01 — Biography

Biography

I am a Full-Time Professor in Computer Science at Tecnológico de Monterrey. My expertise centers on Artificial Intelligence and Multimodal Conversational Agents, with a primary goal of designing interactive systems that enhance human well-being and daily life.

Alongside my research, I have a strong dedication to higher education, teaching undergraduate courses in mobile application development, Python/Java programming, database systems, data analysis, and computational intelligence.

02 — Education & Research Visits

Education & Research Visits

1. 2024

   Research Visit — Idiap Research Institute

   Martigny, Switzerland

   Focused on computer vision modules for multimodal conversational agents.

2. 2023–2024

   Academic Visit & DAAD Postdoc-NetAI Fellow — University of Siegen

   Siegen, Germany

3. 2020–2025

   Ph.D. in Computer Science

   CICESE, México

4. 2015–2017

   M.Sc. in Computer Science

   CICESE, México

5. 2011–2015

   B.S. in Software Engineering

   ITSON, México (Honors)

03 — Projects & Systems

Projects & Systems

Digital Sommelier

A computer-vision-enhanced multimodal conversational system designed to assist users during multisensory wine tasting activities, integrating activity recognition and conversational guidance.

Read the ACM IMX article

MyndFood

A conversational agent built to support cooking and eating activities through mindfulness techniques, integrating multimodal dialogue and user assistance.

Read the Frontiers article

CATE

A conversational agent that guides users through a tea-drinking experience, combining dialogue and ambient interaction to turn a routine activity into a more attentive, sensory moment.

Read the Springer chapter

Lucy

An interactive conversational agent designed for personalized user support, daily eating behavior monitoring, and crowdsourcing task coordination.

Read the IEEE article

Geofencing

A mobile computing and location-aware framework aimed at monitoring mobility patterns and location-triggered behavior through mobile sensing and geofencing techniques.

View the repository

04 — Publications

Publications

For a complete list of citations and co-authored works, visit my Google Scholar profile.

1. 2025

   MyndFood: a conversational agent for enhancing the cooking and eating experience

   Parra, M. O., Favela, J., & Castro, L. A. — Frontiers in Computer Science, 7, 1566940.

2. 2024

   Towards Wine Tasting Activity Recognition for a Digital Sommelier

   Parra, M. O., Favela, J., Castro, L. A., & Gatica-Perez, D. — Companion Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI '24).

3. 2024

   A Digital Sommelier to Enhance Multisensory Wine Tasting

   Parra, M. O., Favela, J., & Castro, L. A. — Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences Workshops.

4. 2023

   Enhancing Well-being Through Food: A Conversational Agent for Mindful Eating and Cooking

   Parra, M. O., Castro, L. A., & Favela, J. — Adjunct Proceedings of UbiComp/ISWC '23.

5. 2022

   Design and Evaluation of a Smart Environment with a Conversational Agent for Mindful Eating

   Parra, M. O., Favela, J., & Castro, L. A. — International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI '22).

6. 2021

   Understanding changes in behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: Opportunities to design around new eating experiences

   Parra, M. O., Castro, L. A., & Favela, J. — Avances en Interacción Humano-Computadora.

7. 2018

   Monitoring eating behaviors for a nutritionist E-assistant using crowdsourcing

   Parra, M. O., Favela, J., Castro, L. A., & Morales, A. — IEEE Computer, 51(3), 43–51.

05 — Teaching

Teaching

Courses taught

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Mobile Application Development (Android)
• Introduction to Programming (Java / Python)
• Data Structures
• Operating Systems
• Database Systems
• Software Testing
• Ubiquitous Computing