Biography
Luis Terán (1979) is currently working as a lecturer (Dozent) at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and a senior researcher and Privat Dozent at the Human-IST Institute, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Former visiting scholar at the University of Bern, and academic guest at the University of Zurich. He was also appointed Full Professor at Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas (ESPE), Ecuador, until October 2020. He obtained a Ph.D. and a habilitation in computer science from the University of Fribourg. In 2009, he finished an M.Sc in communication systems from the Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2004, he received a B.Sc in electronics and telecommunications from Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador. He was a global chair for the IEEE e-Government Special Technical Community, program chair and main organizer for the International Conference on eDemocracy and eGovernment (ICEDEG), guest editor at IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, Editorial Board Member at the Cooperative Perspective Journal, guest editor at Axioms Open Access Journal, member of the IEEE Task Force on Explainable Fuzzy Systems (TF-EXFS) at the Computational Intelligence Society (CIS), a distinguished exhibitor at IEEE Ecuador Section, and Senior Member at IEEE.
Education
- Habilitation and Venia Legendi In Computer Science, University of Fribourg (UniFR), Switzerland. 2014-2019.
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Fribourg (UniFR), Switzerland. 2009-2014.
- Diploma - Didactic For Higher Education, University of Fribourg (UniFR), Switzerland. 2019-2022.
- M.Sc. in Communication Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. 2006-2009.
- Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications, Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN), Ecuador. 1999-2004.
Employment History
- Lecturer/Dozent, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Switzerland. Sept. 2022 - present.
- Senior Researcher and Lecturer, University of Fribourg (UniFR), Switzerland. Jan. 2009 - present.
- Full Professor, Armed Forces University (ESPE), Ecuador. April 2015 - Sept. 2020.
- Visiting Scholar, University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland. Oct. 2019 - Mar. 2020.
- Academic Guest, University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland. Jan. 2019 - Sept. 2019.
- Assistant Doctor and Lecturer, University of Fribourg (UniFR), Switzerland. Apr. 2014 - Dec. 2018.
- Research Assistant, University of Fribourg (UniFR), Switzerland. Sept 2009 - Mar. 2014.
- Teaching Assistant, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Oct. 2010 Feb. 2012.
- Teaching Assistant, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Jan. 2008 Feb. 2009.
- VIP Engineer, Logistics Head, Telconet Latam, Ecuador. Mar. 2004 - Sept 2006.
Memberships in Panels, Boards, and Individual Scientific Reviewing
- Digital Government: Research and Practice Journal ACM
- IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence IEEE
- International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction Taylor & Francis
- The ACM Conference Series on Recommender Systems ACM
- IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems IEEE
Supervision of Graduate and Postgraduate
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Project: Swiss Digital Ethics Compass. Candidate: Narek Andreasyan, University of Fribourg, Feb. 2023 - present.
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Project: Explainable Health Recommender System for the Optimization of Medical Decisions. Candidate: Byron Jaramillo, University of Fribourg, Sept. 2021 - present.
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Project: Automatic feature extraction and classification approach to creating self-learning recommender systems. Candidate: José Mancera. University of Fribourg, Feb. 2019 - present.
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Project: An explainable framework for predicting lung cancer genetic mutations with fuzzy short data. Candidate: Servio Lima. University of Fribourg, Jul. 2018 - present.
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Project: Smartifying the Last-mile Delivery through Computational Intelligence. Dr. Jhonny Pincay (best Ph.D. thesis award at UniFR). University of Fribourg, Jul. 2018 - March 2022.
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Privacy framework and context-awareness for Political Recommendation Systems. Dr. Aigul Kaskina. University of Fribourg, Oct. 2014 - Oct. 2019.
- Ph.D. Jury President. Desarrollo de un proceso de implementación de cursos en línea masivos y abiertos accesibles. Dr: Sandra Sánchez Gordón. University of Alicante, June 2017.
- Ph.D. Thesis Co-Supervision. Understanding and modeling of users’ intention line discussion Systems. Dr. JohnnyTorres. Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Jan. 2007 - Sept. 2020.
Approved research projects as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI
- Project: Optimizing the Provision of Rehabilitation Services Through Explainable Recommender Systems. Funding Schema: Internal B-Project. Budget granted: 24.000 CHF. Feb. 2023 – May 2023.
- Project: Swiss Digital Ethics Compass. Funding Schema: Innosuisse. Partners: Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, University of Fribourg, and Swiss Post. Budget granted: ~438.000 CHF. Nov. 2022 – October 2025.
- Project: Scaling Smart City Projects - From Individual Pilots Towards A Common Strategy Of Industry. Funding Schema: SNF - NRP 77. Partners: UniFR, University of St.Gallen, and the University of Applied Sciences Zurich, as well as practice partners such as Swiss Post, SBB, Swisscom, Hauptstadtregion Schweiz, Smart City Thun, and Smart Regio Basel. Budget granted: ~650.000 CHF. Nov. 2022 – October 2025.
- Project: Cognitive Urban Planning. Funding Schema: Secretariat of High Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT), Ecuador. Partners: Armed Forces University (Ecuador), Technical University of Manabi (Ecuador). Budget granted: ~200.000 CHF. September 2018 – September 2020.
- Project: Recommendation Systems To Optimize The Generation Of Public Policy With Academic Participation. Funding Schema: Secretariat of High Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT), Ecuador. Partners: Armed Forces University (Ecuador), Technical University of Manabi (Ecuador). Budget granted: ~50.000 CHF. September 2018 – September 2020.
- Project: Cognitive Model Of Community Surveillance Of Risks Of Epidemiological Contagion By Covid-19. Funding Schema: Secretariat of High Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT), Ecuador. Partners: University of Fribourg, Technical University of Manabi (Ecuador). Budget granted: ~8.000CHF. Nov. 2022 – October 2025. November 2020 – present.
- Project: A Hemogram-Data-Based Machine Learning Approach To Optimize The Use Of Covid-19. Funding schema: Seed Money Grants 2020 – Leading House for the Latin American Region. Partners: University of Fribourg, Technical University of Manabi (Ecuador). Budget granted: ~13.000 CHF. Nov. 2022 – October 2025. Sept. 2020 – present.