John Alexis Guerra Gómez

Profile

PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Maryland at College Park with an international Fulbright Science and Technology scholarship. Researcher and teacher by profession, and social entrepreneur by heart. His research interests are in Accessibility, Social Networks and Human Computer Interaction, specially in the development of technologies with a social purpose and the free software. For this reason he co founded DUTO, a company in which he lead the development of the software component of IRIS, a system that allows blind students to see with their hands the colors and shapes of the pedagogical materials given in a traditional classroom.

John Alexis has very good skills in software development, with formation and experience in Software Engineering, Database Design and Systems Administration. He is also a proficient developer in Python, Java, Ruby and C/C++ both for desktop and web applications, administration of GNU/Linux systems and of PostgreSQL and MySQL databases.

Personal Information

E-mail: aguerra[replace this whith at simbol]duto.org

Formation

2008-2011 Full time Computer Science PhD Student, University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland USA.
Current GPA 3.7/4.0 (up to Fall 2010). Current GPA 3.7/4.0 (up to Fall 2010).
Courses (in chronological order):

- CMSC634 – Empirical Research Methods for Computer Science, professor Dr. Vibha Sazawal

- CMSC752 Concrete Complexity, professor Dr. William Gasarch

- CMSC838K How to do Research, professor Dr. Steven Salzberg

- CMSC711 Computer Networks, professor Dr. Neil Spring

- CMSC724 Database Management Systems, professor Dr. Amol Deshpande

- CMSC734 Information Visualization, professor Dr. Ben Shneiderman

- CMSC737 Fundamentals of Software Testing, professor Dr. Atif Memon

- CMSC828X Nature Inspired Arti#cial Intelligence, professor Dr. James Reggia

- CMSC818G Information-Centric Design of Systems, professor Dr. Ashok Agrawala

- CMSC726 Machine Learning, professor: Dr. Lise Getoor

- CMSC838C Advanced Topics in Programming Languages: Social Computing, professor Dr. Ben Bederson

2008 Winner of the “International Science and Technology Scholarship for Outstanding Foreign Students “ Fulbright Scholarship for PhD Studies. 32 recipients in the world.
2007 Master in “Enseñanza de la Matemática” (Teaching of Mathematics) . Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira, Colombia. Thesis pending. GPA 4.5/5.0
2004 Jorge Roa Martínez Scholarship for master studies in the “Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira”, for undergrad GPA over 4.5/5.0.
2004 Bachelor in “Ingeniería de Sistemas y Computación” (Computer Science Colombian equivalent). Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Five years program. GPA 4.64/5.0. Honored Thesis: ”Proyecto IRIS, un periférico para que personas con limitaciones visuales puedan sentir imágenes por medio del tacto” (IRIS Project, a system to allow blind people to feel images with their touch).
1997 Best student of the class, High School 1997. “Colegio de la Salle Pereira”.
Best score in the school in the government standardized tests (ICFES) 348/400.

Languages

English
Proficiency in reading, writing and speaking.
TOEFL (CBT) 240/300, July 14 2006
GRE General Exam Verbal 410 34%, Quantitative 750 82%, Analytical 3.0 7%

Spanish
Native

Experience

2008-2010 Teaching Assistant, Computer Science Department University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland, USA.
Courses (in chronological order):

- CMSC421 Introduction to Arti#cial Intelligence, professor Dr. Dana Nau

- CMSC330 Organization of Programming Languages, professor Dr. Vibha Sazawal

- CMSC451 Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms, professor Dr. Carl Kingsford

- CMSC433 Programming Language Technologies and Paradigms, professor Dr. Bill Pugh

2004-2011 Chief Software Developer DUTO, Parquesoft Pereira, Colombia. (http://www.duto.org) Co founder. Developer of the IRIS software. In charge of the networking of the company. Oficial speaker. Server admin.
Some distinctions of the company:

2011 Recognized by “Risaralda Emprende” a project of the Risaralda’s Governement, for the contribution to the entrepreneurism in the region.

2010 Winners Inter American Development Bank’s call for projects: “A world of solutions”, with a project for US$50.000 to implement the IRIS system.

Featured in the book “Young World Rising” by Rob Salkowitz.

Recognized by the Colombian association of SMEs ACOPI, and Pereira’s government council

Pilot test implementation project for US$40.000 (approx.) with Pereira’s local government.

Featured in the book “Historias de Superación y Éxito” by Universia a network of universities in Spanish speaking countries.

2008 Sale of 10 IRIS devices to Pereira’s local government.

Winners TIC Americas Entrepreneur Superstar, from the Young Americas Business Trust of the Organization of American States.

2007 Winners BiD Challenge Colombia.

Winners Global Young Social Entrepreneurs Competition, in Malaysa.

