I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Yolanda, my wonderful children Damian and Isaac for all the joy they bring into my life, and to my parents Elena and Miguel for their constant support and love.

I would like to thank my great team at Packt Publishing, particular thanks goes to, Anurag Banerjee, Erol Staveley, Edward Gordon, Anugya Khurana, Neeshma Ramakrishnan, Arwa Manasawala, Manal Pednekar, Pragnesh Bilimoria, and Unnati Shah.

Thanks to my friends, Abel Valle, Oscar Manso, Ivan Cervantes, Agustin Ramos, Dr. Rene Cruz, Dr. Adrian Trueba, and Sergio Ruiz for their helpful suggestions and improvements to my drafts. I would also like to thank the technical reviewers for taking the time to send detailed feedback for the drafts.

I would also like to thank Dr. Armin Mikler for his encouragement and for agreeing to write the foreword of this book. Finally, as an important source of inspiration I would like to mention my mentor and former advisor Dr. Jesus Figueroa-Nazuno.