The Pompeu Fabra University magazine / No. 11 / March 2016

Campus Júnior opens the university to secondary

school students10-11

Road map to make UPF a global

university08-09

The UPF Alumni programme: UPF,

for life12-13

·In depth··Profiles· ·Community·

·On campus·

The University is working hard to promote knowledge transfer through innovative initiatives.

04-07

Transcending our walls to contribute to social welfare

I choose UPF

Bachelor's degree, double degree, master's degree and doctoral programmes in:

www.upf.edu/bachelorsdegree www.upf.edu/mastersdegree www.upf.edu/doctorates

A quality, international, public university

Follow us:

>> Communication >> Information and Communication Technologies>> Economic and Business Science >> Law >> Education >> Political and Social Sciences >> Health and Life Sciences >> Translation and Language Sciences >> Humanities and History

Universities, especially public ones like UPF, have to be able to transcend their walls to generate synergies with soci-ety and contribute, through their ac-tivity, to the social, economic and cul-tural welfare of their communities.

This core mission, included in UPF’s 2016-2025 Strategic Plan, requires a research culture amongst the researcher community that is sensitive to the need to transfer results and to the social impact of doing so. At the same time, uni-versities must facilitate this work, seeking out new ways to partner with companies and proactively looking for op-portunities to carry out this transfer. If, over the course of their academic careers, our investigators are able to gener-ate a large body of knowledge, it is our job as a university to equip ourselves with the necessary tools to help show-case its value.

The creation of UPF Ventures, a proposal based on mod-els successfully implemented at benchmark universities

such as Oxford, is an important step on this path of link-ing the research conducted at the university with industry. With this tool, we aim to move beyond the classical model of university-industry relations, matching needs and ex-pertise and identifying problems and opportunities for im-provement with a view to proposing the best solutions. At the same time, we need to continue working to foster en-trepreneurship at the university, promoting impactful re-search, identifying potentially innovative results, and of-fering support to exploit them and bring them to market.

This mission must be pursued in parallel with our univer-sity’s commitment to producing well-educated, socially responsible individuals capable of critical thinking. We need to promote the university’s role as an agora of criti-cal thought, accessible and open to society; a player that not only listens but also starts and leads discussions on its community’s social, cultural and economic needs. The pro-duction of dynamic citizens who wonder, question and pro-pose solutions is one commitment we do not want to shy away from.

A PERMEABLE UNIVERSITY COMMITTED TO ITS COMMUNITY

jaUme casals : RectoR of UPf

·Foreword· upf.edu 03

Written, produced and edited by the Institutional communica-tion and Promotion Unit (Rector’s office).Plaça de la Mercé, 10-12. 08002 Barcelona, tel.: 93 542 20 00. http://www.upf.edu/ e-mail: gabinet.rectorat@upf.eduCover art by Mikel Jaso. LD B-44938-2010.ISSN 2014-0630

March 2016

tonI BatlloRI

READ UPF.EDU MAGAZINE IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH AT www.issuu.com/ universitatpompeufabra

·On campus·04 upf.edu

Transcending our walls to contribute to social welfareOne of the university’s main missions is to transfer its knowledge and create synergies with its community. UPF works hard to promote these activities through innovative initiatives.

‘To promote innovation and social transformation. We must transcend the institution’s walls to generate syn-ergies with society in order to contrib-ute to social welfare and create value.’ With these sentences from its new 2016-2025 Strategic Plan, UPF has sought to underscore its desire to become an im-portant player in its community, offer-ing the knowledge it generates to soci-ety as a whole.

‘Top universities impact the societ-ies that surround them not only by gen-erating knowledge, but also through the transmission thereof, and that is one of the key challenges facing our university today’, said Francesc Po-sas, vice-rector for Scientific Policy and Teaching Staff at UPF.

‘That’s why we are doing our utmost to boost our capabilities in this regard by creating a framework for knowledge

March 2016

transfer accessible and available to all our investigators and especially designed to facilitate their initiatives’, he added. To this end, he continued, ‘we will strength-en the Innovation Unit-UPF Business Shuttle and have created UPF Ventures, a new tool for knowledge transfer’.

What does knowledge transfer mean and how is it achieved?Through their research activity, univer-

Jordi Janer, founding partner at Voctro Labs

Francis Casado, Business Development Manager at Mobile Media Content

Lluís Armengol, founding partner at QGenomics

·On campus· upf.edu 05March 2016

sities generate knowledge that can and must be exploited by the surrounding communities. ‘There are two ways to transfer results to society, by pushing the knowledge or pulling it’, explained Mònica de Forn, head of the Innovation Unit-UPF Business Shuttle.

With pushing, it is the research-er who identifies an opportunity with commercial value for which there is not yet a defined market. Likewise, the in-stitution itself looks for the best way to transfer it, for instance, through the as-signment of patent licences or the cre-ation of spin-offs. Indeed, showcasing the value of the research generated at UPF and making it available to soci-ety is one of the main objectives of the unit Forn leads.

‘How successfully knowledge can be exploited and brought to market largely depends on whether there exists a strategy to transfer it from academia to the business world’, Posas explained.

At UPF, ‘we have established a new ac-tion framework for the creation of spin-offs and protection of industrial prop-erty and software, an indispensable aspect for optimal knowledge transfer’.

The process of exploiting research results and new technologies can be complex and generally consists of four main stages: identification of innova-tive results, often stemming from re-search projects; assessment of the potential to transfer the identified knowledge; protection of intellectu-al and industrial property rights; and commercialization. ‘The advice we of-fer depends on the type of project to be carried out’, Forn explained. ‘However, we always determine whether the iden-tified results need further development before they will be viewed as an attrac-tive candidate to be brought to market, as ultimately that is what the project’s success will largely hinge on.’

In this regard, the University is par-

A new tool for knowledge transfer

‘The university must constantly seek out ways to partner with indus-try, and UPF Ventures is a new tool to enable and facilitate innovation in this field’, explained Francesc Posas, vice-rector for Scientific Policy and Teaching Staff.

It is a pilot project being conduct-ed in collaboration with the Catalan Directorate General for Universities, intended to make the process of ex-ploiting knowledge and bringing it to market a two-way street. ‘It is not enough to offer diagnoses and clas-sical prescriptions; it is necessary to take the initiative and proactively seek out transfer opportunities’, Posas noted.

In this regard, UPF Ventures should allow companies to identify both areas in which the university can help and opportunities for bring-ing the knowledge generated at UPF to market. The proposal is based on models that have been successfully implemented at benchmark univer-sities in this area, such as Oxford or the Israeli university system.

Board of Trustees award for researchers and doctoral students

According to Núria Basi, pres-ident of UPF’s Board of Trustees, ‘Knowledge transfer is part of the very fabric of the university and is in-trinsic to its mission.’ Moreover, she continued, ‘It is an essential aspect of its service to society.’ This is true to such an extent that, since 2007, the main body for the University’s societal participation has organized an award for UPF researchers and doctoral students to provide incen-tives in this area and underscore the importance of ensuring that society benefits from scientific advances.

Ignasi Sahún, founding partner at ZeClinics

Jordi Janer, founding partner at Voctro Labs

Photos: fRedeRIc caMallonga

·On campus·06 upf.edu March 2016

ticipating, through various projects, in initiatives intended to showcase the value of the knowledge it produces. Examples include the Catalan gov-ernment’s Knowledge Industry Pro-gramme or the European Research Council’s Proof of Concept grant pro-gramme.

