Edgar Avalos Gauna

Edgar Avalos Gauna is a full-time Lecturer in the Department of Statistics at Rice University, affiliated with the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership. He holds a B.Eng. (2007) from Universidad Tecnológica de México, an M.Sc. in Materials Engineering (2011) from Instituto Politécnico Nacional, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (2018) from the University of Liverpool. His research focuses on Machine Learning and AI applications in materials characterization, time series analysis, image/NLP processing, AI ethics, and business decision-making. He has served as Head of Postgraduate Programs for M.Sc. in Data Science and Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence at Universidad Panamericana since 2021 and is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI), the Mexican Society of Artificial Intelligence (SMIA), and IEEE.

• Education:
• Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Liverpool (2018)
• M.Sc. Materials Engineering, Instituto Politécnico Nacional (2011)
• B.Eng. Industrial Engineering, Universidad Tecnológica de México (2007)

Research Interests: Edgar’s work integrates interdisciplinary approaches, including ML-driven material behavior prediction, thermal analysis via CFD, and ethical AI frameworks. He collaborates on projects like sentiment analysis for public health (e.g., vaccine perceptions) and tourism analytics using exploratory data methods.

Publications: His recent studies highlight trends in applying ML to lubricant film thickness prediction (2024), aerospace thermal management (2021), and social media-driven epidemiological insights (2021). Earlier work includes foundational studies in porous metal heat transfer (2016-2019) and boundary element methods (2012).

• Awards: Member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI), a prestigious recognition of scholarly excellence.

Advising & Grants: While specific grants are not detailed, his leadership in postgraduate programs and teaching in Data Science and Machine Learning reflects his commitment to education. Resources for his classes are hosted on DataCamp.