Management Team
Ignasi Belda, PhD.
Co-Founder & CEO
Computer scientist, doctor in artificial intelligence applied to drug discovery and doctor in law and taxation. Dr. Belda has been the CEO of the Barcelona Science Park during two years which is one of the biggest research infrastructures in Europe, he has been director of the “health” area of the public affairs company Diplolicy and has founded four start-ups, at national and international level. One of such start-ups is Intelligent Pharma that was sold in 2017 and it is focused on the research and development of new artificial intelligence technologies applied to drug discovery and drug design. In the moment of the exit, Intelligent Pharma had direct presence in five countries and it exported research services to fifteen different countries. Thanks to his entrepreneurship career, Dr. Belda has been awarded with 15 prizes, one of them the Award Princesa de Girona 2014 or the Award BioEmprenedor XXI of La Caixa. Dr. Belda has published dozens of scientific articles, he has participated as a speaker in more than 50 international conferences and he has written three outreach books about artificial intelligence and telecommunications, the three translated into multiple foreign languages.
Glòria Fernàndez Esparrach, MD, PhD.
Co-Founder & CMO
Doctor in Medicine from the University of Barcelona and Diplomate of Spanish Board of Gastroenterology. Researcher of IDIBAPS and CIBEREHD and Coordinator of the Master in Endoscopy at the University of Barcelona. Professor of University of Barcelona since 2015. With more than 20 years of experience in clinical practice as endoscopist in HCB, the last 10 years she has focused her activity in therapeutic endoscopy and endoscopic ultrasonography. After a stay as a guest researcher at the Experimental Endoscopy Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, under the direction of Dr. Christopher C. Thompson (July 2007 – June 2008), she started her own experimental endoscopy laboratory in 2009.
Marta Guardiola, PhD.
Co-Founder & CTO
Engineer and Doctor in Telecommunications. Since 2008 she is working in microwave imaging systems for medical diagnosis, first in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and since 2014 in Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her research experience covers: microwave imaging algorithms, computational models and electromangetic simulations, design and manufacturing of microwave imaging acquisition systems and preclinical validation. She has authored 5 papers in peer-reviewed international magazines on this topic, holds a patent and was principal investigator on several grants. She received training in entrepreneurship from University of California Berkeley, EOI Business School and participated in several acceleration and mentoring programs.
Team
Roberto Sont
Hardware Engineer
He received the Master in Telecommunications and the Telecommunications Engineering degree from the UPC, in 2019 and 2017, respectively. He has developed a measurement system for Zanini Autogroup to characterize radomes in the automotive sector as a final degree project. He has been working for a year at MiWEndo Solutions developing an antenna for medical applications.
Pere Cornellas
Senior Mechanical Engineer & Production Manager
Industrial Engineering Master from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in addition to an exchange program for Master Thesis at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He has carried out his career within international R&D departments across Biotechnology, Automotive, Power Electronics, Packaging and Aerospace; having a strong expertise in mechatronic systems and product development. After seven years living and working in Zürich he came back to Barcelona, joining MiWEndo team in November 2021 and playing a key role ensuring product design and industrialisation. He is a strong believer of the benefits that innovation and technology can bring to society.
Alejandra Garrido Atienza
Software Engineer
Engineer and Master in Telecommunications from the UPC. She has been working on microwave systems and antenna design since 2018 working part time as a research assistant at Comsenslab (UPC). In 2018 she completed a stay at Aalto University (Finland) designing integrated antennas for green buildings. She has co-authored 4 scientific articles. She has experience working in machine learning and computer vision in i2cat and Serimag.
Luz María Neira
Electrical Engineer
Electrical Engineer from Universidad Catolica de Chile and Ph.D. in EE Signals and Systems from the University of Wisconsin-Madison USA. She specializes in physical and mathematical modeling, medical imaging, numerical non-linear optimization, inverse problems, statistical methods, and algorithm development. Since 2013 she has worked in microwave imaging for diagnostic and therapeutic biomedical applications. She has authored eight peer-reviewed research publications and received a first prize award in the USNC-URSI Student Paper Competition at the 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Before joining Miwendo, she was a Research Fellow at Mayo Clinic, investigating the interaction of microwaves with different gastrointestinal tissue types and developing algorithms for MRI-Electrical Properties Tomography.
