About
Download CVI am a machine learning and computer vision expert with over 9 years of experience, currently serving as Head of AI at Haxion, where I lead the development of cutting-edge generative AI products. I specialize in Diffusion Models, Large Language Models, and Neural Rendering, with proven expertise in 3D human avatars, computational photography, and synthetic data generation.
At Haxion, I direct a team of 9 engineers developing two products: a controllable image/video generation platform using advanced diffusion models that provides users with precise creative control, and a camera-based 3D editing system that enables natural language interaction with 3D scenes through point clouds and Gaussian splatting technology.
My research background includes pioneering work in facial expression generation using GANs during my PhD, followed by postdoctoral research at ETH Zürich focusing on image synthesis and video editing. I have successfully bridged academic research with practical applications, contributing to open-source projects and organizing major computer vision challenges at top-tier conferences.
Experience
Head of AI
2022 – PresentHaxion · California (Remote)
Leading AI team of 9 engineers at a 12-person startup. Two products: (1) Synthetic Data Platform — generates training datasets using diffusion models for dangerous scenarios, fire detection, etc. (2) Interactive Scene Reconstruction — mobile capture → 3D reconstruction (LiDAR + point clouds + Gaussian Splatting) → natural language queries via LLM.
Senior Computer Vision Developer
2022 – 2023Gixel GmbH · Bonn, Germany
3D avatars, NeRF-based novel view synthesis, real-time face tracking and animation.
Postdoctoral Researcher
2019 – 2022ETH Zurich — Computer Vision Lab (CVL) · Zurich, Switzerland
Research under Luc Van Gool and Radu Timofte. Super-resolution, image synthesis, video editing, inpainting. Published at CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, WACV, ACCV.
Computer Vision Consultant
2019Centro Nacional de Consultoria (CNC) · Bogota, Colombia
Advised on computer vision solutions including counting and tracking vehicles for toll highways and analyzing walking consumer behavior for car dealerships.
PhD Researcher & Teaching Assistant
2016 – 2019Universidad de los Andes · Bogota, Colombia
GANs for facial expression recognition and image-to-image translation. Taught computer vision to 80 graduate students. Advisor: Pablo Arbelaez.
Academic Research Guest
2018ETH Zurich · Zurich, Switzerland
Six-month research internship under Radu Timofte. Resulted in SMIT paper published at ICCV 2019 Workshop.
Research Assistant
2014 – 2016Universidad de los Andes — CINFONIA Lab · Bogota, Colombia
MSc in Biomedical Engineering. Real-time eye detection, emotion recognition via deep learning.
Education
PhD in Engineering
2016 – 2019Universidad de los Andes · Bogota, Colombia
Thesis: GANs for Facial Expression Recognition (Advisor: Pablo Arbelaez)
MSc in Biomedical Engineering
2014 – 2016Universidad de los Andes · Bogota, Colombia
BSc in BioEngineering
2007 – 2013Universidad de Antioquia · Medellin, Colombia
Awards
Google Research Awards for Latin America
2015, 2016, 20173 consecutive years — only Colombian researcher to achieve this.
Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship
2021Secured grant for Colombian PhD student at ETH Zurich.
Ingeniero Sembrador de Estrellas
2018Universidad de Antioquia recognition award.
Workshop Organizing
NTIRE22 Image Inpainting Challenge
CVPR 2022Main Organizer
Mobile Real-Time Video Super-Resolution
CVPR 2021Co-Organizer
Extreme Image Inpainting Challenge
ECCV 2020Co-Organizer