One Year of CETL: Building Puerto Rico’s Logistics Talent

At the end of Q3 of 2025, the Center of Excellence for Transportation & Logistics (CETL) at the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez (UPRM) formally inaugurated its physical space located in II-101. Since then, CETL has become a hub for students, faculty, industry, and government to interact and also a launchpad for the next generation of Puerto Rico’s T&L professionals. Walk into CETL’s physical space at any hour of the day and you will find it in constant motion. On average, more than 20 students are in the space at any time during operating hours. CETL is where T&L data is generated and transformed, business ideas take shape, students conduct research, knowledge is created, and people leave inspired. Professional development events, from seminars and workshops to job fairs, fill the calendar. Everything we do rests on three pillars: Talent, creating opportunities that form and develop the next generation of professionals; Innovation, advancing applied research that solves real problems for the island and drives us toward the future, strengthening Puerto Rico’s competitiveness both locally and internationally; and Industry Engagement, building lasting collaborations among government, industry, and academia.

How everything started

CETL emerged in response to Puerto Rico’s growing need for skilled talent in T&L. A long-term public-private partnership with Saltchuk, backed by a 10-year, $10 million investment, made it possible to establish the Center at UPRM. Saltchuk is a holding company with operations in Puerto Rico through several of its business verticals: Aqua Gulf, Puerto Rico Terminals, TOTE Maritime, and Tropical Shipping.

Preparations for the inauguration ceremony began as soon as the MOU that creates CETL was formalized. By May 2025 the team had identified a 4,500 ft2 space in the Industrial Engineering building. Architect Jorge D. Méndez helped design the space with a T&L theme. By September, with only 25 days left before the inauguration, the pace intensified: existing electronics manufacturing equipment was finally removed, recently erected walls were painted, doors and windows installed, and T&L inspired art was added to turn an empty space into a place worth gathering in.

On September 30, 2025, UPRM inaugurated CETL as the first Center of Excellence for Transportation & Logistics in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. More than 200 people participated in the inauguration ceremony, including CETL’s student researchers and team members, faculty, government representatives, Saltchuk, and industry leaders. It was a day of firsts: the CETL student researchers presented their work directly to professionals in the field, and guests from industry and government spoke with them about their challenges. For many attendees, it was the first chance to see what a center for T&L at UPRM could look like, and what it could mean for Puerto Rico.

After the inauguration ceremony, the space remained closed for additional renovations. On December 5, 2025, CETL opened its doors to the university community, offering students access to its resources, including the White Rooms, a meeting space available by reservation. In the first nine months, students have made over one thousand reservations, totaling over 500 hours of use.

A lot has happened in this first year, all of it driven by dedication and guided by a clear vision: to serve as a catalyst that advances talent and innovation in the T&L community, promoting long-term social and economic development in Puerto Rico.