People

Jose Blasco

Coordinator of COFILAB. José Blasco received an MSc (1994) and PhD in Computer Science at Universitat Politècnica de València (2001). He worked for IBM Spain as system analyst before he joined the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) in 1996 where he leaded the Computer Vision in Agriculture Group (2002-2014) and now is heading the Agricultural Engineering Centre of IVIA. He is working on the development and application of Computer Vision systems to the agriculture and food industry, being the current Chair of the CIGR Working Group on Image Analysis for Agricultural Products and Processes. His fields of interest are focused on computer vision, real-time quality inspection and monitoring applications for agricultural engineering and precision agriculture through technologies such as spectroscopy or hyperspectral imaging. He has coordinated several research projects and contracts leading the obtention of national and international patents. He is coauthor of more than 60 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and has given more than 100 presentations in conferences and invited talks.

Sergio Cubero

Sergio Cubero obtained the BSc on Computer Engineering (2006) at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain), a MSc in Integrated Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing (2010), and the PhD in Design, Manufacturing and Industrial Project Management (2012) at Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). Since 2002 he is enroled at Instituto Valenciano de Ivestigacioneas Agrarias (IVIA) where he is heading of the Computer Vision in Agriculture Group since 2014. He also worked at the Research Centre in Vine- and Wine-related Science at Universidad de La Rioja (Spain) and in Agricultural Robotics Laboratory at UPV. His fields of interest are focused on computer vision systems, mainly in design and implementation of real-time machinery and software development applied to both processed and unprocessed fruit and in-field inspection. He has participated in different national and european projects, authored several articles in international journals, conferences and patents.

Nuria Aleixos Borrás

Nuria Aleixos received a Bachelor (1992) and Ph.D (1999) degrees in Computer Science at Universitat Politècnica de València, and received an award for her Ph.D. She worked for three years for private companies developing solutions for commercial CAD systems and software for calculation of structures, and worked for two years at the Public Research Institute IVIA developing machine vision systems for automatic fruit inspection. She also worked for ten years at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, and currently is a Associated Professor of Engineering Graphics and CAD with the Engineering Design Department at Universitat Politècnica de València. Her current areas of interest are focused on hyper and multispectral imaging, in-line computer vision systems, automatic food inspection, sensors for fruit quality, multi-agent systems, sketch recognition/natural interfaces, and app development for mobile devices.

Carlos Bataller

Carlos Bataller Martí obtained his degree in Computer Science Engineering in 2012 and received a Master Degree in Automatic and Industrial Computer in 2014 at Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). He began to work at the Agricultural Engineering Center at the Public Research Institute IVIA (Spain) in 2014, where his main duty is to integrate vision devices on real-time and embedded systems for fruit inspection, designing, developing and implementing the required software tools. His research interests are Image Acquisition, Image Processing, Real-time Systems, Embedded Systems, Automatic Fruit Inspection and the Implementation and Efficient use of Programming Languages.

Sandra Munera

Sandra Munera Picazo obtained a Bachelor degree in Food Science and Technology (2011) and a Master degree in Research of Food Science, Technology and Control (2013) at Universidad Miguel Hernández. During that time, she collaborated in the “Food Quality and Safety” research group of the Agro-Food Technology Department. Now, she is a PhD student at the Agricultural Engineering Center at the Public Research Institute IVIA (Spain) with a pre-doctoral grant. Her main research topic is related to the study of advanced optical techniques applied to determine the internal/external quality and safety of agrifood industry produces.

Francisco Albert Gil

F. Albert received an MSc degree in CAD (2000) and Ph.D degree in Computer Science (2007) at Universitat Politècnica de València. He is an Associate Professor with the Engineering Design Department at Universitat Politècnica de València. His fields of interest are focused on computer vision, image analysis, pattern recognition, wallpaper groups, sketch recognition and natural interfaces, and development of spatial abilities using new technologies.

José Manuel Prats-Montalbán

José Manuel Prats-Montalbán is M.Sc in Industrial Engineering (1998) and Ph.D in Applied Statistics (2005) from Universitat Politècnica de Valencia. He holds an Associate Professor tenure track position at the Applied Statistics Department, where he joins Prof. Alberto Ferrer?s Multivariate Statistical Engineering Group (MSEG); being in charge of the Multivariate Image Analysis (MIA) research line. MIA tries to properly deal with the massive amount of data provided by the images, which is getting more and more relevance as images increase in the third dimension (i.e. from grey-scale to hyperspectral); by using multivariate statistical projection models such as the well-know Principal Component Analysis (PCA) or Partial Least Squares (PLS), but also more flexible models like Multivariate Curve Resolution (MCR) that are able to incorporate a priori knowledge in the modelling stage.

Pau Talens Oliag

Pau Talens-Oliag es Licenciado en Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos y Doctor en Tecnología de Alimentos por la Universitat Politècnica de València. En 2003 recibe un premio extraordinario por su tesis doctoral “Tratamientos osmóticos en la crioprotección de fresa y kiwi”. Desde el año 2000 trabaja como Profesor e Investigador en la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Está adscrito a la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y del Medio Natural (ETSIAMN). Ejerce su actividad Investigadora, así como sus funciones como Profesor Titular de Universidad en la unidad de “Fisicoquímica de Alimentos”, del Departamento de Tecnología de Alimentos (DTA). Sus líneas de investigación se centran en el estudio de las propiedades físicas de alimentos en relación con los procesos alimentarios, el desarrollo y aplicación de films y recubrimientos alimentarios y en el desarrollo de técnicas no destructivas para la estimación de propiedades físicas y control de calidad en alimentos.

Victoria Cortés López

Victoria Cortés López obtained a Bachelor degree in Environmental Sciences (2013) at Universitat de València and a Master degree in Science and Food Engineering (2014) at Universitat Politècnica de València. Now, she is a PhD student at the Agro-Food Technology Department with a pre-doctoral grant (FPU of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports). Her main research topic is related to the development of non-destructive techniques through visible and near infrared spectroscopy to determine the internal/external quality of intact products and agrifood control.

Paula J. Ramos

Paula J. Ramos obtained her Electronic Engineering degree (2005) at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering – Control and Instrumentation (2008) at Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (Colombia). She has been working in the National Research Center of Coffee in Colombia (Cenicafé) for 10 years, where currently she is a scientific researcher. Paula is a PhD student at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and has research interest in different topics like machine visión systems, automatic inspection and robotic developments applied to agriculture. She has participated in different projects in Colombia, developing a sorting coffee machine, a robotic tool for harvesting coffee and agriculture precision applications. She is coauthor of several patents, book chapters and publications.

Juan Gómez Sanchis

Dr. Juan Gómez-Sanchis received a B.Sc. degree in Physics (2000) and a B.Sc. degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Valencia (2003). He joined at the Public Research Institute IVIA in 2004, developing is Ph.D. in hyperspectral computer vision systems applied to the agriculture. He joined to the Department of Electronics Engineering at Universitat de València in 2008, where he currently works as assistant professor in pattern recognition using neural networks.