants and to professionals from the technology sector. Ninety-two teams will take part in the event, which is coordinated and organised by Power to Code, the Technovation ambassador in Madrid and Valencia. Nine of these teams will be chosen as regional finalists and they will attend the worldwide virtual semi-final where the teams who will compete in the international final (Technovation World Pitch) to be held in the summer in the United States will be selected.

Online advertising is a cornerstone of the Internet business model. It supports a vast range of highly used services such as search engines, social networks and maps. It is expected that this year, in the USA alone, online publicity will generate $83 billion. “The MyBubble project aspires to provide greater insight into how online companies generate user profiles and then decide what the user should see,” states another of the investigators, Rubén Cuevas, from the department of Telematics Engineering at UC3M. In general, he adds, the algorithms used today by online services are applied without any transparency and the industry lacks any clear motive to develop effective auditing solutions, making it necessary for other social agents to provide these solutions.”

“We want to see if these so called publicity algorithms create certain filters that foster or include biases (age, income, sex, health) that may be creating bubbles that encourage inequality,”   says another of the project’s researchers, Esteban Moro, professor at the UC3M Mathematics department and visiting professor at MIT Media Lab of Cambridge (USA). This question is particularly important as on the 25th of May, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the European Union will come into force, principal objectives of which are to return control of personal data to the individual and to unify the regulatory framework for multinationals. “We are creating a social experimentation laboratory not to understand individuals but to understand algorithms,” remarks Esteban Moro.

To achieve this, one of the experiments planned in MyBubble is to create a large number of fictitious profiles or “personas” with specific interests and preferences. These programmed bots or “personas” will emulate human users, visiting very carefully chosen websites. These sites will identify the bots as having specific, recognizable behavioral traits. The publicity shown will then be analyzed to create a model of the algorithmic responses of the site. It’s hoped that this will reveal traits within the algorithm, the level of personalization of each user and if the algorithm has the capacity to respond to a user who changes his behavior,” says Manuel Cebrián, from the Scalable Cooperation Group at MIT Media lab.

The “filter bubble” effect is a particularly interesting phenomenon for researchers, as can be seen in the name given to the project. According to Manuel Cebrián, the process appears to work in the following way: “A new website is launched promising its visitors a view intof the real world. It shows you the world, but only through the way you and your friends see it. It then becomes even narrower over time and ends up only helping you to see your friends. Finally the website helps you to see how your friends see you… filter bubbles create an impenetrable mystery: the technology that managed to connect humanity has ended up making reality completely irrelevant.”

Like any other forum for human activity or exchange, Internet should provide a relevant, transparent and secure venue for individuals and companies to interact. The long-term continued viability of the Internet depends on our confidence in it, and this confidence is based on a deep understanding of how it works. Through analyzing and modelling the effect of algorithms on our interactions in the web, participants in the MyBubble project hope to shed light on the influence of a little-known but important factor in deciding what we see and how we spend our money online.

MyBubble is one of the projects selected from the latest call of the MIT-SPAIN “la Caixa” Foundation SEED FUND, which provides support for research projects bringing together universities,research centers and research groups from MIT.

One of the authors of the study, Komi Espoir N'Souglo, pointed out that “we have developed a simple analytical model to shed light into the mechanisms which control dynamic fragmentation in porous metals used in the aerospace industry and the civilian-security sector”. This scientist works in this research line at UC3M within the European research project OUTCOME.

“This work provides a new approach for analyzing and designing structures for which it is important to predict and control the size of the fragments that form when a metallic material fractures under impact loading,” added OUTCOME project coordinator, José Antonio Rodríguez, from the Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis, and coauthor of the paper recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Possible applications

The identification of the mechanisms which control dynamic fragmentation of a material used to build protective structures will lead to the optimization of their manufacturing processes, reducing costs (economic, environmental…) and improving the quality of the final products. For example, in the case of protective structures of industrial facilities such as nuclear power plants, it is very important that these will be capable of withstanding extrememechanical loads such as explosions and impacts without fragmenting, thus maintaining their load-carrying capacity. “This knowledge can also be applied in the design of structures that can easily be fragmented, as in the case of space debris that sometimes falls to the earth’s surface.  In this case, the aim is that during the atmospheric re-entry the space debris will be fragmented so that the structures that eventually reach the earth’s surface are not of a large size,” the researchers explained.

OUTCOME is a project of the European Union Research, Technological Development and Innovation Programme (reference number GA 675602). This research consortium, coordinated by UC3M and formed by SMEs and Universities from Spain, France and Israel, aims to train early stage researchers in the analysis and design of structures subjected to extreme loading conditions, used in the aerospace and civilian-security sectors. These types of structures, such as components and parts of satellites, must be designed to withstand extreme temperatures, which can vary hundreds of degrees in short spans of time and extreme mechanical loads, such as hypervelocity impacts.    

Bibliographic references:

K. E. N’souglo, A. Srivastava, S. Osovski and J. A. Rodríguez-Martínez. Random distributions of initial porosity trigger regular necking patterns at high strain rates. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc R Soc A 0000000 (2018)

Versión en chino (Chinese version)

There are numerous applications for the project results, but the main one is integration of the electronic invoicing process in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for healthcare institutions in order to increase their security and reduce the time to close e-procurement processes. That is, the aim is for electronic invoicing and procurement of suppliers, work and services to be faster and more secure for the different agents involved in the area of European healthcare.  

Within the project’s framework, this team of researchers have been able to improve the interoperability of electronic invoicing through a multi-syntax solution capable of handling invoicing according to multiple standards.  “This system takes into account the different needs of each participant with their own ERP systems and the specifications set out in the European regulation to achieve electronic documents that are semantically interoperable,” explained one of the members of the research team, professor Jesus Carretero, from the UC3M ARCOS group.  

Govein is a research project funded by the infrastructure program, Connecting Europe Facility​ (GA INEA/CEF/ICT/A2015/112967) that includes 19 European partners (both, clients and  suppliers) from different countries, of which nine are end users. This project concluded last November and has presented its pilot project, which will also be extended to other areas of activity.   Future lines of work include amplification of hospital networks which use e- invoicing in Europe and carry out market analysis and business planning to guarantee the sustainability of the action.

Further information: http://govein-project.eu/

"La tecnología Massive MIMO es clave para alcanzar los incrementos de velocidad de datos que promete el nuevo estándar 5G, al tiempo que se reduce el consumo energético de estos sistemas frente a otras alternativas", explican los expertos.

Para preparar el trabajo, los estudiantes de ingeniería de la UC3M han recibido información de los expertos de tecnologías de radio de Vodafone y han visitado el Vodafone Business Experience Center, el centro de experiencias móviles ubicado en Vodafone Plaza donde se muestran soluciones de comunicación en un entorno de máxima tecnología en el que explorar un universo de interactividad e innovación personalizada.

La UC3M y Vodafone tienen también previsto colaborar en temas de investigación relacionados con la aplicación de inteligencia artificial a la mejora de las redes móviles.

5G technology is growing in importance, and it is estimated that in just five years, it will have billions of subscriptions covering 20% of the world’s population. In addition, studies by Ericsson indicate that 5G will be profitable for Spain, generating a market of 23.3 billion euros in 2026 from the application of this technology to the digitalization of industry.

It is expected that talent specialized in 5G will be in great demand in the ICT industry and vertical sectors such as energy, manufacturing, public transportation and tourism. Moreover, educating talent in the most advanced and disruptive technologies of the telecommunications industry will contribute to creating the 5G ecosystem in Spain.

The program has a highly practical component. It will be taught by UC3M engineers and professionals from leading companies in the industry, such as Ericsson, Acciona, Dell and Telefónica, among others. Twenty-five percent of the class hours will be held at the IMDEA Networks laboratory as part of 5TONIC, the top European testbed for 5G technologies. 

The Master’s degree program is modular and is designed for both recent graduates of the areas of ICT and telecommunications professionals who wish to combine it with their work.

Grants for the program will be offered so that recent graduates with excellent academic records can choose to study while doing their internships at Ericsson España. These students have the opportunity to pursue the Master’s degree and carry out their internships under the guidance of highly experienced engineers.

Presentation Ceremony

The Master’s in NFV and SDN for 5G networks was presented today at a ceremony which took place at the UC3M Madrid-Puerta de Toledo campus and was inaugurated by its rector, Juan Romo.  The Rector explained that “in 2015, the University, in collaboration with Ericsson, foresaw the need to create true international specialists in network and service virtualization technologies, specialists who would be able to apply the best theoretical and practical knowledge to virtualization and cloud projects. Such projects are now commonplace in the field of telecommunications and are the backbone of next-generation 5G networks.”

Furthermore, José Antonio López Muñoz, president and CEO of Ericsson España, noted that “5G will be fundamental in the digital transformation of Spain, so we have to develop talent that will make 5G and its use a reality, not only in our industry but also in other sectors. With Carlos III we have already developed 180 specialists in virtualization through our courses on NFV and SDN, and now we are proud to present the first Master’s in 5G.”

Arturo Azcorra, IMDEA Networks director and UC3M professor in the Department of Telematics Engineering, explained: “Network functions virtualization (NFV) technology and software-defined networking (SDN) technology make it possible to export the cloud/edge/fog model to the new generation of 5G communications. In tandem, these technologies make it possible to substitute network nodes based on specific hardware with general-purpose hardware, reaping benefits that include the reduction of infrastructure costs, the rapid deployment of applications, services and infrastructures to achieve the goals set by companies in the shortest time possible, and the creation of new kinds of applications and business models by companies, which benefits them and increases the value of their networks.”

Lastly, Pablo García Estévez, senior expert on innovation at Ericsson España and student in the specialization courses on NFV, SDN and 5G networks, said, “The Carlos III-Ericsson program has demonstrated to me that it has the best researchers and professors on these subjects at the University, along with the participation of the top experts in the industry. In addition, as enrollment is open to employees of other companies and recent graduates, it is a privileged networking point in the Autonomous Region of Madrid for these technologies.”

Other European research projects related to 5G will also be represented at this world mobile technology congress. The researchers of 5G-MoNArch, whose technical director, Albert Banchs, is a Professor in the UC3M department of Telematics Engineering and Deputy Director of IMDEA Networks, will give a multimedia presentation on this technology’s potential.  In this last phase of the project they have prepared two demonstrations of 5G networks running on two prototypes: one in the port of Hamburg (Germany), about a service for real-time and fault-free maritime traffic control; and the other in the city of Turin (Italy), in the Palazzo Madama, focused on the distribution of interactive content capable of meeting the demands of sudden increases in data traffic.  For that purpose, they have already defined a 5G network architecture to make efficient use of so-called ‘network slicing’ techniques, which enable diverse operators to provide different types of service (mobile telephony, augmented reality, sensor networks, live 4K videos, autonomous driving) over the same infrastructure.

In addition, another of the European projects in which the University is participating, 5G Norma, will also be introduced at MWC 2018. “We are trying to orchestrate different technologies in the most efficient way possible, so that the greatest possible number of services can be executed on the same platform, without variations in any of them (for example, high video traffic load) affecting the performance of the rest (for example, the distribution of information among vehicles),” explains Pablo Serrano, from the UC3M Telematics Engineering Department.

These are five of the ten projects in the area of 5G technology with which UC3M participates in the European program Horizon2020. The other five projects related to this technology are the following: FIWIN5G, FLEX5Gware, 5G Exchange, 5GINFIRE and 5RANGE.. In fact, UC3M and IMDEA Networks are pioneers in 5G research in Spain through their joint collaboration in the first laboratory of 5G excellence, 5TONIC, created in 2015.

The Mobile World Congress is the largest event worldwide for the mobile communication industry.  Organized by GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications), it is held from February 26 to March 1 at Mobile World Capital Barcelona. This congress aims to promote the mobile and digital transformation of society in three areas: acceleration of innovation through digital entrepreneurship, digital transformation of industry, and empowerment of citizens through the use of digital technologies. 

In the fair, there will be an exhibit area where participants can find more than 20 stands, sponsored by such  companies as Accenture, Airbus, Autentia, BBVA, Deloitte and Idealista, among others. At the same time, in addition to showing new technologies being used (an application to detect and treat dyslexia, superconductor material in action, a demotics house which interacts with its owner, autonomous vegetable gardens, virtual reality, Hololens, etc), the companies will take advantage of the event to recruit talent and evaluate the CVs of those interested in working and carrying out internships at their organizations.  

Parallel activities

Within the framework, T3chFest, a wide array of parallel activities will take place, featuring contests involving more than 4,000€ in prizes. On February 24, in  La Nave Madrid, there will be a “hackathon” on open data applied to the health field and  the environment,  and a special programming contest for groups of three participants with the presence of IBM. Further information: https://t3chfest.uc3m.es/2018/hackathon/

From February 24 to 27, a programming contest will be organized which allows participation from home. Participants have 48 hours to pass six tests of increasing difficulty with their knowledge in the programming languages that they prefer.

Lastly, UC3M will hold the first classification stage of the Google Hash Code 2018, the international programming context promoted by Google. On the UC3M Leganés Campus there will be a “hub” set up where competitors can meet during the four and half hours of the contest, which will take place on March 1 from 18:00-22:30 p.m.  The teams that score the highest in the online world classification phase will be invited to Google’s headquarters in Dublin to participate in the final phrase of the competition.

Further information: https://t3chfest.uc3m.es/2018/

In these projects and studies the Chair will work in conjunction with a team of expert engineers on the development of a camera from BQ and UC3M GIAA researchers.  In addition, the Chair will foment the education and training of students, offer scholarships and grants and promote development of master’s and doctoral programs related to Artificial Intelligence.

“As a Spanish company, we are committed to the scientific and technological advancement of our society, and the university is one of the principal motors for change.  Our objective is to foment research and technological innovation and foster exchange of knowledge between business and academia”, remarked the assistant general manager of BQ, Rodrigo del Prado.

In attendance at the inaugural event on the UC3M Colmenarejo Campus were Rodrigo del Prado (Assistant General Manager of BQ) and Ravin Dhalani (Chief Technology Officer de BQ). From UC3M participating were the vice-rector of Science Policy, Javier Prieto; the assistant vice-rector from the Colmenarejo Campus,  María del Sol Herraiz; the head of the Computer Science department on the Colmenarejo campus, Belen Ruiz and the GIAA researchers, Antonio Berlanga, José Manuel Molina and Miguel Ángel Patricio.

A large number of scientific studies that are currently being carried out target the design of new topological metamaterials capable of having an adjustable refraction index. This would allow changing and guiding the direction of the waves, which opens the door to materials that divert visible light waves and achieve a certain range of invisibility.

In this study, the researchers have also analyzed some of the challenges faced by the scientists working in this field, such as the impact of some technologies that are currently being developed, such as 3D printing and laser cutting, for example.  “Many of these techniques are still in their early stages,” he observed, but they open up the possibility of combining materials with specific functionalities to obtain hybrid metamaterials with “optomechanical, thermomechanical or electromechanical properties.”

