Research News

Researchers from the Computational Biology and Complex Systems group (BIOCOM-SC) of the UPC and the Center for Comparative Medicine and Bioimaging (CMCiB) of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), with the impulse of “la Caixa”, Developed a mathematical model to monitor the epidemic of COVID-19. The report they make for the European Union strategy office based on the model is updated daily and includes predictions for Catalonia, Spain and the European Union. The model also serves to analyze the effectiveness of the measures established in the different countries.

María Masoliver defended her thesis supervised by Cristina Masoller on February 20 at the Terrassa Campus. Titled `` Neuronal encoding and transmission of weak periodic signals '', the thesis presents a temporal neuronal code based not on the time in which neurons trigger action potentials but on the relative time between them and demonstrates that it is a plausible mechanism for encode information from weak periodic external stimuli.

Dani Mulas defends his thesis directed by Maria Amor Duch and Antonia Camacho on February 28 at the UPC South Campus (ETSEIB building). Titled "Levels and behavior of radionuclides in water treatment plants: The case of the Barcelona metropolitan area urban water cycle", the thesis presents data on the presence of radionuclides in water treatment plants as well as the application to sewage samples of analysis techniques to know the most significant chemical fractionation of the radionuclide, I-131, and its modeling of effluent levels

Pablo Amil defended his doctoral thesis supervised by Cristina Masoller, in the ETSIAAT in Terrassa on February 11, 2020. Titled "Machine learning methods for the characterization and classification of complex data", the thesis presents several automatic learning methods focused particularly on the analysis of ophthalmological images, and complex data in general. The results presented in the thesis show how the proposed artificial intelligence methods are able to distinguish healthy eyes from sick eyes

Zahra Hazami defended her thesis co-directed by Francis Pérez of the ALBA synchrotron and Youri Koubychine of INTE-SEN on January 29 at ETSEIB, South Campus. Titled "Development of a Solid State Amplifier for the 3rd Harmonic Cavity for ALBA Synchrotron Light Source", the thesis presents the design, construction, testing and characterization of a solid state amplifier for a 3rd harmonic system of the storage ring of the ALBA synchrotron.

A new multidisciplinary study, with a team from the Physics Department of the UPC and the IGTP-CMCiB, uses mathematical modeling to provide new information on how the origin of tuberculosis has affected population growth and female resistance to infection. The study, published in Scientific Reports, describes mechanisms through which tuberculosis infection has contributed to shaping human society as we know it.

Raúl Bombín Escudero defended his thesis, co-directed by Jordi Boronat Médico and Fernando Pablo Mazzanti Castrillejo on December 13 on the North Campus titled "Ultracold bose and fermi dipolar gases: a quantum Monte Carlo study", the thesis presents a study on dipolar systems in the degenerate quantum regimen.