Electronic Engineering Department

Elisenda Bou-Balust

Associate Professor
UPC BarcelonaTech

Email: elisenda.bou@upc.edu

Office 213, Building C4, Campus Nord
C/Jordi Girona 1
08034 Barcelona SPAIN


Elisenda Bou-Balust received the M.Sc. in telecommunications engineering from UPC BarcelonaTech in 2011 and her M.Sc. in electronic engineering from ULPGC in 2011. From 2007 to present, she has been conducting research on RIC-WPT, scalable software architectures for fractionated spacecraft and autonomous systems (ML and distributed task scheduling). In 2008 and 2009 she carried out two stages at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2012 she has been a PhD Candidate in Technical University of Catalonia and has participated in several international and national research project. She currently teaches the Nano-Satellite Software Capstone Project (PAE - Advanced Engineering Project) at UPC.

Bou-Balust was a recipient of two Vodafone Scholarships (2008 and 2009), a research grant issued by Thales Alenia Space Spain (2012-2016) on wireless energy transfer for satellite constellations and a Google Faculty Research Award (2013) on scale-free software for autonomous satellite constellations.

Bou-Balust collaborates with the Aerospace Engineering Department at University of Maryland and  Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She serves as a reviewer for the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and IEEE Transactions on Communications amongst others. She also co-organized sessions related to wireless energy transfer at at IEEE ISCAS (2013,2014,2015) and PIERS (2013,2014,2015,2016).

  

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Complex System design and scalability.
  • Free-Scale software for Complex Systems. 
  • Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
  • Distributed satellite systems & Fractionated Spacecraft
  • Software Architecture for Space Systems.

 

PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS

  • Horizon 2020-Earth Observation-3-2015. ONION: Operational Network of Individual Observation Nodes. 2016-2018.
  • Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, state plan for Scientific and Technical research and innovation 2013-2016, State program for Research, Development and Research oriented to Society challenges (ref. DPI2013-47799-C2-2-R) “Health aware enhanced range Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) systems”, Sep 2014 – Sept 2017. 
  • Google Faculty Research Awards “Phone-satellite: Android beyond the stratosphere”, Sept. 2013 – Sept. 2014. 
  • Resonant Inductive Near-field Generation System (RINGS). Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). University of Maryland - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jan 2012 - December 2014.
  • Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, CONSOLIDER-INGENIO program  “Advanced Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Devices for Rational Use of Energy (RUE)”,  Project period: Jan 2010 – Jan 2014. 

 

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Special Session Organizer "Wireless Power Transfer". PIERS Shanghai, August 2016. 
  • Session Chair "Wireless Energy Transfer". ISCAS. Portugal, June 2015.
  • Special Session Organizer "Wireless Power Transfer". PIERS. Prague, August 2015.
  • Special Session Organizer "Wireless Power Transfer" with Qiaowei Yuan (Sendai National College of Technology). PIERS. Guangzhou, China. August 2014.
  • Academy Chair. 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona. June 2014
  • Special Session Organizer "Circuital aspects of emergent application-driven Wireless Power Transfer Systems" with Eduard Alarcon (UPC BarcelonaTech) and Patrick Hu (University of Auckland). ISCAS, Melbourne. June 2014.
  • Special Session Organizer "Near-Field Wireless Energy Transmission" with Ki  Young Kim (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology). PIERS. Stockholm, August 2013.
  • Special Session Chair "Wireless Energy Harvesting" with Ki Young Kim (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology) and Alessandra Costanzo (University of Bologna). PIERS. Stockholm, August 2013.
  • Special Session Organizer "Circuit Aspects of Non-Radiative Wireless Power Transfer" with Ki Young Kim (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology). ISCAS, Beijing. May 2013.

