Xavier Serra is a Full Professor at the Department of Engineering at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona. He is the founder and director of the Music Technology Group (MTG), and leads the UPF-BMAT Chair on AI and Music. He also coordinates the Master in Sound and Music Computing and serves as President of the Phonos Foundation. His research focuses on audio signal processing, sound and music computing, and computational musicology, emphasizing open science and open innovation. Education: BSc in Biology, University of Barcelona (1981) Master in Music, Florida State University (1983) PhD in Computer Music, Stanford University (1989) Research Interests: Audio Signal Processing Data-Driven and Knowledge-Driven Methodologies Music Information Retrieval Cultural Music Analysis (e.g., Carnatic/Turkish/Andalusian Music) Music Education Technology Notable Projects: CompMusic (ERC Advanced Grant, 2010-2017): Multicultural computational music analysis Open datasets: Freesound, Saraga, FSD50K Technologies: Reactable, Vocaloid, Essentia API Recent Trends in Articles: Focus on AI-driven audio processing (neural fingerprints, generative models), cross-cultural music analysis, and explainable music difficulty estimation. Awards: ERC Advanced Grant (2010) for CompMusic Project. Labs/Teams: Director of MTG, Phonos Foundation, and UPF-BMAT Chair. Active in open-source projects and international collaborations.
Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Milan, where he serves as head of the Computer Science programs. He is also associated with the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) at Politecnico di Milano. Cesa-Bianchi holds significant leadership roles including Board member, Fellow and co-director of the Milan unit of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), and membership in the prestigious Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He is also involved with The European Lighthouse on Secure and Safe AI (ELSA), The European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability (ELIAS), and The FAIR foundation. Professor Cesa-Bianchi's research focuses on the theoretical foundations of machine learning, with special emphasis on sequential decision making and online learning algorithms. His work spans multiple areas including multi-armed bandit problems, regret analysis, prediction with expert advice, and learning on graphs. He has made significant contributions to understanding the theoretical limits of learning algorithms and developing efficient methods for various learning scenarios. His research has important applications in online markets, social networks, and bioinformatics. His monographs 'Prediction, Learning, and Games' and 'Regret Analysis of Stochastic and Nonstochastic Multi-armed Bandit Problems' are considered seminal works in the field. His recent publications demonstrate continued leadership in advancing the theoretical understanding of machine learning, with 2024-2025 papers covering cooperative online learning, multitask learning, fair trade mechanisms, and refined analyses of bandit algorithms. The research shows increasing focus on practical economic applications while maintaining strong theoretical foundations. Google Research Award Xerox Foundation UAC Award Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei ELLIS Fellow Cesa-Bianchi has been deeply involved in academic service, having served as action editor for the Machine Learning Journal, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and the Journal of Machine Learning Research. He currently serves as associate editor for the Journal of Information and Inference and TheoretiCS. He has held leadership positions including President of the Association for Computational Learning and member of the steering committee for the EC-funded Network of Excellence PASCAL2. He was program chair of the 13th Annual Conference on Computational Learning Theory and the 13th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory. He leads the Laboratory for AI and Learning Algorithms (ALGA) at the University of Milan, which focuses on theoretical and applied research in machine learning. His international collaborations are extensive, with visiting positions at UC Santa Cruz, Graz Technical University, Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Google, and Microsoft Research. As an educator, he teaches advanced courses including Reinforcement Learning and Statistical Methods for Machine Learning, and has supervised numerous students through the years.
