Two graduates from the Public University of Navarra (UPNA), Maria Mina Urbiola (who completed the master’s degree in industrial engineering) and meborn Larráyoz Arrigote (graduates in Telecommunications Technology Engineering), won the VI edition of the final project poster competition carried out by women, organized by the Women, Science and Technology Chair of the academic institution, with the collaboration of the Government of Navarra.
The winners received, as a reward, 900 euros each. In addition, two others are graduates of UPNA, Maria Sangüesa Recalde (who completed the Master in Telecommunications Engineering) and Itsaso Zulaika Gil (graduates in Industrial Technology Engineering), placed second in this same competition, for which each received 450 euros.
The final of the competition took place last Friday, September 27, at the Cultural Center of the Caja Navarra Foundation, Civican, in Pamplona, on the occasion of the celebration of the European Researchers’ Night, organized by the academic institution. with funding from the European Union, and included in the joint project of Group 9 of G9-SCIENCE4ALL Universities.
Those responsible for awarding the prizes were Patricia Fanlo MateoMinister of University, Innovation and Digital Transformation of the Government of Navarre, and Gurutze Pérez Artieda, director of the Women, Science and Technology Chair and researcher at the Institute of Smart Cities (ISC) of the UPNA .
THE COSTS
Maria Mina defended his master’s thesis, which is part of a project to demonstrate the viability of thermoelectric generators as a power source for volcano monitoring systems in remote environments.
Earlier this year, the ISC Institute’s Thermal and Fluid Engineering research group installed generators at the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla base on Deception Island (Antarctica). Their work focused on the design of a monitoring system to evaluate its operation in extreme conditions.
The project was led by two researchers from the ISC Institute and teachers from the Department of Engineering: Professor Leyre Catalán Ros and Professor David Astrain Ulibarrena.
For his part, Inès Larraoz presented his final studies project which studies a new generation of satellites, the Starlink constellation from the company SpaceX, for use in positioning, navigation and time synchronization or PNT (for its acronym in English).
The goal is to use this new technology to replace GNSS, a general term which brings together several satellite navigation systems such as GPS (Global Positioning System), the best known.
This project was developed in the University of Luxembourg and was led by Jorge Teniente Vallinas, professor of the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering and researcher at the ISC Institute.
In the case of second prizes, Maria Sangüesa He participated with a poster summarizing his master’s thesis, which develops image analysis and deep learning methods to study the tumor microenvironment of patients with urothelial carcinoma. It is a type of cancer that develops in the urothelium, the inner lining of the urinary tract.
He had directed his investigation Mikel Ariz Galileoprofessor in the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering and researcher at the ISC Institute.
FinallyItsaso Zulaika He summarized in his poster his final study project, on eight bases of quality at the Orkoien Faurecia factory, owned by the multinational automobile components manufacturer Forvia. This work was carried out under the direction of Lucas Álvarez Vega, professor of the Department of Engineering.
ALL FINALISTS
The other finalists were Tatiana Fernandes Ramos (degree in engineering in industrial technologies), Beatriz Manías Silva (master’s degree in industrial engineering), Alaia Pascual Diez de Arizaleta (double degree in engineering in telecommunications technologies and biomedical engineering), Ana Remírez de Ganuza Jiménez (degree in engineering in technologies industrial). Technologies) and María Senosiain Corera (Master in Industrial Engineering).
The end of VI edition of the final project poster competition carried out by women was open to students of the academic institution who had defended their final diploma or master’s thesis during the 2023-2024 academic year and whose content belonged to the fields of science and technology.
Students enrolled in master’s degree at UPNA during this academic year 2024-2025, while they had supported their final studies project at other universities.
More women in science and technology Women, Science and Technology Chaircreated in 2019 by UPNA and the Government of Navarra, seeks to contribute to the participation of women in science and technology, increasing their presence in STEM degrees (acronym in English for science, technology, engineering and mathematics), as well as to promote conducting research on these issues and integrating the gender perspective.
