Oldemar Rodríguez
Before the world was talking about artificial intelligence on every corner, Oldemar Rodríguez was already teaching machines to find patterns in data. He is a full professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and one of the country’s pioneers of data mining and machine learning.
Key facts
- Institution: University of Costa Rica (UCR), School of Mathematics.
- Role: Full professor and principal researcher; founder and CEO of PROMiDAT.
- Field: Data mining, machine learning, symbolic data analysis, statistics.
- Education: Doctorate in Decision Mathematics, University of Paris IX-Dauphine (France), with postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.
Why he is a leader
Rodríguez’s career has an uncommon depth. He did his doctorate in France under Edgar Diday, considered the father of symbolic data analysis, and completed postdoctoral studies at Stanford on statistical learning and data mining. He did not come to AI through a trend; he came through mathematics, decades before it was fashionable.
His work has been recognized at the highest level. He received the Gold Medal for Distinguished Inventor from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva for developing and patenting a mathematical model to detect credit and debit card fraud. He also earned the Clodomiro Picado Twight National Technology Prize for his doctoral work on classification and linear models in symbolic data. Few Costa Ricans in this field have a comparable record.
Within UCR he has exercised academic leadership as director of the School of Mathematics and of the Center for Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics (CIMPA).
PROMiDAT: training Ibero-America from Costa Rica
If one body of work sums up Rodríguez’s philosophy, it is PROMiDAT. The acronym stands for the Ibero-American Program in Data Mining Training, and it is the academic and business platform he founded so that knowledge would not stay inside a university classroom.
PROMiDAT is based in Costa Rica, in Curridabat, but its reach is regional: it trains professionals across Ibero-America. Its motto puts it plainly: it does not teach isolated theory, it teaches execution. The goal is not to accumulate concepts, but to learn to solve real organizational problems with data.
What it offers
PROMiDAT’s offering is organized into three main programs, each with courses ranging from foundational to advanced, with applied capstone projects:
| Program | Focus |
|---|---|
| Executive master’s in data science and AI | Comprehensive training for strategic decision-making. |
| Expert in data science with R | Data analysis with R, RStudio, and the discoveR platform. |
| Expert in machine learning with Python | Machine learning with Python and object-oriented programming. |
Its audience is professionals who need to turn data into strategic knowledge: people already working in organizations who want to add analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence skills without leaving practice behind.
Why it matters
PROMiDAT is the applied face of Rodríguez’s career. A researcher at his level could have stayed in academia and awards alone. Instead, he built a bridge so that hundreds of professionals across the region could acquire tools that once seemed reserved for a few. In a field where serious training tends to concentrate in large countries, that a data science and AI platform with Ibero-American reach is born and run from Costa Rica is, in itself, an uncommon contribution.
His contribution to the ecosystem
Rodríguez’s career reveals a clear hallmark: researching is not enough, knowledge must be transferred. Between his UCR professorship, his international distinctions, and the talent he has trained through PROMiDAT, his most lasting contribution to the Costa Rican AI ecosystem may not be a model or a patent, but the generations of professionals who learned to work with data because of him.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Oldemar Rodríguez Rojas?
- He is a full professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of Costa Rica and the founder of PROMiDAT. He holds a doctorate in Decision Mathematics from the University of Paris IX-Dauphine and is a pioneer of data mining and machine learning in Costa Rica.
- What is PROMiDAT?
- PROMiDAT (Ibero-American Program in Data Mining Training) is the academic and business platform founded by Oldemar Rodríguez. It offers specialized programs in data science and artificial intelligence, including an executive master's in data science and AI, an expert certificate in data science with R, and an expert certificate in machine learning with Python.
- Who are PROMiDAT's programs for?
- For professionals across Ibero-America who want to build skills in data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence for strategic decision-making. PROMiDAT is based in Costa Rica and trains students throughout the region.