Mercè Dalmau was born in Cassà de la Selva (Girona, Catalonia) in 1978. In 2002, she obtained her degree in Chemical Engineering from Institut Químic de Sarrià-IQS (Ramon Llull University) in Barcelona. While she was a student at IQS, she worked for several companies. At Rich Xiberta S.A., she developed quality control tests for cork stoppers and designed experiments for new surface treatments and new washing products. At CECAM S.A., she designed and validated a new analytical method to detect carbon dioxide in waste water and implemented quality control analysis for waste waters. She also worked for IQAP S.A., developing a research program on colored masterbatches used in the mass coloration of PET fibers. During the academic year 2003-2004, she joined the Barcelona Bioengineering Center (IQS) to carry out her master’s thesis research project as an international visiting student at the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center in the Chemical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In September 2004, she graduated as an IQS Chemical Engineer. In October 2004, she worked as a research scientist at PEINUSA developing new high efficacy biocides for hospital disinfection. In 2005, she was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests are in the Biotechnological/Biomedical area. She likes traveling, reading and cooking.
Albert Farré i Gabernet was born in Barcelona in 1982. In 2005, he graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona (ETSEIB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), obtaining the degree of Industrial Engineer with a specialization in Automation. In 2002, he worked for a month and a half as a trainee in the material application research and development department of SIEMENS, S.A. (www.siemens.com) in Nürnberg, Germany. From September 2003 to June 2004, he collaborated as a assistant at the Biomedical Signals and System division of the Biomedical Engineering Research Center (CREB) (www.creb.upc.es), in Barcelona. His research consisted in analysis of heart rate variability during myocardial ischemia. In 2005, he was awarded an Erasmus scholarship to spend six months at RWTHAachen, in Germany (www.rwth-aachen.de). His research project was on the development and implementation of an adaptive clutch control for a hybrid vehicle. The same year, he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests are in the Biotechnological area and in the Optimization and Control of Dynamic Systems. He enjoys traveling, reading, all kind of sports and dancing (especially salsa music). He is also interested in listening to music and astronomy.
Sergio López López was born in Barcelona in 1978. He graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona (ETSEIB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), in Barcelona, Catalonia, obtaining the degree of Industrial Engineer with a specialization in Electrical Engineering in 2002. During 2000, he worked as a researcher in the Electrical Engineering Department (www.dee.upc.edu) of ETSEIB at UPC developing tasks of machine maintenance and helping students doing their graduation research projects supervised by Professor Ricard Bosch. In September 2001, he started working in the training department of Schneider Electric Spain S.A. (www.schneiderelectric.es), developing management tasks. In 2002, he collaborated with The Center of Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives (CITCEA), as part of his degree project. This project was to develop a control program to stabilize an inverted pendulum using a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). In October 2002, he started working in the Medium Voltage Department of Schneider Electric Spain S.A. (www.schneiderelectric.es) as a product manager. He developed tasks of management and price control of the company’s commercialized Medium Voltage products. In July 2003, he started working in Emte Automatización S.A. (www.grupemte.com) as Electrical Engineer making technical and economic evaluations of the projects carried out in the automobile factory that SEAT, S.A (Volkswagen Group) has in Martorell (Spain). In 2005, he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests are in control systems, robotics and machine learning. He likes swimming, traveling and reading.
Pere Margalef was born in Amposta (Catalonia, Spain) in 1979 but in 1995 he moved to Banyoles (Girona) to finish high school with a fellowship from Federació Catalana de Rem (Catalan Rowing Team) to join the Banyoles ’02 program. In 2004 he obtained his degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Girona (UdG), after finishing his final thesis at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) in 2003. His research work consisted of developing a multi-material impact energy absorber. In 2004 he was awarded a fellowship from the Education Ministry of Spain to join CIMEP (Centre per a la Innovació de Materials, Enginyeria i Processos) of the UdG. He designed a data basis for studying the traceability of the specimens. In November 2004, he started to work for the consulting group Accenture Barcelona until May 2005. During this period he was involved in many projects dealing with SAP solutions. In 2005 he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering, concentrated in energy generation at the University of California, Irvine. He enjoys cinema and literature as well as traveling and sport. He practices rowing, swimming and climbing. Moreover, he is also interested in politics.
Josep Salvans Tort was born in Vic (Catalonia, Spain) in 1981. He graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona (ETSEIB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 2004 obtaining the degree of Mechanical Engineer with a specialization in Applied Fluid Mechanics. His research project was based in the study of shock-cell noise in annular jets carried out at Professor Dimitri Papamoschou’s aerodynamics laboratory at the University of California at Irvine. In 2004 he received a fellowship of the Fluid Mechanics Department of the UPC to work in a project about cylinder damping. In 2004 he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue Graduate Studies at the University of California at Irvine. His interests are concerned with applied fluid mechanics in general. He is an active member of the Societat Catalana de Tecnologia (SCT), a society related to the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC). He enjoys the astronomy, traveling, reading and snowboarding.
Anna Torrents Cabestany was born in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles, Barcelona, in 1974. In 1998, she graduated as a Chemist from the University of Barcelona (UB) and in 2005 she graduated from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), obtaining a degree in Materials Engineering. Her final degree project, conducted at the University of California, Irvine, was: ‘Mechanical behavior of bulk nanocrystalline nickel’ From 1998 to 2002, she worked as a chemist for a wine company, CEVIPE S.C.C.L, in the Alt Penedès wine region. From 2002 to 2005, during her undergraduate Materials Engineering studies, she worked as an assistant researcher, characterizing materials at the University of Barcelona with a cultural heritage research group, Patrimoni UB (www.patrimoni-ub.net). She was also involved in two European research projects (BIOREINFORCE and BIODAM). In July 2005, she was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue a Master of Science Degree in Material Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She is a member of an amateur theatre group (Teatre al Curry). She enjoys traveling, reading and swimming.