PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Xavier Alameda-Pineda

Xavier Alameda-Pineda is a researcher in multimodal AI whose work combines computer vision, audio, and machine learning to study behavior and smart interactive systems. He earned degrees at BarcelonaTech and the University of Grenoble Alpes, completed a PhD with Inria's Perception Team under Radu Horaud, and held a postdoctoral position in Trento's Multimodal Human Understanding Group. He received ACM SIGMM's 2018 Rising Star Award, led ML3RI, coordinated H2020 SPRING for gerontological healthcare, and coauthored the 2024 ECCV paper Lost and Found on online multi-object tracking. Since 2024, he has been a Research Director at Inria; as of October 2026, he is also Unit Director and Fellow at ELLIS Unit Grenoble.

Born
1985
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2008–2013

    Degrees and a PhD

    At BarcelonaTech, he earns degrees in mathematics and telecommunications engineering in 2008 and 2009, then a computer science master's at the University of Grenoble Alpes in 2010. In 2013, he completes a mathematics and computer science PhD there with Inria's Perception Team under Radu Horaud.

  2. 2014–2016

    Postdoctoral work in Trento

    From 2014 to 2016, he works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Multimodal Human Understanding Group at the University of Trento with Prof. Nicu Sebe.

  3. 2016–2024

    Research scientist at Inria

    In 2016, he joins Inria Grenoble Rhône-Alpes’s Perception Team as a research scientist. His work combines computer vision, audio and signal processing with machine learning for behavior analysis and synthesis and smart interactive systems through 2024.

  4. 2018

    An ACM SIGMM Rising Star Award

    He receives the 2018 ACM SIGMM Rising Star Award for contributions to multimodal social behavior understanding.

  5. 2020–2024

    ML3RI for robot interaction

    From 2020 to 2024, he leads ML3RI, an ANR JCJC project that develops learning methods for autonomous robots to understand and respond to low-level cues in multi-person interactions.

  6. 2020–2024

    Coordinating project SPRING

    From 2020 to 2024, he coordinates H2020 SPRING, a project on socially pertinent robots for gerontological healthcare.

  7. 2024

    Lost and Found at ECCV

    At ECCV 2024, he coauthors Lost and Found: Overcoming Detector Failures in Online Multi-Object Tracking with Lorenzo Vaquero, Yihong Xu, Víctor M. Brea and Manuel Mucientes.

  8. As of October 2026

    Research Director and ELLIS Unit Director

    He becomes a Research Director at Inria in 2024 and leads the RobotLearn Team. As of October 2026, he is Unit Director and Fellow at ELLIS Unit Grenoble.

Career

  1. NowInriaResearch Director
  2. NowEuropean Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent SystemsELLIS Unit Director and Fellow
  3. 2014–2016University of TrentoPostdoctoral fellow

Education

  1. 2013InriaPhD
  2. 2010Université Grenoble AlpesComputer science master's
  3. 2009Polytechnic University of CataloniaDegree in telecommunications engineering
  4. 2008Polytechnic University of CataloniaDegree in mathematics

From the biography.

  1. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  2. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes Inria. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  3. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. We estimate how 26,439 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs, nonprofits and government research centers, with decade counts, net flows and the top paths.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Inria. 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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. Research — Xavier Alameda-Pineda xavirema.eu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. ACM SIGMM Rising Star Award 2018 sigmm.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. D-META » Organization Committee d-meta.inrialpes.fr. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Project-Team:PERCEPTION radar.inria.fr. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Xavier Alameda-Pineda • MHUG mhug.disi.unitn.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Grenoble | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 21 October 2026.