- On Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, the creator of MOV, a technology for people with visual impairments that is gaining international recognition, reflects on her role as an entrepreneur and academic and on the role of women in Chile’s innovation ecosystem.
Silvana Herrera met lawyer and national chess team member Michael Moraga, who has been blind since the age of seven, when she helped him cross the street in Talca. Some time later, he would become the first visually impaired person to try MOV, her sonar-field sensory band technology, which mimics the echolocation of bats and dolphins to orient oneself in space. The idea was born in 2018 as her thesis project, but it soon became a venture recognized nationally and internationally.
Silvana is a designer specializing in Product Design and holds a Master’s in Industrial Design. She is currently an academic at the School of Design of the Universidad de Talca and CEO of MOV, a technology that, placed on the back of the head of visually impaired people (a highly sensitive area), would free their hands from white canes, helping them integrate into society and giving them greater independence and safety.
“We expected people with visual impairments to move freely around the city. Instead, they told us they only needed to get from point A to point B hands-free (without a cane), holding their partner’s or children’s hands, and to live that special moment safely and independently. That is our main motivation: for them to live those moments,” says Silvana.
2020 was a key year for MOV: Silvana decided to go from the idea to turning her technology into a science- and technology-based company (EBCT). “Without intending to, the moment came to go all in on MOV, and the experience began because someone believed it could be carried forward,” she says.
Last year they were among the winners of Know Hub Ignition, a program by Know Hub Chile and the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) that supports the creation and maturation of EBCTs, and they were awarded a Fondef Research Valorization at the University (VIU) project. In fact, they ranked fourth among the 120 winners of this call by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID). “It was difficult, but wonderful,” Silvana recalls.
Entrepreneurship from academia
Being both an academic and an entrepreneur came about by chance for Silvana: both roles began almost at the same time at the Universidad de Talca.
The industrial designer explains that “since it started, every step we’ve taken has been a significant learning experience, and when Know Hub Ignition came along, that’s where we learned this could be a science- and technology-based venture. Being an entrepreneur while also being an academic has been surprising and new for me. Two things happened to me at the same time; it’s been super intense.”
Silvana stresses the importance of more academics daring to become entrepreneurs. She believes this motivates students, for example, so that their thesis projects, which are in-depth research, don’t end up “sleeping in a library.”
She also says that the motivation behind entrepreneurship is precisely to bring the project to completion and not let it remain just an idea. In her case, she dreams of MOV becoming a product that sells and helps people. She acknowledges that this path has its difficulties, such as access to funding.
And if Silvana already considers it important for academics to become entrepreneurs, this role is even more important for women. “Young and adult women in this field are opening the doors to innovation and also to entrepreneurship, and not only in science and technology, but in every field”
“Women, from a more feminist perspective, have much more capacity and efficiency in ventures. Feminism is about equity and equal rights and duties between men and women; it leads us to carry the message that ‘we can do it too’. I think we can even do it better than men,” she says with a laugh.
She adds: “Diversity of thought and a gender perspective are super important. Intelligence and creativity are inherited from women, and I believe that’s the path to follow: fighting for what is fair for everyone, so that men and women have the same rights and duties.”
The Know Hub Ignition experience
MOV was one of the winners of the second edition of Know Hub Ignition, in October 2020, after being selected from among 66 applications.
“Know Hub Ignition helped us enormously because we came in with a different view of what a science and technology venture is. They taught us about innovation and entrepreneurship. Learning the I-Corps methodology blew our minds, because we began to understand how the market worked at the national, Latin American and global levels. Also, sharing with other ventures that were in the same situation as us and supporting each other was very positive and enriching.”
One year after winning the call, and despite the setbacks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, MOV continues to improve. In recent months there has been significant progress, such as the use of a link sensor, false-positive testing and improvements to the microcontroller interface. Laboratory, quality, frequency and intensity tests are also currently under way.
There are also talks with international organizations such as the Spanish National Organization of the Blind (ONCE) to carry out prototype testing.
MOV also continues to earn recognition. Also in 2020, they won second place at Expo Inclusión, a gathering of companies, government, academia, ventures and foundations focused on the inclusion of people with disabilities, older adults and migrants with disabilities. They took second place behind the United States.
These last few months, meanwhile, have been super intense. They were the only Chileans selected from among 2,600 ideas from universities in 70 countries around the world for the Global Grad Show in Dubai. “For the design field, it’s an honor to be there. Dubai Design Week brings together projects from the most prestigious universities in the world, and it’s exciting that the Universidad de Talca was selected and represented Chile and Latin America.”
In addition, on November 12 she received the Ministry of Economy’s InspiraTEC award in the “#STEM Woman Entrepreneur, Early-Stage Venture” category, aimed at women who have incorporated innovation based on those fields at the start of their venture. And that’s not all: they have been selected as finalists among the 50 talents of the future at the Madrid biennial.
