About the Lab
“Artificial Intelligence combined with Extended Reality will revolutionize our understanding about human cognition.“
-Mariano Alcañiz. LabLeni Founder and Director.
Mission
LabLENI carries out research activities for a better understanding and enhancement of human cognition combining insights and methods from computer science, psychology and neuroscience. We also develop solutions to support real-life studies and interventions, rather than for use in laboratory settings only.
History
LabLENI was created in 1990, at that time its name was DID Group (Design and Image Developments) and it was formed by a small group of researchers and Ph.D. students.
In the early years, the lab focused on digital image processing and computer graphics.
In its first decade, i3B focused its developments in medical image, hence renamed MedIClab (Medical Image Computing Laboratory). During those years, the laboratory was devoted almost exclusively to the development of systems for medical image processing and computer-assisted surgery. In that decade i3B began working in the emerging field of virtual therapy, i.e. the application of virtual reality techniques for the treatment of psychological disorders. This allowed LENI acquiring high technical expertise in virtual reality and human behavior tracking.
During its second decade, the institute was integrated in the Interuniversity Institute I3BH and was renamed Institute of Human Centred Technology (LabHuman). At that time, the institute considerably increased its activity in areas such as surgery, medical imaging treatment, mental health and education while new modes of human-machine interaction and tracking of human activity were studied.
In its third decade, LabLENI, besides maintaining its research in areas related to health and education, has integrated new research areas centered around neuroeconomics.
Management Staff
Mariano Alcañiz, Phd
Institute Director & Founder
malcaniz@upv.edu.es
Bio
Mariano Alcañiz graduated from Industrial engineering and finished his Doctoral Thesis in Universitat Politècnica de València. Dr. Alcañiz is full professor of Computer Graphics at this university, where he founded the i3B Institute.
His research interest has always been focused on how virtual reality-related technologies can augment human abilities and performance in fields like medicine, health, education, and marketing. From a scientific point of view, his interest is to understand and classify the relevant significance of each aspect of the human activity and how to use this information in computer-mediated technologies for enhancing human abilities and quality of life. From a technological point of view, his objectives are to improve interactive technology in virtual environments used at different formats and the development of algorithms, methods, and techniques for ubiquitous and nonobtrusive measurement of human activity. He has been a coordinator of various European projects and national research projects related to the area. He has authored and co-authored several book chapters and articles in scientific journals. He is also a coordinator of several national programs of excellence in research. He is also the National Program Coordinator of the Information Society Technology of the Ministry of Science of Spain.
Fernando López, PhD
R&D manager
ferlomi@upv.edu.es
Bio
Fernando López is a post-doctoral researcher in the Institute of innovation and research in Bioingeniering (i3b) belongs to UPV. He has a PhD in Health and wellbeing technologies and coordinates the R&D management team of i3b. He is telecommunication Engineering and he has a degree in Business administration.
He has experience in the coordination and preparation of different national initiatives (CDTIs, Retos investigación, retos colaboración, Santiago Grisolia grants, infrastructures initiatives, Prometeo research, etc) and international projects H2020 (ITNs, FET, AAL, etc).
In a scientific point of view, he has knowledge in biomedical engineering field with more than 30 papers in different journals and national/internacional conference. He was in a short stage in the CMM in ParisTech and he had tutor of different final project degrees. At present, he is also associate professor in the UPV.
Paz Sebastiá Luna
R&D Management
pseblun@htech.upv.es
Jaime Guixeres, PhD
Innovation Chief
jaiguipr@upv.edu.es