Winners VENTURES 2007, Colombia’s biggest and most important business plan competition, in the categories general and best exporting potential.

Recognized with the “Orden del Mérito Empresarial” from the Risaralda’s government (State level equivalent), and the “Cruz de Los Fundadores” the most important recognition given by the Pereira’s local government.

Winners of The Best Social Entrepreneurship Award in the GLOBAL TiC 2007 competition in Taiwan.

Winners of the Social Entrepreneurship Award in the TIC Americas 2007 competition from the Young Americas Business Trust from the Organization of American States, in Panamá.

2006 Winner “Agentes de Cambio” from the MTV network, the Interamerican Development Bank and Ashoka.

2005 First place in the national call for projects “Call 021″ of 2005 from the governmental organization SENA, with a project for US$90.000 (approx.)

2007-2008 Chief Software Developer Keb Solutions. Co founder. Leader developer and trainer in Ruby on Rails.
2005-2007 Full time computer science undergrad Teacher. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira, ColombiaCourses: Client/Server Arquitecture, Software Engineering Lab, Operative Systems I and II, Logic, Programming II, Informatics, and Introduction to the Informatics. Creator of the research groups: PYROX, Pyragua and PULPA
2005 Chief Systems’ Division. “XV Juegos Bolivarianos” Pereira – Armenia – Cartagena. Regional Olimpic Games.

Publications and Presentations

2011 John Alexis Guerra Gómez, Audra Buck-Coleman, Catherine Plaisant, Ben Shneiderman. “Interactive Visualizations for Comparing Two Trees With Structure and Node Value Changes”. Submitted for review to CHI2012 (October 2011).
2011 John Alexis Guerra Gómez, Audra Buck-Coleman, Catherine Plaisant, Ben Shneiderman, “TreeVersity: Comparing Tree Structures by Topology and Node’s Attributes Differences”, Peer reviewed poster in IEEE VisWeek 2011.
2011 John Alexis Guerra Gómez, “TreeVersity: Comparing Tree Structures by Topology and Node’s Attributes Differences”, participation in the Doctoral Colloquium, IEEE VisWeek 2011.
2011 John Alexis Guerra Gómez, Catherine Plaisant, Ben Shneiderman. “TreeVersity: Comparing Tree Structures by Topology and Node Attribute Values”. Presentation at the HCIL Symposium, May 2011.
2011 John Alexis Guerra Gómez. “Visualization temporal events in tra#c incidents”. Guest presenter at the 6th International Symposium on Visualization in Transportation (August 2011)
2011 John Alexis Guerra Gómez, Krist Wongsuphasawat, Taowei David Wang, Michael Pack and Catherine Plaisant. “Analyzing Incident Management Event Sequences with Interactive Visualization “. In Proceedings of the Transportation Research Board 90th annual meeting, The National Academies, Washington, DC (2011).
2011 KristWongsuphasawat, John Alexis Guerra Gómez, Catherine Plaisant, Taowei DavidWang, Meirav TaiebMaimon and Ben Shneiderman. “LifeFlow: Visualizing an Overview of Event Sequences”. In Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’11), 1747-1756.
2007 Hernandez Niño, David. Echeverry Silva, Tulio. Guerra Gómez, John Alexis. “Ear un software de entrenamiento auditivo musical ” (Ear a musical auditive training software). Scientia et Technica Magazine. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Year XV, Edition 41.
2005 Marin Ospina, Myriam. Martín Bedoya, Ruth Andrea. Guerra Gómez, John Alexis. “Modelo de solución de enrutamiento de datos a bajo costo basado en software libre ” (Low cost routing solution model based on free software). Scientia et Technica Magazine. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Year XII, Edition 32.
2005 Zúñiga Zabala, María Fernanda. Restrepo Calle, Felipe. Guerra Gómez, John Alexis. “Proyecto IRIS “. Scientia et Technica Magazine. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Year XI, Edition 28.
2004 Guerra Gómez, John Alexis. Zúñiga Zabala, María Fernanda. Restrepo Calle, Felipe. “El gusano genético” (The genetic snake). Congreso de Seguridad en Cómputo e Inteligencia Artificial (Computing security and AI workshop). Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. ISBN: 958-8272-02-5.

Patents

2011 Colombian Patent “Sistema para la percepción de imágenes por medio del tacto por medio de un guante de imanes” (System for the perception of images by means of touch using a glove of magnet) registered to the “Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio”. Resolution 18963 of April 5 2011.
2007 USA Patent application number 20080174566. System for the perception of images through touch. Registered in April 2006.
2006 International patent registration PCT/IB2006/001502 System for the perception of images with touch. In process with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) since June 2006.
2006 Colombian “IRIS” Trademark registration, class 9. Registration No.370241 since December 22, 2008 until December 22, 2018.