Maite Lopez-Sanchez

Maite Lopez-Sanchez is a Full Professor at the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, where she coordinates the Interuniversity Master on Artificial Intelligence (UPC-UB-URV) since 2006. She holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence (1999), M.Sc. in Computer Vision (1996), and B.Sc. in Computer Science (1994) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is an adjunct scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC) and member of research groups including WAI (Virtual Worlds, Visualization and AI) and CLiC (Centre de Llenguatge i Computació).

Her research focuses on Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Agent Systems, Ethics in AI, Collective Intelligence, Open Democracy, and applications in e-Government. She investigates norm synthesis, value alignment, participatory democracy platforms (Decidim), and ethical decision-making in autonomous systems. Her work bridges technical AI research with social and ethical implications.

Recent publications (2017-2020) demonstrate strong trends in ethical AI development, particularly in value-aligned normative systems, participatory democracy technologies, and moral reasoning frameworks. Her articles consistently integrate multi-agent systems with societal applications, showing interdisciplinary focus across computer science, ethics, and political science.

She has supervised 8+ doctoral and master's students including Javier Morales Matamoros (PhD, 2016) and Marc Serramià Amorós (PhD, 2021). Her research has been supported by grants including:

• VAE: Value-Awareness Engineering (TED2021-131295B-C31)
• ACISUD: Advanced Computational Intelligence Techniques (PID2022-136787NB-I00)
• Collectiveware: Human Collectives in Smart Grids (TIN2015-66863-C2-1-R)
• Multiple Barcelona City Council projects on AI for participatory platforms

She leads research activities within the WAI group and CLiC Center, collaborating with international teams through EURAMAS and CLAIRE networks. Her lab focuses on developing AI technologies for social good, particularly in democratic participation systems and ethical AI frameworks.