Pedro Juan Rivera Torres

Pedro was born in Ponce and raised in Coamo, on the island of Puerto Rico. He is part of the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory (DIAL) at the IfM. After completing his Ph.D. in Telematic Engineering from Universidade de Vigo (Spain) in 2017 he returned to the University of Puerto Rico's main campus (Río Piedras) as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science (2017-2019), where he had taught Computer Engineering at UPR-Mayagüez in 2008. He was an Associate Researcher and later a Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2023) at the Center for Complexity Sciences (C3) of the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM), specializing in Self-Organizing Systems and Complexity-Based Telecommunications Systems, under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Gershenson García. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the use of Probabilistic Boolean Networks and a means of modelling Manufacturing Systems, especially those under preventive maintenance. This dissertation obtained the prestigious Doctoral Excellence Award (Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado) and the 'Doctor Internacional' distinction. He has a professional experience spanning more than 20 years, that includes working for the aerospace, biopharmaceutical and other manufacturing industries, as an engineer.

Pedro holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (2001), a Graduate Certificate in Project Management (University of Wisconsin, 2004), a M.Sc. in Engineering Management (University of Wisconsin, 2005), a Master of Telematic Engineering (2008), Diploma of Advanced Studies, (2008), and Ph.D. in Telematic Engineering (2017) from Universidade de Vigo, Spain, a Master of Computer Engineering (2021) and a Master of Telecommunications Engineering from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (2022) and is working towards a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. He is a licensed telecommunications engineer in Spain, and a member of the Official College of Telecommunications Engineers since 2018 (COIT). He collaborates with scientists from the US, Puerto Rico, Spain, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil.

As an educator he has taught computer science, math and engineering in higher learning institutions in the US (Wisconsin) and Puerto Rico since 2002, including the UPR.

Pedro is the proud father of Pedro Alejandro and Ernesto Rafael. In addition to his science and engineering roles, he is also a professional musician, singer and composer, with a career spanning 42 years, several contributions with other artists and 3 studio albums (1 in the making), and has received two national awards in his motherland for being among the best 10 and 20 recordings of the year (2012, 2016).