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A Journey to Preserve Bee Pollen in Colombia Part 2 by Alex Dunwoody


I`m taking a break from my proper project this post to talk about the innovation center in Bogota. The innovation center, or c-innova, is one of the buildings where we work on our project, and it’s a really cool center of design in Colombia. Its purpose to to help the design and development of technologies and plans to help improve communities in the Colombia that want the help. The center is additionally open to other projects that are in line with cinnovas vision. Cinnova has been a really helpful workspace where we can develop our project.

My project partner David is one of the people that helps manage the space, and through him I’ve met the other cinnova stewards. They are really impressive people, and not only help create an atmosphere of innovation by lending their expertise but also make the space feel like friendly and fun environment to be in. Almost every week they host ‘build its’, which is a workshop where the stewards lead groups in the construction of some cool, low`cost technologies. Last friday I made both a corn desheller and a simple machine, composed of a copper rod, and aluminum pipe, and a razor blade. That turns plastic bottles into strings of ribbon that can be used as a building material. It felt good to learn how to make something simple but potentially really useful. The other groups were making a water pump from PVC, a styrofoam shape cutter, and a spot welder built from an old microwave. Here’s a picture of the workshop.


This is a really cool space. It helps inspire innovation and provides a space for ideas to come to fruition. It’s an organization where people can hang out and make conenctions while creating something that can make a positive impact. I liked what I experienced her, and I wanted to share to inspire to build and create their own spaces in their own communities. 

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