On March 7th, while on a trip in Mexico City, I had the opportunity to stop in and visit our members from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) –the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Though it wasn’t my primary reason for visiting the lovely capital city of México, I’m glad I found the time to visit UNAM—brilliant researchers, a lovely campus, and a strong sense of the future of software engineering. They covered my visit in their departmental blog at http://www.kuali-kaans.mx/.
At
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City, March 7, 2013—that’s me
in the middle, and Prof. Oktaba standing at my right shoulder (photo courtesy
of UNAM)
UNAM was founded in 1910 and was granted independence of its curriculum and budget by the government in 1929. Its list of alumni is rather impressive, boasting five former Mexican presidents; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Alfonso García Robles; the first Mexican citizen in space, Rodolfo Neri Vela; and chemistry Nobel Prize laureate, Mario J. Molina. I wouldn’t be surprised to find one of this bunch of students joining such a distinguished list; their questions were insightful and fascinating, and their participation in OMG’s Foundation for the Agile Creation and Enactment of Software Engineering Methods (FACESEM) software engineering standardization process has been deep and broad. An initial discussion with Professor Hanna Oktaba, Professor Lupita Ibargüengoitia and their graduate students (including particularly Miguel Morales, well-known to OMG meeting participants over the last year) was followed by a terrific lunch and tour.
The day I spent at UNAM was tremendously enjoyable; I was very fortunate to have Professor Fernando Arámbula act as personal tour guide during my visit. The main campus was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007 and is just breathtaking—especially the magnificent, mosaic-covered library. UNAM honestly has to be one of the most beautiful universities I’ve ever visited.
UNAM
Central Library (photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org)
Everyone I met, both faculty and students, was very interested in what OMG does and was eager to speak to me—I’m quite sure I learned more than any knowledge I imparted. One thing that especially struck me was how fiercely proud they are of being a leading university in the domain of standards adoption and for doing something that most universities don’t: not only is UNAM an OMG member organization, but they are an active specification submitter. UNAM initially joined OMG in 2011 at a University-level membership, and upgraded to Platform-level three months later in order to be a submitter to the FACESEM request for proposals (RFP).
OMG has a fairly-priced membership fee tier system that allows many different organizations to contribute at different levels, based on size (generally measured by revenue, or turnover) and participation. The members from UNAM were so passionate about actively contributing to standards creation and adoption that they aggressively lobbied forward-thinking leadership at UNAM to find the additional funds to move up to a Platform membership. In addition, UNAM participates as a full submitter in FACESEM, including in-person at the meetings, and is considering participation in other specification development processes as well.
UNAM has taken a big risk—and are near a big success in its work on standards—which is what defines a leader. Being a member of organizations such as OMG demonstrates a university’s dedication to practical education for its students as well as an embrace of the latest technologies and ideas and the strength to actively drive standardization. Demonstrating these leadership attributes, in turn, attracts the brightest scholars to the university.
We at OMG would love for more universities to become members. Besides UNAM, we currently have dozens of active university members including my own alma mater the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but also John Hopkins University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, KU Leaven, the University of South Australia and Humboldt Universitaet. All of them have been instrumental in standards adoption processes over the years. We believe that our university members offer us a vast wealth of knowledge and great opportunities in the years to come.
Visiting the UNAM campus and witnessing the pride and determination that its students and faculty possess has strengthened my appreciation and respect for this university. I look forward to UNAM’s continued contributions in OMG standardization and, hopefully, for a return visit to its beautiful campus!
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