School:Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas

University of Applied Science (UPC) is a private university located in Lima, Peru. UPC was founded in 1994 with the aim of training up-front and innovative leaders with global vision to transform the world.

UPC is recognized for being a university that promotes and seeks growth opportunities in the field of innovation and technology in order to help in the personal and professional growth of its students.

University of Applied Science (UPC) is No. 5 in The Ranking of The Best Universities in Peru, according to "America Económica Magazine". Furthermore, UPC is the only university accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), a prestigious international agency that assesses the quality of universities around the world. Also, the Scimago Ranking, classification of academic and research-related institutions ranked, places us as the third Peruvian university with the most research in the country. In addition, we were recognized for the fourth consecutive year as the No. 1 Peruvian university in Internationalization, according to "América Economía Magazine".

Valor: To be a leader in higher education for its academic excellence and its capacity for innovation. Mission: To train upright and innovative leaders with a global vision to transform Peru.

Promoting student Innovation and Entrepreneurship

UPC has initiatives focused on promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in students:

StartUPC: It is the UPC's own business incubator. There, emerging companies are developed and connected with the ecosystem to drive them to achieve success through 3 programs. "Idea Validation", focused on validating business models before launching the product or service to the market. "Incubation", program for startups that have validated their business model and have sales in the market. "Softlanding", for international startups that are interested in entering the Peruvian market, using StartUPC as a platform. StartUPC has the best presentation / winners ratio of the "StartUP Peru" (main program of the Ministry of Production).

Innovation Portal: It is a space where UPC centralize the process of Innovation Challenges and hackathons. It has a directory of events, prototypes, MVPs and projects, and contains information on the UPC's innovation ecosystem. The main goal with this initiative is to open a space for discussion, exchange and information on innovation in the educational field.

i-LAB (Brainhackers): It is the first corporate innovation laboratory at the level of universities in Peru. Brainhackers is a program created by the UPC Innovation Lab, for the most innovative students. They give the opportunity to actively participate in real technology projects through SQUADS where: students will experiment, learn and create disruptive prototypes, without fear of making mistakes. Using Open Innovation, agile and innovation methodologies, the squads develop innovative solutions for the UPC with the different actors of the ecosystem.

Encouraging faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship

UPC slogan is “exígete, innova, UPC” which means “push yourself, innovate, UPC”. UPC looks forward to pursuing innovation and entrepreneurs among students and faculties. On one hand, UPC has of Innovation and Transformation department calls Open Innovation. In Open Innovation they create challenges to that make students generate solutions, products and ventures that impact society such as: Strategy, Sustainable Mobility, Smart Campus and Blockchain.

As well they offer a space in campus called “FabLab” where they encourage students and faculties to create 3D models and prototypes in 1/1 scale.

Another creative space is “Innovation Lab” that transforms prototypes into solutions and they merch with new companies’ ideas to integrate them at UPC. On the other hand, they have “I+D+I Labs” that generate research, papers and patents in our applied science academic laboratories.