Biography
Verónica Orvalho is the founder and CEO of Didimo, with 20+ years of experience in research and development on facial technology. Fascinated by the many ways in which people communicate, learn and share knowledge, she set out to discover a new way to interact and install trust and empathy in the digital era - at scale through high-fidelity digital humans.
Verónica has a PhD in Computer Graphic and is a professor at Porto University. She has been a featured speaker at TEDx, SIGGRAPH, GamesBeat Summit, she won multiple awards such as the Women Who Tech Award in New York, the IBM scientific award, Entrepreneur of the Year by UCP, was shortlisted for the EU Women Innovators award in 2021, the EY Winning Women 2022 and part of the Deep Tech Tech Tour Program, she is a TEDx Embassador and mentor for women in technology in multiple programs. She created and led a European/US-funded research laboratory at Porto University; and has significant published work in major international conferences and journals, as well as being a keynote speaker in many events (SIGGRAPH, EUROGRAPHICS, CHI, etc.); She has been part SIGGRAPH program committee and grand jury; commercialized unique IP with Microsoft and Universal Studios; worked at IBM and Ericsson.
Verónica's inventions have been used by Universal Studios, Sony, Colossal Order, Microsoft, and Amazon. She is the mother of a lovely boy and girl; a dreamer and an optimist and strongly believes everyone should have access to education by creating a safe digital future for her children and all kids around the world.