Rodrigo
Alvarez-Icaza
Curriculum Vitae
Brains in Silicon Lab
Department of Bioengineering
Stanford University
Clark Center W1.3
Stanford, CA 94305, U.S.A.
phone: 650-206-2224
email: rodrigoa@stanford.edu
web: http://www.stanford.edu/~rodrigoa/
My objective is to profit by applying my analytical and problem-solving skills to the advancement of our civilization.
My present interest is the creation of artificial intelligent living beings by exploiting advances in neuromorphic engineering, neuroscience
and biomechanics and applying them to a new generation robotics. I'm currently a research assistant at Dr. Boahen's "Brains in Silicon"
Lab and the founder of SmartMotion Technologies where I am pursuing these interests.
Education
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Pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuroengineering at Brains in Silicon Lab.
Department of Bioengineering,
Stanford University |
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M.S. Bioengineering
University of Pennsylvania 2005
Grand Prize winner of: Pennventions, Wharton Business Plan Competition and Fortune Small Business Challenge
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Employment
| Jan
2006 - Present |
Research Fellow
Brains in Silicon Lab, Stanford
University
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| June
2004 - Present |
Founder and CTO
SmartMotion Technologies
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| Sep
2003 - Dec 2005 |
Research Fellow
Boahen
Lab, Neuroengineering
Research Lab, University
of Pennsylvania
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| Jan
2003 - Aug 2003 |
Assistant
Professor - Founder of Robotics Lab.
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City
I taught the Robotics and Advanced Control
courses as well as their
respective laboratories to Mechanical
and Electrical Engineering undergraduates. As class project we developed two
robotic arm manipulators and three mobile robots that together
served as the foundation of the Robotics Techning Lab for the University. |
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| July
2001 - 2003 |
IT
Consultant
Association of International Financial Institutions (AIFI)
My responsibilities include computer network
planning and implementation, and web site and online-application
development & maintenance.
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| March
2000 - Jun 2001
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Cofounder
& Director of Operations
QuePlan
Apart from developing the idea for the leader entertainment portal
for Mexico City (chilangolandia.com),
searching for investors, performing all the legal processes to found
the company and making sure daily operation ran smoothly, my responsibilities
included:
- Selecting
Personnel
- Advertising
Sales and Client & Investor Relations
- Web Application
Development, Data Base and Server Configuration, Network Analysis
and Planning
- Accounting,
Legal, Financial Planning and Fund Raising
- Design and
management of Marketing and Advertising Campaigns
In
mid 2001 Grupo
Televisa (the largest broadcaster in Latin America) acquired
50% of the company. |
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| Nov 1999
- 2003 |
Consultant
Plathex Internacional
I consulted on the development & manufacturing
of new products, improving quality control, testing-techniques
and equipment. I designed and implemented automatization
and control equipment for industrial machinery.
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| Feb 1999
- 2003 |
Consultant
Puerto Aventuras, Quintana Roo
Assisted in urban planning, business plan
analysis and presentation and development of real estate marketing
campaigns. I also planned and implemented computer networks, developed
and maintain their Website and was responsible of negotiating with
the local telecommunications company the implementation of local
internet access.
http://www.puertoaventuras.com |
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| Aug 1997
- May 1998 |
Research
Assistant
Universidad Iberoamericana
Under the direction of Dr. Jaime Gomez,
I was responsible for the mechanical design and outlining the control
architecture of a biped Walking Machine
Project. |
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| Aug 1996
- Dec 1998
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Teacher
Assistant
Universidad Iberoamericana
For the course of Solid Mechanics. My
responsibilities included preparing, imparting and grading tests
to three groups of over thirty students. I also conducted a few
problem solving sessions and tutored interested students. |
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| Jan 1996
- Dec 1996 |
Private
Tutor
For undergraduate engineering students
in mathematics and physics. |
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| Sep 1994
- Nov 1995 |
Design
Engineer
Plathex Internacional
Design & Construction of a Sleeve-Label
Forming Machine. |
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| Jun 1993
- Jul 1994
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Audio
Recording Engineer
PRODAJSA
Experience with analog and digital recording and procesing environments
for radio & TV advertising as well as recording rock bands and classical ensembles. |
Awards
| Fortune Small Business |
Grand Prize Winner of 2005 Battle of the Business Plans. |
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Wharton School of Business
Univeristy of Pennsylvania |
Grand Prize Winner of 2005 Wharton Business Plan Competition. |
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Weiss Tech House
Univeristy of Pennsylvania |
Grand Prize Winner of 2005 Pennventions. |
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| Universidad
Iberoamericana |
Achievement
of Excellence in the Thesis presented in pursuit of the Licentiate
Degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. |
Other Activities
| Aug 2001
- Jan 2003 |
Independent
Research in computational neurosciences. My work
involved exploring the growth of neural processes and formation
of synaptic connection as means for learning. See article. |
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| Sep
1999 - Oct 2004 |
Member
of the Board of Directors of QuePlan |
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| Jul 1998
- Dec 1998 |
Design
and Construction of the Prototype Image Setter for my Thesis. See
web page. |
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| Summer
1998 |
Construction
of a HeNe Laser power source. Built my first 6,000 Volt power source. |
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| Summer
1996 |
Progamming of Pente. Class project turned entrepreneurial and distributed as shareware. See
web page. |
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| Summer
1995 |
Computer
Simulation of the Big Bang. For some reason I had become
suspicious about Newton's theories. I was not evident to me how
everything in the universe ended up spinning based on gravitational
attraction alone, so I simulated the Big Bang. See
web page. |
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| 1994 |
Solving
the Chinese Solitaire. Challenged to solve this ancient
game I took AI approach and a couple of hours latter a search tree gave me a juicy solution. See
web page. |
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| 1988
- 1997 |
Drumming
and Synthesizer/Sequence Programming for an experimental
band called "La Herida" which became rather popular in
the Mexico City metropolitan area. |
Last Updated: Jannuary 7, 2007
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