NEWS - 2024/06/14

The UPC Creates a Research Centre for Automotive and Advanced Mobility

The Specific Research Centre for Automotive and Advanced Mobility has been created with the aim of bringing together the university’s activities and knowledge in automotive sciences and technologies, new forms of mobility, and the transport of the future, thus becoming a leading centre in this field. The new centre integrates the CARNET urban mobility R&I hub.

The Specific Research Centre for Automotive and Advanced Mobility (CER-AMA) is oriented towards promoting research, development, and technological innovation and solutions in the fields of automotive, mobility, and transport. It will develop projects that contribute to the growth of the productive system. This will be achieved by leveraging the connection between different knowledge nodes and the industrial and institutional fabric associated with the University.

The UPC has extensive knowledge in automotive, transport, and mobility. Now, the aim is to create this multidisciplinary centre to become an international reference, bringing together all this knowledge and providing innovative technological solutions, while also supporting companies and institutions in this field. Another objective of the centre is to train individuals through specialized training programs and retain talent. The centre will thus be included in UPC’s catalogue of research groups.

From Autonomous Vehicles to Connected Transport

The areas of action of the CER-AMA include conceiving, designing, and assistance in the production process of the vehicles of the future, considering current challenges in terms of environmental, energy, usability, and safety aspects, and user perception. New business models in this field and the introduction of autonomous vehicles will also be addressed.

In transport and mobility, urban and interurban transport networks, traffic modeling of different scenarios, and road safety will be studied. Research will be conducted in connected, autonomous, electric, and shared transport, applied in both public and private transport sectors.

The CER-AMA will initially consist of ten PhD members from a wide range of departments. The centre also integrates the urban mobility research and innovation hub CARNET, created in 2015 jointly with Volkswagen Research (currently Volkswagen Group Innovation) and SEAT. CARNET and the UPC have been key agents in the creation of EIT Urban Mobility, as well as in the establishment of its headquarters in Barcelona at the end of 2018. They have also been instrumental in the creation and launch of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Advanced Mobility (CIIMA-UP4).

The approval for the creation of CER-AMA was granted by the Governing Council on May 30.

Link to the original article (in Catalan): https://bit.ly/3VqTC6M