Johan Christensen carries out this line of research on metamaterials within the framework of a broader scientific project, a Horizon 2020 ERC Starting Grant funded by the European Union (GA 714577) termed “Frontiers in Phononics: Party-Time Symmetric Phononic Metamaterials” (PHONOMETA). The objective of the project deals with the analysis and design of a new generation of metamaterials based on piezoelectric semiconductors that enables highly unusual sound propagation, which should enable submarines to act acoustically invisible to sonar.

Bibliographic reference:

Flexible mechanical metamaterials. Katia Bertoldi, Vincenzo Vitelli, Johan Christensen & Martin van Hecke. Nature Reviews Materials 2, article number: 17066 (2017) Published online: 17 Oct. doi:10.1038/natrevmats.2017.66 https://www.nature.com/articles/natrevmats201766

Noticia en chino (chinese version) - Metamaterials

Throughout an individual’s life, above all during embryonic development, a large quantity of cells proliferates, and if necessary, they differentiate.  These cells must migrate to different parts of the human body to carry out their functions. This happens in normal processes (for example, red blood cells migration), as well as in other anomalous processes, such as cancer, when the cells leave the primary tumor to generate metastasis and colonize other tissues.  “Studying the movement and proliferation of cells, we can know how the living being’s organisms work, in normal processes as well as in alterations involved in illnesses, such as cancer,” explained the study’s main author, Carlos Ortiz de Solórzano, Director of the Plataforma de Imagen y del Laboratorio de Modelos Preclínicos y Herramientas de Análisis del Center for Applied Medical Research of the Universidad de Navarra. “The cellular tracking is also a very useful tool for finding out its genealogy, that is, where the cells of an organ come from, so that we can study the initial processes of an illness,” he added.

To understand how cellular migration alters in cancer or other illnesses, or how a metastasis originates “it is often necessary to identify the cells in an individual way and track them over time,” Arrate Muñoz Barrutia explained. The study, published in Nature Methods, is useful for researchers who use cellular tracking methods in their studies.  All of the material used in the Cell Tracking Challenge can serve as a guide to help in decision making regarding which algorithmic solution to use in different cases, thereby obtaining more precise information that contributes to advance knowledge in the biomedical field. “For example, we have confirmed that the algorithms that work best are those that use learning techniques and those that carry out the tracking in its whole taking into account the cell life,” Carlos Ortiz de Solórzano pointed out.

The use of this method has endless applications, according to the researchers.  For example, it can be applied in studies on embryonic development, research on formation mechanisms of different organs and in the response to therapy for different illnesses, such as cancer.  “One of the characteristics of tumor cells is a greater motility and cellular proliferation.  These two aspects can be quantified in a very precise way based on the delineation of the individual cells and the tracking over time,” Muñoz-Barrutia affirmed.

Scientists who have participated in this research are from numerous international institutions, such as the Pasteur Institute (France), the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology of Singapore, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Germany), the Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm (Sweden) and the  universities Delft (The Netherlands), Fribourg and Heidelberg (Germany), Leiden (The Netherlands), London (United Kingdom) Masaryk (Czech Republic), Nottingham (United Kingdom), Oporto (Portugal), Stanford (USA) and Zurich (Switzerland).

Bibliographic Reference: V. Ulman, M. Maska, […], A. Muñoz-Barrutia, M. Kozubek, C. Ortiz-de-Solorzano. An objective comparison of cell-tracking algorithms. Nature Methods, 2017, vol. 14, 1141–1152  https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth.4473

Noticia en chino (chinese version) - cellular tracking

 

The two patents “System for generating electrical power in orbit by means of floating conductor cables” and “System for in-orbit propulsion via floating conductor cables” are based on an electrodynamic effect known as the Lorentz drag. Although in daily life we are more familiar with aerodynamic drag, Lorentz drag can be easily observed by letting a magnet fall inside a copper tube. “Space tethers have been investigated for decades and have flown in more than twenty space missions. Our contribution to this technology comes from a strikingly simple design in which two lightweight aluminum tape deployed from a satellite without any active electron emitter are able to supply power and/or propulsion to a spacecraft. Besides, to make things more efficient, we thought about exploiting the photoelectric effect of the tapes exposed to sunlight. We believe that this is an extremely important simplification which can boost tether technology,” states the other patent author, Claudio Bombardelli, from the UPM Space Dynamic research group.

Possible applications

The system provides useful power in orbit while the satellite deorbits, that is, its altitude is decreased until reentry and burning in the atmosphere. For this reason, “this technology is ideal for eliminating space debris”, the researchers point out. In addition, if the satellite has onboard power, the tether can work the other way around and generate thrust to increase altitude. “This could be an interesting application for the International Space Station (ISS), for instance. Nowadays, a large amount of propellant must be used to reboost the ISS altitude to compensate for the action of the atmospheric drag,” Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga notes. “With a low- work function tether and the energy provided by the solar panel of the ISS, the atmospheric drag could be compensated without the use of propellant”, he adds.

Due to its simplicity, passive character and lack of consumables, the low-work-function tethers represent a promising technology for in-space power and thrust generation, according to the researchers. They have provided information about low-work-function tethers to the European Space Agency and are in touch with experts in the USA and Japan. In addition, important stakeholders in the space sector, such as the Spanish company SENER, showed their interested in this innovation.

The next steps include the extension of the patents to the European area and to start the manufacturing of small-scale prototypes. “The biggest challenge is its manufacturing because the tether should gather very specific optical and electron emission properties,” says Sánchez Arriaga.” “We have been awarded very recently a small research grant by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain to investigate promising materials. We are also coordinating an international consortium and submitted a FET-OPEN R&D proposal to the European Commission. The FET-OPEN project would be foundational because it considers the manufacturing and characterization of the first low work function tether and the development of a deorbit kit based on this technology to be tested on a future space mission. If funded, it would be a stepping stone to the future of low-work-function tethers in space” he concludes.

Patent references:

Sistema de propulsión en órbita por medio de cables conductores flotantes". Autores: Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, Claudio Bombardelli. Cotitularidad: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Patente ES2569540, WO2017081351

"Sistema de generación de potencia eléctrica en órbita por medio de cables conductores flotantes". Autores: Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, Claudio Bombardelli. Cotitularidad: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. PatenteES2562713. WO2017081350

Further information: comercializacion@uc3m.es

Noticia en chino (chinese version) - amarras espaciales

This research focuses on “lateral movement attacks”, which happen when “someone tries to take advantage of a circumstance (in this case, any electric current producing a magnetic field) for  illicit purposes (in this case, the attacker tries to extract the private password from the encryption, to which he theoretically should not have access)”, explained one of the researchers, José María de Fuentes, UC3M Computer Security Lab (COSEC).

Traditionally, they tried to attack the encrypted algorithm, that is, the process to protect data, which normally has a complicated mathematical base.  Later, this type of lateral movement attacks have been developed to seek other ways of breaching security without having to “break” the math upon which it is based. “When the devices are on, they use energy and generate electromagnetic fields.  We try to capture their traces to obtain the encryption key and at the same time, decipher the data,” explained another of the researchers, Lorena González, who is also from the UC3M COSEC.

Digital vulnerability

“We want to make it known that these type of devices have vulnerabilities, because if an adversary attacks them, that is, if someone calculates the password that you are using on your cell phone, it will make you vulnerable, and your data will no longer be private,” affirmed one of the other researchers, Luis Hernández Encinas. Hernández Encinas is from CSIC’s Instituto de Tecnologías Físicas y de la Información – ITEFI (Institute for Physical and Information Technologies).

The basic aim of this research is to detect and make known the vulnerabilities of electronic devices and that of their chips, so that software and hardware developers can implement appropriate countermeasures to protect user security. “Our work then will be to verify is this has been carried out correctly and try to attack again to check it there is any other type of vulnerabilities,” added Hernández Encinas.

The most relevant aspect of the project, according to the researchers, is that an architecture and work environment is being develop in which this type of lateral movement attacks can continue to be explored.  In fact, it is possible to extract encrypted information from other data, such as variations in temperature of the device, the power consumption, and the time it takes a chip to process a calculation.

This research has been carried out in the framework of CIBERDINE (Cybersecurity: Data, Information, Risks), a R+D+i program funded by the Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Board of Education, Culture and Sport) of  the Madrid Autonomous Region and by Structural Funds from the European Union.. Its main objective is to develop technological tools aimed at making cyberspace a safe, secure and trustworthy environment for public administrations, citizens and companies.  For that purpose, this research pursues three broad areas: massive analysis of data networks, cooperative cybersecurity and support systems for decision making in this area.

Bibliographic references:  A Framework for Acquiring and Analyzing Traces from Cryptographic Devices. A. Blanco Blanco, J.M. de Fuentes, L. González Manzano, L. Hernández Encinas, A. Martín Muñoz, J.L. Rodrigo Oliva, I. Sánchez García. Workshop on Security and Privacy on Internet of Things (SePrIoT) 2017. 13th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks. 25th October 2017, Niagara Falls, Canada. http://www.seg.inf.uc3m.es/~lgmanzan/docs/SCAP.pdf

Further information: CIBERDINE program: http://www.seg.inf.uc3m.es/ciberdine

Ciberdine - Noticia en chino (Chinese version)

Afterwards this information is integrated in SigmaQ, a platform that permits accessing the digitalized corridor. “It is like a kind of Google Maps for railroads that allows the geolocation of trains on the tracks,” said Mario Fernández Marín, one of the founders of SigmaRail. “For a train that travels at 300 kilometers an hour, it is very important to know whether a signal, a sign or a curve is 15 meters ahead or behind,” he added. This system also detects possible incidences or obstructions on the tracks.

To be able to recognize the elements installed in the railroad corridor, it is necessary to manage a large quantity of information. For example, according to the company, a 20-minute flight for each drone entails 2 GB of data. If we consider that each unmanned drone operates for six hours a day, terabytes of data are generated every week. This is why processes that streamline and reduce costs are required. “The definition and refinement of our algorithm of image recognition permits automation of all these processes,” said Norberto González Díaz, another of the founders of SigmaRail.

This automation translates into a saving on costs and an increase in safety, for both users and workers. For example, workers will no longer need to access the railroad corridor to check the condition of the tracks, because the software would detect any modification.

This company was founded by three Spanish engineers who work abroad: one in Australia, one in Ivory Coast and one in England. “We decided to come to Spain to set up this project because we think it has a lot of potential,” said a company spokesperson. In fact, they have already collaborated with multinational companies, and the company is the first to fly over the railroad corridor in Spain, thanks to a project with ADIF--Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (Administrator of Railroad Infrastructures).

SigmaRail participates in the ESA BIC Autonomous Region of Madrid-UC3M Node program, a company incubator project of the European Space Agency managed in Madrid by the madri+d Foundation with the support of the regional government. Its objective is to facilitate incentives for business projects and startups that use space technologies or develop applications based on the same to create new products and services. The Company Incubator of the UC3M Science Park is one of the four nodes that comprise the ESA BIC Autonomous Region of Madrid.

Sigma Rail en chino (chinese version)

The innovation of UC3M was awarded in the research and pharmacology category, along with other advances in the health profession: a treatment for HIV, an extravascular skin defibrillator for children, a treatment for schizophrenia, a study about the genome and epigenome of cancer and the discovery of biomarkers in Crohn’s disease.

This new human skin is one of the first living human organs created by bioprinting on the market and replicates the natural structure of skin, with a first external layer, the epidermis with its stratum corneum, which protects against the external environment, and the dermis, which is deeper and thicker. It can be transplanted in patients or used for the research and testing of cosmetic, chemical and pharmaceutical products.

Further information:
Spanish scientists create a 3D bioprinter to print human skin

Este trabajo identifica los principales problemas de accesibilidad con los que las personas con discapacidad se encuentran cuando utilizan aplicaciones chat, como las dificultades a la hora de seguir el flujo de la conversación, por ejemplo. Para solventar esta situación, las investigadoras proponen una nueva funcionalidad: “Pause/Refresh”. Esta  función permite a las personas controlar la recepción de mensajes y mejorar el flujo de la conversación.

El proyecto ESVI-AL pretende reforzar las garantías de acceso a la educación superior para la población con discapacidad y en general.  El objetivo es mejorar la accesibilidad en la educación superior virtual mediante la creación de metodologías que permitan el desarrollo de un modelo de trabajo para el cumplimiento de estándares de accesibilidad dentro de la formación virtual.

4D-Nature,  supported by the UC3M Science Park Business Incubator, has already placed earlier models of the QIs-scope on the world market. The instrument is assembled, marketed and distributed by PlaneLight SL. This innovation is based on a patent owned by the UC3M and licensed by 4D Nature. “Right now there’s no company that offers a team with similar characteristics. Other teams are ten times slower and cannot combine several angular measures in large samples,” said a company spokesperson.

According to its creators, this technology represents the next step in confocal microscopy, which has revolutionized the world of biomedicine in the last two decades. The QIs-scope can capture 200 images a second, compared with the approximately five images per second of a modern confocal microscope. In addition to its speed, it can mark cells or molecular processes with different colors using its four lasers, which can be increased to six. “This makes it possible to monitor up to six different cells or six different cell types in the same specimen,” said Ripoll, who conducts his research at the UC3M Biomedical Imaging and Instruments Group (BiiG).

This machine might help in understanding what occurs at the cellular level in the development of tissue or the internal functioning of organs. “If the cells are marked with fluorescent proteins, you can do a specific monitoring of what happens at the cellular level in each organ,” said Ripoll. “We generate a beam of light with a laser. That beam of light excites a flourescence and when the beam of light is moved, we obtain a 3D image of the specimen we have placed.”

QIs-scope has applications in the sector of biomedical imaging. It is useful in molecular biology research or development laboratories for studying whole organs or in models of in vivo animals. In fact, the measurements of the zebra fish’s heart were taken in collaboration with Nadia Mercader’s group from the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC in Spanish). Also, it might be of interest to clinics and pharmaceutical centers which use the traditional confocal microscope. In addition, it can be used to monitor the quality of fluids and the presence of impurities to make 3D images of transparent materials. It can be applied through the use of other wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum (terahertz or microwave, for example) in images of opaque materials.

The key to the functioning of the QIs-scope lies in the software, because to take measures in different positions of a specimen at a velocity of 200 images per second, it is necessary to coordinate a set of lasers, motors, cameras and filters very effectively. The high measurement speed makes it possible to measure different angles of the specimen. This improves the resolution and the quality of the reconstructed data, but it requires very complex software to combine all these measurements. “Our goal is for the QIs-scope to be easy to use with intuitive software, so that the user can see the specimen and choose where to make the scans, choose the excitation colors and generate a three-dimensional image with as many colors as were chosen.” said Ripoll.

