EsadeTech-ICSO Workshop on AI and Data Analytics

Program (consolidated, updated 2026.07.16)

Monday, July 20th
09:00 Welcome: Oriol Iglesias (Esade) – Vice Dean of Faculty and Research & David Lopez (Esade)
Session chairs: Raquel Soriano & Marc Escoto (UPV)
09:25 Montserrat Guillen (UB) – Spanish Research Award, Ranked #13 in Economics: “AI and data analytics in risk analysis”
09:50 Ketrina Katragjini (AVEVA): “From Engineering to Operations: AI and Optimisation for a Sustainable Energy Transition”
10:15 Patricia Rodriguez & Veronica Medina (ICSO): “Architecting AI for the SME Reality”
10:40 Christian Blum (CSIC) – Ranked #28 in Mathematics and #94 in Computer Science: “Metaheuristic algorithms for intelligent decision-making”
11:05 Coffee break & networking
Session chairs: Wenwen Chen & Veronica Medina (ICSO)
11:45 Jesus E. Gabaldon (Accenture): “AI and data analytics in real-life projects”
12:10 Armando Nieto (Divina Seguros): “Stochastic processes with Monte Carlo simulation in actuarial mathematics”
12:35 Esteve Almirall (Esade): “How AI is changing strategy”
13:00 Mateo Valero (BSCC) – Director of the BSCC, Ranked #19 in Computer Science: “The chip war, supercomputing, and European sovereignty”
13:25 Closing day 1: Daniel Riera (UOC), Alfons Freixes (ICSO) and David Lopez (Esade)
14:00 Lunch at Esade’s cafeteria (not included)
16:00 Social event at Barcelona

Tuesday, July 21th
Session Chairs: Majsa Ammouriova (ICSO) & Samuele Simone (UNIMI)
09:00 Ana Valenzuela (Esade): “A meta-analysis revealing drivers of AI resistance across markets, methods, and time”
09:25 Javier Panadero (UAB): “Intelligent computing: from BRAs to simheuristics and learnheuristics”
09:50 Fatos Xhafa (UPC) – Ranked #31 in Computer Science: “Energy optimization in last mile delivery systems”
10:15 Xavier Ferràs (Esade): “Cognitive advantage: how AI is redefining competitive advantage”
10:40 Ana Beik (Golden Owl): “Can we predict disruptive events with data analytics and algorithms?”
11:05 Coffee break & networking
Session Chairs:  Manuel Suarez (UNIE) & Raquel Soriano (UPV)
11:45 Pablo Castiella (Baobab): “Where do algorithms live?: from design to deployment”
12:10 Gisèle Muñoz (CEL): “The impact of AI and GenAI on the supply chain in Spain”
12:35 Carles Torrecilla (Esade): “Aligning Internal and External Marketing for a Better Employee and Customer Experience”
13:00 Lunch at Esade’s cafeteria (not included)
16:00 Juan F. Gomez (Decide): “Multi-period Vehicle Routing with Time Windows and Synchronization: A Real-World Industrial Case Study”  
16:25 Antonio R. Uguina (Decide): “Sim-Exact Methods. An alternative to Simheuristics”  
16:50 Wenwen Chen (UPV): “Dual-Parameter Extensions of the Cat-in-a-Grid Approach for Tropical Cyclone Parametric Insurance”
17:15 Yangchongyi Men (UPV): “Predicting Hurricane Losses for Parametric Insurances in Real-Time via Hybrid Machine Learning and Transformer models”
17:35 Samuele Simon (UniMi & OPTIT): “A Learnheuristic for Generating Planner-Friendly Solutions to Rich and Real-Wordl Vehicle Routing Problems “
17:55 Marc Escoto (UPV): “A Synthetic Data Generation Framework for Incomplete and Noisy Data”
18:15 Antoni Guerrero (UPV): “The Synergy Between Palletization and Warehouse Flow Optimization”
18:35 Closing day 2: Josep Prieto (UOC), Laura Calvet (UAB) and Angel A. Juan (UPV)