= <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts:</span><br/> =
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span>Entities such as INprende, Guayacan, EntrePrize, and Parallel 18 are constantly visiting Mayaguez in college tours in order to see what the students of UPRM are up to in terms of entreprenuership and innovation, and to find local talents and startups to fund. Parallel 18 is a startup incubator and accelarator belonging to the Puerto Rico Science and Research Fund which finds 18 startups from Puerto Rico and the world to fund and mentor for a year. Parallel 18 has great connections with UPRM and the E-ship Network, and is very invested in the students and their ideas. There have been 3 startups that have entered Parallel 18 that have come directly from Mayaguez, and there are many students that work on their offices as interns. Another important entity is Vitech, a local startup accelerator which has its offices near campus. The Vitech offices include a space that is awareded awarded to startups that come from the UPRM, even if the students are still studying.
= <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">University Innovation Fellows Candidates 2017</span> =