Further information:

4D Nature web site at the UC3M Science Park

Qls-Scope UC3M en chino (chinese version)

In the last European call for ERC grants, Spain was awarded grants for 22 researchers, who will receive an average funding of 1,500,000 euros for a maximum of five years for them to develop to their scientific projects. Among universities in the Autonomous Region of Madrid, UC3M is the most successful in this call thanks to two new Starting Grants awarded to professors Jonas Radl and José Antonio Rodríguez.

Two new ERC research projects

Jonas Radl is a researcher in the UC3M Department of Social Sciences. The research project he will develop within the framework of the ERC is called “Effort and Social Inequality: Advancing Measurement and Understanding Parental Origin Effects.” Understanding that success in life depends on the formula “ability + effort,” the goal is to verify to what degree there are social differences in effort. In this regard, it is known that the cognitive abilities of children are related to, among other factors, family resources, but the role of effort has hardly been studied. To collect data on effort, studies on children in Madrid and Berlin will be carried out to reveal which individuals tend to make greater efforts: those from a privileged social background or those who come from families with fewer means. “The results of this project will help design policies to promote equal opportunities,” said Radl.

José Antonio Rodríguez is a researcher in the UC3M Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis. The research project he will develop at the ERC is called “Opening a New Route in Solid Mechanics: Printed Protective Structures.” This research could help the use of 3D printing to make protection structures, which would drastically reduce costs of production, transport and repair. “This would be a revolution for strategic industrial sectors for Europe, such as aerospace and civil safety, in which mechanical elements of high structural responsibility are frequently subjected to impact loads,” said the researcher.

The University already has six ERC projects (four Starting Grants and two Consolidator Grants) with global funding of more than 8,000,000 euros from the European Research Council through the H2020 Excellent Science program. In general, the participation of UC3M has been very successful. It is in 15th place in Spain for the return obtained in this program and in 7th place among Spanish universities, according to the last report presented by the Center for Technological Industrial Development (CDTI in Spanish). The CDTI pertains to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, which monitored and evaluated participation of Spanish institutions three years after the start of H2020.

Further information:

ERC website: https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2017-starting-grants-results

Through the adoption of eDelivery, a system that provides a wide variety of software services linked to the world of information and communication technologies, “public administrations would be aided in the  exchange of data and electronic documents with other administrations (A2A), companies (A2B and B2A) and citizens (A2C and C2A) in an interoperable, secure, reliable and trustworthy manner,” said Carretero, who heads the ARCOS group and is a professor in the UC3M Computer Science and Engineering Department.

Interoperable documentation and electronic billing system

There are two standout applications in this project. The first makes it possible to have a common system for the secure delivery of electronic documents, which would facilitate, for example, the implementation of the portal for e-Justice, where different European justice administrations could securely exchange judicial documents. Furthermore, the interoperability of electronic billing would be achieved, allowing the exchange of invoices between companies in different European countries with the help of tax agencies and fiscal organizations.

The project faces two main challenges: the difficulties of technical execution and possible organizational complications stemming from processes of consensus and the joint action of the different organizations and institutions involved--“no simple task,” assured Carretero.

MADE (Multiple Access to eDElivery) is a European research project funded through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program, within the call CEF-TC-2016-2-eDelivery (reference number INEA/CEF/ICT/A2016/1278042 - Action number 2016-EU-IA-0063). In this research consortium, which is coordinated by UC3M, some of the participating researchers are from institutions such as Aksesspunkt Norge AS (Norway), BIZbrains A/S (Denmark), eConnect International B.V. (the Netherlands), Intercambio Electrónico de Datos y Comunicaciones SL (Spain), Leading Management Technology SL (Spain), Officient A/S (Denmark), Sendill Is Unimaze Ehf (Iceland) and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain).

Noticia en chino (chinese version) | MADE project

In Cuba, although 96% of the population has access to electricity, in rural areas, only 81%  has it , and this figure is even lower in more remote mountainous regions. Furthermore, 90% of the electricity produced comes from  imported fossil fuels and only 5% comes from clean energies (hydroelectric, wind, photovoltaic and biomass). Electricity coverage in Haiti, meanwhile, is the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean, at 36%. Almost seven million people there do not have access to electricity.

RENet, the Renewable Energies Education Network, is structured as a triangular cooperation network around several lines of work. One is the creation of a post-graduate degree in renewable energies and theoretical and practical education through courses, workshops and exchanges of researchers between member universities. Another is the provision of infrastructures necessary for this education (renewable energies classrooms, research and alternative technologies units). The last one is the creation of academic and research networks in conjunction with civil society, with sufficient forward projection to guarantee RENet’s sustainability, expandability and visibility in the coming years.

Seventy percent of objectives achieved

After almost four years of work, the members have completed 70% of the objectives initially proposed, as was explained at the last meeting of the program members in June in Port-au-Prince (Haiti). The UC3M delegation consisted of Matilde Sánchez, the Vice-Rector of International Relations and Cooperation; Silvia Gallart, the Director of the International Relations and Cooperation Service; Jorge Martínez Crespo, the Director of the RENet project; and team members Agapito Ledezma and Henar Cuadrado.

Eloísa Astudillo, the representative of the project’s main financing entity and head of local development for the EU in Haiti, highlighted the direction of European cooperation policies regarding the Sustainable Development Goals and considers access to clean and affordable energy a key point for guaranteeing sustainable development.

In addition to the UC3M, other institutions of higher education have participated in RENet, like the Université d’État d’Haïti (UEH), and the Universidad de Oriente (UO) and the Higher Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Moa  (ISMMM), both in Cuba. Also, social organizations such as Energía sin fronteras, Cubasolar and the Italian Agenzia per la Promozione de le Recerca Europea have taken part.

Further information: http://renetedulink.net/es/

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/proyectorenet/

BADGER (roBot for Autonomous unDerGround trenchless opERations, mapping and navigation) is a project that incorporates several innovations. The main one is this new application of robotics to an underground environment. Until now, robotics was a field focused especially on walking or rolling surface robots and flying or underwater robots. Autonomous navigation, meanwhile, is another of the project’s strong points, as all the sensors, georadars and computers will be integrated in the machine, which enables them to make a much more precise and controlled exploration of the land. Lastly, the use of ultrasound techniques to perforate the ground, accompanied by a 3D printer on the robot itself to reinforce the tunnel where the cables and tubes lie, also plays an essential role.

Sustainability in cities and support for rescue efforts

According to the researchers, BADGER is a distinctly ecological robot because it enables sustainable transformation of very congested environments such as modern cities. Thus, it will have an intelligent system that allows installations such as wiring or scoring to be built without trenches or the rerouting of traffic. “Given that the whole process will take place underground, noise pollution and contamination will be reduced,” said the researchers.

The implementation of these advanced robotics technologies, with cognitive and control abilities, has multiple applications. “It will notably increase European competitiveness in search and rescue operations (landslides), mining activities, applications with civilian use like water pipes, gas and fiber optics, exploration techniques, mapping, etc.,” Balaguer pointed out.

BADGER is one of the eight projects chosen in the ICT-25-2016 call, from the “Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies” initiative. It is funded through Horizon 2020, the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (reference number GA731968). Researchers from the following groups collaborate on this research consortium, which is coordinated by UC3M: the University of Glasgow School of Engineering (Scotland, the United Kingdom), the Centre for Research and Technology, Hellas (Greece), IDS Georadar S.r.l. (Italy), Singular Logic S.A. (Greece), Tracto-Technik GMbH & Co. KG (Germany) and Robotnik Automation SLL (Spain).

Further information: www.badger-robotics.eu

BADGER_Chinese version

Twitter: @BADGER_project

LinkedIn: BADGER project

The model designed for the Madrid City Council makes it possible to produce a final ranking of neighborhoods (and, as such, of districts) based on the needs identified in each of them. For the ranking, a number of relevant social and economic indicators were assessed, such as employment rates, dependency ratios, educational level, life expectancy, the condition of  infrastructure, gross income per capita, etc. “If, thanks to this system, we identify a neighborhood that has a special situation of vulnerability or rate of development lower than the rest of the city for reasons related to unemployment or education, it will appear high in the ranking and offer us a line of public action to correct that imbalance,” explained Roberto Losada Maestre, one of the researchers, from the UC3M Department of Social Sciences.

The research project, called “Diseño de nueva metodología de determinación del grado de desequilibrio de distritos y barrios y sus necesidades de reequilibrio y obtención de nuevo indicador sintético destinado a mejorar la dotación del Fondo de Reequilibrio Territorial (Design of new methodology to determine the degree of imbalance of districts and neighborhoods and their needs for rebalancing and creation of a new synthetic indicator destined to improving the endowment of the Territorial Rebalancing Fund),  has revealed which of Madrid’s neighborhoods are the most disadvantaged. This vulnerability index orders the 128 neighborhoods from highest to lowest by their rebalancing needs. In the upper echelon of the ranking are neighborhoods such as San Diego and Entrevías (Puente de Vallecas) and San Cristóbal and San Andrés (Villaverde), while places near the bottom are occupied by neighborhoods like El Plantío and Valdemarín (Moncloa-Aravaca), El Viso and Nueva España (Chamartín), Recoletos (Salamanca) and Jerónimos (Retiro).

“These results confirm the perception that most of the imbalances are concentrated in Madrid’s southern zone, although thanks to the system’s level of detail, we have identified the existence of vulnerable neighborhoods in some districts that are ranked high on economic indicators,” said Rubén Sánchez Medero, another of the researchers, from the UC3M Department of Social Sciences. For example, this is the case of the district of Salamanca, where, despite its average income of greater than 55,000 euros, there are neighborhoods that need the help of the FRT, such as Guindalera. Adelfas, in the district of Retiro,is a similar example.

In addition, this system has made it possible to confirm correlations discovered in previous research, such as the one established between “educational level and unemployment, which significantly determine the appearance of vulnerable areas where, in turn, lower values for sustainable urban development are observed,” according to the researchers.

The use of territorial rebalancing funds in urban areas that undergo unequal development has become an indispensable tool for correcting social, economic and environmental inequalities. The allocation of these funds is a complex task that must be conducted in a dynamic and changing environment where needs grow quickly and require taking an ever greater number of indicators into account.

This method might be useful for public decision-makers. Its application for the first time in Madrid opens a promising route, as it allows for greater participation of different actors in this process.  “We used a technology known in the business world as hierarchical analysis, and we applied it via artificial intelligence to an environment where it is not normally used: public decision-making. Thanks to this, it is now possible to fuse the opinions of large numbers of people, who don’t need to be experts on the allocation of budgets or indicators of development,” explained José Manuel Molina, from the UC3M Applied Artificial Intelligence Group. “In the future, we will be able to integrate the opinions of millions of people to adopt decisions based on the largest consensus possible.” In fact, the research team is planning to extend the application of the model to participatory processes that incorporate target actors (mainly citizens) in an orderly way that permits the implementation of participatory public administration models. Ultimately, it is exploring potential developments in a field where artificial intelligence and political science converge.

The presentation, which took place at the UC3M Madrid-Puerta de Toledo campus, was attended by Ángel García Crespo, a UC3M professor and  director of the project; Arancha Díaz-Lladó, the director of Telefónica’s Sustainable Innovation; and Francisco José Trigueros Molina, the president of FASOCIDE. Also in attendance was a group of deaf-blind persons who gave a demonstration of how this technology works.

PervasiveSUB, financed by Telefónica, was developed by the research group at the UC3M Pedro Juan de LastanosaInstitute of Technological Development and Promotion of Innovation. García Crespo, who headed the group, stated that “one of the big problems deaf-blind persons face is the scant attention they receive, which is demonstrated by the fact that they weren’t recognized by the European Parliament until 2004.” 

Díaz-Lladó said, “At Telefónica we endeavor to become a more accessible company and that way contribute to equal opportunities for all. And although we still have a long way to go, the new inclusive technologies and the digital revolution are the best means to help us get there.”

A group of deaf-blind users from FASOCIDE was asked to try this innovative software in Spain and the United States, with very satisfactory results. All the people who have tried it highlight the advantage of being able to access information they previously could not, in real time and without intermediaries, and they have also praised its ability to transmit to Braille lines and the ability to adjust the reading and viewing speed.

Given the success of these tests, the technology has already been implemented on all the national DTT channels and regional DTT channels in Madrid, and it will soon be available in the other autonomous regions of Spain. The research team is now providing this service free of charge to anyone who needs it. Interested parties need only to download the GoAll app, available on ¡OS and Android.

Deaf-blind persons suffer a combined deterioration of sight and hearing, which impedes their access to information, communication and mobility in a way that seriously affects everyday abilities necessary for a minimally independent life. This is why they require specialized services, personnel trained specifically to care for them and special methods of communication.

In Spain, there are around 20,000 deaf-blind persons. To interact with their surroundings, they need the constant presence of an interpreter through whom any visual or auditory stimuli must pass. However, from now on, and thanks to research of the sort done at UC3M, they will be able to receive television broadcasts first-hand and directly in real time and in the same conditions as everyone else.

MOOCs are free courses for any kind of academic or socio-professional profile. Their quality is guaranteed by the institutions that offer them. They can be used as a supplement by residential students, orientation for future students and, of course, to disseminate knowledge openly and globally. MOOCs have revolutionized traditional education  systems, as they make it possible not only to offer quality open global education, but also contribute to improving traditional teaching on campuses through SPOCs—Small Private Online Courses.

This trend in online courses, which utilize state-of-the-art technologies from the audiovisual world and the most innovative teaching, has traditionally been led by universities in the USA and Europe, with many of the open courses in English. However, Spanish-speaking countries have in recent years made a strong commitment to reinforcing the presence of Spanish in this field. The recent “State-of-the-art Report on the Adoption of MOOCs in Higher Education in Latin America and Europe,” a result of the MOOC-Maker Project, estimates there were around a thousand MOOCs created by institutions in Spain and Latin America at the beginning of 2005, with more than half of those produced in Spain.

In the context of this initiative to reinforce and expand Spanish in this type of platform, the MOOC sessions will be held in Spanish on the last day, May 26th. It intends to be a forum for meeting and debate in Spanish about the latest advances with regard to research on MOOCs, and for sharing innovative experiences in different contexts and areas of knowledge.

MOOCs are an essential element in the activities outlined in the UC3M Strategic Plan 2016-2022.  SInce February 2014, the University has been a member of edX, the non-profit digital education platform that has become an international model. It is promoted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to offer MOOCs. Moreover, the UC3M has been part of miríadaX since its inception in 2013, when this platform was created. It was initially run by Telefónica Educación Digital and Universia, which has become the standard in Latin America.

Further information about the EMOOCs conference:

http://emoocs.eu

Social Media:
Twitter: @emoocssummit #EMOOCs2017
Vídeo EMoocs 2017 Social Media: https://youtu.be/NDP-DQ4g94o

This new platform can also collect, filter and aggregate information from social networks such as Twitter to Improve the response to emergencies like accidents, hurricanes and earthquakes. When an emergency occurs, the information that is posted on social networks can be very useful. As direct witnesses of the situation, people share photos, messages and videos about events that attract their attention. At an emergency operation center, this information can be collected and integrated into the management process to improve the general understanding of the situation and to improve the response operations.

