This week is the Kimlu Scientific Camp (for teens) in Viña del Mar, Chile. The annual Kimlu Scientific Camp is hosted by Ciencia Joven, one of Chile’s leading science academies for young people.
Each year, Kimlu hosts 30 talented youth with high technical and scientific aptitude, from around the country to participate in their weeklong intensive program.
On January 8, 2012, Carlos Leiva (AndesBeat co-founder) and I are absolutely ecstatic to be among their distinguished speakers and furthermore to have the opportunity to mentor and work alongside Chile’s next generation of scientists/doctors and researchers.
Sponsored by UNESCO and CONAF (Ministry of Agriculture), the program will host speakers from a variety of scientific, environmental and agricultural vocations. The line up of speakers include: Dr. Humberto Maturana, Bernardo Zentilli, Dr. Bárbara Saavedra, Dr. Cecilia Hidalgo, Cristian Hernández-Cuevas, Dr. José Miguel Aguilera Radic, Eduardo Labarca and Claudio Banda.
Startup Research Apprentice Mode On
Carlos and I will be giving a presentation that introduces, potentials and connects young Chileans to the rising startup thought leader movement we are building here in Chile and ultimately Latin America.
Our presentation is intended to introduce young people to the world of startups and expose them to opportunities to get involved with Chile’s and Latin America’s startup ecosystem. The intention is to encourage them to apprentice on AndesBeat specially designed research teams for select startup founders and tech entrepreneurs, allowing them to apply the skills they have acquired at Kimlu in real time projects.
Back in early 2011 when we learned about founder’s Oscar Contreras-Villarroel mission and vision for his organization and program we immediately jumped at the chance to participate as it addressed what we believed is a huge void in Chile’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem (investing in the development of young talent and subsequently helping to build critical mass especially in STEM based fields).
STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The teams of young people participating in Ciencia Joven have participated in 20 regional conferences, national and international competitions. The program has gained international recognition and since its inception has won 16 awards for scientific research.
Why Invest in Chile’s Future?
In a country with a developers community that is estimated at less than 100k persons (nationwide), it is absolutely critical to invest in projects and organizations such as Ciencia Joven and Corazon de Chileno, in an effort to build a critical mass of highly skilled workers and potential entrepreneurs working in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation. Otherwise, with only 0.2% of Chile’s GDP invested in human capital development (although they have vowed to increase it), this is bound to cause a huge bottleneck in terms of being able to support these high impact, high growth companies that the Chilean government is working so hard to attract and bring into the country along with their aggressive marketing of technical offshoring services.
