The Beginning: Galileo University, Guatemala

With a general objective in mind, but with no clue what to expect in reality, on August 30th 2011 I chose to visit the private Universidad de Galileo in Guatemala city. I figured this was an appropriate place to kick-start my project, a school focused on teaching science and communication, and named after the man considered to be the father of modern science and the scientific method of investigation.

One of the most important things I took from this visit was a knowledge of some of the obstacles all students and professors face in the developing world. Namely, with a lack of resources for scholarships, students are often unable to devote themselves full-time to their studies, which also translates to them having no time or inclination to get involved in research. The professors also are loaded with teaching requirements, and are rarely paid to pursue personal objectives. For both of these reasons, and many more I continue to discover, students have great incentive to leave their home countries to pursue higher degrees in the sciences, and little incentive to return.

An informative conversation about the state of the math and science curriculums within Galileo was had with three young engineers who were coordinators or developers within their respective departments, and all of whom received masters degrees from outside of Guatemala. One notable recent implementation that Miguel, of the "Department of Investigation and Development" was touting, were video lectures within their well-organized University database. These lectures allowed students to keep-up with class-work from home and complete their degrees in more reasonable amounts of time.

I was taken around to the limited physics and chemistry labs, then led to the systems department. Here I spoke with two more foreign-educated engineers who helped remind me of why I took on this project. While their resources are limited, they are devoted to developing projects of their own. Eduardo had been working on an electrical river-level monitoring device which would automatically raise or lower barriers to keep the water at optimal levels. It was his excitement about his work that inspired me more than the content of the project (this is more of a "development" project instead of research anyways); it made me wonder what this ambitious young man could do with more time and resources. The other engineer, Adrian, had helped develop an information-sharing system within Galilieo, and between other Universities in Guatemala, to help others know what work was being done and perhaps to collaborate. This is an important concept that should be extendable to a global level, and it was promising to see it already implemented locally here.

Computer resources were fairly extensive for a small university of around 3,000 students, but they are only used for classwork. Minus a small initiative for renewable energy and some small-scale work being done to develop new Apps for mobile devices, there is essentially zero research going on at Galileo. There are also no masters or PhD programs in any of the sciences or math. Nonetheless, the foundations are there and I found the visit to be enlightening and encouraging.