The UPC-CSLab (Communication and Sensing Lab) is a research unit within the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). The unit vision is based on the following principles: excellence in education and teaching, competitive research at international level and close interaction with industry. The UPC ranks on the top 100 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and its Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers ranks number 5 in Europe and 40 in the World.
The lab activities, in engineering electromagnetics, include computational electromagnetics, device and material characterization, circuits, sub-systems and complex system design, algorithms for data analysis in a frequency range that spans from the MHz to the optical range including the THz range of frequencies for applications in communications, medical and bio-sensing and remote sensing.
UPC-CSLab is organized around the following main areas:
• AEC Advanced Electromagnetic Computing
• MPAT. Microwave to Photonic Advanced Technology
• EMPSI. Electromagnetic Microwave to Photonic Sensing and Imaging
• ECS. Electromagnetic Cognitive Sensing
• RSSD. Remote Sensing with Single and Distributed Small Sensors
The expertise available within the unit allows having a comprehensive approach to research activities that extend from fundamental electromagnetic theory passing through device design and characterization and reaching system integration and data exploitation. Integration is fostered by sharing common research facilities that include computational and software resources and laboratory equipment.
The unit is fully instrumented to perform measurements of materials, devices, and subsystems in a wide frequency range, from microwaves, terahertz and optics. From the computational facilities point of view the unit manages its own cloud computing based on a cluster of multi node blade servers interconnected to a distributed data storage system, with a present capacity of 100TB, through a 10Gigabit Ethernet network. In these cluster. simulations with proprietary software as well as commercial software packages are run. Available software packages are CST-Studio, HFSS, ADS, Matlab, ENVI-IDL and others.
There is a stable population of 30 PhD students. The consolidated policy of early talent detection has been reinforced by attracting foreign students. The unit graduates are very well perceived by both industry and research institutions opting to positions in top-ranked institutions.