Expertise · INGES Consultoria y Diseño
Paola Andrea Fernandez Córdoba is the General Manager of INGES Consultoria y Diseño in Mexico. MIDAS Brazil owes a special thanks to Paola Andrea Fernandez Córdoba for helping raise the level of engineering practice in Brazil. Technical knowledge reached Brazilian engineers in their own language, and the meaning held. We invite you to read that story with us, along with the habits of analysis behind it.
In Paola Andrea Fernandez Córdoba's own words.
"Model with precision, interpret with engineering judgment, and design for the structure that will exist in the real world—not only for the structure that exists inside the computer model."
I would describe myself as a structural engineer guided by precision, engineering judgment and clear technical communication. The first two are how I build and read a model. The third is how the result reaches the people who act on it. Working in Spanish and Portuguese has allowed me to connect engineering concepts across different professional environments.
Preserving the technical meaning
During my collaboration with MIDAS, I supported its expansion into the Brazilian market. Through the technical translation and localization of engineering documents, seminars, and training courses, I was able to help make complex structural engineering concepts and software applications more accessible to Portuguese-speaking engineers.
My role was not only to translate the language, but also to preserve the technical meaning and adapt the terminology to the way engineers in Brazil communicate and work. I believe this contributed to creating a stronger connection between MIDAS and the Brazilian engineering community, while also helping engineers access new tools and technical knowledge in their own language.
Whether a result represents the real structure
Interpretation matters in analysis as well. Throughout my career, I have learned that obtaining a converged analysis or a code-compliant result is only one part of structural engineering. The real responsibility of the engineer is to understand whether that result correctly represents how the structure will behave.
For that reason, I continuously review assumptions, load paths, boundary conditions, structural idealization, material properties, code requirements, and the consistency of the results with expected structural behavior. When working with existing structures, I also consider deterioration, construction details, inspection findings, modifications, and real site conditions.
Q. You have known MIDAS since 2013. What has stayed with you most?
Not only the software. It is also the human and technical quality of the MIDAS team. From my first contact with the company in Colombia to my collaboration supporting its expansion into the Brazilian market, I have always found a team willing to share knowledge, listen to engineers, and build a real connection with the engineering community. Being able to contribute to its growth in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, has made that relationship even more meaningful.
For Paola Andrea Fernandez Córdoba, a translation and an analysis pass the same test. The meaning has to hold. That care helped bring MIDAS to Brazilian engineers in their own language. We are grateful for that contribution to engineering in Brazil, and we will keep working to help it grow further.