The research group on Innovation and Technology for Education, Culture and Society (ECSIT) focuses on research and innovation in the educational, social and cultural spheres.
The areas of research covered by this research group are as follows:
The most significant research projects carried out by this research group:
Augmented Reality City for Digital Interactive Archives (ARCADIA) stems from a collaboration with the Cartoviajes PROJECT run by the CSIC’s Institute of Language, Literature and Anthropology. The aim of ARCADIA is to design a functional, gamified prototype that enables users to access literary information about the city of Madrid in an interactive way. The prototype is based on the 19th-century work De Madrid a Nápoles by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón.
The ECSIT group is participating as a partner in the TEC Heritage-CM Programme (Technologies in Heritage Sciences, TEC-2024/TEC-39) through the Material Culture and Heritage group (CERVITRUM) at the CSIC’s Institute of History.
The aim of the PLATA project is to develop educational prototypes to digitise the publication catalogue of the UDIT Students’ Residence.
The main aim of the DEXED project is to develop a design standard for the digitisation of exhibition spaces, thereby enhancing both the in-person and virtual experiences. By integrating educational and accessible content, DEXED seeks to transform the relationship between the public and the works on display, promoting an interactive, inclusive and dynamic exhibition model.
ECSIT has organised the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) ‘Creativity in a digital world’, which has focused on how to nurture and foster creativity in a digital world. The activities involved students from Thomas More University in Belgium and the Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences in Estonia, who worked from 10 to 14 November 2025 alongside students from the University of Design, Innovation and Technology (UDIT), both at the International Campus for Technology, Innovation and Applied Sciences and at the International Campus for Design and Creative Industries.
Contract with the Largo Caballero Foundation for the creation and management by ECSIT of digital and audiovisual materials to promote Democratic Memory, for the implementation of the project: “Interactive virtual exhibition and catalogue of the poster collection of Gonzalo Pérez Parrondo (1903–1986)”, which forms part of the Agreement between the General State Administration (Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory) and the Francisco Largo Caballero Foundation for the implementation of various activities to promote democratic memory.
The International Journal of Games Studies is a new academic journal launched by the University of Design, Innovation and Technology (UDIT), dedicated to the study of recreational activities, video games, gamification, immersive experiences and their links to culture, education, communication and contemporary society.
A journey through the splendour, crisis and fall of the Spanish Habsburg empire. Various historians analyse how Charles I built a transcontinental power and how the dynasty gradually lost its European hegemony amid insufficient reforms and international rivalries, in a Spain that was innovative in the arts and letters but outpaced in economic and administrative matters. Pinolia, 2025.
Gods, heroes and legends: a journey through the founding myths of Greece and Rome. The book traces these stories from the titans of creation to imperial Rome, and explains why they remain alive today in film, comics and popular culture. Pinolia, 2025.
Keys to understanding the reforming drive of a period vital to Spanish democracy, and its resounding failure. A collection of essays by experts and historians covering the reformist biennium, women's suffrage, agrarian and educational reform and the labour movement, up to the uprising of July 1936. Pinolia, 2024.
The man who ruled the world. An examination of a monarch whose inheritance placed him at the head of highly diverse territories, from the Low Countries to Castile and the Holy Roman Empire, and of the tensions — the Lutheran Reformation, the Italian Wars, the expansion into the Americas — that revealed the limits of that project. Pinolia, 2026.
A manual on building fictional worlds through narrative structure, the theory of emotions and the mechanics of action. Aimed at students and professionals facing the challenge of writing a video game script in increasingly open and complex environments. Síntesis, Tecnologías Digitales series.
Research is a key focus of our teachers’ work.
To achieve this objective, we have a team of outstanding researchers who carry out their studies and research in various areas of Design and Technology.
Miriambelén Aldana Pirela
Since 2018 she combines teaching, consulting and research in digital environments. She was a professor at the Arturo Michelena University, leading the chairs of Design V and Lettering, with a focus on branding, packaging and calligraphy under methodologies of critical thinking and free creativity.
His professional work focuses on Behavioral Design and empathic design, applied to the intersection of technology and emotional well-being. Of particular note is the PhiBi project, an AI-based digital assistant that supports the mental health of PhD students through personalised interventions, tailored to the emotional and physical context of the user.
At the corporate level, she has worked as a UX Consultant and Product Designer for companies such as Roca, Inc. and ECSiT, participating in user research, information architecture and high fidelity prototyping.
She has extensive technical expertise in visual design and layout, with advanced proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Figma, Readymag and WordPress, complemented with UX Writing methodologies and experimental calligraphy to create human, ethical and functional technological experiences.
DR. Julio Alexander González Liendo
