INTEC receives allocation of about RD$80 million for research
SANTO DOMINGO. The Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) received the assignment de RD $ 79.9 million pesos development of eleven investigations from various areas, as part of the call for National Fund for Innovation and Technological Scientific Development (FUNDOCyT) of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Mescyt).
The amount of research approved by INTEC makes it the institution de private higher education with greater amount de assigned projects in the call corresponding to the year 2022. The research projects correspond five to the area of the environment, one to business, three to engineering, and two to health.
At engineering area, INTEC will develop three investigations on Prevention of seismic disasters; In health, will develop two projects on malnutrition in children and food safety; In basic sciences, will deploy five investigations in the Environment, Services y movement of sargassum on the coast, sewage treatment, climate change, conservation y sustainability, use of extended reality for climate change training y comprehensive disaster risk management.
Similarly, the university received approval for a project on behavioral economics “Environmental Awareness: A Behavioral Rebound Effect”, which it will develop together with the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean (EULAC) International Foundation, which promotes the bi-regional strategic association, improving its visibility and encouraging the active participation of civil societies. The study will be carried out with universities in Poland, Uruguay, Spain and the Dominican Republic.
INTEC currently has 23 active research groups on various topics and develops about 65 projects, with its own and external funds.
Details of approved projects
The approved investigations in the area of engineering are: “People location and tracking architecture based on Iot and Machine Learning for the digital transformation of companies”, by Juan Pérez Rodríguez, worth RD$4,8 million; also, “Application of artificial intelligence to improve the performance and resilience of civil infrastructure in the face of natural disasters”, by Kalil Erazo, for RD$3,6 million and “Evaluation of Vulnerability and Seismic Risk at urban scale, using Geospatial Technologies. Application to the city of Santiago De Los Caballeros”, by Melvin González, for an amount of RD$5,6 million.
The two approved investigations in the health sector are "Assessment of pathogenic microbiological risks in pork and chicken meat, and by-products" by Luis Maroto, for RD$12,9 million and “Predictive model of the risk of malnutrition due to the loss of lean mass assessed by electrical bioimpedance in pediatric patients during hospitalization at the Dr. Hugo Mendoza Pediatric Hospital”, by the INTEC researcher, Yun Zyong Kim, for RD$8 million.
In the environment sector, INTEC researchers will work on the development of a “Visual data collection system for sargassum near the coast of the Dominican Republic”, which received an allocation of RD$4 million from researcher Carlos Sanlley; “Design, production and evaluation of extended reality programs for training in climate change and comprehensive disaster risk management”, by Jeannette Chaljub, for RD$8 million; “Urban and peri-urban forests of the Dominican Republic as socio-ecological systems and their role in the provision of ecosystem services and adaptation to climate change”, by researcher Solhanlle Bonilla, who received an allocation of RD$9,8 million.
Also in the environmental area, investigations were approved “Optimization of domestic wastewater treatment systems based on constructed wetlands”, by Ulises Jáuregui, with an allocation of RD$5 million and “Promoting the valuation of ecosystem services in the Dominican Republic: a hybrid approach to valuation in the Samaná Bay and its surroundings. Moving towards the achievement of SDG 14”, submitted by Victor Gómez Valenzuela, for RD$13 million.
Finally, business researcher Katerin Ramírez will work on the subject “Environmental Awareness: A Behavioral Rebound Effect”, with an allocation of $50 thousand euros.