A delegation from the Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL) recently visited CU Boulder from September 19 to 21st 2018. ESPOL is the leading university in Ecuador and is located in the costal city of Guayaquil. Paola Almeida, a Professor of Environmental Science at ESPOL and currently a visiting faculty member in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering department (CEAE) at CU Boulder, spearheaded the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CU and ESPOL in addition to arranging the three three-day visit by the ESPOL administrative delegation. The delegation included:
- Cecilia Paredes, ESPOL President
- Julio Gavilanes, Director of International Affairs
- Guido Caicedo, Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program and Technology Transfer Initiatives
- Ana Rivas, Associate Dean of the GeoSciences Engineering Department
The ESPOL delegation’s first meeting was with Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) Bobby Braun to formalize a recent MOU signed between CU and ESPOL in support of joint research initiatives as well as faculty/student mobility among the two institutions. Dean Braun enthusiastically expressed his support for this CU-ESPOL collaboration.
During their three-day agenda the ESPOL delegation also met with representatvies from CEAS and from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Additionally, Rajagopalan Balaji, Chair of the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department (CEAE), hosted a Faculty Meeting with the ESPOL delegation in which Cecilia Paredes and Ana Rivas shared information about ESPOL’s facilities and research/academic programs with all the attendees.
As a result of the meetings, many common research and academic interests between CU and ESPOL were revealed. Faculty and administrators at both institutions are looking forward to increasing formal collaboration between the two universities and a number of faculty members have already started conversations regarding collaboration.
The geodiversity of Ecuador, which includes parts of the Amazon rainforest, the Andes mountains, the Pacific coast, as well as the Galapagos islands leads to an incredibly 
biodiverse region, ripe with opportunities for study.
That diversity, combined with the opportunity for a rich cultural immersion experience in a Spanish-speaking country make a study-abroad or collaborative research experience at ESPOL an attractive proposition for both students and faculty.
Among other opportunities, CU students may be interested in participating in an ESPOL Extension Activity or Capstone Project in order to fulfill some of the requirements for their graduate work here at CU.
For students or faculty interested in learning more about opportunities at ESPOL, please contact your department head and/or Paola Almeida or 303-597-8358.