First, I must thank Fernando Mendioroz for introducing me to the amazing Cluster CreaTIC team based in Popayán, Colombia. The Cluster CreaTIC Technology Development Center promotes and strengthens technology-based entrepreneurship in the department of Cauca. This will be their 3rd year leading TADHack Popayán.

Popayán is the capital of the Colombian department of Cauca. It is located in southwestern Colombia between the Western Mountain Range and Central Mountain Range. It has a population of 258,653 people, is located 1760 meters above sea level, and its typical daily temperature varies only between 55-75F (13-24C) all year round!

The town is well-known for its colonial architecture and its contributions to Colombian cultural and political life. It is also known as the “white city” due to the color of most of the colonial buildings in the city center, as you can see in the picture above.

TADHack Popayán is now in its 3rd year. You can see all the hacks from 2017 and 2018 in these playlists, and some of the photos in the picture below. Popayán has produced global winners in both of its previous years, with impressive hacks that received special commendation from the global sponsors. TADHack Popayán is a great example of how high tech skills and innovative talent are everywhere, not just in the Bay Area.

In June this year Cluster Creatic ran SuperHack.  The competition began in February with a call to schools across Cauca. 1,200 children and adolescents were trained in science, technology and innovation topics. From which the 96 children and adolescents between the ages of 11-17 were selected (24 teams of 4 members each) to represent their schools at SuperHack.  You can read more on the Cluster CreaTIC weblog. We’re hoping some of these teams can also be involved in TADHack Popayán this year 🙂

Here are a few highlighted hacks from TADHack Popayán over the years.

RM5— Juan Daza, Camilo Segura, Mauricio Maca —app to capture student marches, document abuses and connect people with legal help.  Here is a great weblog by the team describing their hack.

Hack Mark Software by David Sotelo, Yaison Fabián Samboní, Daniela Velasquez. This application allows you to use the SMS message service to perform searches on a server connected to the Internet. A person can send three types of messages 1. Mail services 2. Internet searches 3. Check the meaning of a word in a dictionary. The application will return via SMS the result of the request.

Hack Go! POU by Jonathan Ibarra, Tania Cañizares, Brayan Mamian, Cristian Gómez. This application allows to receive the measurements that are made in temperature sensor stations and others. People can subscribe to receive information from the data obtained by the sensors, for example when air quality is critical and a person has bee subscribed, they can receive warning messages when a parameterized value in the system has been exceeded. It can also be used in notifications of agriculture, to notify variations in humidity, etc., which allows solving the problem of access to data networks that some farmers have.

Hack Synergieca by David Sebastian Agredo, Manuel Galindo, Andrea Bermeo, and Giovanni López. This application allows you to create free video conferencing rooms to do tutorials. A person can schedule a tutoring of a specific topic to dictate to many people (up to 100). Initially the tutorials would be free, but as the tutor increases the level, later he will be able to charge for personalized tutorials.

Here is a playlist of all TADHack Popayán 2018 hacks.

TechTeamCo by Andrea, Sebastian, Giovanni, Camila, David using Telestax. Geolocation system in catastrophe situations to rescue people using USSD or SMS. Then use the data for analysis and prevention of future catastrophes. Won Location Prize and Telestax Global winner.

R+ by Susana, Julián, Camilo using Temasys. Implementation of augmented reality to an online multiplayer game with 3D features, they used the temays sdk to enable the online multiplayer features. Won Location Prize.

DoctorNowTeam by Fabian, Camilo, Manuel, Javier using Temasys. Delay in appointment management with medical specialists in remote zones, it’s a web platform that allows to connect patients with specialists, It uses Temasys for video calls and messaging for communication in order to facilitate communication from remote or rural places to provide health services, through telehealth. Won Location Prize.

Here is a playlist of all TADHack Popayán 2017 hacks.

Thank you to the Cluster CreaTIC team for your dedication, leadership, and ongoing partnership with TADHack Global.