Xavier Prats i Menéndez
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Dr. Xavier Prats i Menéndez
Serra i Húnter Fellow (Associate Professor)
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Office C3-104
Esteve Terradas, 5
08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)
Catalonia - Spain
Tel: +34 93 413 41 25 Fax: +34 93 413 70 07
e-mail: xavier.prats [at] upc.edu
Follow @XPratsUPC
Short Bio
Xavier Prats was born in Girona and is an Aeronautical Engineer from the National School for Civil Aviation (École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile, ENAC) located in Toulouse (France). He also holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Telecom Barcelona (Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria de Telecomunicació de Barcelona, ETSETB) which belongs to the Technical University of Catalonia (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC). He received his Ph.D in Aerospace Science and Technology from the same university. He is also a private pilot with 250+ flight hours.
Dr. Prats has been working at UPC since 2002, when he debuted as research engineer in the astronomy and geomatics group (gAGE) working in the field of satellite navigation for civil aviation. In 2005 he joined the Advanced Control Systems research group (SAC), at UPC too, where he performed his doctoral thesis work on aircraft trajectory optimisation (2005-2010). This doctoral research was advised by Prof. Joseba Quevedo and Prof. Vicenç Puig.
At present, he is a Serra i Hunter Fellow (associate professor) at the Physics Department (Aerospace Division) of the UPC and lecturing at the School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering of Castelldefels (Escola d'Enginyeria de Telecommunicació i Aeroespacial de Castelldefels, EETAC). He is a principal investigator at the ICARUS research group, which he co-founded in 2009. He is currently leading the ATM and flight operations research lines.
Dr. Prats has a solid background and research experience in satellite navigation, aircraft procedure design, air traffic management, and aircraft operations. He has published 30+ scientific papers in air transportation in peer-reviewed indexed journals and 100+ papers in conference proceedings. He is member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and member of the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS).
Check the UPC FUTUR portal for a complete and up-to-date list of peer-reviewed journal papers; book chapters; articles in conference proceedings; supervised PhD theses; competitive projects; non-competitive projects (only from Jan 2016); awards or recognitions; and scientific or technical reports.
Check the following links for Non-proceeding Conferences & science outreach Talks and Supervised Master Thesis and Final Degree Projects [updated Jun 2016].
Top 5 research, development & innovation projects
(Most relevant projects as Principal Investigator at UPC in the last 10 years funded by competitive calls)
| Duration | Short Title | Project Title | Sponsor/Programme |
| 2016-2018 | APACHE | Assessment of performance in current ATM operations and of new concepts of operations for its holistic enhancement |
SESAR ER (H2020) |
| 2016-2018 | R-WAKE | Wake vortex simulation and analysis to enhance en-route separation management in Europe |
SESAR ER (H2020) |
| 2014-2016 | CONCORDE | Flight operations for novel continuous descent | Clean Sky |
| 2013-2015 | GRAIN2 | Greener Aeronautics International Networking | 7th Framework Programme (FP7) |
| 2012-2014 | FASTOP | Fast Optimiser for Continuous Descent Approaches |
Clean Sky |
Top 10 publications
(Most relevant publications in the last 10 years)
| Dalmau, R., Prats, X., Verhoeven, R., Bussink, F. & Heesbeen. B. In Press. Comparison of Various Guidance Strategies to Achieve Time Constraints in Optimal Descents. in Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. | |||||
| Xu, Y. & Prats, X. 2019. Linear Holding for Airspace Flow Programs: A Case Study on Delay Absorption and Recovery, in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 20(3), pp. 1042-1051. | |||||
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Dalmau, R., Baxley, B. & Prats, X. 2018. Fast sensitivity-based optimal trajectory updates for descent operations subject to time constraints, in proceedings of the 37th DASC Digital Avionics Systems Conference: London, England, UK. |
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| Vilardaga, S., Prats, X., Duan, P. & Uijt de Haag, M. 2018. Conflict-free trajectory optimization with target tracking and conformance monitoring, in Journal of aircraft, vol. 55(3), pp. 1252-1260. | |||||
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Prats, X., Dalmau, R., Verhoeven, R., Bussink, F. 2017. Human-in-the-loop performance assessment of optimized descents with time Constraints. Results from full motion flight simulation and a flight testing campaign, in Proceedings of the 12th Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar. Seattle, WA, USA. |