In the second case, that of ‘pulling’ knowledge, it is companies that turn to universities to help them meet an in-novation need. They ask for experts to help them improve their products, ser-vices or processes. The resulting collab-oration can take many forms, but the most common involve implementing R&D and innovation projects, provid-ing consulting and advisory services, or using the university’s existing scientif-ic infrastructure.

The challenge of making yourself visibleOne of the most important factors for productive knowledge transfer is the dissemination of research results, both within and outside the institution. To this end, in late 2015, the university launched the UPF Knowledge Portal, ‘a website that allows us to publicly dis-play the expertise and findings generat-ed by the university’s research groups, helping us to hold ourselves account-able by explaining how we use the pub-lic resources we obtain’, explained Jo-sep Jofre, deputy general manager of the Research and Economic Affairs Area. ‘It is a dynamic space that will evolve over time to include the latest research findings and identified tech-nologies’, said de Forn.

The actions to disseminate the knowledge generated also include spe-cific presentations of research projects to institutions and people from outside the university with a view to narrow-ing the gap between UPF and industry.

However, efforts are also made to disseminate this information within the university’s own walls. Accord-ing to de Forn, ‘The Innovation Unit-UPF Business Shuttle undertakes ac-tions to raise awareness amongst the university’s researchers and doctoral students of the importance of knowl-edge transfer.’

Protection of results

PATenTS 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015number of priority patents applied for 4 3 4 2 8number of international patents awarded 5 5 8 4 4SoFTwAre 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

number of software copyrights 1 0 2 4 5

Contracts with companies

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015Value of contracts with companies and institutions (€K) 4.590 3.930 3.092 2.957 4.381number of contracts with companies and institutions 139 162 161 162 180

Transfer contracts

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015number of licensing and royalty agreements 6 7 10 8 11Value of licensing and royalty agreements (€K) 34,7 54,9 69,7 94,5 117,2number of agreements not involving economic compensation 62 59 55 50 66

Tech companies

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015Spin-off 1 0 1 1 1Start-up 3 5 4 4 3

UPF has a strong presence in TECNIO, a network of technological innovation centres and university research groups that have been officially recognized by the Catalan Agency for Competitiveness (ACC1Ó) for their ability to quickly and

efficiently meet companies’ techno-logical needs and thereby foster their competitiveness. To date, nine UPF re-search groups and units have earned this distinction:

Success stories

Knowledge transfer outcomes at UPF

— Music Technology Group (MTG) — BCN MedTech Research Unit— Interactive Technologies Research Group (GTI)— Network Technologies and Strategies Research Group (NeTS)— Natural Language Processing Research Group (TALN)— Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems Research Group (SPECS)— Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB)— Bioanalysis, Pharmacology and Proteomics Research Unit (BAPP)— Neuropharmacology Laboratory Research Group

·On campus· upf.edu 07March 2016

some UPF sPin-oFFs and sTarT-UPs

VoCTro LABSSPIn-oFF

FoUnDeD: 2011

InDUSTrY: AUDIo TeCHnoLoGY

nUMBer oF eMPLoYeeS: 4 (FoUnDInG PArTnerS)

www.voctrolabs.com

Voctro Labs is an initiative that arose from the Musical Technology Group in UPF’s Department of Informa-tion and Communication Technologies, devoted to ‘bringing voice processing and synthesis technologies to market’, in the words of founding partner Jordi Janer.

In 2011, after collabo-rating with the Japanese company Yamaha Corp., it began to sell the first virtual singers in Spain, Clara and Bruno, based on the Vo-caloid technology. In late 2014, it was chosen by the European Commission as an example of a company with strong growth potential in the framework of the Open and Disruptive Innovation programme.

With regard to the com-pany’s direct collaboration with UPF, Janer highlighted ‘having been able to sign a technology transfer agreement that included the licence to exploit a patent’. He takes an optimistic view of the future, noting, ‘We aim to be a leader in the field of voice technologies for the creative industries of music, film and videog-ames.’ That will involve successfully implementing a business model with some of the innovation projects the company is currently working on.

ZeCLInICSSTArT-UP

FoUnDeD: 2013

InDUSTrY: BIoTeCH

nUMBer oF eMPLoYeeS: 6

www.zeclinics.com

ZeClinics was founded ‘after four researcher friends de-cided to add business value to what we were doing every day in our labs’, explained Ignasi Sahún, one of the company’s founding part-ners. ‘The uncertainty sur-rounding research positions prompted us to take the plunge and transition from the academic side of things to applied research.’ Sahún stressed ‘the fundamental role of the Innovation Unit-UPF Business Shuttle in terms of getting the project off the ground’.

The company provides solutions for assessing the safety and biomedical importance of new mole-cules, using zebrafish as a model. In three years, it has seen exponential growth in turnover, and last year it closed a €100,000 round of crowdfunding, which will al-low it to implement its main project, the ZeOncoTest.

‘Now, the challenges lie in internationalizing and diversifying our services to include new markets, such as the food industry or cos-metics’, explained Sahún. He is optimistic about the future, noting that the company aims ‘to become a small pharmaceutical player able to discover new drugs and sell them to larger companies’.

QGenoMICS

MoBILe MeDIA ConTenT

SPIn-oFF

FoUnDeD: 2008

InDUSTrY: BIoTeCHnoLoGY/DIAGnoSTICS/CLInICAL GenoMICS

nUMBer oF eMPLoYeeS: 23

www.qgenomics.com

It was one of UPF’s first spin-offs, the product of knowledge generated by research groups linked to the university and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG). It was hard at first, explained Lluís Armengol, one of the company’s founding part-ners, ‘but the attitude of the people we negotiated with at UPF convinced us not to throw in the towel’. According to Armengol, ‘It is important, when starting a business, to keep an open mind in order to achieve the goal of trans-ferring knowledge from the university to society.’

The company’s core busi-ness is the development and application of products and services arising from genomic research to the healthcare sector. Future plans include ‘implementing the project in its entirety, consolidating our business in Spain, and struggling to carve out a niche for ourselves in the global market’, Armengol said. In his view, the key to success is ‘work to develop and offer tools to the market that provide solutions for current diagnostic challenges and enable improvements in patient care’.

STArT-UP

FoUnDeD: 2012

InDUSTrY: InForMATIon TeCHnoLoGY

nUMBer oF eMPLoYeeS: 14

www.mobilemediacontent.com

‘Fans pay a lot of money to attend sporting events in person and a lot of times they don’t even know what kind of view they will have’, explained Francis Casado, the company’s Business Development Manager. This situation ‘generates dis-appointment and can lead to claims and complaints’. Offering fans a synthetic 3D view that allows them to check the view from a given seat before purchasing their ticket ensures a more satis-factory experience.

According to Casado, the company’s goal is ‘to become a leader in the enhancement of users’ ex-perience at sporting venues and theatres around the world’. It aims to become an essential complement to ticket-selling platforms. To date, it already counts FC Barcelona, the ATP and For-mula 1 amongst its clients.

With regard to the company’s contact and collaboration with UPF, Casado highlighted the support received during the first three years, when it was operating out of a co-work-ing space at the Almogàvers Business Factory. Addition-ally, he said, ‘The University has facilitated direct contact with a wide pool of talent, which has allowed us to recruit staff.’

— As the director of the Strategic Plan, how would you evaluate it?— I was really excited by this project, and it was an honour to lead and pro-mote it. I think the university need-ed it. It was a necessary initiative, the product of a collective reflection, at a time when the university world is undergoing a major transformation. Consequently, it was a good opportu-nity to reflect on UPF’s mission and strategic lines in depth. We need to go beyond local circumstances, our local community and the social and political context of Catalonia and Spain, and think about how UPF can move for-ward in the coming years as a more in-ternational and global university and

·Profiles·08 upf.edu

is that we conceive of a research uni-versity as a university fully commit-ted to research, not just in certain ar-eas, which might rightfully stand out and which should spearhead the ef-fort. But if we really want to achieve this goal, then the entire institution, without exception, has to be interna-tionally competitive and has to carry out high-quality research.