Michalis Vazirgiannis is a Professor at LIX, École Polytechnique (France) leading the Data Science and Mining (DaSciM) group. With academic backgrounds in Physics (Athens University), AI (Heriot-Watt University), and Informatics (Athens University), he has conducted research at Fraunhofer, Max Planck MPI, and INRIA/FUTURS while teaching at institutions across Greece, France, China, and Spain. His research spans Machine/Deep Learning for Graphs (GNNs, graph kernels, embeddings) Text Mining & NLP (Graph-of-Words, biomedical text analysis) Combinatorial Optimization for pandemic forecasting and energy systems Event/Anomaly Detection in time series and sensory data Industrial collaborations with Airbus, Google, Tencent, and BNP . He has supervised 29 completed PhD theses, published over 250 papers, and received prestigious awards including Marie Curie and Tencent Rhino-Bird Fellowships. His team leads the ANR-HELAS Chair (2020-2025) focusing on heterogeneous data deep learning.
Prof. Raimon Jané Campos is a leading figure in biomedical signal processing at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Universitat de Barcelona (UB). As co-director of UPC's Biomedical Signal and System Group (CREB) and coordinator of the Biomedical Engineering PhD Programme, he bridges engineering and clinical applications. His work focuses on respiratory and sleep disorder diagnostics, with significant contributions to COPD and sleep apnea monitoring through wearable devices and machine learning. PhD in Biomedical Engineering (UPC, 1989) Visiting researcher at Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis Vice-president of Spanish Society of Biomedical Engineering Research spans respiratory mechanics , sleep-disordered breathing , acoustic biomarkers , bioimpedance , and machine learning in biomedical contexts . His 2025 work on microcalorimetric pathogen classification and 2024 spiking neural networks for apnea detection demonstrate cutting-edge integration of computational methods with physiological monitoring. Articles from 2017-2024 reveal consistent focus on non-invasive diagnostics , cardiorespiratory synchronization , and smartphone-based health solutions . Awarded the Barcelona City Technology Research Award (2005) and serving on the International Advisory Board for Physiological Measurement since 2010, his career combines academic leadership with real-world clinical translation through IBEC's technology transfer initiatives.
Pere-Pau Vázquez is an Assistant Professor in AI for Visual Computing at the Computer Vision Lab, TU Wien, Austria . Previously, he held academic positions at the ViRVIG Group and Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona (UPC) , where he taught courses in Programming, Computer Graphics, and Visualization for over 20 years. His research focuses on Information Visualization, Scientific Visualization, Medical Data Visualization, Molecular Visualization, and AI applications to Visual Computing . Current Teaching : Data Visualization, Fast Realistic Rendering, Information Visualization, Medical Images, Scientific Visualization, Virtual Reality, and 3D Medical Visualization. Former PhD Students : Elena Molina, Alexandra Cortez, Jesús Díaz, Pedro Hermosilla, Eva Monclús. His scientific awards include the Best PhD Thesis Award (UPC, 2003), Best Student Paper Award (SPIE, 2012), and Best Paper Award (International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, 2013). Recent publications explore AI integration in biomedical visualization, molecular data analysis, and interactive techniques for volume rendering. He serves on the EuroGraphics Executive Board as Secretary and is active in steering committees for EuroVis and Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine . His work bridges Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, and Human-Computer Interaction , with applications in medical and molecular data analysis.
Nicholas Polson is the Robert Law, Jr. Professor of Econometrics and Statistics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His academic career centers on Bayesian statistics with applications in financial econometrics and machine learning. Polson's research interests span Bayesian statistics, financial econometrics, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, particle learning, and deep learning applications in finance. His work has significantly contributed to understanding stochastic volatility models and developing new algorithms for Bayesian inference. He has pioneered applications of deep learning in asset pricing, portfolio management, and financial prediction, demonstrating how neural networks can detect complex patterns invisible to traditional financial models. His recent publication trends reveal a strong focus on integrating deep learning with financial econometrics, particularly in developing characteristics-sorted factor models, portfolio optimization techniques, and explaining the performance differences between active and passive investment strategies. His work consistently bridges theoretical statistical methods with practical financial applications, with a particular emphasis on nonlinear modeling and high-dimensional data analysis. His article 'Bayesian Analysis of Stochastic Volatility Models' was named one of the most influential articles in the 20th anniversary issue of the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics Polson teaches courses including 'Bayes, AI and Deep Learning' and 'Business Statistics' at Chicago Booth, with scheduled offerings for both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years. His work has been featured in Chicago Booth Review, where he has contributed insights on statistical analysis in chess, machine learning applications in money management, and the odds of cheating in competitive settings. His research demonstrates the powerful intersection of Bayesian statistics, financial modeling, and modern machine learning techniques.
