COMP 3015: Web Programming with Databases
Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Panama Campus · Fall 2024 · 1 section · 3 credits
CV
Research interests
- Educational measurement and item response theory, including methods that estimate a student’s proficiency with the fewest possible items.
- Validity and fairness of assessments and algorithmic systems; evaluation of AI and LLM-based tools used in education.
- Diagnosing learning gaps by combining item response theory with knowledge graphs; personalized learning pathways and learning analytics.
- Machine learning for education and the social sciences, including student motivation and gamification in virtual learning environments.
- Standardized assessment of student competencies to inform data- and evidence-based education policy.
Education
- M.S.Ed., Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methodology, Indiana University Bloomington, Aug 2025 – May 2027 (expected)
- Fulbright Scholar. Emphasis in measurement, multivariate statistics and machine learning for the social sciences.
- Completed coursework: Intermediate Statistics Applied to Education; Multivariate Analysis in Educational Research; Strategies for Educational Inquiry; Qualitative Inquiry in Education; Computer Laboratory and Consultation for Educational Inquiry; Network Science; Education Policy and Reform.
- Current coursework (Fall 2026): Educational Assessment and Psychological Measurement; Machine Learning Methods for Education and Social Science; Applied Missing Data Analysis.
- Planned (Spring 2027): Longitudinal Data Analysis; Master’s Thesis in Education.
- Fulbright Pre-Academic English Program, Intensive English Language Institute, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, Jan 2025 – Jul 2025
- B.Eng., Systems and Computing Engineering, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Mar 2016 – Dec 2023 (degree conferred Jan 2024)
- Thesis: Design and Implementation of Knowledge Graphs for Building Personalized Learning Pathways for Fundación Ayudinga (2023); recognized as outstanding student research.
- Relevant coursework: Calculus I–III; Ordinary Differential Equations; Advanced Engineering Mathematics; Numerical Methods for Engineering; Statistics; Discrete Structures; Artificial Intelligence; Applied AI Tools; Knowledge-Based Systems; Databases I–II; Modeling and Simulation; Research Methodology in Engineering.
- Organizer, Symposium on Emerging and Disruptive ICT for Social Development (STEEDS).
Fellowships and honors
- Fulbright Faculty Development Program Scholar, U.S. Department of State, Jul 2025
- Awarded to pursue graduate study in research methodology at Indiana University Bloomington, preceded by an intensive English program at the University of North Texas.
- Outstanding Student Recognition for Research, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Dec 2021
- Recognized for undergraduate research on knowledge graphs for generating personalized learning pathways.
- Fellow, Latin American Citizen Action Laboratory 2.0, Jóvenes Unidos por la Educación and Panama Canal Authority, 2020
- Fellow, International Citizen Advocacy Laboratory, Educación 2020 and Jóvenes Unidos por la Educación, 2018
- Chile–Panama cooperation initiative on education policy. Project recognized among the top three; awarded a public-policy internship in Chile.
Research experience
- Research Assistant, Text Mining on Reported Nutrition Interventions in Panama, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Faculty of Computer Systems Engineering (FISC), Oct 2022 – Jun 2023
- Supported research tasks in a text-mining project led by Principal Investigator Javier Sánchez-Galán, PhD, conducted by UTP-FISC with the PRISM Consortium (McGill University), Panama’s National Research System (SNI, SENACYT) and CEMCIT-AIP.
- Co-authored with the PI a 2023 APANAC conference paper (presented as a poster) on a geospatial information system for food-security, nutrition-intervention and human-health data in Panama.
- Natural Language Processing and LLM Project, National Research System (SNI), Panama, Oct 2022 – Jul 2023
- Built an ETL pipeline to generate a text corpus, then cleaned the corpus and measured its quality.
- Implemented text-embedding algorithms and visualized the embeddings with dimensionality-reduction techniques.
- Developed a chatbot-style system powered by large language models (LLMs).
- Geospatial Data Visualization, CEMCIT-AIP, Panama, Oct 2022 – Dec 2022
- Developed semi-automated extraction of tabular data and georeferenced health and nutrition indicators, and built a dashboard for consulting and comparing them.
Professional experience
Fundación Ayudinga, Panama
- Director of Technology and Educational Research, Jun 2019 – Present
- Authored the foundation’s first R&D&I plan and direct its portfolio of 10+ research projects in machine learning, knowledge management and gamification applied to education.
- Lead research on factors that influence learning, analyzing experimental data to build and evaluate artificial intelligence models. Research lines include student motivation in virtual learning environments, personalized teaching and learning, gamification as a motivational strategy, and LLMs and knowledge graphs for knowledge representation in educational organizations.
- Designed the department’s organizational structure, roles, teams and processes and reviewed its training programs, growing the volunteer program from 6 to 42 members.
- Designed and implemented the data governance strategy (2021–2023): roles, processes and policies for documentation, privacy, metadata, storage, data quality and business intelligence; a data architecture with high-availability and fault-tolerance mechanisms; and data-literacy training for volunteers.
- Led the design and implementation of the foundation’s e-learning platform; designed and maintain its cloud infrastructure, cloud services and web servers, and lead systems analysis and design for web and desktop applications.
- Contributed to the foundation’s COVID-19 response, which began streaming and broadcasting mathematics and science classes on open television to Panama and the region the day after schools closed.
- Director of Finance and Treasurer of the Board, Feb 2020 – Present
- Built the foundation’s finance and administrative function from scratch, consolidating its accounting information.
