About us - SyMptOMS

Who are we?

We are an interdisciplinary team covering every aspect of the platform, bringing together experienced developers and clinical psychologists.
If you are interested in our research, get in touch.

Geotec is a research group specialized in geospatial technologies and GIS development (Geographic Information Systems). We address everyday problems from a geospatial perspective, tackling these complex challenges through a multidisciplinary, innovative, and collaborative approach, exploring different theoretical and practical perspectives to provide effective and sustainable solutions to social and environmental issues such as mobility, transportation, population aging, environmental health, climate change, and education.

LabPsiTec (Laboratory of Psychology and Technology) at the Jaume I University of Castellón and the University of Valencia has been researching for over 25 years the possibilities that New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer to Clinical Psychology. These tools (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Internet, mobile systems, etc.) can be used for assessment, treatment, and the study of basic psychological processes. Additionally, through the Psychological Assistance Service at Jaume I University, our patients benefit from the latest advances in psychological treatments.

Principal investigators

Sven Casteleyn

Sven Casteleyn is an associate professor at the University Jaime I (UJI), Castellón, Spain. He previously held a five year Ramón y Cajal fellowship (UJI) and a two year European Marie Curie individual fellowship (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia), and various post- and pre-doctoral research positions at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, from which he holds a Ph.D. and a Master degree. His research interests lie primarily within the broad field of Web engineering, mobile computing, geographic information science and technology applied to various applications fields, primarily mental health.

Carlos Granell Canut

Carlos Granell Canut is associate professor at UJI. He previously held a 5-year Ramón y Cajal post-doctoral fellowship, worked for 3 years as a postdoc in the Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (Italy), and was a post- and pre-doctoral researcher during the period 2003-2010 at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, from which he holds a Ph.D. (2006). His research interests lie in multi-disciplinary GIS, spatial analysis & visualization applied to mental health and mobility, and reproducibility research practice in GIScience.

Juana María Bretón López

Juana María Bretón López has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Granada (year 2008) and is currently an associate professor at the Universitat Jaume I since 2018. The central theme of her research is the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the application of psychological treatments and the promotion of health and well-being. She belongs to the Labpsitec research group directed by Dr. Azucena García Palacios.

Researchers and developers

Miguel Matey Sanz

Miguel Matey Sanz has a bachelor’s degree and a Master in Computer Science from Universitat Jaume I. Currently, he is holding a FPU grant (Spanish Ministry of education) for pursuing his doctoral studies, and he is involved in SyMptOMS project. He joined the GEOTEC group in 2015 via the Study and Research program to introduce students on a research carrer while they are studying their bachelor’s degree. Miguel is interested in developing mobile and web applications and indoor localization.

Lucas Niño Ruiz

Lucas Niño Ruiz holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, specializing in Information Systems, from Universitat Jaume I, as well as a Master’s degree in Big Data and Data Science from Valencia International University. After working as a front-end engineer in consulting, he joined GEOTEC in 2023, where he works across full-stack development, data analysis, cloud infrastructure, mobile and web applications, and geospatial technologies. His main interests include data engineering, machine learning, scalable cloud systems, applied software development, and financial and quantitative technologies.

Javier Herrero González

Javier Herrero González earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering (2020–2024) from Universitat Jaume I, with a specialization in Software Engineering. He gained experience as a full-stack developer during his internship at Cye Energia. After graduating, he joined the GEOTEC research group to pursue professional growth. He contributes to the SyMptOMS project, where he currently applies his knowledge and expands his experience in software development. His main interests include film, video games, comics, and programming.

Iratxe Alonso Olea

Iratxe Alonso Olea graduated in Psychology from Universitat Jaume I (2018–2022), completed the Master’s in General Health Psychology at UJI (2022–2024) and is now pursuing a PhD at LABPSITEC on how new technologies can benefit anxiety disorders. During training, she completed practicums at the Psycho-oncology Unit of Hospital Provincial de Castellón, the Salusex research group at UJI, and the Gran Vía Mental Health Day Center (Grupo El Castillo). These rotations provided broad exposure to clinical assessment, intervention, and health psychology across hospital, research, and community settings.

Patricia Gual Montolio

Patricia Gual Montolio holds a PhD in Psychology from Universitat Jaume I (UJI). She is faculty/research staff and, since 2018, a member of LABPSITEC led by Prof. Azucena García Palacios. Her work bridges psychology and technology to enhance psychotherapy, using a LABPSITEC-validated mobile app (EmoGuía/Mi Emi/Emotional Well-being) to assess patients daily, trigger real-time clinical alerts, and deliver personalized EMIs informed by EMA to guide treatment. She teaches Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, and since 2019 collaborates with UJI’s Psychological Assistance Service on evaluation, diagnosis, and individual and group interventions.

Former collaborators

Nacho Miralles Tena

With a Ph.D. on Computer Science Nacho is a former collaborator of Geotec where his research lead to the beginning of SyMptOMS platform.

Aida Monfort Muriach

Aida Monfort Muriach completed her Computer Engineering Bachelor (2013) and a specialization course in Advanced Web Development at Jaume I University (2010). She later received a Master’s Degree in Geospatial Technologies (2015) at a Joint Program of UJI, Castellón (Spain); WWU, Münster (Germany); and UNL, Lisbon (Portugal). In February, 2016 she joined GEOTEC. She had worked as a mobile developer and web and GIS programming are among her main interests.

Alberto González-Pérez

Alberto González is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Science thanks to an FPU grant. Previously, he received his master’s Degree in Intelligent Systems in 2018 and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2017. He joined GEOTEC group via the Study and Research program during his first bachelor’s degree year (2013). He has experience developing web applications, mobile applications and web services, also working with embedded hardware.

Nazar Pysko Kopot

Nazar Pysko finished his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Universitat Jaume I in 2022 after doing two internships in computer engineering and full stack development. Via the European INVESTIGO program, he joined GeoTec working in the SyMptOMS project as a BackEnd Engineer. He is currently improving his skills in computer science every day.

Marcos Javier Magni Mattoni

Marcos Javier Magni Mattoni is a computer engineering graduate. He worked as an assistant researcher implementing a CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) to detect illness in cells called glomerulus, and developing an Android app that uses the MLKit from Google. He also developed a curriculum generator web app using NextJS and NodeJS.