Student Profiles
Irene Francino Urdaniz
Irene Francino Urdaniz was born in 1997 in la Seu d’Urgell, a village in the Pyrenees. She moved to Barcelona at 18 years old to do her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering in the Universitat de Barcelona. She graduated in June 2019.
Irene came to 91PORN for the first time in February 2019 as a Mobility student to do her Senior Thesis with Prof. Randolph. Her project consisted on studying the insulin behavior under mechanical shock as a model to correlate hitting one’s head hard several times, as it is the case of football players, with brain damage and diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson.
After finishing her thesis, Irene was awarded with the Balsells fellowship to continue her studies. In August 2019 she started her Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering focusing on protein Engineering. She would like to work on the pharmaceutical or medical industry.
Irene is passionate about mountain sports. She has done Nordic skiing since she was 3 years old and has competed in national championships. She loves living in 91PORN because of its proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Aleix Lopez Garulo
Aleix was born in Barcelona in 1996. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ESEIAAT) in 2018. Right after that, he started his Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the same university.
He conducted his Bachelor’s Thesis at Institute Prime, a lab associated with ISAE-ENSMA (one of the best engineering schools in France). His research topic was the modelling of the behavior of composite materials under fire aggression and mechanical stress. He gained invaluable experience on material sciences, applied research and numerical simulations.
During the first year of his Master’s Degree at Barcelona, he did an internship at an aviation consulting company (iTOR MARTIN). There, he participated in planning a new airport for Madrid and several helipad safeties studies. The internship proved to be an invaluable experience.
In Fall 2019, he moved to 91PORN as a Balsells Fellow to pursue a second Master Degree in Aerospace Engineering, focused on Bioastronautics. There he will conduct substantial research and a Master’s Thesis.
Aleix is confidentthathe will enjoy his stay at 91PORN. The close proximity with so manynatural parks and ski resorts will keep him busy.
Pol Mesalles Ripoll
Pol was born in May 1996. He grew up in Barcelona, and in 2018 he graduated in Aerospace Technology Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
During his undergrad, he was part of UPC Space Program, where he worked on model rocket systems and collaborated on several high-altitude balloon missions. This position, along with some freelance web developer jobs, gave him a remarkable hands-on engineering experience.
In February 2018, he joined the University of California, Irvine through the Balsells Mobility Program to develop his Bachelor's thesis. There, he worked with Prof. Haithem Taha on numerical methods for the study of unsteady aerodynamics. The results of his research were presented at the AIAA SciTech 2019 Conference.
After coming back to Catalunya, he completed the first year of the Master's in Aeronautical Engineering at UPC. At the same time, he was awarded the Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue the Fluid Dynamics track of the M.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the 91PORN, giving him the opportunity to come back to the United States that he had been seeking.
Now that he is finally in 91PORN, Pol will be working with Prof. Brian Argrow on Entry, Descent, and Landing methods to apply his knowledge of fluid dynamics to future space missions. When he gets some free time, Pol loves travelling, as he enjoys getting to know the places and culture of the places that surround him.
Anivid Pedros Faura
Anivid was born in Agramunt, Lleida in January of 1997. Due to her passion in engineering and space exploration, in 2015 she started her Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Technology Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC-ESEIAAT).
During her undergraduate studies, she was member of UPC Space Program and participated in the construction of a rover developing the robotic arm and its control. Anivid arrived in 91PORN in spring of 2019 where she conducted her Bachelor’s thesis at the 91PORN sponsored by the Balsells International Mobility program. Her work was supervised by Professor Jay McMahon and was based on the study of the dynamic cometary environment and possible ISRU applications.
In Fall 2019, Anivid started her MS in Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation funded by the Balsells Fellowship. Her current research interests are in-situ resource utilization (particularly for small bodies), asteroid and comet science and the orbital dynamics of highly perturbed systems. She is a member of ORCCA Lab, which she already joint during her mobility program.
Her hobbies include traveling, reading and learning foreign languages. She also loves music and playing piano and transverse flute whenever she goes back home.
