The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (, , ; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest

polytechnic A polytechnic is an educational institution that primarily focuses on vocational education, applied sciences, and career pathways. They are sometimes referred to as ''institutes of technology'', ''vocational institutes'', or ''universities of app ...

university in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, Spain. UPC's objectives are based on

internationalization Internationalization or Internationalisation is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization. Internationalization is a crucial strategy not only for ...

, as it is one of Europe's technical universities with the most international PhD students and the university with the largest share of international master's degree students. UPC is a university aiming at achieving the highest degree of engineering/technical excellence and has bilateral agreements with several top-ranked European universities. UPC is a member of the

Top Industrial Managers for Europe Top International Managers in Engineering (T.I.M.E.), formerly Top Industrial Managers for Europe, is a network of fifty-seven engineering schools, faculties and technical universities. The oldest European network of engineering schools in its ...

network, which allows for student exchanges between leading European engineering schools. It is also a member of several university federations, including the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research (

CESAER CESAER is a non-profit association of universities of science and technology in Europe. CESAER was founded on 10 May 1990, seated in the Castle of Arenberg in Leuven, Belgium. The association has 58 universities of science and technology in 28 co ...

) and UNITECH. UPC is also a parent institution of the

Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

(IBEI). The university was founded in March 1971 as the ''Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona'' through the merger of engineering and architecture schools founded in the 19th century. it has 25 schools in Catalonia located in the cities of

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Castelldefels Castelldefels () is a municipality in the Baix Llobregat comarca, in the province of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain, and a suburban town of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. Its population is 65,954 ( IDESCAT, 2017). Geography and location ...

Manresa Manresa () is the capital of Bages county, located in the central region of Catalonia, Spain. Crossed by the river Cardener, it is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged aro ...

Sant Cugat del Vallès Sant Cugat del Vallès () is a town and municipality north of Barcelona, Catalonia. Known as ''Castrum Octavianum'' in antiquity (which means ''the castle of Octavianus'') and as ''Pins del Vallès'' during the Second Spanish Republic, it is nam ...

Terrassa Terrassa () is a city in central-eastern Catalonia and in the province of Barcelona (Spain). It is one of the two capitals of Vallès Occidental county, being the larger in both area and population. The name ''Terrassa'' derives from Latin ''Te ...

Igualada Igualada () is a municipality and capital of Anoia county in Penedès, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the left bank of the Anoia River and at the western end of the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona Railway. Igualada is the capital and central ...

Vilanova i la Geltrú Vilanova i la Geltrú () is the capital city of Garraf ''comarca'', in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Historically, it is the result of the aggregation of the medieval center of La Geltrú with the center built outside the medieval w ...

and

Mataró Mataró () is the capital and largest town of the Maresme county in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, Maresme coast, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, north-east of Barcel ...

. As of the academic year 2017–18, the UPC has over 30,000 students and over 3,000 teaching and research staff, 65 undergraduate programs, 73 graduate programs and 49 doctorate programs.

Rankings

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) is one of the top public universities in Barcelona, Spain. It is ranked #354 in QS World University Rankings 2024. UPC is consistently ranked as one of the leading European universities in the technology and engineering fields. U.S. News & World Report, for instance, ranks it as the world's 36th for Computer Science and 60th for Engineering. The

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

also place the UPC among the world's 50 best universities in disciplines such as Architecture, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Instruments Science and Technology and Remote Sensing.

Schools

* Barcelona East School of Engineering (EEBE) *

Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering The Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (; ) is a higher educational establishment on Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels, Catalonia, Spain. It is part of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and offers ...

(EETAC) * Barcelona School of Building Construction (EPSEB) * Manresa School of Engineering (EPSEM) * Vilanova i la Geltrú School of Engineering (EPSEVG) *

Barcelona School of Agricultural Engineering The Barcelona School of Agri-Food and Biosystems Engineering (EEABB) is a university center founded in 1912. EEABB is nowadays an engineering school of the UPC-BarcelonaTech offering bachelor's and master's degrees in the field of Biosystems eng ...

