María Castro Férnandez
Image:
Private

María Castro Férnandez

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: María Castro Fernández

María Castro Fernández is a PhD Candidate at the Research Institute of Applied Microelectronics at Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Spain. She visited Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from January to June 2024.

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: María Castro Fernández

María Castro Fernández is a PhD Candidate at the Research Institute of Applied Microelectronics at Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Spain. She visited Visual Intelligence in Tromsø as a guest researcher from January to June 2024.

By: Petter Bjørklund, Communication Advisor at Visual Intelligence.

Can you tell us about your PhD project?

My PhD project is centered on skin cancer detection with deep learning techniques. At first, I focused on light-weighted neural networks and improving their performance with attention mechanism, always using dermoscopic images. However, at some point, I found out about the potential use of hyperspectral images in the medical field and decided to incorporate them into my project. Nowadays my biggest interest lies in analyzing the variability between skin lesions and patients in dermoscopic and hyperspectral images and how it affects the training of neural networks.

Why did you choose Tromsø and Visual Intelligence for your research stay?

The decision to come to Tromsø was quite natural for me. My supervisor, Gustavo Marrero Callicó, and professor Fred Godtliebsen have been collaborating for many years, so Tromsø has always been on the map for our research group. Additionally, I was looking for a suitable location to collect data for my project. As Norway is one of the countries with the highest rates of skin cancer cases per 100 000 inhabitants, it made a Norwegian city like Tromsø a lucrative choice. Furthermore, Visual Intelligence and the UiT Machine Learning Group is well-known for their research on interpretable and explainable AI models, making the decision all the more straightforward.

What has been the main outcomes of your research stay?

Scientifically, the main outcomes of my research stay have been the collection of a dataset of clinical, dermoscopic, and hyperspectral images of skin lesions, obtained at the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN). In addition, I have become involved in an incipient study on the uncertainty estimation of dermoscopic image classification, in collaboration with Iver Martinsen, Samuel Ortega, Miguel Tejedor, and Fred Godtliebsen.  I look forward to continuing the collaboration with Visual Intelligence and I am grateful for their genuine hospitality, which made my stay even more enriching.

How was life in Tromsø?

Living in Tromsø was a great experience. Since I visited the city from January to June, I got to witness both the polar night and the midnight sun. The surroundings are breathtaking and the city is surprisingly lively, full of international and very welcoming local people. I can confidently say that I will cherish this experience for a long time.

Latest news

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: Artur Radzivil

February 12, 2026

Artur Radzivil is a PhD Research Fellow at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. He visited Visual Intelligence in Oslo from September to November 2025.

Centre Director Robert Jenssen meets Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, Sigrun Aasland

February 6, 2026

Centre Director Robert Jenssen met with Sigrun Aasland, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, alongside UiT and Aker Nscale representatives to give an update on Aker Nscale's AI Giga Factory in Narvik, Norway.

Visual Intelligence represented at Arctic Frontiers 2026

February 4, 2026

Visual Intelligence was represented by Centre Director Robert Jenssen, Associate Professor Kristoffer Wickstrøm, and VI Alumna Sara Björk at the Arctic Frontiers side session "How can AI and satellite collaboration strengthen Arctic resilience?".

Petter Tømmeraas visits Visual Intelligence in Tromsø

February 3, 2026

Petter Tømmeraas, Director of Data Center Services at Aker Nscale, visited SFI Visual Intelligence to learn more about our research projects and AI startups established by former UiT students.

NLDL 2026 was a great success!

January 12, 2026

Attracting 280 international AI researchers, the Northern Lights Deep Learning Conference (NLDL) 2026 was successfully organized from January 5th to 9th 2026 at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Norway.

Fruitful mentoring session with Professor Mihaela van der Schaar

January 11, 2026

Visual Intelligence hosted a special NLDL 2026 mentoring session for young researchers with Professor Mihaela van der Schaar – a globally renowned AI researcher and expert

uit.no Toppforskere på kunstig intelligens samles i Tromsø

January 5, 2026

270 KI-eksperter fra nært og fjernt møtes ved UiT for å dele siste forskningsnytt. Et av formålene er å styrke internasjonale bånd og samarbeid på tvers av det globale KI-miljøet (Norwegian news article on uit.no)

unn.no: Forskningsmillioner til pasientrettet KI-satsing

December 23, 2025

Med ferske millioner på konto skal Senter for pasientnær kunstig intelligens (SPKI) ved UNN bidra i et stort nasjonalt KI-prosjekt de neste fire årene (News article on unn.no)

Happy Holidays from SFI Visual Intelligence!

December 18, 2025

The Visual Intelligence Management Team, Robert Jenssen, Line Eikvil, Anne Solberg, and Inger Solheim, wishes everyone a happy holiday season and new year!

Anders Waldeland receives the Digital Trailblazer Award 2025

December 4, 2025

Congratulations to Senior Research Scientist Anders Waldeland, who was awarded the Digital Trailblazer Award 2025 at the Dig X Subsurface conference in Oslo, Norway.