Curriculum Vitae

Education

Work Experience

Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards

Professional Activities

Program Committee

VRST 2026 · ISMAR 2024, 2026 · PX 2024 · SANER 2024 · SCCC 2021–2023 · SEAA 2019–2020 · ASSE 2019 · VISSOFT 2019–2020, 2023–2026 · VISSOFT 2016, 2018 AEC · VISSOFT 2017 NIER/TD · SATToSE 2014

Reviewer

ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), Information and Software Technology (IST), Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), Software: Practice and Experience (SPE), Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (JSPE), Information Visualization (IV), Journal of Visualization (JOVI), Journal of Object Technology (JOT), DGDW, IEEE SoftwareX

Teaching

Lectures (UC Chile)

• "Realidad Extendida" – IDI3185 (2025, 2026)
• "Visualización de Datos" – INF3531, MTIG (2023–2025)
• "Tópicos en Ciencia de la Computación" – IIC3800 (2024)
• "Diseño en Realidad Extendida" – DNO098 (2024–2025)
• "Pensamiento Computacional" – DNO1063 (2021–2023)
• "Pensamiento Visual" – IDI1015 (2021–2023, 2025)
• "Diseño en VR/AR" – DNO3289, MADA (2021, 2023)

International / Guest Lectures

• International Summer School "Visual Software Analytics — Software Comprehension" (Autumn 2019), Universität Leipzig
• Guest Lecture: "3D Software Visualization in VR/AR" (Autumn 2019), Software Modeling and Analysis, Universität Bern
• Guest Lecture: "Software Visualization" (Autumn 2018), Concurrency: State Models and Design Patterns, Universität Bern
• Guest Lecture: "Java and Concurrency" (Autumn 2017), Software Modeling and Analysis, Universität Bern
• Guest Lecture: "Software Visualization" (Autumn 2016), Software Design and Evolution, Universität Bern
• Guest Lecture: "Agile Visualization with Roassal" (Autumn 2014), Universität Bern

Teaching Assistant

• Seminar on Immersive Analytics and Situated Visualization, Universität Stuttgart (Spring 2020)
• Introduction to Virtual and Augmented Reality, Universität Stuttgart (Spring 2019)
• Concurrency: State Models and Design Patterns, Universität Bern (Autumn 2015, 2017)

Supervised Theses

• Juan Pablo Palma — Bachelor thesis, Engineering, UC. Ongoing, 2026.
• Santiago Viana — Bachelor thesis, Design, UC. 2026.
• Arturo Prieto — Bachelor thesis, Engineering, UC. 2025.
• Ljubedsa Calderón — Bachelor thesis, Design, UC. 2025.
• Mauricio Solís — Bachelor thesis, Engineering, UC. 2024.
• Argianto Rahartomo — Ph.D. thesis, TU Clausthal. 2025. (Co-supervised.)
• Samuel Beck — Master thesis, University of Stuttgart. 2021. Evaluating Human-Computer Interfaces for Specification and Comprehension of Transient Behavior in Microservice-based Systems.
• Sarah Dosdall — Bachelor thesis, University of Stuttgart. 2021. On-the-go Authoring Visualization through Wearable Keyboards.
• Till Mayer — Bachelor thesis, University of Stuttgart. 2021. Agile Situated Visualization.
• Niklas Gärtner — Bachelor thesis, University of Stuttgart. 2020. Interaction Modalities for Immersive Analytics and Situated Visualization.
• Mario Hess — Bachelor thesis, University of Bern. 2019. Pervasive Visualization in AR for Software Monitoring. Alumni prize award.
• Silas David Berger — Bachelor thesis, University of Bern. 2017. Visually Exploring Scientific Communities.
• Dominik Seliner — Bachelor thesis, University of Bern. 2016. EggShell – A Workbench for Modeling Scientific Communities.

