- A total of 20 engineering researchers worked in groups over 10 weeks on the Tech-boost project
On August 18, the UTEM Vice-Rectorate for Technology Transfer and Outreach concluded the Tech-boost program, an initiative carried out together with the Ingeniería 2030 program and Know Hub Chile, a nonprofit corporation whose goal is to transform Chile into a knowledge-based society and economy. Know Hub Chile has its origins in the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO).
Formador de Formadores (Train the Trainers) is a program that seeks to help researchers steer their research toward industry, identifying markets and customers that may be interested in their work, generating funding and, by putting that work into practice, a positive impact on society.
At the event, the five groups that took part in the initiative,Enzimpro, Mabiomet, Accex, Aloebac and EOX, presented the final product of the work they had carried out over more than two months. The projects presented included technologies ranging from a modular plant for disinfecting biologically contaminated water to the use of artificial intelligence to create a web browser interface that adapts website content for people with visual and physical disabilities.
Alejandro Vázquez Soto, dean of the UTEM Faculty of Engineering and director of the Ingeniería 2030 project, said: “This is more than training; it is a transformation that we have launched from the Faculty of Engineering and the Ingeniería 2030 project, precisely so that they can become relevant players who contribute to transforming the UTEM ecosystem and, specifically, the technology transfer ecosystem.”
Javier Ramírez, Executive Director of Know Hub Chile, said: “Our motto is Collaborate to transform innovation, and that is what this program is about. We are trying to tackle the start of this value chain, which will lead us to transform research results into products, services or ventures that will bring about real change in society and in the territory where UTEM is located.” On the relationship between our University and Know Hub Chile, Ramírez says: “We believe the University is an excellent partner, and with the new administration this collaboration has intensified. The idea of collaborating to transform science into innovation is making itself felt; we have seen the strong participation of attendees and, over the sessions, how each of these teams has progressed.”
The first stage of this project took place in 2020, when, among the programs Know Hub Chile was running to address gaps in the innovation ecosystem, it created Building, a program that includes a leveling course in entrepreneurship and innovation, taken last year by some 40 UTEM researchers and graduate students. After that, Formador de Formadores began to take shape.
One of the gaps identified by Know Hub Chile is that researchers are well trained to do science, but not to start businesses. It became clear that researchers lacked the tools to discover their customers and develop a specific proposal based on the research they are doing. Know Hub Chile gets researchers talking with what industry, the market or society needs. The aim was to select the researchers most interested in these topics so they could take on the mission of being pioneers in this area.
Carolina Parodi Dávila, Director of Technology Transfer and researcher at the Department of Industry, took part in this project. Together with the Mabiomet team, she presented a mobile, automated environmental-industry device that makes it possible to quantify and monitor the bioaccessibility of heavy metals and metalloids –such as arsenic, iron, lead and copper- in soils and sediments, applicable to the mining industry.
This device makes it possible to identify real risks of socio-environmental conflicts over potentially contaminated soils, and thereby reduce those conflicts and the costs they bring, which can reach CLP 7 million a month. “We deliver online, real-time results quickly, and we quantify metal bioaccessibility in a certified way with replicability and traceability, both in the lab and in the field; the latter makes us unique in the world,” says Parodi Dávila.
To carry out their work, the Mabiomet team had to identify organizations or companies in the market compatible with their soil and environmental research, and then contact their Environmental, Sustainability or Environmental Conflict Support managers to interview them and get them interested in the project.
Regarding her experience in Formador de Formadores, Parodi says that “the program was wonderful, because it helped us overcome the weaknesses we have as researchers and brought us closer to the market; it pushed us to find out better who our customers are and whom to offer our technologies to. What we always want is for research to respond to a need and contribute to society, to be more connected and not research things that perhaps nobody cares about. Some research takes years of development, and in the end the idea is not to leave it stored away in the lab. It leads you to be a more proactive and approachable researcher.”
Another aspect the researcher highlights is the acquisition of soft skills, since “they teach you to communicate in a friendlier, more effective way, to approach your customers with your research. It teaches you to approach companies and speak a more universal, understandable language. I think all of us who do research should go through this learning, because it takes you out of your lab and into the real world, which helps research a great deal,” the Director of Technology Transfer concludes.
The close of this initiative also marked the first official activity of Claudia García Requena as Vice-Rector for Technology Transfer and Outreach, who said that “the challenge we set ourselves in this activity was to develop advanced capabilities in a group of engineering researchers inclined toward innovation and entrepreneurship, in order to begin a cultural transformation within UTEM. We will continue to drive technological development in the university community, together with collaborative work with key partners such as Know Hub Chile, and we are convinced that in this way we will be able to achieve greater impact and advance the transfer of knowledge to society.”
Source: OTL UTEM
