IBEC in the Media

Last Friday IBEC was featured on TV3’s lunchtime news in a report about Barcelona’s capacity to attract foreign academics and researchers to the city, and the Barcelona Centre Universitari, which helps newcomers with language, administration, networking and legal issues.

Today, La Vanguardia (left) and Interempresas.net report that Rob Surgical Systems, the IBEC/UPC spin-off company, has started validating its Bitrack Surgical Robot System for minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.

Aiming to address the current shortcomings of laparoscopic surgery, the robot has been designed under the technical direction of Dr. Josep Amat (UPC) and Alicia Casals’ Robotics group (IBEC), with medical direction from Dr. Javier Magriña from Arizona’s Mayo Clinic, an expert in Da Vinci surgical robots.

Pau Gorostiza’s work on optopharmacology, or light-controllable drugs, has appeared in the latest edition of The Scientist magazine in the US.

Samuel Sánchez, who will join IBEC as a new group leader in January 2015, has been awarded the title ‘Innovador del año’ by MIT Technology Review, the best of their 10 selected “Innovadores menores de 35 España 2014”, for his pioneering contributions in the field of micro- and nanomotors, such as self-propelled nanorobots for biosensing applications.

This week, he has featured in articles and interviews by La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Mundo, Antena3, RAC1 and more.

Miguel Angel Mateos from the Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies group was interviewed for Televisió L’Hospitalet after his participation in this year’s Setmana de la Ciència, for which he gave a talk entitled “Regeneració de teixits : com nou” at the Centre Cultural Sant Josep on Wednesday.

Josep A. Planell, rector of the UOC and Research Fellow at IBEC, appears in a new documentary about technology transfer in Catalonia, Inversió de Futur.

Presented by Pere Estupinyà, the hour-long documentary, made in by Televisió de Catalunya in collaboration with the CERCA centers, also features other notable names in the Catalan research arena, such as Hble. Sr. Andreu Mas-Colell and director of the PCB Montserrat Vendrell.

An article by Raimon Jané appears in this month’s edition of IEEE Pulse, the magazine of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, which is devoted to the science of sleep.

The Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies group has appeared on science programme ‘El problema de Gettier’. Junior group leader Elisabeth Engel talks about the group’s development of a tuned implant that could aid the regeneration of brain tissue, particularly in cases of pre- and postnatal injury.

Made by La Xarxa, the programme is broadcast on various regional TV channels at different times.

On 16 June El Mundo published an article about Barcelona’s Festa al Parc de la Ciutadella, specifically about the NanOpinion Mobile Station which was co-organised by IBEC and IrsiCaixa, as well as the nanotechnology workshop held at IBEC the following day.