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ACINOX Las Tunas was the venue of the Workshop on Integrated Technical Sciences

The Doctoral Training Program in Metallurgy and Materials has strengthened ties between academic centers and companies in this field, such as the ACINOX Las Tunas Stainless-Steel Company, said its coordinator in one of the specialized workshops held during the 4th International Convention that took place at the request of the main higher education institution of this eastern Cuban province.

Led by the University of Moa (Holguín) and its counterpart in the Balcón del Oriente Cubano (Cuban Eastern Balcony), this program encourages the improvement of the specialists of the mining-metallurgical companies to raise their scientific level, explained Doctor in Sciences José Alberto Pons Herrera. His lecture opened the session at the Integrated Technical Sciences Workshop, held in the context of the aforementioned forum.

The genesis of this strategy, he said, was in the excellent results left by the case study resulting from the Advanced Automation for Steel Processing and Refining initiative, which involved 15 experts from ACINOX Las Tunas, who between 2017 and 2022 focused their respective research on the needs of that entity.

This is a rare experience in the field of technical sciences in Cuba because, Pons Herrera stressed, universities listened to the needs of companies in this field. The also professor of Higher Education centers in Russia, Angola, and Brazil described that for two years, they advised researcher-workers on key issues such as Scientific Writing, Technical Training, and the preparation of their doctoral dossiers.

"The implementation of this program during the period 2022-2023 has experienced a generalization throughout the country with a great participation of the Cuban business sector and the academic sector, which allows a greater integration of this and the University," he maintained. At present, he emphasized, they accompany the research of six doctoral students from universities in several Cuban provinces and the Angolan province of Namibe.

However, he insisted "there is a need for a greater link between business professionals and academia through a more personalized work that makes it possible to implement a research consultancy". This step, he exemplified, became a reality in some companies such as ACINOX Las Tunas; and it is, he concluded, "one of the fundamental ways towards the conversion of the company into high technology entities."

On several occasions, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has insisted on the urgency of bridging the gap between the research work carried out in local universities and the urgent needs of the local business community, especially in production and services.

TECHNICAL SCIENCES DEPLOYED AT THE CONVENTION

Pons Herrera's lecture is just a sample button of the diversity of topics presented in the Workshop on Integrated Technical Sciences, one of several included in the 4th International Convention organized by the University of Las Tunas. During three days, almost twenty researchers presented their studies related to topics such as energy saving, sugar production and its derivatives, steel manufacturing; as well as waste management, and products related to metallurgy.