There are more than 600 hackers and they only have 72 hours to solve the technological and educational challenges posed by the organisers of the 5th edition of #hack4edu. From early this morning they will be working to solve more than seventy challenges. This is the first hybrid, international hackathon with a social purpose dedicated to digital education, which will be held in Salamanca this week and until Friday 25 October, with the participation of universities from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal and Uruguay, among others.
#hack4edu, the largest educational hackathon in Ibero America, is the result of a triple social, academic and business alliance. Its creators are ProFuturo, the digital education programme promoted by Fundación Telefónica and Fundación “la Caixa” to narrow the education gap in the world, the Pontifical University of Salamanca (UPSA) through the IT Faculty, the venue for the meeting, and Telefónica Chairs Network.
The project continues for the second consecutive year to break its own records, as the first three editions together had 415 hackers, 16 universities and 8 participating countries. In this 5th edition, the numbers have been surpassed and, so far, 600 hackers have registered, 28 universities and 12 countries are participating, and 70 challenges have been set.
This meeting was created in 2020, just a few months after the pandemic confirmed the importance of technology applied to education. This year’s 5th edition focuses more than ever on AI-based solutions to solve the challenges of digital education in the world’s most vulnerable environments.
At the opening ceremony the vice-rector of Research and Transfer of the UPSA, Ana María Fermoso, referred to the overarching achievement of this international meeting: “We have to bear in mind the importance of education in helping to lift disadvantaged regions out of poverty, the social orientation of which is in line with the aims of our university”. She also referred to the international collaborative work of this meeting. And from the point of view of research and transfer, the vice-rector stressed the need for this initiative, since “it is the first hackathon that encourages the participation of senior research groups and promotes the transfer and subsequent development of prototypes so that in the future they can be reused and exploited, if necessary, both inside and outside the Foundation, given their orientation to solve real social and educational problems and challenges,” she concluded.
Manuel José Ruiz García, manager of Data Analytics, Product and Innovation at ProFuturo and coordinator of the hackathon, highlighted the importance of holding a fifth edition that “combines the forces of the University, with its capacity for innovation and research, with a field intervention programme such as ProFuturo, which is a bellwether of the real needs of the educational world in the most vulnerable areas of the world, a working alliance that makes perfect sense and in which both parties benefit”.
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