BCAM

BCAM is the research center on applied mathematics created with the support of the Basque Government and the University of the Basque Country, which aims to strengthen the Basque science and technology system, by performing interdisciplinary research in the frontiers of mathematics, talented scientists’ training and attraction, so the excellence of our results are recognized by the Society.

The team involved in the JRL on behalf of BCAM is the Data Science group, led by Prof. Jose A. Lozano. The objective in this line is to design new methods for learning probabilistic graphical models in general, and Bayesian networks in particular. These methods will be a hybrid between classical operations research techniques and metaheuristic methods. We will apply the developed techniques in the solution of real data analysis tasks.
This area of research combines many mathematical methodologies. First of all are probability theory and statistics. The final objective is to learn a probability distribution. It also deals with graph theory as probabilistic graphical models are represented using graphs. A third topic used in the area is optimization. Most of the processes are based in optimizing a score, and therefore the area of combinatorial optimization, in particular is basic for the topic.

UPV/EHU

The Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao (ETSI Bilbao), founded in 1897, is one of the oldest centers in the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. All along this long existence, the engineers trained in it have decisively collaborated to the progress and development of our industry, building up a group of qualified and reputed engineers, as our extraordinary employment rates assess.

The team involved in the JRL on behalf of the Faculty of Engineering belongs mainly to the Department of Communications Engineering. The Department of Communications Engineering is composed of 90 researchers and professors (30 of them are non permanent researchers). Except for a few exceptions all the professors with the department are PhDs.The Department is in charge of courses belonging to Signal Processing, Communications, Computer Networks and Telematics. The Department provides the core of courses associated to the Telecommunications Engineering Master Degree. The Department also leads the PhD program in “Information Technologies and Communications in Mobile Networks – TICRM”. This PhD training program is a joint initiative of five Spanish Universities and has been awarded continuously since 2003 with different Quality Labels by the Ministry of Education. The award is given after independent audit of contributions from researchers and PhD dissertations under the umbrella of the program. In addition, the Department participates to the PhD program “Electronics and Telecommunications”, an inter –department program since 2014.

The activity of the Department focuses on the Information Technologies. The research projects range from European to regionally funded calls, mostly in cooperation with other universities and companies from Spain and abroad. The department also hosts two “Research and Training Units” (UFI): “Electronics and Telecommunications” and Multimedia Communication and Networking Technologies. The Department has training labs furnished with the appropriate professional equipment and is used by all courses dealing with signal processing, Radiocommunications, Access Networks, and Core backbones, including both cabled and wireless systems. These training labs are complementary to those research infrastructure areas associated to the research group s of the Department.

Tecnalia

TECNALIA is a Spanish private and non-profit research organization that is the result of the merger of 8 Research and Technological organizations. It was set up in 2011 incorporating within it the experience, career and strengths of the above mentioned organizations, with a broad, extensive curriculum focused on R&D innovation as a competitive strategy. TECNALIA is the leading private R&D entity in Spain and the fifth largest in Europe, with a staff of over 1,415 (188 PhDs) of 30 nationalities and an annual turnover of 100 M€; TECNALIA has 303 patents, 4.000 clients, 15 spinoffs and 21 locations worldwide (2013). The keys turning the vision of TECNALIA into reality are marked by the following: its private nature, the focusing of its activity on Applied Research and the fact that it is a centre of international excellence (International R&D contracts, foreign researchers, and international accompaniment of local industries, licences, IP, etc.).

The team involved in the JRL on behalf of BCAM is the ICT/Optima group, led by Prof. Javier del Ser. This group is composed of researchers with different expertises including (among others) Big Data, Data Science and Analytics and Optimization. During the last years this group has participate in the development of more than 150 research projects, for a combined amount of more than 11 million euros. ICT/Optima and its researchers have contributed to different social challenges and sectors such as logistic and mobility, electric distribution, energy efficiency, telecomunications, and health, among many others.

ICT/Optima promotes technological excellence as one of its basic principles, which has allowed this group to actively contribute to different international forums, conferences and journals, and to promote the academic specialization of its members. The activity carried out up to date in the different initiatives and project has been published in more than 150 international conferences and 50 international journals, including also four PhD already finished. Additionally, the activity has lead to the registration of five different patents.