Project Listing

This research activity will be focused on the creation of novel tools and services through a High Energy Performance approach. The main goal is to develop an AI service for optimal control of energy considering behind the meter resources (management of energy sources at user level), with local (building or district) overall efficiency.

In indoor scenarios, such as meeting rooms, exhibitions, museums or, even, homes, a huge demand on communications and location-based services (LBS) is expected in near future, mainly motivated by the emerge of the Internet of Things (IoT) era. One of the technologies called to play an important role is the one based on visible light, that is leveraged on the technological advances in Light Emitting Diodes (LED).

In order to address the nowadays challenges faced by the Circular Economy frame, biomass is the most promising renewable carbon source alternative to oil and coal. In this raw material, terpenes are prominent molecules since they show double bonds able to be oxidized for giving rise epoxides, appealing building-blocks for the preparation of a wide variety of commodities as well as fine products.

The project researches the mobility and use conflicts that arise in urban spaces of high heritage value, such as historical sites and university campuses. Those conflicts are caused by the confluence of different uses at certain moments of the day due to their condition of neighborhood, university, heritage and tourist places.

Our project assumes that the launch of automated vehicles on public roads will only be successful if a user centric approach is used where the technical aspects go hand in hand in compliance with societal values, user acceptance, behavioural intentions, road safety, social, economic, legal and ethical considerations.

The emergence of blockchain as secure decentralized ledgers has opened possibilities for the decentralization of the distribution of energy. The Energy Web Foundation (EWF) and a number of startups had started the process of defining the use cases, and fitting them in the current infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. However, there is still a lack of understanding of which of the emerging blockchains-related technologies supporting smart contracts (including Ethereum, R-Chain, EOS, Hyperledger and Cardano) fit the requirements of the sector. This research line aims at (1) contrasting current platforms with the requirements and use cases of the EWF for a scientifically sound understanding of the best options, and (2) design and evaluate (probably using simulation) a set of incentive alternatives using mechanism design theory that may inform industry and the scientific community.

Smart Cities are living environments where sensors are used with different purposes: security, traffic control, efficient energy consumption, smart provision of services, etc. In the near future, these sensors will be connected to the Internet, and interconnected among them, creating heterogeneous Smart Sensor Networks. The aim of these networks is to monitor the environment, to collect information, and to use this information to plan the provisión of services, such as security, cleaning services, traffic arrangement, and to guarantee quality of living, for example, warning for sound pollution or environmental noise, air pollution, etc. The implementation of array processing algorithms to determine the source of information will be also studied. This research line aims at: 1) Studying different alternatives to create heterogeneous smart sensor networks; 2) Developing signal processing algorithms for data fusion, coverage estimation, information source localisation and tracking; 3) Using the obtained information to improve services provision. One of the main objectives is to improve the quality of life in our cities, and to optimise energy consumption when providing these services.

LED devices have evolved steadily in recent times, so in addition to lighting allow other interesting applications. For example, one of the most important objectives is to reach complete and cheaper communication through them. Currently this is known as lifi, and some prototypes perform this functionality. the LiFi communication can come to play an importat rol to different market as the automotive sector, users position inside of buildings, industry 4.0, etc. This proposal aims to develop communication and positioning systems to several sectors of industry, transport, etc..

Two main aspects will be studied theoretically. On the one hand, the designed conjugated porous polymer structure will be modeled by means of force-field methodologies. On the hand, electronic structure calculations, mainly based on density functional theory, will be performed in order to determine molecular properties including optical features as well as the specific photocatalytic reaction mechanism. Fundamentaly, it will be studied solar fuels production by artificial photosynthesis processes as sustainable energy source.

The research proposed line aims to enhance the flight control systems onboard of unmanned aerial systems (drones) to develop new intelligent technological capabilities that meet with the most ambitious requirements reagarding smaart cities (energy saving and efficiency in specific societal services). Thanks to the innovative technique CACM-RL developed by SOTICOL RS, drones can perform optimal missions considering optimal criteria, such as, energy minimum consumption or minimum time. In addition, by using this technique, drones can perform special missions in a swarm configuration, if ncessary.