Videos
Natalia Maya Ortiz, Alumni
- Year
- 2008-2009
- From
- Colombia
- Sector
- Agriculture ICT Solutions
- Location
- Colombia
- Degree
- 2010
MS Engineering, Technology and Policy
“I worked in a region of Colombia characterized by its ethnic, cultural and bio diversity, but also its high violence, displacement and poverty level. This experience compelled me to face situations and… understand that it is possible to find solutions to complex problems in a context with much inequality… that here are no insuperable obstacles, but big challenges to creativity.”
I have an undergraduate in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering and I am currently studying for my Masters in Engineering (Major in
Telematics) at the University of Cauca (Colombia). My thesis is to define an Information and Communication Technologies -ICT- based strategy to support the competitiveness of small-scale agro chains.
I worked for the Telematics research group -GIT on “Local communities Insertion Network for Latin America” and at - LINK ALL- a digital inclusion and sustainable development project funded by European Union (@LIS Program), with several partners in Europe and Latin America. In Colombia we worked with the silk productive chain, whose producers are associated in a corporation called CORSEDA. My work in LINK ALL included a project in Honduras, “Centros Polivalentes de Teleservicios”, which focused on community telecenters in rural zones.
I have also been involved with several other projects including Agroinnova, an agro business incubator in Colombia; Regional Centers for Higher Education; and a project called “Integral Strategy to Improve the Competitiveness of Agrochains of Small Scale Rural Producers in the Department of Cauca”. In addition, I worked as a research assistant on a project called “Internet as a perpetuator of information inefficiencies: the case of gender inequality in Colombia”. All these initiatives at different levels and from different perspectives took into account ICT as an important tool for development.
Through my studies at MIT I will increase my knowledge and skills as an engineer. My goal is to reduce the social exclusion and the domestic digital divide that exists in my country. I hope to provide support to small scale and rural producers for them and to improve their competitiveness and therefore their quality of life through technology.
