Education
I earned my Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Structural Engineering, from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. During my Bachelor's program, I participated in a 12-month International Academic Exchange at the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon, France, supported by the prestigious MEXFITEC scholarship funding program.
I was awarded a double Advanced Master's Degree in Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions (SAHC) from the Czech Technical University of Prague, Czech Republic, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain. This was made possible through funding from the European Commission's ERASMUS+ program.
At Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics and a PhD in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. These studies were funded by the university's Internal Studentship Award. My doctoral research focused on the conservation of earthen vernacular architecture in Ireland through the study of the mechanical properties and the structural behavior of Cob. I conducted non-linear finite elements (FE) simulations and, in an International Research Collaboration with the University of Cantabria, Spain, an experimental campaign on the adaptation and application of the flat jack test on Cob walls.
Spanish is my native language, and I have advanced proficiency in English and intermediate proficiency in French. I am also a beginner in both Italian and Norwegian.
Theses and dissertations
Title: Conservation of earthen vernacular architecture in Ireland. Study of the mechanical properties and the structural behavior of cob.
Supervisor: Dr. Dermot O'Dwyer.
Year: 2019.
Dissertation submitted to the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin in partial fulfillment of the requirements to obtain the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy.
Title: Simulation of structural behavior of masonry using discrete element modeling.
Supervisors: Dr. Sergio Henrique Pialarissi Cavalaro and Dr. Pere Roca Fabregat.
Year: 2016.
Dissertation submitted to the SAHC Consortium in partial fulfillment of the requirements to obtain the degree of: Advanced Masters in Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions.
Title: Análisis comparativo del comportamiento de marcos planos en función de la consideración de segmentos rígidos en los nodos.
Supervisor: Dr. Miguel Zamora Palacios.
Year: 2014.
Dissertation submitted to the Department of Civil and Topographic Engineering at University of Guadalajara in partial fulfillment of the requirements to obtain the degree of: Bachelor in Civil Engineering.
Awarded scholarships
Awarded by: European Commission.
Year: 2023.
Description: Around 1200 € which covered course fees, transportation, accommodation, and food expenses to participate in the Academic Leadership course, delivered by the European Academy of Innovation.
Awarded by: Trinity College Dublin.
Years: 2016-2019.
Description: Around 100,000 € which covered tuition fees, research expenses and a monthly stipend of 1 200 €.
Awarded by: European Commission.
Years: 2015-2016.
Description: Around 25,000 € which covered tuition fees, health insurance and a monthly stipend of 1 000 €.
Awarded by: The governments of Mexico and France.
Years: 2012-2013.
Description: Around 20,000 €, which covered tuition fees, return flight Mexico-France, two-months French course, health insurance and a monthly stipend of 800 €.
Other education
Title: 8th CISM-ECCOMAS Advanced School on Scientific Machine Learning in Design Optimization.
Organized by: International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM), Italy.
Year: 2023.
Description: The course provided a basic understanding of the classic engineering design process and identified potential usage of artificial intelligence in this context. It covered basic theory of machine learning concepts suitable for (i) geometry representation, (ii) model order reduction, (iii) optimization, and (iv) uncertainty quantification.
Title: Academic leadership.
Organized by: European Academy of Innovation, Romania.
Year: 2023.
Description: The course is structured into 4 modules: i) Leadership intelligence, ii) Where does your university stand? What is the role of the leader? iii) People-cantered leadership, iv) Communication and feedback.
Title: Structural Health Monitoring for Integrity Management of Civil Structures and Infrastructures.
Organized by: Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Year: 2023.
Description: The aim of this course is to introduce students to the basic aspects of Structural Health monitoring with an emphasis on Vibration-based methods for damage identification as a decision support tool for integrity management of civil structures and infrastructures.
Title: Conservation Without Frontiers International Summer School.
Organized by: Ulster Architectural Heritage, Northern Ireland, and Irish Georgian Society, Ireland.
Year: 2019.
Description: Survival and Revival: Living Towns and Villages in Cavan and Fermanagh.
Title: BASEhabitat International Summer School on Earthen and Bamboo Construction.
Organized by: University of Linz, Austria.
Year: 2018.
Description: Practical workshops in building with earth and bamboo, theory classes on sustainable architecture and networking with people from all around the globe.
Title: How to Research and Write Using Generative AI Tools.
Awarded by: National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).
Year: 2024.
Top skills covered: Artificial intelligence for business, artificial intelligence for design, writing.
Title: C1 Research and Innovation Project Management: The First Steps.
Awarded by: The Research Council of Norway.
Year: 2023.
