Experience - Fernando Torre, PhD

Experience

Industry

Advisory Committee Member

(Fall 2024 – Present) The College Board (Puerto Rico)

I am part of the Advisory Committee helping to bring the Foundations of Computer Science advanced high school course and corresponding advanced placement test to Puerto Rico and Latin America.

Software Engineering Manager

(Summer 2024 – Summer 2025) Collins Aerospace (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico)

I managed and mentored a team of 10 Software Engineers, Led site-wide initiatives for new training opportunities and for improving customer feedback procurement, and worked as a Product Owner for a cross-functional project.

Senior Software Engineer/Technical Lead

(Summer 2018 – Spring 2024) DMM Eikaiwa (Tokyo, Japan)

I worked as an engineer primarily on the Front End of Engoo and DMM.com's online English class offerings. Our team developed a world-class video conferencing platform used by over 10,000 teachers to teach over 80,000 students, totaling over 12 million lessons per year. I led the revamping of the system used to recruit and onboard new teachers.

Front End Engineer

(Summer 2017 – Spring 2018) The Nerdery (Bloomington, MN)

I developed the front-end side of web projects for clients. Project highlights: accessibility improvements for an enterprise Angular site, WordPress plugin development, and conference and webinar talks on Behavioral Analytics.

Founder and Lead Developer

(Spring 2015 – Spring 2017) Perapera Labs (Minneapolis, MN)

I launched (and failed) a language-learning startup to help people learn Japanese by reading Japanese comic books. Our mobile application used spaced repetition techniques and image pattern recognition to allow learners to master the vocabulary required for each chapter. I created business plans, recruited and managed interns, conducted marketing, and designed and developed the software.

Intern

(Summers 2004 – 2007) IBM (Burlington, VT, Rochester, MN, and Poughkeepsie, NY)

During four internships with IBM, my top experience was being part of an Extreme Blue Speed Team, a highly selective program where five interns prototyped new server technologies to enable web-based form applications.

During the other summers, I performed a wide variety of jobs, ranging from writing test cases for SOAP, measuring the performance of Domino software on iSeries servers, and updating eDRAM documentation.

Teaching

Assistant Professor

(Fall 2025 – Present) University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

I am currently an assistant professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department, teaching Software Engineering and HCI courses.

Adjunct Professor

(Spring 2024) University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

I taught a college course on Human-Computer Interaction.

Adjunct Faculty

(Fall 2014 – Spring 2017) Saint Paul College

Taught an introduction to HTML and CSS for three years.

Private English Tutor

(April 2014) Independently

Taught beginner English to a Chinese learner for 6 hours a week.

Teaching Assistant

(Falls 2008, 2012) User Interface Design, University of Minnesota

Met weekly with more than 10 project teams designing user interfaces to give feedback and grade their progress.

Instructor

(Summer 2010) Structure of Computer Programming II, University of Minnesota

Taught an introductory course to Java and data structures.

Teaching Assistant

(Spring 2008) Introduction to Internet Programming, University of Minnesota

Graded assignments and exams, held office and lab hours, and lectured.

Research

Research Assistant

(2008-2014) GroupLens Lab, University of Minnesota

Contributed to the design, implementation, and research of an innovative geowiki for cyclists called Cyclopath and led the development of its mobile Android version.

Visiting Researcher

(Summer 2012) Sino-European Usability Center, Dalian Maritime University, China

As part of an NSF EAPSI Fellowship, conducted cross-cultural studies of Cyclopath with Chinese cyclists in Dalian, China.

Research Assistant

(2007-2008) Data Mining Lab, University of Minnesota

Implemented various clustering algorithms using climate data sets with high dimensionality.

Research Assistant

(2006-2007) University of Puerto Rico

Helped develop and debug a database application used by government offices.

Education

Ph.D. Computer Science

(2007 – 2014) University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN

Certificate, MBA Essentials

(2013) University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management

B.S., Computer Engineering, Magna Cum Laude

(2007) University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, PR