Forum IEEC 2019
The morning sessions were focused on presentations by IEEC members describing some of the highlights of their research during the past year. The audience could enjoy excellent talks describing results on pulsar research, the Gaia mission, the use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to monitor space weather, the prospects of exoplanet research, the Montsec Astronomical Observatory, signal processing for communications and navigation using GNSS, the first measurements from the ROHP-PAZ experiment, technology research for space missions, the final results of the LISA Pathfinder mission and the road to the LISA mission, the various applications of nanosatellites, and the development of micro-electronics components for the Cherenkov Telescope Array. The afternoon session had the focus on better knowing the activities of the local space industry and on promoting collaboration between industry and academia. Several companies in the space business could deliver short presentations highlighting their expertise and capabilities. This was followed by two presentations by Álvaro Giménez (past European Space Agency – ESA – Director of Science) on future opportunities in the framework of ESA and by Riánsares López (ACCIÓ) on the H2020 European program. The presentations led to open discussion, with the participation of the audience, to explore improvements in the capacities of IEEC and synergies with potential industrial partners.
During the day we enjoyed the visit of the Director General of Industry of the Catalan Government, the Vice-Rector for Research from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and from the Universitat de Barcelona, as well as representatives from ACCIÓ.
At the coffee and lunch breaks there was lively conversation and discussion in what was a nice occasion for IEEC members and industry representatives to meet up and chat. We also used the occasion to celebrate the 23th anniversary of the founding of IEEC, on February 6th, 1996. We enjoyed a very nice and yummy cake and had a toast: Happy Birthday IEEC!