Team Costa Rica

Research Unit Costa Rica

• active UOS researchers only
• graduate students involved in specific projects

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Networking Costa Rica

• extended network: exchange and contact with other members who have a strong interest in the work of the Costa Rica Center
• interested students and researchers
• Costa Rican researchers and collaboration partners
• Alumni

Contact

Research stay as part of the sCoRe project

The stay in Dota and Turrialba in Spring 2024 was integral to the cooperative project ‘sCoRe’, carried out at the Dept. of Work and Organizationa Psychology at the UOS, the UNCR and Orlando Bruno representing Producer Networks Turri Creadores de Origen and the UOS.

Several coordinative meetings were held to introduce the students to the project’s operational frameworks and to conduct meta-reflection phases for collective experience sharing. Also, during this time, the goals and tasks were explained to the local coordinators and the students and a project management software was was implemented. During daily/weekly meetings with the students/coordinators the progress of the project was tracked.

Field report Bruno

New publication: Producer-consumer networks as drivers of a sustainability transition in rural regions of Costa Rica

In the current issue of Revista Geográfica de América Central, Dr. Shirin Betzler and Lena Schmeiduch (University of Osnabrück), together with Daniel Avendaño Leadem (Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica) and Orlando Bruno (Entrepreneurial network Turri Creadores de Origen), write about networks of small entrepreneurs and consumers as a driving force for a sustainability transformation in rural regions of Costa Rica. They discuss key characteristics that foster this transformation, including the specific mind- and skillsets of local entrepreneurs, their embeddedness in network structures, and the geographical context in which these networks are located.
Download in English: https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/geografica/article/view/19605/31066 Download in Spanish: https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/geografica/article/view/20212/31090

Research stay at the Universidad Nacional

At the beginning of 2024, Shirin Betzler and Lena Schmeiduch (Industrial and Organizational Psychology) were in Costa Rica for a research stay as part of the cooperation project "sCoRe: Sustainable Communities through Rural Entrepreneurs". After the kick-off of the students' stay within the framework of the project, a week each in Dota and Turrialbain followed in order to network the participating students, introduce them to the specific conditions of the regions, intensify contacts with important stakeholders and ensure a successful start to the students' work in Costa Rica. In addition, they were able to use the stay to gain important experience with the processes and structures of their project that have been established over the last few months.

The trip was sponsored by the Sievert Foundation for Science and Culture.

Field Report

A past between the lines

The Costa Rica Center is disseminating information in its network about the exhibition "A Past Between the Lines", which is dedicated to the rock paintings of the Guanacaste mountain range in Costa Rica and will open on May 14 at the BASA Museum of the University of Bonn.

According to Dr. Daniel Grana-Behrens from the Department of Ancient American Studies and Ethnology, the exhibition presents the first results of a German-French-Costa Rican project that was carried out from 2018 to 2022 in the southwestern Mesoamerican cultural area and supported by the Centre d'études mexicaines et centraméricaines (CEMCA), the Institut national des recherches archéologiques préventives (INRAP), the Museo de Oro Precolombino de Costa Rica and the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

More information about the exhibition

Doctoral thesis Adrián Rojas Campos

The Costa Rica Center congratulates doctoral student Adrián Rojas Campos (Alajuela, Costa Rica), who successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Deep Learning and Scientific Models: Complementing Dynamical Systems Using Artificial Neural Networks" on Monday, April 29, 2024. The thesis includes four publications dealing with the application of deep learning models in various fields, including meteorology and epidemiology. Mr. Rojas Campos developed his work in the Neuroinformatics group under the initial supervision of Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Gordon Pipa.

We congratulate Adrián and wish him every success in his new phase of life.

Symposium in Costa Rica - CoRiVET

At the end of November 2023, a team from vocational and business education was in Costa Rica as part of CoRiVET, with the main aim of holding the second forum on VET research. There were various networking activities and joint meetings of the actors involved in the planned cooperation agreement on VET research in Costa Rica. Through this visit, a contribution was made to promote joint networks with academic and non-academic stakeholders, build up resources for VET research and promote research activities in VET.

The stay of the team was supported by the Sievert Foundation for Science and Culture with a travel grant. 

Field report Angles, Field Report Bals, Field Report Porcher, Field Report Rommel