Mayor of Houston sees potential for academic exchanges with Tec

While visiting the Monterrey campus, the mayor of Houston, Texas, expressed interest in strengthening ties with the institution and promoting student exchanges.

By MARTHA MARIANO | Monterrey Campus - 04/01/2022 Photo MARTHA MARIANO

Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner discussed the subjects of entrepreneurship, academic exchanges, and innovation districts with Tec leaders during his visit to the Monterrey campus.

David Garza, rector and president of the Tec, and Mario Adrián Flores, vice president of the Tec’s Monterrey Region, were in charge of welcoming the mayor and his entourage.

“We’re impressed by the great work the Tec is doing in terms of educational technology, housing environments, and entrepreneurship.

“It’d be interesting to start a series of talks and have more specific meetings in order to set up exchanges between our students,” said Sylvester Turner.

Durante su visita el alcalde de Houston recorrió la Biblioteca del campus Monterrey — The mayor of Houston toured the Monterrey Campus Library during his visit, accompanied by leaders and students.

During the visit, which took place on Tuesday, March 29, the mayor toured some of the most emblematic locations on campus, such as the Rectory Building and the Library.

“We’re impressed by the great work that Tec is doing in terms of educational technology, housing environments, and entrepreneurship.” - Sylvester Turner

Searching for transformation towards innovation districts

One of the projects that caught the attention of the mayor and his team was the DistritoTec project, an urban regeneration initiative developed by Tec de Monterrey in collaboration with citizens, organizations, and local authorities.

“One of our goals is to create an open environment in which the community can feel part of the project.

“We also want to attract more startup companies because we want to be part of a knowledge economy,” explained David Garza.

The projects presented to the mayor as part of the DistritoTec initiative included the transformation towards an Innovation District.

La comitiva del alcalde de Houston en su visita al campus Monterrey — Leaders from the institution, headed by David Garza, president and rector of the Tec, received the delegation accompanying Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston.

The project is intended for geographic areas where high concentrations of talent, institutions, and companies are connected to business incubators.

“One of our aims is to create an open environment in which the community can feel part of the project.” - David Garza

A scientific innovation building called ‘Expedition’ will also be constructed.

“We’re very interested in how they’ve handled this transformation with the community around the campus.

“We’ve been thinking of an environment similar to this for our city, so it would be very good to have an exchange of ideas,” shared the mayor of Houston.

Mayor has immersive digital experience

Another of the spaces visited by the mayor was Mostla, the Tec’s Emerging Educational Technologies space, where he learned about some of its educational technologies such as hologram teachers.

He also learned about different virtual reality devices, such as VR headsets for hybrid classes.

“In addition to having these technological spaces at the Tec, we’re committed to training world leaders.

“That’s why we focus part of our efforts on strengthening our students’ skills using different educational tools,” said Mario Adrián Flores.

Uno de los espacios visitados por el alcalde fue el Mostla, espacio dedicado a tecnologías educativas. — One of the spaces visited by the mayor was Mostla, a space dedicated to educational technologies.

Both leaders agreed that the Houston government and Tec de Monterrey should begin to collaborate on how to impact university students’ lives in both countries.

“We’re very happy with the high quality we’ve seen here at the Tec. We hope we can work together in different areas”, concluded Sylvester Turner.