Featured stories from the Tec community in 2024

CONECTA is always here to bring you stories from the Tec de Monterrey community, so these are some of the ones that stood out during 2024.

This year’s rundown includes alumni inventions, historical achievements, national and internationalawards, nominations, alliances, and even spaces for learning and innovation.

Here is a summary of Tec de Monterrey’s highlights of the year.

 

The Tec graduate invention that made it to Paris 2024

Athletes such as Sifan Hanna, gold medalist in the women’s marathon at Paris 2024, and Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Olympic male marathon champion, wore a cooling band created by Tec graduate Gustavo Cadena.

“I developed this band, in fact, while working at Tec de Monterrey’s Innovaction Gym,” he said.

The cooling band uses nanotechnology to evaporate sweat and was used by several athletes during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“As a Mexican, it feels really nice to have a product so good that they want to wear it in competitions they’re going to remember forever,” Cadena says.

The Engineering Physics graduate from Tec de Monterrey created the Omius band, which had already been used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

This band was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the best inventions of the year.

 

 

The only Latino in the rebuilding of Notre Dame

Out of more than 2,000 people, Tec graduate Alejandro Arredondo was the only Latin American to participate in the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, devastated by a fire in April 2019.

This building, considered one of the most emblematic monuments of France and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was reopened on December 7 after more than 5 years of reconstruction work.

Arredondo, a graduate of PrepaTec and Tec de Monterrey’s State of Mexico campus, participated in the team that created a three-dimensional model with the help of drones and scanners to reconstruct the cathedral’s walls, ceilings, and other spaces.

“It’s a legacy, it’s a historical monument for future generations that we all share, not just for one country, for one city, but a World Heritage Site,” he told CONECTA in an interview from the French capital.

 

Partnership between the Tec and Ragon Institute

Tec de Monterrey signed an agreement with the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard to develop more research talent and promote innovative solutions to address health challenges in Mexico.

The Ragon Institute, which conducts advanced biomedical research in immunology, was founded in 2009 as a collaboration between the Mass General Brigham Hospital network and MIT and Harvard Universities.

“At the Tec, we envision a future in which research translates into solutions for the world.

“This partnership is a testament to our commitment to excellence and dedication to addressing these challenges,” said Ricardo Saldívar, Chair of Tec de Monterrey’s Board of Directors, during the signing.

 

First Latino team to reach FIRST division finals

Lambot 3498, from PrepaTec San Luis Potosí, became the first Mexican and Latin American team to reach the finals of its division in the FIRST Robotics World Championship.

This is one of the largest robotics tournaments in the world, where 600 teams from different countriescompeted in rotating alliances in one of eight divisions over several rounds to earn ranking points and advance to the playoffs.

 

David Garza becomes Chair of Universitas 21

 

David Garza, Executive President of Tecnológico de Monterrey, began his duties as Chair of the global university network Universitas 21 (U21).

Garza is the first Latin American chair of this global network of 29 universities from around the world that fosters collaboration in research, educational innovation, and student experience.

“Assuming this position represents an opportunity to contribute to the strengthening of higher education through Tecnológico de Monterrey and through the network, as well as to serve the academic communities of U21 member universities,” said Garza.

Garza assumed the vice presidency of U21 in April and became chair on November 1, replacing Professor Shearer West, outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.

 

 

Distritotec receives recognition from WEF and UN-Habitat

The distritotec initiative received an Award of Distinction for urban transformation given by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and UN-Habitat through the Global Alliance for Local Investment, the first time Mexico has received this recognition.

This award is given to successful models of collaboration between public and private sectors that demonstrate best practices, learning, and the creation of new alliances for the transformation of cities, with the potential to be scalable at a global level.

At the 2024 Urban Transformation Summit held in San Francisco, José Antonio Torre, Director of the Center for the Future of Cities, said that it was essential to combine the efforts of public and private sectors, together with citizen participation.

 

EXPEDITION FEMSA opens in the Innovation District

The EXPEDITION FEMSA building opened in the Monterrey Innovation District, which will seek the interaction of researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry to design solutions to global problems.

David Garza, President of Tec de Monterrey, said during the inauguration ceremony held on December 2 that this building, located on the Monterrey campus, is the beginning of where Tec de Monterrey wants to go as an institution.

