Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG)

One of our goals is that our students can learn by exploring, testing, prototyping, and more. Our specialized laboratories, makerspaces, and collaborative spaces are essential to accomplishing it.

In Main Campus, the Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT) has 22 collaborative spaces, 61 classrooms, 21 laboratories, and a capacity for 4,000 people. It integrates makerspaces, laboratories, Socratic classrooms, and collaborative spaces for networking, research, technology transfer, creative production, etc.

In  engineering, our students can learn in laboratories specialized in chemical engineering, manufacturing, space engineering, computer sciences, mechanical systems, hydraulics and water quality, industrial automation, advanced telecommunications, robotics, biomedical instrumentation, micro and nano-electronics, quantitative physiology, food and nutritional innovation, virtual reality, process design, and advanced finances.

Our sciences area integrates laboratories specialized in social innovation, visual anthropology, archaeology, microbiology, biochemistry, biology, biotechnology, physics, mathematics, and more. Other laboratories specialize in multimedia visualization, educational innovation, user experience, audiovisual recording, digital art and design, design thinking, and technology transfer.

Our Chemical Engineering Laboratory , for example, is the biggest in the region. It has around 80 machines to develop more than 20 industrial operations. Here, we manufacture biodiesel, hand sanitizer, and other products. We also have a Food and Nutrition Innovation Pilot Plant , the largest and most complete in Guatemala, and the first Space Engineering Laboratory in the country.

Besides our Main Campus D-Hive (designing and prototyping) and B-Hive (biotechnology investigation) makerspaces, in our Highlands and South Campus, our students can access on-campus makerspaces and laboratories.

UVG opened the South Campus in 1995, located in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla. This campus serves the South part of Guatemala and offers careers in agriculture, business, education, technology engineering, and information technologies.

Later, in 2000, the  Highlands Campus started in Sololá. Originally a military base, it was transformed into a university as part of  the 1996 Guatemala Peace Accords. This campus serves the Highlands region, which includes different ethnic groups. In the last twenty years, the campus has undergone a remarkable transformation and today educates the Mayan youth, offering programs in education, agroforestry, technology engineering, information technologies, and tourism.

The UVG Highlands Campus facilities include classrooms, a makerspace, and physics, chemistry, and computer labs. Also, collaborative areas such as the John R. Hamilton Library, inaugurated in 2004, the virtual classroom, the multipurpose room, and the Salón Mayor for academic events.

The campus is home to the Atitlán Studies Center , which has a laboratory to measure water quality and the development and evolution of cyanobacteria in Lake Atitlán. It also has an experimental agricultural farm used for agroforestry technicians' training.