Francesc Torres will once again be parish priest of the UPC.
The professor will replace Daniel Crespo, who had been in charge of the rectorate since 2021.
BarcelonaProfessor Francesc Torres Torres will once again be rector of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). Torres was elected with 53.28% of the vote in the elections held this Friday. Torres will thus succeed Daniel Crespo, who held the position since June 2021 and obtained 36.16% of the vote.
The new parish priest served from 2017 to 2021 and will now begin a second term, this time lasting six years. A total of 6,775 people participated in the elections, which began on Tuesday (20% of the total number of teachers, students, and professionals who were called to vote). Of these, up to 10.5% voted blank.
Although the vote count was made public this Friday, a period for appeals will now open, so the final proclamation of the UPC rector will take place on May 21.
"The haystack of reindustrialization"
Torres holds a degree in telecommunications engineering from the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB) and a PhD from the Department of Signal Theory and Communications at the UPC, where he teaches and conducts research as a university professor. He was also director of the same department from 2013 to 2017. The professor began his professional career at the European Space Agency in 1988 and joined the UPC as an associate professor the following year.
Looking ahead to his new term, Torres explained to ARA that he and his team want to make the UPC "one of the pillars of Europe's reindustrialization," investing in artificial intelligence to become a "reference for the technology community." The future rector of the UPC also maintains that he will seek to ensure that the university "aligns itself with the country's needs to support the productive fabric of small and medium-sized businesses."
Regarding the possibility of resuming some of the projects that might have been pending during his previous term, Torres acknowledged that "at that time" they had many projects underway, but "the country's economic situation was complicated after COVID." He explains that, after this, in this new phase, he believes they "will be able to be much more constructive and with more resources."
