Portal del Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática

Dr. Ingeniero en Informática / Profesor Titular de Universidad PhD in Computer Science / Associate Professor Machine Perception and Intelligent Robotics Group (MAPIR) E.T.S.I.Informática (2.2.29), Campus Teatinos, Boulevard Luis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Ph.:+34 952132892 Fax:+34 952133361 E-mail:jafma[at]ctima.uma.es
Born in Córdoba (Spain), 1970, I started my professional career at the University of Málaga in 1996, after my MSc degree in Computer Science (1994) and a short (and very very low) position in a real-state developer. I got a pre-doctoral grant by the Spanish government for the time interval [1996,1999], during which I made up my thesis. In the summer of 1998 I did a stay under the supervision of Prof. Ben J. Kuipers in the Computer Science Dpt. of the University of Texas at Austin (US), where I learned a little bit of that dark Middle-Earth dialect that is spoken in the state that you should not mess with (and how to look for shelter from tornados!). I obtained the PhD degree in Computer Science in 2000, an assistant professor position a few months after that, and a tenure as associate professor three years later. Since then I have been teaching on real-time, robotic and control systems, developing robotic software, and exploring a number of lines of research mostly related to intelligent robotics. I have also perceived the beginning of a monotonic decreasing path towards the most absolute absence of actual knowledge, but in spite of that I have supervised several PhD theses on robotics, have participated in regional, national and european research projects (which has not alleviated the knowledge problem), and have some patents. I have at present nearly 80 scientific papers and three international books, and act as the principal researcher of a project on networked telerobots. My current (non-linear, time-varying) personal interests include writing (5 sci-fi books and more than 100 short stories published in spanish), drawing, programming, and building robots, among other one thousand things I expect to begin after my retirement at the age of 90, when I have again some free time.