Summary

I received a B.S in Computer Systems Engineering in 2004 and an M.S in Information Technology in 2007 by the Ramon Llull University (School of Electronic and Computer Engineering La Salle). The final thesis, entitled "Learning Kernels for Support Vector Machines classification", was written in the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA).

From 2007 to 2010, I was a Research Associate at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh (School of Medicine). At the same time, I became a member of the Human Sensing and Component Analysis groups. Under the direction of Dr. Fernando De la Torre, these groups focus on the understanding of human behavior and the development of novel methods to better represent information, respectively. In 2010, I received an M.S. in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.

At the end of 2010, I became a Research Assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). At the same time, I started a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Science under the supervision of Prof. Rosalind Picard, director of the Affective Computing group at the MIT Media Lab. In 2015, I completed my Ph.D. and became a Research Scientist in the same lab where I founded and directed the Emotion Navigation and Onsite Stress Measurement special interest groups. In 2017, I founded Global Vitals LLC, an MIT Media Lab spin-off with the goal of democratizing physiological sensing. In 2019, I became a Research Affiliate at MIT and Principal Researcher at the Human Understanding and Empathy group of Microsoft Research where we explore novel ways to bring emotional intelligence to technology

My most recent research is focused on the development of emotionally intelligent tools to further the understanding of humans while fostering greater health and quality of life, especially around the problem of stress measurement, understanding and management.


Honors & Awards

(2019)    Honorable mention for the best paper award at AutomotiveUI [paper]
(2019)    Distinguished best paper award at Ubicomp [paper]
(2019)    Jury award winner of NTT Data Open Innovation Challenge
(2019)    Business Insider Best of CES 2019
(2017)    Finalist in the ECUSA entrepreneurship competition
(2016)    Innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review [video]
(2016)    Honorable mention award at MobileHCI'16 [paper]
(2016)    Honorable mention award at Computer and Human Interaction Conference'16 [paper]
(2015)    Finalist of best student paper award at IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society'15 [paper]
(2015)    Best poster award at Body Sensor Networks'15 [paper]
(2015)    Nominated for best paper award at PervasiveHealth'15 [paper]
(2014)    Finalist of the MIT 100K Pitch 2014 competition
(2014)    Best student paper award at MobiHealth'14 [paper]
(2014)    Research proposal awarded by Google
(2013)    Semifinalist of the MIT 100K Launch 2013 competition
(2013)    Winner of Data Driven Hackathon hosted by IDEO and Volkswagen [project]
(2012)    Third position in the 2012 Olympus Idea competition
(2012)    One of the winners of the 2012 Samsung Note Idea competition
(2011)    Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT) 2011 award
(2011)    Festival of Art, Science, and Technology (FAST) 2011 award
(2010)    Invited to Google GRAD CS Forum 2010
(2010)    Caja Madrid Scholarship for graduate studies
(2009)    Best poster award (Reading Faces with CRFs) CMU Machine Learning Class - Spring 2009 [poster]
(2009)    Caja Espana Scholarship for graduate studies 2009-2010 (renounced)
(2009)    Caja Madrid Scholarship for graduate studies



