Faculty of Engineering held talk about interculturality on the first Ibero-American Open Innovation Bootcamp

The Latin American team working in the organization, composed of Mariaignacia Rodríguez, Diego Urzúa, and Javiera Díaz of the Universidad de Santiago, along with Hernán Cortés of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, held a talk prior the start of the first Ibero-American Open Innovation Bootcamp, organized by the Ibero-American Association of Engineering Teaching Institutions (ASIBEI, in Spanish) and the Faculty of Engineering of the USACH, in order to welcome participating students, as well as to introduce them to the methodology, and to make known relevant information about interculturality.

Diego Urzúa, methodology coordinator of the Open Innovation Program Lions Up, explained that work will be done with challenges proposed by local and international organizations, based on three sustainable development goals, raised by the 2030 Agenda, and approved by the UN in 2015, corresponding to: zero hunger, affordable clean energy and decent work, and economic growth. Based on these challenges, multidisciplinary and intercultural teams will develop innovative solution proposals, supported by mentors from Ibero-America, during Friday 16 and Saturday 17 of April. At the same time, it was mentioned that the platforms to be used will be Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Youtube.

Later in the presentation, Javiera Díaz, student mobility coordinator of the Faculty of Engineering, delivered characteristics of each participating country under the interculturality framework, considering that there are 15 countries interacting from different latitudes. In her words, engagement from this perspective “nourished curiosity, raised awareness of other cultures, and made possible to identify biases and discriminatory comments. In this sense, more cultural intelligence is developed, this is, the ability to relate and interact efficiently with people from other cultures.”

Finally, it was announced that the Bootcamp will be held for 30 working hours, starting on Friday 16 of April at 10:30 am, Chilean time. In addition, the creation of a Virtual Library for participants was promoted, with the objective of boosting work in innovation and entrepreneurship. You can access to the Virtual Library in the following link.

Translated by Ayelen Parada