(ESAB) * Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering (ESEIAAT) * Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) * Vallès School of Architecture (ETSAV) * Barcelona School of Civil Engineering (ETSECCPB) * School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB) *

Barcelona School of Informatics The Barcelona School of Informatics (; ) is one of the schools of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Technical University of Catalonia), Spain. It was created in 1976, four years after the establishment of the university. It is locate ...

(FIB) * Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB) *

School of Mathematics and Statistics A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

(FME) * Barcelona School of Nautical Studies (FNB) * Terrassa School of Optics and Optometry (FOOT) *

Interdisciplinary Higher Education Centre Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

(CFIS) * Image Processing and Multimedia Technology Centre (CITM) Affiliated Schools *

(IBEI) * Euncet University Business School (EUNCET) * EAE University Business School (EAE)

UPC UNESCO Chairs

* Càtedra UNESCO de Direcció Universitària (CUDU) –

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Chair of Higher Education Management * Càtedra UNESCO de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria de la UPC – UNESCO Chair of Numerical Methods in Engineering * Càtedra UNESCO de Sostenibilitat – UNESCO Sustainability Chair * Càtedra UNESCO en Salut Visual i Desenvolupament – UNESCO Chair of Vision and Development * Càtedra UNESCO en Tècnica i Cultura – UNESCO Chair of Technology and Culture

UPC Research Centers

The UPC has a number of research centres. * BSC –

Barcelona Supercomputing Center The Barcelona Supercomputing Center () is a public research center located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It hosts MareNostrum, a 13.7 Petaflops, Intel Xeon Platinum-based supercomputer, which also includes clusters of emerging technologies. , i ...

* CCABA – Advanced Broadband Communications Center * CD6 – Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development * CDPAC – Cen. de Documentació de Projectes d'Arquitectura de Catalunya * CEBIM – Molecular Biotechnology Centre * CERpIE – C. Recerca i Desenv. per a la Millora i Innov.de les Empreses * CETpD-UPC -Tech. Research Cen. for Dependency Care and Autonomous Living * CPSV- Centre of Land Policy and Valuations * CRAE – Centre de Recerca de l'Aeronàutica i de l'Espai * CRAHI – Centre de Recerca Aplicada en Hidrometeorologia * CRAL – Centre for Research and Services for the Local Administration * CIMNE – International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering * CREB – Biomedical Engineering Research Centre * CREMIT – Center for Engines and Heat Installations * CRNE – Centre for Research in Nanoengineering * LACÀN – Specific Research Center of Numerical Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering * LIM/UPC – Maritime Engineering Laboratory * LITEM – Laboratori per a la Innovació Tecnològica d'Estructures i Materials * MCIA – Center Innovation Electronics. Motion Control and Industrial Applications * PERC-UPC – Power Electronics Research Centre * TALP – * TIEG – Terrassa Industrial Electronics Group * CIMNE - Centro Internacional de Métodos Numéricos en la Ingeniería

Science Fiction Award

From 1991–2010, the Board of Trustees at the UPC organized and awarded an annual Science Fiction Award. Currently the award is presented bi-annually. Previous winners include: * 2007: Brandon Sanderson, ''Defending Elysium''; and Carlos Gardini d'Angelo, ''Belcebú en llamas'' * 2008: Eduardo Gallego Arjona and Guillem Sánchez Gómez, ''La cosecha del centauro'' * 2009: Roberto Sanhueza, ''Bis'' * 2010: José Miguel Sánchez Gómez (Yoss), ''Super extra grande'' * 2012: Miguel Santander, ''La epopeya de los amantes'' * 2014: Roberto Sanhueza, ''El año del gato''

Notes and references

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Technical University Of Catalonia 1971 establishments in Spain Universities and colleges established in 1971 Engineering universities and colleges in Spain Terrassa Universities and colleges in Spain Buildings and structures in the Province of Barcelona