The problem lies in making critical decisions taking into account the volume and quality of the  information spontaneously posted in social networks. How can emergency operators understand it and verify it without wasting time? The answer is an intelligent tool that can compile, analyze and extract relevant information. “Our system addresses the relevance of the information via an innovative method based on ontologies, which enables us to filter “tweets” and extract significant subjects according to their semantics,” explained Teresa Onorati, another researcher from the UC3M Department of Computer Science. With this approach, they manage to “separate the wheat from the chaff” in the deluge of content that circulates on social networks.

This smart system, developed at the UC3M Interactive Systems Group, can filter the most important data and represent them through different visualizations so that operators can make decisions more easily and quickly. There are already various monitoring and visual analysis tools that combine techniques of visualization and geographical maps, but which encounter difficulties in interpreting the language used in “tweets,” given that their content can be inaccurate or irrelevant. In this study, published as an open-access article in the journal SpringerPlus, a semantic categorization organizes tweets using relevant terms belonging to the following seven concepts: emergency, evacuation, media, hashtags, time, place and general. For example, the word “hurricane” would be related to the description of the emergency, while “New York” would be the place. “In this way,” explained Dr. Onorati, “emergency operators can choose the subject they’re most interested in or reach interesting conclusions about the flow of information.”

Citizen Participation in the Handling of Catastrophes

This new intelligent tool can be integrated into an emergency center and become an effective basis for making decisions. “It prevents distracting operators and wasting resources and time, given that the visualizations represent how the situation is evolving,” said Prof. Díaz. The next step is to test the system in real time so that civil protection agents can evaluate the performance of the tool. “We are currently exploring with official organizations how to use this technology for processes like early warning, where citizen participation can be integrated to collect information and involve groups with different levels of credibility. Our approach to classifying participants and the intelligent filtering of information seems appropriate in this context,” said Prof. Díaz.

Semantic categorization and visualizations are a key factor, because information can be interpreted according to the characteristics of the situation. “As shown in the two study cases (the Nepal earthquake and Hurricane Sandy), the visualization technique must be chosen depending on the volume of information generated and its semantic categorization,” said Dr. Onorati. In fact, they are planning to test different visualizations with the same collections of data and compare the reaction times of emergency workers in operational centers to optimize their functioning.

The research, which is funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, was carried out within the framework of the emerCien project (TIN2012-09687). This project aims to integrate technologies to promote citizen participation in emergency management. From a theoretical point of view, the semantic analysis is based on standard techniques of data mining, which would make the tool adaptable to other domains and applications, like politics or marketing. “Other researchers could apply our methodology based on ontologies, adequately changing the knowledge base to obtain significant subjects according to predefined criteria of relevance,” said Dr. Onorati. Marco Romano, who is another researcher from the Interactive Systems Group and is working on updating the prototype, said, “With the goal of improving citizen participation, we’re thinking about how to apply techniques of gamification to the prototypes that we have created.”

Bibliographical references:

“Coproduction as an Approach to Technology-Mediated Citizen Participation in Emergency Management,” Paloma Díaz, John M. Carroll and Ignacio Aedo. Future Internet, 2016, Volume3, number 3, 41. DOI:10.3390/fi8030041

“Giving meaning to tweets in emergency situations: a semantic approach for filtering and visualizing social data,” Teresa Onorati, Paloma Díaz. SpringerPlus, 2016, Volume 5, Number 1, Page 1. DOI: 10.1186/s40064-016-3384-x

New multi-device system for handling emergencies with information from social networks (Chinese version)

The EUR-ACE accreditation is considered the most prestigious that an engineering degree in Europe can obtain. Under the auspices of the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE), it guarantees the quality of engineering studies programs in Europe. The international recognition of the EUR-ACE accreditation label by universities and companies facilitates the academic mobility and employability of students from the UC3M School of Engineering.

Researchers from the UC3M Department of Systems Engineering and Automation and developers from WRG’s Department of Corporate Social Responsibility are working on the project, which started last year and is expected to last until 2018. However, there is already an initial version of the prototype. “It is a version zero of the user interface for the robot’s movement and reception of images captured by a built-in camera the robot has,” the company indicated.

“The implementation of this first robot requires techniques for navigation, localization, perception and interaction with the surroundings and people, which helps strengthen the group’s line of research,” said Ramón Barber, head of the Chair and professor in the UC3M Department of Systems Engineering and Automation. In fact, the Chair, which has already funded and supported several research grants, is a chance “to take the University’s lines of research to the real world, where robotics will gradually become more integrated into our life and into our leisure in particular” he added.

According to the director of WRG, Diego de la Concepción, having this Chair is an honor. “At our company, we have innovated the way that young people have fun, surprising them with new plots. With this Chair, we want to go further, continuing to innovate, so that we can incorporate robots into our events,” he said.

One of WRG’s most popular “real games” is Survival Zombie, which combines sports, gymkhana and interactive theater. When night falls, the players turn into survivors that must pass trials and avoid capture by zombies in the setting of an urban apocalypse.

Further information:

Cátedra WRG Robots y Tecnología 

Robotics Lab UC3M

www.worldrealgames.com

Durante el evento tendrán lugar tres mesas redondas para tratar la relación de la EPS con la docencia, la investigación y la transferencia. Además, se entregarán los premios del concurso de vídeos para alumnos. Con este acto concluyen las actividades que la EPS ha realizado en los últimos meses para celebrar sul 25 aniversario.

En palabras del director de la EPS, Daniel Segovia, desde el nacimiento de la Escuela en 1991, “la EPS se ha convertido en una de las grandes escuelas de ingeniería de España, habiendo formado ya a más de 13.000 excelentes ingenieros”.

Más información: 25 Aniversario de la EPS

The study will attempt to evaluate the ability of mesenchymal stem cells to improve the healing of wounds, which, because of the disease, appear on the person affected at the slightest touch. The study, led by doctors Raúl de Lucas (La Paz Hospital) and María José Escámez (CIBERER/CIEMAT/UC3M/IIS-FJD), is pending approval by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS, in Spanish) and has funding of 308,000€, 80,000€ of which will be contributed by the DEBRA patients association.

In addition, the DEBRA is going to cover the hiring of a molecular geneticist in 2017 to improve access of persons with Butterfly Skin to genetic diagnostics. Having this kind of diagnosis is of vital importance for both the persons affected and their families, because it makes it possible to determine clearly what type of epidermolysis bullosa they have among the different varieties, providing prognostic value.

About Butterfly Skin

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB), or Butterfly Skin, is a clinical and genetically diverse group of rare skin diseases that make skin extremely fragile. It is characterized by the formation of external and internal (mucous) blisters , spontaneously or as a result of minimal trauma (the graze of the seams of clothes, water from the shower, walking, etc.). The inheritance patterns of EB are autosomal recessive or dominant. The dominant forms are normally mild and the recessive ones are more severe. One of the most serious forms is severe generalized recessive dsytrophic epidermolysis bullosa, which is characterized by a marked diminishing or complete absence of Type VII collagen in dermal-epidermal union caused by mutations in the COL7A1 gene. Type VII collagen plays a fundamental role in cutaneous anchoring. In these cases, the patient’s entire body is affected and the wounds heal slowly, giving rise to physical deformations that include the appearance of pseudosyndactyly (fusion of the digits) on hands and feet, with the resulting functional loss and deterioration of the patient’s quality of life. Currently, different therapeutic strategies are being evaluated, including the transplant of bioengineered skin and the transplant of bone marrow. In Spain, the incidence of EB is 1 in every 50,000 live births; that is, 10 children are born with Butterfly Skin per year. It is currently prevalent in 2 out of every 100,000 people, so there are an estimated 1,000 cases of Butterfly Skin in Spain.

At present, as an ever-increasing amount of information is collected and stored, scientific data management faces a problem: the software that manages the latest generation of supercomputers was not designed for the scalability requirements that are expected in coming years. In fact, in less than a decade, these infrastructures are going to be two orders of magnitude faster than current supercomputers.

“Today, these applications are encountering big problems of performance and scalability due to the exponential increase of data as a result of better instruments, the growing ubiquity of sensors and greater connectivity between devices,” explained professor Florin Isaila, from the group ARCOS in the UC3M Department of Computer Science. “These days, a radical redesigning of the computational infrastructures and management software is necessary to adapt them to the new model of science, which is based on the massive processing of data.”

The objective of the CLARISSE project, whose acronym stands for “Cross-Layer Abstractions and Run-time for I/O Software Stack of Extreme-scale systems,” is just that: to increase the performance, scalability, programmability and robustness of the data management of scientific applications with the goal of offering support to the design of next-generation supercomputers. To this end, the program, coordinated by UC3M, is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013, under the agreement of grant number 328582), along with the collaboration of the Argonne National Laboratory, one of the world leaders in the research and development of systems software for large-scale supercomputers.

Historically, data management software has been developed in layers with little coordination in the global management of resources. “Nowadays, this lack of coordination is one of the biggest obstacles to increasing the scalability of current systems. In this regard, in CLARISSE, we research solutions to these problems through the design of new mechanisms for coordinating the data management of the different layers,” said professor Isaila.

Jesús Carretero, the project’s main researcher, UC3M full professor and head of ARCOS, explained, “At present, ARCOS is actively involved in several initiatives around the world to remodel the management software of future supercomputers, including the coordination of the CLARISSE project and the research collaboration network NESUS. The resulting synergies of these efforts are going to contribute substantially to accelerating scientific discoveries in the coming decades.”

Further information: http://arcos.inf.uc3m.es/~florin/clarisse

CLARISSE noticia en chino (chinese version)

This new human skin is one of the first living human organs created using bioprinting to be introduced to the marketplace. It replicates the natural structure of the skin, with a first external layer, the epidermis with its stratum corneum, which acts as protection against the external environment, together with another thicker, deeper layer, the dermis. This last layer consists of fibroblasts that produce collagen, the protein that gives elasticity and mechanical strength to the skin.

Bioinks are key to 3D bioprinting, according to the experts. When creating skin, instead of cartridges and colored inks, injectors with biological components are used. In the words of Juan Francisco del Cañizo, of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón and Universidad Complutense de Madrid researcher. “Knowing how to mix the biological components, in what conditions to work with them so that the cells don’t deteriorate, and how to correctly deposit the product is critical to the system.” The act of depositing these bioinks, which are patented by CIEMAT and licensed by the BioDan Group, is controlled by a computer, which deposits them on a print bed in an orderly manner to then produce the skin.

The process for producing these tissues can be carried out in two ways: to produce allogeneic skin,  from a stock of cells, done on a large scale, for industrial processes; and to create autologous skin, which is made case by case from the patient’s own cells, for therapeutic use, such as in the treatment of severe burns. “We use only human cells and components to produce skin that is bioactive and can generate its own human collagen, thereby avoiding the use of the animal collagen that is found in other methods,” they note. And that is not the end of the story, because they are also researching ways to print other human tissues.

There are several advantages to this new technology. “This method of bioprinting allows skin to be generated in a standardized, automated way, and the process is less expensive than manual production,” points out Alfredo Brisac, CEO of BioDan Group, the Spanish bioengineering firm specializing in regenerative medicine that is collaborating on this research and commercializing this technology.

Currently, this development is in the phase of being approved by different European regulatory agencies to guarantee that the skin that is produced is adequate for use in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems. In addition, these tissues can be used to test pharmaceutical products, as well as cosmetics and consumer chemical products where current regulations require testing that does not use animals.

Bibliographic reference:

3D bioprinting of functional human skin: production and in vivo analysis. Nieves Cubo, Marta García, Juan Francisco del Cañizo, Diego Velasco, José L. Jorcano. Biofabrication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1758-5090/9/1/015006

Noticia en chino (chinese version)

Using magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists have been able to show that the brains of women who have undergone a first pregnancy present significant changes in regions associated with social relations.

The researchers believe that such changes correspond to an adaptive process of functional specialization towards motherhood. “These changes may reflect, at least in part, a mechanism of synaptic pruning, which also takes place in adolescence, where weak synapses are eliminated giving way to more efficient and specialized neural networks”, says Elseline Hoekzema, co-lead author of the article. According to Erika Barba, the other co-lead author, “these changes concern brain areas associated

In order to conduct the study, researchers compared magnetic resonance images of 25 first-time mothers before and after their pregnancy, of 19 male partners, and of a control group formed by 20 women who were not and had never been pregnant and 17 male partners. They gathered information about the participants during five years and four months.

The results of the research directed by Òscar Vilarroya and Susanna Carmona demonstrated changes in the medial frontal and posterior cortex line, as well as in specific sections of, mainly, prefrontal and temporal cortex in pregnant women. “These areas correspond to a great extent with a network associated with processes involved in social cognition and self-focused processing”, indicates Susanna Carmona, coordinator of neuroimaging section in the Medical Imaging Laboratory, that has researchers from the Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering of UC3M and the Institute of Sanitary Research in Gregorio Maranon Hospital.

The analyses of the study determine with great reliability whether any woman from the study had been pregnant depending on the changes in the brain structure. They were even able to predict the mother's attachment to her baby in the postpartum period based on these brain changes.

The study took into account variations in both women who had undergone fertility treatments and women who had become pregnant naturally, and these changes were practically identical in both groups.

Researchers did not observe any changes in memory or other cognitive functions during the pregnancies and therefore believe that “point to an adaptive process related to the benefits of better detecting the needs of the child, such as identifying the newborn's emotional state. Moreover, they provide primary clues regarding the neural basis of motherhood, perinatal mental health and brain plasticity in general”, says Oscar Vilarroya.

Elseline Hoekzema (researcher at the UAB at the time of the study, but currently working at Leiden University) and Erika Barba-Müller (UAB) are the lead authors of the article published in Nature Neuroscience.

The study was directed by Susana Carmona [researcher at the UAB at the time of the study and now at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, IiSGM and affiliated to the CIBER of Mental Health (CIBERSAM)] and co-directed  by Òscar Vilarroya, from the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit of the Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine at the UAB, and coordinator of the research group Neuroimaging of Mental Disorders at the IMIM Foundation. Also collaborating in the research were Cristina Pozzobon, Florencio Lucco and Agustín Ballesteros (Valencian Infertility Institute, IVI); Marisol Picado (Hospital Clínic); Eveline A. Crone (Leiden University); David García-García and Manuel Desco (University Carlos III and Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid); and Juan Carlos Soliva and Adolf Tobeña (UAB).

Tras la entrega de las nuevas Becas Alumni, cuyo objetivo es posibilitar que jóvenes de toda España con buen expediente académico puedan estudiar en la UC3M, tendrá lugar un encuentro entre antiguos alumnos, empresas invitadas y profesores.

