The academia–industry relationship: igniting innovation in engineering schools

Abstract

In several regions, but particularly in Latin-America, one of the greatest priorities not only for families but also for governments is the education of young generations. For any country in a knowledge-based economy, an educated youth and labor force backed by robust technological infrastructure could be the passageway to social and economic progress. We live today in a globalized and competitive world, where, for new generations of young people, popular skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic won’t be enough to succeed. Those will continue being critical skills, but they will not be sufficient. In this present century, new competencies are going to be vital factors that divide students between those who are ready to face more challenging environments in life from those who are not. At this point, the complex relationship between academia and industry is a social and institutional phenomenon guided by strategies. This relationship has evolved in diverse ways, where the industry sometimes collaborates with the academic communities in strategic efforts to support talent development for the good of both. One specific example, structured by the Intel® Guadalajara Design Center in Mexico, is the “Innovation Labs Network,” which has the goal to ignite student creativity and innovation through the development of required competencies to impact the local ecosystems directly in the different states where those institutions and labs are located.