Solo a EE.UU. casi 18.000 colombianos han ingresado para estudiar
David Luna
Según datos de Migración Colombia, de enero a octubre de 2018 alrededor de 73.740 colombianos se han desplazado al exterior con el fin de adelantar algún estudio. Estados Unidos y España son los dos países predilectos para estos fines. Solo a EE.UU. casi 18.000 colombianos han ingresado para estudiar. De estos 18.000, hay 43 colombianos que se encuentran cursando estudios, dictando clases o desarrollando investigación en Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT – y se han convertido en referente por su talento y el desarrollo de proyectos que lideran. Logramos entrevistar a 15 de ellos, esperamos en el futuro poderlo hacerlo con los demás.
¿Por qué ir a estudiar a MIT?
MIT es considerada una de las mejores universidades del mundo. Está ubicada en Cambridge, Massachusetts y predica el conocimiento desde la ciencia, la tecnología y las humanidades para formar estudiantes que con ideas disruptivas que generen cambios y soluciones para el mundo. Entre su profesorado se encuentran 9 premios Nobel y 2 premios Pulitzer, entre muchísimos personajes referencia de investigación en el mundo. Pero quizá lo que más identifica a MIT es que coincide el conocimiento para todos, abierto y compartido. Esto se puede percibir en todo momento, por ejemplo, no existe restricción alguna para acceder al campus de la Universidad, ni para asisitir a un gran número de clases, así como tampoco hay que identificarse para hacer uso de las bibliotecas, el software es libre y cada desarrollo se comparte con el mundo entero. MIT entiende el verdadero sentido de la educación: mente y mano para avanzar.
Estudiar en MIT no es imposible
Se cree que hay dos principales barreras para ir a estudiar a EEUU, el idioma y los recursos económicos. En la primera, debemos trabajar en Colombia para que todos los colegios públicos y privados sean bilingües. La segunda, cada día se derrumba más. Hoy en día existen numerosas convocatorias de becas que no muchos conocen y que hacen posible el sueño de estudiar en una Universidad como MIT. También hay muchos programas en la Universidad en los que cubren el valor de la matricula y remuneran económicamente a los estudiantes por ser investigadores en los laboratorios o por dictar clases en la universidad en los cursos básicos, como si tuvieran un sueldo mensual. Los doctorados casi siempre incluyen apoyo financiero no solo por el valor total del programa sino para la manutención y el seguro. Así, cada día estudiar en MIT se convierte en un tema de voluntad y persistencia.
Algunas claves para ingresar:
– Contactar profesores de la Universidad y escribirles sobre el deseo de ser parte de MIT.
– Participar en intercambios de docentes o investigativos donde darán el primer paso y muy posiblemente podrán tener la posibilidad de quedarse a finalizar allí sus estudios.
15 mentes brillantes colombianas en MIT
Ingrid Mosquera Studied International Relations and Law at the Universidad del Rosario and specialized in Finance and Capital Markets at the Universidad de la Sabana. She has experience in finance, and was a legal manager at BBVA Asset Management. Ingrid is interested in the intersection of law, technology and digital transformation of finance products and FinTech, reason why she left her job to broaden her education at MIT within the Sloan Fellows MBA program. She is a recipient of the “Dean Fellowship,” an award that highlights her professional excellence and achievements which has enabled her studies at MIT. She also participates in the MIT Media Lab DCI – Digital Currency Initiative and the Fintech Ventures program.
Diego Cifuentes Mathematician and Electronic Engineer from the Universidad de Los Andes where he was a recipient of a full scholarship throughout his undergraduate program. He received a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computational Science from MIT. Diego left for a postdoctoral fellowship position at the Max-Planck Institute in Leipzig, but returned as an instructor in the Mathematics Department at MIT. His current research relates to relaxation techniques for non-convex optimization problems and semidefinite programming.
Gladys Vélez Caicedo She is from Zarzal, Valle. Fell in love with the stars when she was three years old. She is an Astrophysicist from Columbia University and is continuing her studies in experimental physics at MIT. She has worked in experimental astrophysics, in particular with particle accelerators and gamma ray telescopes such as Fermi and the VERITAS Institute. She is an instructor within the Physics Department at MIT, where she leads courses that study climate change and provide a foundation in climate science.
Isabella Loaiza After graduating with a Business Administration degree, she realized this profession was not her true calling. She decided to pivot towards science and work on projects related to societal change. She currently works in computational social science, network science, complex systems, mass migrations and big data. Isabella is developing a project on migration, where she studies the integration of large groups of people to the communities that embrace them. She is also laying the foundations for a system that provides early alarms regarding international conflict through big data. These projects are pursued at the MIT Media Lab where she is a Research Assistant.
