The ARTEC group focuses its research tasks in the field of computer graphics. Within this area is focused on interactive 3D graphics, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Civil Simulation. In addition, the group works in related areas such as ubiquitous computing or intelligent environments. The group performs both basic and applied research tasks. In this sense, the group has applied simulation systems to training and research in human factors, emphasizing especially in driving simulators. This line of work has led to the development of hardware systems for immersive 3D projection supports, as well as motion platforms for the generation of gravitational-inertial keys with the development of mechanical actuators.
The team works in four main related and simultaneously complementary research lines:
- Pattern Recognition Techniques, Computer Vision and its applications for different problems, mainly content-based image search, distance learning and emotion detection from video sequences.
- Processing of different types of signals, particularly audio and video ones. Group works in this research line include capture, analysis and synthesis of acoustic signals, as well as analysis of video signals, all acting in coordination with the Computer Vision line.
- Design of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) with affective capacities. Part of the results obtained from the first and second line of work are used to detect emotions from videos filmed with low-cost hardware by applying techniques specific to the fields of Signal Processing and Computer Vision.
- High-performance and high-availability computer systems offering a fundamental tool for all the previously mentioned fields (pattern recognition, intelligent systems and signal processing) by providing the necessary power in real time whenever required from application areas or in case of high system availability requirements. In this regard, the latest trends focus on distributed systems, the handling of Big Data and the so-called “cloud computing”: three fundamental aspects in the context of group investigation.
The main purpose of IDAL is the study and application of intelligent methods of data analysis for pattern recognition, with applications that struggle with prediction, classification or trend determination.
Its members apply classic statistical methods and automatic learning techniques to large databases: statistical hypothesis testing, linear models, feature selection and extraction, neural networks, clustering algorithms, decision trees, support vector machines, probabilistic graphical models, manifold visualization, fuzzy logic, reinforcement learning, etc.
The ultimate goal of the application of these methods is to generate mathematical models which enable the optimization of processes and resources, as well as to reach the optimal decision making stage. A clear example of this is the area of health, where IDAL has developed clinical decision support application based on data analysis. These applications make it possible to improve the patient’s quality of life (establishing optimal clinical guidelines) while reducing healthcare costs.
Complementing this knowledge, the group has extensive experience in signal processing (spectral analysis, digital filter, adaptive process, etc.) due to their work of over 10 years in biosignal processing (mainly ECG and EEG). With all this background, IDAL is able to analyse a wide range of data and signals. This fact is backed up by the large number of both private and public contracts it has developed in different areas of knowledge. Furthermore, most of the practical work carried out has been displayed in important scientific publications with high impact parameters and in a large number of communications to international congresses within the area of data analysis.
Among the developed applications, (outside the health area already mentioned) are the following, i.a: web recommendations, models for optimal incentive management to gain customer loyalty, measurement-based shoe recommendations, and other data analysis consultancy works. In addition to its practical work IDAL, it develops new data analysis algorithms improving the performance of the existing ones. This research work is also reflected in a wide dissemination in the form of different publications in journals of impact and in congresses of data analysis relevant to the scientific community.
The research group in Public Opinión and Elections aims at analyzing, studying and finding solutions to all issues and questions related to electoral processes and/or the measurement and monitoring of public opinion, applying the most advanced quantitative techniques.
The most relevant research fields of the group include (but are not limited to) the following: the generation of electoral predictions, inference of individual voting behavior, analysis of polls and surveys, the search of new methodological approaches to improve (reducing costs) the quality of sampling methods, semantic analysis of opinions and monitoring of the internet sentiment, the study of the consequences of non-response and of the biases introduced during the whole inference process, the solution to the gaps in the databases, the integration and pooling of local and global information to obtain multilevel responses, and the development of statistcal theory and methodology.
The approach used in the research group in Public Opinión and Elections is open, not being limited by any particular methodological tendency, and makes extensive use of whatever sources of information. Thus, we use classical and Bayesian techniques, we apply from simple linear regression models to complex approaches based on neural networks, wavelets or auto-binomial models, we use the spatial and/or temporal component of the data explicitly, we perform simulation via Markov chain Monte Carlo or directly by Monte Carlo methods, and we introduce in our models survey data, reported election results, news reports, internet messages and/or official statistics.
The members of the group are open to working with other research groups, companies and institutions and encourage interested parties to contact us in order to explore possible avenues of collaboration.
Cotino (Director) has been the PI for three consecutive national projects on these issues, one focused on e-government (2005-2008), another on freedom and participation in the social web (2010-2012) and the current one on Open Government (2013-2015), a subject on which continuity is sought. The new R&D&I project of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is pending resolution. It is entitled “The progress of Open Government. Constitutional legal regime of the implementation of transparency policies, access to information, open data, collaboration and participation, especially through ICTs and e-government” DER2015-65810-P (pending resolution). Cotino is also PI. The results are more than evident, both on the web and in hundreds of publications and papers. Besides some readjustments, this time the internationalisation is boosted by strengthening the foreign team. All the members of the team have worked and cooperated actively in recent years.
This UV group also includes two members who are not part of the Ministry’s project, two point researchers in Spain, Fernández Salmerón and Valero Torrijos, from Administrative Law.
The legal treatment of contents and freedoms on the Internet, liability of providers, hate speech, limits, censorship, etc. will continue to be addressed. On the other hand, given the relatively ethereal concept of open government and the predominance of other disciplines, a constitutional legal treatment is needed to legally decant, sediment and distil all these changes and advances that have just taken place in the last few years with respect to the contents of the concept of Open Government (transparency, participation, collaboration, open data, etc.) and its projection in the legal framework as well as the fundamental rights that are involved. Continuity is sought as we are at a crucial moment in the development of the Open Government. We are on the culmination of a process of fundamentalising the right to transparency and access to public information. This process has not been completed neither by the ECHR, nor the CJEU, nor, especially, by our Constitutional Court and Supreme Court. It is going to be especially important to analyse the interpretation by data protection authorities, transparency authorities, ombudsmen with jurisdiction over this area, and, of course, the ordinary and constitutional courts.
The aim is to analyse and monitor both the application of the transparency law and new administrative laws and reform of the law on re-use, the decree implementing the law on transparency, 2015, as well as the wave of regional laws in the 2013-2015 period in the autonomous community.
Beyond the mere normative analysis, it is a matter of taking into account the practical implementation and policies of open government policies, especially in Spain at the different town, region and state levels. It is a booming issue in 2015-16 in Spain. However, given the transnational nature of the phenomenon, it will also be monitored from a comparative and supranational European and Latin American perspective.
The aim is not only to analyse the constitutional legal development of open government, but also, as far as possible, to influence it on the different legal operators.
It has a solid experience in the dissemination of high quality legal content in classic formats (more than nine collective works and ten congresses), partly through www.derechotics.com or the Cyberlaw clinic and highly visible Twitter profiles of some of the members. In addition to generating and disseminating academic knowledge, it will be conducted an observatory of e-administration 2.0, an analysis of websites of Spanish and international reference; a document of practical legal recommendations and precautions.
