Alejandro Flores-Velazco
Now at Google (NYC) • PhD @ UMD
I earned my PhD from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, advised by Prof. David Mount. My research interests lie generally in Theoretical Computer Science, including Computational Geometry, Approximation Algorithms, and Data Structures. I’m always looking for research opportunities, just contact me!
My research revolves around the goal of achieving more efficient nearest-neighbor classification, showing results that are practical for large-scale applications, while also having provable theoretical guarantees. This work focuses on two main subjects. First, on the development and analysis of algorithms to reduce the training sets used for classification. These reduced subsets can be either heuristically obtained [CCCG’19, CCCG’20] or \(\varepsilon\)-coresets [ESA’20]. Additionally, I’ve been working on proposing new data structures specially tailored for answering \(\varepsilon\)-approximate nearest-neighbor classification queries [ESA’21], achieving the lowest complexity of any approach so far.
I completed my undegraduate studies at Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela, earning a BEng. in Computer Science, Cum Laude. During those years, I had the pleasure of working with great people. First, with Prof. María-Esther Vidal, on topics related to Semantic Web and Graph Databases (see publications). Additionally, I was advised by Prof. Emely Arráiz towards my undegraduate thesis, titled Bio-Inspired Metaheuristics for Instance Selection, which was awarded an outstanding honorable mention by the committee.
Born and raised in Venezuela 
. My country lives under a dictatorship that has forced over 8M people to flee. Venezuela deserves to be free, and we will never stop fighting. During my free time, I enjoy photography (specially macro photography), biking, hiking, dancing, and cooking.
Condensation Heuristics
See CCCG'19, CCCG'20
$$ \varepsilon $$-Coresets for the NN Rule
See ESA'20
Chromatic AVD
See ESA'21Education
Ph.D. in Computer Science
University of Maryland, College Park 2015-2022M.Sc. in Computer Science
University of Maryland, College Park 2015-2018B.Eng. in Computer Science
Universidad Simón Bolívar 2009-2014 · Cum LaudeWork Experience
Facebook Inc.
Software Engineer PhD Intern Seattle • Summer 2019University of Maryland
TA & Summer Lecturer 2015-2022Universidad Simón Bolívar
Visiting Professor Virtually • Spring 2022Venezuela Inteligente
Co-founder & Developer 2012-2017Universidad Simón Bolívar
Research & Teaching Assistant 2012-2015News
| Sep 5, 2022 |
Paper accepted at ESA’22 (European Symposium on Algorithms), Potsdam, Germany. This paper was awarded as the Best Paper of ESA’s Track S (Simplicity)! 
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| Jun 8, 2022 | Accepted abstract for the Young Researchers Forum at SoCG’22 (Symposium on Computational Geometry), Berlin, Germany (attending virtually). |
| May 9, 2022 |
Successfully defended my dissertation titled “Algorithms and Data Structures for Faster Nearest-Neighbor Classification”  You can find the presentation slides here, and the full dissertation document here.
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| Feb 8, 2022 | Working as a Visiting Professor at Universidad Simón Bolívar (Venezuela), teaching Algorithms & Data Structures II for the first term of 2022. |
| Sep 6, 2021 | Paper accepted at ESA’21 (European Symposium on Algorithms), Lisbon, Portugal (virtual). |
| Jun 7, 2021 | Accepted talk for the 5th Workshop on Geometry and Machine Learning. This will take place during SoCG’21 (Symposium on Comp. Geometry), Buffalo, USA (virtual). |
Invited to a special issue of the CGTA Journal