Heydi Méndez-Vázquez was graduated in Informatics Engineering (with Honors) in 2005 and received the Ph.D. in Automatic and Computing in 2011, both from the Polytechnic University of Havana (CUJAE), Cuba.  Since 2005, she has been with the Biometric Research Group of the Advanced Technologies Application Center (CENATAV), in Cuba. Her research interests include Computer Vision, Biometrics, Face Recognition and Digital Image Processing. She has published more than 20 articles about the development of new methods for automatic face recognition and has presented more than 10 oral and poster presentations on conferences and scientific meetings. She has reviewed papers for prestigious conferences and journals such as the International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) and the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. She is a young associated of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Cuban Association of Pattern Recognition (ACRP) and the International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR). She received a best student paper award in the 5th International Summer School on Biometrics endorsed by the IAPR, in Alghero, Italy, 2008 and was awarded with one of the annual prizes given by the Cuban Academy of Sciences in 2011. Recently, she was awarded with one of the TWAS 2012 Prize for Young Scientists from Cuba. At present, she is the head of the Biometric Research Group in CENATAV.

·       Pattern Recognition

·       Biometrics

·       Digital Image Processing and Analyzing

·       Photometric Image Normalization

·       Face Recognition

·       Face Recognition in Video

Member of the Cuban Society of Mathematic and Computing

Member of the Cuban Association of Pattern Recognition

Member of the International Association of Pattern Recognition

Young Researcher Associated to the Cuban Academy of Sciences

POSTGRADUATE COURSES AND TRAININGS

·2005: Methods for Pattern Recognition, taught by Prof. Edel García Reyes from CENATAV, Cuba.

·2005: Introduction to Data Mining, taught by Prof. José Medina Pagola from CENATAV, Cuba.

·2005: Techniques for Analysis, Representation and Learning from Graph Theory, taught by Prof. Edwin Hancock, University of York, UK.

·2005: Syntactic-Structural Techniques for Image Processing and Analysis, taught by Prof. Alberto Sanfeliú, UPC, Spain.

·2005: Tutorial: Feature Selection and Extraction, taught by Prof. Josef Kittler from University of Surrey, UK.

·2006: Workshop on Data Mining, taught by Prof. Vijay Raghavan and Prof. Glen Maples from Louisiana University, EUA.

·2006: Statistical Pattern Recognition, taught by Prof. Rolando J. Biscay Lirio from ICIMAF, Cuba.

·2006: Machine Learning, taught by Prof. Héctor Allende from Federico Santa Maria University, Chile.

·2006: Digital Image and Signal Processing using wavelets, taught by Prof. Alfredo Peris Manguillot from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. 

·2007: Data Mining and Multimedia Data, taught by Prof. Frans Coenen from University of Liverpool, UK.

·  2007: Pattern Recognition, taught by Prof. Fred Hamprecht from Heidelberg, Germany.

·2008: Research Stay in the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, University of Surrey, UK.

·2008: French Summer School of Probabilities and Statistics at Havana University, Cuba

o   Multivariate Statistics, taught by Prof. J. A. Cuesta from University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain.

o   Times Series, taught by Jean-Francois Dupuy from Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France.

o   Some statistical tools for sensivity analysis, taught by Prof. Fabrice Gamboa, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France.

·2008: Advanced Pattern Recognition, taught by Prof. Robert Duin from Delft Technological University, Netherlands.

·2008: Tutorial: Graphic Recognition, taught by Prof. Karl Tombre from LORIA-INRIA, France.

·  2008: Tutorial: Processing and Application of 3D Range images: fundamentals and New Developments, taught by Prof. Xiaoyi Jiang from University of Munster, Germany.

·2008: Tutorial: Advanced Techniques for Face based Biometrics taught by Prof. Massimo Tistarelli, University of Sassari, Italy.

·  2008: Tutorial: Component Analysis Methods for Pattern Recognition, taught by Prof. Fernando de la Torre, Carnegie Mellon University, United States.

·  2009: Winter Cuban-French School on Image and Signal Processing, taught by Prof. Mohamed Najim from University of Bordeaux, France.

- 2009: Tutorial: “Biometrics: Ethics, Privacy and Security”, taught by Prof. Emilio Mordini, from Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship, Rome, Italy and Terry Boult from Colorado University, USA.

·   2009: School of Algebra and Number Theory, EMALCA, Cuba:

o    Comparación en modelos estocásticos, taught by Prof. José E. Valdés Castro, Havana University.

o   Stochastic Simulation taught by Prof. Li-vang Lozada, Havana University

·2009: Research Stay in the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, University of Surrey, UK.

·2011: Post-doctoral research Stay in the National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Degree Students Supervised

·         2006: Jorge Félix Pimentel Álvarez (Computing): “Automatic System for fingerprint digitalization, segmentation and storage”.

·         2006: Estela María Álvarez Morales (Computer Science): “Fast Object Detection Algorithms. Application in Biometric Images Processing”.

·         2007: Leonardo Chang and Ivis Maria Rodes (Computing): “Automatic tool to obtaining and normalizing images for face recognition”.

