About

From civil engineer to AI engineer

I'm Alexander Urbina Tanta, Alex for short. I build AI that reads the built world: laser scans, 360° video, photos and drawings. This is how I got here.

The short version

I studied civil engineering at Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima and started out in BIM: coordinating models for contractors and writing C# scripts on the Revit API to stop doing the same clicks twice. That habit turned into a career in software.

In 2015 I co-founded Ingenia Tek, selected for Start-Up Peru. In 2018 I became technical co-founder of Object Information in Santiago, a cloud platform for parametric 3D modeling of modular construction, selected for Start-Up Chile.

From 2021 to 2024 I worked with Mezmeriz Inc. in Ithaca, New York, on a browser point-cloud editor, a BIM modeler and a service that writes native Revit files. In 2024 I built a real-time 3D jewelry configurator for Flopo in Rio de Janeiro.

Then I went back to school: the EIT Digital Master School in ICT Innovation, first at Université Côte d'Azur and then at Aalto University, where I graduated in Data Science with honours. My thesis turned 360° video into point clouds for BIM. Alongside it I built ScanToBIM, a product that turns laser scans into floor plans and IFC models.

How I work

  • I validate on real data first and report honestly what works and what fails.
  • I design for cost per run and failure cases, not only demo accuracy.
  • I'm looking for long-term work with a team that ships.
3D computer vision
  • COLMAP
  • ACMMP
  • Point Transformer v3
  • SpatialLM
  • Open3D
  • Structure-from-Motion
  • Multi-view stereo
AI and machine learning
  • PyTorch
  • Vision-language models
  • Claude
  • Gemini
  • Qwen-VL
  • AI agents
  • Scikit-learn
3D on the web
  • Three.js
  • WebGL
  • React Three Fiber
  • web-ifc
  • PBR materials
  • Point cloud rendering
BIM and CAD
  • IFC
  • IfcOpenShell
  • Revit API (C#)
  • DXF
  • BIM coordination
Product engineering
  • Python
  • TypeScript
  • FastAPI
  • Next.js
  • PostgreSQL
  • Docker
  • AWS
  • GCP
  • Terraform
Languages
  • Spanish (native)
  • English (professional, TOEFL iBT 106)
Career

The survey line

  1. 2026

    Research Assistant

    Aalto University, School of Engineering
    Espoo, Finland

    Research in the "Digital Twins of processes for construction of buildings" project, funded by the Research Council of Finland: 360° video to metric point clouds on GPU clusters.

  2. 2025 – now

    Founder and lead systems architect

    ScanToBIM
    Remote

    A SaaS that converts laser scans into DXF floor plans and IFC models, built end to end: point cloud processing, an AI agent, GPU workers, web viewer and billing.

  3. 2024 – 2026

    M.Sc. (Tech), ICT Innovation, Data Science major

    Aalto University, with honours
    Espoo, Finland

    EIT Digital Master School. Entry year at Université Côte d'Azur / Polytech Nice Sophia (2024–2025). Thesis on 360° video to point clouds for BIM.

  4. 2024

    Full Stack Developer

    Flopo Ltda.
    Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (remote)

    MVP of a real-time 3D jewelry configurator: Three.js engine with physically based materials, REST API and deployment.

  5. 2021 – 2024

    Full Stack Developer

    Mezmeriz Inc.
    Ithaca, New York (remote)

    Point-cloud editor, BIM modeler and a JSON-to-Revit cloud converter in C#, with AWS infrastructure in Terraform.

  6. 2020 – 2021

    Freelance Software Engineer

    Self-employed
    Remote

    3D web work for clients in Spain, the UK, Australia and the US: a retail 3D showroom, a parametric shed customizer, structural health monitoring and remote-sensing analytics.

  7. 2018 – 2020

    Technical Co-Founder & Lead Web Developer

    Object Information SpA
    Santiago, Chile

    A cloud platform for on-demand 3D parametric modeling and automated manufacturing of modular construction. Selected for Start-Up Chile (Generation 20).

  8. 2015 – 2018

    Web Developer & Co-Founder

    Ingenia Tek SAC
    Lima, Peru

    An online learning platform with protected video streaming and payments. Selected for Start-Up Peru (Generation 4).

  9. 2013 – 2014

    BIM Manager & Civil Engineer

    Independent engineering consulting
    Lima, Peru

    BIM coordination and structural detailing for building contractors, with C# scripts on the Revit API to automate modeling.

  10. 2010 – 2014

    Civil Engineer and B.Sc. in Civil Engineering

    Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería
    Lima, Peru

    Focus on BIM, hydraulics, GIS and structural engineering. First place in the faculty's student projects contest (2013).