UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGIL

Partner Information

  • Partner Full Name: UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGIL
  • Partner Short Name: URV
  • Country: Spain
  • Website: www.urv.cat

Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) is a public university located in the city of Tarragona, Spain. Established in 1991, URV offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs across various disciplines, including Humanities and Social Sciences, Sciences, Health Sciences and Engineering and Technology. 

With over 60 undergraduate degrees, 12 double degrees, and numerous postgraduate programs, URV caters to a diverse student body, including a significant international population (around 36% of postgraduate students). The university emphasizes practical learning and internationalization, offering opportunities for student exchange programs and internships abroad. 

URV boasts several campuses in Tarragona and surrounding areas, providing modern facilities and resources for students. Additionally, the university is recognized for its commitment to research and innovation, collaborating with various institutions and industries.  

The TARGET Project will be conducted by the Intelligence Robotics and Computer Vision (IRCV) group, a research group of the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics under the guidance of Professor Domenec Puig. Since its establishment, the IRCV group has focused its research on several key areas: Image processing, Computer vision, Pattern recognition, medical images and data analysis, Mobile robotics and Social robotics. The IRCV research team boasts a strong track record of international collaboration in national and EU projects closely aligned with TARGET's goals (Game-Abling, GABLE and AbleGames funded by FP7 and H2020, respectively), to improve stroke patients' health outcomes in the rehabilitation stage. 

Key persons

Prof Domenec Puig

Dr. Domènec Puig earned his degree in computer science and completed his doctorate at UPC in 1992 and 2004, respectively. He joined URV's Department of Computer Engineering and Mathematics in 1992, attaining the position of Full Professor in 2017. As the principal investigator of URV's Intelligent Robotics and Computer Vision lab within the ITAKA research group, his research spans various domains, including image processing, pattern recognition, medical image analysis, and robotics. Dr. Puig has led over 40 research projects and participated in more than 35 contracts and agreements with public or private entities. He boasts a prolific publication record, with over 150 contributions to journals, book chapters, and conferences, many of which appear in top-tier journals such as IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and the International Journal of Computer Vision. Dr. Puig has supervised 20 completed doctoral theses and holds co-inventorship of 3 patents. He is a co-founder of URV spin-off companies "Up2Smart" and "RetinaReadRisk" and has been recognized with numerous awards, including the "Distinguished Professor of the URV 2019" and awards for the Social Impact of Research in 2023, 2019, and 2017. These awards recognize his contributions to projects focused on improving the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and advancing medical diagnostics through artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies. Additionally, Dr. Puig received the "Recognition of the Quality of Research 2012" by the URV for his outstanding research contributions.

Dr Ham A. Rashwan

Hatem A. Rashwan began his academic journey at South Valley University in Aswan, Egypt, earning a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2002. His fascination with electrical systems led him to pursue a Master of Science in Computer Science at the same university in 2007. In 2010, he joined URV's Intelligent Robotics and Vision Group, embarking on cutting-edge research with a scholarship from FI-AGAUR-2010. Following this, he served as a research assistant at URV, contributing to pioneering work in image processing, computer vision, and AI until 2014. He then spent nearly three years as a postdoctoral researcher at REVA, IRIT-CNRS, INP-Toulouse, and the University of Toulouse, broadening his research insights through international collaboration. Returning to URV in 2018, Hatem made significant contributions as a postdoctoral researcher under the Beatriu de Pinós program. Since May 2019, He has been a co-founder of URV spin-off companies "Up2Smart" and "RetinaReadRisk" aiming to bridge the gap between research and practical applications. Currently, as a senior researcher and visiting professor at DEIM, UV, Dr Rashwan has authored over 75 articles and contributed to numerous national and European projects focused on AI and healthcare. His impressive research output, with an h-index of 29 and an index-i10 of 48, reflects his profound impact on the scientific community.

Dr. Julián Cristiano

Dr. Julián Cristiano received the B.S degree in Electronic Engineering from the Industrial University of Santander in 2007, Colombia and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Rovira i Virgili University, Spain in 2009 and 2016, respectively. Dr. Cristiano is Co-Founder at UP2Smart company, a technological based spin-off company born from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. He is currently senior researcher at the intelligent robotics and computer vision group (IRCV). His research interests include design of biomedical devices, robotics, biologically inspired control, adaptive control systems, evolutionary computation, image processing, artificial vision, artificial intelligence, recurrent neural networks, socially assistive robotics and neuroscience. He possesses expertise in several areas, including crafting compelling proposals for both National and European calls, project management, and entrepreneurship. He has contributed to the Hybrid robot UGV-UAV project “TSI-020100-2010-970” funded by the Industry, Tourism and Commerce Ministry of Spain, also to the GAME-ABLING project “EU-FP7-SME-2012-1-315032” funded by the European Union, also to the IA-BioBreast project “TIN2012-37171-C02-02” funded by the Spanish Government, also to the Automatic Pain Assessment in Neonatal Intensive Care Units project funded by the R2B programme of the Rovira i Virgili University and also to the RFID system for classification of net clothes in residences project “2015R2B-02” of the URV foundation. He participated as project manager and researcher in the successful GABLE project “H2020-ICT-2016-1-GA732363” funded by the European Union under the H2020. He participated as project manager and researcher in the AbleGames project funded by the Fast Track to Innovation call of the European Union under the H2020 programme. He participated as senior researcher in the RetinaReadRisk project funded by the EIT Health – European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).