— What measures does the Plan pro-pose with regard to teaching? — The Plan modestly proposes un-dertaking a new revolution in teach-ing. This issue was discussed at length during the process of preparing the Plan. In recent years, we have made a major effort to adapt and transform our programmes in keeping with Bo-logna; but we shouldn’t stop there. We know that the world of education and teaching is under enormous strain and that, with the arrival of the new fully digital generations, the very process by which students learn is changing. All of this poses a challenge for our uni-versity; we need to be able to respond to all these changes, rethink the way

jacinT jordana casajUana (Granollers, 1962) is currently the director of the Barcelona Institute for International Studies (IBEI). He directed this road map, which was prepared with the involvement of the entire university community and which will set the university’s course for the next ten years.

March 2016

project. The governing team is finish-ing up an action plan now to imple-ment it.

— Is internationalization a key strat-egy for the university?— We shouldn’t be afraid of being a global university, an international leader, one whose feet are firmly plant-ed in Barcelona, Catalonia and Eu-rope, but which is also known around the world for providing a prestigious education and producing top-notch research. In this regard, we have to be able to soar, without the need to always be tied to our immediate sur-roundings. UPF has embraced inter-nationalization from the start, but now the Strategic Plan proposes going one step further by ensuring that all areas of the university operate in an inter-national framework and internation-al networks.

— Does the Plan seek to consolidate UPF’s status as a research university?— One basic aspect that the Strategic Plan establishes, which could help us set ourselves apart as an institution,

‘We all created the strategic Plan together; it was the product of collective reflection’

jacint jordanaPRofessoR of PolItIcal and adMInIstRatIon scIence and dIRectoR of UPf’s 2016-2025 stRategIc Plan

·Profiles· upf.edu 09

which is included as the university’s fourth mission. The Plan raises the need to establish greater bonds with Cata-lonia in general, but especially with the city of Barcelona. And one of the strongest bonds you can create with the city is through cultural activities. I would also highlight other less inno-vative, but equally important aspects. One is the Plan’s duration, ten years, as these kinds of plans do not usually span such a long period of time; how-ever, we thought that it could serve as an incentive, to boost and stimulate our long-term view of this issue. Finally, as part of one of the Plan’s general areas, we are seeking to embrace a transfor-mative and comprehensive model of social responsibility, encompassing all areas of the university.

— Did the participation, over the ten months that the process lasted, meet expectations? — We actually didn’t have any offi-cial forecasts in this regard. In gener-al, I would say that participation was higher than expected. I was surprised by the participation and enthusiasm shown in the face-to-face activities, such as the meetings, working groups and panel discussions. In contrast, on-line participation, in things like dis-cussion forums or commenting on doc-uments, fell short of what I expected. That’s something we still have to ad-dress: above and beyond the Strate-gic Plan, we have to better use online platforms to foster more intense and varied internal discussions.

— Did the initial diagnosis detect ar-eas of improvement?— The Strategic Plan seeks to provide solutions for the issues detected in the initial diagnosis, not so much to change things that were working, but rather to fix things that were not working well enough or were considered problem-atic. In addition to the teaching, re-search and internationalization aspects we’ve already mentioned, amongst oth-er things that were pointed out, atten-tion should be drawn to the need to streamline the university’s internal or-ganization, strengthen the role of alum-

FREDERIc cAMALLoNGA

ni, further embrace transparency and accountability, increase interdisciplin-arity, take advantage of and learn about the different experiences carried out, and generate more collective learning.

— Do we have the necessary resources to meet all these objectives? — What UPF does with its €133 million (2016) is not all that different from what universities with four or more times our budget (and a similarly larger number of students) do, and that can be seen in the rankings, when we appear in sim-ilar positions. This desire to fight and compete at this level, despite our limit-ed funding, makes everything very dif-ficult. Really, Catalan universities, and perhaps UPF in particular, due to our strong desire to be a global university known for its research, are competing on unequal footing.

— How can the funding be improved?— The Strategic Plan recognizes this problem and proposes certain means of improvement: first, we need to call for more and better public funding, be-cause we are carrying out a very im-portant mission of public interest, that is, of interest to the country as a whole. Second, we also need private funding: to attract more sponsors and patrons; to collaborate more with companies involved in research and customized training; to engage in more applied research or in activities related to the sale of educational services and train-ing programmes able to draw students from outside Europe, for example. If we can figure out how to combine and or-ganize the private and public formu-las well enough, we can substantial-ly increase certain levels of funding in coming years.

morE INFormAtIoN— www.upf.edu/plaestrategic

He liKes: WalKinga mUsician: Leonard Cohena BooK: La tortuga ecuestre by César Moroa ValUe: accountability

we teach, based on more individual-ized attention to students and more diversified ways of learning.

— Should teaching and research be integrated?— The Plan states the we need to link teaching and research more closely, es-pecially in terms of the education of-fered to students. Our students need to understand that we are a research university, that there are many ways for them to participate in processes related to research. A lot of things are already being done. These are initia-tives that are working well in a giv-en faculty or area, but that could be adapted and spread to others, things like student internships linked to re-search groups, final bachelor’s or mas-ter’s degree projects conducted more within the framework of a research en-vironment, researchers who seek stu-dents’ help for activities, etc.

— What other innovative aspects of the Plan would you highlight? — One innovative aspect is the impor-tance given to the cultural dimension,

March 2016

·In depth·10 upf.edu

es more evenly between July and Sep-tember’, said Figueras. The 2015 edition offered nine courses, with a total of 182 students, 56% more than in 2014. Partic-ipants were generally quite pleased with the experience, although many felt that the courses should be longer.

Additionally, ‘this year there will be a number of proposals in the field of so-cial responsibility that were not offered in the previous edition’, the vice-rector explained. Specifically, three new cours-es have been added: an introduction to Catalan sign language, an engineering and technology course especially aimed

at girls, and an introduction to what it means to study at university. This latter course aims to explain to students, in a fun way and through friendly and ex-periential contexts, what people study at university, how they do it and what it means, as well as to offer them an over-view of the skills and abilities specific to higher education.

An introduction to the university’s three campuses‘Educationally speaking, it is vital for students to be actively involved in the learning process’, explained David San-cho, dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UPF, located on the Ciutadella campus, and one of the teachers of the third edition of the course

In 2016, Campus Júnior, previously overseen by UPF’s Teaching area, was transferred to the university’s Social Re-sponsibility area. ‘Although the regula-tions that will reorient it are still pend-ing, we wanted to get a head start this year by bringing the programme into line with our outreach goals, in terms of opening the university up to the lo-cal community, the city and the region as whole’, explained Mònica Figueras, vice-rector for Social Responsibility and Promotion at UPF.

According to Figueras, Campus Júnior, which is targeted at students in their third and fourth year of compul-sory secondary school (escola secunda-ria obligatòria or ESO) and first year of upper secondary school (batxillerat), plays an important role as a link be-tween secondary school and universi-ty, ‘offering students a first-hand look at the university and giving them more in-formation to help them find and choose a programme and to see whether or not the university is a good fit for their ex-pectations’.

The 2016 edition of the Campus Júnior programme consists of 18 mul-tidisciplinary courses taught by UPF lecturers, each lasting five days, that combine teaching with practical and experimental learning. In addition, par-ticipants can discover fields of knowl-edge that are often largely absent from secondary school curricula and take ad-vantage of the campuses’ facilities and resources.

