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Master in Computational Social Science faculty

UC3M FACULTY

SANDRA BENÍTEZ

Foto de Sandra Benítez

Assistant professor at the Department of Statistics and research fellow at the UC3M-Santander Big Data Institute. She obtained her PhD in Mathematics from Universidad de Sevilla in 2021 with International and Cum Laude mentions.

Sandra's research focuses on the development of new mathematical optimization models for supervised classification, where she has made contributions in the areas of variable selection, cost-sensitive algorithms, and class probability estimation. She has also contributed to the field of technical efficiency estimation using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).

Her current research interests center on the development of interpretable and fair classification models.

VANESA GUERRERO

Foto de Vanesa Guerrero

Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics and PhD in Mathematics from Universidad de Sevilla.

Her research interests focus on developing mathematical models that support data-driven decision-making in an interpretable way by combining mathematical optimization, statistics, and machine learning tools. She has coauthored many research articles published in scientific journals and has participated and led regional, national and international research projects.

Her research contributions and career have been recognized with the Ramiro Melendreras, Vicent Caselles and L’Oréal – UNESCO For Women in Science awards, among others.

BLAS KOLIC

Foto de Blas Kolic

Postdoctoral fellow at IBiDat Institute at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

His research draws from dynamical systems, complex systems, network science, machine learning, and statistical inferences. It focuses, on the one hand, on studying the behavior and evolution of norms and opinions in social networks, and, on the other hand, on estimating the latent states of statistical and agent-based models based on aggregate observations. Lately, he has drawn interest in the interpretability and fairness of machine learning models and developing network models to study recommendation cascades in professional social networks.

He has a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Doyne Farmer, where he formed part of the Complexity Economics group of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. Moreover, he has worked with the World Bank Group as a data analyst and has participated in numerous conferences, seminars, and competitions.

He did his undergraduate studies in Physics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. Besides his academic career, he is passionate about music.

ILONA LAHDELMA

Foto de Ilona Lahdelma

PhD from University of Oxford in 2020.

In her PhD, she studied the causal effects of immigration at the local level on opinion formation and policies. As a result, she has a keen research interest in both quantitative methods of causal inference as well as its application to trace people's opinion formation and to design and evaluate social policies.

PABLO MORALA

Foto de Pablo Morala

Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics. Prior to this role, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the UC3M-Santander Big Data Institute (IBiDat).

He holds a PhD in Mathematical Engineering (2024) and an MSc in Statistics for Data Science (2020), both from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), as well as Bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Physics (2019) from the Universidad de Oviedo.

His research focuses on interpretability and explainability in artificial intelligence and machine learning, aiming to make algorithms and their decisions more transparent to humans. He is also interested in open-source development and has contributed R packages to the community. More recently, his work has included the development of applications using large language models (LLMs).

Profesor ayudante en el Departamento de Estadística. Anteriormente fue investigador postdoctoral en el Instituto Big Data UC3M-Santander (IBiDat).

Es Doctor Ingeniero Matemático (2024) y Máster en Estadística para la Ciencia de Datos (2020), ambos por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), así como Licenciado en Matemáticas y Física (2019) por la Universidad de Oviedo.

Su investigación se centra en la interpretabilidad y explicabilidad en inteligencia artificial y aprendizaje automático, con el objetivo de hacer que los algoritmos y sus decisiones sean más transparentes para los humanos. También está interesado en el desarrollo de código abierto y ha contribuido con paquetes de R a la comunidad. Más recientemente, su trabajo ha incluido el desarrollo de aplicaciones que utilizan grandes modelos lingüísticos (LLM).

ANXO SÁNCHEZ

Foto de Anxo Sanchez

PhD in Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid, with an extraordinary award.

After a Fulbright postdoctoral stay at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he obtained a tenured position in the Department of Mathematics at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where he is currently Professor of Applied Mathematics. He is also a research associate at the Institute of Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems of the University of Zaragoza since 2004. He has been coordinator of the European project IBSEN (Horizon 2020, 2015-2018).

His hobbies include reading, series and gastronomy, both in front of and behind the stove. He likes the sea, sailing, snorkeling and, from time to time, diving.

MARGARITA TORRE FERNÁNDEZ

Foto de Margarita Torre Fernández

PhD in Sociology (University Pompeu Fabra), a master’s degree in Big Data & Data Science (Afi School of Finance) and is Specialist in Applied Research and Data Analysis (Spanish Centre for Sociological Research, CIS).

Her areas of research are occupational segregation and other inequalities in the labor market, quantitative data analysis and network analysis. She has published in prestigious journals such as Gender and Society, Work and Occupations, Social Forces, Sociological Perspectives and International Migration.

Currently, she is leading two research projects: Social networks in gender perspective: Virtual ceiling or window of opportunity? (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; co-IP Dr. Javier Lorenzo) and Dynamics of international scientific collaboration: an analysis of networks with a gender perspective (funded by the CM-UC3M; co-IP Dr. Iñaki Úcar). She has also worked with private companies (AIRBUS GROUP, 40dB) and public organizations (Institute of Youth).

She is currently Associate Editor of European Societies (official journal of the European Sociological Association, ESA) and member of the editorial board of Work Employment and Society, Sociology, International Journal of Sociology and Papers.

IÑAKI ÚCAR

Foto de Iñaki Úcar

Distinguished Researcher at the Department of Statistics and Fellow at the UC3M-Santander Big Data Institute (IBiDat), open-source advocate and R package author. He received his MEng in Telecommunications Engineering and MScEng in Communications from Universidad Pública de Navarra (Spain) in 2011 and 2013 respectively, and his MScEng and PhD in Telematic Engineering from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2014 and 2018 respectively.

