Álvaro Ordóñez and Nicolás Vila win two of the three Extraordinary Doctoral Awards in Engineering

In recognition of the academic and scientific excellence achieved throughout their thesis, Álvaro Ordóñez and Nicolás Vila, postdoctoral researchers collaborating with the Research Centre on Intelligent Technologies (CiTIUS), received this Monday two of the three Extraordinary Doctoral Awards 2021-22 in the field of Engineering, awarded annually by the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). The ceremony, held in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Psychology, was presided over by the vice-rector for Degrees and Internationalization of the USC, María José López Couso, together with the general secretary, Dulce María García Mella, and the secretary of the International Doctoral School (EDIUS), María Isabel Neira Gómez.

The extraordinary doctoral awards are a recognition of the research, effort and dedication behind an academic work -in this case, a doctoral thesis-, and their aim is to give impetus to a remarkable academic and professional career. The distinction awarded to Ordóñez and Vila highlights the individual talent of the two researchers, and reinforces the commitment of CiTIUS to quality training that contributes to the advancement of knowledge and innovation. 

With this new recognition, the thesis of Álvaro Ordóñez accumulates three distinctions of quality, after the Award for the best thesis of the IEEE Spain Chapter of Geoscience and Remote Sensing (2023), or even the distinction 'T3M Award', received in 2022. The work, entitled 'Efficient Registration of Multi and Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Images on GPU', was developed under the direction of Dora Blanco, researcher linked to CiTIUS, and Francisco Argüello, experts in high performance computing and remote sensing.  "The motivation for this study arose from the need to develop algorithms capable of automatically processing and aligning the large amount of data in multi- and hyperspectral images captured daily by satellites, UAVs and aircraft," explains Alvaro.

On the other hand, Nicolás Vila also received this award for his work on automatic age estimation and sex classification in dental panoramic radiographs. The study was entitled 'Deep learning for chronological age and sex prediction from dental panoramic radiographs', and was directed by linked CiTIUS researcher María José Carreira, as well as Inmaculada Tomás, a collaborating researcher at the center. "The proposed systems can help improve the accuracy and efficiency of a multitude of procedures currently performed in the field of forensic medicine," says Nicolás.

The two awards consolidate the leadership of CiTIUS in the field of engineering research, with two of its members being among the three winners in this category for the second consecutive year. On the other hand, the outstanding work of both researchers reaffirms their dedication and effort in their respective areas of study, thus highlighting the capacity of the center to promote the development of innovative research with a high impact on the scientific community. Álvaro Ordóñez and Nicolás Vila agree in their reflections in valuing that "it is always gratifying to have the work of several years of study recognized", also alluding to their directors and research groups by pointing out that "this type of recognition serves to highlight the value of the research work carried out as a group".