As if one needed any reminder that Jalisco is Mexico’s leading center of tech, an event last weekend in Zapopan highlighted the state’s status in that particular area of endeavor.
Organized by the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Tec de Monterrey, “Patrones Hermosos” saw the participation of 205 young people in a variety of classes and workshops.
Those participating were mainly of the distaff, as the event was especially geared towards encouraging girls to pursue careers in technology and science, in particular engineering, a sector that, in Mexico at least, suffers from a paucity of gender diversity.
“The idea behind this project is simple: inspiration,” said Abel Sanchez, director the Geospace Laboratory at MIT. “In order to dream you need to know the dream exists.”
While the metro area wasn’t the only urban center to host “Patrones Hermosos” – more than 800 children and adolescents registered with the event nationwide – Guadalajara’s saw the greatest number of participants and was the best organized, according to Sanchez. For this reason, he and his colleagues at MIT consider Jalisco’s capital the ideal home for a course in robotics and information technology, to be offered during the summer of next year.