Description: Introduction to the life cycle of an EU project; how to start up the project, as well as reporting and management along the way.
Title: A3 Looking for Partners and Joining Consortia.
Awarded by: The Research Council of Norway.
Year: 2023.
Description: What type of partners to look for in Horizon Europe? And what characterizes a winning consortium in Horizon Europe?
Title: Research Design.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2023.
Description: Identifying research gaps, advancing research evaluation strategies.
Title: IOP Peer Review Excellence.
Awarded by: IOP Publishing.
Year: 2022.
Description: A first-of-its-kind peer review certification programme, Peer Review Excellence: IOP training and certification is co-delivered by top-level physicists and offers a blend of online learning and hands-on peer review experience. Achieving 'IOP trusted reviewer' status demonstrates an exceptionally high level of peer review competency.
Title: Book Writing.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: Why you should publish a book, advice on writing a compelling proposal, ideas for promoting your work .
Title: Technical Writing Skills.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: Practical advice to get you started, guidance on using the system, some golden rules and common mistakes.
Title: Writing Skills.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: Information on common writing mistakes, advice on how to avoid those errors, a guide to correct manuscript language.
Title: Fundamentals of Manuscript Preparation.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: An introduction to the publishing process, insights into how to build an article, top tips for writing a great abstract.
Title: Research Collaborations.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: Advice on how collaborate with industry, guidance on making research collaborations work, an introduction to the importance of collaborations.
Title: Research Data Management.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: Why data sharing is so important, an introduction to data management plans, information about the sharing solutions on offer.
Title: Funding.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2022.
Description: Advice from experts on funding, guidance on writing a great application, an introduction to metrics.
Title: Certified Peer Reviewer Course.
Awarded by: Elsevier Researcher Academy.
Year: 2019.
Description: Understanding of the peer review process, advice on writing a helpful peer review report, advice on handling ethical issues concerning peer review.
Title: Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience.
Offered by: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) with support from the European Union.
Year: 2025.
Platform: EdX.
Title: Getting Started with Mentimeter: Beginner's Course.
Offered by: Mentimeter Academy.
Year: 2023.
Platform: Mentimeter Academy.
Title: Co-Creation for Policymakers: An Introductory Course.
Offered by: Politecnico di Milano.
Year: 2023.
Platform: POK.
Title: Construire en terre crue aujourd'hui.
Offered by: Amaco.
Year: 2020.
Platform: Batiment Durable.
Title: Next Generation Infrastructures: Complexity, Governance and Regulation of Infrastructure Systems.
Offered by: TU Delft.
Year: 2014.
Platform: edX.
Title: Future Cities.
Offered by: ETH Zurich.
Year: 2014.
Platform: edX.
Title: L'Art des Structures 2 : treillis, poutres, dalles et cadres.
Offered by: EPFL.
Year: 2014.
Platform: Coursera.
Title: L'art des structures 1 : Câbles et arcs.
Offered by: EPFL.
Year: 2014.
Platform: Coursera.
Title: Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development.
Offered by: The World Bank.
Year: 2014.
Platform: Coursera.
Other Audited MOOCs
Title: Preserving Norwegian Stave Churches.
Offered by: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Year: 2022. Platform: Future Learn.
Title: The Art and Science of Searching in Systematic Reviews.
Offered by: The National University of Singapore (NUS).
Year: 2022. Platform: edX.
Title: Deep Learning with Tensorflow.
Offered by: IBM.
Year: 2022. Platform: edX.
Title: Web Applications and Command-Line Tools for Data Engineering.
Offered by: Duke University.
Year: 2022. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Scripting with Python and SQL for Data Engineering.
Offered by: Duke University.
Year: 2022. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Python and Pandas for Data Engineering.
Offered by: Duke University.
Year: 2022. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Linux and Bash for Data Engineering.
Offered by: Duke University.
Year: 2022. Platform: Coursera.
Title: HTML, CSS, and Javascript for Web Developers.
Offered by: Johns Hopkins University.
Year: 2022. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Supervised Machine Learning: Regression and Classification.
Offered by: Stanford University.
Year: 2019. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Introduction to Python.
Offered by: Microsoft.
Year: 2019. Platform: Microsoft Training.
Title: Roman Architecture.
Offered by: Yale University.
Year: 2019. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Cultural Heritage in Transformation.
Offered by: RWTH Aachen University.
Year: 2019. Platform: edX.
Title: The Ancient Greeks.
Offered by: Wesleyan University.
Year: 2019. Platform: Coursera.
Title: Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City.
Offered by: University of Reading.
Year: 2019. Platform: Future Learn.