EduTECH Emprèn. 2023 Edition.

Are you an entrepreneur with a business idea that could change the way we learn? With EduTECH Emprèn, you can make your plan come true. Take part in the UOC's e-learning business accelerator programme and reap the benefits of the knowledge offered to you by the world's first online university and its more than 25 years' experience in the sector.

Mentoring, training, in-house pilot trials and a network of experts and investors are waiting to assist you with your project throughout every stage of its growth and promote it successfully in a market that generated sales in excess of 100 billion euros in 2015.

The projects promoted by EduTECH must innovate in some facet of the field of learning and new technologies (from teaching and motivation to management and administration). They can be based on such diverse technologies as learning management systems (LMS) or social management systems (SMS), learning analytics, smart contents, gamification and serious games, adaptive learning, devices (Internet of Things, IoT; personal devices – BYOD; wearables), immersive technologies (such as augmented reality-virtual reality-360º video), communities of practice or electronic commerce, among others.

EduTECH Emprèn provides support to projects in developing their prototype or service, defining the business model and the starting up of businesses or entrepreneurial initiatives in the education and ICT sector with high growth potential.

The programme consists of two phases – a formal training course followed by  personalized mentoring for each project, given at the UOC's centres (and transmitted live) by experts from the UOC and other institutions specialized in the sector.

 

EduTECH Emprèn is a ten-week training programme starting on 2 October. It combines tutor-supported self-learning online modules and streaming sessions given by expertsfrom the sector that you can attend in person or watch online.

Depending on the evolution and maturation of the participating projects, the program includes the possibility of accessing  individualized mentoring.

During the training and mentoring, participants will work on documentation that will assess the overall evolution of the project: an explanatory canvas of the business model, a pitch, which consists of a video explaining the main aspects of your project, and an executive summary of the project, according to a model provided by the UOC.

The training consists of online training modules and live virtual sessions from 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Sessions will be recorded for later viewing. Participants must carry out the weekly activities to ensure that they can follow the programme properly. 

The training programme responds to the following SDGs:

• SDG 4. Quality Education.
• SDG 5. Gender Equality. 
• SDG 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth.
• SDG 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

 training programme here

-Joan Arnedo: Professor at the UOC's Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications. Academic director of the postgraduate programme linked to the official Cisco Certifications. Teaching activities in fields such as object-oriented programming, networks and security.

-Xavier Baró is a member of the Scene Understanding and Artificial Intelligence (SUNAI) R&I group at the UOC. His research focuses on the study of computer vision algorithms for the analysis of human behaviour, facial perception, and object and scene recognition.

-Santi Caballé: UOC adjunct professor and researcher. Professor accredited by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU Catalunya). Academic director of the UOC’s postgraduate programme in Software Engineering. He teaches online courses in software engineering and carries out research on e-learning, distributed computing and software engineering.

-Jordi Castells: Industrial engineer (Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona, ETSEIB-UPC) and Executive Master in Business Administration (ESIC Business & Marketing School). He is Hubbik's Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme manager.

-August Corrons: He holds a doctoral degree in International Cooperation. UOC professor of Economics and Business UOC, he is an expert in social, charitable and cooperative economics, social and complementary currencies, ethical banking and alternative financing and corporate social responsibility.

-Guillem Garcia: Innovation manager at the UOC’s eLearn Center. Field of knowledge: coordination and innovation project management. Expert in: the design and roll-out of results-oriented "bottom-up" and "top-down" innovation models and strategies, primarily in environments related to e-learning and the knowledge society, and in the management and coordination of innovation projects.

-Carles Garrigues: Professor at the UOC Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications and member of the K-riptography and Information Security for Open Networks (KISON) research group. He is a computer engineer with an advanced degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he completed his doctoral degree as part of the SENDA (SEcurity of Networks and Distributed Applications) research group.

-Lourdes Guàrdia: Director of the University Master's Degree in Education and ICT at the UOC eLearn Center and professor at the UOC Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences. Expert in the management and coordination of e-learning projects. Between 1991 and 1996, she worked as a professor of Catalan language and coordinated self-learning projects that incorporated ICT at the University of Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University.

- Ana Elena Guerrero: Professor in the UOC Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences. Holder of a PhD from the UOC and a llicenciatura degree in Education Science from Ramon Llull University. Coordinator of both the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEKING) research group and the EC-funded Adaptive Trust-based e-assessment system for Learning (TeSLA) project. Her line of research focuses chiefly
on tools for e-assessment and e-learning in general.

-Montse Guitert: UOC professor and coordinator of the Multimedia and Communication course since its beginnings in 1995. This is a compulsory and cross-disciplinary course, offered in Catalan and in Spanish, which aims to ease students’ entry into the University. It has over 5,000 students enrolled per semester and requires the coordination of 70 tutors.

-Laura Lamolla: UOC professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, specializing in entrepreneurship, strategic management and organization. Currently academic director of the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management.

-Pablo Lara: He holds an official llicenciatura degree in Information Science and official diplomatura degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Granada. He manages and collaborates on research projects regarding e-learning, social media and information retrieval focusing on information, knowledge and content management. He also participates in forums and courses specializing in e-administration, information retrieval in electronic environments, teacher and institutional training within the organization and e-learning management.