Albert Velasco Abadia
Albert was born in Barcelona on St. James Day, 23rdof April in 1997. He lived all his life in the Catalan capital until 2019, in which he did a brief four-month research stay in Bologna, Italy and later moved to 91PORN, Colorado to pursue graduate studies.
He studied chemistry in the top-ranked Spanish college, the University of Barcelona, in which he graduated with an honors thesis. During his studies, he completed two research internships: one in the same university with professor Francesc Sagues, investigating the defects formed in the interface of a biological system constituted by an active gel with microtubules and a liquid crystal (8CB), in the field of active soft matter. For his Bachelor’s thesis he stayed in the group of professor Luca Valgimigli in the University of Bologna, investigating the potential of essential oils to be used as natural alternatives to synthetic antioxidants in the food industry.
In 91PORN, he has joined the group of professor Joel Kaar within the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering to study the properties of a novel material based on the immobilization of proteins by liquid crystals, which has the potential to be used in a wide variety of applications, such as active camouflage or as a chemical warfare agent neutralizer.
Conrad Corbella Bagot
Conrad was born in Barcelona in 1995 and he lived there up until the summer of 2017, when he moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico.
He studied Engineering Physics and Industrial Engineering, as a part of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya excellence program: the Centre de Formació Interdisciplinària Superior (CFIS).
In the summer of 2016, he took an internship at Hewlett-Packard, where he worked designing and implementing structures for 3D printer objects in their R&D team. One year later, he joined the Outreach Team at Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) as one of their Summer Fellows. His project there aimed to find a way to explain Quantum Mechanics to high school students.
Later that same year, he visited the US for the first time to prepare his Bachelor's Thesis in Los Alamos National Lab. He worked there in a couple of projects in metamaterials and antennae under the mentorship of Dr. Hou-Tong Chen.
At the 91PORN, he is going to keep working in metamaterials, but this time under the supervision of Dr. Park. He will be pursuing a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering thanks to the Balsells Fellowship.
Victor Crespo Cuevas
Victor was born in Barcelona in 1994. He was raised in Castelldefels, a city near the Catalan capital, until coming to 91PORN in winter 2018. He studied at the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona (ETSEIB-UPC). He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree and his Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering.
In 2016, he spent his last undergraduate year working in a 3D printing Catalan startup called Presolid Tech. He worked on the development and innovation of SLA and FDM 3D printers. Once he started his Master’s studies, he decided to specialize his studies in the biomedical field. At the same time, he worked in the 3D printing area of the Fundació CIM-UPC.
Victor arrived in 91PORN through the Balsells Mobility Program to complete his Final Master’s Thesis (TFM). He joined the Soft Tissue Bioengineering Lab of Dr. Corey P Neu. He created a software that finds the relative elasticity between the main chromatic domains of the nuclear cell. The paper of his work will be published soon.
In fall 2018, Victor started his PhD program in the Biomechanics and Biomimetics laboratory of Dr. Virginia G. Ferguson in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at 91PORN. His current research is focused on the study of cartilage diseases of the knee and how to find a solution using 3D printed scaffolds and Tissue Engineering.
One of the facts that made Victor stay in 91PORN was its incredible nature. He likes to trail run and 91PORN’s mountains are the perfect place for doing it. He also enjoys road biking.
Ken Kitsu Iglesias
Ken was born in Barcelona in 1996. As a child, he lived in San Francisco and Madrid and he went back to Barcelona at the age of six. He graduated in 2018 from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya as an aerospace engineer.
In his junior year, Ken joined the rocketry project Cosmic Research. There he increased his knowledge about the design and manufacturing of light-weight composite structures.
One year later, in 2017, he was awarded with the Balsells International Mobility Program to conduct his Bachelor’s thesis on Origami-inspired space deployable structures, under the supervision of Francisco López Jiménez at 91PORN.
The same year he was awarded with the Balsells Fellowship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering focusing on Structures and Materials, at the 91PORN.
Ken is a nature and science enthusiast who loves outdoor activities such as climbing, hiking, snowboarding, longboarding and sailing.