Durante el evento los asistentes podrán visitar una exposición fotográfica sobre cómo ha cambiado la EPS durante sus 25 años de existencia. Además, se ha preparado una área de exhibición de diversos prototipos en los que se trabaja en los laboratorios de la EPS, como: una motocicleta de competición del equipo Moto­-Maq-Lab-­UC3M, un monoplaza estilo Fórmula 1 del proyecto Formula Student UC3M, un dron sensorizado del departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones, prototipos de robótica asistencial de KUKA Robotics y del Robotics Lab o un dron de inspección y un carro de golf autónomo sin conductor, ambos del Laboratorio de Sistemas Inteligentes de la UC3M.

Más información: II Encuentro de Antiguos Alumnos de Ingenierías

El objetivo de esta iniciativa es despertar el interés de niñas y jóvenes por los estudios de ingeniería, acompañarlas y apoyar su incorporación a este entorno profesional y motivarlas en su promoción hacia puestos de responsabilidad y alta dirección. En concreto, consiste en un plan de acompañamiento, asesoramiento y apoyo en dos niveles: tanto a las estudiantes recién llegadas a la universidad, como a las que están a punto de finalizar sus estudios y aventurarse en el entorno profesional. Para ello, la RAI trabaja conjuntamente con la EJECON, cuenta con el apoyo de la Comunidad de Madrid, el Fondo Social Europeo, el Instituto de la Mujer, la Red de Mentoring de España, el patrocinio de la Fundación Caja de Ingenieros y la colaboración de la UC3M y la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), donde también se ha presentado este proyecto.

La UC3M cuenta, entre grados y másteres oficiales de estudios de ingeniería, con algo más de 7.000 estudiantes, 1.577 de los cuales (el 22,35 por ciento) son mujeres. En general,  el porcentaje de mujeres en las universidades y escuelas politécnicas raramente supera el 25 por 100. Esta cifra resulta muy baja si se tiene en cuenta que, según previsiones de la Unión Europea, el sector tecnológico va a necesitar un gran número de titulados en STEM (Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería, Matemáticas).

The design of low-latency wireless communication systems is a great challenge, since it requires a different focus than that which is used in current high-speed data transmission systems.  “The project seeks to establish the theoretical framework necessary to describe the fundamental tradeoffs in low-latency wireless communications,” Koch explained. “This enables the design of novel systems that employ resources such as bandwidth and energy more efficiently.”

Current wireless communication systems exchange packets of several thousand bits and include large correction codes to protect them against transmission errors. “What we do is to include additional bits to correct possible errors,” Koch stated. In this way, the reliability of the system is guaranteed (what is transmitted is what is received). However, future low-latency systems will exchange information in a much quicker way (almost in real time) and, hence, exchange packets of only a few hundred of bits (a much smaller size), which requires the design of novel correction codes of a shorter length.

Put differently,  it is like transporting goods in thousands of cars instead of dozens of trucks.  For that purpose, it is necessary to design new correction codes that allow the cars to stay on track when there are driving mistakes.  “If we have to send many packets, we can decide if we store them in a warehouse and later send all of them in a truck, or if we send the packets one by one in a car,” Koch explained. With the truck, it would take longer because you would have to wait to complete the load, but its advantage is that larger and stronger security systems (correction codes) can be employed because we have more space.  In contrast, transportation by car would be faster because each packet could be sent the moment that it arrives at the warehouse, but then codes must be used that are not as strong.

This simile is related to some applications for this kind of technology. In the future, vehicles will be interconnected wirelessly, inter alia, to avoid accidents. To this end, communication needs to occur in almost real time (with a delay of not more than 10 milliseconds), researchers point out. Furthermore, low-latency wireless communications will be used in 5G networks, and applications can be found in many industrial processes.  

This project, which starts on March 1, 2017 and has a duration of five years, will receive funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 714161).

Noticia en chino (chinese version) - wireless Tobias Koch

The application, which was recently launched and is currently available for Facebook and Google Chrome  browser helps to visualize, in real time, the advertising revenue being generated by a user while he/she is navigating on the social network. In order to use it, the user simply needs to download the application and enter some basic identity data (age, gender, relationship status, interests and country, etc.), so that the tool can identify the profile’s economic value on the advertising market, a volatile sector subject to widely varying supply and demand.

“Evidently, each of us has a different market price according to our profile, so the tool will give you an estimate of what you are generating,” say brothers Ángel and Rubén Cuevas, UC3M professors and the developers of this innovation, along with doctoral student José González. “When you connect to Facebook and receive an ad, what we do is obtaining its  associated value, the price that those advertisers pay for displaying those ads or each ‘click’ that you make on one of those ads,” they explain. “The average cost of a user in Spain comes out to be roughly half of the cost of a user in the US, but it’s important to understand that the value changes over time,” they add.

Facebook continually earns money from advertising, “even when the internaut who is on the platform doesn’t click on the ads,” they explain.  “The advertising sector increasingly “profiles down to the last detail” their potential customers, who they direct personalized ads to based on their personal characteristics, in order to improve the return of their investment,” assures Ángel Cuevas. There must be "a balance" between this personalization of advertising (which can be expressly agreed to by users in order to improve their experience) and the guarantee of maintaining basic rights, he adds.

It is important that the companies that manage advertising be transparent in how they handle other people’s data, these researchers insist. “We don’t want to demonize Facebook, Google, or any other platform for generating income through advertising, a sector that is undoubtedly generating economic growth and employment,” they affirm. What they do insist on is that companies exploiting personal information must act with transparency when they report what they do with the data they get from third parties.  

Companies such as Telefónica R&D, EURECAT, la Asociación de Usuarios de Internet (AUI- The Association of Internet Users) and IAB Europe  are part of the international consortium behind the European Project called TYPES, with Spanish participation being around 50 percent. Companies from Germany, Greece and Israel also participate in this project, which is funded through the European Union framework research program Horizon 2020 (reference number 653449).

Noticia en chino (chinese version) - Facebook

Como parte del programa expositivo, se puede destacar la presencia de los modelos más avanzados de robótica colaborativa, como: YUMI, de ABB; TIAGo, de PAL Robotics (desarrollado y fabricado por una empresa española); el brazo de Universal Robots; el robot colaborativo de KUKA, IIWa; y plataformas móviles utilizadas en logística.

También se realizarán demostraciones con robots enfocados a robótica social con los que trabaja la UC3M: MBot y Mini Maggie, que se utilizan en proyectos de robótica social con ancianos, personas dependientes y niños ingresados en hospitales. Por otra parte, se realizarán demos de drones profesionales a cargo de la empresa Dronetools, empresa española que fabrica drones a medida.

“La robótica es una herramienta potente y está en nuestras manos, en las de todos, decidir qué queremos hacer con ella. Y de eso trata la Semana Europea de la Robótica, de acercar a todos esta potentísima y fascinante herramienta, de disfrutar juntos construyendo y programando robots, de plantearnos preguntas, de compartir dudas e ideas con los expertos”, explica Lía García, profesora de la UC3M y coordinadora del grupo temático de robótica educativa de Hisparob, sobre el que recae el peso de la coordinación nacional de la Semana Europea de la Robótica.

Más información: http://jornada.robotica.hisparob.es/wp/

El taller, patrocinado por el  Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, se centra en las tecnologías de comunicaciones vía radio y se presentará un prototipo de transmisión LiFi de baja velocidad que permite entender los aspectos prácticos de la tecnología. En el LiFi la información se envía mediante variaciones en la intensidad de la luz: “De un modo simplificado, encendiendo y apagando la luz podemos transmitir un “1” ó un “0” y lo hacemos a tal velocidad que resulta imperceptible para nosotros”, explica la profesora García Armada.

El Li-Fi tiene diversas ventajas, pero la fundamental es la velocidad: el rápido parpadeo de los LED, imperceptible para la vista, permite velocidades de transmisión teóricas en el orden de gigabits por segundo (Gbps), es decir, entre 100 y 1.000 veces más rápido que las redes Wi-Fi actuales. “Ya existen productos LiFi de cientos de Megabits por segundo, pero para las grandes velocidades habrá que esperar todavía unos 2 años”, comenta la experta. “Conseguir muy altas velocidades requiere algoritmos avanzados de procesado de señal, el uso de varias fuentes LED simultáneas y la gestión de las interferencias”, afirma.

Este evento forma parte de la Semana de la Ciencia de la UC3M, que este año propone más de una veintena de actividades gratuitas de divulgación científica del 7 al 20 de noviembre de 2016, entre visitas guiadas, talleres, jornadas de puertas abiertas, charlas, etc. Más información: www.uc3m.es/semanaciencia2016

o  Título de la actividad: La revolución de las comunicaciones móviles: del WiFi al LiFi
o  Día de celebración: viernes 11 de noviembre
o  Horario: 13 a 19h
o  Lugar de celebración: campus de Madrid-Puerta de Toledo de la UC3M. Aula 2.A.02. Ronda de Toledo, 1. ¿Cómo llegar? https://goo.gl/maps/uPcAZhfhrcM2
o  Aforo: 80 personas.  
o  Es necesario reservar enviando un e-mail a agarcia@tsc.uc3m.es

Se trata de la primera iniciativa que ofrece una inserción laboral bajo demanda en función de las necesidades del mercado. En este sentido, Vector ITC Group ha colaborado con la Fundación Alma Tecnológica en la elaboración de los perfiles profesionales tecnológicos más solicitados en la actualidad, entre los que destacan: técnico de sistemas, técnico de digitalización documental, técnico de pruebas y asistente de equipos técnicos. Al mismo tiempo, han seleccionado los contenidos que han sido impartidos por la UC3M en el marco de este curso.

Con la puesta en marcha del proyecto CAT, promovido e impartido por la UC3M a través de su departamento de Informática junto con la Fundación Alma Tecnológica, se pretende contribuir a la mejora de la integración social de las personas con discapacidad  intelectual, ofreciendo formación ad hoc con programas especiales y adaptados. La didáctica de las clases se sustenta en una mecánica donde la presentación detallada de los contenidos y la práctica de los mismos de forma estructurada ayudan a que tenga éxito la formación. Además, el personal de apoyo y el profesorado son dos factores claves en el desarrollo exitoso de la Cátedra.

Los cursos impartidos se han centrado en la formación ofimática, sistemas de seguridad, aplicaciones informáticas, búsqueda avanzada en internet, herramientas de trabajo colaborativo y en el manejo de diferentes sistemas multimedia, entre otras materias. Además, el equipo docente ha realizado un estudio de investigación basado en los resultados obtenidos, en el aprendizaje y la experiencia de los estudiantes, así como en la suyas propias, en aras de aprender, innovar y mejorar resultados para futuras promociones de la Cátedra.

La SIOMMS’16 aborda un amplio abanico de cuestiones de naturaleza muy diversa dentro del ámbito de la ingeniería mecánica: desde análisis estructurales y síntesis de mecanismos o cinemática de los mecanismos hasta ajuste de características dinámicas o equilibrio de masas giratorias; pasando por análisis de fuerza de los mecanismos, apalancamiento o cinemática de mecanismos planos.

“Todo esto se realiza con el objetivo de divulgar los conocimientos y las innovaciones en el campo de la Teoría de Máquinas y Mecanismos y lograr atraer así talento para dar continuidad a los trabajos a desarrollar, tanto en la empresa como en los centros de investigación”, comentan los miembros del comité local del evento, bajo la dirección del departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica de la UC3M.

III edición de la SIOMMS

Esta es la tercera edición de la SIOMMS, de manera que la UC3M hereda así la experiencia de las ediciones previas, celebradas en 2011 en la Izhevsk State Technical University (ISTU), Rusia, y en 2013 en la Universidad de Shangai Jiao Tong (SJTU), en China.

Como consecuencia de la participación del equipo de la UC3M en la Olimpiada en Shangai (China) y a propuesta de la presidencia de la Comisión Permanente de Educación de la Federación Internacional para la promoción de Máquinas y Mecanismos (IFToMM), la UC3M fue designada como entidad organizadora, siendo responsable el grupo de investigación MAQLAB del departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica.

La organización del evento corre a cargo de dos comités: el local, que asume la coordinación del plan de trabajo de las distintas sesiones y el registro de los equipos participantes, entre otras cuestiones de carácter logístico, y el comité académico, compuesto por profesores del Comité Ejecutivo del IFToMM, que se encarga de asegurar el cumplimiento de la normativa y la dinámica de la actividad.

Los premios tuvieron tres categorías: Mejor Diseño Mecánico, Mejor Proyecto Industrial y Mejor Innovación tecnológica. En la primera, el equipo MOTO-MAQLAB-UC3M fue el ganador en la modalidad Petrol, mientras que en las otras dos categorías quedó en segunda posición. El equipo está formado por alumnos de la UC3M que se encuentran realizando los últimos cursos de ingeniería o realizando cursos de Postgrado. El grupo, además, se encuadra dentro de la actividad científica del grupo investigador MaqLab del departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica de la UC3M. “Hemos realizado un duro trabajo en equipo logrando un diseño mecánico único de la moto de competición MS04-UC3M, de acuerdo a la normativa y especificaciones de la competición MotoStudent, que ha logrado superar con éxito los estándares de la competición celebrada el pasado fin de semana”, señalan los integrantes del equipo.

Se apostó por un diseño diferente al del resto de participantes para el diseño del prototipo, consistente en una dirección y suspensión delantera de geometría variable (bajo patente) y un chasis y basculante monobloque (fabricado así por primera vez) que integra sistemas pasivos que mejoran la eficiencia de la moto (también bajo patente), tanto en bastidor como en suspensiones. Dicho diseño, valorado por un jurado formado por profesionales de la industria y de la universidad, obtuvo el Primer Premio al Mejor Diseño Mecánico. "Es un reconocimiento a una apuesta arriesgada y al trabajo bien hecho, ya que no nos hemos limitado a copiar una moto existente de competición para conseguir la moto más rápida, sino que hemos desarrollado nuevos diseños, innovaciones e ingeniería para conseguir un prototipo diferente", comenta el catedrático del departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Juan Carlos García Prada, director del grupo de investigación MaqLab UC3M.

La clave del éxito cosechado en esta competición, según los investigadores, reside en varios factores. Por un lado, en haber preparado un proyecto de industrialización completo, haciendo un estudio de mercado y contactando con fabricantes de componentes en otros países. Por otro lado, en haber creado todo lo necesario para apoyar el diseño del prototipo desde una hoja en blanco, "gracias a un modelado propio que nos permite comparar previamente la factibilidad de nuestra propuesta, basada en un diseño de chasis y basculante nunca antes realizado y una apuesta de diseño con geometría variable en las suspensiones", afirman los integrantes de MOTO-MAQLAB.

La competición MotoStudent, promovida por la Moto Engineering Foundation, es un desafío entre equipos universitarios de distintas universidades españolas e internacionales para diseñar y desarrollar un prototipo de moto de competición (250 centímetros cúbicos). Esta prueba, que ya alcanza su cuarta edición,  es un reto para los estudiantes, porque en un periodo de tiempo de tres semestres han de probar y demostrar su capacidad de creación e innovación para completar un proyecto bajo las mismas condiciones que requiere la industria: trabajando en equipo, con un presupuesto limitado, con unos requerimientos técnicos mínimos, un calendario cerrado y en contacto con las últimas tecnologías, patrocinadores y compañías del sector.

