Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Visiting UPB was an opportunity to see how private Universities function in Colombia, and to expand my horizons beyond pure science research.

Research at UPB is almost exclusively focused on Engineering, and heavily relies upon ColCiencias and foreign institutions for funding. Large projects are in the works, however, and the utilization of technology for higher learning is actively being considered.

I met with Emiro and Andres Diez, a father/son team within the Electrical Engineering department. Through them, I was introduced to the director of the Electrical Engineering department, the head of technological development for the entire University, various researchers and developers within the school of Engineering, and with the director of the Engineering school himself.

Andres took me around to see labs and equipment, and an impressive electrical trolley project he works on, which utilizes French funds and Belarusian vehicles. The hope is that in the coming years, this energy efficient initiative will have a strong-hold in Medellin and Bogota.

There was a lot of interest in what I was doing, and I felt a little overwhelmed by how applicable all I've been working on is to these branches of research as well. They suffer from many of the same limitations I'd become familiar with, but already have structures in place for better sharing experimental resources. Utilizing technology to make resource-sharing more efficient, and to better prepare prospective researchers, could be a huge step for engineering Universities.  It will be interesting to explore the best ways to extend and connect pure science research and upper-level classwork to more applied, experimentally oriented research and instruction.