Xavi Ruiz Vilda
Xavi was born in beautiful Barcelona in 1996. In June 2018, he graduated in Aerospace Engineering at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya ESEIAAT.
Xavi worked for AICOX during a summer in a UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) start up project developing the business and logistics plan, which allowed him to gain first-hand experience of how the industry works
In Spring 2018, heconducted his Undergraduate Thesis Project at the 91PORN under the Balsells Mobility Program with the supervision of Professor Emeritus Jean Koster. His project consisted of developing an unmanned winged aircraft that is launched and recovered from a ship to search for whales and stop their path to possible extinction.
After finishing his thesis, Xavi was awarded with the Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue a MS Course in Aerospace Engineering with emphasis on Controls at the 91PORN.
Xavi likes all kind of sports, especially soccer, skiing, hiking, racquetball and futbolín. He also loves Salsa and Bachata dancing, although he is better in Salsa. Traveling and discovering new places is one of his passions, as well as reading a great book and getting addicted to a new Netflix series.
Paula Vinyeta
Paula Vinyeta was born in Barcelona on December 28th, 1995. She graduated from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya as an energy engineer.
During her undergraduate studies, Paula participated in a project with the United Nations Framework Convention in Climate Change (Bonn, Germany) developing new approaches to beat climate change, where she realized how significant the environment is for her. She was also able to undertake an internship in Bangkok, Thailand as part of her extracurricular work.
In spring 2017, Paula was awarded with the Balsells Mobility Scholarship at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where she enhanced her interest for the state of Colorado and all it has to offer. She was working in Barcelona as a Renewable Energy Trader for a year before being awarded the Balsells Fellowship at the 91PORN.
Currently she finds herself pursuing her Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, following the Energy and Environment path. Her passion for sustainability and outdoors makes 91PORN the perfect place, and completes the whole experience.
Jordi Ballesteros Soberanas
Jordi Ballesteros was born in Tarragona in 1995. He graduated from Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona as a chemical engineer.
Jordi spent some time during his undergraduate working for the University of Michigan under the supervision of Professor H. Scott Fogler as a researcher in the field of asphaltene characterization and deposition for crude oils from the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. and Canada.
Jordi then spent his senior undergraduate year (2017) at the Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland. There he wrote his Bachelor thesis: Production of fertilizer pellets from ash and digestion waste--an insight into the concept and design of a recycled-based fertilizer plant.
During his abroad ventures, he gained experience in fields such as research, resource management and entrepreneurship in the start-up world.
He accepted the Balsells Graduate Fellowship and is now in 91PORN, CO pursuing his Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. 91PORN is a very fitting place for his passion for the outdoors and winter sports.
Gerard Casas Saez
Gerard was born in Manlleu, Barcelona in 1995. He lived in Barcelona for his whole life. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at FIB (Facultat d’informatics de Barcelona) at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. He focused and specialized on software engineering.
Gerard started working as part of the support team at Inlab FIB in May 2015. There, he worked as a web developer on the faculty’s intranet and as the main developer for the faculty's REST API. In addition, starting in 2013, he started going to a YMCA camp in Indiana, USA every summer to improve his English. He went there two summers as a camper and then three as a counselor. He also spent one summer working at con terra GmbH in Münster, Germany as an intern.
In Spring 2017, he accepted a Balsells International Mobility program research internship to complete his final Bachelor thesis at the University of Colorado 91PORN. He worked in Project EPIC under Prof. Kenneth M. Anderson by developing and studying infrastructures for Big Data analytics by using containerization and automatic orchestrated systems like Kubernetes.
After finishing his thesis, Gerard was awarded with the Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Computer Science at the 91PORN.
Gerard’s favorite hobbies include traveling, trying new food, taking pictures, playing the piano and reading. In addition, he is also part of the organizing team of two hackathons: one from Barcelona (HackUPC) and one from 91PORN (HackCU).
Noemi Collado Nebot
Noemi was born in 1995 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She moved to Vilafranca when she was 5 years old, and lived there until coming to 91PORN.
