Manufacturing

8 risks and 8 opportunities that COVID-19 brings for the environment The health crisis may lead to cuts in environmental investments but, at the same time, it may help reduce pollution and naturalize cities The COVID-19 health crisis brings multiple risks and opportunities for the environment. Researchers Mar Satorras and Isabel Ruiz-Mallén from the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and Professor Hug March from the Faculty of Economics and Business – all three members of the UOC-IN3's Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA Lab) research group – have identified eight challenges and eight opportunities posed by this new situation. The sixteen points...

The COVID-19 crisis to cause turbulence in the airline sector until 2024 UOC researcher Pere Suau pointed out that the next few years will see a significant reduction in air traffic and that some airlines run the risk of folding The coronavirus pandemic has suddenly emptied once-bustling airports. The pandemic has left business plans throughout the entire airline industry up the air, leaving the vast majority of its fleets grounded and empty. According to Pere Suau Sánchez, professor and researcher at the UOC's Faculty of Economics and Business, it might be years until we see airports like Barcelona-el Prat return to...

Leveraging the benefits of automation: the next step for Spanish industry A study by the UOC reveals that industrial companies could significantly increase their sales if they were to rethink how they use new technologies Automated companies are five times more profitable; they generate four times more added value and export up to seven times more than their more conventional competitors. However, despite the obvious advantages of incorporating new technologies into productive processes and delving into the dynamics of the economy 4.0, a study led by Joan Torrent, full professor of Economics and researcher at the Faculty of Economics and...

Drone Industry Investment: DroneBase Scores Additional $7.5 Million Drone industry investment hasn’t dried up in the current crisis.  CA-based aerial data analytics company DroneBase has announced another $7.5 million round – after months of record-setting revenue. Last year, before the coronavirus threw all assumptions and expectations into question, leading drone market analysts DRONEII posited that the drone hype cycle was over – but that drone companies with good fundamentals were still of prime interest to investors.  That’s one prediction that has proved correct: 2019 was a record-breaking year for drone investments.  2020 may still be just as fruitful. The current crisis has hit some aspects...

Booming Space Industry Weathers Turbulent Coronavirus Economy SpaceX launches two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Despite concerns over coronavirus, Florida's space industry moves forward. Photo: NASA Stay up to date on coronavirus coverage: Listen to WMFE on your radio, the WMFE mobile app or your smart speaker — say “Alexa, play NPR” or “WMFE” and you’ll be connected. When astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken launched from Kennedy Space Center last month, NASA and SpaceX made history. It was the first human launch from the U.S. since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 — and...