‘For 2016, we’ve tried to broaden the offer, by involving more programmes at UPF. We’ve also divided the cours-

campus junior opens UPF to secondary school studentsExperiential, practical, fun, participatory and experimental are just some of the characteristic of the courses offered as part of UPF’s Campus Júnior, a programme for secondary school students that will hold its fourth edition this summer.

‘Vols Entendre la Política del Nostre País?’ (Do you want to understand pol-itics in our country?). ‘Our course takes the form of an actual political analysis, allowing students to learn about the ad-ministrative and institutional structure of the different powers and what politi-cal parties are like’, Sancho explained. To achieve this, the course includes de-bates, role-playing exercises in which students have to defend a specific posi-tion of a given political party, a trip to the Catalan Parliament and a film fo-rum, among other activities.

Marta Narberhaus, a lecturer in the

March 2016

The 2016 edition will include 18 multidisciplinary courses taught by lecturers from UPF

·In depth· upf.edu 11March 2016

UPF Department of Communications and teacher of the course ‘Fem de Perio-distes!’ (Let’s be journalists!), explained that course’s goal. ‘We want to give stu-dents the opportunity to immerse them-selves in the news world, to learn about everything from basic concepts to how to use the main tools for practicing jour-nalism.’ Students take an in-depth look at the specific features of journalistic language, engage in practical profes-sional simulations (television, radio and Internet) at facilities on the Poblenou campus, and take trips to actual me-dia companies, such as Radio Nacion-al de España (RNE) or Barcelona Tele-visió (BTV). Elsewhere in the city, the university’s Mar campus is home to one of the ear-liest Campus Júnior courses (it has been offered since the very first edi-tion), called ‘Laboratori de Biologia Molecular’ (Molecular Biology Labora-tory). Mar Carrió, a lecturer in the De-partment of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS), coordinates it. ‘On the one hand, we pose an actual prob-lem, which students have to solve by designing experiments and carrying them out in the lab; on the other, we

learn about the research conducted at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), by talking with the re-searchers’, she explained. In 2016, Car-rió will also be coordinating the first edition of an introductory course to

exploring your surroundings through a lens

‘I got to see Barcelona from a differ-ent perspective, through a camera. We visited a lot of new places, and it gave me a chance to enjoy them.’ So said Ralf Mer-ten, a 17-year-old resident of Sant Cugat del Vallès, who participated last summer in the first edition of the course ‘Barcelo-na Through Your Lens: Urban Landscapes and Photographic Narratives’, which is be-ing offered again this year.

According to Ralf, who considers pho-tography to be a ‘cool hobby’, ‘it was fas-cinating for me to go to a different place each day; you’d be surprised by the kinds of photos you can take depending on the setting!’ He continued, ‘The teachers taught me technical aspects that I didn’t know before, which helped me to take better pictures. My favourite location

bioinformatics, which will take a sim-ilar approach, but using software for the practical portion.

morE INFormAtIoN— www.upf.edu/campusjunior

Students of the 2015 edition of the course ‘Fem de Periodistes!’

(Let’s be journalists!).FreDerIC CAMALLonGA

was the Dipòsit de les Aigües Library at UPF, where I could take pictures of people studying and of the incredible building it-self.’ Antoni Luni, who teaches geography in the Department of Humanities at UPF, and Lourdes Delgado, a lecturer at the Image Processing and Multimedia Tech-nology Centre at the Polytechnic Univer-sity of Catalonia, explained the content of the course, which seeks to depict different landscapes of Barcelona, beyond the his-torical perspective and that of its artistic and cultural heritage. ‘Every session is divided into two parts, one onsite, where the location is presented to the students, along with an explanation of its impor-tance within the city, and another in the classroom, where students learn about the editing and postproduction process.’

·Community·12 upf.edu March 2016

UPF, for lifeEarning your degree does not mean leaving the university behind, but rather changing your relationship with it. The UPF Alumni programme fosters the bond with alumni in order to cultivate a sense of belonging to the institution, even after graduation.

AUrorA SAnZ (LAw, 1995)

‘I’ve been especially pleased with UPF’s outstanding evolution since it first opened its doors’

Aurora Sanz recalls her years at UPF as ‘a very enriching experience’. She joined the UPF Alumni pro-gramme, first, ‘out of a desire to stay in touch with friends with whom I shared those incredibly important years’. Second, she explained, ‘It allowed me

PAU AGULLó (eConoMICS, 1997)

‘Contact with the university helped me get collaborative projects, like the Data Science programme, off the ground’

Ever since he graduated, Pau Agulló has kept up his relationship with the university. ‘Maintaining the link to UPF helped me stay in touch with friends and allowed me to partic-ipate actively in training activities and talks’, he explained. This bond led him

Many alumni remember their uni-versity experience as a formative part of their life. Whether in the halls, in class or at the library, many students and professors at the university have forged fruitful learning relationships and taken the first steps towards their future careers. The UPF Alumni pro-gramme’s value lies precisely in its ability to conserve these synergies, prolonging the institution’s relation-ship with all those people who one day formed a part of it.

How did it come about?According to Anaís Tarragó, director of the UPF Foundation, which man-ages the UPF Alumni programme, ‘There weren’t, and still aren’t, any clear precedents in the country outside of business schools.’ The programme was launched in 2009, based on the work of student associations such as Antics UPF and for the purpose of promoting the university amongst its alumni, members of the local and in-ternational academic community, and

the institutional and business world. ‘Although the programme draws

heavily on the Anglo-Saxon tradi-tion’, Tarragó explained, ‘it is not re-ally comparable, as we do not have the same tools.’ Nevertheless, she con-tinued, ‘we do share some of the same philosophy, such as the desire to fos-ter a sense of belonging amongst stu-dents, not only when they are at uni-versity, but also after they graduate.’ ‘Alumni are a vital part of the univer-sity and some of our best ambassadors

to follow what the new student pro-files are like from a prudent distance, to see how the new generations of professionals are coming up through the ranks.’ One of the most gratifying aspects of being a member ‘was partic-ipating in the graduation ceremony for law students in the class of 2014’, as it ‘brought back a lot of good memories’.

·Community· upf.edu 13March 2016

KSenIA KLYKoVA (AUDIoVISUAL CoMMUnICATIon, 2015)

‘The Library service is what convinced me to join the UPF Alumni programme’

Although Ksenia Klykova only re-cently completed her degree in Audio-visual Communication, she knew she wanted to join the programme from the moment she graduated. ‘I discovered it whilst collaborating at the university library; a lot of the patrons had UPF

to the world’, stressed Mònica Figuer-as, vice-rector for Social Responsibil-ity and Promotion. ‘We cannot afford to lose touch with them.’

According to Figueras, ‘So far, nearly 13,000 UPF alumni have joined the programme in order to maintain contact with the university.’

What does the future hold for the programme?One of the services UPF Alumni of-fers, along with its Career Services, is to provide alumni with the necessary tools to boost their careers, wheth-er in the form of orientation courses, mentoring or other continuing edu-cation activities. It is a clear commit-ment that strengthens bonds and bears witness to all that UPF has to offer its students once they move on from university.

‘Of course, we have 25 years of alumni, and the needs and interests of the earliest graduating classes are clearly quite different from those of

the most recent ones’, explained Tar-ragó. Consequently, one of the pro-gramme’s short-term goals is to pro-vide services, activities, forums and meeting points to foster participation and cooperation between the univer-sity and its alumni. ‘We need to of-fer forums and networks for alumni to meet up, not only amongst them-selves, but also with the entire uni-versity community, to share interests and create value together in order to ensure that UPF remains a universi-ty of excellence.’

