I finished a Bachelors of Science in Computer Enginering from the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez in 1988. After working as an engineer for three years, in 1991 I came to the US to work on my PhD. I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the City University of New York in 1999. I was a professor of computer science at Hampshire College for 20 years, and started working at UMass Amherst in 2019. I actively look at the effect of different curricula and approaches for introductory computer science courses, as well as how to incorporate dialogic techniques into classroom teaching. My main research interest is in neural networks for human-like tasks. My PhD dissertation dealt with computer-based parsing and semantic analysis of English sentences. I am currently using neural networks and deep learning to study human morpho-semantic processing theories.I am also interested in Big Data and privacy issues, as well as in the Open Software movement and its effect on society and economics.
