Today, Friday 9 January, we kicked off the year with the twenty-second edition of ValgrAI’s Research Mornings! We are starting the year with renewed energy with one of our events that has become a unique space for recognising talent and innovation in AI. This session was special because it was part of the celebration of the 3rd ValgrAI Artificial Intelligence Awards of the Valencian Community, and we celebrated the progress and research of projects based on Artificial Intelligence in our region by giving space to two of the winners of this edition. As is tradition, our monthly ‘coffee’ brought together professionals, researchers and enthusiasts to discover two award-winning projects that demonstrate how artificial intelligence is transforming key sectors.
Why are these advances relevant?
These advances are relevant because they show how artificial intelligence can improve food safety through the non-invasive detection of bone fragments in poultry meat using ultrasound and machine learning, ensuring safer products, and exemplify its versatility by also optimising complex processes thanks to X-Heuristics, which enable faster and more accurate decisions in sectors such as transport, manufacturing and logistics, reducing costs and times and generating a positive impact on efficiency and sustainability.
1. Non-invasive detection of bone fragments in poultry meat by the integration of ultrasound imaging, multivariate image analysis and machine learning
VALGRAI AI AWARD FOR BEST MASTER’S THESIS 2025
Speaker: Gentil Andrés Collazos
Summary of the talk:
In the first presentation of the twenty-second edition of ValgrAI’s Research Mornings, Gentil Andrés Collazos, winner of the Best Master’s Thesis Award, presented a pioneering study on the non-invasive detection of bone fragments in poultry meat using ultrasound, multivariate image analysis and machine learning. This combination of technologies achieves an accuracy of over 99%, paving the way for safer and more efficient industrial systems in the food chain.
2. Applications of X-Heuristics in Complex Combinatorial Optimization Problems
VALGRAI AI AWARD FOR THE BEST DOCTORAL THESIS 2025
Speaker: Xavier Andoni Martin
Summary of the talk:
On the other hand, Xavier Andoni Martin, winner of the Best Doctoral Thesis award, shared his research on X-Heuristics applied to complex combinatorial optimisation problems. His proposal allows for faster and more accurate decision-making in scenarios with multiple variables and constraints, surpassing traditional methods. This approach has already been applied in real-world cases such as reducing train manufacturing times, optimising urban traffic and improving logistics processes.
This Research Morning, in which we take a look at the best of 2025, marks the start of 2026, which promises to be another year of significant growth for Artificial Intelligence research in the Valencian Community and for ValgrAI. We would like to thank both the speakers who presented their work at this edition and all those who attended.
See you next month!
