UPC (Spain)

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech (UPC) is a public institution dedicated to higher education and research, specialised in the fields of engineering, architecture and science. UPC's research, teaching and management projects are based on the principles of freedom, justice, democracy, solidarity, cooperation, sustainability, efficiency, transparency and social responsibility. They also reflect the University's commitment to the environment and to change. With a focus on intellectual rigor, critical thinking, a transversal approach to knowledge, educational innovation and entrepreneurship, the UPC produces competent professionals with the skills they need to tackle present and future challenges. The University harnesses the potential of basic and applied research, and transfers technology and knowledge to society. These actions make the UPC—in partnership with the productive fabric—an agent and driver of economic and social change. The UPC puts its scientific and technological infrastructure at the service of research groups and centres, researchers and students, professionals, companies and institutions. As a leading member of international networks of excellence, the UPC has a privileged relationship with global scientific and educational organisations.

As a result, the University is at an advantage when it comes to attracting international talent. The SARTI team is a research group within the UPC devoted to electronics and instrumentation for marine technologies. The last years, SARTI has been involved in high tech marine instrumentation facilities design and deployment like OBSEA, an underwater-cabled observatory. Interoperability experiments at instrument level and at data management level are being carried out. SARTI is an active member of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), SOSC (Smart Ocean Sensor Consortium) and IEEE, and was participating in the drafting of last communication protocols like "PUCK 1.0 SWG OGC", and "IEEE DRAFT Standard for a Smart Transducer Interface for Sensors and Actuators - Transducer to Microprocessor Communication Protocols and Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) Formats".

NeXOS will benefits from UPC of its background in the full chain of marine related activities. From its technical and scientific background, developing marine instrumentation to the expertise in building facilities for testing (e.g. Obsea). UPC members experience about developing new standards and its application to marine instrumentation will be a key factor that will contribute to NeXOS.