Doctoral School

The UPC Doctoral School celebrates the institutional phase of the “Present your thesis in 4 minutes” competition

May 15, 2026

On May 14, 2026, the institutional phase of the "Present your thesis in 4 minutes" competition took place at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), organized by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI), with the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the participation of the twelve Catalan universities.

The competition offers doctoral students from any discipline the challenge of presenting their research orally, individually and informatively, in a maximum of four minutes, to a non-specialized audience. The competition is held in two phases: a first internal phase at each university and a final inter-university phase, in which the winners from each institution compete.

In this edition, the institutional phase of the UPC brought together ten participants who presented their theses in an informative manner in the Auditorium of the Vèrtex building, with an in-person audience and streaming broadcast. The presentations stood out for their communicative quality, scientific rigor and ability to synthesize, bringing doctoral research closer to society.

The jury, composed of PDI, PTGAS, and a member of the UPC Doctoral Student Council, awarded the following prizes:

  • 1st Place: Ricardo Mancha

  • 2nd Place: María del Pilar Gamarra Gamarra

  • 3rd Place: Germán Fañanás Puigjaner

For more information about the competition and follow-up to the final, you can consult the UPC website: https://doctorat.upc.edu/en/doctoral-thesis/thesis-in-4-minutes-competition

The doctoral student in the Biomedical Engineering program, Ricardo Mancha, will be the UPC's representative in the interuniversity final of the competition, which this year will take place in Vic. The interuniversity final will be held in the auditorium of the Pilarin Bayés Library in Vic (Passeig de la Generalitat, 1, 08500 Vic) on June 11, 2026 at 5 p.m. The event will be broadcast live via streaming via the FCRI YouTube channel.

The UPC Doctoral School thanks all candidates for their participation and especially congratulates them on the quality of their presentations, as well as the effort they put into them..