United Technologies Research Centre (UTRC) is the central research organisation of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), a $66.5B multi-national corporation with multiple business units focused on serving the aerospace and commercial buildings industries. Internationally, the corporation has more than 4,000 locations in approximately 70 countries. UTC is often better known through its brands, including Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines, Otis elevators, Carrier air conditioners, and Chubb security systems. In Europe, UTC has more than 60,000 employees across nearly 1,500 locations, including 69 manufacturing facilities. UTC is a significant part of the European supply chain, with 2018 European net sales of $12.8BN. Additionally, approximately one third of UTC’s European workforce is focused on aerospace systems, with significant design centres and manufacturing sites in Poland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy. These include the operations of Pratt & Whitney Rzeszów S.A. (Formerly WSK Rzeszów - a leading player in the Central European aerospace industry), Collins Aerospace - Actuation Systems (Formerly Goodrich, headquartered in Wolverhampton UK, with significant presence in the Ile-deFrance region and in Italy [Microtecnica]), and Ratier Figeac (world leader for large propeller systems, including those found on aircraft from ATR, EADS-CASA, and the Airbus A400M).

Role in the project

UTRC-I is the central research organisation of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), a multi-national corporation with multiple operating units focused on serving the aerospace and commercial buildings industries. UTRC-I will lead the EASIER project. In addition, UTRC-I will lead the work packages 4 (Power Electronics) and 6 (Technology impact evaluation and integration). In WP4 UTRC-I will use its knowledge and experience in the field of power electronics for hybrid/electric aircraft to apply EMC and cooling solutions.

Personnel involved

• Dr Laura Albiol-Tendillo  is Group Lead, Power Electronics at UTRC Ireland, where she leads 
  the research agenda in the field of power electronics. Dr Laura Albiol-Tendillo received her PhD (with 
  honours) from University Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona (Spain) in 2015. She has over 10 years of 
  experience in scientific and research environment. Laura has been technical contributor and principal 
  investigator in a number of European, Irish government and business units funded projects in the areas of 
  power electronics applied to commercial and aerospace applications. She has published several articles 
  in technical conferences and journals and is co-inventor of three patents.
• Dr Ignacio Castro is a Senior Research Scientist at United Technologies Research Centre Ireland. He received his MSc in telecommunication engineering and PhD degree (with honours) in electrical engineering from University of Oviedo, Spain in 2014 and 2018 respectively; after his graduation he has joined UTRC-I where he has been involved in both commercial and aerospace applications projects contributing both as technical and principal investigator. Dr Castro has also been with ON Semiconductor, Belgium and as a short term scholar with the Colorado Power Electronics Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, in 2013 and 2016, respectively. He has published more than 20 technical conference and journals publications.