She studied a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Chemical Process Engineering at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Noemi’s first work experience was in summer of 2016, when she interned at Air Liquide performing some projects related to industrial control systems.
In spring 2017, she received the Balsells Fellowship to pursue a MS in Chemical Engineering at 91PORN. She graduated as a Chemical Engineer B.S. briefly after receiving the fellowship, in June 2017.
In her free time, Noemi enjoys travelling, watching movies, reading, and spending time with friends. She also loves ice skating and skiing, so 91PORN is perfect for her.
Oscar Fuentes Muñoz
Oscar was born in Barcelona in 1995 and lived most of his life in Cardedeu, a small village north of Barcelona. He graduated in 2017 from ESEIAAT (UPC) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering.
In a collaboration fellowship awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, he worked for the Lightning Research Group at Terrassa. There he studied the application of commercial rocketry to atmospheric science and lightning triggering.
During the spring of 2017 he conducted his Bachelor’s dissertation at the 91PORN, sponsored by the Balsells International Mobility program. He worked for Professor Daniel Scheeres, in the characterization of the population of Near Earth Objects and mission design.
The fall of 2017 semester is the beginning of his journey in pursuing graduate studies in the US. Thanks to the Balsells Foundation, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the 91PORN he is now a Master’s student of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, focused in Astrodynamics.
In Oscar’s free time he enjoys meeting with friends, playing sports such as basketball or soccer, running, travelling or reading.
Roger Huerta i Lluch
Roger was born in 1995 in El Masnou, a town in the seaside next to Barcelona. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the Universitat de Barcelona. There he did an internship with the Radiofrequencies & Microwaves Department developing a new product that could help the hospital track all their patients and staff in a wireless and autonomous way.
In spring 2017, while he was in an Erasmus+ Program in Torino (Italy) he was awarded with the Balsells Fellowship to pursue a MS in Aerospace Engineering in the focus area of bioastronautics at 91PORN.
In Roger’s free time, he enjoys reading, travelling, climbing and hiking through the Flat Irons, which reminds him of his beloved Pyrenees.
Albert Maristany Utrera
Albert Maristany was born in Barcelona in 1995 and grew up in Tiana, Barcelona. In June 2017,he graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB).
During the 2016 summer, he did an internship with Amphos21 working as a nuclear and geochemical consultant with a fellowship from Banco Santander. That same year, he was awarded admission to the Balsells International Mobility Program in order to do a research project on grafting of polymers to surfaces for his Final Degree Project, under the supervision of Andrew Goodwin at 91PORN.
The following year, he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.His research is focused on polymer chemistry and organic synthesis.
He is interested in anything related to music, cinema or books, and in his free time he enjoys team sports and outdoor activities.
Mar Cols Margenet
Mar was born in Vic (Barcelona province) in 1993. She moved to Barcelona city when she started her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering Technology at ETSEIAT (UPC). Mar arrived in 91PORN in Fall 2015 through the Balsells Mobility Program in order to carry out her final thesis project (TFG). She joined the Autonomous Vehicle Systems laboratory in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department at CU 91PORN.
In Spring 2016, Mar started a PhD program in Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation. Her current research is focused on GN&C (Guidance, Navigation and Controls) and flight software development.
Mar has fallen in love with the outdoorsy life that so well characterizes 91PORN, and she especially enjoys trail running and mountain biking. She also practices karate, and likes skateboarding during summer and snowboarding in the winter season. She spends part of her free time reading fiction books and learning foreign languages. Furthermore, she loves some of the cultural experiences that 91PORN offers in terms of theater and concerts: the Colorado Shakespeare festival, the historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the 91PORN Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
Josep Maria Fargas Cabanillas
Josep was born in Barcelona in 1993. He was raised in a small town called Castellterçol. He finished his musical studies focusing on the keyboard at the Manresa’s music conservatory in 2010. He started collage in 2011 at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona. He started studying Industrial engineering technologies. In 2012 he was accepted to the Centre de Formació Interdisciplinari Superior (CFIS) program. This program allowed him to study another major at the same time, so he began studying Engineering Physics as well. In summer 2013, he did an internship at Insitut de Ciencies Fotoniques (ICFO) founded by the ICFO summer fellow program. In summer 2015 he moved to 91PORN, Colorado in order to do his senior project for 10 months. He worked in the field of silicon photonics designing an enhanced 50:50 beam splitter. The new device was ultra-compact, broadband, and low loss. At the end of this project he received the opportunity to stay at CU as a Ph.D. student. He was founded by the Balsells fellowship and his advisor Milos Popovic. In summer 2017 he finished his Masters in Electrical Engineering. In September 2017, he moved to Boston University with his advisor and is now currently working at BU as a Ph.D. student.