He has developed expertise in statistical software, high-performance computing, simulation, data wrangling and visualisation, network analysis and Markov processes.

His current research interests are varied, including interpretability of ML models, and the application of data science to problems related to social networks, collective behaviour, inequality and misinformation.

FRANCISCO VILLAMIL

Foto de Francisco Villamil

Postdoctoral researcher at the Carlos III-Juan March Institute. PhD from ETH Zurich, and Juan Linz Prize to the best doctoral dissertation in political science from the CEPC.

His research focuses on the consequences of political violence and armed conflicts.He uses quantitative methods extensively, and relies on a variety of data sources and data collection strategies, including digitization of historical archives, web scraping, and geospatial data.

He has published in several international journals, such as Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, or Research & Politics.

EXTERNAL FACULTY

JAVIER ÁLVAREZ LIÉBANA

Foto de Javier Alvarez

Assistant Professor at Faculty of Statistics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

He has a degree in Mathematics (Master in Mathematical Engineering) and a PhD in Statistics from the University of Granada, having worked as a researcher and teacher at the University of Granada, Oviedo, Santiago de Compostela and the Complutense University of Madrid.

His fields of research are functional data analysis, biostatistics, data science and the analysis of electoral surveys, and he has specialized in the development of courses and materials for learning R. During the covid-19 pandemic he was an advisor at the Ministry of Health of Asturias.

He practices outreach in networks (@dadosdelaplace) and media.

JORGE CIMENTADA

Foto de Jorge Cimentada

Data Scientist at Ryanair. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Pompeu Fabra University where he specialized in the field of Computational Social Science.

He has held research positions at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research as well as consulting jobs for organizations such as the United Nations Population Division.

Outside of academia, he’s held various data scientist positions, spanning a wide range of industries. He’s also a research fellow at the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM), where he continues to explore new research avenues at the intersection of social science, big data and data science.

For more information, please visit his website at cimentadaj.github.io.

ELEN IRAZABAL

Foto de Elen Irazabal

Artificial Intelligence Specialist at AdvocatusAI.

Elen graduated in law and, a few years later, she decided to study Artificial Intelligence and its role in the legal sector. Since then, she has been teaching lawyers about AI and programming, authored the book "Artificial Intelligence Explained for Lawyers" published by La Ley editorial, and is currently pursuing a PhD on the European Union's proposed Artificial Intelligence regulation.

JOSÉ ANTONIO NOGUERA FERRER

Foto de Jose Antonio Noguera

Associate Professor of Sociology at the UAB and director of the Group of Analytical Sociology and Institutional Design (GSADI). He has been visiting researcher at the University of California-Berkeley and the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as visiting professor at the UC3M and Deusto.

His research areas are social policy, fiscal sociology, sociological theory, analytical sociology, behavioural experiments, and social simulation. He has been principal investigator in many competitive research projects and contracts in those areas (including four within the National R+D Plan). He has also participated in Consolider-Ingenio and FP7 projects.

He has published in journals such as: Social Policy & Society, PlosOne, Advances in Complex Systems, Journal of Law & Society, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Social Science Information of South European Society & Politics. He was editor of Papers. Revista de Sociologia from 2015 to 2019 and deputy editor from 2009 to 2015. He has collaborated with different research evaluation agencies in Spain and the European Union.

MARCO NOVAES

Foto de Marco Novaes

He began his professional career working on Machine Learning projects, such as demand forecasting and Marketing Mix Modeling.

Recently, he has focused his interest on generative artificial intelligence, developing and implementing GenAI solutions in production for sectors such as insurance and automotive.

He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and École Centrale de Lyon. He specialized in Data Science and AI during his master’s at Polytechnique Montréal.

Passionate about climbing and board games.

EMMA PÉREZ HERNÁNDEZ

Foto de Emma Pérez Hernández

Research Data Analyst at Fever. Graduated in Economics from USAL, Master in Economic Development and Growth and Master in Computational Social Sciences, both from UC3M.

She has experience as an analyst in both the public and private sectors, working to improve data-driven decision making, especially in economic and social issues.

LEIRE SALAZAR

Foto de Leire Salazar

Senior Researcher at the Institute for Public Goods and Policies (IPP), CSIC. She holds a Doctorate in Sociology (DPhil) from the University of Oxford (Nuffield College) and, before joining CSIC, was an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Structure (UNED) and Lead Scientist of DIGCLASS (Center for Advanced Studies, Joint Research Centre, European Commission).

She is an expert in social inequalities and has published on educational inequalities, demographic change and its relation to economic inequality, and health inequalities (perinatal), among other topics, in some of the most relevant journals in her field, such as the American Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, Socio-Economic Review, and Social Science and Medicine.

She has led several competitive research projects and has been part of national and international editorial boards. She has teaching experience in substantive subjects (social structure) and methodological subjects (research design, quantitative techniques) at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, both in Spain (she directed and coordinated the CIS postgraduate course from 2009 to 2018) and abroad. She was a scientific collaborator and coordinator of the Social Sciences Panel of the State Research Agency (AEI) from 2019 to 2021.

CARMEN TORRIJOS

Foto de Carmen Torrijos

Degree in Translation and Interpreting and Hispanic Studies (UAM), a Master in Intercultural Communication (UAH) and an Advanced Course in Project Management (EOI).

For 8 years she has been dedicated to Natural Language Processing side by side with linguists, software developers and architects and data scientists, leading the creation of resources for the training of Machine Learning models. She is a humanistic profile oriented towards technology and the future, passionate about innovation.

She currently works in digital transformation and technology integration in companies and institutions. She still thinks that there is a need for more mixed profiles, more multidisciplinary teams and less borders between humanities and science.