Noticias
April, 2023.- “One of the challenges that seems very urgent to me is to understand in depth what the real data needs of companies, institutions, organizations and startups in Chile are today. This, in order to then connect those requirements with the capabilities that research centers such as the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data have.”
This is one of the first objectives that Adrián Soto, PhD in Computer Science from the Catholic University, has set for himself after recently taking over as the new director of Innovation and Technology Transfer at the IMFD.
For Soto, this connection between the private and public sector and academia can be very enriching: “Academia researches on theoretical and applied problems that are fundamental for the advancement of data science. Our goal will be to align the generation of knowledge with the country’s practical priorities and to make our technology transfer area a meeting point between the public and private sectors and the top-level researchers working at the IMFD.
The IMFD Innovation area aims to apply the most effective techniques, based on cutting-edge science and technology, to extract value from data to enhance the development of Chile and the region, providing data solutions for industry, the public sector and society. However, for Adrián Soto, this must be done with a particular approach: “I believe that the search for solutions that provide a comprehensive response to major problems is a path that can wear out the ecosystem a lot. One of the ideal paths, in my experience, is to start from a real problem and start working on its solution step by step”.
Camila Díaz, Executive Director of the IMFD, emphasizes that “we are very pleased to have Adrián as the new Director of the DITT. He comes to lead a dynamic and highly qualified team, in which we seek to enhance the talents, concerns and capabilities of each of its members, without losing sight of our goal of extracting the value of the data and turning it into an asset for society”.
Adrián Soto is a Computer Engineer from the Catholic University of Chile and holds a PhD in Computer Science from the same university. In his work as a researcher, he has published papers related to graph databases and query algorithms. For almost two years he was an assistant professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, in the area of machine learning and data. In addition, since 2022 he worked in the fintech Fintual, as leader of the data team, unit in charge of making available the information associated with the platform.
