The general director of Andalucía Emprende closes the ‘NASA International Space Apps Challenge Sevilla’, one of the largest STEAM Hackathon competitions in the world
The general director of Andalucía Emprende, a foundation dependent on the Regional Ministry of University, Research and Innovation, Daniel Escacena, has closed the ‘NASA International Space Apps Challenge Sevilla’, one of the largest STEAM Hackathon competitions in the world that has been held in cities in 100 countries, simultaneously, over the weekend.
In his speech, Escacena has advocated “promoting technological entrepreneurship in strategic sectors, such as aerospace, to strengthen the economy”. In this sense, he considered it “key” to do so through collaboration between the public and private sectors to “optimize and make profitable” the knowledge, experience and contacts of both spheres, “which will allow us to offer those who are interested in starting a business a better and more complete service to support their initiatives so that they come to fruition,” he said.
At the Seville competition, held at the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency, a hundred young students from high school, vocational training and university met to solve, with their ideas, 21 real challenges related to the planet and the universe, which were posed to them by NASA scientists and engineers. To do so, they had the advice and support of five mentors from Andalucía Emprende, specialized in launching viable business ideas.
The winning team was ‘Los desubicaos’, for the Event Horizon project, consisting of an educational video game developed in Unity that teaches about the detection of exoplanets.
Its members, mostly university students from various fields such as engineering, physics, mathematics and physiotherapy, plus a vocational training student in web design, have received a cash prize of 1,000 euros.
In addition, the winners of the Seville competition have become international finalists and will be evaluated between October and December by a committee of experts. This committee will be responsible for choosing the ten best solutions that will be presented to NASA specialists at the Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral, USA).
Profile of the participants
The hundred young people who participated in the Seville competition come from this city and from Cadiz, Cordoba and Granada. 39% were women and more than 40% were university students, followed by ESO (24%) and Bachillerato (19%).
This event, which celebrated its second edition this year, is organized by ‘SpaceApps Spain’ (NASA’s local partner in Spain) with the support of the Regional Ministry of University, Research and Innovation. This event is added to six others that have taken place in Spain, specifically in the cities of Barcelona, Bilbao, León, Madrid, Málaga and Gijón.
NASA Space Apps Spain is promoted by NASA and supported by nine space agencies around the world, including the European Space Agency, in which Spain participates as a founding member, in addition to having the support of institutions and companies committed to promoting talent and innovation.