According to Yamir Moreno, who is the coordinator of the Cosnet group (Grupo de Redes y Sistemas Complejos / Networks and Complex Systems Group) at BIFI (Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos / Institute of Biocomputation and the Physics of Complex Systems) at the Universidad de Zaragoza, and also president of the Sociedad de Sistemas Complejos (Complex Systems Society), "The results go against certain theories; the one which states that humans act purely rationally for example, and, therefore, they should be taken into consideration in redesigning social and economic policies, as well as those involved in cooperation".  He goes on to say that, “these types of studies are important because they improve existing theories on human behavior by giving them an experimental base”.

After carrying out this kind of social experiment, the researchers developed a computer algorithm which set out to classify people according to their behavior. The computer algorith organized 90% of people into four groups: the largest group, accounting for 30%, being the Envious - those who don’t actually mind what they achieve, as long as they’re better than everyone else; next are the Optimists – who believe that they and their partner will make the best choice for both of them – on 20%. Also on 20% are the Pessimists – who select the option which they see as the lesser of two evils – and the Trusting group – who are born collaborators and who will always cooperate and who don’t really mind if they win or lose.

There is a fifth, undefined group, representing 10%, which the algorithm is unable to classify in relation to a clear type of behavior. The researchers argue that this allows them to infer the existence of a wide range of subgroups made up of individuals who do not respond in a determined way to any of the outlined models.

Anxo Sánchez explains this with an example of a specific dilemma: Two people can hunt deer together, but if they are alone, they can only hunt rabbits. The person belonging to the Envious group will choose to hunt rabbits because he or she will be at least equal to the other hunter, or maybe even better; the Optimist will choose to hunt deer because that is the best option for both hunters; the Pessimist will go for rabbits because that way he or she is sure to catch something; and the hunter who belongs to the Trusting group will cooperate and choose to hunt deer, without a second thought.

Experiment based on citizen participation

The study is based on an experiment organized by Barcelona City Council and the Barcelona Citizen Science Office, within the framework of the DAU festival, also in Barcelona. "One of main principles of this study is the fact that the experiment has been developed in such a way to encourage the participation of citizens within the framework of one of the city’s public activities,” explains Josep Perelló, leader of the group, OpenSystems in the Condensed Matter Physics Department at Universitat de Barcelona, and also coordinator of the Barcelona Citizen Science Office. In this sense, "the results have been shared with the participants, thus, the subjects of the study become active participants in the research", concludes the researcher.

"The really funny thing is that the classification was made by a computer algorithm which could have obtained a larger number of groups, but which has, in fact, produced an "excellent "rating in four personality types," explains Yamir Moreno. Jordi Duch, a researcher at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, and one of the authors of this study, goes on to explain, "This type of classification algorithm has previously been used with success in other fields, such as biology. However, its application to the study of human behavior is quite revolutionary, given that previous works prefixed the behaviors expected before the experiment was carried out, instead of allowing an external system to then automatically give us information about which groupings were most logical.” This is of capital importance because it isn’t something imposed by the researchers. The objective of using mathematics was precisely to guarantee impartiality,” adds Anxo Sánchez.

"Previously, the experiments were performed by dozens of people. Now, with this platform, it is possible to significantly increase the volume of participants in the study, as well as being able to test using the heterogeneous population; this also allows us to record much more specific data on how the participants behave during the experiment. This has opened up the door to  setting up  much more complex tests than those that have been carried out so far in this field", says Jordi Duch.

In the same way, the research results shed light in relation to what moves the collective or individual interest in the processes of negotiation, and as such, it is useful for the management of business, organizations or for political reformulation. Furthermore, it also serves to open the door to improving machinery, to make "robots more humanized", concludes Anxo Sanchez.

Bibliographic Reference:

Humans display a reduced set of consistent behavioral phenotypes in dyadic games. Julia Poncela-Casasnovas, Mario Gutiérrez-Roig, Carlos Gracia-Lázaro, Julian Vicens, Jesús Gómez-Gardeñes, Josep Perelló, Yamir Moreno, Jordi Duch y Ángel Sánchez. Science Advances  05 Aug 2016. Vol. 2, no. 8, e1600451. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600451. http://hdl.handle.net/10016/23598

Noticia en chino (Chinese news)

What will happen during this UC3M activity?

This is an informative show that combines, dance, music, theater and audiovisuals to explain how 5G technology is going to influence our lives in the coming years. The play focuses on the story of a very unusual couple at two parallel moments: in 2016, when they fall in love; and in 2016, when they are just about to have a child. That is, we see them in the present day, when 5G technology is being developed, and we see them in the future, when it this technology is expected to be integrated into all different types of devices.

What type of public is this aimed at?

The show is conceived so that both children and adults can enjoy it and understand some of the concepts related to fifth generation mobile technology and the revolution it can bring to our lives. With this program, we mean to make the UC3M Auditorium a referent as far as the interaction between scientific advances and society, using this educational show.

How will 5G affect our lives?

The future 5G networks will transform the way we perceive and relate to the world around us. The combination of advances in 5G networks will transform our current reality into a “connected reality”, where objects and people are all connected with each other. The 5G networks will allow over 6 billion people to be connected, which means every inhabitant on the planet, as well as connecting around one thousand objects for each person. In this way, we will be permanently connected to our doctors, our friends, our co-workers, clients/suppliers, security services… but we will also be connected to our cars, our refrigerators, our favorite bakery, our leisure-time places, the subway, airport, home and, basically, everything that is of any importance to us. Moreover, those objects will also be interconnected to each other, so pallet will be able to ‘complain' to its company of origin that its delivery route is wrong, and our water heater can download new control software that will make it more efficient.

What will be the volume of data moving through the network?

The number of devices connected will be accompanied by a three-fold increase in the network’s capacity. These 5G networks will, therefore, be able to transport a volume of mobile data that is one thousand times greater than the 4G networks that are currently being used. This massive communication capacity will enable every person or object to almost instantly access, send or exchange whatever sensations they want. The network is designed so that all of the multimode interfaces can be integrated: augmented reality devices, brain wave interfaces or the implantation of interface biochips will allow 5G network users to interact with each other and with other connected objects in a completely natural manner, without noticing any external devices, as if everything were an extension of their five senses. This stereoscopic exchange of images, smells, tactile information or brain waves can take place no matter where we are. This is because, unlike the 4G systems, the 5G networks are designed to have universal geographic coverage, with the added advantage of greater uniformity of service with regard to the relative position of the base station and the edge of the cell.

How will the energy consumption involved in so many connections be handled?

Actually, another key element in the 5G networks is the reduction in energy consumption. If we increased the network’s capacity by one thousand using current technology, it would be impossible to provide the high level of energy that it would consume. Therefore, energy efficiency is another one of the main criteria for designing the 5G networks. So, technologies with an energy consumption of only 10 percent compared to what is being used at present are being developed in order to minimize the environmental impact of 5G.

When will we all be using the 5G networks?

In 2018 pre-standard technologies known as 4.5G will begin to be launched, mainly in Europe and Asia. For the winter and summer Olympic Games, the plan if for ATOS and Ericsson demonstrate equipment and advanced entertainment applications about 5G technologies, and SAMUR (Madrid’s Municipal Emergency and Rescue Service) is already developing advanced emergency applications in order to be prepared for the move to 5G. 5G products and services are set to be launched starting in 2020, with penetration and coverage expected to expand rapidly.  

What are the main challenges presented when introducing 5G networks?

The great research effort that is needed to overcome the important technological challenges that are involved and the enormous investment required to introduce them. However, due to the enormous socioeconomic benefits that it will lead to, all of the necessary human and economic resources are already in motion. 5G will lead to a great race among the most advanced regions in the world (The United States, Europe, China, Japan) to position their science and their companies as leaders in this attractive market, and to capitalize on the great social rewards that it will bring with it. The 5G networks will take us to a world where distance doesn’t exist, and where our existence and perception will merge with those of our fellow beings and with that of the objects that surround us.

How would you rate Spain’s situation as far as R+D+i in this area?

Spain is in an excellent position in terms of R+D+i in 5G technologies. We occupy a leading position in the PPP of 5G, which is the European Commission’s most ambitious initiative in advanced telecommunications research. With a public and private budget of 7 billion Euros and a 7-year program of activities, the PPP constitutes the backbone of European R+D in 5G. In addition, European Technology Platform Networld 2020, made up of over 1,100 universities and public and private research centers throughout Europe, complements the research work being done by the 5GPPP. In both cases, the Spanish institutions are very much present at an important level.

In Spain we also have the 5TONIC laboratory, one of the most important pan-European testbeds, founded by Telefónica and IMDEA Networks, and in which Ericsson, INTEL, Commscope and UC3M are also working. Moreover, SETSI, la Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad de Madrid (Autonomous Community of Madrid Education Council) and AMETIC have signed an agreement with the members of 5TONIC, to offer committed public support to the development of 5G technologies, products and services in our country. The Secretaría de Estado de Investigación (Secretary of State for Research), the CDTI, and RedIRIS are offering strong support to 5TONIC and 5G technologies as well, using their various resources. Finally, one of the key projects for 5G technology, the 5G-Crosshaul project, is being headed up by UC3M, which also has an important role in other European 5G projects, such as the 5G Exchange, the 5G NORMA and Flex5Gware.

Where did your scientific vocation come from? When and why did you decide that you wanted to be a scientist?

I had a great scientific vocation. From the time I was very small, I loved learning how nature and machines worked and I read everything I could about the many subjects that I was interested in. When I finished my degree, I stayed in school working on research projects towards my doctorate and, later, I continued my career as a scientist, spending time abroad in institutions like MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the University of California at Berkeley and the international research institute IMDEA Networks.

What do you think of the European Researchers Night initiative?

I think it is very important to make science accessible to the public and to foment scientific vocations in our country. In the most developed countries, it is very clear to the general public that science implies well-being, quality jobs, better health and a cleaner environment. It is also clear to them that a science degree is highly recognized, socially and economically, and that it’s also very gratifying from a personal point of view. In our country, it is not seen this way yet and we have to work to make it so that science is seen the same way here as it is in the most developed countries.

Why did you decide to jump in and participate in the Night?

Getting scientific information out to society is a tremendously important task. Whenever I have the chance to take part in an activity that does that, I am happy to do it. I have given talks in high schools to motivate students to pursue science degrees; I’ve participated in informative radio programs; we take part in Madrid Science Week  (Semana de la Ciencia de Madrid), and in the old “Madrid for Science” Fair, (Feria “Madrid por la Ciencia”); and I also participated in last year’s European Researchers Night, in the activity organized by the IMDEA Institutes.

This event is celebrated simultaneously in over 250 European cities. Do you think that these pan-European initiatives can influence the citizens’ perception of researchers?  

In this difficult moment for Europe, where extremism, populism and xenophobia are flourishing, I think that we must read any book about recent history to know exactly where those things will lead us. The European Union has given Europe its longest period of peace and prosperity, and the response to the current problems must be more union and not more division, more solidarity and not more individualism, more responsibility and not more demagoguery. I think that pan-European research initiatives, such as the Framework Program, mobility initiatives, like the Erasmus Program, and also the Researchers Night do a great deal to strengthen European unity and the transnational vision of union and common good that we so need right now.

Practical information:

o  Title of the Activity: 5G on stage: this technology is going to change your life (and you don’t know it yet)

o  Location of the celebration: Auditorium, UC3M Leganés campus

o  Schedule: 8:00 to 9:00 pm. Friday, September 30, 2016

o  Reservations necessary: Yes

o  How to reserve: from September 19, on the web

o Further information: www.uc3m.es/nocheinvestigadores2016

This activity is part of the European Researchers Night Madrid 2016, an even that is promoted by the Fundación para el Conocimiento madri+d de la Consejería de Educación, Juventud y Deporte de la Comunidad de Madrid (Foundation for Knowledge madri+d of the Autonomous Community of Madrid’s Department of Education, Youth and Sports). This project, which is held simultaneously in over 250 European cities since 2005, is financed by the European Union as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program - Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions- through subsidy agreement number 721631.

“We hope to help transform code so that it can be run in heterogeneous parallel platforms with multiple graphic cards and reconfigurable hardware,” explains the project’s coordinator, José Daniel García, an associate professor in UC3M’s Computer Science department. “We’ve made significant improvements in both performance and energy efficiency, comparable to those that can be made with a manual development process; the difference is that with a manual development process, we need months of engineering, while with our semiautomatic process we can do the same tasks in a few days.”

These computation tasks can be applied to a variety of sectors, such as health (protein docking prediction), transportation (monitoring of railways systems), robotics (stereoscopic vision and navigation), and industry (analysis of defects in parts manufacturing).

The REPARA project aims to make the energy and performance benefits of these computer systems available to users without the enormous development efforts that this type of complex architecture requires. The key to accomplish this challenge lies in, among other things, source code “refactoring”, a technique used in software engineering to improve the internal structure of a program without altering its observable behavior. This is similar to modify the distribution of pipes and pumps in a building, so water flows in a faster, cleaner, and more ecological way. By doing this, three fundamental properties are improved: the applications’ performance (helping increase the speed of execution), energy efficiency (reducing energy consumption), and the ease maintainability of the source code.

The researchers, who have published some of these advances in the International Journal of Parallel Programming, have developed and registered three technological products that they may commercialize with an European company that has shown interest. “These software products can help developers to offer engineering services to third parties by simplifying the development process,” comments Professor José Daniel García.

The REPARA project (Reengineering and Enabling Performance and poweR of Applications), which began in September of 2013 and finishes in August 2016, gathers experts in parallel and heterogeneous computing systems working in academic and industrial areas of five different European countries. The project has a budget of 3.6 million Euros, over 2.6 million of which come from the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the European Union’s main instrument for funding research. In all, six academic institutions are participating: HSR Rapperswil (Switzerland), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), University of Pisa (Italy), University of Szeged (Hungary), Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) and University of Turin (Italy). In addition, the project has two partners from the industrial sector: Ixion Industry & Aerospace (Spain) and Evopro Innovation (Hungary). UC3M is the coordinating institution of the REPARA project and participates through the ARCOS research group, which brings its experience in high performance computing and embedded systems to the project.

REPARA project web: http://www.repara-project.eu  

Reference:

R. Sotomayor, L. M. Sanchez, J.G. Blas, J. Fernandez, and J. D. Garcia. Automatic CPU/GPU generation of multi-versioned OpenCL kernels for C++ scientific applications. International Journal of Parallel Programming, 2016

Noticia en chino (Chinese news)

The industrial vehicles that pass through the ITV must be carrying cargo so that the efficiency of the braking system can be determined, according to current regulations, in force in Spain since 2012. However, on many occasions it is difficult to inspect vehicles in this manner because of logistics or economic problems, or because they are carrying trash, hazardous materials, or live animals, for example. “It is a general practice in the transportation sector to pass inspection with no cargo in order to avoid delays in the delivery of goods, possible problems with insurers and a loss of the vehicle’s economic productivity,” they comment at UC3M’s “Duque de Santomauro” Institute for Automotive Vehicle Safety (Instituto de Seguridad de Vehículos Automóviles  “Duque de Santomauro” -ISVA). The alternative methods to inspection with cargo that are used require simultaneously measuring the pressure of the brake mechanism and braking strength in order to then extrapolate the maximum braking force, using calculus.

