Polytechnic University of Catalonia

• 1. Introduction

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  In 2007, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia gave its annual Science Fiction Award to Brandon Sanderson for a short story called Defending Elysium. That is not a detail most people associate with a polytechnic. The institution now known as BarcelonaTech traces its origins to older technical schools established long before the modern university took shape. Its engineering schools and research facilities are consistently ranked among Europe's leading academic institutions. What kind of people has this place produced, and what unusual traditions has it cultivated alongside its engineering degrees? How does a polytechnic in Barcelona end up with a supercomputer installed in a chapel?

• 2. Technical Roots

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  Víctor de Buen Lozano, an industrial and aeronautical engineer, presided over the Polytechnic Higher Institute from its founding in 1968. That institute was formed by merging state technical schools of architecture and engineering in Barcelona. Those schools carried origins from the mid-19th century. In March 1971, the institution was reestablished as the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, with Víctor de Buen Lozano as its first rector.

  The founding schools covered industrial engineering in both Barcelona and Terrassa, alongside a school of architecture. By the end of 1971, a school of telecommunications engineering and an institute of educational sciences had been added. Gabriel Ferraté Pascual succeeded Víctor de Buen Lozano as rector in December 1972. In 1974, a school of civil engineering opened in Barcelona, and in March 1976 a Faculty of Informatics was founded. Ferraté stepped away that year, appointed Director General of Universities and Research in Madrid. He returned as rector in 1978 and served until 1994.

  On the 4th of July 1983, Spain's University Reform Act paved the way for new university statutes. By 1984, the institution had been officially renamed the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. On the 19th of December 1984, the Parliament of Catalonia established university coordination laws and social councils. Pere Duran Farell was appointed the first President of the UPC Social Council.

  Gabriel Ferraté stepped down in 1994 to become the founding rector of the Open University of Catalonia. Jaume Pagès i Fita succeeded him. That year also saw the founding of Edicions UPC and the Politècnica Foundation. In 1996, the Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library opened at the Diagonal Nord Campus in Barcelona.

• 3. Eighteen Schools, Six Cities

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  As of the 2024-25 academic year, more than 30,000 students are enrolled at BarcelonaTech. Over 3,000 teaching and research staff support them. The university's 18 schools together offer 67 undergraduate programs, 96 graduate programs, and 46 doctorate programs.

  Barcelona, Castelldefels, Manresa, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Terrassa, and Vilanova i la Geltrú are the six cities where those schools operate. The Vallès School of Architecture first opened in 1979 in the Sabadell-Terrassa area before relocating to Sant Cugat del Vallès in 1991.

  In the 2025 QS World University Rankings by subject, UPC ranked 97th worldwide in Engineering and Technology. Other subject rankings place the university in the world's top 50 for architecture, civil engineering, and electrical and electronic engineering. Telecommunications engineering, instruments science and technology, and remote sensing also appear in that top-50 group. According to the El Mundo annual university ranking, UPC places first in Spain in civil engineering, computer science, and mechanical engineering.

  The university belongs to the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network, enabling student exchanges with leading European engineering schools. It is also a member of CESAER, the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research, and of UNITECH. UPC serves as the parent institution of the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals. In 2024, the university approved new statutes under the European university alliance UNITE!

• 4. The Science Fiction Award

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  From 1991 to 2010, the Board of Trustees at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia organized and awarded an annual Science Fiction Award. The award has since shifted to a biannual format.

  Carlos Gardini d'Angelo also won in 2007, for a story called Belcebú en llamas. The following year, Eduardo Gallego Arjona and Guillem Sánchez Gómez shared the prize for La cosecha del centauro. Roberto Sanhueza won in 2009 for a story called Bis. In 2010, José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, who writes under the pen name Yoss, took the award for Super extra grande.

  After the shift to a biannual schedule, Miguel Santander won in 2012 for La epopeya de los amantes. Roberto Sanhueza claimed a second award in 2014 for El año del gato, the only author to have won the prize twice.

• 5. From Campus to Cosmos

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  Carme Pigem Barceló, born on the 8th of April 1962, studied at UPC's Vallès School of Architecture before co-founding the firm RCR Arquitectes. That firm won the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor. Anna Kiesenhofer, born on the 14th of February 1991, pursued mathematics at UPC, earning a PhD. She then competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and won the gold medal in the women's road race.

  Matthias Maurer, born on the 18th of March 1970, studied materials science at UPC and later became an ESA astronaut. He was selected for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station. Olga Malinkiewicz, born on the 26th of November 1982, is a physicist and inventor. She developed inkjet-printed perovskite solar cells and co-founded Saule Technologies, where she serves as chief technology officer.

  Roger Torrent i Ramió, born on the 19th of July 1979, completed a UPC postgraduate program in territorial and urban studies. He served as President of the Parliament of Catalonia from 2018 to 2021. Pere Navarro Olivella, born on the 25th of May 1952, earned a degree in industrial engineering from UPC. He has served as Director-General for Traffic since 2018.

  Oriol Vinyals, born in 1983, studied telecommunications engineering at UPC and became a machine-learning researcher at DeepMind. He is a co-inventor of the seq2seq model.

• 6. Computing in a Chapel

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  In January 2005, the MareNostrum supercomputer was installed inside the Torre Girona chapel. The installation was co-managed by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, UPC, and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. DURSI, the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society, was a fourth partner. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center was founded by Mateo Valero Cortés, born in 1952. He earned his PhD in telecommunications engineering from UPC.

  The International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering, known as CIMNE, is one of several research centers operating under UPC. Others include the Centre de Tecnologies i Aplicacions del Llenguatge i la Parla, focused on language and speech technologies. The portfolio also includes the Maritime Engineering Laboratory and the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre. In 2011, the Centre for Research in Nanoengineering opened on the Barcelona Knowledge Campus. Between 2013 and 2015, that campus was designated an International Campus of Excellence.

  The university holds five UNESCO chairs, spanning higher education management, numerical methods in engineering, sustainability, vision health, and technology and culture. In 2023, MareNostrum 5 was installed and inaugurated at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Nearly two decades had passed since the original system was placed in that chapel. In 2025, UPC presented IRIS, its new Research and Innovation in Health Institute.