Marc Torrens, PhD

My professional goal is to bridge the gap between the outputs of scientific research and the inputs needed by real-world Internet applications. I enjoy overcoming new business challenges with state-of-the-art technology in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Usability, Data Visualization, and Product Design. I can speak business, technology and science. I have been specializing in the travel, digital media and banking industries. Entrepreneurship has often been the way I’ve found to achieve my professional goals.

Marc Torrens received a MSc degree in Computer Science from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Catalonia, in 1997, and a PhD from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2002.

He co-founded Iconomic Systems SA in 1999 and served the company as Technology Officer. Iconomic Systems developed software for planning travels on the Internet. The company was successfully sold to i:FAO AG, Germany.

In 2004, Marc Torrens co-founded Strands, Inc. in Oregon, USA. Strands develops recommendation and personalization technologies to help people discover new things. Marc is currently serving Strands as Chief Innovation Officer.

Marc has published more than 20 referred papers on his work in international conferences and journals on Artificial Intelligence and Usability. He is proficient in Catalan, Spanish, English and French.

Marc Torrens received a MSc degree in Computer Science from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Catalonia, in 1997. He received his PhD degree from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2002.

In 1997 he joined the AI Lab of the EPFL as a research assistant and Ph.D. student in the area of Constraint Programming. In 1999, Prof. Boi Faltings, Dr. Pearl Pu, Dr. Christian Frei and himself launched a start-up company to commercialize and further develop the concepts of their research applied to the travel industry. From April 2000 to May 2001, Marc was serving the company as Technology Officer. In May 2001, Iconomic Systems S.A. was successfully taken over by i:FAO A.G., the German market and technology leader in eProcurement software for the booking and management of business travel. As of May 2001 he worked for i:FAO’s Future Lab as Technology Lead being responsible for the development of reality: a cutting-edge technology software for supporting the business traveler. From December 2002 to July 2004, he was a Postdoc researcher (part time) at the Aritificial Intelligence Lab of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Technology Lead (part time) for i:FAO’s Future Lab.

From 2002 to 2003, he completed his educational background with a postgraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship, organized by CREATE (Chair of Entrepreneurship at EPFL). He was in a team passing the first phase of the business plan competition Venture 2002, organized by ETH Zurich and McKinsey & Company, Switzerland. Their business plan summary was selected in the top 10, out of 207 other participating teams.

In 2004, Marc Torrens co-founded Strands, Inc. in Oregon, USA. Strands develops recommendation and personalization technologies to help people discover new things. Marc is currently serving the company as Chief Innovation Officer.

He is member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the ACM, and the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence. Marc has published more than 20 referred papers on his work in international conferences and journals on Artificial Intelligence and Usability. He is also the inventor of several software patents.

He is proficient in Catalan, Spanish, English and French.