The hackathon competition will test the creativity and ingenuity of the university students.
What is needed to survive on the red planet? That is the premise posed for hundreds of students who will participate in the Mars 2023 Challenge Hackathon, an initiative of the Ibero-American organization Virtual Educa, in which Ecuador will be present with more than 100 students from Espiritu Santo University.
Promoting aerospace learning in young people and finding innovative solutions is the objective of this program in which participants must develop, with standards defined by NASA, a development that can be used in the design of a habitat on Mars and on Earth or alternatives that make life on that planet possible.
“The proposal must be made during the two-day Hackathon, in which students from all degree programs are participating in groups of six students,” explains Natalie Wong, dean of the Faculty of Architecture at UEES.
The first part of the Hackathon will be held on June 28 and 29, where the winners will be selected to compete in October with universities such as Caribbean University of Puerto Rico, CES University of Colombia, UPAL of Peru and Unicaribe of the Dominican Republic.
“The winning crew will receive unique training as if they were astronauts at Space Center Houston in the United States, all expenses paid. They will also have the opportunity to become Junior Ambassadors of Ecuador to the United States in 2024,” adds Wong, who received this aerospace training earlier this year.
For his part, Adelino Sousa, executive director of Virtual Educa, explains that Mars is currently considered the planet B where people could live in the coming years, so the challenge tells the story of how six astronauts create solutions to make life there more bearable. My recommendations to the participants is to have fun, take advantage of this international and multidisciplinary context and think outside the box,“ he says.
The international Hackathon will take place at the XXIV International Virtual Educa Meeting, which this year will be held in Ecuador from October 18 to 20.
