Research interests:

  • Adversarial reasoning and decision making
  • Decision strategies in the presence of adversaries
  • Game theory
  • Models for autonomous robotic patrolling
  • Soft-computing
  • Technological forecasting: Scenario planning methodologies

Member of the Models of Decision and Optimization Research Group (MODO)
See my Google Scholar profile here
See my my LinkedIn profile here
Have a look at my resume

Don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested in any of my papers.
Email:

My PhD Thesis:

      Adversarial decision and optimization-based models
      Supervisors: Dr. Jose Luis Verdegay and Dr. David Pelta, University of Granada
      (finished: November, 2015 - Cum Laude)

       Received the GENIL Award for the Best PhD Thesis Proposal at the Conference of the Spanish
       Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAEPIA 2011), held in La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain),
       in november 7 - 10, 2011. You can see a brief summary (in Spanish) here.

Research projects

I have been involved in the following projects:

  • OPEN-BIA: Intelligent Information Management Platform for Intelligent Business Decision Making. Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, TSI-020513-2009-74
  • Evaluation of Qualitative Solutions by Soft computing Techniques: Applications. Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, TIN2008 - 06872 - C04 - 04
  • MODI: Dynamic and Imprecise Optimization Models in Intelligent Systems: study on solution methods and applications. Andalusian Government, P07 - TIC2970.
  • ASCETAS: Applicability of Soft Computing in Technologically Advanced Environments. Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, TIN2011-27696-C02-01.
  • VASCAS: Viability of the Application of Soft Computing to Sustainable Areas. Andalusian Government, P11 - TIC-8001.
  • Soft Computing to analyze therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. CEI-Biotic Microproject, University of Granada.
  • Application of Soft Computing to Decision Making in Adversarial Scenarios. CEI-Biotic Project, University of Granada.

Review activities

I serve as a referee of the following journals:

I have been part of the Program Committee of the following conferences:

  • 12th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2012).
  • 13th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2013).
  • 6th Int. Workshop on Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NICSO 2013).
  • The First Euro-China Conference on Intelligent Data Analysis and Applications (ECC 2014).

Authored books

      Making decisions in the presence of adversaries: models and results       
      (cover here)

      P.J. Villacorta, D.A. Pelta and J.L. Verdegay.
      ISBN 978-3-330-04443-2.
      Lambert Academic Publishing, 2017.

Edited books

      Exploring Innovative and Successful Applications of Soft Computing       

      A.D. Masegosa, P.J. Villacorta, C. Cruz-Corona, M.S. Garcia-Cascales, M.T. Lamata
      and J.L. Verdegay (Editors).
      ISBN 978-1466647855.
      IGI Global, 2014.

Book chapters

  1. Expected payoff analysis of decision strategies in the presence of adversaries
    P. Villacorta and D.A. Pelta
    In: New Trends on Intelligent Systems and Soft Computing (Vol. IV) , pages 29 - 64. Edited by the University of Granada, 2012. ISBN 978-84-338-5366
  2. FuzzyLP: an R package for solving Fuzzy Linear Programming problems [Link to the book]
    P.J. Villacorta, C.A. Rabelo, D.A. Pelta and J.L. Verdegay
    In: J. Kacprzyk et al. (eds.). Granular, Soft and Fuzzy Approaches for Intelligent Systems. Series: Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing 344, pages 209 - 230. Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2017.

