Dominguez believes the solutions to Mexico’s most pressing challenges lie in big data.
Headshot of Federico Dominguez
Federico Dominguez

Federico Dominguez graduated with distinction from The Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) with his bachelor’s degree in economics in 2020, and has since worked as a data scientist for deep_dive, a startup consulting company founded by Harris alum Manuel Aragonés.

deep_dive provides companies with data-driven consulting and technological development solutions. “The idea of the company is to do a ‘deep dive’ into companies to determine what data they’re looking for, what they lack, and help them automate their processes," said Dominguez.

deep_dive also does pro-bono work for social causes in Mexico, including using machine learning to digitize, clean, and extract information on the record-high number of missing persons cases in Mexico, which occur mainly at the hands of cartels.

“Most of my interest in public policy comes from living here in Mexico,” said Dominguez. “Not feeling safe, worrying about my mom and sister when they go out at night... There’s this horribly common experience amongst people in Latin America where, let’s say I were to go on Twitter, and I see a post saying, ‘Please help. My daughter just went missing.’ I hit refresh, scroll up, and there’s another post about someone’s cousin. Then, a few days later I read a news article saying the bodies of two women were found in Cancun. No one should have to go through that, but sadly, we do.

“There’s also a lot of inequality: if I walk 500 meters from my house in one direction, I see a lot of offices, Starbucks, the financial district—500 meters in the opposite direction, and it’s a completely different version of the city with a lot of poverty, crime, and homeless people.”

Witnessing poverty firsthand, both as a child and as an independent college student, motivated Dominguez to volunteer with ITAM Construye, where he taught hip-hop dance to low-income middle and elementary school children.  

“I could see that there was a positive difference when they went to class,” said Dominguez. “They became more motivated, and they tried really hard. That’s when I realized there are things we can do to make a positive impact. That’s also when I came to the conclusion that I would like to use my data analysis skills for social good.

“I’m convinced that in the vast amount of data we have nowadays, there must be some answers to some of our most problematic challenges from inequality to climate change. So that’s why I chose Harris—because I was already thinking about ways to merge data science with public policy.”

Dominguez applied to the Master of Science in Computational Analysis and Public Policy (MSCAPP) program because of his interest in the ways big data can impact policy.  Now an incoming student, he’s most looking forward to taking courses in machine learning and applying them to public policy. “I’m interested to see how these new algorithms are applied to public policy issues. I haven’t been able to find a class like this anywhere else.”

Dominguez especially looks forward to meeting his fellow classmates. “I’m really excited to get to know other people in the program and the cultural diversity that comes with studying abroad. I think you can learn a lot from your peers, especially if they come from diverse backgrounds.”