19
edits
Changes
no edit summary
Visionary is important to Mayaguez and Puerto Rico because it is not afraid to work with and empower others with brand new technologies. Visionary hosted the first ever VR Hackathon in Puerto Rico causing a huge wave that was felt across the island. People that had never coded or touched a VR headset were able to create a VR experiece in less than 12 hours. VR/AR/MR are very versatile tools that have an overwhelming amount of applications. To take advantage of the technology and ride the wave, one must be Visionary!
== [[Alejandro Aponte|Alejandro Aponte]] - The UPRM MakerSpace: E.P.I.C-Labs (Entrepeneuship, Prototyping and Innovation Community Laboratories) ==
If we take a moment to stand in the middle of the educational process of a student these days and we dive into the core of the student experience we would see that there is a profound interest in the development and inclusion of learning elements that are personalized. Educational Elements that are developed depending on the students’ needs and educational interests. This interest has become a movement, a strong movement that is revolutionizing the way schools and universities are looking at their curriculums and courses. Within this great and inspiring Movement makerspace have become a crucial and key piece within the playing board.
It is because of all these great benefits and positive impact on the student community that Alejandro chose to work with its university makerspace. As a student community leader, maker and now as an UIF University Fellow Alejandro’s project focuses on taking the newborn makerspace of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagûez Campus to next level.
Right now, the university makerspace, its still starting to form and expand to the needs of its growing student’s community. As of now it consists mainly of different work areas for students to go and collaborate with other colleagues for projects, equipment to give presentations and workshops, Arduinos and basic Arduino related electronics /tools and 3D printers.Even though the makerspace it is still on its developing phase and the small equipment list, the makerspace space has been a huge gamechanger for a lot of students. As a part of an initiative that targets student lead innovation and entrepreneurship the '''Business Center''' of the university of stablished a collaboration with a student association called '''Idea Platform''' to operate and run the makerspace. This association has been the centerfold of the student community and has promoted the growth and diversity within the day to day of the makerspace activities. Alejandro’s project its focused on leading the Makerspace Administration Office team within the Idea Platform student organization to develop and construct the first fabrication and prototyping laboratory of the university developed and operated by students. This initiative was born from the needs of the student to have free access no only to tools and equipment that can help them develop their own ideas and products but to also receive mentorship and guidance on their educational or entrepreneurial journey. Starting by the room requested to the university construct the equipment room all the way to the cleaning and construction efforts and the creations of funding proposals most of the work has been made possible thanks to the immense effort and compromise of the student community. In addition to the fabrication equipment and taking advantage of the facilities acquired a collaboration was also stablished with the other UIF Fellow Alex Herrero and its initiative Visionary to create the first student run VR/AR/MR Laboratory as part of the makerspace Alejandro’s work vision is to continue promoting the student enthusiasm and motivation and guide it to not only develop the new areas of work within the makerspace, but more importantly to show that a group of motivated and perseverant student can actually help build the university of tomorrow. His hopes are that this will transform into a program where students are trained as community leaders within the campus where they will be able to identify misused spaces with great potential and transform them into signature makerspaces focused on different areas of high impact (agriculture, art, educational pedagogy, other areas of STEM, etc) which will help the innovation and entrepreneurship in our community grow and help students in ways never imagined.
== [[Jaran Arroyo|Jaran Arroyo]]- Elicit ==