The outstanding trajectory of researchers, a polymer printing project, scientific articles, and innovation projects were awarded during the Rómulo Garza 2022 Research and Innovation Award at Tec Science Summit.

Alex Elías Zúñiga was recognized as the Insignia Award winner, the most outstanding of the categories which recognizes his 35 years of a research career, his direction of more than 40 postgraduate theses, and his writing of more than 100 articles in indexed journals.

The 2022 award edition also has five other categories: Scientific Articles, Entrepreneurship, Postgraduate, Professional, and High School categories.

This award, established in memory of the businessman Rómulo Garza, promoter of research in Mexico, is given annually since 1974 by Tec de Monterrey and Xignux company to outstanding researchers and students in the area.

“Congratulations to our winners because you are, without any doubt, our inspiration to keep being more ambitious with our research vision”, sad David Garza Salazar, rector and executive president of the Tec de Monterrey.

2022 Rómulo Garza Award

A trajectory of 35 years of research

The winner of this year’s Insignia Award for the 2022 edition is Alex Elías Zúñiga, professor and researcher at the School of Engineering and Sciences, and leader of the Accelerated Materials Development Unit of the Institute of Advanced Materials for Sustainable Manufacturing.

Alex is working on the development of new processes and new materials in a more efficient and sustainable way than traditional.

He is a member of the SNI (Mexican National Researchers System Level 3) and has written more than 100 articles in indexed journals, has 9 patents, and he also has collaborated with national and international companies such as Vitro and General Electric, among others.

“The most important thing is to show that, through research, highly valuable materials are obtained,” he said.

Inventing a new way of polymer printing

Researchers Grissel Trujillo de Santiago and Mario Moisés Alvarez are the winners of the Entrepreneurship category in this edition for their 3D printing project of polymeric materials called Chaotic Printing.

Grissel and Mario, who also direct the Trujillo-Álvarez Lab at FEMSA’s Biotechnology Center, invented this way of printing that uses additive manufacturing technology that creates very fine and organized microstructures utilizing fluids.

This entrepreneurship has generated more than 40 scientific articles in international journals and has been recognized by national and international institutions.

Chemistry to face pollution in water

The award’s winners of the Articles category are Juan Antonio Torres-Martínez, Abrahan Mora, Nancy Ornelas-Soto, and Jürgen Mahlknecht for the article “Tracking nitrate and sulfate sources in groundwater of an urbanized valley using a multi-tracer approach combine with a Bayesian isotope mixing model”.

Their work aims to track different sources of nitrate and sulfate contamination in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, using a set of chemical and isotopic tracers.

This research provides relevant information that can be used in strategies to effectively manage contamination in aquifers.

A more accurate method of modeling indoors

In the Postgraduate category, the winner is Melissa Eugenia Diago Mosquera, with a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Tec de Monterrey Campus Querétaro.

Melissa designed a precise three-dimensional interior modeling method, under which modeling software and interior systems can be implemented quicker and more conveniently than traditional methods.

This project has generated six scientific publications in journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science.

Improving communication for people with hearing disabilities

This year’s winners of the Professional category are Jairo Enrique Ramírez and Arely Anguiano, students of Engineering in Data Science and Mathematics, and Biotechnology Engineering.

Both students designed a project that seeks to improve communication of hearing disabilities people taking into account facial features and body postures.

This project also seeks -in the next phase- to be applied in schools, health and medical centers, and other institutions to help promote inclusion.

A mathematical model to aid learning

In the High School category, Iris Giselle Balderas, a student at PrepaTec Campus Estado de México, is being recognized for her work “Mathematical modeling to personalize and innovate the learning process”.

Giselle’s project contemplated an experiment with students about how to measure their level of comprehension, exposure time, and level of difficulty in learning content, using a mathematical model.