Pedro Cruz
Developer Advocate for Spacial Computing, IBM

Pedro Cruz is a developer advocate at IBM, a creative technologist, and an educator. He’s a self-taught developer with a passion for creating educational virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) apps, designing pixel-perfect UIs, and working on AI for Good. After surviving Hurricane Maria in 2017, he created DroneAid, an aerial scout for first responders that uses drones and artificial intelligence, to detect SOS messages in natural disasters. His work was featured in Code & Response and a feature-length documentary and at IBM’s THINK Conference 2019. During the weekends, he organizes workshops and hackathons for audiences ranging from K–12 students to professional developers. In the past three years, he’s founded several successful meetups in Puerto Rico, with over 1,000 members, such as LinkPR (blockchain education), AprendeVR (K–12 STEAM bootcamp), and StoryCodePR (VR/AR). In his spare time, he enjoys traveling to remote locations to fly drones, creating augmented reality art, and running marathons with his black Lab puppy.