Eric Arnal Fort was born in Barcelona in 1988. In June of 2009, he obtained the Navigation Systems Degree from the Escola Tècnica Superior de Castelldefels. After that he enrolled the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial i Aeronàutica de Terrassa (ETSEIAT), where he graduated in June 2012 as an Aeronautical Engineer. During that time, he spent a semester in Munich (Germany) with an Erasmus scholarship. During his summer breaks, he worked for AERTEC as a coordinator for the implementation of the new airport terminal in Barcelona and computing some simulations for a start-up company on renewable energies. He conducted his senior project at University of California Irvine and in June of 2012 was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue an MS degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. His research interests are spaceflight dynamics and control. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, arts, photography and travelling.
Víctor Benito was born in Barcelona in 1988. He graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona (ETSEIB) in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 2012, obtaining the degree of Industrial Engineer, with a specialization in automatics. Víctor completed his senior project in the Mechatronics Department at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey. It involved the design of a vision system for a microassembly workstation, as part of a multidisciplinary project. This included its mechanical design, the development of recognition techniques and control operations programming. In the summer of 2012, he was awarded the Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests are robotics (specially humanoids and robot learning), control systems and computer vision. His main hobbies are travelling, reading, painting, playing music and hanging out with friends.
David Escofet was born in Rubí in 1989. In August 2012, he graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial i Aeronàutica de Terrassa (ETSEIAT) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), obtaining the degree of Industrial Engineer. During the last two years of his degree, he was awarded with the Enginycat fellowship working as an assistant scholar for the freshmen teaching Calculus II. From February to August, he received a Balsells Undergraduate Mobility award to complete his senior project (PFC) at the University of California Irvine, where he did research in laser spectroscopy for combustion diagnostics more focused in OH planar laser induced fluorescence techniques. In the summer of 2012, he was awarded the Balsells Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests are laser diagnostics techniques and fluid mechanics His main hobby is playing chess; he holds the title of Catalan Master and around 2200 of FIDE rating. He also enjoys surfing.
Roger Lloret Batlle was born in Esplugues de Llobregat in 1988. In February 2012, he graduated both from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyers de Camins, Canals i Ports de Barcelona (ETSECCPB) and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC), obtaining the degree of Civil Engineering from the first institution and the Diplôme d’Ingènieur des Ponts et Chaussées from the latter. In France, he conducted a two-year specialization in transportation and during his last course he completed an MSc in Transport and Mobility at the ENPC. He completed his MSc Thesis in the Ecole des Ponts Paristech’s transportation research laboratory (LVMT). The theme of the work was the estimation of a modal choice-optimal shipment size Economic Order Quantity-based model, presented at the European Transport Conference 2012 and at the Transportation Research Board 2013. In 2012, he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue a PhD in Civil Engineering: Transportation System Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include transportation economics and transportation systems analysis. He enjoys cross-cultural environments, debating and outdoor sports.
Albert Sans Muntadas was born in Bagà (Catalonia) in 1988. He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), obtaining the degree in Industrial Engineer in 2012. During his last two years at UPC, he was awarded an EnginyCat fellowship from the Catalan government to mentor freshmen students in chemistry. Albert received a travel award from the undergraduate Balsells Mobility Program and completed his senior project in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Irvine’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering. This project involved designing a grasp training robot for hand motor recovery after spinal cord injury. In 2012 Albert was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue an MS degree in Mechanical Engineering at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering. His main research interest is in biorobotics. He enjoys travelling, cinema, and any sport like swimming, surfing or skiing.
Nicolás Valle Marchante was born in Cerdanyola del Vallès in 1989. In 2012, he graduated in Industrial Engineering from Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeries Industrial i Aeronàutica de Terrassa (ETSEIAT), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). During his time at ETSEIAT, he was as a mentor in the Enginycat program, aimed to improve the engineering freshmen’s performance at school with help from advanced students. In 2011, he did an internship at Telstar Technologies, world leaders in freeze-drying machinery. He completed his senior project at UCI as part of the Balsells Undergraduate Mobility Program with Professor Jack Brouwer. His research was focused in developing a numerical code to evaluate the performance of a hydrogen high temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). In 2012 he was awarded with the Balsells Graduate Fellowship in order to pursue his MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Enginnering at the University of California, Irvine. He was the school delegate during his time at ETSEIAT and is involved in cultural, sportive and political associations in his native city. His main hobbies are soccer, human tower making, hiking, reading and traveling.