About

Research Interests

Learning Analytics Educational Data Mining Educational Escape Rooms Complex Systems Generative AI Bibliometrics Data Visualization Data Engineering Game-based Learning Sequence Mining

Education

• (2018-2021) PhD in Telematics Systems Engineering - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Cum Laude, Extraordinary mention, International mention)
• (2016-2018) Master's Degree in Telecommunications Engineering - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
• (2012-2016) Bachelor's Degree in Telecommunications Technologies and Services Engineering - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Work Experience

• (2022-Now) Senior Researcher - University of Eastern Finland - School of Computing / School of Teacher Education
• (2022) Post-Doctoral Researcher - University of Eastern Finland - School of Computing / School of Teacher Education
• (2021-2022) Assistant Professor (Ayudante) - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Sistemas Informáticos
• (2021) Project Researcher - University of Eastern Finland - School of Teacher Education
• (2018-2021) Doctoral Researcher - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2017-2018) Graduate Research Intern - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2016-2017) Undergraduate Research Intern - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación

Awards

• (2024) Best paper award at the TEEM 2024 conference (Alicante, Spain). Track "Unveiling Learning Analytics and Grey-Box Modelling: Bridging Theory and Data-Driven Insights"
• (2024) Nominated to best poster award at the EC-TEL 2024 conference (Krems, Austria)
• (2024) IEEE TCLT Early Career Researcher Award in Learning Technologies
• (2024) Best reviewer award at the ICALT 2024 conference (Nicosia, Cyprus)
• (2024) Nominated to best paper award at the ICALT 2024 conference (Nicosia, Cyprus)
• (2024) Best paper award at the LAK 2024 conference (Kyoto, Japan)
• (2023) Best paper award at the TEEM 2023 conference (Bragança, Portugal). Track "Gamification and Games for Learning (GAMILEARN)"
• (2023) Best paper award at the TEEM 2023 conference (Bragança, Portugal). Track "Data-Driven Education: Overcoming Hurdles for the Future of Learning Analytics"
• (2023) Award to the most cited article from a PhD thesis at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Premios UPM 2022)
• (2022) Research award to the best doctoral thesis (ex aequo) in the experimental and technological sciences by the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain (RADE)
• (2022) Extraordinary PhD thesis award from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
• (2021) Best proyect award in the XV open source software contest (CUSL) for the development of Educational Data Virtual Lab
• (2020) Best copyleft license project award in the XIV open source software contest (CUSL) for the development of Escapp
• (2018) Best educational innovation group award at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
• (2018) Best local project (Madrid) award in TadHack
• (2018) Second best Kairos implementation award in TadHack

Teaching

• (2024-2025) Web programming I - University of Eastern Finland - School of Computing
• (2023-2024) Data management systems - University of Eastern Finland - School of Computing
• (2022-2024) Advance data management systems - University of Eastern Finland - School of Computing
• (2022-2023) Learning Analytics - University of Eastern Finland - School of Computing
• (2021-2022) Advanced databases - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Sistemas Informáticos
• (2021-2022) Software Verification and Validation - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Sistemas Informáticos
• (2019-2021) Big Data: Foundations and Infrastructures - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2019-2021) Web Engineering - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2018-2021) Network Computing - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2018-2021) Programming 101 - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2021) MOOC “Gestión de proyectos software con Git y GitHub” - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2021) MOOC “Desarrollo Frontend con HTML, CSS y Javascript” - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2019-2020) MOOC Specialization “Desarrollo Web Full-stack con JavaScript y Node.js” - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2014-2019) Editing applied physics topics in Wikipedia - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - ETSI Telecomunicación
• (2022) Design and creation of educational escape rooms - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE)
• (2022) Cooperación y resolución de problemas a través de escape rooms educativas - Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA)

Supervision

• Supervisor of 10 undergraduate theses in the Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunication Technologies and Services Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
• Supervisor of 2 master theses in the Master of Science in Telecommunication Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
• Supervisor of 1 master thesis in the Master of Science in Telematic Services and Network Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
• Co-supervisor of 5 PhD theses on learning analytics and education technology at University of Eastern Finland (ongoing)

