Communication and Applied Technologies

Paulo Carlos López-López is a Ph.D. assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Ph.D. in Communication, Journalist, and Political Scientist. He is a member of the International Research Network on Communication Management and the Political Research Team of the USC. He has published more than 60 scientific papers on topics such as communication, technologies, social media, and political science. He was the director of the group “Media, Applied Technologies, and Communication” and the director of a postgraduate degree in Political Communication in Ecuador. He was awarded the Drago 2019 research award for his study on transparency and has work experience on electoral campaigns, organizational communication, press office, and parliament management. He has an H Index 10.Daniel Barredo is an associate professor in the Journalism and Public Opinion Program of the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and the director of the Journalism Laboratory of the same institution. He currently works as Coordinator of the Working Group on Digital Communication, Networks, and Processes of the Latin American Association of Communication Researchers. In addition, he is a visiting researcher at the Fudan Development Institute of the Fudan University (China). His interdisciplinary work explores three lines of research: studies on public opinion and the media, studies on violence in Latin America, and international studies in a comparative key. He has a doctorate in Journalism from the University of Malaga, a master’s degree and an expert in Communication, and a degree in Hispanic Philology and Audiovisual Communication from the University of Granada. He has an H index of 17 and is accredited as a senior researcher, the highest qualification granted by the Science Ministry in Colombia.Ángel Torres-Toukoumidis is a Ph.D. candidate in Communication under the research line Media Literacy at the Universidad de Huelva (2017) and done Master in Communication for social purposes at Universidad de Valladolid. Ángel Torres-Toukoumidis is PI of the first university games laboratory in Ecuador, a member of the Research Group on Missions and Indigenous Peoples (GIMPI), and a winner of the Jacobs Foundation Presenter Award in 2021 in the 9th Biennial EARLI Conference category Education and Citizenship: learning and Instruction and the Shaping of Futures. Currently, Ángel Torres-Toukoumidis is a lecturer at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Ecuador. Regarding scientific publications, the researcher has more than 100 articles in high and medium impact journals, more than 10 books and multiple conferences on media literacy and gamification.Andrea De-Santis is Ph.D. candidate in Strategic Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) and done Master in Business and Institutional Communication Management at the Universidad de Las Américas (2016), and Dottore in Scienze della Comunicazione at La Sapienza di Roma University (2007). Andrea De-Santis is the director of the Degree Programs in Communication and Social Communication and member of the Research Group in Communication, Education, and Environment at the Salesian Polytechnic University (UPS) of Ecuador. His research interests focus on strategic digital communication, scientific communication, social media, digital advertising, webmetrics, and scientometrics.Óscar Avilés (Professor in the Universidad Militar de Nueva Granada) is Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering (State University of Campinas), with a project on simulation of systems for use in robotic devices, and done Master’s at the University Tecnológica de Pereira in automatic production systems. Óscar Fernando Avilés Sánchez is specialist in the Antonio Nariño University in electronic instrumentation. He has wide experience in various research topics; he has 80 articles published in Scopus. His relevant publications are: “Anthropomorphic Robotic Hands: A Review”; “Survey of Biometric Pattern Recognition via Machine Learning techniques”; “Analysis of 3 RPS Robotic Platform Motion in Simscape and MATLAB GUI Environment”; and “Machine Vision Algorithms Applied to Dynamic Traffic Light Control”.

• Support System to Predict Student Dropout in Universities.- Classification of Electrooculography Signals Using Convolutional Neural Networks for Interaction with a Manipulator Robot.-  Lower Limb Gait Cycle and Foot Plantar Pressure Data Collection for Assistance and Rehabilitation Systems.- Virtual Reality Serious Game Session for Rehabilitation Through Calculation of the Center of Pressure in a Stabilometric Platform.- Development of an Energy Management System for a Microgrid Using Neural Networks. Case Study: San Cristobal Island, Galapagos Archipelago