Faculty Spotlight: Federico Castanedo

Long before ChatGPT and Large Language Models became buzz words, Academic Director Federico Castanedo, was focusing on Artificial Intelligence receiving his PhD in AI and working as a visiting researcher at Stanford University in 2010 and 2013. His numerous research publications—including three book chapters and more than 19 peer-reviewed publications at top conferences—have garnered more than 1500 citations.

But Professor Castanedo, Academic Director of the Bachelor in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, brings with him more than 10 years of experience in the industry doing Applied AI. He has worked at early-stage startups like WiseAthena, large corporations like Vodafone and late-stage startups, such as DataRobot. He also holds two U.S. patents: Predicting Customer Churn in a Telecommunications Network Environment and Method for Data Encoding and Accurate Predictions Through Convolutional Networks for Actual Enterprise Challenges.

Meet our Academic Director of the Bachelor in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.

What brought you to IE? Where were you before? And what keeps you here?

I did my PhD as teaching assistant and over the years I’ve worked as a professor in different universities. I started at IE as adjunct Professor in the Master’s in Big Data and Analytics back in 2017 when I was the Lead Data Scientist at Vodafone Spain. Before joining IE as an Academic Director, I was Director of Data Science at DataRobot, where I joined as one of the early employees in EMEA and spent almost four years during a period when the company grew exponentially. I left DataRobot at the end of 2022, and in the Fall Semester of 2023 I started teaching Generative AI in the BDBA program. Then, I heard there was an open position as an Academic Director for the BCSAI and I applied for it.

One of the reasons that motivated me to join IE full-time was the mission and the vision of the new School of Science and Technology led by our Dean Ikhlaq Sidhu. In particular, I’m attracted to the idea of building a new type of polytechnic and the entrepreneurship mindset.

What trends are you most excited about in science and technology and why?

Obviously, I am very excited about everything that is happening recently in the AI space with the Generative AI applications. I remembered when I enrolled in a PhD in AI back in 2005-- just 18 years ago. At that time when you told someone that you are doing AI, they didn’t really understand or show any interest at all. Today AI is everywhere and if you work on AI you are getting a lot of interest from everyone.

To be more specific on a trend, I am really interested and excited in the application of Small Language Models to solve specific tasks, rather than the use of Large Language Models such as ChatGPT that are aiming to fulfill general needs and very expensive to create. On the other hand, Small Language Models can enable the use of intelligent AI assistants in our mobile devices for example and I am also excited about the use of intelligent AI assistants in our mobile devices or other new devices like the AI Pin from Humane.

Have you ever had an a-ha moment while teaching that furthered your research? What was it?

I think I have had several a-ha moments while teaching and it is one of the reasons why I love teaching. One that comes to my mind was several years ago when I was teaching Convolutional Neural Networks, a specific type of Deep Learning that works very well in Computer Vision tasks.

At that time, I was leading the Data Science team at Wise Athena and we were doing several projects in the Telecommunication domain. Due to the success of the application of Convolutional Neural Networks, we investigated how we could also apply it to one of our projects. We ended up publishing a paper and presented it at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in New York back in 2016.

What book do you wish your students would read before taking your class and why?

For a general leadership book, I recommend Start with Why by Simon Sinek, because it motivates you to be a curious person and a source of inspiration for others.

If we talk about Computer Science students, I strongly recommend the class The C Programming Language by Kerninghan and Ritchie. It is a classic book that teaches you how to write efficient code.

Please name one of your articles or studies you feel addresses the pressing issues for 2024?

Back in September 2018 I published an e-book in partnership with O’Reilly and sponsored by IBM named Applying Deep Learning in Business. Although it has been published a few years ago many of the ideas are still relevant today since Deep Learning are the algorithms behind the Generative AI revolution.

Whose research of your IE colleagues do you find interesting? Why?

There are many interesting research projects at IE, so it is difficult to select one. But if I need to choose one, I find the research from Eduardo Castelló very interesting because it combines several fields. For example, he has applied the blockchain technology into robotic swarm systems, which is also an application of swarm optimization into Robotics. So, I am very excited to see his upcoming research in our Robotics Lab.

Tell us one personal thing about yourself that none of your students know. A hobby, sport or talent? Strange fact? Unusual interest?

About a year and a half ago, I decided to get healthier, and I've lost 18 kilos since then.  I consistently walk at least 10 kilometers every day and work out at the gym. I've revamped my diet, choosing foods that are nutritious and low in calories, while cutting down on sugar and significantly limiting my alcohol consumption, reserving a glass of fine wine or beer solely for special occasions.