
Ouriel Grynszpan holds Master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Supélec, France (1996) and Virginia Tech, USA (1996). Before joining academia, he worked as a telecom and software engineer. He received a Ph.D. in cognitive sciences from the University of Paris South (2005). Since 2007, he is an associate professor in Neurosciences at the University Pierre et Marie Curie. He is currently affiliated with the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR). He conducts research on social interactions using virtual reality and embodied conversational agents. He led several projects on technology based treatment for autism.
.. Dr. Roberto Erick Lopez-Herrejon is an Associate Professor at the Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology of the École de Technologie Supérieure of the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. Prior he was a senior postdoctoral researcher at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. He was an Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Lise Meitner Fellow (2012–2014) at the same institution. From 2008 to 2014 he was an External Lecturer at the Software Engineering Masters Programme of the University of Oxford, England. From 2010 to 2012 he held an FP7 Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship sponsored by the European Commission. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006, funded in part by a Fulbright Fellowship sponsored by the U.S. State Department. From 2005 to 2008, he was a Career Development Fellow at the Software Engineering Centre of the University of Oxford sponsored by Higher Education Founding Council of England (HEFCE). His main expertise is in software customization, software product lines, and search based software engineering. He is interested in application of these research areas for the customization and personalization of IT solutions for autism.
.James Cusack is Director of Science at Autistica and has broad experience working within the field of autism, holding specific expertise in autism research. He completed his PhD at the University of Aberdeen where he studied how people with autism detect the actions of others. In his post-doctoral studies he led the development of an automated measure of facial imitation which is being used in the study of autism, mood disorders and schizophrenia. James has sat on a number of advisory panels discussing the role of research in autism, including: A Future Made Together; and the publication Educational Provision and Outcomes for People on the Autism Spectrum. He was part of a core stakeholder group which successfully campaigned for Scotland’s first ever autism strategy. From a young age James has also worked directly with families affected by autism, as well as having experience in clinical, educational and social care settings. Since joining Autistica James has continued to advance Autistica’s community-driven research agenda with a view to ensuring people affected by autism have an equal right to a long, happy and healthy life.
.. He graduated in Computer Science from the Valencia Polytechnic University (Spain) in 1995. He worked at iSOCO, S.A where he researched the semantic web visualisation area, and participated in many international projects. He has managed many national and international IT projects related to disability. He is co-founder of the ADAPTA Foundation and collaborates in this organization leading IT projects that apply the technology to improve the quality of life of people with autism. He is currently the Secretary of the ADAPTA Foundation, and led the “Inclusive Contents” project funded by the Spanish Government where he designed and developed software to support school management with extensions that assist the teachers with the education of people with disabilities.
..He is Vice President and Founding Trustee of AUCAVI Foundation and Principal of the AUCAVI school, a specialized school for learners with ASD (Madrid-Spain). He is also Advisor at AQUA Johannesburg (South Africa). Mr. Perez de la Maza is a special education teacher, with a degree in Educational Psychologist and a Master in educational computing. He is involved in various work groups and projects regarding ICT for people with ASD.
.Simon has worked in the autism field since 1994. He has held research and honorary clinical positions at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford. Since leaving academic research in 2008 Simon has worked in the UK and Europe within the charitable sector. Along with colleagues he wrote the European Commission’s DG-SANCO strategy on autism and built a network of nine government departments in south-east Europe who signed up to a working partnership on autism. His most recent position was as Research Director of UK medical research charity Autistica, where he wrote and implemented their five year research strategy. Simon joined AT-Autism in 2016 to develop their international activities, particularly around health services.