Publications

Refereed Papers in International Journals

1. Leonel Merino, Begoña Juliá-Nehme, and Santiago Viana. In-situ immersive analytics authoring through ergonomic keyboard support. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, pages 1–27, 2026. WoS Q1
2. Tiara Rojas-Stambuk, Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer, Leonel Merino, and Andres Neyem. On the use of extended reality to support software development activities: A systematic literature review. Information and Software Technology, page 107999, 2026. WoS Q1
3. Paula Wuth, Ricardo J Hernández, Leonel Merino, Sebastian Negrete, and Ignacio Pavez. Collaborative scenario experimentation for strategy formulation to shape desirable futures. Research-Technology Management, 68(6):73–91, 2025. WoS Q2
4. Argianto Rahartomo, Leonel Merino, and Mohammad Ghafari. Metaverse security and privacy research: A systematic review. Computers & Security, 157:104602, 2025. WoS Q1
5. Paula Wuth, Ricardo J Hernandez, Leonel Merino, and Sebastián Negrete. Speculative labs: Shaping future management practices through collaborative scenario experimentation. Touchpoint, 14(3), 2024.
6. Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer, Alejandra Cossio-Chavalier, Tiara Rojas-Stambuk, and Leonel Merino. An eye-tracking study on the use of split/unified code change views for bug detection. IEEE Access, 11:136195–136205, 2023. WoS Q2
7. Noptanit Chotisarn, Leonel Merino, Xu Zheng, Supaporn Lonapalawong, Tianye Zhang, Mingliang Xu, and Wei Chen. A systematic literature review of modern software visualization. Journal of Visualization, 23(4):539–558, 2020. WoS Q2
8. Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Craig Anslow, and Oscar Nierstrasz. A systematic literature review of software visualization evaluation. Journal of Systems and Software, 144:165–180, October 2018. WoS Q1
9. Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Towards actionable visualization for software developers. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, pages e1923–n/a, 2018. WoS Q1

Refereed Papers in International Conferences

10. Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer, D. Freire-Pozo, Tiara Rojas-Stambuk, Alison Fernandez Blanco, and Leonel Merino. Evaluating the use of Augmented Reality for Dependency Graph Analysis: A Controlled Experiment. In Proceedings of the 34th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC), pp. 492–503, 2026.
11. Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Towards Actionable Visualization: Ten Years Later, What Generative AI Changes and What It Cannot. In 2026 IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), 2026. Accepted.
12. Adrian Hoff, Thomas Hoffmann Kilbak, Leonel Merino, and Mircea Lungu. GitTruck@ Duck–Interactive time range selection in hierarchy-oriented polymetric visualization of Git repository evolution. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), pages 853–857. IEEE, 2024.
13. Dussan Freire-Pozo, Kevin Cespedes-Arancibia, Leonel Merino, Alison Fernandez-Blanco, Andres Neyem, and Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer. DGT-AR: Visualizing code dependencies in AR. In Proceedings of the IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), pages 95–99. IEEE, 2023.
14. Sarah Dosdall, Katrin Angerbauer, Leonel Merino, Michael Sedlmair, and Daniel Weiskopf. Toward in-situ authoring of situated visualization with chorded keyboards. In Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI), pages 1–5, 2022.
15. K Højelse, T Kilbak, J Røssum, E Jäpelt, L Merino, and M Lungu. Git-truck: Hierarchy-oriented visualization of git repository evolution. In Proceedings of the IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), pages 131–140. IEEE, 2022.
16. Víctor Stefano Segura Castillo, Leonel Merino, Geoffrey Hecht, and Alexandre Bergel. VR-based user interactions to exploit infinite space in programming activities. In Proceedings of the IEEE 40th International Conference of the Chilean Computer Science Society (SCCC), pages 1–5. IEEE, 2021.
17. Samuel Beck, Sebastian Frank, Alireza Hakamian, Leonel Merino, and André van Hoorn. TransVis: Using visualizations and chatbots for supporting transient behavior in microservice systems. In Proceedings of the IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), pages 65–75. IEEE, 2021.
18. Leonel Merino, Magdalena Schwarzl, Matthias Kraus, Michael Sedlmair, Dieter Schmalstieg, and Daniel Weiskopf. Evaluating mixed and augmented reality: A systematic literature review (2009–2018). In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), pages 438–451, 2020.
19. Leonel Merino, Mircea Lungu, and Christoph Seidl. Unleashing the potentials of immersive augmented reality for software engineering. In Proceedings of the IEEE 27th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER), pages 517–521. IEEE, 2020.
20. Leonel Merino, Boris Sotomayor-Gómez, Xingyao Yu, Ronie Salgado, Alexandre Bergel, Michael Sedlmair, and Daniel Weiskopf. Toward agile situated visualization: An exploratory user study. In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '20), pages 1–7. ACM, 2020.
21. Nitish Patkar, Leonel Merino, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Toward requirements engineering with immersive augmented reality. In Proceedings of the Conference Companion of the 4th International Conference on Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (NIP), pages 55–60. ACM, 2020.
22. Martin Dias, Diego Orellana, Santiago Vidal, Leonel Merino, and Alexandre Bergel. Evaluating a visual approach for understanding JavaScript source code. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC), pages 128–138. IEEE, 2020.
23. Dušan Okanović, Samuel Beck, Lasse Merz, Christoph Zorn, Leonel Merino, André van Hoorn, and Fabian Beck. Can a chatbot support software engineers with load testing? In Proceedings of the 11th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), pages 120–129. ACM, 2020.
24. Leonel Merino, Ekaterina Kozlova, Oscar Nierstrasz, and Daniel Weiskopf. VISON: An ontology-based approach for software visualization tool discoverability. In Proceedings of the IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), pages 45–55. IEEE, 2019.
25. Jack Slater, Craig Anslow, Jens Dietrich, and Leonel Merino. CorpusVis – visualizing software metrics at scale. In Proceedings of the IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), pages 99–109. IEEE, 2019.
26. Leonel Merino, Mario Hess, Alexandre Bergel, Oscar Nierstrasz, and Daniel Weiskopf. PerfVis: Pervasive visualization in immersive augmented reality for performance awareness. In Proceedings of the 10th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), pages 13–16. ACM, 2019.
27. Leonel Merino, Alexandre Bergel, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Overcoming issues of 3D software visualization through immersive augmented reality. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), pages 54–64. IEEE, 2018. Distinguished Paper Award.
28. Leonel Merino, Johannes Fuchs, Michael Blumenschein, Craig Anslow, Mohammad Ghafari, Oscar Nierstrasz, Michael Behrisch, and Daniel Keim. On the impact of the medium in the effectiveness of 3D software visualization. In VISSOFT'17: Proceedings of the 5th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization, pages 11–21. IEEE, 2017.
29. Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Craig Anslow, and Oscar Nierstrasz. CityVR: Gameful software visualization. In ICSME'17: Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (TD Track), pages 633–637. IEEE, 2017.
30. Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Towards actionable visualisation in software development. In VISSOFT'16: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization. IEEE, 2016. Best Paper Award.
31. Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Oscar Nierstrasz, Alexandre Bergel, and Juraj Kubelka. MetaVis: Exploring actionable visualization. In VISSOFT'16: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization. IEEE, 2016.
32. Yuriy Tymchuk, Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Walls, pillars and beams: A 3D decomposition of quality anomalies. In VISSOFT'16: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization, pages 126–135. IEEE, 2016.

