My name is Andres El-Fakdi, Smart Cities Master coordinator and researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation at the University of Girona. I'm a member of the Tecnio Centre EASY in the Agents Research Laboratory. My research interests are focused in contributing to the development of modern societies in urban environments. For this purpose, my studies are related with the application of machine learning techniques for Big Data Analytics and the use and development of blockchain technologies for distributed security and IP assurement. My field of work are smart cities.

• PhD in Industrial Engineering at the University of Girona (2011).
• Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Girona (2003).

Along the PhD my research has been focused on the study and development of machine learning techniques and its application to autonomous mobile robots and autonomous underwater vehicles in real robotics tasks. The purpose of my PhD research has been to demonstrate the feasibility of artificial intelligence for learning in open scenarios. Therefore, my PhD succesfully concluded with the utilization of learning algorithms to overcome not programmed changes in the environment conditions which lead robots to fulfill particular tasks. Nowadays, my post doctoral research is centered in the study, design and development of machine learning solutions for knowledge extraction in high complex processes, usually related with smart cities.

Improving cities is a pressing global need as the world’s population grows and our species becomes rapidly more urbanized. Thanks to the relative ease with which local governments can now gather real time data, combined with the capabilities of artificial Intelligence, cities are realizing interesting new ways to run more efficiently and effectively. Therefore, current research carried out at our research group and with our smart city master students is aligned with the application of machine learning techniques and blockchain technologies for big data analytics, smart traffic and parking management, energy efficiency in buildings, citizen participation and e-government.

Journal articles

A. El-Fakdi, F. Gamero, J. Meléndez, V. Auffret and P. Haigron.
eXiTCDSS: A framework for a workflow-based CBR for interventional Clinical Decision Support Systems and its application to TAVI.
Expert Systems with Applications, 41(2):284–294, October 2013.

A. El-Fakdi and M. Carreras.
Two-step gradient-based reinforcement learning for underwater robotics behavior learning.
Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 61(3):271–282, March 2013.

N. Palomeras, A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and P. Ridao.
COLA2: A control architecture for AUVs.
IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 37(4):695–716, October 2012.

P. Ridao, A. Tiano, A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and A. Zirilli.
On the identification of non-linear models of unmanned underwater vehicles.
Control Engineering Practice, 12:1483–1499, January 2004.

Conference papers

J. de la Rosa, V. Torres, A. El-Fakdi, D. Gibovic, O. Hornyák, L. Maicher and F. Miralles.
A survey of blockchain technologies for open innovation.
4th Annual World Open Innovation Conference WOIC'17, San Francisco, USA, December 2017.

J. de la Rosa, D. Gibovic, V. Torres, L. Maicher, F. Miralles, A. El-Fakdi and A. Bikfalvi.
On intellectual property in online open innovation for SME by means of blockchain and smart contracts.
3rd Annual World Open Innovation Conference WOIC'16, Barcelona, Spain, December 2016.

A. El-Fakdi, F. Gamero, Q. Meléndez and R. Petite.
EXITCDSS: A framework for a workflow-based CBR for interventional CDSS - Application to Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI).
6th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies BIOSTEC'13, Barcelona, Spain, February 2013.

A. El-Fakdi, Q. Meléndez and R. Petite.
A proposal of a workflow-based CBR for interventional CDSS - Application to Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI).
5th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies BIOSTEC'12, Vilamoura, Portugal, February 2012.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and E. Galceran.
Two steps natural actor critic learning for underwater cable tracking.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA'10, Anchorage, USA, May 2010.

N. Palomeras, P. Ridao, C. Silvestre and A. El-Fakdi.
Multiple vehicles mission coordination using Petri nets.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA'10, Anchorage, USA, May 2010.

A. El-Fakdi and M. Carreras.
Policy gradient-based reinforcement learning for real autonomous underwater cable tracking.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems IROS'08, Nice, France, September 2008.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and E. Hernández.
Gradient-based reinforcement learning for autonomous underwater cable tracking.
18th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence ECAI'08, Patras, Greece, July 2008.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras, J. Antich and A. Ortiz
Learning by example: Reinforcement learning techniques for real autonomous underwater cable tracking.
5th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics ICINCO'08, Funchal, Portugal, May 2008.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and J. Batlle.
Direct policy search reinforcement learning for autonomous underwater cable tracking.
6th IFAC Workshop on Navigation, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles NGCUV'08, Killaloe, Ireland, April 2008.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and P. Ridao.
Towards direct policy search reinforcement learning for robot control.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots ans Systems IROS'06, Beijing, China, October 2006.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and P. Ridao.
Direct gradient-based reinforcement learning for robot behavior learning.
2nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics ICINCO'05, Barcelona, Spain, September 2005.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras, N. Palomeras and P. Ridao.
Autonomous underwater vehicle control using reinforcement learning policy search methods.
IEEE OCEANS'05 Europe, Brest, France, June 2005.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and N. Palomeras.
Direct policy search reinforcement learning for robot control.
8é Congrés Català d'Intel·ligència Artificial CCIA'05, Algero, Italy, October 2005.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras, P. Ridao and E. Hernández.
Studying the feasibility of policy reinforcement learning methods for autonomous agents.
6th Workshop de Agentes Físicos WAF'05, Granada, Spain, September 2005.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and J. Batlle.
Control of an autonomous robot using multiple RL-based behaviors.
5th Workshop de Agentes Físicos WAF'04, Girona, Spain, March 2004.