Papers in International Journals

  1. Theoretical Analysis of Expected Payoff in an Adversarial Domain [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta and D.A. Pelta. Information Sciences 186 (1), pp. 93 - 104, 2012.
  2. Forgetting as a way to avoid deception in a repeated imitation game [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta, D.A. Pelta and M.T. Lamata
    Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 27 (3), pp. 329 - 354, 2013.
  3. A new fuzzy linguistic approach to qualitative Cross Impact Analysis [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta, A.D. Masegosa, D. Castellanos and M.T. Lamata
    Applied Soft Computing 24, pp. 19-30, 2014.
  4. Cluster-based comparison of peptide mass fingerprint obtained by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. A case study: long-term stability of rituximab [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta, A. Salmerón-García, D.A Pelta, J. Cabeza, A. Lario, N. Navas.
    Analyst, 140 (5), pp. 1717 - 1730, 2015.
  5. A repeated imitation model with dependence between stages: decision strategies and rewards
    P.J. Villacorta and D.A. Pelta    [Link to the journal]
    Int. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science 25 (3), pp. 617 - 630, 2015.
  6. SRCS: Statistical Ranking Color Scheme for Visualizing Parameterized Multiple Pairwise Comparisons with R [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta and J.A. Sáez. The R Journal 7(2), pp. 89 - 104, 2015
  7. FuzzyStatProb: an R Package for the Estimation of Fuzzy Stationary Probabilities from a Sequence of Observations of an Unknown Markov Chain [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta and J.L. Verdegay. Journal of Statistical Software 71 (8), pp. 1 - 27, 2016
  8. The welchADF Package for Robust Hypothesis Testing in Unbalanced Multivariate Mixed Models with Heteroscedastic and Non-normal Data [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta. The R Journal 9 (2), pp. 309-328, 2017
  9. Fuzzy Markovian bonus-malus systems in non-life insurance [Link to the journal]
    P.J. Villacorta, L. González-Vila, J. de Andrés-Sánchez. Mathematics 9 (4), p. 347, 2021

Papers in International Conferences

  1. Evolutionary design and statistical assessment of strategies in an adversarial domain
    P. Villacorta and D. Pelta
    Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2010), pages 2250 - 2256. IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI 2010). Barcelona (Spain), july 18 - 23, 2010 [Link to IEEE Xplore]
  2. Expected payoff analysis of dynamic mixed strategies in an adversarial domain
    P. Villacorta and D. Pelta
    Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Agents (IA 2011), pages 116 - 122. IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI 2011). Paris (France), april 11 - 15, 2011. [Link to IEEE Xplore]
  3. A dynamic mixed strategy for an adversarial model based on OWA weights
    P. Villacorta, D. Pelta and M. T. Lamata
    Proceedings of the 2011 World Congress on Soft Computing (WConSC'11), pages 203.1 - 203.7. San Francisco (USA), may 23 - 26, 2011.
  4. Improving scenario method for technology foresight by Soft Computing techniques
    D.Castellanos, A.D. Masegosa, P.J. Villacorta, P. Novoa and D. Pelta
    Proceedings of the 4th International Seville Conference on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA). Sevilla (Spain), may 12 - 13, 2011. In press
  5. Sensitivity analysis in the Scenario Method: a multi-objective approach
    P.J. Villacorta, A.D. Masegosa, D. Castellanos, P. Novoa and D.A. Pelta
    Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2011), pages 867 - 872. Cordoba (Spain), november 22 - 24, 2011. [Link to IEEE Xplore]
  6. Ant colony optimization for automatic design of strategies in an adversarial model
    P.J. Villacorta and D.A. Pelta
    In Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NICSO 2011). Series: Studies in Computational Intelligence 387, pages 1-19, Springer, 2011. [Link to the book]
  7. Aplicacion de la Soft Computing en el mundo real: entornos dinamicos
    J.R. Gonzalez, C. Cruz, D. Pelta, J.L. Verdegay, M.T. Lamata, I. G. del Amo, A.D. Masegosa, D. Castellanos, P. Villacorta and P. Novoa
    Proceedings of COMPUMAT 2011, ISBN 978-959-250-658-9. Las Villas (Cuba), november 23 - 25, 2011.
  8. Aplicabilidad de la Soft Computing en entornos tecnologicos avanzados (ASCETAS): una propuesta interesante
    J.R. Gonzalez, C. Cruz, D. Pelta, J.L. Verdegay, M.T. Lamata, I. G. del Amo, A.D. Masegosa, D. Castellanos, P. Villacorta and P. Novoa
    Proceedings of COMPUMAT 2011, ISBN 978-959-250-658-9. Las Villas (Cuba), november 23 - 25, 2011.
  9. Aplicabilidad de tecnicas de la Soft Computing en prospectiva tecnologica
    C. Cruz, J.R. Gonzalez, D. Pelta, J.L. Verdegay, M.T. Lamata, I.G. del Amo, A.D. Masegosa, D. Castellanos, P. Villacorta and P. Novoa
    Proceedings of COMPUMAT 2011, ISBN 978-959-250-658-9. Las Villas (Cuba), november 23 - 25, 2011.
  10. A linguistic approach to structural analysis in prospective studies
    P.J. Villacorta, A.D. Masegosa, D. Castellanos and M.T. Lamata
    In Advances in Computational Intelligence. Series: Communications in Computer and Information Science 297, pages 150 - 159. Proc. of the 14th Int. Conf. on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2012). Catania (Italy), july 9 - 13, 2012. [Springer Link]
  11. Exploiting adversarial uncertainty in robotic patrolling
    P.J. Villacorta and D. Pelta
    In Advances in Computational Intelligence. Series: Communications in Computer and Information Science 300, pages 529 - 538. Proc. of the 14th Int. Conf. on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2012). Catania (Italy), july 9 - 13, 2012. [Springer Link]
  12. Automatic Design of Deterministic Sequences of Decisions for a Repeated Imitation Game with Action-State Dependency
    P.J. Villacorta, L. Quesada and D. Pelta
    Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2012), pp 1 - 8. Granada (Spain), september 11 - 14, 2012. [Link to IEEE Xplore]
  13. Fuzzy Linguistic Multicriteria Morphological Analysis in Scenario Planning
    P.J. Villacorta, A.D. Masegosa and M.T. Lamata
    Proc. of the 2013 International Fuzzy Systems Association - North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society Joint Congress (IFSA-NAFIPS 2013), pages 777 - 782. Edmonton (Canada), june 24 - 28, 2013 [Link to IEEE Xplore]
  14. Towards fuzzy linguistic Markov chains
    P.J. Villacorta, J.L. Verdegay and D.A. Pelta
    Proceedings of the 8th Conf. of the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT 2013), pages 707 - 713. Milano (Italy), september 11 - 13, 2013. [Atlantis Press Proceedings]