“Today, we’re taking a decisive step. We’re also making an important statement. Tecnológico de Monterrey is making a commitment to applied research, innovation, and entrepreneurship,” he said.

 

Tec students shine in international synthetic biology competition

Tec de Monterrey students won two gold medals and one silver medal in the 2024 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition.

Organized into teams, the students created synthetic biology projects. The teams from Chihuahua and the State of Mexico each took gold, and the team from Guadalajara took silver.

In addition, the Chihuahua team was nominated for Best Food & Nutrition Project and Best Entrepreneurshipand the State of Mexico team for Best Integrated Human Practices, being chosen as one of the top five teams in each category.

Their projects seek to offer solutions to real-world problems in categories such as climate crisis, agriculture, food and nutrition, among many others. 

 

Tec projects receive education ‘Oscars’

For the fifth consecutive year, projects developed by Tec de Monterrey professors were recognized at the 2024 QS Reimagine Education Awards, considered the education ‘Oscars.’

These awards are organized by British evaluation firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), producer of the QS World University Rankings, one of the lists of the world’s top universities.

The projects that received gold are AGORA Ecosystem of Spaces in the Blended and Presence Learning category and Cultivating Complex Reasoning Skills to Empower Lifelong Learners in the Lifelong Learning category.

In the Sustainability Education Literacy category, the Cross-Cultural Classroom (3C) project by the School of Engineering and Sciences won the silver medal.

The bronze went to TecDrone: Assessment of STEM Competencies using VR & AI, a project by the Educational Innovation and Digital Education department in the Learning Assessment category.

This year, 14 projects developed at Tec de Monterrey were announced as finalists for the 2024 QS Reimagine Education Awards.

This award is divided into 18 categories and evaluates innovative programs, technology, and pedagogical approaches that revolutionize education.

 

First Mexican woman to win space prize

 

Victoria de León, who is studying Robotics and Digital Systems Engineering at the Tec’s Mexico City campus, became the first Mexican to win the award for Best Interactive Presentation at the 2024 International Astronautical Congress in Milan.

“It was a historic milestone. Mexico had never won this award before this year, and I was one of two Mexicans to win this year, two of us out of the five winners,” said Victoria.

Victoria’s achievement was made possible due to her project to detect radiation in space using lunar regolith (fragments of rock, dust, and minerals from the lunar surface).

Her innovation and scientific approach were recognized on an international stage.

 

Tec graduate doctor wrote up only treatment for polycystic kidney disease

Research by Tec de Monterrey medical graduate Roberto Manllo-Karim was the basis for the development of the drug Tolvaptan, until now the only treatment available for polycystic kidney disease, an inherited kidney disease that generates cysts.

Despite achieving this great milestone in the 1980s, Manllo-Karim did not publicize his achievement at the time.

But in June 2024, during a medical research class at the University of Texas, the Tec graduate told the story of his research, and his students immediately called the local newspaper to bring him out of anonymity.

The discovery page of the Jared Grantham Kidney Institute of the University of Kansas School of Medicine also describes the steps that were necessary to obtain the drug.

 

Tec’s Dean of Engineering presides over ASCE

 

Feniosky Peña-Mora, National Dean of the Tec’s School of Engineering and Sciences, was appointed President of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

ASCE is the nation’s oldest civil engineering society (founded in 1852), representing more than 160,000 civil engineers in 177 countries.

It is the world’s largest source of publications on civil engineering and an authoritative source in the drafting of public plans and regulations.

Peña-Mora, who is also Executive Vice President of Research at Tec de Monterrey, has been a member of ASCE since 1990.

He was elected as President for the 2024-2025 term by the organization’s members, becoming the first Latino to hold the position.

 

Tec launches new Health Sciences campus

Tec de Monterrey announced the Health Sciences campus to provide healthcare with high standards of quality and safety.

This was highlighted by Guillermo Torre, Rector of TecSalud and Vice President of Research, during the launching ceremony.

He pointed out that it will be the first private Academic Health Center in Mexico and Latin America, which will integrate the training of health professionals, medical care, and scientific research.

The new campus will include the Zambrano Hellion Hospital (which will be expanded), the new headquarters of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and 11 research institutes and laboratories.

As part of TecSalud’s vision, Torre said that the impact of the campus is not limited to the institution but amounts to a paradigm shift in how healthcare is delivered throughout the country.

 

 

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