The Idiap Research Institute is hosting a major series of events from May 19 to 22, 2025, bringing together researchers, industry collaborators, and government agencies to discuss recent developments in biometrics and security.
Biometrics refers to the automatic recognition of individuals based on their physiological and/or behavioral characteristics.
The Biometrics Security and Privacy (BSP) group at Idiap focuses on three main areas of research:
- Biometric recognition: We investigate and develop new biometrics based recognition algorithms, notably for face, voice, and vein biometric modalities.
- Presentation attack detection: We look for new and better ways of detecting presentation attacks on face, voice, and vein biometric recognition systems.
- Biometric template protection: We research effective methods of preserving both the security of biometric recognition systems and the privacy of their users by protecting the biometric models ("templates") that are employed by the system for recognition purposes.
The BSP group prioritizes reproducibility in research. This is important for ensuring that our work can be both verified and built upon by the wider research community. To enable reproducibility, we mainly make use of our Python-based signal-processing and machine-learning toolbox, Bob, which we make freely available for academic purposes. The group also develops and maintains the BEAT platform -- a MLaaS platform compliant with Swiss and European data-security norms.
The group participates in several large-scale biometrics projects at Swiss (SNSF), European (H2020) or world-wide levels but also conducts projects directly with companies.
The BSP group provides also expertise to the Swiss Center for Biometrics Research and Testing, which, among other things, carries out tests and evaluations on commercial products related to biometrics.
Group News
Face recognition is widely used today, from unlocking phones to enhancing surveillance systems. However, this technology often relies on large datasets of internet photos collected without consent, raising privacy and ethical concerns. To address this, researchers at Idiap have developed a synthetic (fake but realistic) face dataset, offering a privacy-friendly alternative without compromising model performance.
Sébastien Marcel, senior scientist at Idiap, has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, effective January 1, 2025. The IEEE fellowship testifies “the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology, bringing the realization of significant value to society”[1].
Each year the institute gives two awards to distinguish two of its students. In 2023, the Best Paper Award went to Tobias Löw, and the Student Award to Hatef Otroshi Shahreza. Congratulations!
Idiap hosted a Biometrics Week. This one of a kind event gathered several hundreds of people from various backgrounds ranging from academia to industry. Organizers included the European Association for Biometrics and the US based Center for Identification Technology Research.
Group Job Openings
Our group is regularly posting job openings ranging from internships to researcher positions. To check the opportunities currently available or to submit a speculative applications use the link below.Our group is regularly posting job openings ranging from internships to researcher positions. To check the opportunities currently available or to submit a speculative applications use the link below.
Current Group Members
The group is led by Sébastien Marcel.

MARCEL, Sébastien
(Senior Research Scientist with Academic Title, Interim management team)
- website

BHATTACHARJEE, Sushil (Kumar)
(Research Associate)
- website

ECABERT, Christophe
(Research Associate)

GEORGE, Anjith
(Research Associate)
- website

JIMÉNEZ DEL TORO, Oscar (Alfonso)
(Research Associate)
- website

KOMATY, Alain
(Research Associate)

KOTWAL, Ketan
(Research Associate)
- website

KRIVOKUĆA HAHN, Vedrana
(Research Associate)
- website

COLBOIS, Laurent
(Postdoctoral Researcher)

LUÉVANO GARCÍA, Luis Santiago
(Postdoctoral Researcher)
- website

OTROSHI SHAHREZA, Hatef
(Postdoctoral Researcher)
- website

ÖZTÜRK, Ünsal
(Postdoctoral Researcher)

VIDIT, Vidit
(Postdoctoral Researcher)

POLAC, Magdalena
(Research Assistant)

RAHIMI NOSHANAGH, Parsa
(PhD Student / Research Assistant)

ULUCAN, Ibrahim
(Research Assistant)
- website

AL AMINE, Zeina
(Research Intern)

BOLLENGIER, Alexis
(Research Intern)

OUTUMURO BUENO, Alberto
(Research Intern)