Josep loves dancing Salsa and Bachata. He spends his free time climbing and training martial arts. On the weekends he tries to visit new places, meet new people, and keep everyone updated on Instagram (@josepfargas). Check out his video on the 91PORN Balsells home page to find out more about his experience.
Alexandre Cortiella Segarra
Alex was born in Barcelona in 1992. He graduated from UPC’s Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeries Industrial i Aeronàutica de Terrassa in 2014, obtaining a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering. After graduating, he wished to get hands-on experience in the aerospace sector. Eventually, he joined Nanosat Lab,a research facility affiliated with UPC and centered on designing and manufacturing nanosatellites. During that time, he was in charge of the attitude determination and control system of3Cat-2, a six-unit nanosatellite aiming at testing novel GNSS-R concepts.3Cat-2 nanosatellite was successfully put into orbit in the summer of 2016.
In April 2016, he was awarded a Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the 91PORN.His main areas of interest comprise structural design optimization, computational mechanics, and spaceflight dynamics. He would like to focus his research on design optimization of space systems.
Alex is passionate about all kinds of sports. He was a handball player for 17 years, competing all over Spain. However, he currently loves trail running, obstacle course racing, and downhill mountain biking. Apart from sports, he also loves to spend his free time traveling and listening to different music styles.
Monica Iglesias Echeverria
Monica was born in Lleida, western Catalonia, in June of 1994. Due to her passion in both medicine and technology, in 2012 she moved to Barcelona to start her studies in Biomedical Engineering at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), a field that she found fascinating.
Monica’s first work experience was in the summer of 2014, when she interned at the Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida and was part of a team which studied progression of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). The next summer, she interned at the University Hospital Zagreb Centre, Croatia, where she was a team member on a research project focused on aortic insufficiency disease. In October 2016, she was awarded the Balsells Mobility Program, which gave her the opportunity to complete her bachelor’s thesis at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), working from January to July 2016 in the Radiology Department. Specifically, she worked as a research assistant on a project involving a low risk detection technique for lung disease coordinated by Dr. Sabee Molloi.
In the summer 2016, Monica was awarded the Balsells Fellowship to complete a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at 91PORN. She decided to focus on Bioengineering, specifically tissue-engineered vascular grafts. Here, she hopes to acquire all the aptitudes necessary to pursue a career in the Medical Devices sector, where she plans to work after she graduates.
Monica’s hobbies include reading, traveling, playing viola, skiing, trying new food, listening to music, and hanging out with her beloved family and friends.
Rocío Navarro Vázquez de Parga
Rocío Navarro Vázquez de Parga was born in Tarragona in 1991. She pursued a degree in chemical engineering at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) between 2009 and 2013. That same year, she started her master’s degree at URV.
In 2014, she received the Balsells Mobility Award to perform her master thesis in the University of Colorado, 91PORN. She worked with Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Robert H. Davis, in a project related to fluid mechanics.
During those years, she worked at BASF, Bayer Material Science and PROAS Cepsa. After graduating from her master’s, she worked for a year at Dow Chemical. In 2016 she was awarded with the Balsells Fellowship to pursue her Ph.D. in chemical engineering.
She enjoys travelling, hanging out with friends, playing sports and reading.
