IQS-URL Hosts the 3rd Avelino Corma Awards and Wins Two Young Talent Prizes

Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Last April 18th, IQS hosted the III Premios Avelino Corma, otorgados por los Official Colleges of Chemical Engineers of Spain, awards that serve as a meeting point for companies, public administrations and universities around applied innovation. In this edition, the awards have incorporated the collaboration of IQS Alumni, broadening the link between the scientific community and the professional environment. The awards are named after the Valencian scientist Avelino Corma, an international reference in catalysis and recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research.

Recognition of Young Talent

The ‘Avelino Corma’ awards recognise young talent in projects related to the energy transition, new materials and the circular economy, celebrating the excellence and talent of Master’s Final Projects (TFM), and also distinguish professional careers and startups.

In this edition, 53 TFMs were submitted from 19 universidades Spanish universities, showcasing the connection between young chemical engineering talent and the real needs of industry. The projects presented address strategic areas such as green chemistry, circular economy, bioeconomy, renewable energy and new materials, areas directly linked to the current challenges of the chemical and energy sectors. In this way, the awards reinforce their role as a bridge between applied research and the productive sector.

Two chemical engineers from IQS – URL received two of the five Avelino Corma Awards given to Master’s Final Projects in this third edition:

• Marcel Gil Ferrer received the award in the category “Environmental Applications of Chemical Engineering” for their project Application of machine learning algorithms to predict greenhouse gas emissions in Europe based on socioeconomic factors.
• Mireia Bonich Aranda received the award in the category “New Materials” for their project Re-endothelialisation Strategies for a New Bioabsorbable Stent.
   

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Prediction

Marcel Gil completed his Final Master’s Project under the supervision of Daniel Vázquez Vázquez (Environmental Process Engineering and Simulation Group – GESPA) in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at IQS School of Engineering. His project involved the development of a predictive model based on LSTM neural networks to estimate the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions across 24 European countries up to 2050. Historical socioeconomic data was used, including GDP, population, energy consumption, carbon intensity and the share of renewable energy. The study compares different model configurations and analyses several future scenarios — baseline, green and pessimistic — to assess possible emission trajectories.

The results obtained in this work show that the optimised models better capture emission dynamics and offer a useful tool to support climate planning and decision-making.

“It is hugely motivating to see this work recognised, which starts from a clear idea: to change the future, we must first be able to anticipate it. From this perspective, chemical engineering and artificial intelligence become key tools for turning data into decisions capable of shaping our climate future and accelerating a more sustainable transition,” says Marcel.

Re-endothelialisation Strategies for a New Bioabsorbable Stent

Mireia Bonich completed her Final Master’s Project under the supervision of Jordi Martorell López (Vascular Engineering and Applied Biomedicine Group – GEVAB), also in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at IQS. Her project is framed within the development of a novel polymeric stent to treat paediatric aortic coarctation, designed to adapt to paediatric vascular conditions. The developed stent is not only able to grow alongside the child, but is also eventually reabsorbed by the body, thus avoiding future complications.

Specifically, Mireia’s project focused on the functionalisation of this stent to improve its integration into the vascular tissue, through plasma treatments with oxygen and sodium hydroxide and covalently linking cell-adhesive peptides (REDV and REDV-RGDS). Subsequently, using a perfusion bioreactor, cell adhesion and migration were evaluated. Under flow conditions, an increase in cell migration was observed – particularly in the stents functionalised with the REDV-RGDS platform – indicating a clear improvement in re-endothelialisation.

In Mireia’s own words, “winning this award has been a tremendous motivation to keep growing in the biomedical field, as well as an opportunity to raise the visibility of chemical engineering’s contribution to cardiovascular health.”