Technological production in Colombia. slow but steady work

Technological production in Colombia. Slow but steady work

In this last decade, technology appears to us as an inherent element of human life. Its functionality, operability and development depend, to a large extent, on the joint work of private companies, the public sector and universities. In Medellín, this joint work has allowed the creation of new strategies that aim at a resizing of the only consumption of technology, to a staggered production of quality.

By: Sandra Ochoa Betancur

In a non-specialized dictionary, technology is defined as any tool, technique, physical equipment or method of doing something, thanks to which human capacity is extended. From that perspective, technology is man's need to create to make life easier by means of useful items for survival.

This process never stops, so skepticism about the advancement of science or the possibilities of technological developments has always ended up defeated by a new advance.

As stated by Jesús Aristizábal, mechanical engineer, master in technological management from the UPB, “the intelligent response of man to the challenges of life and the environment can be called technology. She began to generate with the man himself at an imperceptible speed. It grew ostensibly during the last century, especially as a consequence of the second industrial revolution and reached an almost frantic pace from 1971, this time due to the advent of the microprocessor, the basis of the microelectronics and information revolution "

Technology has been present in great events in the world in recent decades, where we have seen its friendly face as well as its negative side, represented, as Jesús Aristizábal describes it, “on the one hand, in technological innovation that creates wealth and social welfare, and on the other, in the destructive war sophistication and the contamination of the natural environment ”. Without further ado, technology is recognized as one of the mega forces that act within the current process of change that is being experienced on a global scale.

Now, more than ever, technology is clearly one of the characteristics of the modern world that seeks to develop scientific and technical initiatives necessary to solve everyday problems. Today, it is the fundamental strategic factor for the economy of any country. In this century in an increasingly globalized and information-based economy, it has a powerful influence on education, work, commerce, job creation, energy use, entertainment, transportation, communications and in practically every area of existence.

And what about Colombia?

In Colombia, technologies have been generated and adapted that have contributed to the economic and industrial development of the country, a good example of this is national engineering. However, the lack of an articulated science and technology system is palpable where planning, human resources and infrastructure are synergistically complemented towards innovation, an essential condition when it comes to achieving economic and social development.

According to data from Colciencias, of approximately three million people in the world today dedicated to scientific research, 94% are located in developed countries. Latin America only contributes 1% of the world's scientists and of these only about 1% are Colombian.

In another dimension, our performance regarding the registration of invention patents is poor. Until 1994, Colombian inventors only registered, in the United States Patent and Trademark Office system, 130 patents of the 5,350,000 existing up to that date.

On the other hand, to achieve optimal technological development requires the allocation of a significant percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to finance the expenses caused by the different research and technological development programs, training, technology transfer, innovation, endowment physical infrastructure and laboratories.

According to data from the Colombian Petroleum Institute, unlike the United States, Japan or Germany, where between 2 and 3% of GDP is assigned to technological development, in Colombia, in 94, only 0.5% was assigned, including international technical cooperation, private investment, and the operating costs of the science and technology system, without which investment would not have reached 0.2%. It is worth noting that in 1998 the investment rose to 1%, a percentage that remains the same to date.

However, many say that the future looks hopeful. Among them Jesús Aristizábal, who from his work at the Colombian Petroleum Institute has confirmed that in addition to the efforts made by Colciencia, the promoter, coordinated and financier body of science and technology activities in the country, now a more policy is being seen aggressive in research as a strategy for economic and social development.

And maybe he is right. Several sectors have been given the task of taking Research and technological development as elements of progress and competitiveness. Among them is the agricultural one with the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) and now with CORPOICA, CENICAFÉ, CENICAÑA, and CENIPALMA, centers that within their investigative work have achieved novel innovations in cereals, grass, coffee, sugar cane, palm and many other vegetables.

Likewise, the industrial sector stands out with the work of the Center for Plastic and Rubber (ICP), the Center for Research in Communications and Electronics (CINTEL), the ITEC of Telecom, the Corporation for Research in Corrosion, the Institute of Technology of Food, and several research centers in the universities, such as the CIDI of Pontificia Bolivariana and the SIU of Antioquia.