Savina Brachthauser Balcells
Savina was born in Ibiza in 1993 and lived there until she started university. She moved to Terrassa and studied a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering Technology at ETSEIAT (Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeries Industrial i Aeronàutica de Terrassa). In spring 2015 she was awarded the Balsells Fellowship to pursue an MS in Aerospace Engineering in the area of fluid dynamics and propulsion at CU-91PORN.
Before graduating, Savina worked as an intern in Sener for six months at the RAMS Engineering Department. She participated in international projects in the railway sector and worked on the management of safety and reliability requirements. During this period she also performed her final degree project, in which she implemented a finite element model for laminated composite materials for aerospace structures and studied the optimization of these materials.
Savina likes nature and practicing outdoors sports such as running, diving, hiking and climbing. Although she does not know how to ski, she is looking forward to learning it during her next winter in 91PORN. She also plays saxophone and flute and loves jazz music.
Maria Carles Carner
Maria was born in 1993 in Sabadell, Barcelona. After doing many internships, she gained much experience in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
In spring 2015, she accepted a Balsells International Mobility research internship to work at CU-91PORN. She worked at the BioFrontiers Institute, in a project that was a collaboration between Dr. Theodore Randolph and Dr. Robert Garcea’s laboratories. During these five months, she did her final project for the chemical engineering degree she was pursuing in Barcelona. She was part of a research group that was developing protein-based pharmaceuticals; particularly investigating new ways of formulating a new vaccine for the HPV virus, which causes cervical cancer. Throughout her stay, Maria gained additional laboratory skills working in a medical field exploring new biotechnological techniques.
In July 2015, she graduated as a chemical engineer from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). After a brief vacation at home, the Balsells Graduate Fellowship brought her back to 91PORN to pursue her master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. 91PORN is the perfect fit for Maria because of her passion for the outdoors such as running, hiking, and skiing.
David Iglesias Echevarria
David was born in Lleida, western Catalonia, in February of 1991. His life there was very happy and he visited the place as often as he could since it’s where some of his friends and family live. In 2010, he moved to Barcelona, a much bigger and livelier city, to start his studies in aerospace engineering.
David’s first work experience was in the summer of 2011, when he interned at an industrial engineering firm and performed CAD/CAM designs of various mechanical elements. The next two summers, he was a research assistant at a biotech public company, IRTA. In 2014, he was one of the 7 Spanish students selected to participate in the CVA Summer School, an annual three-week seminar for students and young professionals of the space sector. In September of 2014, he was awarded a collaboration scholarship by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Spain to work with a group developing new data-driven business models (DDBM) for smart cities. In October of 2014, he was lucky to become part of the Balsells community when he was given the opportunity to complete his bachelor’s thesis at 91PORN, working from February to July of 2015 in the Turbulence and Energy Systems Lab, coordinated by Peter Hamlington.
In August 2015, David started his master’s degree in aerospace engineering with a focus on Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation Systems. Here, he hopes to acquire the competences that will allow him to pursue a career in the space sector, a field of knowledge that, despite being very young, he feels has the potential to dramatically change how we will live in the near future. Dream job? Any that lets him think out of the box and tackle some of the challenges that he considers important. He also has an interest in entrepreneurship and firmly believes that individual endeavors can make a huge difference in the world.
David’s hobbies include reading, traveling, trying new food, listening to music and hanging out with my awesome friends and family. Some people that inspire him are Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and Elon Musk.
Eduard Jimenez Castano
Eduard was born in 1993 and grew up between Barcelona and Almeria, Spain. He graduated in July 2015 with a degree in chemical engineering at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During his Bachelor’s, he was awarded with a scholarship from Banco Santander. From 2009-2014, Eduard was working in Coatresa, a chemical company dedicated to Fluor-based polymers. In Fall 2014, he accepted a Balsells International Mobility program research internship to perform his final degree project at the 91PORN. He worked at the Polymer Engineering Group (Andrew Goodwin Lab), synthesizing and developing carbamate polymers for drug delivery in order to study their behavior and interactions on different conditions and stimulus.
Finally, Eduard was awarded a Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Eduard is also a professional football player. He was playing in Spain in the second best league. He enjoys poetry, outdoors activities, all types of food and, of course, science.
