Faculty Spotlight: Luz Rello

With two books in Spanish, seven indexed journal papers, 36 refereed conference papers and the co-author of 46 other publications, it’s no wonder IE Business School’s Luz Rello was selected for Thinkers50’s Radar Class of 2021. She also has authored two published children’s books. Rello --founder of the social company Change Dyslexia, which aims to minimize the negative impact of dyslexia worldwide—focuses her research on emergent technologies for dyslexia. Her tool, Dytective combines machine learning and computer games to screen and treat dyslexia and is the most used online dyslexia test.

Here’s a closer look at one of IE Business School’s top researchers:

What brought you to IE?

The people working at IE. I knew a few faculty that I admire and that made me think that joining IE would be great (and it was :)).

Have you ever had an a-ha moment while teaching that furthered your research? What was it?

My research a-ha moments came while practicing two of my favorite sports: running and cycling. Of course these a-ha moments come after you get obsessed with a problem.

What book do you wish your students would read before taking your class and why?

Normally my IE students come very prepared to class! The best are books that I do not know. I prefer students to surprise other students (and myself) with new books to share.

Please name one of your recent articles you feel addresses the most important issues in 2021 for IE alumni?

Recently we published in PLOS ONE the results from our article Predicting Risk of Dyslexia with an Online Gamified Test, being a screener for dyslexia. It mixes machine learning and linguistic games to be able to screen dyslexia at large scales. The actual tool is currently used in hundreds of public schools in Spain.

Whose research of your IE colleagues do you find interesting? Why?

I am totally biased here since I find interesting only the research that I know. There is so much research done at IE that I only know a small part. I deeply admire the research carried out by Álvaro Arenas, José Esteves, Patricia Gabaldon Quiñones, Concepcion Galdon, Rachida Justo, Kiron Ravindran and Konstantina Valogianni. I am sure that the more researchers I meet at IE the more interesting I would find their research.

Tell us one personal thing about yourself that none of your students know. A hobby, sport or talent? Strange fact? Unusual interest?

I love reproducing Miro’s paintings. Some of them are really BIG paintings. When I can travel for leisure, I cycle around a country for weeks. I have already crossed Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.