·         2007: Yadira Condes (Computing): “Automatic tool for Control Access: Face Recognition and Verification Algorithms”.

·         2009: Dayron Rizo Rodriguez (Computer Science): “Face Image Quality: Illumination”.

-         2013: Mayrelis Hernández Durán (Computing): “Face recognition system for low resolution images”.

Best student paper award: 5^th IAPR International Summer School for Advanced Studies on Biometrics, Italy, 2008.

Best annual scientific results: Cuban Academy of Sciences, 2011.

Acknowledgment from the Commission of Women Scientists of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, 2011.

TWAS 2012 Prize for Young Scientists from Cuba

2013

-          Dayron Rizo, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Edel B. García-Reyes: “Illumination Invariant Face Recognition in Quaternion Domain”. International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence IJPRAI, 7 (3), 2013, DOI: 10.1142/S0218001413600045

-          Heydi Mendez, Josef Kittler, Chi-Ho Chan, Edel Garcia: “Photometric Normalization for face recognition using local discrete cosine transformation”. International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence IJPRAI, 27 (3), 2013, DOI: 10.1142/S0218001413600057

-          Zenhua Chai, Heydi Mendez-Vázquez, Zhenan Sun, Tieniu Tan: “Local Salient Patterns - A Novel Local Descriptor for Face Recognition”. Proceedings of the 6th IEEE/IAPR International Conference on Biometrics, Madrid, Spain

·          Y. Martínez-Díaz, H. Méndez-Vázquez, N. Hernández, and E.García-Reyes: “Improving faces/non-faces discrimination in video sequences by using a local spatio-temporal representation”. Proceedings of the 6th IEEE/IAPR International Conference on Biometrics, Madrid, Spain

·          Heydi Méndez-Vázquez, Y. Martínez-Díaz, Zenhua Chai: “Volume Structured Ordinal Features with Background Similarity Measure for Video Face Recognition”. Proceedings of the 6th IEEE/IAPR International Conference on Biometrics, Madrid, Spain

·          Nelson Méndez, Leonardo Chang, Yenisel Plasencia-Calaña, Heydi Méndez-Vázquez: “Facial Landmarks Detection Using Extended Profile LBP-Based Active Shape Models”, Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 8259, 2013, pp 407-414

2012

·          Dayron Rizo, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Edel B. García-Reyes: “Illumination Invariant Face Recognition Using Quaternion-Based Correlation Filters”, Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, Springer,  45 (2), pp. 164-175, July 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s10851-012-0352-0.

·          Zenhua Chai, Heydi Mendez-Vázquez, Ran He, Zhenan Sun, Tieniu Tan: “Histograms of gabor ordinal measures for face representation and recognition”. In: Proceedings of the 5^th IEEE/IAPR International Conference on Biometrics, New Delhi, India, March 2012.

·          N. Hernández, Y. Martínez-Díaz, D. Porro-Muñoz, H. Méndez-Vázquez: “Face Recognition: Would going back to functional nature be a good idea?”, CIARP 2012, LNCS 7441. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

·          Y. Martínez-Díaz, H. Méndez-Vázquez, Y. Plasencia-Calaña, and E.García-Reyes: “Dissimilarity Representations Based on Multi-Block LBP for Face Detection”, CIARP 2012, LNCS 7441, pp. 106--113. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

·          Zhenhua Chai, Heydi Mendez Vazquez, Ran He, Zhenan Sun, Tieniu Tan: Semantic Pixel Sets Based Local Binary Patterns for Face Recognition. ACCV (2) 2012: 639-651

·          H. Méndez Vázquez, L. Chang, D. Rizo-Rodríguez, A. Morales-González: “Face Images Quality assessment for Face Recognition”. Computación y Sistemas, Vol.16 No.2 (in spanish)

2011

·          Dayron Rizo-Rodriguez, Heydi Méndez-Vazquez, Edel B. García Reyes, César San Martín, Pablo Meza: “Quaternion Correlation Filters for Illumination Invariant Face Recognition”. Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 7042, pp. 467-474.

·          Ramiro Donoso Floody, César San Martín, Heydi Mendez Vazquez: “Face Recognition Using TOF, LBP and SVM in Thermal Infrared Images”. Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 7042, pp. 683-691.

·          César San Martín, Roberto Carrillo, Pablo Meza, Heydi Mendez-Vázquez, Yenisel Plasencia, Edel García, Gabriel Hermosilla: “Recent Advances on Face Recognition using Thermal Infrared Images”. Reviews, Refinements and New Ideas in Face Recognition, InTech 2011.

·          Heydi Méndez-Vazquez, Leonardo Chang, Dayron Rizo, Annette Morales: “Face Images Quality Evaluation”, Proceedings of Informática 2011. ISBN 978-959-7213-01-7, February 2011.

·          Dayron Rizo-Rodriguez, Heydi Méndez-Vázquez, Edel B. García Reyes: “Applications of Quaternions in Image Processing”, Proceedings of RECPAT 2011. ISBN 978-959-250-658-9, November 2011.

·          Yoanna Martínez Diaz, Heydi Méndez-Vázquez, Edel B. García Reyes: “Face Detection: A Critical Review”, Proceedings of RECPAT 2011. ISBN 978-959-250-658-9, November 2011. 