Gemma Boleda is an ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, where she co-directs the Computational Linguistics and Linguistic Theory (COLT) research group. Her research focuses on understanding how humans convey meaning through language, investigating the formal properties that support communication, and exploring how languages are shaped by cognitive and communicative factors. Her primary interests include lexical semantics, cross-linguistic variation, and the integration of linguistic theory with computational methods. She employs interdisciplinary approaches combining linguistics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science, utilizing large-scale data analysis to study universal patterns and variations across languages. Boleda's publications demonstrate a consistent focus on computational semantics, lexical variation, and language evolution. Her recent work explores the intersection of symbolic and neural approaches to language processing, lexical creativity across development and evolution, and computational models of semantic phenomena like colexification and polysemy. She teaches Computational Semantics in the Master's in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics program and has secured significant research funding including ERC Starting Grants. Her work has contributed valuable linguistic resources such as the ManyNames dataset and Database of Catalan Adjectives.
Gaël Georges Marcel Le Mens is a Full Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), holding a position in the Department of Economics and Business. He is also affiliated with the Barcelona School of Economics and serves as academic co-director of the Executive Master in Business Administration (EMBA) at the UPF Barcelona School of Management. His academic journey includes teaching roles at INSEAD, London Business School, ESADE, and the University of Lugano, alongside positions at the universities of Southern Denmark and New York. Education: Doctor in Business Administration, Stanford Graduate School of Business MSc in Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University Diploma in Engineering, Supélec Bachelor of Economics, University of Paris XI His research focuses on decision-making processes, information sampling, machine learning applications in semantics, and organizational behavior. Key themes include cognitive heuristics, social media impact on political expression, and the interplay between popularity and evaluation dynamics. He has explored how feedback mechanisms shape political communication and developed methodologies to compare human and machine conceptual judgments using models like BERT. His publications span journals such as PNAS , Psychological Review , and Industrial and Corporate Change , reflecting his interdisciplinary approach. Though no explicit awards are noted, his prolific output highlights sustained academic impact. He has advised multiple institutions on curriculum design and executive education, leveraging his cross-university teaching experience. Le Mens is affiliated with the Barcelona School of Management’s research teams and contributes to initiatives bridging artificial intelligence and social sciences. His work often addresses practical challenges in organizational decision-making and digital communication strategies.
Paolo Rota is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Trento, affiliated with the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI) and the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC). His research lies at the intersection of computer vision, machine learning, and multimodal AI, with a strong emphasis on vision-language models and activity recognition. His research interests include zero-shot action recognition, temporal action localization, open-world recognition, and person image synthesis. He explores how large multimodal models can be leveraged for practical applications in video analytics and industrial AI, often developing training-free or source-free adaptation methods that improve model generalization. Recent publications show a consistent trend in utilizing large vision-language models (e.g., CLIP, LMMs) for tasks such as image classification, domain adaptation, and action recognition, emphasizing simplicity, zero-shot capabilities, and real-world applicability. His work frequently appears in top venues including CVPR, NeurIPS, ICCV, and ICIAP. He actively mentors PhD students including Benedetta Liberatori, Jiaqi Liu, Yan Shu, Shiyao Xu, and Alessandro Conti, often co-advising with faculty such as Elisa Ricci and Nicu Sebe. He also contributes to teaching, including delivering lectures on machine learning for the MSc in Data Science program. He co-founded Mountain Maps, a startup using AI to enhance outdoor navigation and mountain exploration. His work bridges academic research and practical innovation, aiming to increase the real-world impact of AI systems.