The new method developed by the ISVA, called fBRAKE, allows industrial vehicles with different types of braking systems (pneumatic, hydro pneumatic and hydraulic) to be inspected without having to go to the ITV inspection station carrying their load. This saves time and money on revisions. “It isn’t necessary to measure the pressure, which saves time during the inspection; and since pressure sensors are not needed, there is also no need to run a metrological test on the new measurement equipment,” they say at ISVA.

fBRAKE can be installed in a tablet or an inspection line computer that the ITV workers can use very easily: the inspection data is entered and the efficiency that the vehicle’s braking system can reach when it is loaded is obtained using vehicular dynamic simulation methods. “Combining inspection with a conventional brake meter with a simulation model allows us to guarantee how a vehicle will brake,” explains the director of the ISVA, José Luís San Román, who points out the importance of the interdisciplinary work carried out by researchers from UC3M’s Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering Departments to develop this application, “which offers a solution to a real problem and clearly improves road safety.”

“We have developed this innovation with the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and with the collaboration of the Junta de Extremadura (government of Extramadura)”, states Professor José Luís San Román. In fact, the system has already been validated and approved, and is being used in the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Galicia, where over one thousand vehicles have passed inspection using this method. The fBRAKE service that the ISVA offers, which other countries have expressed interest in, includes software updates and technical assistance.

In addition, fBRAKE can be integrated with existing ITV computer systems to automate the processes for introducing data and producing the result, thus speeding up vehicle inspection. The technical operation of the system is explained in detail in a scientific paper published in the Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems.

Further information:

Nieto, Á.B., Román García, J.L.S., López, V.D. and Babé, A.G. (2015) ‘fBRAKE: alternative methodology for braking efficiency determination on vehicle technical inspection according to Directive 2010/48/EU’, International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems. Vol. 22, No. 4, pp.311–337.

Noticia en chino (Chinese news)

The Network (La Red) has been promoted by the National Institute for Cyber Security, a body which comes under the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society. The group behind RENIC is made up of public (9) and private (2) universities, in addition to technology centers (4) and the public administration.

RENIC’s founding partners group is initially composed of 16 organizations: the Andalusian Center for Innovation and Information and Communication Technology (Centro Andaluz de Innovación y Tecnologías de Información y las Comunicaciones - CITIC), the Technology and Communications Center of Galicia (el Centro Tecnolóxico de Telecomunicacións de Galicia - Gradiant), the IMDEA Software Foundation, the Tecnalia Research & Innovation Foundation, the National Institute for Cyber security  (Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad - INCIBE) and several universities:  Carlos III de Madrid,  de Castilla la Mancha, de Granada, de La Laguna, de La Rioja, de León, de Málaga, de Mondragón, Politécnica de Madrid, Rey Juan Carlos, and de Vigo (the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the university of Murcia have also applied for admission to the consortium, as has the Spanish National Research Council - CSIC).

Another important milestone to note is RENIC’s election as a full member of the Board of Directors of the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO); this election which achieves the RENIC’s goal of reinforcing the international position of the Spanish cyber security research ecosystem through this public-private cyber security association. “This election was made from among the candidacies of several European research consortiums that hoped to represent this sector in the ECSO; this represents an important recognition of the level of excellence exhibited by this network,” explains UC3M’s tenured professor Arturo Ribagorda, current president of RENIC.

This initiative is part of the Plan de Confianza en el Ámbito Digital (Digital Ecosystem Confidence Plan) which joins the mandate of the Digital Agenda for Spain (Agenda Digital para España), the European Cyber Security Strategy (Estrategia Europea de Ciberseguridad) and the National Security Strategy (Estrategia de Seguridad Nacional) to advance together to build a climate of confidence that will contribute to the development of the digital economy and society, to offer an open cyberspace, and to meet international commitments in the area of cyber security.

This recognition is very important for the UC3M School of Engineering since the EUR-ACE guarantees that its study programs comply with standards of quality and meet the demands of the professional sectors at the European level as stipulated by the ENAEE.

With these ten accredited degree programs and in the case that the other three degree programs (Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technologies Engineering and Master’s in Industrial Engineering) which have undergone the process receive the accreditation, all of the degree programs at the School of Engineering would have the EUR-ACE label. The only one missing is the bachelor’s degree in Energy Engineering as it is too new to fulfill the requisites of having had two complete graduating classes.

Open Engineering Degree

UC3M is offering the new Open Degree in Engineering in the coming academic year, which enables students to begin their university studies without the need to immediately declare specifically which degree program they wish to pursue.   .

In the Madrid Autonomous Community, UC3M is the first university to offer Open Degrees. Such programs have as a point of reference programs in the English and American university systems, whose aim is to provide greater flexibility, allowing the university student to design his or her own study program.

Futher information: UC3M Open Degree in Engineering

The objective is to reduce certification time, cost and risks for “cyber-physical systems”, which are the devices that make up computational, storage and communication capabilities in order to monitor and interact with a physical process. “These systems normally are interconnected among themselves, with the virtual world and with global digital networks”, explained José Luis de la Vara who is responsible for research in the IT department of UC3M. An autonomous car interconnected to another could be a good example of a cyber-physical system, although numerous applications and domains can be found, such as airplanes, devices in hospitals and intelligent offices, industrial robots, etc.

The importance of certification

The cyber-physical system market moves thousands of millions of euros in the whole world and is an area in which millions of people in Europe work, the researchers added. “Certification is important because it is necessary to assure that these systems are not going to put our lives at risk,” states José Luis de la Vara, who gives us an example: “If someone had a pacemaker with computational and communication capabilities we must be sure that it works correctly and that no one can access it and change its proper functioning”. And certification requires giving formal proof of all of these aspects.

Because these new systems use innovative technologies, often the means to certify them do not exist yet. In addition, these advances can present new risks. “The fact that one car can communicate with another can also mean that someone can access the car’s system, so the system must be protected and it must be demonstrated that this has been done,” the scientist added.

The final objective is to create a tool which helps collect and review all of the necessary information to prove that these cyber-physical systems are precise and secure. “It will be an open source tool that will make work easier for developers and integrators as well as assessors and certifiers”, stated the researchers in the UC3M Knowledge Reuse research group who are participating in this project which ends in March, 2019. They said that the results will be developed incrementally, so that three versions of the AMASS tool will be created, the first being available in March, 2017.

More information at: www.amass-ecsel.eu

Noticia en chino (Chinese news)

Hydrodynamic Tunnel

The hydrodynamic tunnel is a facility for testing flow around moving bodies in controlled and reproducible conditions.  It not only allows testing the hydrodynamics of bodies designed to function when submerged under water, but also any fluid, and with correct experimental design, permits study of the aerodynamics of flying objects

The tunnel is equipped with a volumetric particle image velocimetry (PIV) system which enables fluid to be seeded with micrometer particles that are illuminated with a high power strobe and then their displacement  tracked, all of which is captured on camera.  As it is a volumetric measurement system, it is able to study complex and three-dimensional phenomena such as turbulence.  

Vacuum Test Facility

The vacuum test chamber is specially designed for research into space plasma propulsion which is the solution with the best future prospects for satellite propulsion and space probes. Likewise, it is a strategic area of research in the European Union H2020 program.

The chamber, which is 1.5 meters in diameter and 3 meters in length, with a capacity of extraction of xenon or argon of up to 37,000 liters per second, is a unique facility in Spain for these applications.  During its inauguration, a helicon thruster HPT05 prototype, developed in conjunction with SENER, was switched on.

Both of the facilities were financed within the area of the competitive bid “Adquisición de Equipamiento Científico-Técnico 2013 - Subprograma Estatal de Infraestructuras Científicas y Técnicas, y Equipamiento” (Acquisition of Scientific-Technical Equipment 2013-Government Sub-program for Scientific and Technical Infrastructures and Equipment) from the MINECO (The Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness).

Its operation is relatively simple.  “Plasma confined in a chamber is generated through a magnetic field; then it is accelerated by applying an electric field of high potency: following that, a high speed jet is expulsed which generates a thrust capable of propelling the system,” explains Yacine Babou, who investigates this  area within the framework of CONEX (CONnecting EXcellence), a UC3M talent recruitment  program, supported by the European Union(7FP Marie Curie actions),the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, and the Banco Santander.

The plasma propulsion systems are an excellent solution for propulsion in a space vacuum. Babou’s research Project CRARF (Collisional  Radiative models development and validation for Aerospace Reactive Flows)  is focused on the development of experimental tools and modelling that serve to characterize the plasma jet produced by these thrusters and assess their performance.  With these tools, their temperature and their electronic density, for example, can be better determined.  

“Improved engine performance enables a significant savings in propellant, although this not the only aspect requiring substantial improvements. Improved operability, increased lifespan and system simplification are crucial features that cannot be ignored when developing dependable plasma thrusters,” the researcher explained in detail.  

“Assessing the performance of a plasma propulsion prototype is a crucial task to be undertaken before it can be successfully applied in space,” the scientist pointed out.  In order to carry out this task, it is necessary to have facilities capable of recreating space conditions on Earth.  A few months ago, the UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering designed and inaugurated high performance facilities, consisting of a chamber and fully diagnostic equipment, capable of maintaining high vacuum conditions similar to conditions in space, where plasma thrusters are tested.  

Interplanetary space trips

Some electric propulsion systems are habitually used in scientific and commercial spacecraft missions. Several space probes to asteroids and other heavenly bodies have used ionic engines, a very sophisticated and efficient technology, although complex and expensive to operate. In the 1970’s, the Soviet Union was a pioneer in the use of plasma propulsion technology and the Hall Effect, which is currently the most used plasma technology in commercial missions.  

The success of electric propulsion has led space engineers to exploration of novel concepts that are more efficient, simpler to operate and more durable.  “An especially promising technology is the Helicon plasma engine, which is currently being developed in my department in conjunction with the company SENER and which is one of the most relevant concepts to be implemented in interplanetary space trips,” Yacine Babou observed.

Further information:

Yacine Babou, CONEX Experienced Fellow: http://www.uc3m.es/ss/Satellite/UC3MInstitucional/es/FormularioTextoDosColumnas/1371210699380/

Noticia en chino (Chinese news)

The software is based on the use of a network where a database is located which stores hundreds of videos. “The tool enables filtering of a video search to create online presentations on any subject.  Once these presentations are created, the users can download them via Dropbox to later view in their own pc,” explained the co-founder of LabHipermedia, Manuel Armenteros.  In addition, this tool incorporates its own media player which enables videos to be viewed with slow motion options and tags, among its other functions.  

Currently, this technology is being used by the FIFA and UEFA with a dual purpose:  first, to help in training new instructors in introductory football referee courses; and secondly, as a tool to aid in refereeing.  The tools offered by the company range from presentations with text and video to photographs, 2D and 3D animation, drone-filming, stereoscopic video and self-assessment testing.  

According to Juan Pedro Ramos, product manager at LabHipermedia, the way of teaching has changed very little over the years, but changes in technology are continually evolving.   “Our aim is to apply new technologies to educational processes so that the educator as well as the learner can benefit from a more enriching experience.”  These tools and materials offer great versatility that can be adapted to any educational or training area, “from schools and universities, to presentations at specialized conferences in medicine, engineering, sport, etc.”

LabHipermedia, a UC3M technology-based spinoff, is supported by the UC3M Science Park Business Incubator. It provides an integral solution for sport training and management, with experience in the development of tools for play analysis, as well as in creation of interactive presentations.  At present, it is in the product expansion and commercialization phase.  

Further information:

http://portal.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/investigacion/parque_cientifico/empresas/vivero/directorio_empresas/Laboratorio-Hipermedia-S.L
 

Noticia en chino (Chinese news)

Video portals have counters that register the number of views, thus reflecting the success of the piece. This data can have economic implications, since with some online advertising campaigns that use videos, the portals can charge based on the number of registered views. And one of the problems with the fraud that exists in this area is that of “bots”, computer programs that replicate the behavior of an Internet user, and which can therefore artificially increase the number of views.

“YouTube has a unique system for detecting fraud that is relatively efficient, but it has some inconsistencies,” comments one of the study’s authors, Rubén Cuevas, of UC3M’s Department of Telematic Engineering. “We discovered a discrepancy in the visit counts on YouTube. Specifically, it seems that there are visits that YouTube detects as fraudulent and, therefore, subtracts from the public views counter (the one that appears near the video), but at the same time Google charges the advertiser for them,” states Cuevas.

“We’ve developed a more detailed study of YouTube’s system for detecting false visits which, based on our results, is the most sophisticated one in existence,” he explains. The method the researchers used allowed them to play the role of all of the different agents involved in the fraud: the attacker, the poster of the video and the advertiser who pays to put ads in the videos. “This allowed us to put our ads into videos that we posted on YouTube, and on which we carried out a fraudulent attack. That way, we could have a complete vision of the view count and of how those views were charged to the advertiser,” explains Cuevas. With this method, when they sent “bots” to view two videos (exactly 150 times) YouTube’s public view counter only identified 25 views as real. However, Adwords, Google’s main service for advertisers, charged the researchers for 91 of the views carried out by the “bots”.

The results of this study, which were presented at the World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2016) held from the 11th to the 15th of April in Montreal (Canada), are explained in detail in the article “Entender la detección del fraude de visitas falsas en portales de contenido en video” (Understanding the detection of fake view fraud in Video Content Portals) which was published in the scientific archive ArXiV, in addition to appearing in the acts of the WWW2016. “Google has been in contact with us, expressing their interest in our research, but not voicing any objection to the results we obtained, which we take to mean that they are relevant,” explains Professor Cuevas.

In the medium term, these researchers hope to create an auditing system that enables the detection of this type of fraud and “makes this type of business, which is quite opaque, more transparent,” they comment. Such a system would increase advertisers trust and, thus, encourage them to invest more money in advertising, they conclude.

Link to the study: http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.08874

WWW2016: http://www2016.ca/

Notiica chino /Chinese news

A total of 3,195 appearances were counted, which constitutes a 3.73 percent increase over the results obtained in 2014. In addition, continual growth can be seen in the impact of these news items in the media, with an increase of 115 percent in comparison with the first evaluation in 2009, when 1,482 appearances were registered.