Research Visits

• (2023) The American University in Cairo - Egypt (2 weeks)
• (2023) Oulu University - Finland (10 days)
• (2022) Kassel University - Germany (1 week)
• (2022) University of Osnabruck - Germany (1 week)
• (2022) University of Eastern Finland - Finland (1 month)
• (2021) University of Eastern Finland - Finland (1 month)
• (2020) KTH Royal Institute of Technology - Sweden (3 months)

Editorial and community service work

• (2025) Senior member of the Program Committee of the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK)
• (2023-Now) Associate Editor at IEEE Transactions on Education
• (2024-Now) Associate Editor at Frontiers in Education
• (2023-Now) Academic Editor at PLOS One
• (2024) Guest Editor of the Special Issue "Rethinking Blended Learning in Higher Education: Global Perspectives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" at the British Journal of Educational Technology
• (2021-2024) Member of the Program Committee of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE)
• (2024) Member of the Program Committee of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM)
• (2024) Member of the Program Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning (ICALT). Tracks APTeL and BDELA
• (2024) Member of the Program Committee of the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK)
• (2023) Member of the Scientific Committee of the Koli Calling conference
• (2023-2024) Member of the Scientific Committee of the Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM) conference. Tracks LA and GamiLearn
• (2023-2024) Guest editor of the Special Issue on "Individual differences, heterogeneity, and person-specific idiographic learning analytics" of the Learning and Individual Differences journal
• (2023) Member of the organizing committee and proceedings editor of the Technology-Enhanced Learning in Laboratories workshop (TELL 2023) in CEUR
• (2023) Topic editor in “Education Reimagined: The Impact of Advanced Technologies on Learning” of the Frontiers in Psychology journal
• (2023) Guest editor of the collection "Teaching and Learning Artificial Intelligence" at the Discover Education journal by Springer
• (2023) Editor of the book “Learning analytics methods and tutorials: A practical guide using R” by Springer: https://lamethods.github.io
• (2022) Editor of the “Past, Present and Future of Computing Education Research” book by Springer: https://cerbook.org
• (2022) Member of the Organizing Committee and proceedings editor of the Networks and Learning Analytics Workshop (NetSciLA22) co-located with the Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference (LAK 2022) in CEUR
• (2022-2024) Member of the Organizing Committee and proceedings editor of the Finnish Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in Education Conference (FLAIEC) in CEUR
• (2022-2024) Senior member of the Program Committee of the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) Conference
• (2022) Topic editor in “Towards 2030: Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities. An Educational Perspective” of the Frontiers in Education journal
• (2021-Now) Academic Editor at International Journal of Health Sciences (IJHS)
• (2021-2022) Guest editor in the Special Issue “The Future of Educational Technology” of the Education Sciences journal
• (2020-2021) Guest editor in the Special Issue “E-learning Trends and Opportunities” of the Education Sciences journal
• (On-going) Reviewer for the following journals: IEEE Access, PLoS One, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, Computer Applications in Engineering Education, Frontiers in Education, Interactive Learning Environments, SAGE Open, Journal of Mathematical Behavior, ACM Transactions on Computing Education, and Journal of Learning Analytics

Research Projects

• (2024-2028) CRETIC (role: PI) - Funded by: Research Council of Finland
  CRETIC (Optimizing Clinical Reasoning in Time-Critical Scenarios: A data-driven multimodal approach) aims to optimize emergency training of healthcare students and trainees. I will develop an innovative gamified platform that combines virtual patients and elements of educational escape rooms to simulate clinical emergencies. Data from multiple sources (physiological sensors, questionnaires and digital logs) will be collected to capture the full breadth of the dynamics of the clinical reasoning process. The data will be analyzed using the latest temporal learning analytics and explainable artificial intelligence methods to map the clinical reasoning process and the factors that lead to successful and effective decision-making. The proposal will result in an open scalable platform that will dramatically improve the training of medical emergencies, offer personalized insights into effective decision-making, provide a safe environment for practicing challenging clinical situations, and ultimately decrease medical errors, one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
  
