In 2012, the Technological Entrepreneurship Support Platform, IncubaUdeC started the “DHT” with the aim of giving young students from the penquista house of studies a first approach to the entrepreneurial world.
Ten years after its launch, more than a thousand students have passed through the call, which this year seeks innovative proposals to solve three challenges: “Science and Entrepreneurship for the Future”, supported by the Science 2030 plan of the University of Concepción , “Communities and Sustainable Cities” by CMPC and “Early Childhood Education” supported by Santander Universities.
“This initiative seeks to strengthen the culture of entrepreneurship, provide tools so that students can develop new skills and, at the same time, be able to take their businesses to more advanced stages where we can support them from the incubation processes.
With the High Tech Challenge contest, more than a thousand young people have gone through training processes, networking and entrepreneurship activities. From IU we have worked so that the participants can materialize their business ideas”, says Beatriz Millán, executive director of IncubaUdeC.
The requirements to be part of the tenth version of the contest are simple: To be an undergraduate or postgraduate higher education student in an institution belonging to the Biobío, Ñuble, or Maule regions, not to have started activities or sales at the time of application and, finally, not having a prototype. The registration process will last until October 3 through the website www.incubaudec.cl/desafio-high-tech/.
Ten years contributing to fostering an entrepreneurial culture
During the launch of the contest, the Director of Development and Innovation of the UdeC, Dr. Jorge Carpinelli, indicated that “in this new version, the tenth of this call, we hope to complete excellent proposals and with an optimal and efficient process of accompaniment to those higher education students who are encouraged to participate with initiatives, providing solutions that from their knowledge and competence can be valued by these three institutions that today participate in the High Tech Challenge”.
“As a company, we are very happy to participate once again in the High Tech Challenge, which is tremendously virtuous since it enhances the entrepreneurial capacity of our students, not only from the Biobío Region, but also from Maule and Ñuble.
As CMPC we are happy to have a challenge called Sustainable Communities and Cities, whose objective is to be able to think about cities, urban territories and from there propose solutions that allow us to gradually reduce vulnerability and establish enterprises that are friendly to the environment, the communities and logically with the local economic development”, said Felipe Alveal, deputy manager of Corporate Affairs of the paper company.
Benjamín Barros, in charge of Institutional Relations at Santander Universities, indicated that “at Santander we are committed to society not only in financial matters, which is our day-to-day business, but also in supporting and developing different initiatives that help people and companies to prosper and what better way to do it through innovation and therefore the High Tech Challenge. We believe that investing in education is investing in the future of society and therefore in the development of the country.
We are looking forward to receiving innovative solutions that seek to level the playing field in a crucial stage such as early childhood, in terms of inclusive, equitable and quality education.”
The executive director of the Science 2030 plan of the University of Concepción, Nelson Rojas, maintained that “the High Tech Challenge contest has been a key instance to push the strategic objectives that are set out in our plan, particularly in two of the components, one that has to do with training issues in innovation and entrepreneurship in undergraduate and graduate students and the second that is related to the linkage component, where we consider that the strategy of promoting the creation of science-based enterprises is essential to establish an effective linkage between students and the environment, so that they are capable of responding to the development of high-value solutions for the public and private world.
In this version, the contest has the collaboration of Universidad de Concepción Campus Los Angeles; University of Concepción Campus Chillán; Gearbox, OTL UdeC, CFT Lota Arauco, Instituto Virginio Gómez and RSU Facea UdeC.
The bases, description of the tracks and stages of the High Tech Challenge, which in the first instance will be developed in a 100% on-lineare now available on the website of IncubaUdeC. The participants who reach the final stage will compete for five million pesos in prizes to be distributed, in addition to incentives linked to specialized training and mentoring processes.
Add Comment