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OAS/CITEL and Telefónica Announce Winners of the STEM4GOOD Americas Challenge

  July 18, 2017

The Organization of American States (OAS), via its Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) and Telefónica Digital Education, announced the winners of the STEM4GOOD AMERICAS contest, an initiative promoting the entrepreneurial spirit and interest of young people in the Americas in technology in the framework of the 2030 ICT Alliance for the Americas of the OAS.

STEM4GOOD AMERICAS, which is carried out in the context of the 2030 ICT Alliance for the Americas, uses an online contest in the portal www.stembyme.com to promote the development of technology tools whose goal is to improve an aspect close to the life of students and which also responds to one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The 2030 ICT Alliance for the Americas, which brings together the OAS, Telefónica, and other leading information and communication technology (ICT) companies, is aimed at broadening the use of information and communication technologies to combat poverty by expanding connectivity in Latin America and preparing young people to participate in the digital economy. The project is in line with the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and intends to provide Internet access to 1.5 billion persons by 2020; to ensure that all public schools in the Americas are connected to Internet over the next 15 years; and to strengthen democratic participation in the Americas through ICTs.

Close to 4,000 participants from OAS member states submitted initiatives to participate in the STEM4GOOD AMERICAS contest. Here are the winners:

Winners in the individual category
• Winner: Learning to Recycle, by Johan Felipe Báez Maldonado, 17 years old (Colombia).
• First runner-up: Tourist Ecuador, by Erick Rivadeneira, 17 years old (Ecuador).
• Second runner-up: CulturApp, by Charles León, 17 years old (Guatemala).

Winners in the team category
• Winner: Cattleya Orchid, promoted by three young persons from El Salvador.
• First runner-up: Tuik, created by two young persons from Mexico.
• Second runner-up: Chavohua, created by a team of three young persons from Mexico.

Winners in the high school category
• Winning high school: the Don Bosco Public Religious School of La Tola, Quito (Ecuador).
• Although the contest had planned to award this prize to one single winner in this category, it was decided that an additional finalist would be awarded the prize: the San Juan Bosco Salesian High School of Tuluá (Colombia), for their GreenApp.
• Special recognition was also granted to the Maiti High School of El Salvador, represented by a team of three 12-year-old girls. Although they were unable to compete because they did not have the minimum age required in the contest rules, they nevertheless decided to submit their App aimed at preventing illness.

The contest’s prizes will consist of technology supplies: robot-building kits that Lego has given to the OAS for the contest, as well as cell phones, smartwatches, and Google Play Licensing. The purpose is to encourage the region’s young people to continue developing their STEM competencies.

Reference: E-054/17