Buenos Aires hosts 1st hackathon to promote open government
These days, we would never eat a steak, a fruit or drink a glass of milk without knowing everything about its origin. So how is it that we don’t seem to care about every other relevant aspect of our lives? This is changing as people are beginning to demand greater transparency, including the activities of governments, which, through honesty, could lead to a recovery of confidence in the authorities. Aware of these trends, the government of Buenos Aires decided last...
read moreTR35 Mexico: And the Innovator of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year is…
Today, MIT’s Technology Review en español awarded 10 young Mexican innovators under 35 the TR35 Mexico awards. Opinno.com has spent the last week publishing each winner’s profile. While we are extremely proud of all 10 winners, a special recognition is given to one particular innovator and one person who is making a significant social impact. This year’s TR35 Mexico Innovator of the Year award goes to 28-year-old Damar Lopez-Arredondo for her work...
read moreGeeks on a Plane lands in Mexico City
During their visit to Mexico City, the Geeks on a Plane team were part of Startup Weekend where they mentored all the teams for at least two hours, boosting the participants and providing valuable advice with regards to developing products, validating ideas, finding a market and developing a business model. This experience was valuable for the participants beyond the event itself a many of them shared how the advice they received would help in their next projects. For...
read moreTR35 Mexico Spotlight: Ana Laborde, 31
When Ana Laborde took up the challenge of producing biodegradable plastics whose raw material is not a food source she knew it would be an adventure. For years this idea rolled around in her head, and she watched how other companies were developing technology that allowed creation of compounds from potatoes or corn. However, she wanted to go further, avoiding the use of food. In her search for new raw materials, this young Mexican with a degree in international trade...
read moreTR35 Mexico Spotlight: Manuel Wiechers, 25
In the past year, over 4,000 people in 60 impoverished Mexican villages have received access to an ecological, efficient and stable light source, which has significantly improved their quality of life. The energy that powers the LED lamps and small appliances comes from the sun, but also to a large extent, that of Manuel Wiechers, a youthful 25-year-old industrial engineer. Iluméxico, the company that Wiechers co-founded in 2010 along with electronics engineer Mariana...
read moreTR35 Mexico Spotlight: Juan Esquivel, 30
Autonomous devices that are capable of analyzing water quality for the presence of foreign substances, microorganisms or cancer markers remains a challenge that would help to pre-empt threats. If the ability to perform these tests depended on a portable device the size of a chip which integrated all the processes that normally take place in a laboratory, the advantages of rapid and accurate analysis could be brought to areas with resource shortages. One where there is...
read moreTR35 Mexico Spotlight: Jorge Soto, 26
How can citizens use technology to change society? This is the question that Jorge Soto, an electronics engineer from the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico has been asking since 2009 when he created his first open data project for citizen participation: Cuidemoselvoto.org. Thanks to this election-monitoring tool, citizens and nongovernmental organizations could be informed about electoral fraud through Twitter, text messages and emails during a given year’s...
read moreTR35 Mexico Spotlight: Jordi Muñoz, 25
A 21-year old Mexican immigrant faces another day of tedious confinement in his apartment in Riverside, California, waiting to get his green card that would allow him to study, seek work or take out a driver’s license in the US. Flashback to March 2007 and Jordi Muñoz, a passionate computer man dreaming of becoming a pilot, has just moved with his wife across the border while leaving his engineering studies hanging at the Center for Higher Technical Education of...
read moreTR35 Spotlight: Javier Gómez, 25
Each year in Mexico, heart disease ends the lives of nearly 60,000 people, two thirds of whom are over 65, making it the second leading cause of death in that country. However, this number could be reduced if health care centers had a better team for prevention and for monitoring patients with heart problems. But ECGs, devices that record the electrical currents emitted by the heart muscle, are still too expensive, difficult to maintain and operate. “Only medical...
read moreChina’s Next Great (Consumer Electronics) Leap
At this stage, it should be clear to all of us that the People’s Republic of China is the de facto factory supplying the material needs of our 21st century technological society. But how long will this first-class world power be willing to remain as an industrial power before jumping to the final consumer market? In the following lines I will try to shed some light onto these issues and take a glimpse at the near future. “It’s all over the place,”...
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