Andrés Felipe Salazar Gómez Biomedical engineer of the Universidad EIA in Colombia. PhD in Computational Neuroscience from Boston University. Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Office of Open Learning at MIT. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the Distributed Robotics Laboratory at MIT, where he explored the use of brain activity to control robots during collaborative human-robot tasks. His research centers in developing brain-machine interfaces that facilitate Augmentative and Alternative Communication for human-robot interactions.
Catalina Guío Lawyer specialized in financial legislation from the Universidad de Los Andes. She completed a Masters in Law at Harvard University and was the Delegated Superintendent for Mercantile Procedures at the Superintendencia de Sociedades (business superintendency). She participated in the implementation of the Justicia en Linea program that allows citizens to sue and review records through a digital platform. Catalina also led the design and development of an Artificial Intelligence system to resolve corporate litigation cases. At MIT, she is part of the Sloan Fellows MBA program, where she is focused on strategy and innovation for fintech and entrepreneurship.
David D’Achiardi Studied Mechanical Engineering and Economics at MIT. Upon graduation he worked as a Design Engineer at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada. He returned to MIT in 2017 to research the integration of renewable energy in the power sector, analyzing the interactions and opportunities with natural gas and transportation networks. David develops transactive control mechanisms for natural gas power plants and electric trains which increase the adoption and utilization of renewable energy and social welfare. He has a strong desire to return to Colombia and contribute to the modernization of energy and transportation systems.
Diana Gonzáles Electronic engineer from the Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito. MS and PhD in Electronic Engineering from Campinas University in Brazil. Diana was appointed Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wireless Technology Laboratory (WissTek) in FEEC-UNICAMP and now holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship role in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at MIT. Her research interests include modeling, analysis and simulation of the fading channel with a focus on wideband cooperative communication techniques.
Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar Studied Linguistics at the Universidad Nacional. Completed a Master’s degree at the MIT Media Lab, with a project related to human-robot interaction and has continued as a PhD candidate in the Media Arts & Sciences program at the MIT Media Lab. Pedro has experience working in education and technology in Latin America and Africa. He initially arrived at MIT as an instructor and researcher of low-cost technology development targeted at areas with extreme poverty. He is the founder of a low-cost technology design firm in Colombia which focuses on community-based national and international projects.
Samuel Serna Graduate of the Universidad Nacional. Master’s degree recipient in Photonics of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena and in Optics, Matter and Plasma of the Institut d’Optique Graduate School Paris. He states that public education has enabled him to rise to where he is today. Samuel was a French Research Ministry fellowship recipient throughout his doctoral program in which he designed and manufactured passive silicon photonic structures and developed techniques to test and exploit their non-linear, third order susceptibilities. Aa a Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT, he leads a collaboration project between the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center of the Université Paris Sud and the Materials Science and Engineering Department at MIT that seeks to exploit new hybrid devices to guide and process light.
Pablo Cárdenas Studied Biological Sciences at the Universidad de Los Andes and is currently a Junior Scientist within the Biological Engineering Department at MIT. Pablo is proud of his Colombian education which included a field research component. This experience entailed a literal “chase of monkeys in the jungle”. He is particularly interested in infectious diseases, evolution and synthetic biology tools in the context of public health and social welfare. While at MIT, Pablo will build computational and molecular tools that manipulate and decipher the mechanisms employed by infectious diseases such as Malaria.
César A. Uribe Cucuteño. Electronic Engineer from the Universidad de Antioquia. Recipient of Master’s degrees in Systems and Control from TUDelft and Applied Mathematics from UIUC. Doctoral graduate in Electrical and Computational Engineering. Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT studying graph topology dynamics in networks. He would like to return to Colombia as a Professor.
Andrés F. Cubillos Microbiologist from the Universidad de los Andes. Halfway through his degree, Andrés realized that he had a strong passion for research which motivated him to pursue a PhD in Microbiology at MIT. His doctoral research focused on the study of the most abundant photosynthetic bacteria in the oceans, which produces 50% of our planet’s oxygen. He is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT in synthetic biology where he develops synthetic probiotics with genet modifications that enable them to be used for human therapy. Andrés believes that scientific research is fundamental to the development of Colombia, an idea that has encouraged him to create programs that motivate investment in science and intellectual capital development in public schools across the country.
Andrea Baena Studied Industrial Engineering at the Universidad de Los Andes. She is a Master’s student in the Architecture Department at MIT where she has integrated her research on the design of social housing projects with the topics of informality, climate change and migration. As a leader for the student group Latinx at MIT she has enabled events where members of the community exchange ideas pertaining to fundamental issues in Latin America. Andrea would like to return to Colombia, apply what she has learned at MIT and develop large architectural projects with social impact.
