Member Profile: Mónica Valencia
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I’m a Product Design Engineer and the founder of Dolabs. Right now, I sit somewhere between designer, developer, motion designer, and marketer, since I’ve been building an app I’m about to launch soon. When I’m not doing that, I’m also the current Chair of Medellín ACM SIGGRAPH, a local chapter we launched just last year. I’ve been doing some version of this for about ten years now.
2. What was your first job?
My first job, unofficially, was as a student monitor at university, designing virtual courses, which is a fancy way of saying I got thrown into the deep end pretty fast. I remember building a course to teach professors, my professors, how to use some Microsoft tools, which felt a little absurd at the time. Everything about it was new to me: it was the first time I’d ever used a Mac, and I spent half my time just trying to figure out how things worked while pretending I knew exactly what I was doing.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
I studied Product Design Engineering at EAFIT University in Medellín, Colombia.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Back in 2014, while I was studying my major in Medellín, I stumbled across the lineup for an event happening in Bogotá (Bogotá ACM SIGGRAPH), and I remember just staring at the names: How to Train Your Dragon, Frozen, Rio 2. I had no idea an event like that even existed so close to home, so I made the trip, and from the very first talk I sat through, I was completely hooked; that was the moment animation stopped being something I just watched and became something I wanted to understand from the inside. I kept going back for a few more years after that, until 2020, when the event moved online because of COVID, and I was invited to join the team as Community Manager. That invitation changed everything.
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
I’d say attending my first SIGGRAPH in Vancouver in 2022. Up until then, everything I knew about SIGGRAPH was the local chapter, and although I’d heard about the event in North America, I didn’t know much about it. So I first got an Exhibitions ticket just to check it out, then ended up upgrading to the next tier and enjoyed every second of it (I even ended up getting COVID at the event), and met so many friends who have since come to Colombia to present at the local chapters. I’ll never forget how amazed I was by how big the event was, and by all the great things there were to attend.
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
One project that changed the way I see design was something we developed with some friends back in college. We were assigned a region called Bello to study, and while doing our fieldwork, we found that in almost every home we visited, there was a teenager under 17 who already had a child, so we decided to tackle the issue of teenage pregnancy. We created a wearable device that sat over the abdomen and simulated a growing pregnant belly, with two buttons, one on the right and one on the left, connected to a set of sex education questions. Every time a participant answered incorrectly, the belly would grow, as if they were getting closer to being pregnant. Seeing the impact it had on the teenagers we tested it with, and realizing how much a simple product like that could shift someone’s understanding, was the moment I really understood the power of design beyond just how something looks.
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
This is such a hard one. If it’s someone famous, I’d say Marie Curie, I’ve been a little obsessed with her ever since we learned about her in school, and I’d love to have a conversation with her about her life as a person, not just as a scientist, about her family and everything beyond the discoveries she’s known for. But if I’m honest, I’d probably choose my family instead, especially my dad, Jairo Valencia, who passed away when I was 15. He came from a very small town in Colombia and managed to build a career at one of the country’s major companies, which gave our family incredible opportunities, and I would love to ask him more about that journey and about the parts of his life I never got the chance to know.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
Most people don’t know that I once studied existential philosophy, or that I love making handmade paper gifts for my friends. I just really enjoy learning and making things outside of my main field, whatever that ends up being.
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
I’ve always been very curious, and I love learning different things: reading, taking courses, listening to podcasts, and so on. But if I have to point to someone, I’d say my family. From each of them, I’ve learned something valuable: from my dad, respect for others; from my mom, resilience and strength; from my brother, to follow your passion and to be resourceful; and from my sister, to dream big.
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Yes, Hernando Bahamón, co-founder and former Chair of SIGGRAPH Bogotá. I met him at the very first event I attended with SIGGRAPH Bogotá, and his passion for what he was doing was contagious. I got the chance to meet him again every time I went to the events afterward, and at some point, I got to work with him directly, and later joined the team during his last years as Chair. He’s also been someone who has supported my decision to create the new chapter in Medellín. What inspires me most about him is the huge impact he’s had in our country, not just through the event itself, but through the team he built.
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
I’d say creating the creation of Medellin ACM SIGGRAPH. At first, it sounded really difficult to think about building a team of volunteers and meeting all the requirements, but everything has come together very organically, and it’s been really special.