In the health sector, the National Institute of Health, the immunology research group of the San Juan de Dios Hospital, led by Dr. Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, the research centers in cardiovascular and transplant clinics, where it is important to rescue the work of the Transplant group at the University of Antioquia at the San Vicente de Paúl Hospital, with the latest advances in trachea transplantation, and at the Clínica las Américas, which in 2002 launched the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

Technology-Based Companies

Another important point, which demonstrates the concern and articulated work around technology is that which, since the late 1990s, the Business Incubators in Colombia have been advancing, which have been vital in the creation of firms with knowledge base whose models are already being exported.

As María Liliana Gallego, director of the Antioquia Business Incubator, defines it, “incubators are non-profit entities that leverage themselves in the private sector, academia and the public sector, to provide support in the business management of nascent businessmen".

For this the support of the state is imminent. Sena, as a founding partner of the Business Incubators in Colombia, has supported thirteen incubators in the last five years. Through them, 96 business initiatives have been promoted with high components in innovation and technological development. Under this orientation, 464 companies have been created, which have generated 4,802 jobs and sales for more than 43,500 million pesos.

These companies have been created in areas such as software, electronic systems and equipment, health, agribusiness, service, telecommunications, tourism, graphic industry, recreation and sports, biotechnology, oils and oilseeds. Likewise, in transportation, education, precious minerals, chemical and pharmaceutical, among others. This has allowed incubators to be able to position themselves in foreign markets, to carry a model that in Colombia today has an interesting boom.

This model includes joint work with Universities and Technology Parks. In the case of the IEBTA Antioquia incubator, it has been working for three years in conjunction with the University of Antioquia in the University Research Center, CIU, which aims to generate an environment conducive to the development of business initiatives, which are born as proposals from undergraduate and graduate students, graduates, professors, members of research centers or any agent of the university linked directly or indirectly with the development of scientific, technological or business activities. It is important, when talking about the role of universities, to highlight the work that Eafit University has been doing in the field of robotics. University,In addition to supporting an interdisciplinary group that has presented interesting advances, it developed a manual in Spanish of the Roboworks program of the Newtonium Company based in the United States, published by the software manufacturer as the official manual of this program in Spanish, after the technical evaluation carried out by the Phd. Chetan Kapoor, author of the software.

On the other hand, Incubadora de Empresas de Antioquia also articulates its work to that of the Antioquia Technology Park, a citadel of innovative companies where technologies, products and services have been created, transferred, adapted and disseminated for four years through the advanced research and the corresponding technological services, facilitating the insertion of the country in the circuit of innovation and consequently, of competitiveness and the future.

With this joint work, agreement between development actors is being achieved for a work that aims to win the country economic, cultural identity and dignity in the face of globalization.

Proof of the effectiveness of this joint work is the first graduation of the Technology-Based Business Incubator of which 15 companies are part, which intends to deliver productive, employment-generating companies and providers of technological solutions and services to the country. The graduates were Accim, A-Maq, Cad, Cicenet, Colombianet, Convision, Cyberia, Ddi, Factoring Market, Endovascular Devices, Ideas Aplicadas, Lideragro, Intersat, V-Factory and Winet.

At the moment, the Incubator works with seven companies in the Pre-incubation process and with thirteen in the incubation process. The pre-incubated companies are Crea, Conexion, Colombia TV, Madera Plástica, SII, Tú y Tu Bebe, and Visión Verde. Outside Link, Consulnet, CRP, Frog, Gescomer, Greentech, Homini, Interact, MPC, Netmo, PLC, S-Square and Technology Vision, are the new incubated companies.

Technology transfer

Technology is a good, and as such it can be acquired or transferred, bought, sold or used as barter. Thus, the flow of technology to and from organizations constitutes the process of technology transfer.

In recent years, to Colombia and in this case to Medellín, countless new technologies have arrived from all over the world. The process, which is part of the dynamics of globalization, ranges from the transfer of information about physical phenomena, equipment or analytical techniques associated with technology, to the acquisition of production techniques that include, in addition to the purchase of new equipment, machines and software, training programs, consultancies and technical advice.

Most of the technological developments of the last ten years revolve around computing, telematics, astronautics and biotechnology, applied sciences that allow innovations and are targeted by technology-based company incubators, which if they manage to overcome the A high degree of uncertainty, difficulties in obtaining the necessary support and, in many cases, low credibility, may be the best strategy to bring together all members of the production chain around the same objective: research and technology as strategic elements in the development of the country.

