Abstract: The IRCV group was present in the PhD defense of Joedi Bautista, in the development of a conference realized in Reus about the experiencies of the first call of a program of industrial doctorands engaged by the catalan government to enhance the coordination and the collaboration between the the University, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the companies. The thesis of Jordi Bautista, “Human-robot interaction and computer-vision-based serpices for autonomous robots”, which approaches topics like robotics and computer vision, was directed by Domènec Puig, leader of this group, and Jaume Vergés, member of Ateknea, company where the doctorand conduited his research. This thesis was the first of this program defended in URV.
The URV is the currently home of 17 doctorands that are developing their thesis through a program of industrial doctorands impulsed by the catalan government. These projects are done in diferent companies through the territory, have deep practical application, and are directed by both entities. The first experience with this program at URV has been with Ateknea, a company based in Cornellà (Barcelona) that offers enginee ing services, where the former doctorand Jordi Bautistarconducted his research in the robotics and computer vision area. Albert Rodríguez, responsable of the programming department of Ateknea, commented during the conference that the work of Jordi allowed the company to open a new line of projects in a field previously unknown for them. For Rodríguez, the project has been a great opportunity to open up to a new field as well as to tighten up their relation with the university.
The experiencence and evaluation of the company, the doctorand and his director were exvosed prior to the defense of the thesis. The vicerector of Science and Reseach Policies of the URV, Josep Manel Ricart was very positive about the program, and wanted to highlight that these projects are extremely useful to reduce the existent gap between the university and the industrial world, enabling companies to recruit talent and the researchers to work in a real, innovative environment, as they are offered a three-year contract while they are conducting their thesis.
From the other side of the connection, Domènec Puig, thesis director by the university, pointed the importance of concluding a thesis with a practical application that solves the problems defined by a company and that the fact of these results being provided can make other people unhesitant of disclose that knowledge. Jordi Bautista, author of the thesi, revealed that his experience came from a personal challenge: to develop a robotics project in a company. He came from the bussiness world and had never published before. It was through the PhD when he could conduit his research applied to a bussiness challenge concluded with the thesis “Human-robot interaction and computer-vision-based services for autonomous robots”, belonging to the Informatics Engineering and Mathematics for Safety program.
The URV was incorporated to the program of industrial doctorands of the government in 2012, and with this thesis, there has been five thesis already presented in Catalonia, this being the first in our centre.