Fellow Profile: David Lorente

| MSNY Staff

David Lorente was a Microsoft Civic Tech Fellow during our 2015 summer term.

David LorenteWhere are you from? I’m from Barcelona, Spain.

Where/what did you study? When did you graduate? I studied audio engineering back when I was in Spain.

How did you get involved in tech in general? I have always been interested in computers and technology, but what really sparked my interest was living in San Francisco and working for a startup. I observed how people were really changing the world with technology, and I wanted to be a part of it on a deeper level. Later, I became involved with that whole bitcoin thing, and it was like an addiction. I started to build my own computers, and I wanted to build my own apps after that.

Why did you decide to move to America? I love to travel, and after I graduated I wanted to travel the world and experience other cultures. I lived in London for a while, then moved to the bay Area, but I really just wanted to move to New York. It was always in my mind. New York felt like the center of everything. And when I finally made it here, it really felt like “home.”

Any comment on the tech scene in Spain? In my personal opinion, I think New York and San Francisco definitely have a more vibrant tech scene than Spain. I think that has a lot to do with the startup culture here, which allows new technologies to flourish. Spain doesn’t really have that same type of culture: there’s definitely entrepreneurs and startups over there, but they lack a lot of resources. That being said, there are pockets of Spain that have a really interesting tech scene. Barcelona even has a whole neighborhood dedicated to technology.

How did you get involved with the Microsoft Civic Tech Team? I really wanted to help society out in some way, to change whatever city I lived in for the better, and I found out about Microsoft Civic Tech through the Flatiron School. When the Flatiron School told me about Microsoft Civic Tech, I thought it was a perfect match for me.

What projects are you working on as part of the team? I’m working mostly on the code behind civic graph, a civic tech network visualization, to help understand the connections between individuals, non-profits, government and for-profits.

What’s your favorite Microsoft technology? Microsoft Health and Microsoft Band. Basically, it’s a platform to collect data from all our daily activities: exercises, eating habits, sleep patterns… the exciting part is then applying machine learning to all this data to predict health risks or to help improve our health.

What issues are you most passionate about? Helping the impoverished/people without resources is big on my list. I have an entrepreneurial spirit, and my dream is to build an app that would help out society in some way.

What is your “Mad-Scientist” idea? I like the idea of cloning our brains into a computer, as a way to achieve digital immortality. That’s definitely the maddest idea. I also dream about hoverboards in Central Park, of course.

What would you like to do next? I have no plans, but I definitely want to be in a place where I can use my tech skills to improve society.

What has been your favorite/funniest moment working at Microsoft? Funniest moment was probably when we participated in a tree count as part of a hackathon. There are a few funny anecdotes from that day, from people asking us to cut the branches of the trees in front of their homes, to other people getting infuriated at us as they thought we were about to cut the trees. Also, being part of the fellowship has given me the chance to assist to a lot of interesting talks and meet a lot of people, which is great.

Without using your name, what key words would someone use to find you on Bing? Hacker, musician, activist, Brooklyn.

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