Marta Benavides
Project Manager
Marta Benavides holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Barcelona’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra. During her internship at Hospital Universitari Sagrat Cor, she focused on non-invasive ventilation medical devices for Sleep Apnea treatments, gaining valuable insights into patient pathologies and medical device usage. In her current role as Project Manager at MiWEndo Solutions, she is responsible for overseeing both national and international projects and grants. Her duties encompass developing grant budgets, preparing technical documentation, and engaging with funding organizations. Her dedication to professional growth is evident through her completion of specialized training in European Project Management within the company. Additionally, she actively participates in seminars focused on collaborative projects, further enhancing her expertise in project management and grant administration.
Advisory Board
Antoni Castells, MD, PhD
Medical Advisor
Medical Director of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and coordinator of the Barcelona’s Colorectal Cancer Screening Program, and former Director of the Institute of Digestive and Metabolic Diseases of the HCB (2010-2015). Full professor of Gastroenterology, at the University of Barcelona, School of Medicine. As Director of the “Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Research Group” of the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd, Instituto de Salud Carlos III) and the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), his research program is focused on CRC genetics and screening strategies. He is founding member of the Spanish “Alliance for Colon Cancer Prevention”, being its first National Coordinator (2006-2010), and member of the Advisory Board of the International Digestive Cancer Alliance, World Gastroenterology Organization Task Force on Digestive Oncology, Spanish Health Ministry, Pla Director d’Oncologia of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and Madrid City Hall for colorectal cancer prevention. He has been awarded with the Biomedical Research Excellence Prize of the Col·legi Oficial de Metges de Barcelona (2007), and the August Pi i Sunyer Prize (2010), among others.
Josep Llach, MD, PhD
Medical Advisor
M.D. and Ph.D. in Medicine and Master in hospital management, he is the Head of the Digestive Endoscopy Section in Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. He has more than 30 years of experience and extensive training in different fields of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Digestive Endoscopy. As a result of his research activity, he made important contributions to the clinical development, assistance and technological development of the National Health System, in topics such as endoscopic capsule, thermocoagulation, chromoendoscopy, among others. He is professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Barcelona, School of Medicine.
Míriam Cuatrecases, MD, PhD
Medical Advisor
Head of the gastrointestinal pathology section and consultor at Hospital Clinic, Barcelona. Spain. Research fellow at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NY. USA. Focus in translational research by linking pathology diagnosis and basic research to clinical applications. Leader in colorectal lymph node molecular staging. Associated professor at the University of Barcelona Medical School and professor in four masters. Coordinator of the Tumor Bank of the Biobank Clinic-IDIBAPS and of the Banking Network of Tumors of Catalonia (XBTC), Treasurer and Board Member of the Spanish Pathology Society (SEAP-IAP), Board Member and Secretary of the Catalan Society of Pancreas of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia. Reviewer of national research program projects and of national and international scientific journals.
Maria Pellisé, MD, PhD
Medical Advisor
Dr. Maria Pellisé is a gastroenterologist at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. Always involved in collaborative research projects with other Spanish and European centers, she has specialized in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, diagnosis and surveillance. In addition to dedicating herself to diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, she is the clinical coordinator of the Population Screening Program at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. She has participated in different action guides and symposia and directed several specialized courses and seminars.
Ricardo Schleifer
Market Access Advisor
MSc in Bio-Medical Engineering from the Tel Aviv University and BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion (both cum-laude). Senior Marketing, Sales and BizDev Manager with extensive experience in introducing innovative medical & electronic products into new and existing markets, world-wide. Skilled in end-to-end product / portfolio management, developing and implementing marketing strategies and global commercialization processes. Consistently succeed in promoting new products into value propositions in small & large companies. Extensive experience in: Gastro Intestinal Imaging, Radiology, Medical IT, Aesthetics and Surgical Lasers, Security and Desalination. Multilingual (Spanish, Hebrew, English, Italian) with extensive international and cross cultural experience.
Carlos Alvarez Iglesias
Marketing Advisor
MSc in Market Research and Strategic Marketing from the Institut d’Études Politiques Paris and BSc in Business Administration, Georgetown University. Marketing Director for a group of Spanish companies specialized on Innovation Management and Technology Commercialization: KIM (Barcelona), MRI International (Madrid) and Knowledge Investors (Vigo). Worked in strategy, management and technology consulting for a few years, now I help research institutions, businesses, investors and government agencies improve the return on their investments on innovation.
