May 28, 2019: WASHINGTON, D.C: Partners of the Americas announces new recipients in the first-Brazil specific Innovation Fund competition sponsored by National Service of Industrial Training (SENAI) and the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) at the Department of State.
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund is the Department’s signature hemispheric-wide education initiative. Since its inception in 2014, the Innovation Fund has become the trusted flexible mechanism that creates enduring links between governments, academia, and business to build institutional capacity, increase academic mobility programs, champion the power of education in transforming societies, and provide more training opportunities to students in the Americas.
The Innovation Fund inspires U.S. universities and colleges to team up with higher education institutions in Latin America to create new exchange and training opportunities. Innovation Fund grant-winning partnerships build bridges of connectivity and provide students with critical access to new exchange and training programs to work in teams, gain technical skills, and be better prepared for today’s global workforce. As of March 2019, the Innovation Fund has awarded 198 grants to teams of 362 higher education institutions (HEIs) in 25 countries and 42 U.S. States.
This first-Brazil specific Innovation Fund competition—sponsored by SENAI and the U.S. Department of State—will provide five grants of $40,000 each to support new partnerships between universities and colleges in the United States with SENAI Institutes and universities in Brazil.
Grant-winning teams will provide new academic exchange and training programs for students to work in teams in Brazil and in the United States in the fields of Information and Communications Technology, Engineering, Business, Entrepreneurship, among others.
Innovation Fund Grants sponsored by SENAI and the U.S. Department of State will be awarded to:
The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States
Instituto SENAI de Inovação em Microeletrônica, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
Instituto Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazi
Strain Gauges of Carbon Nanotube Yarns: Towards Developing a New Sensing Technology
The multilateral partnership between Catholic University of America, Instituto SENAI de Inovação em Microeletrônica, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, and Instituto Federal do Amazonas will create new bi-directional exchange programs to train undergraduate and graduate students in manufacturing, electromechanical characterization, and research methodologies. The winning institutions will disseminate research gained and produced by the students through the program to academic journals, conference presentations, and patent filings.
Radford University, Virginia, United States
Instituto SENAI de Inovação para Tecnologia da Informação, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Data Science Student Exchange Program
This new program between Radford University, Instituto SENAI de Inovação para Tecnologia da Informação, and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco will aim to tackle actual demands from real industrial partners to play as potential challenges to be addressed by selected students during the courses in the United States. Brazilian students will take graduate classes at Radford University and gain hands-on experience working with corporate partners in the U.S. and Brazil. The students will also tour Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia to expose them to the start-up ecosystem and enable them to learn about local entrepreneurial accelerators and incubators in the region.
Radford University, Virginia, United States
Instituto SENAI de Inovação para Tecnologia da Informação, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
ASIS: Analyzing and Securing IoT Systems
Radford University, in collaboration with Instituto SENAI de Inovação para Tecnologia da Informação and Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, have designed a new program to foster student research collaboration in the area of security, with focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This bi-directional program will facilitate an understanding of entrepreneurial opportunities through activities that will challenge students to develop a Hack House – a smart, automated home for research and experimentation using embedded devices; conduct a security analysis of the smart home and propose a lightweight intrusion alert system for embedded devices; and provide entrepreneurship training to students to commercialize or pitch ideas on securing such devices to companies in Brazil.
Stillman College, Alabama, United States
Instituto SENAI de Inovação em Química Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Building Creativity and Unique Transformative Technology into Next Generation Education (CUTTING EDGE) via Diversity and Green Innovation
Stillman College and Instituto SENAI de Inovação em Química Verde have partnered to create an interdisciplinary science entrepreneurship course for undergraduate students, culminating in a competition for the best marketing plan for a promising solution to a global environmental problem. Using their award-winning research of a biodegradable, cellulose-based plastic as a model, student teams will learn how to transfer scientifically-sound projects to the business sector. The winning student team will travel to Brazil to interact with leading Green Chemistry researchers, where they will learn about the local context for global issues that they studied.
Universidad Ana G. Méndez – Recinto de Gurabo, Puerto Rico, United States
Instituto SENAI de Inovação em Química Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Exchange Program on Smart Energy Solutions (EEXMART) between Puerto Rico and Instituto SENAI de Inovação em Química Verde
The Exchange Program on Smart Energy Solutions (EEXMART) will establish an international, bilateral, student exchange program to share technical experiences in energy management and smart solar technologies. The goal of the program is to develop a sustainable exchange program focused on research mentoring, best practices, and education to increase the pipeline of graduates ready to pursue a career in energy while exploring entrepreneurship as a career path. Activities will include a course in sustainable energy, a summer graduate research experience in Brazil, a summer business fellows’ academy, scientific exchange through participation in the Puerto Rico Energy Center (PREC) Symposium on Energy, and scientific exchange through visits from PREC to the SENAI Institute.
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The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund is the dynamic public-private sector collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassies, Partners of the Americas, NAFSA, regional governments, and over 20 companies/foundations working to stimulate and support new higher education institutional partnerships between the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
The flexible, trusted mechanism to support this hemispheric-wide education initiative of the Bureau of the Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State is the Innovation Fund that builds bridges of opportunity and connectivity, enhances institutional capacity, increases academic exchanges, and strengthens regional education cooperation throughout the Americas. Since its inception in January 2014 through March 2019, the Innovation Fund has awarded 211 grants to more than 382 teams of universities and colleges in 25 countries and in 43 U.S. states. To date, over 2,100 higher education institutions have joined the Innovation Network— with 1,200 universities and colleges in the United States.
Learn more: www.100kstrongamericas.org
#100KStrongAmericas
The mission of Partners of the Americas is to connect people and organizations across borders to serve and to change lives through lasting partnerships. These partnerships create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life problems. Inspired by President Kennedy and founded in 1964, under the Alliance for Progress, Partners is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with international offices in Washington, DC. Learn more at www.partners.net or via Twitter @partnersamerica.
A part of the Industrial System, along with the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI), the Social Service of Industry (SESI) and the Euvaldo Lodi Institute (IEL), the National Service of Industrial Training (SENAI) is renowned as a model of professional education and known for the quality of its technological services that promote innovation in the Brazilian industry. Since its creation in 1942, 55 million professionals have graduated from SENAI. Currently, SENAI’s 809 mobile and fixed operational units throughout the country receive more than 2.5 million applications for around 3 thousand courses that prepare workers for 28 industrial areas. Courses range from professional learning to high school degrees, and even include college and graduate degrees. Not only does SENAI offer Brazilians quality professional education, it also, in partnership with Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations, operates workforce-training centers in Cape Verde, Guinea_Bissau, Guatemala, Paraguay and East Timor. In addition, it is creating centers of professional education in Mozambique, Peru, Jamaica, São Tomé and Príncipe and Haiti. SENAI also operates a certified network of 208 laboratories that offer technical and technological services to companies throughout the country. In 2011, this network serviced more than 18 thousand companies, and 139,149 services were undertaken to support industrial innovation and technological development.
Press contact: Rachel Falek | rfalek@partners.net