POH, François
(Research Intern)
- website
Alumni
Please note that this list is not exhaustive.
- AEBERHARD, Niels
- ALVARENGA CARDOSO, Lucas (Alexandre)
- ATANASOAEI, Constantin-Cosmin
- BALA SUBBURAMAN, Venkatesh
- BENDALE, Abhijit
- BOURLARD, Maxime
- BROS, Victor
- BRUNINI, Gabriele
- CAJEUX, Nils
- CHINGOVSKA, Ivana
- DE FREITAS PEREIRA, Tiago
- DE REZENDE ROCHA, Anderson
- DIEFENBAUGH, Jaden
- EGLITIS, Teodors
- EL KHOURY, Elie
- EL SHAFEY, Laurent
- ERDOGMUS, Nesli
- FORMAZ, Marine
- GALBALLY, Javier
- GÜNTHER, Manuel
- HALSTEAD, Michael (Allan)
- HEUSCH, Guillaume
- HUANG, Junduan
- IBSEN, Mathias
- JOHANSSON, Niklas
- JUST, Agnès
- KEOMANY, Jean
- MÄÄTTÄ, Jukka
- MANDASARI, Miranti
- MCCOOL, Christopher
- MCLAREN, Mitchell
- MEHTA, Rakesh
- MILLIUS, Josselin
- MOHAMMADI, Amir
- MORAIS, Antonio
- NGUYEN, Huy (Hong)
- NIKISINS, Olegs
- OLDENBURGER, Laura
- ORRÙ, Giulia
- ÖZBULAK, Gokhan
- PANNATIER, Yvan
- PETTINATO, Michela
- RABELLO DOS ANJOS, André
- RAZEGHI, Behrooz
- ROY, Anindya
- SANCHEZ RIERA, Jordi
- SARFJOO, Saeed (Seyyed)
- SARKAR, Eklavya
- SCHMIDLI, Dominic
- SELLIAH, Janani
- STEL, Lucas
- THURRE, Veronique
- TOME, Pedro
- UNNERVIK, Alex
- VANONI, Matthias
- VAUCHER, Karine
- VOISIN PLUMEL, Lou
- WALLACE, Roy (Geoffrey)
- WEBER, Benno
- ZHANG, Xinyi
CITeR Membership
The Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR) is an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). This center has been created with the core mission to advance the state of the art in human identification capabilities through coordinated university research. This initiative invites industry players to join forces in a cooperative effort to support and drive high quality research in biometrics and in return, to have privileged access to the developed technologies.
CITeR consists of a number of academic sites (typically universities), and industry partners. The academic sites in CITeR conduct research projects focussing on the basic and applied research needs of CITeR members. Thus, CITeR members may fund sponsored research on proprietary projects for which they exclusively receive the research results. In the process, the CITeR membership fees are directly used to fund graduate-level research. To date it boasts membership of over 20 companies and organizations such as Idemia, Qualcomm, Infineon, Integrated Biometrics, Precise Biometrics, the FBI and Defense Research and Development Canada. The Swiss Biometrics Center is the first non-U.S. academic site of CITeR.
Why should you become a CITeR affiliate?
- Research Access: CITeR affiliates (members) can attend the twice yearly meetings to review progress of current projects and to propose new projects. In addition to your own partner site, participation at these meetings gives you access to a wider community of biometrics resesearchers. At these meetings, you will also have the right to vote on which proposals should be funded by CITeR for the next round of projects. CITeR membership may also help to establish contacts with new, future customers.
- Project Monitor: Members can mentor specific research projects at a CITeR site, that may be relevant to their business needs.
- Exclusive Rights to Results: you will have exclusive access to the outcomes of the projects sponsored by you. Affiliates have the right to obtain worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual licenses to the results obtained within the projects funded by the Center, sub-licensable to its wholly owned subsidiaries.
- Review and Deferral: the affiliates have the right to review publication requests of papers and presentations containing results and request a deferral of a limited time in case the publication contains patentable results or require protection.
- Funding opportunities: CITeR membership opens up possibilities for teaming up with academic partners for project-proposals addressing specific government funding initiatives.
Recent CITeR Projects at Idiap
CITeR projects are typically funded for a period of one year, starting either in October or Spring March. The start date of a project corresponds to the CITeR meeting (Fall or Spring) in which the project is approved. In recent years, we have undertaken the following projects within the scope of CITeR:
Active Research Grants
- CARMEN - CarMen
- CERTAIN - Certification for Ethical and Regulatory Transparency in Artificial Intelligence
- INTERART - Identification des portraits historiques par technologies de reconnaissance faciale hétérogène
- ORION - Optimized Risk-based Intelligence-driven Operations for Next-generation Secure, Reliable and Privacypreserving Border Management
- PRIMEAID - PRiMEAiD: Privacy-pReserving bioMetric idEntification for humAnitarian aid Distribution
- SAFER - reSponsible fAir FacE Recognition (SAFER)
- SENTINEL-UK - Securing Age Estimation and Digital IDs against Presentation and Injection Threats
Past Research Grants
- ALLIES - Autonomous Lifelong learnIng intelLigent Systems
- ATAP - ATAP - Continuous Authentication Program
- BBC_BOB - Adapting bespoke speaker identification models to be used in IDIAP's 'Bob.Spear' speaker recognition software
- BBFOR2 - Bayesian Biometrics for Forensics
- BEAT - Biometrics Evaluation and Testing
- BIOWAVE - BIOWAVE pre-product, a BIOmetric Watch Activated by VEins
- CANDY - ContActless finger veiN recognition and presentation attack Detection on-the-flY
- COHFACE - COntactless Heartbeat detection for trustworthy FACE Biometrics
- CONTEXT - Context-based modelling for object detection
- CSSB - Centre Suisse en Sécurité Biométrique
- EMMA1 - Expression Mimics Marker Analysis
- FACTCHECK - FactCheck - Collaborative Fact Checking of Digital Media
- FAIRFACE - FairFace
- FARGO - Convenient and Secure 3D Face Recognition based on RGB-D Cameras
- FEDARS - Feature Extraction from Deep learning Architectures for face Recognition Systems
- GENPAI - GENPAI
- GOOGLE_MOBILE - Mobile Face and Voice Anti Spoofing
- GRAIL-1 - Generative Range and Altitude Identity Learning
- GRAIL-2 - Generative Range and Altitude Identity Learning
- HARDENING - HARDENING: Heterogeneous face recognition for unified identity management
- HFACE - Heterogeneous Face Recognition
- LAB_FIDO - Création d'un laboratoire de test biométrique agréé
- LEGAL - LEGAL
- LEGAL2 - LEGAL2
- LOBI - Low Complexity Binary Features for Robust-to-Noise Speaker Recognition
- MARGIN - MARGIN: Multi-modal federated age verification
- META-SPOOF - Trustworthy AR-VR Biometric Authentication
- MOBIO - Mobile Biometry
- NATAI - The Nature of Artificial Intelligence
- ODESSA - Online Diarization Enhanced by recent Speaker identification and Sequential learning Approaches
- POLYPROTECT - PolyProtect
- SOTERIA - uSer-friendly digiTal sEcured peRsonal data and prIvacy plAtform
- SWAN - Secure Access Control over Wide Area Network
- TABULARASA - Trusted Biometrics under Spoofing Attacks
- TESLA - An Adaptive Trust-based e-assesment System for Learning
- TRESPASS-ETN - TRaining in Secure and PrivAcy-preserving biometricS
- VERIFAKE - Vulnerability assessment and detection of Deepfake videos