Telecommunications, Teleinformatics Evolution

It is clear that human communications have evolved. After writing, which was the great solution to the problem of memory and communication limitations, and printing, which allowed things that previously could be done in a limited way to multiply, in the 70s two great ones appeared developments: computers, which facilitated the processing, storage, recovery and transmission of information; and telecommunications, which with predecessors such as the telegraph, the telephone, radio transmitters, television; They managed to create telex, fax and satellites, which from that same decade and thanks to electrical, computer and communications technologies, were incorporated into the world of information, generating Teleinformatics or Telematics,new science that is giving way to post-industrial society, the information and knowledge society. Thanks to them, it is now possible, on a global scale, to transmit and receive sound, image and data information, eliminating distances, geographical borders, language barriers and cultural differences.

Thanks to these advances and to the mixture of information technology and telecommunications, we can exchange information remotely between computers. This is how this market is invaded with small, almost magical objects that facilitate life, business and interpersonal relationships. Wireless palms, laptops, video projectors, digital video and photography cameras, flat screen televisions, DVDs, wireless notebooks, digital cameos, virtual labs, 3D animation, digital libraries, cell phones with game consoles, wireless Internet, hetset for journalists, portable game boys, e-books, left-handed mice, interactive television, pocket printers, weblogs or personal digital diaries with sound and moving images.This without counting the great advances in mobile telephony, such as OLA's PCS and the 3G CDMA technology adopted by Comcel and Bellsouth, which has revolutionized wireless voice and data communications in Colombia in recent months.

Computing, at the speed of light

When in Colombia we are just connecting to the Internet, in the United States we are already working on the consolidation of Internet 2, a high-speed network, between 100 and 1000 times faster than current networks.

The new network, which is not intended to replace the current one, will initially be operated by a consortium of universities, the government and some companies specializing in information technologies, which act as providers of products and infrastructure.

Gonzalo Romero, Infrastructure consultant for the Connectivity Agenda, assures that connectivity to that network "must be linked to a country project to be accepted." Work that has been articulating, through the interconnection of regional networks in Colombia, the Connectivity Agenda, so that a national university network can be built. This would allow, as explained by Romero, "for Colombia, as a state, to present the national network to the Internet 2 entity and subscribe to this integration for which a monthly membership is paid, for just belonging to the system, of $ 10,000 per month".

According to Sandra López, head of the Information and Communication Technology Center of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, and technological representative of Antioquia for the National University Network, Medellín has a group that convened the main universities of the city, in order to After creating the regional network, however, some universities have withdrawn and only the School of Engineering of Antioquia, the Medellín University, Esumer, the CES, the UPB and the Sena remain.

Biometrics, the art of identifying people

Biometrics is defined as the science that studies the identification of people through their morphological or behavioral traits. It can be through the fingerprint, the palm of the hand, facial features or iris recognition, for example.

Biometric systems are used throughout the world for corporate security applications, at airports and to enable more effective access controls and prevent fraud. This technology began to be applied less than a year ago in banking entities, where, from the fingerprint, you can access the services of the corporation in a personalized way.

"Biometrics is safer because it cannot be lost, it is yours, you cannot lend it or it can be stolen, it goes with you", explains Felipe Escobar, from the Homini application development company. According to Escobar, the global trend is to mix traditional systems such as smart cards with biometric systems in order to increase security.

Smart homes designed by paisas

The vast majority of people would like their home to turn on the water heater, greet them with soft music, turn on the lights as they pass, and even help make their coffee. That house that until recently was hardly seen in fiction films or documentaries of architectural projects in first world countries, is now closer to Colombian homes.

Although the cost does not allow the system to be popularized, two firms from Antioquia hope to be able to market the first version that they already have ready in households in strata five and six in Bogotá and Medellín. Paisa companies Cicenet and Convisión, born in the Business Incubator, joined forces to develop a system that turns traditional houses into 'smart' spaces.

The first developed a program called e-softhome that manages the routines that a person does at home, while the second adapted different technologies that carry out the execution of orders and grouped them into a processor under the name of Home link.

Systems engineer Alirio Rodríguez, from Cicenet, explains that the program is loaded into a Palm (personal digital assistant), which is located somewhere in the house structure so that all lighting systems, garage doors, the television, the stereo, the heater, showers in a garden, video cameras inside the house or any equipment can be activated from there sequentially. Even the system is so well designed that if the user is out of the house, the system alerts him by means of a beeper if something abnormal is happening.