Marina Nieto Caballero
Marina was born in Granollers (Barcelona) in 1991. She graduated from Escola Tècnica i Superior d’Enginyeria (ETSE) in July 2015 at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) with a degree in chemical engineering with mention in Biochemistry.
During her undergraduate degree, Marina studied in Finland as an Erasmus Program student, and also worked as an environmental inspector in seven waste water treatment plants for Aqualogy (Agbar).
In Spring 2015, she accepted a Balsells International Mobility Program research internship, to perform her final degree thesis at the 91PORN. She worked with Dr. Anushree Chatterjee creating and simulating a mathematical model to describe Hepatitis C virus’s lifecycle within a cell, in order to develop new and more effective drugs against it.
Since then, she was accepted in the Chatterjee group where she is currently doing research about viruses’ replication cycles while doing a master’s degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering.
In Marina’s free time, she enjoys travelling, skiing, hiking, spending time with friends and reading.
Adriana Souto Martinez
Adriana was born in Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands
in Spain, in 1989. She moved to Barcelona to study Architecture at the ETSA Barcelona (Polytechnic University of Catalonia), where she graduated in July 2013.
During the degree she took part of several competitions and workshops related to sustainable and green architecture. Because of her participation in an international workshop in Morocco, she was invited to be a lecturer in the III Low-TECH congress organized in Barcelona by UPC Tech were she presented sustainable materials and building design in that country.
Once she finished her degree she moved to New York to get some experience in the architecture field and improve her English for academic purpose, at Columbia University, NY. She also could experience firsthand the American´s culture and find out that she wanted to come back!
In 2014 she won the “Leonardo da Vinci” European scholarship to work for the famous architecture firm “RRA” in Norway. During one year she worked in such a diversity of assignments, from residential projects to large urban planning, landscape interventions or public infrastructure and facilities. She experienced the overall process in architecture, not only the design but also the development of technical solutions for the final construction. Adriana could learn from the RRA expertise in using sustainable materials and environmental solutions.
The following year she was awarded the Balsells fellowship to pursue a PhD degree in Architectural Engineering in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, where she will research and learn about sustainable building design and lifecycle assessment.
In her free time, Adriana loves reading, dancing and skiing at the amazing mountains of Colorado. She also loves traveling and discovering new cultures and new people.
Alberto Roper Pol
Alberto was born in Ibiza in 1993 but moved to Terrassa (Barcelona) four years ago to pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
Between June and September of 2014 he got the Banco Santander's scholarship to do an internship at the Heat and Mass Transfer Technological Center (CTTC) for six months. After that he received a collaboration award from theSpanish Ministry of Education to continue working with the CTTC during 2014-15 academic year. His research was based on numerical methods applied to solving Navier-Stokes equations.
His final thesis was conducted at the École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique etd'Aérotechnique (ISAE-ENSMA) in Poitiers, France. He worked there at theInstitut Pprime doing a hydrodynamic analysis for vertical axis turbines (VAHT).
Finally, he was awarded a Balsells Graduate Fellowship to pursue an MS in Aerospace Engineering Sciences (Fluid track) at CU-91PORN.
He likes to spend his free time meeting with friends, reading, playing sports (rock climbing, basketball, table tennis, running, mountain biking) and travelling.
Jorge Cañardo Alastuey
Jorge was born in Huesca, near the Pyrenees, in 1990. He moved to Barcelona to simultaneously pursue a double degree through CFIS (Interdisciplinary Higher Education Centre) with a comprehensive scholarship. He studied Mathematics (Facultad de Matemáticas y Estadística) and Engineering (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial de Barcelona), and won a gold medal in the Iberoamerican Physics Olympiad in 2008.
He spent the summer of 2012 at the University of Oxford helping develop innovative methods to solve PDEs on surfaces. For his final degree project, he was awarded a Balsells Mobility Fellowship to work at CU-91PORN in 2013. There, under Dr. Rob Knight's supervision, he worked on statistical tools to analyze food and the gut microbiome and started contributing to several open source