To offer a more attractive pro-gramme for all the university’s grad-uating classes, ‘we need to proactive-ly seek out alumni who have not kept in touch’, Tarragó added.

Thus, within the context of the uni-versity’s 25th anniversary and its stra-tegic plan for the next ten years, alum-ni have emerged as a key factor in the university’s relationships with indus-try and society. ‘The university has made an effort to track down the mem-

bers of the first ten graduating classes, and it has successfully contacted a to-tal of 5,200 alumni from the classes of 1994 to 2004, 52.2% of all graduates from those years’, explained Figueras. One of the first outreach activities was the 1st Alumni Meeting, held in Sep-tember on the Ciutadella campus and attended by more than 1,200 alumni. The meeting served to establish an ini-tial line of collaboration amongst the entire UPF community and to deter-mine what needs and interests alum-ni have in relation to the university.

In this respect, the 2016-2025 Stra-tegic Plan is a good example of two-way participation, as ‘it was not de-signed solely by the university, without any understanding of people’s real needs, but rather was prepared with the collaboration and participation of alumni themselves’, Figueras ex-plained. ‘UPF wants to create a joint programme that really takes into ac-count what alumni think it should be’, she concluded.

Alumni cards, and it piqued my interest.’ She remembers her time at UPF as a very positive and enriching period, and she wants to maintain her relationship with the school, amongst other things, because ‘the programme offers some very practical services that could help me with my career’. One such service is the Career Guidance Service, launched in the 2014/2015 academic year, which has generated considerable interest amongst alumni.

to be one of the featured speakers at the 1st UPF Alumni Meeting, where he was a panellist in an open discussion amongst various alumni entitled “La universitat, un camí d’anada i torna-da” (‘University: a two-way street’). His close relationship with the univer-sity and his continued contact with various lecturers have also led him to participate as a teacher in the Data Science programme at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

Photos: fRedeRIc caMallonga

·In depth·14 upf.edu

‘research is a matter of state: it cannot depend on which way the political winds are blowing’

crisTina PUjades (mataró, 1962) leads the Developmental Neurobiology Group in the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences and is Delegate of the rector for research Issues.

— recently, UPF submitted the re-search carried out by all of its areas to a process of external assessment that involved numerous internationally renowned experts and had the sup-port of the Catalan University Quali-ty Assurance Agency (AQU Catalun-ya). Why is such a process important? A university’s mission is to generate, transmit and transfer knowledge. Re-search is thus a key aspect of any uni-versity community, and assessment is an essential tool to learn about, pro-mote and evaluate this research. This process is common practice at public universities in neighbouring countries. It allows us to measure the university’s progress on one of its missions, namely, that of generating knowledge.

— What goals is the university pur-suing with this pioneering initiative?— The university is seeking to identify its strengths and weaknesses in order to craft and conduct a proactive and ambitious scientific policy. In order to advance, we need to know where we currently stand and where we would like to be in a few years. Moreover, ex-ternal assessments are also a way to hold ourselves accountable to soci-ety. As a public university, our patrons are the population at large, and that means we have to be ambitious and very clear when it comes to explain-ing what we do. The strategic goal of these assessments is to strengthen the university’s positioning as a high-lev-el international research organization and to ensure that it is perceived as a generator of knowledge and not just a means for transmitting it.

— What were the main findings re-garding research at UPF?— As noted in the assessments, we

putting into place a good talent re-cruitment and retention policy, foster-ing a research culture that is sensitive to the transfer of its results, and facili-tating innovation-oriented leadership. Some departments have made more progress on these points than others, but, generally speaking, we still have a way to go.

— What are the keys to successfully disseminating scientific knowledge to society?— It is a joint effort. As researchers, we have to learn how to explain what we do in plainer language. Also, re-search must be understood as a mat-ter of state: it cannot depend on which way the political winds are blowing. If a country wants to strengthen its re-

March 2016

cristina PujadesLECTURER IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES AND DELEGATE OF THE RECTOR FOR RESEARCH ISSUES

are well positioned in terms of the re-search conducted in Spain. UPF is one of the universities with the highest number of publications and papers per researcher; however, there is also room for improvement. Some of the main areas we need to improve are:

‘Basic research findings help transform society’

‘Basic research is a long-term commitment, but it is a necessary one’

·In depth· upf.edu 15

yers and scientists, but also society as a whole. However, in order to freely make decisions, there need to be cer-tain criteria. It is critical for society to realize that it needs to become in-creasingly involved, because science is already part of our lives: personalized medicine, Facebook, mobile technolo-gy, etc. Everything is built on science.

— Sometimes, society fails to see the usefulness of basic research. — Basic research generates knowledge that will ultimately have implications for our lives. The clearest example for me, as a biologist, is the discovery of the structure of DNA. Thanks to a ba-sic research paper published in 1953, today we have personalized medicine. Another more recent example of the

impact of this type of research in bio-medicine is the CRISPR-Cas9 system for gene editing. It is a fascinating dis-covery, since what began a few years ago with the study of how immunity works in bacteria has today become a tool that allows us to edit any gene very efficiently and, thus, to open up hither-to unimaginable possibilities for gene therapy. I understand that, intuitive-ly, it can be easier to understand the need to invest in applied research, but basic research findings help transform society. Obviously, it is a long-term commitment, but it is a necessary one.

— Your team is very active when it comes to scientific dissemination. What does public engagement mean to you? How does the general public perceive your scientific discoveries?— I love disseminating knowledge, making an effort to communicate and showcase the value of what we do. To be able to convey your passion for what you do and see how people re-ceive it is truly rewarding. I also think that it is good, because it helps us put ourselves in perspective. Scientists tend to be very specific, and we end up focusing on very concrete details. Dissemination allows us to ask why we are interested in something so specific and how it might be relevant to a dif-ferent audience. I also think that it is nice for us to be perceived as engaged and accessible citizens.

— Your research focuses on the em-bryonic development of the nervous system in zebrafish. Why did you choose to use that animal model?— We are working on the develop-ment of a part of the brain that is highly conserved in all vertebrates, from zebrafish to human beings. The zebrafish is a good model system be-cause it allows us to track living cells and combine that with genetic stud-ies. We can manipulate genes, mark them, study what is happening, how this part of the brain is formed, how neurons are generated, etc. It may not seem very anthropocentric, but it turns out we have a lot in com-mon with the brain of a zebrafish.

FREDERIc cAMALLoNGA

March 2016

search (in order to transform its econ-omy), it needs to communicate its sci-entific findings. And the strategy needs to be global, because individual strat-egies have a much smaller impact that only reaches people who are already interested. To move beyond that, all players need to be involved: the gov-ernment, scientists, universities, jour-nalists, etc.

— Why is scientific dissemination so important?— Many recent social challenges stem from science: in vitro fertilization, therapeutic cloning, genome editing, data privacy, etc. Currently, the law follows on the heels of these challeng-es, and the people who make those decisions should not be just the law-

·Online·16 upf.edu

‘Before their first words’, an educational website for children in their first year of lifeAn initiative to encourage the development of communication and learning skills, with the participation of Alfonso Igualada, Núria Esteve-Gibert and Pilar Prieto, members of the Prosodic Studies Group (GrEP).

March 2016

languages (Catalan, Spanish and En-glish) and uses plain language to ex-plain what communicative traits chil-dren display in the pre-language stage and how to stimulate them to encour-age language development and social interaction. To this end, it offers an ex-tensive gallery of videos, educational material and practical tips for parents and educators created with the partici-pation of an international group of ex-perts in early language development.