José Morales Aznar is a Full Professor in the Department of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and Sports Management at the Faculty of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Sports, Ramon Llull University (Blanquerna). His academic work focuses on the intersection of physical activity, sport sciences, and adapted physical education, with a particular emphasis on judo applications for diverse populations. Dr. Morales Aznar's research interests span Physical Activity, Sport Sciences, Martial Arts (particularly judo), Adapted Physical Activity for people with disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Intellectual Disabilities, Physical Education, Motor Skills, and Heart Rate Variability. His work demonstrates a strong commitment to applying sport science principles to improve quality of life across different demographic groups, especially those with special needs. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a clear trend toward adapted judo programs, particularly for individuals with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities. His research combines practical applications with theoretical frameworks to develop evidence-based approaches in adapted physical activity. The publications also show growing interest in technology integration in physical education and the physiological aspects of martial arts training. Dr. Morales Aznar is actively involved in multiple research projects including KATAUTISM (Judo program for autistic children), JUDODI (Effects of judo for adolescents with intellectual disabilities), JIDP (Judo for Intellectual Disability Project), SAFE (Health, Physical Activity and Sports), and AUTJUDO (Adapted Judo for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders). These projects demonstrate his leadership in developing and implementing specialized physical activity programs for vulnerable populations while securing significant research funding from various agencies including the EACEA Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca.
Piotr Przybyła is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, where he researches in the TALN (Natural Language Processing) Research Group. He maintains a significant affiliation with the Linguistic Engineering Group at the Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences (ICS PAS) in Warsaw, Poland, where he completed his PhD in Computer Science. Previously, he worked as a research fellow at the National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM) at the University of Manchester. Przybyła's research focuses primarily on Natural Language Processing with particular emphasis on misinformation detection, adversarial attacks on text classifiers, text simplification, and Polish language processing. His work bridges theoretical NLP with practical applications for credibility assessment and language understanding. He has developed innovative approaches for testing the robustness of text classifiers against adversarial examples and has made significant contributions to Polish language resources and processing tools. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trajectory in examining the robustness of NLP systems, particularly in the context of misinformation detection and credibility assessment. His work spans from foundational research on language model behavior to practical applications in Polish language processing and text simplification. The ERINIA project, funded by a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, represents a significant contribution to understanding how misinformation detection systems can be made more robust against adversarial attacks. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for the ERINIA project Computing grant of 10,000 hours on the Athena supercomputer for accelerating work in the ERINIA project Przybyła actively contributes to the NLP community through conference organization, shared tasks (such as coordinating the InCrediblAE shared task for CheckThat! 2024), and developing open-source tools like Plainifier for multi-word lexical simplification. His work demonstrates a commitment to both advancing NLP research methodology and addressing practical challenges in misinformation detection and language understanding across multiple languages, with special attention to Polish language processing.
Frank NIELSEN is a Professor at École Polytechnique with expertise in information geometry, data science, and machine learning. He holds a PhD (1996) and HDR (2006) in computer science and has established himself as a leading researcher in geometric approaches to information science. His educational background includes a PhD in computer science (1996) followed by a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) in 2006, the highest academic qualification in France that qualifies one to supervise doctoral candidates. Dr. NIELSEN's research focuses on the Geometric Science of Information , where he develops theoretical frameworks for understanding data through geometric and information-theoretic lenses. His work bridges Computational information geometry Statistical manifold theory Bregman divergences and their applications Machine learning with geometric foundations High-dimensional data analysis He aims to address the challenge of inappropriate data representation in current Data Science by building a theory of Computational Information Geometry to enable Intrinsic Data Science with principled distances. His extensive publication record shows a clear trend toward developing geometric frameworks for understanding statistical divergences, with recent work focusing on Bregman geometry, Fisher-Rao metrics, and their applications in machine learning. His research spans theoretical developments in information geometry to practical implementations like the pyBregMan Python library, demonstrating both theoretical depth and practical relevance. Dr. NIELSEN has made significant contributions through his teaching and publications. He has taught courses at École Polytechnique including INF442, INF517, and INF591. His authored textbooks include Introduction to HPC with MPI for Data Science (2016), A Concise and Practical Introduction to Programming Algorithms in Java (2009), and Visual Computing: Geometry, Graphics, and Vision (2005). He has also edited influential volumes such as Computational Information Geometry for Image and Signal Processing (2016) and Geometric Theory of Information (2014). He actively organizes and participates in academic events, serving on program committees for major conferences including GSI (Geometric Science of Information), CVPR, and ICCV. His work has established him as a key figure in the growing field of geometric approaches to information science.
