About Me 🤓

Who is David?

My name is pronounced as DAH-veed or DAH-vid.

I was born in Venezuela and grew up in St. Kitts and Nevis, W.I. (i.e., West Indies) since I was a toddler.

I completed my primary and secondary school education in St. Kitts. I attended the St. Theresa’s Convent High School (locally called the “Convent School”), a private school affiliated with the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. Since graduating, it has been renamed to the Immaculate Conception Catholic School (or ICCS). I took a wide array of CSEC subjects (equivalent to the British GSCE O-levels).

After high school, I attended our local community college, the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC), where I obtained my Associate’s Degree in General Studies by completing a mix of courses (equivalent to British GCSE A-levels): Pure Mathematics, Computer Science, Communication Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Spanish.

After CFBC, I attended the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), where I obtained my bachelor degree in Computer Science and graduated in 2014. From there, I attended the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida, USA, to obtain my doctorate in Computer Science & Engineering and graduated in 2020.

What/Why is David?

I am a roboticist and computer scientist.

I have always been an avid learner: as a child, I was fascinated by the fields of biology, geography, and technology – specifically airplanes, handheld electronics, and coding.

Somehow, I ended up drawn to computing (despite my major case of indecisiveness), as I thoroughly enjoyed learning about logic and program design for problem-solving. It was at UVI where I learned that computer science is a diverse field that goes beyond programming. My favourite courses at UVI included algorithms and machine learning. I was also curious about robotics and artificial intelligence. I credit my advisors Dr. Marc Boumedine and Dr. Wayne Archibald for motivating me to pursue my doctorate.

After completing my undergraduate studies, I dove into the world of robotics and AI, which I had little to no clue about! I joined the Robot Perception and Action Lab (RPAL) at USF under the supervision of Dr. Yu Sun. I graduated USF in May 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few months after graduating, I made the decision to move to Munich, Germany to work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich until 2021, after which I then moved to Brown University, where I continued research from 2021 to 2025.

Where is David?

My first home will always be St. Kitts and Nevis. My second home is now in South Bend, Indiana, after moving out of Providence, Rhode Island.

How is David?

I dunno, you tell me! Feel free to reach out.