 

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

  • 2013. Google Faculty Research Award "Android Beyond the Stratosphere". PIs: Prof. Eduard Alarcon, Prof. Adriano Camps.
  • 2013. 0-Gravity Flight at NASA Johnson Space Center. RINGS Project. University of Maryland - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://www.sppl.umd.edu/projects/03-resonant-inductive.html
  • 2012-2016 Research grant by Thales Alenia Space to research on Space applications of WPT-RIC.
  • 2011. Tecnova award to Best Technological and Innovative Business Idea (1st prize) for the MSc Thesis in electronic engineering "Wireless Information systems based on Radio Frequency Identification"
  • 2011. GMV Aerospace & Defense Award to Best Engineering Thesis in Aeronautical field for the MSc Thesis in telecom engineering "Translayer Optimized Co-Design of in-space Wireless Power Transfer Systems".
  • 2008. Vodafone Foundation Fellowship to attend MIT Space Systems Laboratory.
  • 2007. Vodafone Foundation Fellowship to attend MIT Space Systems Laboratory.
  • 2007.  ESA Outreach Program Selected Student. Participation at International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India, sponsored by ESA.
  • 2006.  Contestant at Space Elevator Games 2006 (X Prize Cup, NASA Centennial Challenge). Las Cruces, New Mexico.

 

PHD THESIS STUDENTS

  • Carles Araguz. Topic: "Intelligent task schedulers for fractionated spacecraft architectures".

 

MSC THESIS STUDENTS

  • Víctor García. Topic: "Optimizing Patient Flow in Operating Rooms: an Intelligent Real-Time tracker and planner". In coopeartion with Hospital Clinic de Barcelona (Highest honors. Mark 10/10). July 2015
  • Santiago Rodrigo. Topic: "On Scalable Software Architectures for Fractionated Spacecraft".
  • Núria Egidos (MsC). Topic: "Free-Range Resonant Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer".
  • Lluís Castrejón. Topic: "Applying deep learning to network protocols". Co-Advised with Dr. Eduard Alarcon, Dr. J. Nin, Dr. A. Cabellos.
  • Arnau Prat. Topic: "Scalable Software Architecture for the Android Beyond the Stratosphere Satellite Network". (Mark 9.4/10).
  • Marc Mari. Topic: "Towards a Real-Time Android OS for the Android Beyond the Stratosphere Project". Co-Advised with Iñigo del Portillo and Dr. Eduard Alarcón.
  • Iñigo del Portillo. Topic: "Scalability Limits of Fractionated Satellite Network Architectures". Co-Advised with Dr. Eduard Alarcón. (HIghest Honors. Mark 10/10). January 2015.
  • Carles Carruesco. Topic: "Navigation Systems for Android-Based Autonomous Quadcopters." (Highest Honors. Mark 10/10). Dec. 2014.
  • Jorge Cantero. Topic: "Communication Systems for a Google-Phone Satellite: A PHY-to-Protocol crosslayer approach." (Mark 9/10). Oct. 2015.
  • Carles Araguz. Topic: "Prolog-Based Constraint Scheduling for Modular Nano-Satellites". Co-Advised with Dr. Eduard Alarcón. (Highest Honors. Mark 10/10). Sept. 2014
  • Alberto Saez. Topic: "Dual Payload Low-Power Embedded System for characterization of Space Effects in WPT and GFET technologies". Co-Advised with Dr. Eduard Alarcón. (Mark 9/10). June 2015.
  • Nuria Egidos (TFG). Topic: "Adaptive Energy Management Front-Ends for variable-distance asymmetric wireless power transfer links". Co-Advised with Dr. Eduard Alarcón. (Highest Honors.  Mark 10/10). July 2014.
  • Sasha Suroca. Topic: "Cubesat System Integration". Co-Advised with Dr. Eduard Alarcón. (Mark 9/10). Nov. 2013.

 

INVITED TALKS

  • Invited talk, "Academia and Entrepreneurship: Is it possible to become an academic entrepreneur and come out alive?" Panelist. IEEE Young Professional Panel Session . Montreal, May 2016. 
  • Invited talk, "Health care organizations as complex systems: orchestrating the flow in surgical suites". UC Berkeley, CA. 3rd November 2015.
  • Invited talk, "Enabling new mission architectures through general-purpose payload-oriented nano-satellites". University of Maryland, MD. 28th October 2015.
  • Invited talk, "Towards an Open-Space Station: Android Beyond the Stratosphere". Google Inc, CA. 2nd November 2015.
  • Invited talk, "Wireless Power Transfer: Fueling the Dots". Chiba University, Japan. June 2014
  • Invited talk, "Wireless Power Transfer: Fueling the Dots". University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. May 2014.