- Automated the collection of financial information for decision-making; prepare and manage the annual budget.
- Backend Lead, Aug 2017 – Jun 2019
- Designed the microservices architecture of the e-learning platform, improving scalability and development flexibility.
- Led the backend development team using agile methods and ensured integration across microservices.
- Junior Software Developer, Feb 2016 – Jul 2017
- Designed, developed and launched a pendulum simulator in video-game format (Unity 3D) that lets learners explore the physics of the pendulum interactively.
- Developed features for the foundation’s e-learning platform.
Teaching experience
Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Panama Campus, City of Knowledge, Panama City · Adjunct Professor (part-time), Aug 2023 – Dec 2024
Taught seven undergraduate courses (nine sections) in mathematics and computer science; developed course materials, delivered lectures, practice sessions and tutorials, and assessed student progress through exams, assignments and projects. Teaching overview →
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Tutoring and workshops
Knowledge Heroes Free Tutoring Program
Tutorez, Panama City · Apr 2023 – Jul 2023 · Mathematics, physics and chemistry
Python and NoSQL Databases Workshops
UTP-FISC Tech Academy, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá · Feb 2018 – Mar 2020 · 3 workshops
Research and projects
Publications
Democratizing Data Analytics in Education: A Governance Strategy for Non-Profit Educational Organizations
Verbel, G., González, K., Muñoz, A. C., López, V., & Sánchez-Galán, J. E. (2025). "Democratizing Data Analytics in Education: A Governance Strategy for Non-Profit Educational Organizations." 2025 IEEE 43rd Central America and Panama Convention (CONCAPAN XLIII). https://doi.org/10.1109/concapan66820.2025.11512483
Design and Implementation of Knowledge Graphs for Building Personalized Learning Paths at Fundación Ayudinga
González Ortega, K. (2023). "Diseño e implementación de grafos de conocimientos para la construcción de rutas de aprendizajes personalizadas para la Fundación Ayudinga [Design and implementation of knowledge graphs for building personalized learning paths at Fundación Ayudinga]." Undergraduate thesis, Systems and Computing Engineering, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá. (In Spanish.)
Structuring a Geospatial Information System for the Analysis of Food Security, Nutritional Intervention and Human Health Data in Panama
González Ortega, K., Aguilar, E., Aizprúa, A. G., Cedeño, E., & Sánchez-Galán, J. (2023). "Estructuración de un sistema de información geoespacial para el análisis de datos de seguridad alimentaria, intervenciones nutricionales y de salud humana en Panamá [Structuring a geospatial information system for the analysis of food security, nutritional intervention and human health data in Panama]." XIX Congreso Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología – APANAC 2023, pp. 356–362. https://doi.org/10.33412/apanac.2023.3959 (In Spanish.)
Leadership and service
- Jóvenes Unidos por la Educación, Panama
- Selection and Recruitment Coordinator, Nov 2018 – Aug 2020: built the applicant selection and recruitment system for the Latin American Citizen Action Laboratory and its interactive virtual platform.
- Operations Team Member, Nov 2016 – Nov 2018: co-organized #HablemosDeEducación19 (Aug 2018 – May 2019), a citizen advocacy campaign that drafted 19 education policy proposals for Panama’s 2019 general elections, presented and discussed them with the presidential candidates, and set out to measure their execution by the next government; and co-organized the first and second editions of “The Role of Youth in the Future of the Panama Canal” with the Panama Canal Authority (400+ young participants).
- Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Acción Ciudadana, Panama
- Mentor, AC7IVATE!, Jun 2019 – Dec 2021: mentored a socio-emotional learning program for students aged 11–12 built around six challenges: self-esteem, recognizing and accepting emotions, assertive communication, teamwork, conflict resolution and critical thinking.
Certifications
- International Diploma in Data Protection Regulation in Panama, Universidad de Panamá, Apr 2025
- Machine Learning with Big Data (2020); Big Data Integration and Processing (Nov 2019); Big Data Modeling and Management Systems (2019); Introduction to Big Data (2019), University of California San Diego (Coursera)
- The Data Scientist’s Toolbox (2020); R Programming (2020), Johns Hopkins University (Coursera)
- Object-Oriented Data Structures in C++ (Coursera), 2020
Skills
- Programming and data: Python, R, SQL, NoSQL, JavaScript, Java, C++, C#, MATLAB, .NET, HTML, Unity 3D, Dataiku DSS, Microsoft Excel
- Statistics and measurement (graduate coursework): Multivariate analysis, applied intermediate statistics, educational assessment and psychological measurement (in progress), applied missing data analysis (in progress), network science, quantitative and qualitative research design, descriptive impact analysis
- Machine learning and AI: Machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), text embeddings, dimensionality reduction, large language models (LLMs), chatbots, knowledge graphs, data mining
- Data engineering and management: ETL pipelines, data governance, data quality, metadata management, data privacy regulation, business intelligence and dashboards, big data, cloud computing, microservices, CI/CD, geographic information systems (GIS)
- Education and management: University teaching, tutoring, educational technology, learning analytics, agile project management, budgeting
Professional memberships
- American Educational Research Association (AERA), Member
- National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), Member
- IEEE, Member (Oct 2025 – Present)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Member (Mar 2019 – Present)
Languages
- Spanish (native)
- English (professional; graduate study in English at Indiana University Bloomington)