ETSEIB 175 YEARS

Ramon Perera i Comerma (Barcelona, 1907 – London, 1988), studied at the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering and was mainly responsible for designing and coordinating the network of air-raid shelters that protected the Catalan population during the Spanish Civil War. As head of plans and works of the Junta de Defensa Passiva de Catalunya, he toured the country advising on construction techniques such as zigzag galleries, which cushioned the impact of bombs. Thanks to his work, and the citizen effort that was associated with it, in Barcelona alone, more than one thousand three hundred shelters were built. Exiled in 1939, he arrived in London, where he lived until his death. Silenced during the dictatorship, today he is remembered as a symbol of engineering at the service of human life.

ETSEIB has a long tradition of pioneer female engineers. Isabel de Portugal Trabal Tallada was, in 1949, the first Catalan woman to graduate in Industrial Engineering, and in 1963 the first in Spain to obtain a doctorate in this discipline. Shortly after, Laura Tremosa Bonavía was the second Catalan woman, and the third Spanish, to obtain the title of industrial engineer from ETSEIB, and later she also obtained a doctorate in this specialty, combining her professional career with feminist activism. Decades later, Laura Carnicero, Vice-President for People and Organization at SEAT, PhD in Industrial Engineering from ETSEIB, has been recognized by Forbes as one of the most influential women in Spain. In the academic field, Neus Cònsul Porras was, in 2013, the first woman to lead the ETSEIB in more than 150 years, and from 2025 Amaia Lusa García holds the position. All of them, each from their own field, have been normalizing the presence of women in a space that for too long was limited to them.

Des de 1851, l’ETSEIB ha tingut una llarga nòmina de directors que han acompanyat l’evolució de l’escola industrial més antiga d’Espanya. El primer d’ells va ser Josep Roura i Estrada, químic català que va introduïr l’enllumenat públic amb gas a Espanya. Entre els directors més rellevants posteriors hi ha Gabriel Ferraté Pascual, figura destacada en la modernització de l’ensenyament tècnic, i també els tres directors que es van succeir durant els difícils anys de la Guerra Civil —Santiago Rubió i Tudurí, Fidel Moncada Nieto i Josep Ballvé Martínez—, un període convuls en la història de la institució. Però la fita més rellevant no va arribar fins al 2013, quan Neus Cònsul Porras es va convertir en la primera dona a dirigir l’escola en més de 150 anys, càrrec que va exercir fins al 2021. Des del 2025, Amaia Lusa García ocupa la direcció, confirmant la creixent presència femenina al capdavant d’una institució que durant més d’un segle havia estat dirigida exclusivament per homes.

Throughout its history, Catalan engineering has had figures with exceptional careers who left their mark far beyond their profession. Pompeu Fabra i Poch, an industrial engineer with a chemical background, became the organiser of the modern Catalan language without ever abandoning its technical rigour. Ferran Casablancas Planell, a self-taught technician, revolutionized the world cotton industry with his stretch spinning system, while Santiago Rubió i Tudurí designed the first metropolitan railway in Barcelona and, later, lived in exile after directing the School of Engineers during the Spanish Civil War. Gabriel Ferraté Pascual, for his part, was a key figure in the modernization of Catalan technical education from the direction of the ETSEIB, as well as promoting the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), a pioneer in distance education in the Catalan language. All of them represent how Catalan engineering has been, at the same time, the technical, cultural and social engine of the country.