Outstanding Participation of iHEALTH Members at LACSC 2025
The Millennium Institute iHEALTH had an outstanding presence at the IX Latin American Conference on Statistical Computing (LACSC 2025), held in Valparaíso, where it served as an institutional sponsor and contributed to the Organizing Committee through the involvement of two faculty members from the School of Biomedical Civil Engineering at Universidad de Valparaíso: Dr. Rodrigo Salas and Dr. David Ortiz, both iHEALTH researchers.
This conference, recognized as the leading Latin American meeting on statistical computing and supported by international institutions such as ISI, ASA, IASC, and ISBIS, brought together global specialists in artificial intelligence, data science and applied statistical inference. Its central theme, “The Frontiers of Statistical Computing and Data Science in the Artificial Intelligence Era,” gathered diverse experts to address global challenges through computational and data–driven methodologies.
One of the most relevant achievements for the institute was earning both top recognitions for best paper presented at LACSC. First place was awarded to Javier Bisbal, UC doctoral student, for his work “Unsupervised 4D Flow MRI Velocity Enhancement and Unwrapping Using Divergence-Free Neural Networks,” supervised by Dr. Cristián Tejos, Professor of Engineering at UC and Adjunct Researcher at iHEALTH. Meanwhile, second place was obtained by Sebastián Jara, UTFSM doctoral student, for his work “Prediction of peak-to-peak pressure gradient in patients with aortic coarctation using Physics-Informed Neural Networks from Magnetic Resonance Images,” supervised by Dr. Julio Sotelo, Professor at the Department of Informatics at UTFSM and Principal Investigator of the institute.
Both contributions reflect the development of AI-powered and physics-based computational tools for improving medical imaging and supporting cardiovascular diagnostics, consolidating the institute as an emerging reference in this field in Chile.
Several members of the institute presented research in oral format across different conference sessions:
Session: Machine Learning in Multidimensional Medical Imaging
Session Chair: Dr. Julio Sotelo (UTFSM – iHEALTH Principal Investigator)
- Javier Bisbal (UC – doctoral student)
"Unsupervised 4D Flow MRI Velocity Enhancement and Unwrapping Using Divergence-Free Neural Networks". - Sebastián Jara (UTFSM – doctoral student)
"Prediction of peak-to-peak pressure gradient in patients with aortic coarctation using Physics-Informed Neural Networks from Magnetic Resonance Images". - Sebastián Gutiérrez (UTFSM – Master’s student)
"Deep Learning for Enhancing Ultrafast Ultrasound Image Reconstruction".
Session: Statistical and Machine Learning Applications in Medical Sciences
Session Chair: Dr. Rodrigo Salas (UV – iHEALTH Principal Investigator)
- Dr. David Ortiz (UV – iHEALTH Young Researcher)
"Physics-Informed Neural Network Model for Predicting Pulmonary Arterial Pressure".
Session: Women in Data Science: Recent Theoretical Research and Applications
- Dra. Xaviera Lopez (UCM – iHEALTH Young Researcher)
"Automated Triage Classification in Emergency Services Using Spanish Clinical Notes: A Comparative Analysis between ALBERT and Classical Machine Learning Approaches".
Session: Statistical and Machine Learning Applications in Medical Sciences
- Carolina Osorio (UV – graduate)
"Prediction of gestational weight gain using a multilevel linear mixed model: development of the MaternIA application". - Rodrigo Avaria (UV – doctoral student)
"Pinning the Balloon: Non-Linear Regression through Physically Informed Neural Network".
The participation of iHEALTH in LACSC 2025 not only highlights the level of research being conducted at the institute, but also reinforces its role as a connector between statistical science, engineering, and artificial intelligence applied to human health. Its leadership in organizing the event, along with the academic success of its young members, demonstrates the capacity of the Chilean scientific ecosystem to produce knowledge with international impact.
