About me
In my free time I love the contact with the nature, I enjoy hiking and mountain biking; I like dancing and cooking; but what I enjoy the most is reading literature, philosophy and poetry. My favorite authors are: Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone De Beauvoir, Milan Kundera, Kafka, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Neruda, Benedetti, Rafael Alberti, Federico Garcia Lorca, Hemingway, Karl Popper, Stephen Hawking, ... among others.
Recently I found the joy of the photography. Visit my flickr photo's gallery HERE
How I ended up here
I studied informatics at the University of Guadalajara, I never liked much my major, but I'm not the kind of person that leaves something unfinished. So, I finished my studies in 2001 (being top of my class) and started looking for something else than just databases...
That way I found the opportunity of spending two months at a research center in the north of Mexico. The center was the CICESE, and I did a summer internship under the supervision of Dr. Jesus Favela. It was a revealing experience (it was my first time away from home also) and I liked it so much that I decided I wanted to be a researcher. I wanted to combine science with computers, my favorite science at that time was astronomy and Dr Favela, that was also my first mentor, pointed me in the direction of INAOE, a research center focused on the study of astrophysics among other things.
I went to INAOE in 2002 after a 'real-life working' experience. INAOE was, and I still feel it is my home. I meet my husband there and I made very good friends. During my time at INAOE I worked with Dr Olac Fuentes, a great researcher that used machine learning to predict relevant features of stars and galaxies. With ML you can do extraordinary things. I felt in love with machine learning and did my master identifying the age of stellar populations, using a hierarchical method that combines several supervised and unsupervised techniques. I received my Master's degree in Computer Science in 2004. Then I continued working at INAOE for one year but this time under the supervision of Dr Leopoldo Altamirano. During that last year Dr Fuentes joined the University of Texas at El Paso and he meet my future supervisor there: Dr Michela Taufer.
I moved to El Paso in 2006. It was the scariest experience of my life: moving alone, to a different country, with a different culture and language. I was fortunate enough to have old friends at UTEP: Dr. Thamar Solorio, and of course my former supervisor Dr Fuentes, were a major support. I was also lucky because my new supervisor, Dr Taufer, was very supportive. At UTEP I started a new professional epoch, working with proteins and distributed systems instead of galaxies and ML. It was a total challenge, but it was as difficult as exciting.
After a year at UTEP, Dr Taufer decided she wanted to move to The University of Delaware and she invited me to move with her. I was scared, but after receiving the advise of Dr Fuentes and the support from my husband, family and friends... I was on the road again.
Since August 2007 I am a PhD student at The University of Delaware. It has been the greatest experience of my life. Doing research with Dr Taufer helped me to grow not only as a professional, but also as a person. I have learned so much from her and from many other faculty here that I am totally thankful. I also have great coworkers and the support of my husband.
Life at Delaware is beautiful (even in winter). Of course I miss my family and friends in Mexico, but I know they are always with me
