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 15 Life on Land
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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DTEC: 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)
1/01/25 → 31/08/27
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Technological Development
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AGRIVOLTAIC: Combinación de la tecnología fotovoltaica en entornos agrícolas para mejorar la competitividad de la región Huetar Norte
Cardinale Villalobos, L. (Institutional academic collaborator), Montero Carmona, W. (Institutional academic collaborator), Echeverría Beirute, F. (Institutional academic collaborator), Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic collaborator), Murillo Soto, L. D. (Institutional academic coordinator), Dittmann, S. (External collaborating researcher ) & Negroni Vera, J. J. (External collaborating researcher )
1/01/24 → 31/12/26
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Technological Development
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Sistemas basados en Inteligencia Artificial usando Machine Learning y Deep Learning para reconocimiento facial, categorización automática de casos y predicción de incidentes por ubicación
Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Calvo Valverde, L. A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Jiménez Delgado, E. (Institutional academic coordinator), Alfaro Velasco, J. (Institutional academic coordinator), Núñez Solano, A. (External collaborating researcher ), Mata Carpio, L. (External collaborating researcher ), Quesada López, C. (External collaborating researcher ), Bastidas, S. E. C. (Institutional academic coordinator), Alejandro Díaz Toro, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), José Cervelión Bastidas, Á. (Institutional academic coordinator) & Emilio Cabrera, H. (Institutional academic coordinator)
1/01/24 → 31/12/26
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Technological Development
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Aula Inteligente impulsada por Inteligencia Artificial y consciente de las emociones
Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Calvo Valverde, L. A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Jiménez Delgado, E. (Institutional academic coordinator), Alfaro Velasco, J. (Institutional academic coordinator), Quesada-López, C. (Institutional academic coordinator), Bastidas, S. E. C. (Institutional academic coordinator), Alejandro Díaz Toro, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), José Cervelión Bastidas, Á. (Institutional academic coordinator), Emilio Cabrera, H. (External collaborating researcher ), Tovar Torres, C. F. (External collaborating researcher ) & Jaramillo Concha, R. (Institutional academic coordinator)
1/01/24 → 31/12/25
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Technological Development
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Identificación de fallas en instalaciones solares fotovoltaicas
Spagnuolo, G. (External collaborating researcher ), Rojas, R. (Institutional academic coordinator), Cardinale Villalobos, L. (Institutional academic coordinator), Méndez Porras, A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Meza Benavides, C. (Institutional academic coordinator), Araya Solano, L. A. (Institutional academic coordinator), Alfaro Velasco, J. (Institutional academic coordinator) & Murillo Soto, L. D. (Institutional academic coordinator)
1/01/20 → 31/12/22
Project: Research Projects Internally funded › Basic and applied research
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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 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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Using Artificial Intelligence for Business Creation and Development: a Case Study in the Real Estate and Education Sectors
Valerio, C. L., Méndez-Porras, A., Rodríguez, C. G., Barrantes, E. B. & Fajardo, J. C. M., 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. 179-192 14 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 Comparative Study of Transfer Learning Models for Industrial and Forensic Applications in Automated Tattoo Detection
Jiménez-Delgado, E., Quesada-Lpez, C., Méndez-Porras, A., Alfaro-Velasco, J., Quesada-Sánchez, J., Mata-Carpio, L. & Núñez-Solano, A., 2025, Intelligent Systems and Applications - Proceedings of the 2025 Intelligent Systems Conference IntelliSys Volume 1. Arai, K. (ed.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 383-396 14 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1553 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review