Carolina Melo, associate researcher at the Human Development Lab, participated in the inaugural edition of TEDxUANDES, an event that brought together experts from diverse sectors to highlight the importance of collaborative work in addressing today’s most pressing challenges.
TEDxUANDES followed the “quintuple helix” model, which emphasizes the need to connect innovation across five key areas—public sector, private sector, civil society, environmental sustainability, and academia—to generate real impact.
Alongside national leaders in innovation, science, and entrepreneurship—including Anil Sadarangani, Director of Innovation at Universidad de los Andes; Andrés Couve, Professor at the University of Chile; Rosario Navarro, President of SOFOFA; Leo Prieto, Founder and CEO of Lemu; and Maroun Khoury, expert in gene therapy from the University of Montpellier—Carolina Melo was one of the event’s featured speakers.
Held in the Aula Magna of the Universidad de los Andes Library Building, the event featured a series of presentations from experts across sectors. In her talk, Carolina Melo began by presenting powerful data on Chile’s reading crisis. Drawing on statistics from the World Bank, she explained that five out of ten children in Chile do not understand what they read, and four out of ten struggle even to decode text—an alarming indicator of what the Bank refers to as “learning poverty.”
In her talk, Carolina emphasized the urgency of addressing this crisis through collaborative, cross-sector efforts. “To truly generate meaningful and sustainable impact on major social issues like reading, it’s crucial to step outside the walls of academia and connect with civil society, the public sector, and fellow researchers,” she noted. “Working collaboratively allows for a more articulated and powerful contribution.”
TEDxUANDES is part of the global TEDx initiative—independently organized events licensed by TED—that aim to share innovative ideas and inspire collaborative action across different fields.
