Student Spotlight: Víctor Fernandez
Víctor graduated from Industrial Engineering in 2010 and since then has been working as a technical consultant, and later as a software engineer, and as a teacher and mentor for students who wanted to learn to code. Víctor was born and raised in Madrid but currently lives in Bilbao in the northern greener area of Spain, along with his wonderful wife, amazing two-year-old kid, and two adorable dogs.
I fell in love with the whole model [of OMSCS] right from the beginning. Having the flexibility to learn from anywhere around the world, no matter where I am and at my own pace. Having lectures fully recorded allowing me to go through all the material as many times as I want to and at the same time still have the support and help from teachers, TAs and classmates. It’s just a wonderful experience.
Back when Víctor was 16 years old, he carried out his first programming course for web programming. Since then, he has always had a huge interest in computer science, and even though he completed different studies, he has always been learning computing on his own. For Víctor, computer science is a huge toolbox for solving “literally anything. It’s endless possibilities to improve anything we want to set our hands to”. Víctor continues to explain that right now, computers are at the center of everything. We have them in our phones, we need them to work, and mostly everything manufactured in an industrial way is managed by a computer. Víctor has always been interested in how things work further from the user level. So, for him, working with computers has been an essential part of his life—not only in understanding how computers work, but also in helping him understand everything else that is computer-based. Computer science covers many of the things he still wants to learn. From its application to robotics to quantum computing, it is all incredibly interesting to Víctor. Aside from computer science, Víctor stated that he has always had interest in human psychology. Understanding how the human mind works in so many levels is something that will probably get a lot of attention in the coming years.
So far, I have enjoyed all the classes I have taken and really feel like each professor is outstanding in what they teach.
Several years ago, he decided he wanted to get a more stable learning focused on artificial intelligence, robotics, and more, and came across the OMSCS program. For Víctor, it was a perfect solution since it allowed him to keep working while he received a deep and quality understanding of many concepts he had not been able to grasp until he entered the OMSCS program. Professor Sebastian Thrun was, and still is, one of Víctor’s inspirations, and being able to be in his courses and watch his content was really important for Víctor. As for what he likes most about OMSCS? “Basically everything. I fell in love with the whole model right from the beginning. Having the flexibility to learn from anywhere around the world, no matter where I am and at my own pace. Having lectures fully recorded allowing me to go through all the material as many times as I want to and at the same time still have the support and help from teachers, TAs and classmates. It’s just a wonderful experience.”
Though Víctor is not currently working on any research, he does have several ideas in his mind he would love to work on. So far, he has found AI application for robotics and computer vision very interesting and would definitely love to carry out research in those fields. He would also love to work with any of the professors in OMSCS as all the professors he has taken so far have been simply amazing. They have all done incredible research and have contributed plenty of knowledge in each of their respective fields. “I could learn many amazing things from collaborating with any of them.” In fact, when asked who his favorite professor has been thus far, Víctor answered, “All. So far, I have enjoyed all the classes I have taken and really feel like each professor is outstanding in what they teach.”
An interesting fact about Víctor is that several years ago, he and his wife decided to make a change in their lives and went traveling for two years around the world. For Víctor, it has been one of the best experiences of his life. Not only did it let him rethink who he was and who he wants to be, but it also opened his mind to a level he cannot describe in words. It is something he believes everyone should be able to experience at least once in their lives, “plus I got to see the Aurora”.
As for after graduation, he intends to switch his career in software engineering towards an area more related to the content of OMSCS he has completed, and he has always been interested in getting more into academia and sharing with others what he has learned; therefore, going for a PhD and teaching are also on his mind.
An incredible way to disconnect from school and work for Víctor “is spending time with my son, which right now translates into anything from doing a puzzle to running around playing hide and seek. It totally takes my mind off anything else. Aside from that, biking is my other solution. There’s a lot of nature where I live and going out for a ride is totally relaxing.”