In Spain, students will earn six credit hours, visit a number of entrepreneurial and technological companies, attend seminars, workshops and experience team-focused exercises.

Want a front-row seat to technological transformations in Spain and how these changes have been applied in the country’s business markets?

Harbert College students have that opportunity -- and a chance to take in a few sights -- by taking part in the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology in Spain program May 19-June 20, 2014. The trip to Seville is part of Harbert College’s Summer Study Abroad Program.

Students will earn six credit hours, visit a number of entrepreneurial and technological companies, attend seminars, workshops and experience team-focused exercises.

“Students will use systems and business process thinking, along with experiential strategies, to analyze, write about, and discuss innovative, technological solutions to some of the real problems that are present in Spanish organizations,” said Program Director Terry A. Byrd, who is also the Department Head for Aviation and Supply Chain Management and Bray Distinguished Professor.

“The primary goal is to create and facilitate international education opportunities in innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology which support academic achievement, global competence and personal and professional growth. Students will interact closely with leaders of companies and organizational initiatives that are dramatically changing the country, and should come away with insightful knowledge about how innovative thought and technologies can fuel selected industries and help a county like Spain become more competitive in the world markets.”

The combination of Spanish government initiatives and private industry created a new business strategy through 2020. These initiatives include: • Fostering stability and mobility within the Spanish system • Fostering international cooperation networks • Promoting consolidated research groups and scientific organizations of excellence • Promoting a highly-competitive business sector • Integrating a science and technology system • Creating a favorable climate for research, development and innovation • Establishing suitable conditions for disseminating science and technology to private industry for entrepreneurial ventures within and outside of existing organizations

How will these initiatives work? What will happen to make them work? Students involved in this trip will learn the answers to those questions, and more.

Participants will also have the opportunity to visit the Roman ruins of Italica built on the Iberian Peninsula in second-century B.C., visit the culture-rich city of Granada, and spend a day exploring the Cordoba’s Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos. There will also be museum trips, entertainment opportunities, and other cultural experiences.

“I think the thing that distinguishes this program from other AU Abroad programs is the focus on how a country might recover its world economic standing using innovation and technologies to generate advanced solutions in selected industries such as aerospace, renewable energies, water treatment, rail, biotechnology, industrial machinery, and civil engineering,” Byrd added. “Spain seems determined to deepen and intensify its productive specialization in these and other related industries that depend on technology and innovation and significantly increase the levels of entrepreneurship in the country. One of the primary goals of this program is to understand this transformation and maybe even open a window into the future of this fascinating country.”

Applications will be accepted until March 25, 2014, or until the group has reached capacity. Cost for the trip is $4,950, plus $650 for the study abroad fee and insurance. Cost also includes lodging, meals, laundry, and Wi-Fi.

For further information, visit the program’s Web site, or contact Terry Byrd at byrdter@auburn.edu or (334) 844-6543.