Professor Xavier Vilajosana awarded ICREA Acadèmia grant

Xavier Vilajosana, professor and principal investigator at the Wireless Networks (WINE) group of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), has been named an ICREA Acadèmia researcher. For the researcher who, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, was one of the scholars most frequently cited by his peers in academic journals, this is "an honour, a challenge and an opportunity".

"What's more", he added, "it places what we do among the country's elite and so I hope it helps raise the UOC's profile as a research centre of excellence: we've done a lot of hard work and a lot of great research over the last 10 years and we hope that this helps many more of us at the university achieve this recognition."

The research conducted by Vilajosana, who also forms part of the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications, focuses on cyber-physical systems and improving how such electronic and digital devices capture and communicate information, examining aspects such as energy efficiency, system reliability and network performance. He has also taken part in the development of standards for wireless networks, supported by standards bodies such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Another achievement by the researcher and his team has been their contribution to the appearance of LPWAN technologies, an area of research that has helped transform open-air IoT applications, which are of particular importance in industry.

Research focusing on real-life challenges

With regard to its impact upon research, the professor noted that this award represents an opportunity for ensuring a higher profile and thus attracting more talent. "Opportunities need to be created and taken advantage of, to show what we can do and to convey the mission of our research, which tackles society's real-life challenges, whilst also being critical of some of the more widespread practices of the scientific community," he said.

As an example, the researcher highlighted the RF-VOLUTION project, part of the National R&D plan of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which addresses one of society's pressing issues: the environmental consequences of technological obsolescence. The project's mission is to develop multifunctional radio (MFR) systems capable of being implemented in existing technologies, instead of opting for a new generation of radios. "The idea is to show how existing and emerging technologies can leverage MFR to increase the value provided by already-deployed technologies, thereby postponing their obsolescence," he said.

Thirty-two patents 

Xavier Vilajosana has a PhD in Computer Science from the UOC and the UPC. In 2011, he was awarded a Fulbright grant to work at UC Berkeley in the US as a visiting postdoctoral researcher for two years. There, he worked at Kristofer Pister's lab. Later, he worked at HP, where he headed its R&D activities in the fields of sensors and the heat control of their 3D printer, until 2016, when he joined the UOC, where he has been a full professor since 2018.

Over the course of this time, he has been awarded 32 patents, 26 of which are being exploited by multinationals, and has helped found a number of start-ups, including Worldsensing, which uses IoT technologies and remote sensors to monitor large-scale civil infrastructures and help prevent accidents.

The UOC's third ICREA awardee

Xavier Vilajosana is the third UOC researcher to receive this recognition from ICREA. In 2015 Jordi Cabot was named an ICREA Research Professor and, in 2021, Diana Roig-Sanz. Roig-Sanz is leader of the Global Literary Studies (GlobaLS) research group, which studies literary history from a global perspective: in other words, beyond national borders, using macrohistorical and microhistorical analyses and computational tools within the framework of digital humanities. In 2018, Roig-Sanz was also the recipient of the prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

About ICREA

ICREA stands for Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies). It is a foundation funded by the Government of Catalonia whose goal is to recruit exceptional international research talent. With more than 260 researchers, ICREA addresses the need for new recruitment formulas to help ensure that Catalonia is able to compete on an equal footing with other research systems.

This research supports Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9, Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Press contact

Rubén Permuy
rpermuy@uoc.edu
+34 659 05 42 39

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.