About me

Leonel Merino is Assistant Professor of Engineering Design at the School of Design and the Faculty of Engineering of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, since 2021. He is part of the Design Engineering Lab.

Between 2018 and 2021, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Visualization Research Center (VISUS), Universitaet Stuttgart.

Since 2020, Prof. Merino is a member of the steering committee of VISSOFT, the leading international conference in software visualization. His research interests lie at the intersection of the use of virtual and augmented reality, software engineering, human-computer interaction, data visualization, and evaluations with users.

From 2014 to 2018, he worked as a Research Assistant at the Software Composition Group (SCG) and obtained a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at Universitaet Bern.

He worked as a Project Engineer at ENTEL between 2009 and 2014. Previously, he received a Master's degree in Computer Science, in the EMOOSE program, from the École des Mines de Nantes and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in 2008.

He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Engineering Sciences and a Professional Degree of Civil Engineer in Computer Science from the University of Chile, in 2006.

Research

My research sits at the intersection of software engineering, immersive technologies, and human-computer interaction. I design, build, and evaluate tools that help developers and analysts understand complex systems through visualization and extended reality.

Software Visualization Visual tools and approaches for understanding software structure, evolution, and quality
Immersive Analytics VR/AR environments for in-situ data exploration and situated visualization authoring
Software Engineering Software comprehension, performance monitoring, and code analysis at scale
Human-Computer Interaction User studies, interaction design, and empirical evaluations with developers
Extended Reality Applications of VR/AR in software development and the metaverse
Privacy & Security Security and privacy challenges for developers in immersive platforms

Teaching

I teach courses at the intersection of computing, design, and immersive technologies at UC Chile. Current and recent courses include:

Realidad Extendida IDI3185
Visualización de Datos INF3531 · MTIG
Tópicos en Ciencia de la Computación IIC3800
Diseño en Realidad Extendida DNO098
Pensamiento Visual IDI1015
Pensamiento Computacional DNO1063
Diseño en VR/AR DNO3289 · MADA

Prospective students & researchers — I am always looking for motivated people interested in pursuing a Master (M.Sc.), Doctorate (Ph.D.), or Postdoctoral position in topics related to my research. If you are passionate about software visualization, immersive analytics, HCI, or extended reality, feel free to reach out.

Partial direct funding is available through active research projects. Full funding opportunities exist through VRI UC (Vicerrectoría de Investigación, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and ANID (Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Chile).

Relevant programs at UC Chile:

M.Sc. en Ciencias de la Ingeniería Ph.D. en Ciencias de la Ingeniería Ph.D. en Arquitectura, Diseño y Estudios Urbanos

Conference Organization

Program Committee

Reviewer

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, SoftwareX

Student Supervision