2021 Cohort
42
edits
Changes
== Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship: ==
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>When a student has an idea and wants to pursue it, it is extremely important to have the university support and guidance. </big></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>This is the reason why IthaKa, our I&E center was created. Before this, our university had two different establishments for entrepreneurship: Nexo, offering a pre-incubator service, and CII ( the Center for Innovation and Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Technologies). Recently, they associated and formed a new center called Ithaka, which principal aim is to incubate students´ ideas and materialize them. The main mission of this center is to bring our university community closer to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, promote innovation and creativity for the development of ventures that contribute to the development of a more prosperous, fair and humane society.</big></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>In fact, Ithaka has already created entrepreneurs and innovators. For instance, Marcelo Ciaspessoni, a Business Management student of UCU, together with íthaka's help and support founded a successful enterprise called ViajerosUy; this is a tourist agency especialized in adventure activities in Uruguay. </big></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big><span id="docs-internal-guid-175cf5d5-7fff-67cb-eb8f-b23119daf2c7"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students ́ organizations are also highly promoted by Ithaka, proof of this is the Entrepreneur ́s Club at Punta del Este ́s Campus. Here, students from UCU and other universities who would like to become entrepreneurs and already entrepreneurs of the city gather and take part in talks to inspire, teach entrepreneurial skills and promote innovation.</span></span></big></span></span></div><div></div>
== Facilitating university-industry collaboration ==
<div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>UCU facilitates the relationship between industry and the university in multiple ways, some of which are described below.</big></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>1. Innovation & Entrepreneurship</big></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>There are two main programmes that regulate and connect the entrepreneurship and innovation that takes place in university with real-life organizations, business and markets. The first one is the mentoring program offered by Ithaka. This one supports students, professors, and alumni in developing their ideas in the pursuit of transforming them into entrepreneurs. In fact, the seed funds competitions, have a designated budget for Ithaka’s members.</big></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>The second one is the “Ignis Convoca” program, which also gives students support but, at the same time, pushes them to participate in contests regional and international.</big></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big><span id="docs-internal-guid-13109c4b-7fff-7bf1-9cd7-927874d96264"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The university also organizes activities to facilitate validation with incubators. An example of this is IdeasLab, a pre-incubation program, where mentoring, tutoring and training are given by mentors who help validate the participant ́s business plan.</span></span></big></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big><span id="docs-internal-guid-13109c4b-7fff-7bf1-9cd7-927874d96264"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, as UCU believes that social responsibility and engagement in important, promotes with Ithaka a program called “Circular Opportunities” that provide tutorships and training to entrepreneurs trying to address social and environmental problems. </span></span></big></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>2. Job opportunities facilitators</big></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>“Feria Laboral” is an annual event. It is mainly a fair which aim is inserting students into the labour market. This activity consists of a large number of companies from different fields gathered for this day in the university to describe, inform and offer different career opportunities that students can apply for.</big></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big><span id="docs-internal-guid-36e22a4e-7fff-ac8f-703d-47ebb2fe419e"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are several internships available as well, for students that want to start working at the university, such opportunities include being part of the centers, the administration or the technical support.</span></span></big></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>3. Work-practice opportunities</big></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big>Universidad Catolica del Uruguay offers infrastructure and resources for making their own professional practices before graduation.</big></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><big><span id="docs-internal-guid-dddfe150-7fff-034d-40ed-28c9e32574d9"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UCU is currently going through a changing process, the whole university is turning into a more insightful and transversal education center aiming for an interdisciplinary and intercareer process of education and formation. Ucu is trying to make professionals adapted to today’s needs by teaching them that knowing a lot of only one thing is not the best way to approach the work market. Today’s needs require a deep but not professional knowledge about a vast amount of topics. UCU is making us try to be profesionales at projects and working in teams of different professions rather than solo workers.</span></span></big></span></span></div>