Ramon Gras Alomà, Co-Founder of Aretian and Harvard Researcher, recently gave an interview to the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puentes de Castilla y León. In this interview, he describes the phenomenal ability of his father in the field of mathematics, what led him to follow his path, how he got to study in two of the most prestigious universities in the World, and co-found Aretian Urban Analytics and Design with Jeremy Burke.
Read more about it here!
As he unfolds his career path, Ramon highlights the differences between European and American universities: despite the very high level of knowledge of European Universities, American Universities have a very present technology transfer edge. Why, then, is that the case? Ramon answers that question by explaining a paramount difference: the relationship between Research and applied Innovation. As European Universities focus primarily on providing students high-quality educational frameworks, top-notch American Universities go further than that. Indeed, elite universities not only focus on providing students with the best courses and professors, but they also emphasize a focus on supporting research and innovation, as well as becoming Anchor Institutions for the communities and companies surrounding them. When European Universities do focus on research, their research, proposals, and recommendations are often neither adopted nor followed by the more conservative and risk-averse administrations, however conclusive the scientific findings may be. Another interesting point is that an extensive link between universities and alumni tends to exist: it is very normal for the former students to make huge donations to their university to encourage and fund the research they lead, and this mechanism has an immeasurable impact on the flourishing of American Universities and their leads in the different Scientific fields compared to the European ones. Ramon also describes his time at MIT and Harvard as the moment he met people that changed his life, such as the Chilean Professor César Hidalgo as well as Professor Hausmann of the Harvard Kennedy School, or Jeremy Burke, his Master’s thesis partner with whom he finally founded Aretian and Fernando Yu, an Argentinian Economist, Doctor of Economics from Harvard. He concludes by describing the purpose of the company he co-founded, Aretian Urban Analytics and Design. Aretian, in his own words, is building a new science of cities on which governments, companies, and communities can rely to create innovative and healthy environments that sustain innovation. “I believe the understanding of urbanism as both art and science will allow us to improve the current situation, develop better lines of analysis and design, and create an answer to the enormous challenges the near future holds for us.” Ramon Gras Alomà