Teaching & Talks

(10/2021)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS 630 - Assessing and minimizing risk of emotion recognition
(03/2019)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class 6.835 - Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
(03/2019)    Presentation at Apple - Emotion AI to Combat Real-life Stress
(02/2019)    Presentation at Facebook Reality Labs - Emotion AI to Combat Real-life Stress
(02/2019)    Presentation at Microsoft Research - Emotion AI to Combat Real-life Stress
(02/2019)    Presentation at Open Innovation Challenge by NTT Data - Global Vitals
(02/2019)    Invited speaker at Spaces in Space Workshop - Mental Health with Emotion AI
(01/2019)    Presentation at Lincoln Labs - Mental Health with Emotion AI
(01/2019)    Keynote speaker at Affectiva - CES: Emotion Navigation
(11/2018)    Speaker at AI in Health/Life Science Conference at MIT - Emotion AI and Future Health
(10/2018)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS 630 - Stress Measurement and Intervention
(10/2018)    Keynote speaker at MIT J-WEL - Bringing Emotional Intelligence to the Workplace
(10/2018)    Presentation at IROS - Deep Learning for Engagement Measurement of Children with ASD
(07/2018)    Speaker at the Education Divide Reform - Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
(06/2018)    Keynote speaker at NECINA - Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
(03/2018)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class 6.835 - Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
(11/2017)    Invited speaker by the Committee on Student Life at MIT on the topic of Stress
(10/2017)    Recitation in the MIT class MAS 630 - Physiological Measurement and Analysis
(10/2017)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS 630 - Stress Measurement and Intervention
(10/2017)    Presentation at ACII - Stress Measurement from Tongue Color Imaging
(03/2017)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class 6.835 - Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
(11/2016)    Presentation at MIT Tech Review Under 35 (Spain) - Using Technology to Combat Stress [video: English, Spanish]
(09/2016)    Presentation at MobileHCI 2016 on the topic of Wearable Experience Sampling [slides]
(09/2016)    Presentation at MIT Tech Review Under 35 (Spain) on the topic of Using Technology to Combat Stress
(09/2016)    Presentation at MobileHCI 2016 on the topic of Wearable Experience Sampling [slides]
(04/2016)    Presentation at the Advancing Wellbeing Workshop on the topic of Traditional Chinese Medicine
(12/2015)    Invited speaker by the Boston Consulting Group on the topic of Affective Computing and the future of Healthcare
(11/2015)    Invited speaker in the Affective Brain Lab at MIT on the topic of Emotion Measurement in Real-Life
(11/2015)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS 630 class Affective Computing on the topic of Stress Measurement and Relief
(11/2015)    Guest lecturer in the Tuffs class Affective Interfaces on the topic of Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
(09/2015)    Keynote speaker at DRT4All 2015 on the topic of Affective Computing [video: English, Spanish]
(08/2015)    Presentation at EMBC 2015 on the topic of Measuring Physiological Parameters with Smartphones
(05/2015)    Presentation at PervasiveHealth 2015 on the topic of Measuring Physiological Parameters with Wrist-worn Motion Sensors
(11/2014)    Demo at Always Connected - The Promise of Wearable Technology at the MIT Museum
(11/2014)    Presentation at MobiHealth 2014 on the topic of Measuring Physiological Parameters with a Head-mounted Wearable Device
(09/2014)    Presentation at Ubicomp 2014 on the topic of Measuring Social Engagement of Children
(04/2014)    Presentation at CHI 2014 on the topic of Under Pressure: Sensing Stress of Computing Users
(04/2014)    Invited speaker in Google Glass Workshop at MIT on the topic of Measuring Daily Emotions with Google Glass
(04/2014)    Co-guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS.962 on the topic of Emotion Measurement for Human Augmentation
(02/2014)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS.500 Intro to Applied Machine Learning Module on the topic of Emotion Recognition
(11/2013)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS 630 Affective Computing on the topic of Emotion Measurement in Real-life Settings
(04/2013)    Presentation at UbiComp 2013 on the topic of Mood Meter: Counting Smiles in the Wild
(04/2013)    Presentation at UbiComp 2013 on the topic of AMA, an application for Annotation, Monitoring, and Analysis of behavioral activity
(04/2013)    Invited speaker in InspireYale at Yale University
(11/2013)    Invited speaker in Daniel's Gilbert group at Harvard University
(10/2012)    Presentation at Engineering & Autism Workshop on the topic of Multimodal Annotation Tool for Challenging Behaviors in People with ASD
(04/2012)    Invited speaker at TEDxNewHaven [video]
(05/2012)    Workshop about the Autonomic Nervous System in the Computational Behavior Science summer school [website]
(11/2011)    Demo at TEDxCambridge
(11/2011)    Invited speaker in the Center for Biological & Computational Learning group at MIT
(05/2011)    Presentation at ACII 2011 on the topic of Call Center Stress Recognition with Person-Specific Models
(10/2010)    Guest lecturer in the MIT class MAS 622J Pattern Recognition and Analysis on the topic of Dimensionality Reduction [slides]
(09/2010)    Teaching Assistant of the MIT class MAS 622J Pattern Recognition and Analysis [website]