B. Innocenti, P. Ridao, N. Gascons, A. El-Fakdi, B. Lopez and J. Salvi.
Dynamical model parameters identification of a wheeled mobile robot.
5th IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles IAV'04, Lisboa, Portugal, July 2004.

P. Ridao, M. Carreras, D. Ribas, and A. El-Fakdi.
Graphical simulators for AUV development.
IEEE First International Symposium on Control, Communications and Signal Processing ISCCSP'04, Hammamet, Tunisia, March 2004.

M. Carreras, P. Ridao and A. El-Fakdi.
Semi-Online Neural-Q-Learning for real-time robot learning.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems IROS'03, Las Vegas, USA, October 2003.

A. El-Fakdi, A. Tiano, P. Ridao and J. Batlle.
Identification of non-linear models of unmanned underwater vehicles: Comparison between two identification methods.
6th International Conference on Maneuvering and Control of Marine Crafts MCMC'03, Girona, Spain, September 2003.

A. Tiano, M. Carreras, A. El-Fakdi, P. Ridao and M. Cuneo.
Non-linear identification of underwater vehicles.
9th International Conference on Methods and Models in Automation and Robotics MMAR'03, Miedzyzdroje, Poland, August 2003.

M. Carreras, A. Tiano, A. El-Fakdi, A. Zirilli and P. Ridao.
On the identification of non linear models of unmanned underwater vehicles.
First IFAC Workshop on Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles GCUV'03, Wales, UK, April 2003.

D. Ribas, P. Ridao, X. Cufí and A. El-Fakdi.
Towards a DVL-based navigation system for an underwater robot.
4th Workshop on European Scientific and Industrial Collaboration WESIC'03, Miskolc, Hungary, May 2003.

Book and eBook chapters

J. de la Rosa, A. El-Fakdi, V. Torres and X. Amengual.
Logo recognition by consensus for enabling bockchain implementations.
Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, volume 300, pages 257-262. Published by IOS Press. First Edition 2017. DOI 10.3233/978-1-61499-806-8-257.

A. El-Fakdi and J. de la Rosa.
Open innovation platform: Adding social machines for enlightening discussions.
Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, volume 288, pages 283-288. Published by IOS Press. First Edition 2016. DOI 10.3233/978-1-61499-696-5-283.

M. Carreras, A. El-Fakdi and P. Ridao.
Behavior adaptation by means of reinforcement learning.
Marine Robot Autonomy, pages 287-328. Edited by M.L. Seto. Published by Springer. First Edition 2013. ISBN 978-1-4614-5658-2.

A. El-Fakdi, M. Carreras and P. Ridao.
Direct gradient-based reinforcement learning for robot behavior learning.
Informatics in Control Automation and Robotics II, part 2, pages 175-182. Edited by J. Filipe, J. Ferrier, J.A. Cetto and M. Carvalho. Published by Springer. First Edition 2007. ISBN 978-1-4020-5625-3.

J. Batlle, P. Ridao, R. Garcia, M. Carreras, X. Cufí, A. El-Fakdi, D. Ribas, T. Nicosevici, E. Batlle, G. Oliver, A. Ortiz and J. Antich.
URIS: Underwater Robotic Intelligent System.
Automation for the Maritime Industries, chapter 11, pages 177–203. Edited by J. Aranda, M. A. Armada, J. M. de la Cruz. Published by Instituto de Automática Industrial, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas CSIC, First Edition 2004. ISBN 84-609-3315-6.

Other publications

A. El-Fakdi.
Gradient-based reinforcement learning techniques for underwater robotics behavior learning.
PhD Thesis, University of Girona, Spain, 2011.

A. El-Fakdi.
Reinforcement learning policy gradient algorithms for robot learning.
Master Thesis. Computer Vision and Robotics Group VICOROB, Computer Engineering Department at the University of Girona. Girona, Spain, February 2005.