August 2009

PRTEC in The family of the Puerto Rico Tecnoeconomic Corridor (PRTEC) celebrated the awards ceremony of its compe-

tition, Innovación Empresarial 2009 on May, 14 2009. This is PRTEC’s first competition for business ideas in

the western region of Puerto Rico. The competition is part of PRTEC initiatives to promote entrepreneurship,

innovation, and economic development of the west side of the island. The organizing committee was integrated

by PRTEC, the Small Business & Technology Development Center of San Germán (SBDTC), the West Cham-

ber of Commerce (CCOPR) and the Business Center of the Faculty of Business Administration (ADEM) of the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (RUM). The competition seeks for innovative business ideas in 5 spe-

cific categories: Information Technology, Bio-Sciences, Renewable Energy, Agroindustry and Tourism.

From over 40 ideas submitted, ten were chosen as finalists, and the best three won prizes. The winning team was composed by Dr. Eduardo Juan, Dr. Gus-

tavo Gutiérrez, Dra. Silvina Cancelos, professors at UPRM, and Dr. Jeff Mansfield of SonarMed in Indianapolis. Their project Smart Caths, seeks to create

a type of catheter with the capacity to detect obstructions and failures in the systems were it is inserted. The second place went to Gilberto Dávila and

Gabriel Cabret, students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Agriculture at UPRM respectively, with their project Green Energy & Fuels.

This project looks to utilize methane gas that is generated from cattle waste to be used in the generation of energy at a small scale, which will be used by

agro - entrepreneurs to reduce their energy costs. Finally, the third place prize went to a team composed by the University of Puerto Rico alumni, Harry

Rodríguez, Juan Ramos, Emmary Rodríguez and Dr. Nazario Ramírez-Beltrán, professor of industrial engineering at UPRM. Their project Earthnergy is

about a new and more efficient technology of solar panels.

The main speaker of the activity was CPA Lizzie Rosso, President of the Economic Development Bank of Puerto Rico (BDE). She emphasized her commit-

ment with PRTEC and their several initiatives in the west; she also presented the new programs the BDE has to support small and medium enterprises,

among them a program of guarantees with the private banking industry.

Mr. Nelson Perea, Executive Director of PRTEC, highlighted the success the competition

at a quantitative and qualitative level. “This project is one of high importance particularly

in times of economic difficulty, where we see how these citizens use their creativity to

establish innovative opportunities for businesses. With the results of this competition we

reaffirm that the western region of Puerto Rico is the center for innovation and entrepre-

neurship of the island”. Perea added, “We count with an ecosystem of support for this

type of project which is unique in Puerto Rico and we would like to take advantage of it to

maximize the impact we can have in the creation of new innovative project for our region.

PRTEC together with the other members of our entrepreneurial family are committed to

help that these innovative ideas become successful businesses in our region and of

Puerto Rico”. Perea indicated that the next step would be to meet with each of the win-

ners individually to establish a work agenda that would include group workshops, individ-

ual consultations and mentorship alongside the strategic members of the initiative.

Visit our webpage: http://www.prteconline.com/innovacionempresarial

focus Innovation awarded in the West

Tecno-Youth IV COMMUNITIES AT PRTEC…

As part of PRTEC educa-tion initiatives, the third edition of Tecno-youth started last Feb-ruary and ended on may 2009. Every Saturday for four months,

37 youngsters from 6 municipalities of the region took technology and entrepreneurship workshops. These workshops were given at the same time in three different locations: Interamerican University Cyber Center in San Sebastian, computer labs at the Universidad del Este en Cabo Rojo and at VITEC2 facilities in Mayagüez. The young partici-pants had the opportunity to acquired knowledge in the following areas: Introduction to computers, Mi-crosoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Publisher, Web Pages Creation, Photojournalism, Digital logo crea-tion and an entrepreneurship workshop called FOAMSHIP. These technological and entrepreneur-ship knowledge will give these adolescents the nec-essary tools to reduce the digital gap in their com-munities, and at the same time expose them to the opportunities that bring PRTEC initiatives to the eco-nomic development of the western region. This group was sponsored with a grant by the Puerto Rico Community Foundation.

The fourth edition of Tecno-youth, sponsored by the Southwestern Consor-tium with ARRA funds, included 20 youngsters from the Municipality of Hormigueros. As in the case of the previous groups, the youngsters were introduced to the same technology and entrepreneurship concepts, but in addition were exposed to various private technology enter-prises in the region at VITEC2 and the Guana-jibo Research & Innovation Park (GRIP), and also participated in various occupational work-shops. The workshops took place at Universi-dad del Este in Cabo Rojo, and the Hormigue-ros Juanita Arenas Amphitheater.

Tecno-Youth V A fifth group is taking place with the spon-sorship of Mayaguez – Las Marias Consor-tium. In this case workshops have being conducted at the Universidad Pontificia Catolica de Mayaguez and at VITEC2. Twenty-five youngsters from Mayaguez are participating until August 29, 2009. With this group, 180 youngsters from the west-ern region have participated in this innova-tive technology educational program.