  
  
• (2024-2026) IGLUE (role: local PI) - Funded by: Erasmus+ KA220
  The IGLUE (Implementation of game-based learning using escape rooms) project aims to empower universities to create and conduct pedagogically sound educational escape rooms and promote the widespread use and adoption of such innovative learning activities across Europe. First, a methodology for designing pedagogically sound educational escape rooms will be defined. Then, a virtual platform for creating, conducting, and sharing educational escape rooms will be developed and deployed at each participating organization, forming a European network. Teachers will be trained on how to use the methodology and the platform and will execute pilot escape rooms to validate the developed solution. Several dissemination and exploitation activities will also be carried out.
  
  
  
• (2025-2026) MakerWomenSTEM (role: local PI) - Funded by: Erasmus+ CBHE
  MakerWomenSTEM is aimed at capacity building to: 1) design a reference framework to guide the development of pedagogical strategies based on Maker education with a focus on the development of entrepreneurial skills aimed at achieving the success of women in STEM disciplines (Maker@Women-STEM); 2) develop training actions validated by micro-certifications that allow the training of women as mentors of the Maker@Women-STEM methodology; 3) Implement training actions such as workshops and courses based on the Maker@Women-STEM methodology that contribute to scaling up entrepreneurial skills in STEM disciplines as well as women's digital competences; and 4) strengthen international collaboration by disseminating knowledge, strategies and results of the implementation of Maker@Women-STEM through the creation of international networks of researchers that investigate the topic
  
  
  
• (2023-2026) ISILA (role: PI) - Funded by: Erasmus+ KA220
  The ISILA (Improving the quality and sustainability of learning using early intervention methods based on learning analytics) project's objective is to give all partners the tools needed to continuously monitor student progress and achievements throughout their learning by monitoring student educational data using learning analytics. These tools will involve both innovative teaching practices focusing on intervention methods during the learning, and the software platform that will allow for tracking student learning data that can provide information on student progress and engagement in learning. Visit the website: https://blogs.uef.fi/isila/
  
  
  
• (2023-2024) BalticSeaBioMed/2023 (role: Development lead) - Funded by: Nordplus
  BalticSeaBioMed forms today the collaborative network in the field of Biomedicine between Universities of Eastern Finland (UEF), Southern Denmark (SDU), Turku (UTU), Vilnius (UV), Åbo Akademi (ÅAU) and Karolinska Institutet (KI). We form a successful, well-functioning network with an established track record, and demonstrate a capacity for continuous development and renewal. In our new application for 2023-2024, we will address the urgent topic of global health by applying state of the art biomedical methodology into research on environmental impact of pharmaceuticals and certain other factors detailed in the application, thereby training the students in skills/competences required for future employability and successful careers
  
  
  
• (2020-2022) OAHOT - Funded by: Business Finland
  The aim of the research project is to identify through learning analytics, the key elements of learning processes that support the development of high quality learning and development of know-how. This research project examines the development of learners’ skills, the learning process, learning outcomes and the key elements in the pathway in multiple learning contexts through multiple case-studies, utilizing the same learning analytics tools.
  
  
  
• (2020-2022) ENVISION_2027 - Funded by: Erasmus+
  The ENVISION_2027 project will address both the current need of transitioning from conventional classroom teaching of Bioscience studies into digital remote teaching, as well as improving the current status of online teaching and e-learning course modules across Europe for the future needs.
  
  
  
• (2021-2022) Maldita Escape Room - Funded by: Maldita.es
  Development of an escape room to educate about hate speech against migrants
  
  
  
• (2021-2022) ILEDA - Funded by: Erasmus+
  ILEDA is an Erasmus+ funded project with three main goals: (1) to design a framework for developing and integrating existing learning environments with digital tools in order to support online and blended learning with learning analytics, (2) to identify Learning analytics data that can be used to monitor learning performance, with the goal to identify at risk students of dropping out, and (3) to develop a software tool that collects and provides analysis on student learning activities.
  