It is known that in the pre-lan-guage stage, children are able to rec-ognize prosodic patterns of language (stress, rhythm and intonation), dif-ferentiate between sounds, and un-derstand the meaning of some words, as well as develop strategies to com-municate and interact with adults that act as precursors of language.

‘Before their first words’ also re-ports on the results of the research be-ing conducted by the two participat-ing research groups. For instance, one recent study showed that nine-month-old infants are highly sensitive to the temporal alignment of gestures and speech in their language environment (Esteve-Gibert, Prieto, Pons. Infant Behavior and Development, 2015).

‘Before their first words’ is an edu-cational website designed to encour-age the development of communica-tion and learning skills in children in their first year of life. The brainchild of Alfonso Igualada and Núria Es-teve-Gibert, it is coordinated by Pilar Prieto, head of the Prosodic Studies Group (GrEP) and an ICREA lectur-er in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at UPF, and Laura Bosch, head of the Research in Attention, Perception and Language Acquisition (APAL) group in the Basic Psychology Department at the Univer-sity of Barcelona (UB), with the partic-ipation of the University of Sheffield

(UK). The project has been funded by the RecerCaixa programme to pro-mote excellence in research sponsored by Obra Social ”la Caixa”, in collab-oration with the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP).

The website is available in three

studies show that the pre-language period is crucial to children’s development

From left to right: núria esteve-Gibert, Pilar Prieto and Alfonso Igualada, members of UPF’s Prosodic Studies Group (GreP). FreDerIC CAMALLonGA

Another found that the ability to com-bine speech and pointing at 12 months is predictive of a child’s language de-velopment at 18 months (Igualada, Bosch, Prieto. Infant Behavior and De-velopment, 2015).

The aim of the project is twofold: first, to use information and commu-nication technology to provide par-

ents and educators with information on the latest findings on language pre-cursors and raise their awareness of the importance of encouraging them; and, second, to study these precur-sors from an integrative, multidis-ciplinary perspective and assess the

The website offers a month-by-month overview of how babies’ communication skills develop

·Online· upf.edu 17March 2016

10 tips the website offers for parents and educators

1. Follow your baby’s lead; pay attention to his or her interests 2. Interact with your baby face to face 3. Sing songs and tell your baby stories 4. Imitate your baby’s gestures and vocalizations 5. Speak to your baby in a variety of expressive ways 6. Interpret your baby’s sounds and gestures 7. Observe how your baby reacts to things 8. Respond when your baby points 9. Try to create opportunities for communication 10. Just talk to your baby

impact on children’s development of how adults respond. To enhance these skills, the website’s section on precur-sors of language examines children’s communication skills from the per-spective of production, perception and interaction.

The website is divided into var-ious sections which show, month by month, how communication and early language learning develop in children aged 0 to 12 months, that is, what the precursors of language are and when they appear: perception of the rhythm and intonation of a language, the first sounds a baby makes, early babbling, tracking with the gaze, pointing, etc.

In each case, practical informa-tion and examples of how to encour-age development naturally are provid-ed by means of audiovisual material showing different children and their parents in the homes of families who

voluntarily participated in the ini-tiative. One of the project’s potential future benefits is the creation of pro-tocols for the identification and ear-ly detection of risk profiles that could be used to take preventive actions, which could significantly reduce the presence of communication and lan-

guage difficulties at later stages of de-velopment.

morE INFormAtIoN— ‘Before their first words’http://abansprimeresparaules.upf.edu/— Prosodic Studies Group: http://proso-dia.upf.edu/home/

·News·18 upf.edu

Recognition

The State Secretariat for Re-search, Development and Innovation of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness has recognized the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DTIC) within the framework of its Centres of Excellence programme. As a re-sult of this distinction, the DTIC will receive €500,000 in funding each year for the next four years.

According to Xavier Serra, sci-entific director of the DTIC and head of the Music Technology Group, ‘This distinction will allow us to strengthen our research and increase its impact.’ Xavier Binefa, director of the DTIC, aims to position it ‘as a national and international bench-mark institution in data science re-

search, emphasizing its reproduc-ibility’.

The grant will be used to imple-ment a series of strategic actions in this knowledge area, including up-grading the university’s comput-ing infrastructure, funding research

projects, and providing support for researchers to increase the impact of their research, both from an ac-ademic point of view and in terms of technology transfer and social relevance.

UPF’s fourth seal of excellenceThis latest distinction brings the total number UPF-affiliated cen-tres and research units to be recog-nized by the Spanish Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation to four, testimony to the quality of the university’s re-search. In the previous edition of the programme, the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences was awarded a ‘María de Maeztu’ distinction, whilst the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and the Centre for Genomic Regula-tion, affiliated with and partial-ly owned by the university, were awarded the ‘Severo Ochoa’ dis-tinction of excellence in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

‘The distinction will allow us to strengthen our research and increase its impact’

The department of information and communication Technologies receives the ‘maría de maeztu’ distinction

March 2016

Xavier serra with carmen Vela, spanish secretary of state for Research, development and Innovation. STATE SEcRETARIAT FoR

RESEARcH, DEVELoPMENT AND INNoVATIoN

·News· upf.edu 19

UPF students investigate how to prevent colon cancer

#UPFTalent #UPFResearch

Far from ageing people, having grandchildren rejuvenates them

That was the main conclu-sion reached by Bruno Arpi-no, co-director of the Research and Expertise Centre for Sur-vey Methodology, linked to the Department of Political and So-cial Sciences at UPF, and Valeria Bordone, from the Wittgenstein Centre in Austria, after analys-ing a sample of 4,500 people be-tween the ages of 50 and 85. The researchers looked at the rela-tionship between people’s sub-jective age and the condition of being a grandparent and caring for one’s grandchildren.

Subjective construction of age Although younger grandpar-ents feel older than people in the same age group without grand-children, this relationship is re-versed as the grandparents’ age increases. Thus, the research-ers found a clear association be-tween feeling young and caring for grandchildren in grandpar-ents over the age of 70. Moreover, this phenomenon is cumulative in grandmothers, who experi-ence an additional youthful feel-ing simply from having grand-children.

The authors suggest that people construct their subjec-

tive age based on the specific cir-cumstances of their lives. The study thus highlights the im-portance of taking the subjectivity of ageing into account: consideration must be given to both the role a person plays

in society and his or her chrono-logical age.

#UPFResearch

autophagy, a key factor in muscle regeneration

A study led by Pura Muñoz-Cànoves, an ICREA research-er and head of the Cell Biolo-gy Group in the Department of Experimental and Health Sci-ences, has shown that cell age-ing starts when the autophagy process fails and damaged pro-teins and organelles accumulate inside stem cells, leading to se-nescence and depletion.

The study, published in Na-ture, also showed that re-es-tablishing the autophagy pro-cess reverses ageing and restores the regenerative functions of old satellite cells, which turns out to be a decisive regulator of stem cell fate and, therefore, a pos-sible strategy for combating re-duced muscle regeneration in sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass due to ageing and physical in-activity).

According to Muñoz-Cànoves, ‘These findings open the doors to research aimed at attenuating the loss of muscle regeneration ca-pacity in the elderly, giving them greater independence and a bet-ter quality of life.’

Pura Muñoz. UPF

March 2016

team of students behind the project.IGEM BARcELoNA

Polybiome is a research proj-ect being conducted by students on the bachelor’s programme in Bio-medical Engineering at UPF with a view to reducing the chances of getting colon cancer through the use of microorganisms able to de-grade harmful molecules found in our diets. The initiative has received the support of the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences and the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at UPF, as well as of the Centre for Genomic Regulation.

