Professor Michele Chiumenti and Professor Marino Arroyo have been awarded grants in the 2025 Academia Excellence programme, formerly known as ICREA Academia, by the Government of Catalonia.
The programme, which selected 50 faculty members from the Catalan university system, provides €200,000 per project to allow researchers to intensify their work over five years.
Professor Michele Chiumenti, affiliated with CIMNE’s Solid and Fluid Simulation for Industrial Processes research cluster and the Barcelona School of Civil Engineering (ETSECCPB), will focus his research on a machine learning-assisted computational mechanics framework for real-time monitoring with adaptive control for defect prediction in closed-loop manufacturing.
Professor Marino Arroyo Balaguer, academic leader at CIMNE’s Computational Mechanics in Medical Engineering and Living Matter research cluster and affiliated with the Barcelona School of Civil Engineering (ETSECCPB), will employ theoretical and computational models to address challenges in the mechanobiology of living tissues. His work will examine how homeostasis is regulated in rapidly renewing tissues such as the intestinal epithelium, mechanical processes behind tumour invasion, and how 3D cell sheets change shape. The research will also investigate lessons from nature for creating new engineering materials with shape-changing capabilities.
Professor Arroyo is a researcher at the Numerical Methods for Applied Sciences and Engineering research group (LACÀN) and the Institute of Mathematics of the UPC.
The Academia Excellence programme recognises faculty members conducting outstanding work in fields of international relevance through a competitive selection process.
