Hi! I am Alejandro Machado, and this is my home on the Web.

I am studying a Master's in Human-computer Interaction at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Here's a breakdown of my Fall 2013 semester:

User-Centered R&E HCI Pro Seminar Interaction Design E-learning Design Sketching

I am passionate about technology and how people relate to it. My current goal is to become a professional interaction designer, expert in delivering a superb user experience.

In particular, I would like to help build better interfaces for education.

past projects

These were fun!

A prototype for a family-friendly interactive dinner plate, rapidly iterated during a 16-hour MAKEaTHON. A weekend full of laser cutters, 3D printers, and velcro.
A prototype mobile application for discovering events happening around you and tell your friends about spontaneous plans. Part of Stanford's HCI course offered through Coursera.
A machine learning tool to detect when two or more real-world artists were mapped to a single artist entity at Spotify.
A long-term research project on complexity theory and automated planning, supervised by Prof. Blai Bonet.

ongoing projects

Currently on hold because of the rigor of the MHCI's fall semester. I'll put some more love into these later.

Designing and developing a web tool for building and customizing wedding invitations.
Building a blog for this site using pelican.

currently learning

I'm addicted to acquiring new skills and knowledge.

Web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript). Check out my progress at Treehouse!
Several online courses at Coursera.

professionals who inspire me

We all have our heroes. A short list below.

Bret Victor, purveyor of impossible dreams. I was captivated by his idea that we can live our lives following a personal mission to transform the world.
Randy Pausch.
Allison House.
Luis von Ahn.