The engineer Lorena Valencia, champion and example of female empowerment from science, from a very young age began to travel the paths of research. In fact, rather than playing with dolls in her childhood, she preferred to take apart remote-controlled cars. With the support of her parents, she increased her curiosity for research and when she went to the University to study Electronics, she got to know the Air Force up close and became a pilot.
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“I ended up working with three colleagues in the first flight simulator in Colombia for the Colombian Air Force. We began to see a little how the human being behaved with the different forces of gravity. Since that time I have been developing technological products, we are doing several studies”, says the engineer.
In his long list of works is the creation of bionic hands and covers for prosthetics including his patents.
“As I was always interested in the functioning of the human being, my first specialization was hospital technical management electromedicine and I was interested in topics such as oxygen saturation and the behavior of the human being in technology. Without realizing that I was going to end up studying Human-Center Design, which is human-centered design to develop technological products that work for humans and not, as previously, technological developments were made and man had to accommodate himself”, he indicates. .
She is an electronic engineer specializing in electromedicine and hospital technology management from the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente and in Human Design from Stanford University. Master’s degree in product development engineering focused on user experience and in “bringing ideas to life through ideation and prototyping” in From Ideas To Action, among multiple other studies.
“I started to create companies based on e-commerce, but there was no culture to sell designer clothes online, it was wonderful, but I failed because I was ten years ahead of the developments in Colombia. I ended up selling the platform abroad”, he says when recalling initiatives that did not prosper.
Lorena Valencia also leads the manufacturing of the interior of the first electric vehicle made in Colombia for commercial use, and directs multiple research teams in coordination with the Universidad del Valle Foundation.
Throughout his career, his academic and professional qualities have allowed him to overcome barriers in a field that is completely masculine. According to her, you have to work hard and work three or four times harder to excel.
Now, with a 17-year-old daughter, and as CEO of Octopus Force, the first Technological Development Center certified by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Valle del Cauca, he created the Did, in the process of national and international patents. With an investment of $400 million, In the midst of the pandemic, the scientist led a team of researchers who managed to create the robot, very timely for the new society after the health crisis and in the face of the planet’s new challenges in terms of health.
They also managed to design a cleaning kit that includes a mat with a quartz floor in a footprint in which, when standing there for four seconds, it disinfects the footwear and a hand drying machine for public bathrooms that emits ultra violet rays purifying the air loaded with contaminating agents and effectively cleaning hands.
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“As soon as the confinement began, we locked ourselves up for six months day and night with the team’s scientists to create a solution that would help hospitals, doctors, patients and society in a world that is going to be surprised by new strains, viruses and infections,” he says.
The result was first tested internally in August 2020.
“In all the time of the pandemic among 110 collaborators of the organization, only one person had covid and it was mild”, shows how it works.
Lorena Valencia says that the Did robot (Intelligent Disinfection Device) that eliminates fungi, viruses and bacteria, including the coronavirus with all its variants. Basically it is an inactivator of all kinds of fungi, viruses and bacteria. It shoots with 12 state-of-the-art UV-C ultraviolet light lamps moving autonomously by remote control. It must be away from people and pets, there are 16 screens that radiate 60 meters.
There are already more than a hundred of these devices that roll through hospitals, governorates, universities such as Valle del Valle, factories and Colombian companies that for 21 months have been cleaning 99 percent of environments as they pass, leaving them free of multiple pathogens in a few minutes and responding to the new challenges of the planet in terms of health.
“Did has been so successful that they have tried to copy it but our design with the highest world standards and sophisticated functions enjoys the interest of the United States government”, said the specialist.
The Octopus Force Technological Research Center was born eight years ago, it has wide prestige in the world of national and international science, it already has four registered patents of technological products and three internationally registered trademarks. In addition, it has more than 250 scientific documents, 130 initiatives and is ranked 55th in the ranking of the 340 most innovative companies in Colombia in 2021. “One of my big dreams is to empower women as developers of science, technology and innovation and promote the rebirth of the industry in Colombia for the greater good and a sustainable world”, says the expert.
Constanza Gomez Guasca
