INTEC advances coordination of the first Learning Factory in the DR

SANTO DOMINGO. The rector of Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Julio Sanchez Marinez, held a meeting with the President of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD), Julius Virgil Brache, in which he presented LearningFactory, which promotes university-business cooperation integrating students from engineering careers to Project realization of interest to companies e industries.

During the meeting, Sánchez Maríñez explained that INTEC has proposed to install the first Learning Factory in the Dominican Republic in the course of this year 2023, while requesting the support of industrialists to join the initiative by presenting their needs and sponsoring the response. to them through the projects carried out by the students, supported by the teachers

The rector of INTEC pointed out that, through LearningFactory, it will be possible develop innovative projects y multidisciplinary, that involve students from various careers in the search for novel solutions and appropriate to problems y requirements presented by the companies.

In this sense, the president of the AIRD expressed his enthusiasm to collaborate with the university initiative and assured that he will extend the invitation to the members of the business organization, so that they can submit projects and start the corresponding coordination in the middle of this year.

During the work meeting, which was held in the office of the AIRD presidency, Luis Toirac, professor of the Industrial Engineering career in charge of the project, and the general coordinator of the INTEC Laboratories, were also present. Jessica Pamela Happy. While, for the AIRD, Mr. Mario Pujols, executive vice president of the AIRD, and other executives attended

The Learning Factory or Fábrica de Aprendizajes is a space in which students take real projects from companies as study models and develop solutions, a methodology that includes the implementation of new technologies, new products, equipment, devices, transfer of skills and the promotion of research and innovation at the business level. It was created at Penn State University, United States, in 1994, and has completed more than 2,752 projects for more than 620 sponsors, with nearly 13,000 engineering students involved.

With a view to implementing this model in the country, INTEC will again have the presence in the country of the director of the Learning Factory from Penn State University, Matt Parkinson. This professor previously exhausted meetings in the country both with the AIRD and with other business organizations in the country. Likewise, workshops with INTEC academics, for the purpose of presenting the university-company relationship model.