The microorganisms, which are first genetically modified, would be ingested in capsule form and are completely harmless, as all of them can be found in a variety of chees-es and yogurts already available on the market.

The project was launched in re-sponse to the World Health Orga-nization’s recent warning that the consumption of large quantities of processed and red meat increases the risk of colon cancer. The team of stu-dents will submit the project to the synthetic biology competition Gi-ant Jamboree, held by the Interna-tional Genetically Engineered Ma-chine (iGEM) Foundation in Boston, which seeks to promote entrepre-neurship amongst participants.

·News·20 upf.edu

lands of Fog, a game to integrate children with autism

Lands of Fog is a videog-ame based on a ‘full-body’ in-teractive environment intend-ed to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The project, funded by the Recer-Caixa programme, was carried out by Narcís Parés, a lecturer in the Department of Informa-tion and Communication Tech-nologies, in collaboration with the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of Lon-don, and the Developmental Dis-orders Unit at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.

A six-metre circular projec-tion presents a magical world that children can explore by moving through both the physical and virtual space, with the peculiar-ity that both the settings and the creatures that inhabit them can only be discovered when children interact with the environment and collaborate with each other.

Targeted at special and inclu-sive education centres, the instal-lation has already been tested on a group of 68 children between the ages of 10 and 14. The re-searchers found that the game was able to increase and diver-sify attitudes towards social ini-tiation and collaboration in chil-dren with ASD.

#UPFResearch

two children interact with the installation. JoRdI nIeVa/ReceRcaIXa

March 2016

Amb títol is an innovative propos-al in the audiovisual world that aims to reflect on the role that university plays in our lives. Directed by Neus Ballús, a filmmaker and UPF alumna, it aims to take the us-er-viewer on a journey through the cases of several singular alum-ni, presenting them as if they were their the user-viewer’s own life experience, in order to explore how their time at university shaped their lives.

According to Ballús, the work ‘aims to be an open debate; the view-er is also an active participant. To achieve this, we needed an organic, open format, such as a web documen-tary’. She also noted that the reflec-tion ‘is intended to shed light on the problems or shortcomings of public universities today, so as to encour-

age ideas on how to improve them’. The interactive documenta-

ry premiered last November at the Contemporary Culture Cen-tre of Barcelona (CCCB) and is

part of the pro-gramme of events commemorating UPF’s 25th anniver-sary. It was co-pro-duced by TV3, after being chosen from

amongst 28 projects in an open call for productions in this format. It al-so received support from Obra So-cial La Caixa.

#UPF25anys

UPF premieres the interactive documentary film Amb títol

neus Vallús, director of the web documentary Amb títol during filming. UPf

To look at how our time at university shapes our lives

www.ambtitol.cat

·News· upf.edu 21

UPF launches the ‘dialogues in the Humanities’ series

Outreach

The university opens its doors to society to disseminate and dis-cuss various topical and human-istic issues in a series of eight dialogues. The humanities are the guiding thread for this se-ries, which will be held on vari-ous Tuesdays in February, March and April.

In the format of a dialogue be-tween two experts from the uni-versity from different fields, the series will address several general topics, as well as specific issues re-lated to communication sciences, economics, political science and biomedicine. Participants will in-clude Mònica Terribas, Joaquim Albareda, Victòria Cirlot and Al-bert Carreras, amongst others.

The initiative, directed by Ta-mara Djermanovic, a lecturer in UPF’s Department of Humanities, is being conducted in collabora-tion with the Board of Trustees and has the support of an adviso-ry board consisting of Rafael Ar-gullol, a professor in the Depart-ment of Humanities; Josep Eladi Baños, a professor in the Depart-ment of Experimental and Health Sciences; and Fran Benavente, a lecturer in the Department of Communication.

Journalism and politics; medicine and culture; litera-ture and film; or the relations between Catalonia and Spain are just some of the topics the series will address.

March 2016

more than 60 organizations participate in UPFeina

Employment

#UPFResearch

neanderthals mated with modern humans earlier than thought

According to a paper pub-lished in Nature, modern humans and Neanderthals first interbred tens of thousands of years earlier than previous research had sug-gested. Using various methods of DNA analysis and a larger num-ber of Neanderthal genomes, an international team of research-ers showed that this interbreed-ing first occurred about 100,000 years ago. The researchers sug-gest that some groups of modern humans left Africa earlier than was once thought and interbred with Neanderthals; however, these modern humans probably became extinct and, therefore, are not amongst the ancestors of present-day humans.

The team behind these find-ings is made up of more than 20 researchers from various Euro-pean research centres, includ-ing the Institute of Evolution-ary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF). Its members included Martin Kuhl-wilm, the first co-author of the paper and currently a postdoc-toral fellow at the centre, and the principal investigators Tomàs Marquès-Bonet and Carlos Lal-ueza-Fox.

‘This finding is another step in the demolition of the previous paradigm of human evolution. Now we know that modern hu-mans and archaic hominids in-terbred multiple times, speeding the adaptation of those popula-tions’, said Lalueza-Fox. Fur-thermore, he continued, ‘this will also have been the case in the most distant past of our lin-eage, that is, it will have been true for millions of years’.

The 11th edition of UPFeina, held last November, drew 62 organiza-tions and saw the number of par-ticipating companies climb to 51. The job fair is intended to provide a channel to facilitate relations be-tween the job market and the uni-versity’s students and alumni.

The new participating compa-nies came from a wide range of in-dustries, including legal services (Rosaud Costas Duran), chemi-cals (Roche Diagnostics), the food industry (Miguel Torres), health-care (Hartman), advertising (Bub-blegum) and tech (HP), amongst others.

Additionally, for the first time, the Catalan cooperative sector was represented at the fair through the participation of Aracoop.

A range of parallel activities were also held throughout the day, aimed at enhancing participants’ job-seeking skills and prospects. Of special note were the talent speed-networking session, con-sisting of a series of short inter-views between companies and par-ticipants, and the ‘Oportunitats a l’estranger’ (Opportunities abroad) session, which looked at the pro-grammes and grants available to help attendees’ internationalize their training.

atmosphere in the Roger de llúria courtyard the day of the fair. eVa gUIllaMet

March 2016·News·22 upf.edu

#UPFTalent

team of students who participated in the project. UPf

award for international Women’s day poster

Irene Guim, a student on the bachelor’s programme in Adver-tising and Public Relations, won the contest and a prize worth 3,500. Held by the Spanish Insti-tute for Women and Equal Op-portunity, the contest received a total of 206 submissions from all over Spain.

‘Singularly equal’ refers to ‘individual singularities, which are not enough to make us dif-ferent, whether inferior or su-perior’, the winner explained. ‘I wanted to make an uncluttered, minimalist poster that conveyed a clear message and that includ-ed the colour purple, given its significance.’

The inspiration for the post-er design came from a compar-ison of women and nature. The motif for the drawings was the result of modifying fir trees to look like they had the arms and legs of a person. According to Guim, ‘All trees are different, singular, like people. But deep down, the essence is the same: we are all equal.’

The contest sought to trans-mit positive messages regard-ing women’s active participa-tion in society, to increase the visibility of equal opportunities for women and men, and to pro-mote actions to combat gender inequality.

diplomats learn about the UPF project

Some twenty people belong-ing to the accredited consular corps in Barcelona took part in an institutional meeting on the Ciutadella campus last January in which they learned about the university’s main strategic lines, especially in the area of interna-tionalization.