  
  
• (2021) SmarTerp - Funded by: EIT Digital
  SmarTerp addresses inefficiencies in interpreting by developing AI-powered tools embedded in a Remote Simultaneous Interpreting system that automates the human human task of extracting information in real-time to prevent the mistakes and loss of quality derived from the adoption of remote technologies. The Remote Simultaneous Interpreting system is based on Licode.
  
  
  
• (2020-2023) YODA: Your Open DAta - Funded by: European Commission
  YODA (Your Open DAta) provides a service for European citizens that allows them to create personalised dashboards binding several sources of data (including the European Data Portal) through a single application. In addition, the Action deploys a data processing infrastructure that, on the basis of real time and machine learning processing, will provide additional processed results and predictions to the developed personalised service.
  
  
  
• (2020) A-RPORTWIN - Funded by: EIT Digital
  A/RporTWIN is a new generation management platform focused on Airport Management and Airport’s operations. It acts a single-source of truth for different airport related operators. Some of its features are VR/AR and Mixed technologies compatibility, third party data integration and rich information representation. The data management core is based on FIWARE.
  
  
  
• (2019-2020) BOOST 4.0 - Funded by: European Commission
  Boost 4.0 is the biggest European initiative in Big Data for Industry 4.0. With a 20M€ budget and leveraging 100M€ of private investment, Boost 4.0 will lead the construction of the European Industrial Data Space to improve the competitiveness of Industry 4.0 and will guide the European manufacturing industry in the introduction of Big Data in the factory, providing the industrial sector with the necessary tools to obtain the maximum benefit of Big Data.
  
  
  
• (2018-2019) eID4U - Funded by: European Commission
  This project integrates the eIDAS-compliant national eIDs in services offered by the European academic world. We created a virtual student card based on the standard eIDAS attributes for physical persons, extended with those new attributes required for the academic environment. We integrated the solution in several services of the universities taking part in the consortium (UPM, POLITO, ULISBOA, JSI and University of Graz).
  
  
  
• (2017-2019) eID-FIWARE - Funded by: European Commission
  This project integrates the eID DSI in the FIWARE platform, which provides a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for the development of Smart Applications in sectors oriented to the Future Internet. It will develop FIWARE Identity Manager – eIDAS authentication gateway joining both eIDAS and FIWARE Identity Manager. After the integration of eID DSI with FIWARE Identity Management and Access Control General Enabler, it is possible to access FIWARE ecosystem services with eIDAS eIDs of EU citizens.
  
  
  
• (2014-2018) FIWARE: FI-CORE + FI-NEXT - Funded by: European Commission
  FIWARE brings a curated framework of open source platform components which can be assembled together and with other third-party platform components to build Smart Solutions faster, easier and cheaper. We have participated in several projects related with FIWARE: FICORE, FINEXT and XIFI.
  
  
  

Other merits

• (2024) Invited keynote speaker at the eLearning conference (Belgrade Metropolitan University)
• (2024) PhD Thesis reviewer at Universidad de Murcia
• (2023) PhD Thesis reviewer and committee member at Universidad de Cádiz
• (2024) Women in Engineering panelist at ICALT 2024
• (2023) PhD Thesis reviewer and committee member at Universidad de León
• (2023-2024) Reviewer for funding proposals for the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
• (2023) Reviewer for Comenius Leadership Fellows 2023 grants
• (2022) Awarded Title of Docent in Educational Data Mining at University of Eastern Finland
• (2021) Invited keynote speaker at the OAHOT project seminar (University of Eastern Finland)
• (2021) Invited speaker at the Unlock project seminar (Universidad de Granada)
• (2018-2022) Participated in 12 Educational Innovation projects (funded by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
• (2019-Now) FIWARE individual member
• (2016-Now) Additional training: +200 hours of online courses in data science, big data and programming, +500 hours of pedagogical training, and +60 hours of research training
• (2011) Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) - C2