PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Iván Sipirán

Also known as Ivan Sipiran, Ivan Anselmo Sipiran Mendoza

Iván Sipirán is a computer scientist who applies 3D shape analysis, computer vision and generative models to the study of cultural heritage. He earned a PhD at the University of Chile in 2014 under Benjamín Bustos, then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz and as a researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima. In 2021 he was lead author of the SHREC 2021 report on retrieving cultural heritage objects, and in 2022 he published a point-cloud method for restoring archaeological pottery in the International Journal of Computer Vision. The University of Chile named him Best Undergraduate Professor in 2024, and in 2024 and 2025 his work turned to diffusion models and the generation of 3D point clouds. He is an assistant professor at the University of Chile and a principal investigator at CENIA, and in October 2026 a Schmidt Sciences grant for a project on prehispanic Atacama imagery named him as co-investigator.

Badges

Timeline

  1. By 2014

    A PhD under Benjamín Bustos

    He studies computer science at the National University of Trujillo in Peru and earns a PhD in computer science at the University of Chile in 2014, advised by Benjamín Bustos. He works there as a research assistant in the PRISMA research group.

  2. 2013–2015

    Postdoc at Konstanz

    He works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz in Germany from 2013 to 2015. His paper "A fully hierarchical approach for finding correspondences in non-rigid shapes" is accepted at ICCV 2013.

  3. 2015–2020

    Research at PUCP in Lima

    He joins the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima as a research professor in the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering in 2015. He works there as a researcher in its Informatics Section from 2017 to 2020.

  4. 2021

    Professor in Chile and SHREC 2021

    He becomes an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chile in 2021. As lead author, he reports the SHREC 2021 cultural heritage retrieval track in Computers and Graphics, which offers a dataset of 938 scanned models, a retrieval-by-shape challenge and a retrieval-by-culture challenge for ten participating groups.

  5. 2022

    Restoring pottery from point clouds

    In 2022, he publishes "Data-Driven Restoration of Digital Archaeological Pottery with Point Cloud Analysis" in the International Journal of Computer Vision with Alexis Mendoza, Alexander Apaza and Cristian Lopez. His open-source tools include SymArch, a geometric processing platform at the Museo Larco in Peru, and Data-Driven-CH, an AI restoration tool at the Museo Josefina Ramos de Cox.

  6. 2024

    Teaching award and a CACM article

    In 2024, he receives the Best Undergraduate Professor distinction at the University of Chile, one of 42 faculty members selected from about 4,000. He also writes "The Role of Computing in the Study of Latin American Cultural Heritage" for Communications of the ACM.

  7. 2024–2025

    Diffusion models for heritage objects

    In October 2024, he and Pablo Jaramillo post "Cultural Heritage 3D Reconstruction with Diffusion Networks", which tests a conditional diffusion model that reconstructs 3D point clouds of heritage objects. In 2025, he receives Fondecyt Regular funding for "Symmetry-conditioned generation of 3D point clouds", a project to build an AI model that generates 3D objects with more precision and coherence.

  8. As of October 2026

    CENIA investigator and Atacama project

    He is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chile and a principal investigator at CENIA in the line on deep learning for vision and language. In October 2026, Schmidt Sciences funds the project "Motifs Across Media: AI Analysis of Prehispanic Atacama Visual Systems", where he is a co-investigator.

Career

  1. Since 2021University of ChileResearch Assistant
  2. NowNational Center for Artificial IntelligencePrincipal Investigator
  3. 2015–2020Pontificia Universidad Católica del PerúResearch Professor, Researcher
  4. 2013–2015University of KonstanzPostdoctoral Researcher

Education

  1. 2014University of ChilePhD
  2. National University of Trujillo

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes National Center for Artificial Intelligence. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Chile. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Chile. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Iván Sipirán yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Iván Sipirán - Perfiles - CENIA cenia.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Ivan Anselmo Sipiran Mendoza - Portal del Investigador, ANID investigadores.anid.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Ivan Sipiran's Personal Page users.dcc.uchile.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. SHREC 2021: Retrieval of cultural heritage objects research.tue.nl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Cultural Heritage 3D Reconstruction with Diffusion Networks arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Conoce los proyectos de investigación que desarrollarán los ganadores(as) del Fondecyt Regular 2025 - CENIA cenia.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Schmidt Sciences otorga financiamiento a proyecto CENIA, UTA, UC y UChile que busca descifrar las figuras prehispánicas del desierto de Atacama - CENIA cenia.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. DCC | Académicas/os - Iván Sipirán dcc.uchile.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.