University Principal

Mungitarra (1958). Professor of Telematics Engineering in the Electronics and Telecommunications Department. I studied at the Bilbao University College of Engineering (ETSI) of the University of the Basque Country.

In 1984/85 I took part in an exchange programme as an international collaborator at the Stanford Research Institute, California. My activity focused on the study of the industrial applications of computer image interpretation. The work I carried out at Stanford was the basis for my doctoral thesis: "New architecture and algorithm for recognition of partially visible parts by means of artificial vision", written in Basque, in May 1987. 

On completion of the exchange programme in the USA I was contracted by the LABEIN research laboratories, where I contributed to the start-up of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Between 1987 and 1993 I alternated my academic activity with the company of which I am the co-founder. At this time my research focused on image interpretation in automated visual inspection and its industrial applications.

I perform my teaching and research activity as a professor at the Electronics and Telecommunications Department of the University of the Basque Country. I am a member of the research group I2T. The research projects carried out on the subject of technology for electronic voting opened the doors for me to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where I spent six months working at the Media Lab in 2004 as a visiting lecturer.

In 1998 I was appointed Vice-Rector of University-Business Relations by the Rector, Pello Salaburu. While I was in this post I provided a notable impulse as regards procuring external resources for research, and I started up the University of the Basque Country's Virtual Campus.  I have also been Vice-Rector of Academic Planning (2004/2005) and Vice-Rector of the Bizkaia Campus (2005/2008), appointed for both posts by the Rector Juan Ignacio Pérez.

I am a member of the Basque Language Advisory Board and the Basque Board of Culture.

At present, I am the Rector of the University of the Basque Country.

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