Nine panel groups were set up by the Fulbright Commission in Chile, on behalf of the official sponsor of this Regional Enhancement Seminar , the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Department of State. The idea of an interdisciplinary discussion around different investigative themes by 39 US Students that for months have been doing reasearch in many fields of knowledge and in 14 different countries in Central and South America was considered and extraordinary opportunity to understand the role of science, technology and innovation as drivers of sustainable and inclusive development in the region.

Their input is valued. Their views are important. They represent a way to understand different cultures in a diverse geographical, social, economic and cultural background. What their views are around the economic and social changes that have come about and which are the results around poverty and social equality measures undertaken in these regions are of great interest. What have been the roles of technology and innovation in improving life for its inhabitants. Such are some of the questions this young generation of US Students have engaged and identified through their immersion in the Latin American societies the past few months. The panel discussions will undoubtly bring interesting views to consider.

The Enhancement Seminar organization set up the following groups and themes of discussion:

– Agency and Accessibility in Public Health included US Students: Sachiko Ragosta from University of California, Berkeley; Tammy Kremer from New York University; Jacinta Lomba and Daniel White, both from Brown University and Nathaniel Tran from Tufts University .

– A second panel group on Arts, Society and Edification had Cambria Chou-Freed (Brown University); Jandy Gu ( Univerity of Florida), Carina Ho ( Smith College) and Andrew Maurer ( North Carolina State University) in their discussion group.

– Panel around Energy and Distribution included Amanda Farthing fromClemson University; Insik Kim from University of California, San Diego and Samuel Steakley of Williams College.

– Environmemnt: Preservation and Change had Kate Cullen from Wesleyan University; Emma Gleeman from Brown University, Carly Peltier, Columbia Univ, Michael Rush, from Colorado Boulder and Kayla Urbanowski from Fairfield University at their discussion group.

– Food Security included Joel Betts (Michigan State Univ), Tara Mittelberg of Northwestern Univ.; Kevin Orner from Univ of South Florida and Maaike Tiersma from Brown University

– Panel Informing Public Policy through Technology counted with Kainen Bell (Columbia Univ), Celeste Marin (Princeton Univ) and Raksha Vasudevan ( Univ of Texas Austin) for their panel discussion.

– Innovations in Public Health gathered Livia Garofalo ( Northwestern Univ), Cydni Gordon (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.), Courtney Sciarratta (St. Louis Univ) and Harrison Westgarth (Washington and Lee University).

– Five US Students were selected to join the Public Policy panel group: Heather Bromfield from Univ. of California , Berkeley; Hugh McGlade from Emory Univ., Tyler Olsen of the Graduate Center, The City University of New York, Elena Perez from Environmental and Engagement in Galapagos and Cody Williams from University of Oklahoma.

– Another five joined the Underrepresented Communities and Globalization panel. It included Alena Antonowich from Washington University in St Louis; Jessica Depies from Boston University; Dylan Edelstein from Princeton University , Hilary lohman from University of Rhode Island and Caroline White-Nockleby from Williams College.