Biography

My name is Sergio Monsalve. I'm 40, a systems engineer, professor and AI engineer. I live in Guarne, Antioquia, in a house shared by computers, mushroom crops, a guitar and my cat Appa.

I've spent more than 13 years building software and more than 20 connected to Universidad EAFIT, first as a student and then guiding other students. If I had to sum myself up, I'd say I learn by doing, and I can't keep what I learn without sharing it.

There's a line in my notes that guides me more than I'd like to admit: "This shit has to be fun". If I'm not enjoying it, I'm doing something wrong.

Where I come from

I was born in Medellín, at Hospital San Vicente de Paúl. I lived in Medellín and in Santa Elena, and in September 2026 I moved to Guarne, where my crops and building projects are today.

Every morning my routine starts with a section I call "Love": my family and friends. First on that list is my mom, Angela María Castañeda.

My path

My path hasn't been a straight line. I went from analyzing data to leading teams, from co-founding a company to building AI agents, and I always came back to the same thing: teaching.

I started studying Systems Engineering at EAFIT in 2004. A year later, in 2005, I began leading research groups (semilleros), because nobody else wanted to. I stayed with them until I graduated in 2013. That's where I found out I loved helping others learn as much as learning myself. Today I'm an MSc in Engineering candidate, with a thesis on how to teach programming in the age of AI.

Period	Where	What I did
2022 – 2025	Globant	Python developer. Backend and pipelines for Sensei AI, an AI agent in Slack, plus projects for Google Verily, GoDaddy and Autodesk.
2021 – 2022	Human Living Data	Co-founder and IT lead. A customer segmentation that drove over COP 8 billion in growth for one client.
2020 – 2021	Inmotion Group	IT lead. Nequi payments and geographic analytics for 55,000 high-risk cardiovascular patients.
2018 – 2020	Leonisa	Data analyst. Dashboards for the board and training in data-driven decisions.

What has tested me

The last few years have tested me. In 2023 an important relationship ended, I crashed my motorcycle, broke my right hand and went through surgery; months later I split my head open. In 2024 came a second arm surgery, and my aunt Marta died.

On April 8, 2025, I was let go from Globant. A month later I started something I called Selfsearch in my notes: a search for who I am when I no longer have a job title to define me.

I didn't choose any of it, but each one forced me to ask what I wanted to build with the time I have. Almost everything I do today comes out of that search.

What I build today

Today I have no boss, but plenty of projects. They all revolve around three things: teaching, growing and building my own tools.

Project	What it is
MAPA Method	My way of teaching people how to learn: Map, Apply, Practice the hard parts, Adjust. Learning Sprints for companies and live cohorts.
Experiencias IA	Sessions on artificial intelligence with Jorge Johnson and Diego Fernando Robledo.
New Old School	An open-source virtual school that teaches the practical first (money, rights, health, critical thinking) and uses it as a door to academics.
Songo Sorhongo and Bichongos	Gourmet and functional mushroom growing in Guarne, with a course on growing oyster mushrooms.
GrowBox	ESP32 growing capsules that control temperature, humidity, light and watering.
La JoBiTeKa	My workshop and lab of passions: building, farming, electronics, programming and experiential education.
DiarIA	My own personal journal app, built mobile-first.

What makes me happy

Almost everything I love is done with my hands, and many of those passions end up becoming projects.

• Guitar. I take lessons and log every practice. I play Latin American music: Romance anónimo, Chalo Álvarez, Briela Ojeda, Edson Velandia, Los Jaivas and Pedro Pastor.
• Mushrooms and plants. I grow oyster and shiitake mushrooms, dehydrate them and design automated capsules to grow them. I'm also interested in medicinal cannabis and Psilocybe cubensis.
• Natural building. Bamboo (guadua), superadobe, geodesic domes, carpentry and resins.
• Outdoors. Bushcraft and camping: shelters, fire, knots, navigation and birdwatching.
• Movement. Paragliding, cycling, skating and walking.
• Cooking. Smoking, preserves and barbecue.
• Electronics and "toys". IoT, drones, RC planes, 3D printing and solar power. As I once wrote: we don't grow up, we just want more expensive toys.
• Reading. Stoicism, happiness and entrepreneurship: Daily Stoic, Authentic Happiness, Educated and Zero to One.
• My journal. I write every day using a template: Focus, Love, Health, Money, To-dos and Closing.

How I think and work

I believe you learn by doing, practicing the hard parts and adjusting as you go. That idea runs through my method, my classes and the way I build software.

• Experiential education. I'm inspired by constructivism and constructionism: teaching with real projects, not just theory.
• Do it myself. I'd rather build my own tools, from a growing capsule to my own journal app.
• Discipline with method. I work with specs, plans and acceptance criteria before writing code.
• Pay it forward. Time, knowledge and passions in service of others.
• Designing life. I use a compass and a timeline to look at my past and plan my next 20 years.
• Enjoy it. If it isn't fun, I'm not doing it right.