Refereed Papers in International Workshops

33. Argianto Rahartomo, Leonel Merino, Yoshiki Ohshima, and Mohammad Ghafari. The dilemma of privacy protection for developers in the metaverse. In 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), pages 284–290, 2025.
34. Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer, Leonel Merino, Alison Fernandez-Blanco, William Ravelo-Mendez, Camilo Escobar-Velásquez, and Mario Linares-Vásquez. A developer's guide to building and testing accessible mobile apps. In Companion Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2024), pages 713–715. ACM, 2024.
35. Leonel Merino, Dominik Seliner, Mohammad Ghafari, and Oscar Nierstrasz. CommunityExplorer: A framework for visualizing collaboration networks. In IWST'16: Proceedings of International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies, pages 2:1–2:9, 2016.
36. Leonel Merino, Mircea Lungu, and Oscar Nierstrasz. Explora: Infrastructure for scaling up software visualisation to corpora. In SATToSE'14: Post-Proceedings of the 7th International Seminar Series on Advanced Techniques & Tools for Software Evolution, volume 1354. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2015.
37. Leonel Merino. Adaptable visualisation based on user needs. In SATToSE'14: Pre-Proceedings of the 7th International Seminar Series on Advanced Techniques & Tools for Software Evolution, pages 71–74, July 2014.

Book Chapters

37. Leonel Merino, Craig Anslow, Takashi Ishio, and Alexandre Bergel. Augmented Software Visualization. National Institute of Informatics, 2023.
38. Leonel Merino. Network visualization. In Alexandre Bergel, editor, Agile Visualization, chapter 17, pages 201–209. LULU Press, 2016.

Research Network