Madeline Vega received her Masters of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UT Austin in May 2007. After a long technical career in the IBM Power Systems business unit in Austin, she joined NVIDIA in 2022, and is a Director of Engineering Product Management. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we sat down with Madeline to find out more about her, her time in Texas ECE, and what she is doing now.

Tell us a little bit about what you are doing now. 

Currently I lead a team of GPU card designers and validation engineers at NVIDIA, We work on the GeForce and ProViz product lines. I joined my new team at the beginning of this year, and it is the first time I am working on development of consumer products. It is very exciting since GeForce and ProViz are the cream of the crop graphic cards for gaming and professional visualization, respectively. And I’m learning so much more about these fields and about the different requirements of a consumer product vs. development of enterprise servers, which had been my expertise when I joined NVIDIA a couple of years ago after a long career at IBM. I joined IBM right out of college, as a systems engineer, and grew through the technical ranks to be the Systems Chief Engineer of the IBM Power10 enterprise servers portfolio.

How did you end up at UT and what path led you there? 

Education has always been very important in my family. My parents were high school teachers, my Dad teaching Science and my Mom teaching English. With that in mind, I always knew that I wanted to continue graduate studies after completing my Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. For personal reasons and after receiving some very good job offers in the fall of my Senior year, I decided to delay grad school and instead joined IBM Austin as a Systems Bringup and Integration Engineer in 2001. The decision to move to Austin and join IBM was made easier by knowing that I would have such a respected and prestigious institution as UT Austin so close to me. I knew right away that I was going to apply to study here.  As soon as I joined IBM, I worked out a plan with my manager on how to get accepted into IBM’s Academic Learning Assistance Program (ALAP). I focused on doing good in my job, and after a year and a half, went through the whole application process at UT, and I was so happy to get accepted in the Masters program. I started it in the summer of 2003 and took one class every semester. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, as I was still working full time at IBM and we had very aggressive product development schedules, but I was determined to make it happen. I am so grateful to IBM for paying for all the expenses for the degree, and to the teams that I was working with through those years in different projects. All their support and flexibility allowed me to go to school while working. And in 2007 I became a proud Longhorn for life!

What is one of the proudest moments in your career in ECE? 

The day the first server I worked on was generally available and I could find it announced and for sale in IBM’s website I felt like I was walking on cloud nine. The high of that first GA (General Availability) was amazing.

After working so hard with our team on bringing up, testing and fixing issues it was so fulfilling to have something that was ready for our customers. It was finally public and I could show my parents and my family the product that I’d been working for and that had been my baby for the past year or so.  After that, I was hooked on GAs. Every GA of the IBM Power Systems servers that we delivered, it was always a great celebration, of hard work and accomplishment.

If you could provide one positive memory of your time at UT that stands out what would that be?

The memories of my UT graduation day are hard to top! My parents came from Puerto Rico to celebrate with me, and they were so proud. But also, I have fond memories of the day to day routines I had to make to balance professional work and school every semester. My journey at UT was different than a “normal” path, since I was working full time at IBM, and I decided to do a “regular” Masters program (instead of an Executive one designed for professionals which usually has a schedule that is easier to manage for working professionals). In my case, I took one class every semester, including summers. And every semester my work/school schedule was completely different, depending on what class I could get. My teams were supportive and depending on the class time, I would go to work for however many hours I could, tell my team I was about to leave and when I would be back, then drive down to Far West to take the UT shuttle. Once I got to campus, take my class and then make the trip back to IBM to continue working. Those were long days, but I remember how nice it felt to walk through campus to go to class. 

Who has been a major influence on your life? 

Definitely my parents. Growing up they always encouraged me to do the best that I could, and to this day, they always support me in any decision I make. I still call them for advice. No matter what I end up deciding to do, they are 100% on my team, ready to help any way they can. Having that safety net of love and support has allowed me to take risks and grow more. Another big influence have been several mentors I have had during my career. Some I have known for a couple of decades and we still stay in touch and discuss issues when needed. I trust them and they have become friends for life. I encourage everyone to seek advice and mentorship. If you reach out to someone that you admire or that you want to learn something from, they will very likely be willing to at least meet up and see how they can help you.  And also, remember to always pay it forward and help and mentor others. 

What is the important lesson you have learned in your career that you wish you could go back and tell your younger self?

In 2010, I had the opportunity to participate in the Corporate Service Corps program, where a group of IBMers from different business units, functional areas and different countries, would spend a month in an emerging country doing consulting work for non-governmental organizations pro-bono. My assignment was in Malatya, Turkey, a wonderful place that I had never heard of. It was an amazing experience with so much professional and personal growth, One of the lessons I got from that it was that even as I bring value to my team and to my organization, it is also OK when I am not there. I had to put my day-to-day job on-hold for 5 weeks, and my team covered for the critical items that needed to happen. Until that time, I thought that I needed to be there all the time, that the project would suffer without me, and I learned that things will continue to happen and that the team can always prioritize and take care of things that are needed. That knowledge gives you a sense of freedom. 

A mark of good leadership, is that you have helped developed others in the team to be able to take over when you are not there. Healthy organizations do not depend on only one person to be successful, they are made of amazing team members that take care of each other and that do the best thing for the mission/project in front of them.

What does Hispanic Heritage Month mean to you?

I see it as a reminder and opportunity to celebrate our Hispanic cultures, and also to reflect about diversity and inclusion in our workplaces and our lives. As Hispanics and Latinos we have some common values and similarities, but we are not just one thing, we come from so many different countries, backgrounds and experiences. The similarities help us connect and the different perspectives and points of view make us stronger. We should all strive to be open, listen and learn from each other.

How has your Hispanic heritage affected your life in a unique way?

It may be a cliche, but one of those “similarities” in our Hispanic cultures is the high value in family and personal relationships. There is a saying that “It’s not personal, it’s business”, but I think that even in business we should bring our whole selves and cultivate good relationships with everyone we work with. Kindness and empathy go a long way in business and in life.