Throughout 2015 the presence of R+D+i at UC3M news in the Spanish media has grown, with a 13.66 percent increase in national appearances. This information has been seen in prestigious newspapers, such as ABC, El Mundo and El País, and has been published by top news agencies, such EFE, Europa Press and Servimedia. Moreover, these news items appear in national platforms that deal with this type of information, such as the bulletin Notiweb of the autonomous Community of Madrid’s madri+d system, the News Agency for Science and Technology of the Institute for Scientific and Technological Studies (Agencia de Noticias para la divulgación de la Ciencia y Tecnología  del Instituto de Estudios de la Ciencia y la Tecnología -- DiCYT) and the Scientific News and Information Service (Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas -- SINC) of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología -- FECYT). 

In addition, hundreds of international media outlets have also reported on the information from UC3M and the news items have appeared in numerous countries, such as Argentina, Bolivia, China, the United States, France, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Sweden, Venezuela, etc. This demonstrates the international importance of the scientific platforms with which UC3M collaborates, spreading its news in Spanish, English, and Chinese, such as: the European research news services AlphaGalileo and EurekAlert! and the global online news service for science, medicine, technology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The scientific news items are sent to the media via press releases and are disseminated through the principal social networks (Facebook, Twitter y YouTube). Furthermore, in most cases, there is an accompanying video in which the scientists explain their research. In 2015, 38 UC3M researchers participated in one of the 40 videos that were made; they have received over 45,000 views on the University’s YouTube channel.

UC3M’s OIC is connected to the Community of Madrid’s Scientific Information Offices (Oficinas de Información Científica) and to the Network of Units of Scientific Culture and Innovation (Red de Unidades de Cultura Científica e Innovación -- UCC+i), with support from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología -- FECYT) of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

Further information:

Dossier monitoring the web and media impact of R+D+i news. 2015.  Author: Office of Scientific Information/Institutional Communication Office. UC3M Vice-Chancellor’s Office of Communication and Culture. http://hdl.handle.net/10016/22608

The research was carried out by analyzing Twitter activity before, during and after Hurricane Sandy which, in 2012, caused more damage than any other storm in US history, with an economic impact in the region of 50,000 million dollars. Hundreds of millions of geo-located tweets making reference to this topic were collected from fifty metropolitan areas in the USA. "Given that citizens were turning to these platforms for communication and information related to the disaster, we established a strong correlation between the route of the hurricane and activity on social networks,” explains Esteban Moro.

But the main conclusion of the study was obtained when the data relating to social network activity was examined alongside data relating to both the levels of aid granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and insurance claims: there is a correlation between the mean per capita of social network activity and economic damage per capita caused by these disasters in the areas where such activity occurs. In other words, both real and perceived threats, along with the economic effects of physical disasters, are directly observable through the strength and composition of the flow of messages from Twitter.

Furthermore, researchers have verified the results obtained from Hurricane Sandy and have been able to demonstrate that the same dynamic also occurs in the case of floods, storms and tornadoes; for example, whenever there is sufficient activity on social media to extract such data.

In this way, communication on Twitter allows the economic impact of a natural disaster in the affected areas to be monitored in real time, making it possible to provide information in addition to that currently used to assess damage resulting from these disasters. Moreover, the distribution space of the event-related messages can also help the authorities in the monitoring and evaluation of emergencies, in order to improve responses to natural disasters.

The authors of the study suggest that we are facing an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters as a consequence of climate change. "We believe that this is going to cause even more natural disasters and, therefore, the use of social networks will allow us to obtain useful supplementary information," points out Professor Esteban Moro, who is currently working on further research in this area. “We are trying to see if there is a relationship between activity on social networks and climate change which will affect us in the future".

Further information:

Y. Kryvasheyeu, H. Chen, N. Obradovich, E. Moro, P. Van Hentenryck, J. Fowler, M. Cebrian, Rapid Assessment of Disaster Damage Using Social Media Activity. Sci. Adv. 2, e1500779 (2016). e-Archivo UC3M: http://hdl.handle.net/10016/22569

The sensors that are installed in carts and baskets emit a short wave signal via Bluetooth to a set of receivers located in the ceiling; these in turn send the information to the cloud. In this way, it is possible to know each shopper’s position and the amount of time they stay in one place, giving information in real time about the section of the store where the most people are or how fast the check-out lines are moving, for example. All of the information that the system generates is stored in a web page where flow diagram can be found, in order to analyze the movement of carts within the store, or where there are heat maps with specific information regarding the traffic in each section of the store “More than thirty parameters of customer behavior are analyzed,” indicates Jorge Bueno.

This tool uses techniques from the field of robotics, the scientific area that several of its creators come from, to analyze the position and behavior of users inside stores and large commercial establishments.  Thanks to its own interior positioning algorithm and its Big Data motor, Proximus enables users to determine metrics in order to improve marketing campaigns. “We are focused on providing new information to these chains so that they can improve their strategic decisions on a daily basis, physically in their stores. This is like Google Analytics for physical space", explains Bueno.

In addition, Proximus has a system of notifications that proved and alert when it detects unforeseen events. “While the analytics are designed to help a store manager see the current state of the supermarket, the notifications allow managers to maintain control over their places without having to be in staring at the screen all of the time, since the alarm will be activated whenever it detects a specific anomaly,” the company explains. 

Future plans

The system has already been tested in Carrefour and Proximus is working with some of the most important retail chains in Europe. In addition, they have just signed an agreement with Unilever in Singapore to monitor the brand in supermarkets there.
After being the first Spanish start-up to go through the prestigious business accelerator Techstars, they received 300.000 Euros in financing to expand their business plan. As part of this growth policy, they plan to open an office in the United States next year.

Proximus got its start in the Vivero de Empresas del Parque Científico (Science Park Business Incubator) as a result of its participation in UC3M’s Ideas Contest (Concurso de Ideas UC3M) for the creation of innovative, tech-based companies. There they received help in developing their business plan and they had the opportunity to gain access to the advising services that the Park offers in order to convert entrepreneurial initiatives based on UC3M technology and innovation into viable businesses that add value to the area’s economic development.

Further information:

http://portal.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/investigacion/parque_cientifico/empresas/vivero/directorio_empresas/Proximus

Video: https://youtu.be/qXsQt6t1bFs

This is the first initiative that offers employment opportunities based on the needs of the market. That is, the people with intellectual disabilities have been trained in concrete digital and technical skills and selected based on the current requirements of companies working in the technology sector. In this way, the students who have been part of this first graduating class are now part of UC3M’s jobs bank, but they also have access to positions through other associations and private entities. The technology consulting firm Vector ITC Group has hired seven of the eight students, and they have already begun working at their facility.

The project began on September 21st of last year, with the signing of the agreement by UC3M’s Chancellor and the founding associate of Fundación Alma Tecnológica. The Chair, which began four months ago, has been taught on the UC3M campus. By starting up the Cátedra Alma Tecnológica project, promoted and taught by UC3M through its Computer Science Department in conjunction with Fundación Alma Tecnológica, the hope is to contribute to improve the social integration of the intellectually challenged, offering ad hoc training through special, adapted programs. The didactic plan of these classes is based on a system whereby the detailed presentation of the contents and their structured practice help lead to the successful outcome of the training. Moreover, the support personnel and the teaching staff are two key factors in the successful development of the program.

“The importance of this project is that it is focused on offering specialized training to individuals who, in general, have more difficulty entering the labor market. We are very proud to offer real work opportunities, because this project is not just written on paper, but rather is applied to the current labor market. Thanks to the CAT the students are already working in the positions they have been trained for and, furthermore, they are working in the field of technology, one of the fields with the greatest demand for employees,” points out Nicolás Redondo, president of the Fundación Alma Tecnológica.

The chosen discipline is that of new technologies, so the training was applied to the general needs of the industry. Vector ITC Group collaborated in elaborating the professional profiles that are currently the most highly demanded; among those that stand out are: systems technician, document digitalization technician, test technician and technical equipment technician.

The courses that were taught centered on basic computer training, security systems, computer applications, advanced internet searches, tools for collaborative work and the use of different multimedia systems, among other subjects. In addition, the teaching team carried out research based on the results of the project, in terms of the students’ learning and their experience, as well as on their own experience, with a view to learning, innovating and improving the results of future graduating classes of the Cátedra.

The second class of students began their course on February 15th, and their studies are expected to continue for four months. Both the Fundación Alma Tecnológica and the UC3M, through its Foundation’s Servicio Orientación & Empleo (Orientation and Employment Service), continue to work with dedication on helping the students of these graduating classes as well as future classes gain access to the labor market. “Our objective now is that more companies, in addition Vector ITC Group, support this type of initiative. It is a joy to give more opportunities to all of these talented people and to transmit peace of mind to them and to their families by offering them a secure future”, concludes Nicolás Redondo.

La Fundación Alma Tecnológica is dedicated to helping people who don’t give up, who take on challenges and who fight to improve. Constituted in November of 2014, the Fundación Alma Tecnológica works toward improving the lives of people with different abilities and/or those at risk of social exclusion, who they help toward full family, social and employment integration and the development of a normal life, giving special attention to fomenting and developing universal access to technology, and communication and information media.

La Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is an innovative public university, committed to the improvement of society through education of the highest quality, and cutting edge research, according to the strictest international guidelines. UC3M is listed in the QS ranking of the 50 top universities under 50 years old.

“We are trying to carry out research that ranges from basic science to applied research and, if everything works out, to medical practice,” sums up the director of the Professorship, Marcela del Río Nechaevsky, of UC3M’s Department of Bioengineering and the Regenerative Medicine Unit CIEMAT-CIBER for Rare Diseases. “We are currently working with different types of stem cells, basically with the intention of regenerating healthy skin tissue,” she explains.

In general, among the activities that are developed under this division are the clinical, physiopathological, cellular and genetic characterization of genodermatoses (skin diseases of genetic origin); the use of adult stem cells (mesenchymal and epithelial) in skin regeneration; and the use of 3D matrices that carry adult stem cells for developing humanized research models and their application in pre-clinical studies.

Gene therapy

In this division, staffed by 25 researchers, work is being done in the area of gene therapy using genetically modified adult stem cells; there are two lines of work: for the gene’s use as bioreactors to factors with biological activity and for the correction of the pathological phenotype in genodermatosis.

One of the European projects that the scientists are taking part in, Genegraft, has a direct therapeutic application, because it involves a clinical trial for a rare disease, epidermolisis bullosa, known as butterfly skin disease in children. As part of this research, tissue engineering and gene therapy come together, that is, both genetic engineering and tissue engineering are uses.

Another innovative research project which researchers from this division are participating in is NanoSmell; in this project the scientists are working on the healing of wounds and the regeneration of cutaneous tissue through smells. This is a very innovative project that explores the use of artificial aromas designed in the laboratory as agents to induce the process of scarring. “These are strands of DNA (aptamers) connected to nanoparticles that can interact with the receptor in a reversible manner and “on demand”, thus specifically activating signaling routes that result in the activation of scarring at just the right time and in just the right place,” explains Marcela del Río.

Besides strengthening research, the Department is also trying to foment doctoral dissertations centered on this field and also spread knowledge about it at scientific congresses and among the general public, as well. “This is giving students from our program in Biomedical Engineering the opportunity to carry out end of degree projects and master’s theses in a very hospitable place,” comments the Department head.

Interview with Marcela del Río (video):

https://youtu.be/gvgtOYRBtqA

Entre sus objetivos principales figuran: realizar proyectos y programas conjuntos de investigación científica, desarrollo e innovación tecnológica; organizar actividades relacionadas con la promoción y divulgación de la cultura científica y los avances tecnológicos; y promover trabajos de tesis (máster y doctorado) y de fin de grado en el ámbito de la Cátedra.

Audatex pertenece al grupo Solera, referente mundial en la gestión de siniestros del automóvil. Establecida en España desde 1979, tiene presencia internacional en más de 70 países con un 50 por ciento de cuota de mercado en su sector. Sus soluciones, orientadas principalmente a la optimización en la gestión y evaluación de siniestros, se dirigen a compañías aseguradoras y financieras, peritos tasadores y talleres de reparación y venta.

Más información:
http://portal.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/investigacion/nuestros_investigadores/catedras/Catedra_SOLERA

“The objective is to rehabilitate the shoulder using virtual reality,” explains one of the researchers, Alejandro Baldominos, of UC3M’s Computer Science department. He presented this advance in the journal Procedia Computer Science and, more recently, at an International scientific congress on the application of new technologies in the area of healthcare, the HCist, which was held in Portugal in October 2015.

This first prototype focuses on two movements: the adduction and abduction of the shoulder (raise and lower the arms forming a “T” with the body). “The patients act as goalkeepers in a football match and they have to stop the balls that are kicked, so they have to make exact movements,” explains Alejandro Baldominos. “To help maintain the correct position in each save, the patients see the reflection of their hand (with the rest of the arm hidden), which improves the effect of the propioception, which is the sense that tells the body what position the muscles are in,” he adds.

This first version of the prototype was developed for use in rehabilitation centers, so that a physical therapist can supervise the results of the exercises that the patients have done, point out the researchers. In addition, they estimate that, with this system, they will be able to reduce rehabilitation time by 20 minutes per day.

“An evaluation was done working with physical therapists and the feedback was very positive. Everyone felt that their patients improved the mobility of the shoulder joint, increased their muscle mass and recovered strength,” claim the researchers, although they clarify that this is still only a prototype which will require more work before a commercial product can be produced.

The future challenges of this line of research, started through an undergraduate degree final project by Carlos Aguado in the Grupo de Computación Evolutiva y Redes Neuronales (EVANNAI- Evolutionary Computation and Neural Networks Group) at UC3M, include carrying out clinical trials using this technology, in addition to developing programs that help rehabilitate the other four movement of the shoulder: flexing, extension, internal rotation and external rotation. “And perhaps even create more games to rehabilitate other parts of the body,” concludes Baldominos.

This research is part of SEACW (Ecosistema Social para el Envejecimiento, la Capacitación y el Bienestar- Social Ecosystem for Aging, Training and Well-being), a European Project whose objective is to become an Internet meeting point for anyone interested in active, healthy aging through the use of Information Technology and Communication (Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones - TIC). Financed by the European Commission’s European Program CIP-ICT-PSP 2012, the Project is being carried out by a consortium of partners in five European countries: Bulgaria, Spain, France, Italy and Malta. In addition to the coordinator, the Spanish firm Áliad Conocimiento y Servicio, the following partners, as well as UC3M are participation in the project: Eseniors, Exorgroup, GIP Formation Continue, Gruppo Sigla, Instituto de Neurobiología de la Academia de las Ciencias de Bulgaria (The Neurobiology Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Science), The Technology University of Troyes (France) and Universidad de Vic.

Further Information

A. Baldominos, Y. Sáez, C. García del Pozo. An Approach to Physical Rehabilitation Using State-of-the Art Virtual Reality and Motion Tracking Technologies. Procedia Computer Science 64. pp. 10-16. 2015.

HCist. International Conference on Health and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies. Held 7 to 9 October 2015 in Portugal. http://hcist.scika.org/

http://www.isdefe.es/es/noticia/1447930638351