Summary

I am currently an Associate Professor in the Languages and Information Systems (LSI) area at the Department of Languages and Computer Science (LCC) of the University of Málaga (UMA), a position I have held since April 2025. My academic and professional career has been closely linked to UMA, where I obtained my degree in Informatics Engineering (2012) and my PhD (2018). My research activity began in 2012 within the CAOSD research group, led by Professor Lidia Fuentes, where I continue to carry out my scientific work. Before reaching my current position, I consolidated my academic career at UMA as a Permanent Lecturer (January 2024) and Assistant Professor (July 2022). Previously, I carried out a postdoctoral specialization period at the University of Seville (US) (2021–2022) funded by a Juan de la Cierva–Formación fellowship (2019 call). During this period, I joined the DiversoLab research group under the supervision of Professor David Benavides.

Scientific contributions and impact

My research activity focuses on Software Product Lines (SPL), variability management, configuration, and quality attributes. This activity is supported by two recognized six-year research periods (2013–2024) and is characterized by a balance between scientific productivity and technical excellence. I have published more than 75 scientific works, including:

20 JCR journal articles (13 of them in the first quartile, Q1).
38 international conference and workshop papers.
17 national conference papers.

These contributions have been recognized with 5 Best Paper Awards at international conferences (SPLC’21, ConfWS’21, SoMeT’18, SPLC’17, MATES’16) and one Runner-up award (SPLC’25). In most of these works, I am the first and corresponding author, and I have personally presented the results at international venues. My scientific output has received more than 800 citations and an h-index of 17 (Google Scholar).
A key milestone in my career was my PhD thesis, “WeaFQAs” (supervised by Lidia Fuentes and Mónica Pinto), which was awarded the SISTEDES National Award 2020 for the best PhD thesis in Computer Science and the Extraordinary Doctoral Award by UMA. The results of this thesis led to 23 publications, including top-tier JCR journals and flagship conferences, consolidating it as one of the most impactful doctoral theses at the national level in its research area.

Projects and internationalization

I have participated in 17 competitive research projects, including one European project, which has enabled collaboration with leading international companies such as Indra, Montimage, and SCYTL. My career has a strong international orientation, reinforced through research stays at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland, 2015) and King’s College London (UK, 2019), the latter resulting in publications in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE).

Service to the community

My commitment to the scientific community is reflected in my active participation in program and organizing committees of leading conferences, where I have held senior roles such as General Chair (ConfWS’24, ConfWS’23, MODEVAR’22) and Local Organizer (ConfWS’23, Modularity’16). I have also served as Proceedings Chair (SPLC’22, VaMoS’18), Artifact Chair (SPLC’24), International Liaison and Publicity Co-Chair (PICom’19), and have reviewed more than 50 papers for top-tier journals (TSE, JSS, ESE, IST) and conferences (SPLC, ICSR, VaMoS, Modularity, JISBD).

Technology transfer

My technology transfer activities focus on the development of software tools with real impact on the SPL community, with a strong commitment to Open Science. I actively contribute to collaborative initiatives such as Flamapy, a reference tool for the automated analysis of feature models, and UVLHub, an open repository for managing and reusing UVL models, currently the de facto standard for variability modeling. In this context, I lead the development of FM Fact Label, an innovative tool for the visualization and analysis of metrics in feature models, and UVengine, an execution engine for the efficient resolution of variability in UVL models, both widely used by the research community.
As a key antecedent, I led the development of vEXgine, a registered tool supporting the CVL language and the core artifact of my PhD thesis. Its impact was recognized with the Young Best Tool Award at SPLC’17, sponsored by Hitachi, leading to long-term collaborations with the University of A Coruña (UDC) and the company Enxenio, as part of the national TASOVA network.

Teaching and mentoring

I have one recognized teaching period (quinquennium), and teaching experience at both the UMA and the US, as well as participation in educational innovation projects. I have supervised 9 Bachelor’s theses and 6 Master’s theses, and I am currently co-supervising a PhD thesis in collaboration with the UNED.