From the top of many years of experience, some profesionals simply just don’t give up on the desire of develop new ideas and projects to benefit the ICT Community. And this seems to be the case of the american Marc Hoit, one of the key international speakers of TICAL2016 and our interviewed. Hoit, who is Vice Chancellor for Information Technology at NC State University and Chair of the SURA IT Committee, confesses that is very excited to participate in TICAL2016, aiming to bring new ideas back to his country. We talked with him on his views about ICT in Latin America and his expectations for the Conference.
Hello, Marc! Which means to you to be a key speaker at an event such as TICAL?
Hi! For many years I have been involved in educational exchanges with Latin America. Between 1990 and 2000 I was the associate director of a National Science Foundation project (SUCCEED) to improve engineering education. From that effort we partnered with many groups to share innovations with each other. Through interactions with Laccei as well as Engineers for Americas program we held many engineering education conferences through LA.
In my role as Vice Chancellor and CIO, I have continued my outreach efforts to collaborate with international groups to learn from each other. I am excited to return to Latin America and both share what I see as trends for Higher Ed IT and more importantly learn from the activities and new innovations throughout LA.
Starting from your area, how do you evaluate the development of ICT in Latin America today?
I only have knowledge from the websites and previous conference agendas. The development seems to be comparable to Internet2 in the US. A member based organization that connects many of the Higher Ed institutions across LA. I am looking forward to learning more about the activities, strategies as well as where possible partnerships can improve all of our outcomes. When we all share information (good and areas in need of attention) we can learn from each other and gain insights on how to make improvements for all.
Can events like TICAL help to enhance this process?
Conferences like TICAL are the best place to see the overall collection of activities, partners and outcomes of different organizations and in this case countries. With the sessions, speakers and presentations from members, it is an excellent way in a short period of time to learn about the activities. I am looking forward to see what ideas I can bring back to my campus and share with my peers.
What can we expect from your presentation? What topics will you address within it?
I plan to share how US institutions are taking advantage of data to improve in 3 areas: Student Success, University Activities and research & Innovation. I will use my institution as an example of the trends happening across the United states.
Which are your personal expectations about the event? Do you already know Buenos Aires?
I am excited to visit Buenos Aires - this will be my first time there. I am hoping to get a little time to explore the city - the museums, the outstanding food and some of the crafts Argentina is known for.
