A group of 12 students and two faculty from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, UVG, toured the Boston innovation ecosystem in March on a trip sponsored by Santander Bank through its 100,000 Strong in the Americas program.  While here, they focused on MIT and visited various labs and departments, and connected with the ASPIRE project, which holds innovation and co-creation at the heart of its activities.

UVG is one of MIT’s partners in the ASPIRE project, along with AGEXPORT, the Guatemalan Exporters Association.  Together, the project is in the first year of a five-year, $15 million endeavor to strengthen curricular and extracurricular activities within UVG, promote collaborative research projects, and foster entrepreneurship using a variety of approaches including inclusive innovation, co-creation, participatory design, and lean research.

During their week-long visit, the students and faculty had the opportunity to participate in a Design Workshop facilitated by Libby Hsu, Lecturer and Associate Director of Academics at D-Lab, and a member of the ASPIRE team.  The workshop introduced the participatory design process, one of the core elements of the experiential, project-based learning model ASPIRE is sharing with UVG for potential transfer/adoption within UVG’s curricular and extracurricular offerings.

Victor Ayerdi, Director of UVG’s Mechanical Engineering Department and coordinator for this trip, speaks highly of its impact on students, stating, “Basically, all of the participants in these trips return totally motivated, with a new perception that it is possible to innovate in Guatemala and that they can really do it.”  ASPIRE will look to build on this experience to create others throughout the life of the project.