Personal profile
Research interests
Abel Méndez Porras holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Informatics from the University of Costa Rica. Since 2002, he has been a professor and researcher at the Instituto Tecnológico deCosta Rica, where he currently serves as a tenured professor and a level 2 consolidated researcher. Additionally, he is a registered Innovation Manager with the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Telecommunications of Costa Rica. He has completed over 200 hours of training through the Costa Rica STEM Program, offered by LASPAU and SINAES in 2018 and 2021.
His research focuses on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications across various disciplines, including educational innovation, clean energy, sustainable agriculture, facial recognition, and capacity building in industrial innovation. He has authored over 25 scientific publications indexed in Scopus.
Dr. Méndez is the coordinator of the GISII group (Software Engineering, Innovation, and Research Group), a multidisciplinary team specializing in Software Engineering and its connection to other fields such as Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Robotics.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 4 Quality Education -
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy -
SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure -
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities -
SDG 13 Climate Action -
SDG 15 Life on Land
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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GAN: Estimación de la incertidumbre aleatoria y epistémica en modelos GAN para simulaciones de detectores de partículas
Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Ugalde Green, F. (Institutional academic collaborator) & Arguedas Cuendis, S. (External collaborating researcher )
1/01/26 → 31/12/26
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Basic and applied research
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IA-riesgo : Uso de Inteligencia Artificial en el análisis de riesgo en valuación de bienes inmuebles para el Sistema Financiero nacional de Costa Rica
Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic coordinator)
1/01/26 → 30/06/27
Project: Research Projects With national external funds › Basic and applied research
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Gestión Transformadora de las PyMEs en la Zona Norte: Generando competencias en la aplicación de herramientas de IA para la mejora de procesos
Lopez Valerio, C. (Institutional academic coordinator), Esquivel Vega, G. (Institutional academic collaborator), Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic collaborator), Garita Rodríguez, C. (Institutional academic collaborator), Fernández Mora, L. (Institutional academic coordinator), Barrantes Barrantes, E. (Institutional academic collaborator), Alfaro Velasco, J. (Institutional academic collaborator), Víquez Paniagua, A. G. (Institutional academic collaborator), Campos Agüero, C. (Institutional academic collaborator) & Miranda Fajardo, J. C. (Institutional academic collaborator)
Cámara de Turismo y Comercio de San Vicente (TUSANVI)
1/01/26 → 31/12/28
Project: Other
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La relación del capital intelectual verde con la innovación de producto de las empresas de desarrolladoras de software y análisis de datos de la cámara de tecnologías de información y comunicación de Costa Rica
Alfaro Ramos, A. (Institutional academic coordinator) & Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic collaborator)
21/07/25 → 30/06/27
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Basic and applied research
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Desarrollo de Capacidades Tecnológicas en Empresas Rurales de la Zona Norte de Costa Rica mediante la Adopción de Tecnologías Digitales Disruptivas
Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Esquivel Vega, G. (Institutional academic collaborator), Alfaro Velasco, J. (Institutional academic collaborator), Delgado, E. J. (Institutional academic collaborator), Miranda Fajardo, J. C. (Institutional academic collaborator), Campos Agüero, C. (Institutional academic collaborator), Barrantes Barrantes, E. (Institutional academic collaborator) & Lopez Valerio, C. (Institutional academic collaborator)
1/01/25 → 31/08/27
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Technological Development
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A Comparative Study of Transfer Learning Models for Tattoo Detection
Jiménez Delgado, E., Quesada-López, C., Castro Caicedo, F., Cabrera Meza, H., Méndez-Porras, A., Campaña-Bastidas, S., Alfaro-Velasco, J., Murillo-Rojas, N. & Rodríguez-Salas, J., 2026, Emerging Trends in Information Systems and Technologies - WorldCIST 2025 Volume 4. Rocha, A., Adeli, H., Poniszewska-Maranda, A., Moreira, F. & Bianchi, I. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 299-312 14 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1583 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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A Comparative Study on Deep Learning Techniques for Tattoo Localization
Jiménez-Delgado, E., Quesada-López, C., Méndez-Porras, A., Alfaro-Velasco, J. & Murillo-Rojas, N., 2026, Proceedings of 20th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI 2025) - Volume 2. Rocha, A., García Peñalvo, F., Costa, C. J. & Gonçalves, R. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 97-109 13 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1717 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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A Deep Learning Algorithm to Address Kinship Verification Integrating Age Transformation Techniques Applied to the Family Images and Model Tuning Methodologies
Piedra-Hidalgo, P., Méndez-Porras, A., Valverde, L. A. C. & Bastidas, S. C., 2026, Proceedings of 20th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI 2025) - Volume 1. Rocha, A., Costa, C. J., Peñalvo, F. G. & Gonçalves, R. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 120-134 15 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1716 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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AI-Based Real-Time Security Monitoring System for Violet Tourism
Méndez-Porras, A., Retschitzegger, W., Proell, B., Alfaro-Velasco, J., Fernández-Mora, L., Esquivel-Vega, G. & Campos-Agüero, C., 2026, Proceedings of 20th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI 2025) - Volume 1. Rocha, A., Costa, C. J., Peñalvo, F. G. & Gonçalves, R. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 135-145 11 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1716 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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A Multi-method Active Liveness Detection Approach for Spoofing Detection: Integrating Blink, Head Movement, and Facial Expression Analysis
Méndez-Porras, A., Porras-Rojas, M., Alfaro-Velasco, J., Jiménez-Delgago, E., Jiménez, J. B. & Bastidas, S. C., 2026, Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference, FTC 2025, Volume 1. Arai, K. (ed.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 698-718 21 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1675 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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