Dr. David López (b. Barcelona, Spain, 1967) has a master’s degree (1991) and a PhD (1998) in Computer Science from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC). He also has a master’s degree in Asian Studies, with a major in East Asian Arts and Societies (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC, 2008). His technical skills include computer organisation and architecture; input/output and storage devices; data centre organisation; and the relationship between sustainability, education and ethics and computing and services.

He has taught at the Department of Computer Architecture at the UPC since 1991. In 2001, he became an associate professor. He has also been a course instructor at the UOC. His PhD thesis was on the design of architectures and compilers and the optimisation of numerical code. In 2004 he decided to change his main research field, which is now engineering education and the relationship between engineering and sustainability and ethics. He has published more than 100 scientific papers and participated in several research projects funded by the Spanish government and the European Union.

Dr López is a member of the Spanish Association of University Informatics Teachers (AENUI), the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). He is a member of the steering committee of the University Informatics Education Conference (JENUI). He was the editor of the education journal ReVisión (2009-2013), to which he is now a regular contributor. He has given more than 30 workshops and over 100 talks on computing and sustainability, professional engineering skills and communication for engineers. He has led several cooperation projects. He is one of the founders and current president of TxT (Technology for Everybody), an NGO composed mainly of people from the Barcelona School of Informatics. Since September 2015 he has been the director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the UPC, of which he was formerly assistant director. He has earned best paper awards at six conferences, and mentions in the 2013 Best Design for Recycling Award by the Catalan Waste Agency and the first European award for best practices in the integration of sustainable human development in technology/engineering education by Global Dimension in Engineering Education.

Main Research

Publications

• Antoni Pérez-Poch and David López "Just-in-Time Teaching improves engagement and academic results among students at risk of failure in Computer Science Fundamentals". 47th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference FIE2017, Indianapolis, IN, USA, October 18-21 2017.
• David Lopez. "Using Service Learning for Improving Student Attraction and Engagement in STEM studies". SEFI Conference. Azores, Portugal. 18-21 September 2017.
• Antoni Pérez-Poch, Noelia Olmedo, Fermín Sánchez, Núria Salan, David López. "On the influence of creativity in basic programming learning at a first-year Engineering course". International Journal of Engineering Education, vol 35, no 5(B), pp. 2302-2309
• Antoni Pérez-Poch, David López. "Do differences exist between how Engineering and non-Engineering lecturers perceive the importance of teaching competences?" 46th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference FIE2016, Erie, PA, USA, October 12-15 2016.
• Fermín Sánchez, Jose Cabré, Marc Alier, Eva Vidal, David López, Carme Martín, Jordi Garcia. "A Learning Tool to Develop Sustainable Projects" 46th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference FIE  2016, Erie, PA, USA, October 12-15 2016.
• David López, Antoni Perez-Poch. "Detecting which teaching competences should be reinforced in an engineering lecturer-training program". SEFI Annual Conference 2016. Tampere, Finland, September 12-15, 2016.
• David Franquesa, Leandro Navarro, David López, Xavier Bustamante, and Santiago Lamora, "Breaking Barriers on Reuse of Digital Devices Ensuring Final Recycling". EnviroInfo Conference 2015. Copenhagen, September 9-11 2015. This work received the "Best Paper Award"
• David López, Araceli Adam, María José Delgado, Enric Mayol and Marc Alier. "A design pattern for skills based lecturer training programs". Proceedings of the 6th Research in Enginnering Education Symposium (REES 2015). Dublin, Ireland. July, 13-15 2015.
• David López, Fermín Sánchez, Eva Vidal, Josep Pegueroles, Marc Alier, Jose Cabré, Jordi Garcia and Helena García. "A methodology to introduce sustainability into the Final Year Project to foster sustainable engineering projects". Frontiers in Education Conference FIE 2014. Madrid, Spain, October 23-25, 2014, pp 2360-2366,
• Fermín Sánchez, Antonia Soler, David López, Carme Martín, Alicia Ageno, Lluís Belanche, Jose Cabré, Erik Cobo, Rafel Farré, Jordi Garcia and Pere Marés. "Developing Professional Skills at Tertiary Level: A Model to Integrate Competencies across the Curriculum". Frontiers in Education Conference FIE 2014. Madrid, Spain, October 23-25, 2014, pp 1090-1098.
• Fermín Sánchez, Juan Climent, Julita Corbalán, Pau Fonseca i Casas, Jordi Garcia, José R. Herrero, Xavier Llinàs, Horacio Rodríguez, María-Ribera Sancho, Marc Alier, Jose Cabré, and David López. "Evaluation and assessment of professional skills in the Final Year Project". Frontiers in Education Conference FIE 2014. Madrid, Spain, October 23-25, 2014.
• Joe Miró Julià, David López. "Rethinking the collaboration-teaching border". Poster at ACM SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Canterbury, UK, July 2013.
• David Franquesa, David López, Leandro Navarro, and Fermín Sánchez. "Participatory Service-Learning Process for FOSS-based solidarity Projects". Chapter 4 in "Free and Open Source Software Technology for Sustainable Development" edited by Dr. Sulayman K. Sowe, Prof. Govindan Parayil and Prof. Atsushi Sunami, United Nations University Press. pp. 76-97. September 2012. ISBN: 978-92-808-1217-6.
• David López, Fermín Sánchez, Jordi Garcia, Marc Alier, Jordi Piguillem, and Martha Velasco. "Introducing Sustainability and Social Commitment Skills in an Engineering Degree". 41st Frontiers in Education Conference. Rapid City, SD, USA, October 12-15, 2011. Pp. S2C1-6.
• David López, Josep-Llorenç Cruz, Fermín Sánchez, and Agustín Fernández. "A Take-home Exam to Assess Professional Skills". 41st Frontiers in Education Conference. Rapid City, SD, USA, October 12-15, 2011. Pp. F1C1-6.
• David Franquesa, Josep-Llorenç Cruz, Carlos Alvarez, Fermín Sánchez, Agustín Fernandez, David López. ”The Social and Environmental Impact of Engineering Solutions: from the Lab to the Real World”. International Journal of Engineering Education (Special Issue on Applications of Engineering Education Research ). Vol 26, No 5, pp 1144-1155. ISSN 0949-149X. October 2010