 

HOSTED VISITING SCHOLARS

  • Tomoharu Nagashima (2013). PhD Candidate. Chiba University, Japan.

 

PUBLICATIONS

  • Bou-Balust, E. Riveiro, J. Aduriz, A. Rodriguez, A. "Weakly-Supervised Deep Learning Framework for Video Tagging through Massive Internet Crawling". Submitted to NIPS Large Scale Video Workshop. Dcember 2016
  • Araguz, C. Alarcon, E. and Bou-Balust, E. "Learning from previous encounters: an adaptive algorithm for autonomous distributed missions". NASA JPL Flight Software Workshop. December 2016.
  • Araguz, C. Alarcon, E. and Bou-Balust, E. "Applying Autonomy to Software for Distributed Satellite Missions" 4th International Workshop on Federated and Fractionated Satelltie Systems. October 2016.
  • Bou-Balust, E., Sedwick, R., Fisher, P., and Alarcon, E. "Relay Effects in Multiple-Node Resonant Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer." Journal of Wireless Power Transfer. 2016
  • M Saad, N Egidos, E Bou-Balust, E Alarcon. On tunable switch-mode reactive networks: a gyrator-based resonator emulation. IEEE ISCAS Montreal, May 2016. 
  • Araguz, C., Alarcon, E. and Bou-Balust, E.. General-Purpose Payload-Oriented Nano-Satellite Software Architecture. Spacecraft Flight Software Workshop. John Hopkins University. MD, USA. October 2015.
  • Bou-Balust, E., and Alarcon, E.. "Scalability Analysis of SIMO Non-Radiative Resonant Wireless Power Transfer Systems Based on Circuit Models" IEEE ISCAS. Lisbon, May 2015
  • Bou-Balust, E., and Alarcon, E.. "Relay Effects in Multiple-Node Wireless Power Transfer Systems" IEEE ISCAS. Lisbon, May 2015
  • del Portillo, I., Bou-Balust, E., and Alarcon, E.. "Scalability of Resource Constrained General Purpose Fractionated Satellite Network Architectures" IEEE Aerospace Conference. Montana, US. March 2015
  • Araguz, C., Bou-Balust, E., and Alarcon, E.. "Quo Vadis Distributed Software Architectures for Satellite Swarms" IEEE Aerospace Conference. Montana, US. March 2015
  • del Portillo, I., Bou-Balust, E., and Alarcon, E. "On Scalability Limits of Resource-Constrained Federated Satellite Network Architectures." Federated Satellite Systems Workshop. Moscow, Russia. October 2014.
  • Cantero, J., Bou-Balust, E., del Portillo, I., Recasens, A., and Alarcon, E.. "From Local Area Networks to Space Area Networks: deployment-stage Scalability Analysis of a WiFi wireless communication link for a pico-satellite serving dual-type earth communities. " Submitted to Acta Astronautica. August 2014.
  • Nagashima, T., Wei, X., Bou-Balust, E., Alarcon, E. Kazimierczuk, M.K. and Sekiya, H. "Analysis and Design of Loosely Inductive Coupled Wireless Power Transfer With Class-E² DC-DC Converter" submitted to IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. August 2014.
  • Bou-Balust, E., Hu, P. and Alarcon, E. "Scalability Analysis of SIMO Non-Radiative Resonant Wireless Power Transfer Systems based on Circuit Models" Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I. July 2014.
  • Egidos, N., Bou-Balust, E., Sedwick, R., and Alarcon, E. "On Frequency Optimization of Asymmetric Resonant Inductive Coupling Wierless Power Transfer Links" Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium. Guangzhou, China. August 2014.
  • Chabalko, M., Bou-Balust, E., Alarcon, E. and Ricketts, D. S. "Optimization of WPT Efficiency usingg a conjugate load in non-impedance matched systems". IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation. Memphis, US. July 2014.
  • Bou-Balust, E., El Aroudi, A., Fisher, P. and Alarcon, E. "Unveiling Nonlinear Dynamics in Resonant Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer". IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Melbourne, June 2014.
