"We can't say 'we're here, we're fine'. If we stay here in a few years we will be irrelevant. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry and academia are asking for more students, more young people, more people of all ages to come here," engineer Héctor Cancela, former dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Republic (UdelaR), told Don't Touch Anything.
He added that "more international insertion and more human resources are also needed at the top of the pyramid; more research, more PhDs, more people working in academia and industry".
"The only way to grow in order to continue in a virtuous cycle is to do it in synergy" - Cancela.
The ICT sector accounts for 2.5% of GDP and its growth is a unanimous view of the sector's importance. However, in the political system and among the people who decide on priorities, the visions are less agreed.
"On the one hand they listen to us, but on the other hand it is not always easy to get funding for longer-term initiatives. That's the part that's a bit more difficult, and demanding it from the academy is part of our role," Cancela said.
Pablo Chilibroste, director of UTEC, indicated that the issue is well known but does not occupy a prominent place.
"I think the issue is there, I've heard it raised, but it's not on the front page political agenda" - Chilibroste.
"I wish it had a higher place but I wouldn't say it's not on the agenda, it's not on the most primary agenda," he added.
"The risk of a big drop in this campaign is very high. It would be a good sign for Uruguay if it were to appear"- Chilibroste.
The agricultural engineer and director of UTEC also spoke of the possibility of ICTs spilling over into other industries. ICT is the fourth largest export industry after meat, cellulose and grains. "It is the first industry that does not work with commodities. We want to find a way for this ICT development to spill over into the raw material chains and be able to differentiate ourselves from there in terms of processes, efficiency and products, etc.".
Risk and trust
In the relationship between industry and academia, there are joint but also divergent interests. For this reason, exchanging visions represents a risk. "The main challenge is to make agreements to act together. Let's take risks that we have not taken in the past, with monitoring, management and everything else that needs to be in place," Chilibroste proposed.
"If we can take that step, Uruguay takes a step forward"- Chilibroste.
In addition, the UTEC director commented that in Uruguay there has always been a poor relationship between industry and academia because it requires "establishing bonds of trust".
UTEC has taken a leading role in ICT training because it hosts many technical courses for students. However, the continuity of this training is not fully articulated.
So another challenge for the sector is to enable students to go from study to market without getting lost along the way. Chilibroste said the new proposals are good news but called for trafficability.
"What we need to do to confirm the good news is to make it accessible, to communicate, to ensure that training is not something isolated but that we have an articulated system. We are very close to that, we agree that we have to move towards it. This will make it possible to study for a year, go to work, then come back and not start from scratch.
Source: 180
Connect