Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Nunez.
Hi Alexander, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
When I was a little kid, I used to say that I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up. I used to disassemble, repair, and sometimes break the appliances in my home, always curious about finding out how machines work. I was born in Venezuela in the 80s. When the technological revolution happened, personal computers appeared in every home, and the internet became mainstream, I was already old enough to understand the technology’s potential to improve our lives. I was fascinated with the idea of a future with flying cars and robots that cooked breakfast. When I had to go to college, my decision to enroll in engineering schools was a no-brainer. To my surprise, I discovered that I was also passionate about knowing how people think and how they manage their feelings when I took a gen-ed class on psychology and started reading books on emotional intelligence in between my calculus and physics classes. While most of my classmates were very into things like cars, electric power generation, and hydraulic machines, I studied Da Vinci’s work, trying to figure out how he could live a life creating art and, at the same time designing complex machines. Before I graduated, I had already landed my dream job, programming manufacturing robots in a blow and injection molding company. But, six months into my first professional job, I realized I hated being isolated from the world, interacting with machines through a computer, and talking to their electro-mechanical components all day long. As long as I enjoyed geometric and logic challenges, I missed the fascination I felt when I listened to somebody’s story or saw them trying to figure out their place in the world.
Fast-forwarding to 2015, I moved to Miami to be closer to my sister, and I had a few jobs with technical roles. But, I wanted to do something that got the best out of cutting-edge technology, and at the same time, I wanted my position to allow me to do creative work and work with people on projects. This is why in 2018, I decided to fund Digital E Consulting LLC to implement flying robots (drones) in architecture, engineering, and construction applications. I have never been happier in my life than I am as an entrepreneur. But, at the same time, I have never felt more challenged and more taken out of my comfort zone as now. What a significant opportunity to grow my business funder has represented so far.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There have been many obstacles along the way of growing my business, but I must say that most of them have been personal struggles. However, I can attest to the US being the country of the opportunities and that endless possibilities are there for whoever wants to take them. My main struggle has been adapting to a different culture and a different system, but I am slowly getting more comfortable with it.
To get to know people and actively participate in the local community, one of the first things that I did when I moved to Miami was enroll in some of the continuum education courses on technology that The Idea Center (Miami Dade College) offered. I ended up working there for a year after being a student. My days at the center helped me gain confidence in myself, made me feel welcomed and appreciated in Miami, and introduced me to the people who inspired my business idea.
Having a background in engineering didn’t prepare me well for a life as an entrepreneur. This is why I enrolled my company in the FIU’s business incubator, and with the help of the SBDC’s consultant, we put together a business plan that has completely modified the way I manage my business, and I feel more comfortable with my new strategy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Digital E Consulting LLC?
Digital E Consulting is a business established in Miami, Florida, in 2018 and provides geospatial services and aerial Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) services for the engineering, land survey, and construction industries. We provide advanced imaging and actionable data backed by robust processing, analysis, and visualization expertise. The company was born from a need within the engineering industry for professionals who could provide drone services while being experts in civil infrastructure and land survey techniques and Non-Destructive Testing according to the American standards, GIS systems, and the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing guidelines.
Digital E Consulting LLC has extensive experience providing drone consulting and sourcing hardware and software to private and public institutions like Miami Dade County, Miami Dade College, and FIU.
Our value propositions leverage cutting-edge technology and unique workflows and systems to significantly reduce the amount of manual work and open the possibilities of getting insights that were unimaginable before.
Digital E Consulting offers automated data collection and processing for construction progress monitoring, infrastructure inspections, land survey, R&D applications, and sources drones to businesses and government.
In general, we substitute and automatize repetitive work that leads to:
* Reducing risks on the job site by decreasing the number of hours workers are in dangerous situations collecting data
* Reducing cost by requiring fewer work hours from human inspectors on the field
* Reducing lead time thanks to the automation of the data collection and data processing
* On-demand access to the facility’s condition information when needed
* Better documentation, including spatial data that is embedded into the sensor’s readings.
Here are some of our services:
* Aerial inspections.
* Aerial mapping/survey.
* Aerial photography.
* Aerial thermography.
* Aerial construction progress monitoring.
* Photogrammetry (orthomosaic, point clouds).
* Digital twins.
* CAD and GIS services.
* Surface modeling using LIDAR.
* Provide drones and accessories.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
When manufacturing robots started to appear on the shop floor of factories worldwide, productivity skyrocketed, and things that were impossible to produce became a reality. I believe we are going through the same with our community’s physical assets. Drones, Artificial Intelligence, and data analytics tools combined are improving the way we monitor the conditions of our buildings, bridges, and roads. They also bring construction progress monitoring and land survey to a 3D dimensional world that looks more like a video game environment than the traditional paper blueprint. In addition, in disaster response, drones will play a crucial role by assessing the conditions of the physical infrastructure in record time and transmitting the findings to the people in charge of solving the existing problems, which makes our cities more resilient.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@digitaleconsulting.com
- Website: https://digitaleconsulting.com/
Image Credits
Carlos Herrera Elisa Dolci
