December 16, 2019, marked the sixth anniversary of the creation of Yachay Tech University. An inauguration event was held with the presence of Mario Conejo, Mayor of Otavalo, local authorities, and students from renowned schools of Ibarra, faculty and administrative staff.

Hermann Mena, Ph.D., Rector of Yachay Tech, highlighted the knowledge-generating academic and research model through technological means for practical, useful and relevant applications for the development of the country.

During the event, it was mentioned that 24 inter-institutional agreements were signed between August and November of this year. In addition to this number, two additional agreements were signed between Hermann Mena, Ph.D., Rector of the University, and Mario Conejo, Mayor of Otavalo. The aim of these agreements is to solve relevant problems of the wastewater plants of the Potable Water and Sewerage Company of Otavalo (EMAPAO, in Spanish), which belongs to the lower basin of San Pablo Lake. Furthermore, additional inter-institutional cooperation agreements will signed for the execution of research projects.

Dr. Mena stressed that “we’re not only working on improving education, but on transforming it, on revolutionizing it and making it a dynamic tool of national reality”.

It is important to mention that the University has developed 125 research projects, 500 publications of international impact, and more than 20% of the graduates of the first class have publications in international journals. In addition, the new spaces of the library were inaugurated, which include a 24-hour reading room with 140 new reading spaces and group study rooms. Also, 140 books were purchased.

Before concluding, he mentioned that the University is undergoing constant change and growth, and that “the first Master’s program has been approved and the second one is on the way; there are projects for other ones as well. All this will allow us to increase our academic offer and obtain resources from self-management, which in the end helps us to contribute each day to the institutionalization process of YACHAY”.

In the afternoon, an Academic Colloquium was held with the participation of the deans of the five schools of the university and students, where the research and scientific milestones reached since the creation of Yachay Tech were presented. This space was also apt to reward the students and faculty who won the Undergraduate Researcher Award 2019. (I)