First Bank of Tissues of Antioquia

Two young surgeons from the University of Antioquia have committed themselves to the task of giving the Department the first Bank of Bone Tissues. Jaime Andrés Duque Ramírez and Edison Duque Caballero, after graduating as "Transplant Coordinators and Human Tissue Management Specialists", awarded by the American Association of Tissue Banking and working for five years with the transplant group of the University of Antioquia of Hospital San Vicente de Paúl, lead this company.

The idea arose when seeing that while Medellín consolidates itself as a pioneer city in organ transplantation, paradoxically it does not have a Bone Tissue Bank to enable cadaver grafts in patients with diseases that seriously compromise those tissues and who have the possibility of medical rehabilitation.

The need for the Tissue Bank is imperative considering that there is a minimum population of 80 professionals in the environment who perform implants and around 360 bone structure implants are performed annually in hospitals in Medellín and Valle de Aburrá. This initiative will focus on a local and national market with a growth of 12% per year. Tissue sales in the national context are around $ 276 million, but it is a market in high growth since more and more orthopedists are being trained in the matter. Initially, the Tissue Bank will address between 50% and 60% of the local market. In the medium term, three to four years, it is planned to address 80% of the local market and 30% of the national market.

ASP FOR POINTS OF SALE IN COLOMBIA

Thanks to technological advances in recent decades, today it is possible to manage point of sale information through the internet, allowing business to be carried wherever the owner is.

An ASP (Appliaction Service Provider) is a company that rents software over the internet, prior to the arrival of ASPs, companies had to buy, install and manage the software. In turn, companies had to operate their own IT departments to maintain and service their applications. Today ASPs make it easy for companies to simply sign up, log in, and start using the applications they need. In Medellín, this can be done through Sistemas Fourgen, an ASP company specialized in point of sale solutions in an efficient and easy-to-operate manner.

Information technology

The evolution of information technologies within companies allows us to measure the real change that is taking place in the way of carrying out productive activities. Now more than ever, information technologies are just the tools so that businesses can be controlled and managed in a more productive way.

To achieve this and to be able to speak of a Delegated Strategic Administration, it is only necessary to identify which are the strategic objectives that the company has, and determine with which information technologies the timely and effective fulfillment of the objectives can be supported.

Information technologies facilitate the internal work of companies and allow processes to be carried out with fewer resources, or that a greater number of transactions can be carried out in a unit of time. This leads to looking for a consultancy or a Delegated Strategic Administration of Systems, that allows to take advantage of the system resources and to delegate its administration. In Medellín, Modern Management has been carrying out this work for 5 years with important results, which materialize in profitability and efficiency for the company.

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What if it had been?

Several of the inventions that are now normal and everyday seemed insane when they were created. These are some of the atrocities that in other times were absolute truths.

"Everything that can be invented has already been invented" Charles Duell, Chief of the United States Patent Office, 1889

"X-rays are a hoax" Lord Kelvin, physicist, 1900

"The fashion of radio will pass in time" Thomas Alba Edison, 1922

“Although television is theoretically and tactically feasible, commercially I consider it impossible. I don't see people sitting in the room looking at an image in a square box. ”Lee de Forest, inventor of the cathode tube, 1926

“I don't see commercial possibilities for the plane. Who is going to change the comfort of an ocean liner for a cage with wings ”Harold Jones, director of the shipping company Cunard, 1927

"(By 1940) the theory of relativity will be considered a joke" George Francis Gilette, American engineer, 1929

"I think there is a world market for five computers" Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943

"The atomic bomb will never explode, and I speak as an explosives expert" Admiral William Daniel, advisor to the North American atomic bomb project, 1945

"The possibility of space travel is absolute nonsense" Richard van der Riet Wooley, British Astronomer Royal, 1956

"There is no reason for an individual to have a computer at home" Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"Cloning mammals is biologically impossible" James McGrath Davor Solter, Science magazine, 1984

Source: “The Experts Speak”, by Chistofer Cerf and Victor Navasky

Sources:

María Liliana Gallego Yépez, Director of the Incubator of Technology-Based Companies of Antioquia

Jesús Aristizábal, Mechanical Engineer, Master in Technological Management from the UPB

Incubator of Technology-Based Companies of Antioquia

Antioquia Technology Park

University Research Center, CIU

Medellín Chamber of Commerce

COLCIENCIAS. Social History of Science in Colombia. nineteen ninety six