2010

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Josef Kittler, Chi-Ho Chan, Edel B. García-Reyes: “On Combining Local DCT with Preprocessing Sequence for Face Recognition under Varying Lighting Conditions”, in Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol. 6419 pp. 410-417.

·          Dayron Rizo, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Edel B. García-Reyes: “Illumination Invariant Face Image Representation Using Quaternions”, in Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol. 6419 pp. 434-441.

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Dayron Rizo, Edel B. García-Reyes: “An Illumination Quality Measure for Face Recognition”, IEEE Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR 2010), pp. 1477-1480.

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez and Edel B. García-Reyes: “A new methodology for Face Recognition under varying illumination conditions”, Technical Report RT_026, CENATAV, March 2010.

·          Annette Morales, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez: “Uniform Background Assessment for Face Images”, Proceedings of RECPAT 2010. ISBN: 978-959-16-1287-8.

2009

·          Yenisel Plasencia, Edel B. García-Reyes, Robert P. W. Duin, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, César San Martín, Claudio Soto: “A Study on Representations for Face Recognition from Thermal Image”, in CIARP 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol. 5856 pp. 185-192.

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, César San Martín, Josef Kittler, Yenisel Plasencia, Edel B. García Reyes: “Face Recognition with LWIR Imagery Using Local Binary Patterns”,  in ICB 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Advances in Biometrics, Vol. 5558 pp. 327-336.

·          Yenisel Plasencia, Edel B. García-Reyes, Robert P. W. Duin, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, César San Martín, Claudio Soto: “Dissimilarity representations for thermal signature recognition at a distance”, in Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference of the Advanced School for Computing and Imaging, 2009.

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Dayron Rizo “A new method for illumination quality assessment on face images", Proceedings ofRECPAT 2009. ISBN 978-959-207-381-4.

2008

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Edel B. García-Reyes, Yadira Condes-Molleda: “A new combination of local appearance based methods for face recognition under varying lighting conditions”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 5197 pp. 535-542, ISSN 0302-9743.

·          Leonardo Chang, Ivis Rodés, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Ernesto del Toro: “Best-shot Selection for Video Face Recognition using FPGA”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 5197 pp. 543-550, ISSN 0302-9743.

·          Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Edel B. García-Reyes, Yadira Condes-Molleda: “A New Image Division for LBP Method to Improve Face Recognition under Varying Lighting Conditions”, Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR'08), ISBN 978-1-4244-2175-6.

2007

·          Leonardo Chang, Ivis Rodes, Heydi Méndez: “Obtaining the best image from a sequence for face recognition in real time”, proceedings of COMPUMAT 2007, ISSN 1728-6042, Vol. 5.

·          Heydi Mendez, Yenisel Plasencia, Yadira Condes and Francisco J. Silva: “A rank based classifier to improve face recognition”, proceedings of RECPAT 2007, ISBN 978-959-286-006-3.

·          Leonardo Chang, Ivis Rodes, Heydi Méndez. “Obtaining and normalizing images for face recognition”, proceedings of RECPAT 2007, ISBN 978-959-286-006-3.

2006

·          Eduardo Garea and Heydi Méndez: “A New Face Images Representation Insensitive to Illumination Variations” proceedings of UCIENCIA 2006, ISBN 959-16-0463-7.

·          Iren Lorenzo, Noslen Hernandez and Heydi Mendez: “Automatic tool for projects revision in software Analysis stage (ARPA)” proceedings of UCIENCIA 2006, ISBN 959-16-0463-7.

·          Eduardo Garea-Llano, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez, Josef Kittler, Kieron Messer: “An Illumination Insensitive Representation for Face Verification in the Frequency Domain”, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR'06), pp.215-218, ISBN 0-7695-2521-0 ISSN 1051-4651.

·          Estela M. Álvarez-Morales, Francisco Silva-Mata, Eduardo Garea-Llano, Heydi Mendez Vazquez, Moisés Herrera: “A Fast Method for Localization of Local Illumination Variations and Photometric Normalization in Face Images”, in CIARP 2006, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4225 pp. 48-57, ISSN 0302-9743.

·          Eduardo Garea-Llano, Josef Kittler, Kieron Messer, Heydi Mendez-Vazquez: “A Comparative Study of Face Representations in the Frequency Domain”, in CIARP 2006, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4225 pp. 99-108, ISSN 0302-9743.

2005

·          Marta Delgado Dapena, Heydi Méndez, Iren Lorenzo, Noslen Hernandez: “A Model to manage software revisions using Case-Based Reasoning”, Engineering Profiles, Vol. 11 Nº 9 April 2005, Special Magazine of Ricardo Palma University, Lima, Peru.

·          Heydi Mendez and Edel García: “A Structural Representation for Fingerprints”, proceedings of UCIENCIA 2005.

2004

·          Marta Delgado Dapena, Heydi Méndez, Iren Lorenzo, Noslen Hernandez: "A similarity function proposed for reuse requirements specifications in software projects", Annual Investigations Report of the Engineering and Systems Study Centre 2004, ISBN: 959-261-179-3.