Rector of INTEC affirms that to train in Engineering you have to get closer to the productive sectors
SANTO DOMINGO. - The Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), in collaboration with six allied companies from the private sector, concluded the first round of the program LearningFactory, a practical and experiential learning methodology that allows students to identify solutions and participate in real projects with industry partners, mentored by experienced professionals.
During the closing day of the program, the rector of INTEC Julio Sánchez Maríñez, expressed the importance of students in the Engineering Area knowing the reality of companies and being able to provide solutions to the challenges they face. “You cannot train in engineering without getting closer to the company and its real problems,” were his words when referring to the methodology that is based on the University-Company link.
Luis Toirac, Professor of the Engineering Area who coordinates the Learning Factory INTEC program, explained that 26 final students from the Electrical, Industrial, Mechatronics, Software and Cybersecurity Engineering programs presented their final proposals with solutions to the problems identified in the six sponsoring companies. They participated Accumed, BioNuclear, Eaton, Macrotech, Ramos Group y market.
“Our idea is to bring out those common aspects that lead us to lessons learned and opportunities for improvement for future versions,” said Toirac.
The students participated in projects that had to meet the ability to be implemented with a minimum investment, have design or redesign of products, processes, software or services that involve technical analysis, financial justification and prototyping. In turn, it had to have a design component of clear and defined objectives, to be carried out in two periods of 11 weeks.
Reynaldo Hernandez, Hardware lead engineer at Eaton, He stated that the experience with the students was very enriching. “We thank INTEC for the opportunity to participate in this type of initiatives. “We are immersed in these types of proposals that we will continue to support,” he said.
Marco Centelles, general project manager at Macrotech, described the combination of students from different majors and teachers as a “high-performance team.” “I am convinced that programs of this style will generate professionals with a high sense of energy, commitment, innovation and with a broad mastery of their areas of experience,” she added.
Venice Solis, a Mechatronics Engineering student who collaborated with the company Accumed, considered that “it has been a privilege to have the opportunity to participate in this project from its beginnings, allowing us to work in multidisciplinary teams, face real challenges that the industry presents and apply the knowledge we acquired. throughout our university career in a practical and collaborative environment.”
isabella santos, a term student of Industrial Engineering whose contributions were for the company BioNuclear, felt honored to be part of this first Learning Factory in the country. “This initiative gave us students the opportunity to carry out high-level projects to address real-world problems,” she said.
Sarah Ferrua, an Industrial Engineering student, highlighted the ingenuity of his classmates by participating as pioneers in this first round, in his case together with Grupo Ramos, whom he thanked for their support throughout the process.
To conclude the activity, the students received certificates of participation, while the sponsoring and allied companies received plaques of recognition “for the responsibility, teamwork and enthusiastic participation of their collaborators, demonstrating the commitment of their organization to the development of resources.” of high quality that the Dominican Republic needs.”
Present at the event were the dean of the Engineering Area Cayetano Rodríguez; Aranzazu Toribio, coordinator of the Industrial Design degree; Jessica Feliz, coordinator of the Laboratories and the Area teachers and project collaborators Gray Castellanos, Alfonsina Martínez, Iván Jiménez, Miguel Arias, Deyslen Mariano and Jorge Miranda.
Learning Factory from the United States to the DR
Also known as a learning factory, it was conceived 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. Teams of engineering students address business problems in which they use the knowledge and tools acquired at the university, supported and sponsored by companies.
The project was exhibited for the first time in the Dominican Republic by Matt Parkinson, director of the Learning Factory of the Engineering Area of the penn state university, who held meetings with INTEC academics and, in turn, presented to business sector authorities the initiative that seeks to satisfy present and future needs of the industries.