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MIT Global Seed Funds in Latin America

The MIT Global Seed Funds (GSF) program helps MIT faculty and principal investigators create new connections by supporting early-stage collaborations with researchers at peer institutions around the world. Administered by the Center for International Studies (CIS), the GSF program has awarded nearly $22 million to more than 1,000 faculty research projects since its inception in 2008.

Congratulations to the following 2023–2024 Latin America seed fund awardees:

MIT-Amazonia seed fund

1. Amazonia datathon

MIT: Leo Anthony Celi, Clinical Research Director of the Laboratory of Computation Physiology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science

Collaborators: Leonardo Augusto Lobarto Bello, Universidade da Amazonia; Zaira Nicola, Samel; Luis Nakayama, Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo

2. Intensifying the bioeconomy through new sustainable products

MIT: Bradley Olsen, Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor, Chemical Engineering

Collaborators: Adalberto Val, INPA; Estevao de Paula, Universidade Estadual de Amazonas; Celson Lima, Federal University of Western Para

3. Amazonian urban futures: Belém do Pará

MIT: Kent Larson, Media Arts and Sciences (MAS)

Collaborators: Roberta Menezes Rodrigues, Federal University of Para–UFPA; Helena Pinto Lima, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi; Lucas Nassar Sousa, Laboratório da Cidade–City Laboratory NGO

MIT-Chile Universidad de Santiago de Chile

1. AI applications for understanding planet formation dynamics

MIT: Richard Teague, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

Collaborators: Sebastian Perez, Universidad de Santiago de Chile

MIT-Colombia Universidad Nacional seed fund

1. Detection of tax non-compliance in Colombia—A STEALTH application

MIT: Una-May O'Reilly, Electrical Engineering

Collaborators: Jairo Orlando Villabona Robayo, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

2. Exploring basic nuclear and particle physics phenomena and properties with atoms and molecules using laser spectroscopy

MIT: Ronald Garcia, Physics

Collaborators: Diego Torres, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

General seed fund

1. Chile: Assessing the impact of PFAS on mucosal barrier function in the context of air pollution

MIT: Katharina Ribbeck, Biological Engineering

Collaborators: Jose Tomas Egana, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

2. Mexico: Community-driven approaches to boost health-related messaging interventions

MIT: Adam Berinsky, Mitsui Professor of Political Science and Director of the MIT Political Experiments Research Lab (PERL), Political Science

Collaborators: Antonio Alonso Arechar, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economic (CIDE)

Recent seed fund project in sustainability/urban studies

“Transportation and urban vibrancy: Collaboration between Insper and MIT” was among the awarded projects by the MIT-Brazil TVML Seed Fund in 2019. The project connected MIT professor Siqi Zheng with Insper professors Rodrigo Moita, Luiz Alberto Campos Filho, and Adriano Costa.

Since the award, the collaboration has flourished, benefitting many students. It has involved two MIT research assistants and 52 Insper students in two versions of a course at Insper (four of the Insper students came to campus to attend the MIT course). Thirty-six MIT students took course 11.S03 at MIT during the fall 2022 and fall 2023 semesters.

Last October, Professor Zheng went to Brazil to be part of the closing of the seed project. The international seminar “Climate resiliency and low-carbon accessibility: coordinating housing and mobility policies to promote a more equitable, sustainable and resilient compact urban development in Latin American Cities” was a direct output of the seed grant. Professor Zheng shared that “the MIT-Brazil TVML Seed Fund partnership between Insper and MIT has been instrumental in fostering collaboration that yielded concrete results. My postdoc researcher, Adriano, transitioned into an assistant professor at Insper, and together, we produced two research papers. This initial success paved the way for ongoing collaborations, including Adriano teaching as a visiting instructor at MIT and my upcoming participation in a joint international seminar at Insper. This seed fund project has undeniably sparked valuable academic connections and tangible outcomes.”

