The project is carried out in partnership with the national company Transforme, making use of its “InnoProfile” methodology to identify the innovative profile of people.
Identifying possible gender gaps in innovation skills and cognitive traits of students and academics at the Federico Santa María Technical University is the objective of the project “Innovative Profile – Analysis of the DNA of the innovator in USM academics and students”, directed by the academic of the Department of Industries Pilar Gárate, and carried out in alliance with the company Transforme, a consulting firm specializing in the development of corporate innovation management in Latin America.
This research will be carried out using the “InnoProfile” instrument, generated from a pioneering methodology perfected by the company Transforme and the Chilean firm Genoma Work, which uses interactive games based on neuroscience and artificial intelligence algorithms to characterize the innovative potential of people.
Regarding the origins of the project, Professor Pilar Gárate explains that “the motivation comes from the low female participation in STEM careers, with a general consensus to promote access to them, either through public policies, organizational strategies or other means. that can finally attract new talent. In the areas of innovation, not having a broad female participation implies that we lose the capacity to respond to the challenges of an increasingly changing world”.
“The university has declared innovation and entrepreneurship in its competency-based curricular approach. There we wonder if these skills are being developed and how they are impacting the sixth year students of their major. From this, we began to think about how we could measure innovation at USM, thus arriving at InnoProfile”, she adds.
The study, which is carried out within the framework of the Pilot Research Program with a Gender Perspective in R+D+i+e 2022 of the InES Género USM Project, will have the participation of 360 first and last year students of their respective careers, such as Environmental Civil Engineering, Industrial Civil Engineering, Chemical Civil Engineering and Commercial Engineering, in addition to 40 academics who have active research projects.
Understand the behavior of innovators
“InnoProfile” is a methodology that seeks to scan people to identify their innovative profile. It is based on the “DNA of the innovator” model of business management theorist Clayton Christensen, which invites people to participate in neuroscience-based games developed by Chilean startup Genoma Works.
Regarding this methodology, Trinidad Beuchat, director of the Transforme company, says that “it seeks to understand how Chilean and regional innovators behave, and how they develop their ability to question, observe, connect, experiment and associate ideas with problems”.
Regarding the study, she indicates that “it will give us insights into where gender policies should be oriented. A contrast of their innovative profiles will be carried out, to understand where the gaps are and where the most important tasks are to develop them in both men and women”.
The work team is made up of academics Pilar Garate (director) and Diego Yañez, co-investigator Pablo Águila and memoirists Constanza Codina, Valeria Aguirre and Ignacio Lentoja. On behalf of the Transforme company, Trinidad Beuchat (director), Guillermo A. Beuchat (director) and Senior Consultant Rocío Pérez participated.
