NoBI U Opening of the 2019 Cohort
Place: Hotel Fiesta Inn Gran Sur.
Dates: February 24, 25, 26 and 27.
From February 24 to 27, the Opening Workshop of the 2019 Cohort of the Nobi U Binational University Innovation Node was held in Mexico City, a course through which the teams leave their laboratories and experiment in the real world to talk to clients and test their hypotheses.
The Binational Innovation Nodes are a program formulated by the National Council of Science and Technology, CONACYT, through the Fund for International Cooperation in Science and Technology (FONCICYT). They were created through a parallel call with the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America. They are made up of a group of scientific-academic institutions, coordinated as a node whose task is to act as regional leaders in the development of tools and resources that impact and disseminate the benefits of innovation and technology-based entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on training of capacities of scientific personnel in subjects of technological innovation. They are called binational because they collaborate with their US counterparts.
In 2019, the Binational Node of University Innovation was made up of 4 educational institutions such as: The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), The Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Hidalgo (CITNOVA), the National Technological Institute of Mexico (TECNM), The Anahuac University and the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT).
On Sunday, February 24, the opening session of the 2019 Cohort began, with a ceremony attended by the authorities of the member institutions of the University NoBI, such as; the MBA Juan Manuel Romero Ortega, Coordinator of Innovation and Development of the UNAM, MBA. Eduardo Urzúa Fernández, Director of Incubators and Technological Parks and Technical Manager of the NoBI, Dr. Laura Iturbe Galindo, Director of the Business Development Institute of the Anahuac University and Director of IDEA, MBA. José Alonso Huerta Cruz, Director of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Hidalgo (CITNOVA), MBA. Roberto Vélez, Director of Linking and Academic Exchange of the National Technological Institute of Mexico and MBA. Elizabeth Pasos, Vice Principal Director of Management of Sectoral Funds and Technological Entrepreneurship of the Direction of Marketing of Technology of CONACYT.
During 4 days, the participants of the teams selected for this Cohort had the opportunity to be part of the learning sessions given by the Team of Instructors to carry out the process of Discovery of the Client and that, at the end of the course, the teams could determine the scope of your technology, the commercial viability of your project and take the technology to the market, in case the team decide it to.
For this 2019 Cohort, we worked on a dynamic pre-registration during the months of December to January, where the registration of 61 teams with innovative ideas was achieved, a selection of teams was made evaluating aspects such as the degree of progress of their technology , that their projects were aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Objectives, that the teams would be part of any of the participating institutions, from the first selection filter, a total of 46 teams were reached, who started a training process with five one-week courses called “One Week Programs” in which 15 interviews were conducted with potential clients per team. Subsequently, a final selection of the teams was made, through the evaluation of the NoBI leaders and the instructor, in which the progress was measured. At the end of this stage, a final list of 24 teams was obtained; with a total of 80 participants; Entrepreneurial leaders, principal investigators, business mentors, 6 instructors and 3 teaching assistants.
The three members of each team, entrepreneurial leader (LE), Principal Investigator (IP), and Business Mentor (MN) met with interviews for the discovery process of their clients, creating hypotheses in each part of the business model and designing experiments so they can try them.
During each presentation of the teams, the Teaching Team presented their observations, feedback and guidance and guided them during office hours; in which the teams had the opportunity to express their doubts and concerns, as well as obtain feedback on what they obtained during interviews with clients.
In 2019, the Teaching team was made up of six instructors accredited by CONACYT; the MPA Luis Alfonso Quero Rodríguez. Lead Instructor, MBA. Patricia Rubio Solorio. Core Instructor, T. Todd Morril. Director of the NSF I-Corps School, MBA. Nanghelly Silva Anzaldúa. Core Instructor, Ramón Bacre, Abraham Trigueros Salazar, and a team of three teaching assistants; Mayte Jiménez Fierro, Raúl Barrón Pérez and Rogerio Canales.
The coordination team of the Node is made up of 10 representatives of the leading and associated institutions, which manage the program from the call to the closing activities and the follow-up with the teams after the cohort.
After the Opening Session, the teams will meet once a week for an online class for a period of 5 weeks, during which the teams will go out and test the hypothesis they have generated about their business model, meeting the less with 15 clients each week, with the aim of achieving 100 interviews in total at the end of the course. After this lapse of time, the teams must attend the Closing Session of the Program; with a duration of two days, carried out in the month of April to present to the Teaching Team the lessons learned and their conclusion about the viability of their project and take the technology to the market, in case the team decide it.