MIT-Mexico celebrates 20 years

For the past two decades, the MIT-Mexico Program has facilitated collaborative efforts for MIT students and faculty with their counterparts in Mexico, offering internships, teaching opportunities, and research collaborations. With nearly 500 interns having participated in MISTI Mexico since 2004, the program has expanded to encompass diverse fields and projects, from biotechnology research to STEM education initiatives in Mexican high schools. Led by managing director Griselda Gómez and faculty director Paulo Lozano and supported by MIT alumni in Mexico, the program aims to foster cross-cultural experiences, strengthen academic ties, and promote innovation and entrepreneurship both in Mexico and at MIT. Through initiatives like MISTI's Global Teaching Labs and the Center's MIT Global Seed Fund, MIT-Mexico continues to facilitate meaningful opportunities while providing transformative experiences for participants like Favianna Colón Irizarry and Matt Smith, who attest to the program's enduring impact on personal and professional development. Read more here.

Sustainable polymer systems in the Amazon

In January 2024 the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering and MISTI Brazil successfully piloted a three-week capstone experiential learning course in the city of Manaus, located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. The course was supported by an MIT Global Classroom grant from MISTI, and was led by MIT professor Brad Olsen with the participation of MIT professor Desiree Plata. Sixteen MIT students worked alongside 13 counterparts from three Brazilian universities—Universidade Estadual de Amazonas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas and Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará—to study the design of sustainable polymer systems in a local context. Read more here.

Global Teaching Labs

MISTI Brazil

MISTI's Global Teaching Labs (GTL) ventured into Brazil for the first time in January 2016. Since then, more than 90 MIT students have collaborated closely with 90 Brazilian undergraduates to execute project-based learning workshops. The inclusion of Brazilian undergraduates is a distinctive feature of the MISTI Brazil GTL. This innovation was beneficial because the majority of the 1,200 Brazilian high schoolers who have participated over the years, primarily from public schools across Brazil, lack proficiency in English. We invite you to peruse the account of an MIT student's GTL experience in the Rover Build-a-thon workshop, recently added to the latest edition of Spectrum. We extend our gratitude to our donors, both past and present, whose contributions enable us to conduct these workshops at no cost to the high schoolers.

MISTI Chile

MISTI's Global Teaching Labs (GTL) partnered with Fundacion Mustakis in Chile to provide educational opportunities for low-income students. Through this collaboration, MISTI Chile offered courses in Scratch and introductory Python programming. These courses aimed to empower students with valuable digital skills, preparing them for the increasingly tech-driven world. Fundacion Mustakis, known for its commitment to education and social inclusion, provided crucial support and resources for the implementation of these courses. By leveraging their existing networks and expertise, Fundacion Mustakis facilitated access to these educational opportunities for students who might not otherwise have had the chance to learn programming. This collaboration between MISTI GTL and Fundacion Mustakis highlights the importance of cross-border partnerships in promoting education equity and fostering technological literacy among underprivileged communities. Read more here.

PhD students receive

CIS summer research grants

The Center for International Studies offers summer research grants to PhD candidates whose work focuses on global studies. Research on a broad range of issues are considered and students from all MIT departments are eligible to apply. The 2024 Latin America grant winners include students whose dissertation research will take them to Mexico and Peru this summer:

Jerome Patrick Diaz de la Rivera Cruz, PhD student, Political Science: World wide webs: How diasporas and adaptive networks forged the knowledge economy in the Global South

Focusing on the cases of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Mexico, this dissertation advances and tests a new theory of industrial policy for knowledge-intensive services, based on interactions between high-skilled migrant networks and non-Weberian forms of bureaucracy.

Mariel Garcia-Montes, PhD student, Science, Technology and Society: Birds on the wire: The sociotechnical dimensions of Mexico's surveillance culture

Garcia-Montes’s doctoral research studies the history of surveillance technology in Mexico: its institutional origins, its sociotechnical arrangements, and its lessons for the global movement for necessary and proportionate surveillance.

Diego Cerna Aragon, PhD student, History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS): Mining in Peru, research on archival sources from historical entities such as the Ministry of Development or the School of Mines

Aragon’s research revolves around questions of legibility of natural resources, circulation of economic ideas, and practices of future-making.