Participants in the meet-ing, held within the context of the events commemorating the university’s 25th anniversary, in-cluded Jaume Casals, rector of UPF, and Josep Ferrer, vice-rec-tor for Internationalization of the University and Internation-al Relations, who discussed the challenges facing UPF in this area.

Currently, UPF has around 1,500 international students of 99 different nationalities. This is equivalent to 12.71% of the entire student body. The share of international students climbs to 37% when it comes to mas-ter’s degree programmes and to 50% when it comes to doctor-ates. Additionally, the universi-ty has signed almost 400 inter-national exchange agreements with institutions around the world, enabling 32% of its un-dergraduate students to spend time abroad over the course of their programme.

Internationalization

Photo of the group attending the event. eVa gUIllaMet

students create a wheelchair controlled with the mind

#UPFTalent

Albert Martí, Alexandre Triay, Adrià Font, Mar Estarellas and Mark Barna, undergraduate stu-dents in the Biomedical Engi-neering programme, have created Whee’ll, a brain-computer inter-face to enable people of limited mobility to use wheelchairs.

The project, conducted as part of the subject ‘Introduction to Medical Devices and Their Design’, aims to develop solutions for peo-ple with a very complex degree of mobility in order to improve their quality of life. The students used a helmet fitted with electrodes able to capture electrical signals from the brain to determine which di-rection the person wants to go. The students received external support from both companies, such as Neuroelectrics Barcelona, and UPF research groups to implement the project.

Other proposals were also im-plemented as part of the subject, including: a cardiac ablation train-ing device (coordinated with Hos-pital Clínic in Barcelona); a brace-let to prevent sudden infant death syndrome; a valve system for pa-tients with gastroesophageal re-flux disease; or an optimized design for tracheotomy tubes (in collabo-ration with the surgical company Atos Medical).

March 2016 ·News· upf.edu 23

On the occasion of the 30th anni-versary of Spain’s adhesion to the European Community, the Ciuta-della campus hosted an exhibition to encourage reflection on what European integration has meant for Catalonia and, vice versa, what Catalonia has meant for the Europe Community.

The exhibition was inaugurat-ed in January by Jaume Casals, rec-tor of UPF, and Fernando Guirao, Jean Monnet Professor of History in the Department of Economics and Business and the exhibition’s cura-tor. The event also featured the writer Eduardo Mendoza, who spoke about democracy in Eu-rope.

The exhibition’s

main sponsor is CaixaBank. It has also received support from the Eu-ropean Parliament, the European Commission, Europe Direct, the Catalan government, the City of Barcelona and more than 40 orga-nizations.

The exhibition is divided in-to eight sections: Starting point; Catalonia got ready; Europe in the classroom; Material impact; Euro-pean citizenship; Challenges; What has Europe meant for Catalonia?;

and What has Cat-alonia meant for Europe? It will travel this year to the Europe Direct centres in Girona, Lleida and Tarrag-ona before return-ing to Barcelona for the city’s Mer-cè festival.

Outreach

‘30 years on’: catalonia’s integration in europe

it will travel to the europe direct centres in girona, lleida and Tarragona before returning to Barcelona for the 2016 mercè festival

eduardo Mendoza, Jaume casals and fernando guirao. fRedeRIc caMallonga

#UPFund

Private donors fund research at UPF

The Department of Human-ities and the Department of Ex-perimental and Health Scienc-es (DCEXS) at UPF have both received donations to fund their research.

First, Antonio Gallardo, chairman of the board of direc-tors of the Landon Group and honorary vice-chairman of the board of Almirall, donated 45,000 to the Archaeology Laboratory, led by the lecturer Maria Eugènia Aubet, which is conducting ar-chaeological research in the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Ac-cording to Gallardo, his contribu-tion is intended ‘to help increase and improve knowledge of Phoe-nician culture’.

Second, María Luisa Pachán made her third donation to DCEXS this year. This time, it will be used to finance new equipment to carry out new bio-medical research. ‘Global prog-ress depends on scientific ad-vances’, Pachán explained. ‘The countries that invest in research are the ones that make the most progress.’

The UPFund – Sponsorship and Patronage programme was launched to raise the profile of the university’s work in its com-munity, with a view to uphold-ing its commitment to excellence in teaching, promoting new re-search projects and creating new scholarship programmes.

María luisa Pachán with a team of researchers from UPf. UPf

— Why did you decide to study business management and administration at UPF?— When I was 18, I didn’t really know what to do; I guess that’s the way it is for a lot of people at that age. I liked the idea of study-ing business, because you learn things that are applicable to all kinds of worlds. I had good marks in secondary school, and I felt like, in a certain sense, if I stayed in Llei-da, I wouldn’t be taking advantage of that.

I chose UPF because it offered the three things I was looking for: Barcelona, a pub-lic education and a degree pro-gramme with subjects in English.

— the CEo of your company also went to UPF, right? — Yes. Eduard Sáez was one of my best friends at university. We re-ally got to know each other in our fourth year. He was a much bet-ter student than I was. I remem-ber how a lot of times he would explain things to me before the ex-ams. He would always sit in the front row, taking notes with print-outs of the slides. I was more likely to be talking with the person next to me and doodling on my notes.

I think that was lucky for us: having different, complementa-ry profiles. We are both essential; without me, there would be no Cos-talamel, and without him, it could not grow at the rate it has been growing.

— You also earned a master’s degree in Brand meaning management at UPF BSm. How do you think it has helped you in your career?— I’ve never been a big fan of studying. I’ve always taken a more utilitarian approach and tried to learn about what I was inter-ested in. Business management and ad-ministration didn’t excite me; I think it is a cold, fairly impersonal world. However, it has helped me not to destroy the brand.

Brand Meaning, on the other hand,

helped me a lot more when it came to start-ing Costalamel. I wouldn’t say that it’s a master’s programme that helps you with your career, but rather that it offers you re-ally useful personal insights. It gives you tools that are completely applicable when you have a project in mind.

— What is your most memorable moment from your time at UPF?— More than a moment, I would say a fac-tor: living in a student hall of residence. I

think UPF is more than an average mark on a transcript. It’s four critical years of your life. You meet people who will be key to your future and have unforgettable ex-periences. That is just as important if not more so than being top of the class.

— What made you decide to start Costa-lamel?— I am a very idealistic person; I have to believe in what I am doing in order to do it. I had friends who, out of fear or conve-nience, accepted jobs that didn’t convince them. In part, that helped to open my eyes

and convinced me to keep looking. Also, there was and still is a need to

find a project that combines both my skills and my passions.

— Costalamel t-shirts are made by hand in Barcelona. Do you think that keeping things local is a good business model? — To produce in Barcelona, you have to be close to your suppliers. Every Costalamel product is made by between one and five different workshops. We have to be near-

by. There is no other alternative. Besides, if you do it in Bar-

celona (for real), it makes you different. And being different is something people notice.

— the fashion industry is very competitive. What do you think your brand owes its success to?— I think we try to do things thinking about the essence. We don’t ask ourselves ‘what should we do’, but rather ‘why are we doing it’. We try to make clothes that connect with people, that tell a story, that make a statement.

— Starting a business is a risky decision. Why did you take the plunge?— I didn’t think not taking it would be better.

— And what are your goals for the future?— Right now, we are trying to raise a round of funding. If we find investors, we will ap-ply the growth plan we’ve designed to in-crease our turnover fivefold within a year.

— It seems like this model has worked for you. Would you advise UPF students to start their own businesses? — I would tell students to stop doing what people expect of them and to fo-cus on doing what they really want to do instead.

‘I would tell students to focus on what they really want to do’

Ernest Costafreda(Business Management and Administration, 2012)

Founder and Creative Director at Costalamel

·Our Alumni·