The Guadalajara Reporter

New labs to open doors for Guadalajara innovators

An alumni group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a Jalisco non-profit and along with the state government plans to create four laboratories by 2016 for entrepreneurs in science and technology to develop and test their ideas.

The non-profit company, MIT Enterprise Forum México—which was announced by Jalisco’s Secretary of Innovation, Science and Technology, Jaime Reyes Robles, last August—is already zeroing in on a location for its Guadalajara office, most likely in the city’s Software Center, north of the Plaza del Sol shopping center.

“Like all of us here, I’m Mexican,” said MIT Enterprise Forum Mexico co-founder, Ricardo Godinez, in Spanish. “A Mexican who is convinced that in Mexico there’s a lot of talent; there’s technology; there are entrepreneurs, innovators; there are inventors.”

The agreement will help entrepreneurs network, build sources of investment and open connections with innovators working in the Boston area. A major step for companies here is the development of four laboratories where they can put their groundbreaking ideas to work.

The first of those labs, a center for rapid prototyping and advanced manufacturing, is ready for use at the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Zapopan after a 16-million-peso investment, Reyes Robles said.

The second lab will focus on the “Internet of Things,” a concept that’s been discussed in the U.S. tech press and involves connecting everyday items to a network. For example, a sweater could be equipped with a sensor so when it’s sold the manufacturer would know immediately about the drop in inventory. Medical devices that can detect bacteria levels in patients could communicate with surgeons preparing for an operation, letting them know about the patients’ conditions. Devices placed in refrigerators could send information to shoppers telling them how much food they have.

“This is the future,” Reyes Robles said about developing such technology in Jalisco.

The final two laboratories the MIT Enterprise Forum Mexico has agreed to participate with include one for the analysis of large-scale data and another for advanced genomics and synthetic biology.

Godinez said his company would have significant involvement in all of the labs.

Jose Pacheco, also a co-founder of the company, said the idea is to empower entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality.

The company is a chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a global network dedicated to strengthening technology clusters around the world so the innovation economy can bring state-of-the-art products into the marketplace.

In this way, entrepreneurs in the Boston area can build connections with cutting edge companies around the world and, in turn, those companies can take advantage of the resources and knowledge surrounding MIT, one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

The Guadalajara chapter is the first to open in Mexico and it will provide a connection point for entrepreneurs across the country and in other parts of Latin America. One aspect that sets apart Guadalajara’s chapter is that Godinez and Pacheco have actually formed a Mexican company here.

When it comes to technology and innovation in Guadalajara, Pacheco said the ecosystem is already in place and the MIT Enterprise Forum is looking to build on that.