Alberto Abella

1. Why did you choose the master's degree in Business Organization at our university and how has your experience been?

I did the master's degree in Business Organization together with the doctorate and spent two years as an associate professor. The experience with teaching has been very satisfactory, the commitment of the teaching staff has been remarkable. The experience with the bureaucracy of the universities has been so unsatisfactory that I think it may cause its disappearance. This bureaucracy imposes a workload on teaching and research staff, which reduces their efficiency in a way that can make it unfeasible.

2. What has led you to pursue your degree at the URJC?

Thanks to the URJC I found tutors for my doctoral thesis on open data when open data was something that was practically not available in universities.

3. What do you highlight the most or what do you value most about your university stage at URJC?

The people I have met and being able to resume my scientific career.

4. Would you change anything about your time at URJC?

Actually, I had to do the master's degree because my previous university lost my record with my previous doctoral courses and I had to do the master's degree at the URJC to access the doctorate. Although it was interesting and valuable for my training, I might not have done it if this circumstance had not happened.

5. What has graduating meant to you?

Graduating has meant fulfilling a vital desire and gaining access to research with great help from my colleagues at URJC. It is possibly the most valuable thing I have ever obtained.

6. What is your employment situation after finishing the degree?

I currently work for a non-profit organization, the FIWARE Foundation, as a Data Modeling Expert for a program dedicated to the agile standardization of data models, The Smart Data Models Program and in several European R&D projects. Through this initiative we make the standardization of data models 25 times faster. In addition, I am also an expert in open data for the COTEC foundation and thanks to my relationship with the URJC we have published 3 reports on the state of open data in Spain and we hope to publish another one this year. The one for 2021 is here.

7. When you finish your degree and become a URJC Alumni, what advice would you give to students who are finishing their studies at this university?

Now that they learn to handle some data processing tools, python, R, etc, I assume that they will be advanced spreadsheet users. Regardless of the sector, the use of data becomes essential.

On the other hand, that they look for people with whom to collaborate to complete their objectives.

8. How do you imagine yourself professionally in a period of five to ten years?

In the technology sector, 5 years is an era and 10 is unpredictable. Personally, in 5 years I hope that the initiative that I coordinate, Smart Data Models, will have expanded and we will be the main actor in the creation of data models worldwide and we can really make people spend much less time transforming data to be able to use it. Everything we do is under a free license that allows anyone to use it for free, modify it for local needs and share these modifications. In 10 years I will be thinking more if we have achieved it.

9. Do you think that the pandemic has affected your work development, or, on the contrary, has it become an opportunity?

I was very lucky because I changed jobs in January 2020 to a 100% remote job. What has been delayed is dissemination, because attendance at conferences and meetings stopped. But this is normalizing.

10. Do you plan to continue studying and do you value doing it again at our university?

After having studied Superior Telecommunications Engineering and having completed 3 master's degrees and a doctorate, it is not very likely that he will continue studying. If I can consider a course on data ethics and algorithms. I am clear that all possible uses of data will happen and that only the ethics of people will free us from evil uses. I would like to cooperate with teaching at the university, but currently it is difficult for them to compete with other training centers such as business schools.