Papers in National Conferences

  1. Un Sistema de Informacion de Libre Distribucion: la Herramienta OpenONG para la Gestion de ONGs
    M. R. Cabello, J.G. Moreno-Torres, L. Gonzalez, D. Lopez, J.F. Mantas, R. Palma, V. Terron, J. Toral and P. Villacorta
    Proceedings of the II Simposio en Desarrollo de Software (SDS 2008), pages 343 - 346. Granada (Spain), june 24 - 27, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96856-71-4
  2. Comparacion estadistica de estrategias de decision en presencia de adversarios: analisis y aplicacion en Busqueda Local
    P. Villacorta and D. Pelta
    Actas del VII Congreso Español sobre Metaheuristicas, Algoritmos Evolutivos y Bioinspirados (MAEB 2010), pages 127 - 134. Congreso Español de Informatica (CEDI 2010), ISBN 978-84-92812-58-5. Valencia (Spain), september 7 - 10, 2010.
  3. Metodo difuso para identificacion de variables relevantes en prospectiva tecnologica
    P. Villacorta, D. Castellanos and A. Masegosa
    Actas del XVI Congreso Español sobre Tecnologias y Logica Fuzzy (ESTYLF 2012), pages 241 - 246. ISBN 978-84-615-6653-2. Valladolid (Spain), february 1 - 3, 2012.
  4. Diseño de estrategias mediante Evolucion Diferencial en un juego de imitacion iterado con dependencia entre los turnos
    P. Villacorta and D. Pelta
    Actas del VIII Congreso Español sobre Metaheuristicas, Algoritmos Evolutivos y Bioinspirados (MAEB 2012), pages 281 - 288. Albacete (Spain), february 8 - 10, 2012.
  5. Analisis Morfologico difuso lingüistico en el ambito de la Planificacion de Escenarios
    P. Villacorta, A.D. Masegosa y M.T. Lamata
    Actas del IV Simposio sobre Logica Fuzzy y Soft Computing (LFSC 2013), pages 1095 - 1104. ISBN 978-84-695-8348-7. Congreso Español de Informatica (CEDI 2013), Madrid (Spain), september 17 - 20, 2013.