-Marta López Costa is a member of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at the UOC, and a member of the inter-university Learning Environments and Materials (EMA) research group at the University of Barcelona. Her main research interests are the design of teaching and learning processes through the integration of digital technologies, together with the study of tech-mediated innovation processes and analysis of knowledge construction processes.

-Txell Pedreño: She holds an official llicenciatura degree in Market Research and Techniques (UOC) and official diplomatura degree in Statistics (UPC). She has completed postgraduate courses in Digital Marketing and E-commerce (Escola d’Administració d’Empreses-UB) and in Innovation Management (UOC). She has worked as a coordinator for the Yuzz programme, which supports young technology-based entrepreneurship. She is currently a Hubbik entrepreneurship officer.

-Albert Sangrà: Academic director of the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Researcher with the Edul@b research group, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences and director of the Government of Catalonia's Industrial Doctorates Plan. Winner of the 2015 Award for Excellence in E-Learning, awarded by the World Education Congress, and recognized as the EDEN Senior Fellow by the European Distance and E-Learning Network (June 2015).

-Francesc Santanach: Manager of the UOC’s eLearn Center Lab. His knowledge areas include management, administration and development of national and international projects in the field of online teaching and learning, team management, design and implementation of systems and architecture for e-learning and integration of educational resources into learning platforms and for different access devices, digital resource management and authorship systems.

-Sandra Sanz: She is a professor holding a doctoral degree from the UOC in Online Community of Practice Management. Her main line of research is the analysis, description and definition of communities of practice and the search for models to improve their operation and performance.

-Enric Serradell: Director of the MBA  programme (UOC). He is focused on studying intangible elements' impact on organizations, new forms of organization, culture, communication, strategy and knowledge management.

-Ramon Solé: He has a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Barcelona, and a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Business models consultant for tech companies and expert in open innovation and open source models. He is currently a member of the UOC's Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship (KTE) group.

-Lluís Villarejo: Director of Tools for the UOC community. Field of knowledge: language technologies, artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Expert in: implementation and development of machine translation technologies, computer-assisted translation, textual analysis for opinion mining and sentiment analysis, information extraction and corpus compilation, automatic learning with artificial intelligence and content management in augmented reality search engines.

 

Mentor Team

-Nuria Fernández: Founding member of UN-EM. Innovation and Technological Dynamization Agent in the @lditec project. Specialized training in Project Management-Consulting area from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and in Foreign Trade Strategy and Management.

-Eloy López: Founding partner of UN-EM. Expert in business management of innovation. He has been coordinator of the Concept Business Program of the University of Santiago de Compostela in which more than 40 spin-offs have been developed since 2004.

-Brais Abeledo: Innovation, transfer and entrepreneurship consultant at UN-EM. He has worked as Innovation and Project Manager at the Núcleo Biotecnología Curauma of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso (Chile), coordinating and organizing workshops and activities to support innovation and leveraging R&D funds.

-Vanessa Miramontes: Innovation, transfer and entrepreneurship consultant at UN-EM. Doctorate in Economics and Business from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Industrial Engineer from the Central University of Venezuela. Master in Finance from EF Business School, she also has a Master's in Renewable Energy and Energy Sustainability from USC. She has specialized in financial modelling.

 

 

Filmclub, "Learning through film"

Best entrepreneurial project SpinUOC 2018

This project uses cinema as an educational tool for both teacher and students around the world. Filmclub is an open and collaborative digital platform that brings films and documentaries into the classroom as study materials, whether for mathematics, science, history, philosophy or the arts. The platform reduces the time and energy educators spend selecting materials for their classes.

 

PotMath, "Virtual reality to overcome learning difficulties"

Best presentation SpinUOC 2018

PotMath here virtual reality has been used to improve how students with learning difficulties (ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, crossed laterality, dyscalculia, FASD, etc) learn through this website that uses neurocognitive stimulation applications. Models with spatial orientation and movement are used to activate areas of the cerebral cortex. Immersive virtual reality helps make the exercises even more effective, as there is a greater impact on the areas involved in learning. The exercises are gamified, easy, enjoyable and take up little time. 

 

 

The UOC has numerous e-learning experts and teachers in terms of education, company management and technology to achieve the objectives set out in Proposal One. It also has a community of over 100,000 people, including students, alumni, professors and researchers who could pilot the projects that emerge from EduTECH Emprèn 2018. In other words, the programme will offer its recipients the possibility to test or validate the products or services that are being developed with the members of the UOC Community, be it through one of its programmes, faculties, specific events, or otherwise.

In addition, with Hubbik, the University boasts a collaborative ecosystem based on coordination among the University’s resources and services with support from a network of external collaborators in the field of entrepreneurship and open innovation who offer complementary services, such as incubators and finance networks. Of all the Hubbik entrepreneurship support programmes, SpinUOC stands out. This is the UOC community's support programme for entrepreneurship and transferable knowledge.

Towards the end of 2016, under the Hubbik framework, the UOC created Invergy, the University’s investment vehicle for start-ups with social impact, as part of its third mission. This mission is to foster the economic development of society through the momentum of innovative enterprises and entrepreneurship projects, strengthening the links between the business world, knowledge and society.