Tecno-Youth III

After two years in the incubation program, REBEXA Group accomplished the incubator graduation requirements and received their Graduation Certificate as a New Successful Company. The graduation ceremony was held at VITEC2 facilities in La Quinta Industrial Park in Mayagüez. Re-bexa Group represents the fifth company that the incubator graduates. The preceding companies were: Medirec, Atlasbits, Crawlability and Renewable Solutions. Rebexa Group was founded by Dr. Arnaldo Rodríguez in an effort to improve de efficiency of the Regulatory and Compliance De-partments of pharmaceutical companies that conduct business in different parts of the world. Re-bexa Group won the first place in the business plan competition EnterPRize 2005. Dr. Hernandez commented: “VITEC2 gave us expert mentoring, technical support and put in our disposition a vari-ety of services and resources that allow us to evolve into company with presence in 10 countries around the World. Héctor Carlo, VITEC2 Managing Director, expressed: “I utilize REBEXA as an innovation model, which uses technology to innovate. Many people think that if new technology is not created there’s no innovation, but REBEXA uses modern technology to develop a unique busi-ness model in the regulatory area of pharmaceutical and medical devices companies. VITEC2 incu-bation program consists of three phases that the company must successfully complete to achieve graduation: 1) Establish the business plan; 2) develop a product/service and 3) Commercialization of that product/service.

VITEC2 graduates new company in the West Inside ViTEC2

“MOU PORTA DEL SOL”

PRTEC Board of Directors

President Norma Mejía

Vice-President Hon. Carlos Delgado

Treasurer Abdón Ruiz

Secretary Ana E. Cuebas

PRMA representative Eric Santiago

SWIA representative Luis Morales

Medical Devices Cluster

Representative Juan Carlos Kuang

Aerospace Cluster

Representative Vicente Nazario

CCOPR Representative Elisamuel Rivera

Academia

representatives

Dr. Jorge I. Vélez

Dr. Luis García Feliú

Government

representatives DDEC

Affiliated Organizations

Northwest, Southwest and Mayagüez-Las Marías WIA Consortiums

Movimiento Mayagüezano Pro Desarrollo del Oeste

Management team

Executive Director Nelson Perea

VITEC2 Managing Director Héctor M. Carlo

Accounting Officer &

Special Projects Aurelis Cruz

September 9, 2009 - Second Annual Meeting PRTEC - PRTEC’s Board of Directors presents its 2008-09 goals. Javier Vazquez, Executive Director PRIDCO, primordial orator. September 30, 2009 – Risk Manage-ment in the Medical Device Industry – BDTC October 28, 2009 - Actividad Movimien-to Empresarial Banco Desarrollo, Mayagüez Resort

Next Activities

Following the new marketing tenden-

cies, PRTEC created our customized

web page in Facebook. Its a informal

method of promotion, a good way to

keep the contacts aware of new activi-

ties and a nice manner to share photos

and videos with fans.

Follow this link and become a fan.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/

Mayaguez/Corredor-Tecnoeconomico-

de-PR-PRTEC/23247312298?ref=mf

PRTEC is a non-profit organization

committed to create a collaborative

environment between private indus-

try, government and the academia

to promote the economic develop-

ment of the western region of

Puerto Rico with a focus on innova-

tion and high tech industries.

The Tourism Company of Puerto Rico and PRTEC signed a collaboration agreement in order to develop the full potential of the Porta del Sol initiative in the West Coast of Puerto Rico. PRTEC will support the establishment of small business in the tourism area, coordinate a unified training agenda with the different universities, small colleges and WIA Consortium of the Porta del Sol Region, support new hotel developments in the region, and provide assistance to municipal governments in their tourism strategic plans. The agreement was signed

as part of the inaugural ceremonies of the new Porta del Sol operational office at 100 road in Cabo Rojo. Already PRTEC has coordinated various meetings with representatives from the academic sector of the region to produce an educational matrix that serves as the basis for future training activities and the development of additional courses that might be needed. Also as part of Innovacion Empresarial, 10 business ideas were related to tourism and are being supported by both PRTEC and Porta del Sol staff. In addition PRTEC have met with several municipal tourism directors to assist in their municipal office strategic plans.

Workshops The Small Business and Technology De-

velopment Center of Puerto Rico in col-

laboration with the U.S. Small Business

Administration and the Interamerican Uni-

versity of Puerto Rico – San Germán Cam-

pus, offer the Match Making Event at

VITEC2 facilities on June 3, 2009. This

activity gave established companies the

opportunity to conduct business with the

federal government, local government enti-

ties as well as private organizations. The

participants had the opportunity to partici-

pate in individual meetings with these enti-

ties to present their products and services.

A workshop on: “Opportunities to business

growth”, was also given as part of the activ-

Facebook

During the month of June, a ten day seminar geared towards preparation for the PMP certification was offered at the Hewlett Packard facilities in Aguadilla. The workshop was given by profession-als from Executrain and is part of a stra-tegic alliance between Executrain and PRTEC to provide professional certifica-tion courses in the Western region. Ten professionals representing several com-panies participated at the seminar.