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Dalmau, R. & Prats, X. 2017. Controlled time of arrival windows for already initiated energy-neutral continuous descent operations, in Transportation research. Part C, emerging technologies, vol. 85, pp. 334-347. |
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Dalmau, R. & Prats, X. 2017. Fuel and time savings by flying continuous cruise climbs: Estimating the benefit pools for maximum range operations, in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, vol 35, pp. 62-71. |
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Delgado, L., Prats, X. & Sridhar, B. 2013. Cruise speed reduction for ground delay programs: A case study for San Francisco International Airport arrivals, in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, vol 36. pp. 83-96 |
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| Prats, X., Delgado, L., Ramírez, J., Royo, P. & Pastor, E. 2012. Requirements, Issues, and Challenges for Sense and Avoid in Unmanned Aircraft Systems, In Journal of Aircraft, vol. 49(3), pp. 677-687. | |||||
| Prats, X., Puig, V. & Quevedo, J. 2011. Equitable Aircraft Noise-Abatement Departure Procedures, In Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, vol. 34(1), pp. 192-203. |
Visiting periods and internships
| Date | Duration | Position | Hosting Institution | Location | Subject |
| May 2013 | 1 week | Visiting researcher | Russ College of Engineering and Technology. School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. Ohio University | Athens, OH (USA) |
Research on avionics systems. Hosted by Prof. Maarten Uijt de Haag |
| Feb 2010 | 8 months | Visiting researcher | Civil and Environmental Engineering Department (CEE) at the University of California, Berkeley | Berkeley, CA (USA) | Research on Air Traffic Management. Hosted by Prof. Mark Hansen. |
| Feb 2007 | 6 months | Visiting researcher | Air Transport Department at the Écola Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (ENAC) | Toulouse (France) | Research on automation and control systems. Hosted by Prof. Félix Mora-Camino. |
| Jul 2003 | 1 month | Summer course student | Community of Ariane Cities (CVA) | Liège (Belgium) | Human factors in space transportation systems |
| Jan 2001 | 7 month | Undergraduate internship | Centre National d'Études Spaciales (CNES) | Toulouse (France) | Final degree project in Aeronautics: Study of a control law for a satellite mirror fine pointing system. Advisor: Dr. Jean Mignot |
| Jul 2000 | 1 month | Undergraduate internship | Perpinyà international airport | Perpinyà (France) | Support at the technical block |
| Sep 1999 | 9 months | Undergraduate internship | INDRA Espacio | Barcelona | Support at the satellite communications department |
Lecturing
Current courses (Spring semester 2019)
- Air transportation infrastructure (Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering) [Coordinating]
- Models for Air Traffic Management (Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering)
Past taught courses
| Master Courses | Master | Semester-Years (Total Teaching Hours) |
| Air Traffic Management | AAN | F-2012/13 (30h), F-2013/14 (30h) |
| Aircraft | AAN | F-2012/13 (20h), F-2013/14 (20h) |
| Aircraft Operations | AAN | S-2012/13 (30h), S-2013/14 (30h) |
| Broadening of Fundamentals in Aerospace Science and Technology | MAST |
F-2010/11 (12h), F-2014/15 (4h), F-2015/16 (4h), F-2016/17 (4h), F-2017/18 (4h), F-2018/19 (4h) |
| Undergraduate Courses | School/Faculty | Semester-Years (Total Teaching Hours) |
| Aircraft Operations | EETAC | B-2012/13 (55h), F-2013/14 (55h) |
| Air transportation infrastructure | EETAC | B-2011/12 (200h), B-2012/13 (150h), B-2013/14 (150h), B-2014/15 (200h), B-2015/16 (200h), B-2016/17 (200h), B-2017/18 (200h), B-2018/19 (200h) |
| Models for Air Traffic Management | EETAC | B-2018/19 (30h) |
| Aerospace Technology and Air transportation | EETAC | S-2010/11 (80h), S-2012/13 (20h) |
| Aerospace Technology | EETAC | B-2002/03 (240h) B-2003/04 (240h), B-2004/05 (240h), B-2005/06 (106h), F-2006/07 (60h), F-2007/08 (63h), B-2008/09 (144h), F-2009/10 (82h) |
| Airspace Management |
EETAC | B-2005/06 (120h), F-2006/07 (15h) |
| Aircraft Navigation, Cartography and Cosmography | EETAC | F-2006/07 (15h), S-2010/11 (30h), S-2011/12 (30h) |
| Experimental Techniques in Aerophysics | EETAC | F-2006/07 (6h), F2007/08 (5h), F-2008/09 /(4h) |
| Avionics | EETAC | B-2004/05 (4h), B-2005/06 (7h), F-2006/07 (5h) |
Coordination of undergraduate courses
| Course | School/Faculty | Semester-Years |
| Aircraft Operations | EETAC | B-2012/13, B-2013/14, B-2014/15 |
| Air transportation infrastructure | EETAC | B-2011/12, B-2012/13, B-2013/14, B-2014/15, B-2015/16, B-2016/17, B-2017/18, B-2018/19 |
| Aircraft Navigation, Cartography and Cosmography | EETAC | S-2011/12 |
| Aerospace Technology and Air transportation | EETAC | S-2010/11 |
| Aerospace Technology | EETAC | B-2002/3, B-2003/4, B-2004/5, B-2005/6, F-2006/7, S-2008/9 |
| Airspace Management |
EETAC | B-2006/7, B-2007/8, B-2008/9, B-2009/10 |
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