Projects that have a positive impact on society emerge from the relationship between academia and private enterprise. This is the case of Cocinas abiertas (Open kitchens), a joint effort between the startup Empanacombi and PUCP, and co-financed by ProInnóvate.
In this way, people with intellectual and hearing disabilities may have adapted equipment and devices, accessible gastronomic furniture and kitchen utensils with adaptive ergonomics for the correct development of their work. We interviewed Rocío Callupe, Professor of the Academic Department of Engineering and Project Coordinator.
The project arises from the Empanacombi company, of the WillCorp Peru S.A.C. Business Group, which contacted PUCP as an associated entity for both to enter the contest of Women entrepreneurs and innovators, of the National Program of Technological Development and Innovation – ProInnóvate of the Ministry of Production. The project is entitled "Cocinas abiertas: an inclusive cooking model of food production to promote the inclusion of people with hearing and intellectual disabilities"
A project considers all actors, from users, and professionals for interdisciplinary designs, companies, as well as the environment."
Rocío Callupe, M.Sc.
Professor of the Academic Department of Engineering and Project Coordinator
Empanacombi has a production kitchen equipped for food processing, which was adapted to facilitate the work of people with different diagnoses of disability in an environment with adaptive furniture, inclusive signage and technological devices. On its part, PUCP developed assistive technology for hearing-impaired people, which consisted of five smartwatch devices, which are made of rigid and flexible 3D printing material to assist the hearing-impaired worker (PDA). This device uses symbolic language with shared meanings, allows communication between PDA workers and listeners, and uses wireless Wi-Fi communication.
A project considers all actors, from users, and professionals for interdisciplinary designs, companies, as well as the environment. The comprehensive design methodology allows all actors to be integrated into a series of steps and processes to obtain an innovative product validated by the user's immediate usefulness, in this case, workers with disabilities from Empanacombi who wish to have assistive technology to facilitate their inclusion into kitchens with an open model.
There is a major issue in companies regarding their workspaces that must be adapted for inclusion. Also, assistive technology needs to be used to support workers with disabilities to perceive the positive sense of the usefulness of assistive technology. Promoting innovation in assistive technology for workers with disabilities is to collaborate and promote inclusion so that they can have opportunities and resources necessary to fully participate in working life, ensure their professional integration in companies that have an adapted environment.
On her part, Cynthia Rodríguez, founder of Empanacombi, points out that she represents a social company that employs people with disabilities in the gastronomic field: customer service, service area and kitchen. She gives us more details in this short interview.
Growing at Empanacombi through fast food modules in different places of Lima, recruiting always people with disabilities. In corporate sales, we also want to provide a different, quality and accessible catering service to companies, where people with disabilities are the ones who assist and provide the service. As for Cocinas Abiertas, we plan to continue growing and opening more concessionaires nationwide in order to replicate this business model where people with disabilities are hired in different parts of the country.
Working with PUCP helped us to make tangible all our dreams of innovation.”
Cynthia Rodríguez
Founder of Empanacombi
The joint work with PUCP was very interesting because it helped us to continue innovating. We are gastronomic entrepreneurs, and we are always seeing profitability, growth and maintaining the quota of people with disabilities, which is the social aspect and the heart of the company. Working with PUCP helped us to make tangible all our dreams of innovation. These innovations helped us a lot to improve our processes and internal communication at work.