Mariano Cabezas is a researcher in medical imaging and computer vision, currently affiliated with Macquarie University and as an affiliate at the University of Sydney . His work focuses on automating brain MRI analysis for pathologies like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and tumors, with additional contributions to UAV image analysis. PhD in Computer Science (2013), University of Girona MSc in Automation, Computation, and Systems (2010), University of Girona BSc in Computer Science (2009), University of Girona Research Interests : Specializes in magnetic resonance imaging , lesion detection , deep learning , and image processing , with applications in multiple sclerosis , hearing loss , and UAV-derived ecological data . His recent work includes federated learning frameworks for cross-site MS lesion segmentation and pseudo-labeling techniques for longitudinal brain volume estimation. Publication Trends : Over the past five years, his research has emphasized federated learning (4 articles), lesion segmentation (9 articles), and UAV image analysis (3 articles), with a strong focus on clinical validation and cross-institutional collaboration. Labs & Collaborations : Contributed to the NIC-VICOROB group at the University of Girona and maintains affiliations with the Research Institute of the Hospital Vall d'Hebron (VHIR) in Barcelona and Macquarie University in Sydney. Actively develops open-source tools hosted on GitHub.
Scott Nelson is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research bridges consumer credit markets, regulatory frameworks, and behavioral economics, with a focus on how information asymmetries and algorithmic decision-making shape market outcomes. He has contributed to understanding the impacts of the 2009 CARD Act, eviction protections in housing markets, and fairness in credit scoring systems. PhD in Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology BA (summa cum laude) in Economics and Mathematics, Yale College Nelson's work employs diverse data sources, including credit reports, court filings, and tax records, combined with structural models to analyze consumer and firm behavior. Key themes include regulatory efficiency, validity disparities in predictive models, and the welfare implications of policy interventions. His articles reveal trends in algorithmic regulation (2025), eviction dynamics (2025), credit scoring disparities (2024), and public finance impacts on Chinese real estate (2023). These publications highlight interdisciplinary methodologies integrating economics, law, and data science. Scientific awards include the AQR Top Finance Graduate Award (2018) and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. He has held postdoctoral roles at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau/Princeton University and visiting research positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Jakub Vohryzek is a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Neuroscience (CNS) Group at University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, supervised by Prof. Gustavo Deco. His work focuses on spacetime connectomics and whole-brain modeling, particularly in neurodegenerative disorders and psychedelic neuroscience. He holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where he studied under Prof. Morten Kringelbach. Research Interests: Spacetime connectomics Psychedelic-induced brain state transitions Neurotwin models for personalized medicine Cognitive and clinical applications of whole-brain dynamics Current projects include developing neurotwin models under a European grant for neurodegenerative treatments, investigating brain state dynamics in mindfulness therapy, and modeling psychedelic effects on Alzheimer’s disease. His recent work emphasizes low-dimensional brain network interactions and functional hierarchy perturbations. His research has explored connectivity profiles, oscillatory restoration in dementia, and algorithmic agent approaches to neuropsychiatric disorders. He collaborates on open-science initiatives like Brainhack and advocates for inclusive conference design.
