Manuel Portela
Research Associate
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolManuel Portela is a research associate and UX-focused service designer with 14 years of experience at the intersection of STS, urban studies, HCI and algorithmic fairness, based in Barcelona. He combines academic rigor from a geoinformatics joint doctorate with hands-on experience building interactive ML-informed interfaces and data-driven urban tools, leading projects like DATALOG and coordinating UPF’s Mitigating Harm in AI initiative. Manuel advises European institutions and the Barcelona city government on AI ethics, runs civic-oriented initiatives such as Algorithmic Societies, and evaluates smart-city innovation at international forums. His work uniquely blends participatory design and citizen science with practical engineering (React, Python/Flask, Docker) to make AI more explainable and governable in cities. He also publishes bilingual commentary and research on technology-society links, revealing a sustained commitment to translating research into public policy and community-facing prototypes.
14 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
Certificate of Advanced Study in Civil Society Organizations, State and Public Policy, Certificate of Advanced Study in Civil Society Organizations, State and Public Policy at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias SocialesJoint Doctorate in Geoinformatics: Enabling Open Cities, Joint Doctorate in Geoinformatics: Enabling Open Cities at Universidade Nova de LisboaMaster on Urban Studies, Urban Studies, Master on Urban Studies, Urban Studies at Universidad Nacional de General SarmientoGovernance and Political Management Program, Political Science and Government, Governance and Political Management Program, Political Science and Government at Universidad de 'San Andrés'Graphic Design, Graphic Design, Graphic Design, Graphic Design at University of Buenos AiresJoint Doctorate in GeoInformatics, Computer Science, Joint Doctorate in GeoInformatics, Computer Science at Universitat Jaume I
English, Portuguese, Catalan, German
Github Skills (52)
philips-hue8
nodejs8
homebridge8
json7
javascript7
php-mysql7
sql7
foreign7
dongle7
deep-learning7
pdo7
xml6
orm6
tensorflow6
mssql6
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
manuchis/10.000-ideas
Mar 2012 - Mar 2012
Contributions:6 commits in 2 days
manuchis/empathic-cities-guidelines
Sep 2017 - Aug 2018
Contributions:3 releases, 10 pushes, 1 branch in 10 months
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.