Writing my papers and books on Overleaf

After Juan got in touch with us as part of the Overleaf Campus Challenge 2016, we invited him to tell us a little more about his work and his collaborations. Here's what he had to say...

My colleague and friend Miguel-Ángel Sicilia and I were working together on a new book, and he said to me:

"We will be continually updating this work and the other must see immediately the update; perhaps we could use Overleaf to make the collaboration easy."

I remember that I said: “to use, what?” And now I use Overleaf for all my academic work!

– Professor Juan Cuadrado

An interview with Juan Cuadrado, Associate Professor at the University of Alcalá

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I am Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of Alcalá, in Madrid, Spain, and lecturer at the Open University of Catalonia, in Barcelona.

I have been Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Québec, in Montreal, Canada and at the National Polytechnic Institute, in Mexico DF, Mexico; and I have been Teaching Staff at the Otto-von-Guericke University, in Magdeburg, Germany and at the University Roma Tre, in Rome, Italy. Also I have been Lecturer at the Spanish Universities of Valladolid, in Segovia and Carlos III de Madrid, in Madrid.

I have a Doctorate in Computer Science and a Degree and Master in Physics, and my current University position is in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence knowledge area. My research and academic field of interest is Data Science, specially Data Analytics and Visualization. My research results have been published in international journals with the highest impact factor and in main conferences. I have participated in national and international research projects with public and private funds.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

One time I read: “In research the problem is the problem” and my biggest challenge is related to this: to find research problems that I am passionate about myself. And I really like most of the Data Science open research lines.

How did you first find out about Overleaf?

My colleague and friend Miguel-Ángel Sicilia and I were working together on a new book, and he said to me:

"We will be continually updating this work and the other must see immediately the update; perhaps we could use Overleaf to make the collaboration easy."

I remember that I said: “to use, what?” And now I use Overleaf for all my academic work!

How would you describe your experience of using Overleaf?

I have a fantastic experience using Overleaf. I collaborate with many people not only from my University but around the world and Overleaf let us to collaborate easily, eliminating both time and distance. Also each day I am more and more addicted to the use of Latex to write all kind of documents. Last week I surprised myself witting my weekly task list in Latex.

What's next for you and your work?

I am really very busy as I'm currently participating in research in a number of different data analytics problems and writing two books at the same time.

In summary, how would you describe Overleaf in one sentence?

Remembering the cult film from the eighties Games of War: Overleaf takes you one step further in the way to write academic and research papers.