  • Nagashima, T., Inoue, K., Wei, X., Bou-Balust, E., Alarcon, E., Kazimierczuk, M.K. and Sekiya, H. "Analytical Design Procedure for Resonant Inductively Coupled Wireless Power Transfer with Class E² DC-DC Converter" IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Melbourne, June 2014.
  • Bou-Balust, E. Sedwick, R., Hu, P. and Alarcon, E. "Advances in Non-Radiative Resonant Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer: a Critical Comparison of Alternative Circuit and Systems Models Driven by Emergent Applications". IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Melbourne, June 2014.
  • Bou-Balust, E., Nagashima, T., Sekiya, H. and Alarcon, E. "Class E² Resonant Non-Radiative Wireless Power Transfer Link: A design-oriented joint circuit-system co-characterization approach. IEEE International Conference on Signals, Systems and Circuits. Spain, February 2014.
  • Porter, A. Alinger, D. Sedwick, R. Merk, J.  Opperman, R. Buck, A. Eslinger, G. Fisher, P. Miller, D. and Bou-Balust, E.  "RINGS: Demonstration of Electromagnetic Formation Flight and Wireless Power Transfer". Submitted to Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. January 2014.
  • Porter, A. Alinger, D. Sedwick, R. Merk, J.  Opperman, R. Buck, A. Eslinger, G. Fisher, P. Miller, D. and Bou-Balust, E. "Dual-purpose Resonate Actuators for Electromagnetic Formation Flight and Wireless Power Transfer". AIAA SciTech. Maryland, January 2014.
  • Nagashima, N. and Inoue, K. and Wei, X. and Bou-Balust, E. and Alarcon, E. and Sekiya, H. “Inductively Coupled Wireless Power Transfer with Class-E2 DC-DC Converter”. IEEE European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design. September 2013, Dresden, Germany.
  • Bou-Balust, E., Alarcon, E., Vidal, D. and Sedwick, R. “EM Characterization of interfering objects in Resonant Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer”. Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium. Stockholm, Sweden. August 2013.
  • Bou-Balust, E. and Alarcon, E. and Sedwick, R. and Fisher, P. “Interference analysis on Resonant Inductive Coupled Wireless Power Transfer links”, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2013, ISCAS 2013, May 2013, Beijing, China (special session on “Circuit aspects of Wireless Power Transfer”) (authors Sedwick with University of Maryland, Fisher with Massachusetts Institute of Technology ).
  • Bou-Balust, E. and Alarcon, E. and Sedwick, R. “Maximizing Efficiency Through Impedance Matching from a Circuit-Centric Model of Non-Radiative Resonant Wireless Power Transfer”. IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2013, ISCAS 2013, May 2013, Beijing, China (authors Sedwick with University of Maryland).
  • Bou-Balust, E. and Alarcon, E. and Gutierrez, J. “ A Comparison of Analytical Models for Resonant Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer”. Session 2P4 Near to Mid-range Wireless Power Transfer Technology: Principles and Applications 2. Pages 389. Year 2012.
  • Bou-Balust, E. and Alarcon, E. and Saenz-Otero, A. and Mandy, C. “ Translayer optimized co-design of in-space microwave based wireless power transfer”. IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS). Year 2010. (authors Saenz-Otero and Mandy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

 

RESEARCH STAYS

  • Stage at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory. Wireless power Transfer Systems for Satellite Constellations with Prof. Alvar Saenz-Otero. 2008.

  • Stage at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory. Microwave Mid-Range Wireless PowerTransfer with Prof. Oliver de Weck. 2007.