Miguel Ángel González Ballester, PhD
Co-Founder and Medical Image Processing Advisor
ICREA Research Professor at Simbiosys-DTIC (UPF) since October 2013. He holds a degree in Computer Science from Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (1996), and a doctorate from the University of Oxford, UK (2000). He was a senior researcher at Toshiba Medical Systems (Japan), INRIA (France), and at University of Bern (Switzerland), where he was leading the Surgical Technology Division at the Faculty of Medicine. From 2008 until 2013 he was in charge of the Research Department of the company Alma IT Systems SL in Barcelona. His research focuses on computerized medical image analysis and computer-assisted surgery, including image processing and computer vision, image-based diagnosis, medical imaging physics, computational modelling and simulation of virtual organs and surgical interventions, navigation in computer-assisted surgery, surgical devices and implants, surgical robotics and translational research focusing on certain clinical and industrial applications.
Oscar Camara, PhD
Co-Founder and Medical Image Processing Advisor
Associate Professor in Physense-DTIC (UPF). He obtained a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from UPC (1999), and a Masters and Ph.D. in Image Processing in the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, Paris (2000 and 2003, respectively). From 2004 to 2007, he did a postdoctoral stay, first at King’s College London and then at University College London. In July 2007, he joined UPF as “Ramón y Cajal” Fellow, where he is coordinating a research group called PhySense, that he founded in 2011. He is also coordinator of the Biomedical Engineering degree at the UPF. His research is focused on methodologies at the crossroad of computational imaging and computational modelling areas that can be effectively used in a clinical environment, including oncology, neurology and cardiology applications, among others. He is actively involved in competitive national and European research projects including strong collaborations with industrial and clinical partners.
Jordi Romeu, PhD
Co-Founder and Microwave Technolgy Advisor
He became Engineer and later PhD in Telecommunications from UPC in 1986 and 1991, respectively. He has been with the Signal Theory and Communications Department, UPC, since 1985, where he is currently a Full Professor, working on the research of antenna near-field measurements, antenna diagnostics, and antenna design. He was a Visiting Scholar with the Antenna Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, in 1999, under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Scientific Program Scholarship and in 2004, with the University of California, Irvine, CA. He has experience as advisor in several spinoffs.
Lluís Jofre, PhD
Co-Founder and Microwave Technolgy Advisor
He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (telecommunication engineering) from the UPC in 1978 and 1982, respectively. From 1979 to 1980, he was a Research Assistant with the Electrophysics Group, UPC, where he was involved in the analysis and near-field measurement of antennas and scatterers. From 1981 to 1982, he was with the Ecole Suprieure d’Electricite Paris, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, where he was involved in microwave antenna design and imaging techniques for medical and industrial applications. Since 1982, he has been with the Communications Department, Telecommunication Engineering School, UPC, as an Associate Professor and then has been a full Professor since 1989. From 1986 to 1987, he was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, where he was involved in antenna near-field measurements and electromagnetic imaging. From 1989 to 1994, he was the Director of the Telecommunication Engineering School, UPC, and from 1994 to 2000, he was the UPC Vice-Rector for academic planning. From 2000 to 2001, he was a Visiting Professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA, where he was involved in reconfigurable antennas and microwave sensing of civil engineering structures. He was the Director of the Catalan Research Foundation from 2002 to 2004 and the Director of the UPC-Telefonica Chair on Information Society Future Trends since 2003. He was a Principal Investigator of the 2008–2013 Spanish Sensing Lab Consolider Project, the General Director and then Secretary for Catalan Universities and Research from 2011 to 2016, and a Research Leader of the 2017–2020 ComSense Lab Maria de Maeztu Project. He has authored more than 200 scientific and technical papers, reports, and chapters in specialized volumes. His current research interests include antennas, electromagnetic scattering and imaging, system miniaturization for wireless, and sensing industrial and bio-applications from microwaves to terahertz frequencies.
Joan O’Callaghan, PhD
Co-Founder and Microwave Technolgy Advisor
He received the Telecommunication Engineering degree from the UPC and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is currently a Full Professor with UPC. He was an intern with the Systems Research Center, Honeywell, Bloomington, MN, where he was involved with noise measurement methods for field-effect transistors (FETs) at Ka-band. His research interests include microwave devices and materials, microwave photonics and microwave biomedical applications. Homepage
