| Authors: | Osvaldo Miguel Micheloud Vernackt (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, MX)
Federico Viramontes Brown (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
Armando Llamas Terres (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
Alejandro Montesinos (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
Jonathan Mayo (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
Daniel Guillen (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
Jesús Valdez (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
Gerardo Escobar (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MX)
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Abstract:Engineering research in higher education institutions has been traditionally mostly financed by governments. As the economic resources to conduct research are provided by the governments, most of the prestigious research centers in Latin America are found in large public universities. On the other hand, public and private universities struggle to get economic resources to support their research and improve the quality of the education they deliver and to be well-positioned in the many university ranking systems. Moreover, defining priorities in the research lines becomes a very hard task for deans and research directors, and most of the time, these budgetary discussions affect the organizational climate that is needed to ensure good results in scientific production and high quality undergraduate education. Tecnológico de Monterrey is the largest private university in Mexico with a top-ranked engineering school. It is well known for the quality of its graduates and by the excellent connection with the Mexican industry. In particular, Monterrey is a large industrial city, located near the United States of America border, with at least two large and prestigious universities. The availability of well-trained bilingual engineers, qualified labor force and lower production costs than in USA, is attracting a large number of high tech companies that are moving their manufacturing facilities and engineering design centers to this region. The fast-growing engineering demand of well-trained people creates a niche for an Industrial Consortium of Companies and Universities. This growth, in turn, attracts top engineering talents from all Mexico to Monterrey. A few of these young talented engineers are selected by the partner´s companies and supported to be enrolled in a full-time graduate program with tuition and fees fully paid by them. Since the admission of the first generation of students, August 2008, this consortium experimented steady growth, in the number of students and sponsor companies, and since 2016 the Mexican Government is sponsoring 32 master and 4 Ph.D. students to focus their studies in the critical national areas related to the new energy market that resulted from the recently passed Energy Reform. The grant received from the government, SENER-CONACyT, has direct impact in the academics activities of the students, covering tuition, fees and leaving expenses, plus a small stipend for expenses related with the preparation of their thesis, like electronic components, special software and eventually some field travels that may be absolutely necessary to accomplish good results in their research projects. Additionally, the government´s grant allocated funds to establish a sound relationship with two American leading universities in the field of engineering to facilitate students and faculty collaboration, Arizona State University and University of California at Berkeley to joint efforts in two large research project: interconnecting USA and Mexico with direct current power lines HVDC and high penetration of renewables injected at the distribution level. In summary, the consortium is a well-rounded program where all the stakeholders: universities, private companies, and government win. In addition, it can be replicated in many regions in Latin America. |
