Emerging Worlds

The effort in Guadalajara (Mexico) is an open co-innovation platform focused on spotting and probing healthcare innovations. This means identifying needs and solutions, and creating prototypes and testing them technically and in the market. This effort is led by Eduardo Bayro-Corrochano, Professor at Cinvestav in Guadalajara, Mexico. The innovation ecosystem includes bright innovators, government officials, educators, academic researchers and corporations.

The effort in Bratislava (Slovakia) kicked off with a meeting with Ramesh Raskar in Slovakia in June of 2015. At the meeting, Slovak leaders from many segments, including the government, local enterprises, venture capital companies, universities and startup incubators participated. Three influential leaders enabled this center to flourish quickly: Milan Ftáčnik, former Slovak Minister of Education, former Mayor of Bratislava, now a faculty member at Comenius University in Bratislava; Tomas Kovacovsky, CTO of startup Photoneo; and Dr. Ramesh Raskar, Head of the Camera Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab. Together, we are creating a growing ecosystem of individuals and companies helping each other on ambitious projects to motivate the next generation.

The effort in São Paulo (Brazil) is hosted by Researcher & PhD Daniel Makoto Tokunaga at the Escola Politécnica da USP São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo. The team there has had a relationship for over eight years with the Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group, including multiple exchange visits and visiting scientists from the University of São Paulo. The center is also supported by Interlab, a research group manufacturing biochemistry products for healthcare. The São Paulo team works with interactive technologies, including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and games; as well as innovation for engineering, education, heath and entertainment.