The technological innovations won in the Agrotech category of the competition organized by Telefónica S.A. and Yachay City of Knowledge.

Two teams from Yachay Tech University won the Open Future competition organized by Telefónica and the City of Knowledge Yachay. The projects, titled Fili Tech and Water-Y, will have access to the incubator for business ventures. On the one hand, Fili Tech is an entrepreneurship that seeks to increase efficiency in Ecuadorian agriculture through computational biology. On the other hand, Water-Y is a portable condenser that allows water to be obtained for personal consumption from the humidity of the air. Both projects won in the Agrotech category. Five entrepreneurships participated in the final round of the contest. It was held at Innopolis in Yachay EP on Wednesday, October 17, in the presence of the evaluating executive committee.

Open Future Ecuador is organized by Telefónica S.A. and Yachay City of Knowledge. Open Future is a global network present in 19 countries in Europe and Latin America, with more than 50 connected hubs dedicated to promoting local ventures with the development of new technologies. In this call, three rounds were held between September 30 and October 17, 2018.

Innovative technological solutions were sought to optimize resources, generate savings, and increase the productivity of the agricultural sector, changing the perspective towards a market based on technology and efficiency. In this sense, both projects had an outstanding participation.

Fili Tech consists in the research and modification of the behavior of an enzyme called rubisco that is found inside plants. The project aims to solve the inefficiencies and productive problems of quality and quantity, in less time, cost and use of resources. Its main tools are data analytics and the development of low-cost technology. The project was created by Carlos Oswaldo Alvarado, Adrián Padilla Segarra, and Washington González.

Water-Y was created by five Yachay Tech students when they were in their leveling course. Doménica Garzón, Maylin Romero, Iván Goottman, Ariel Huera, and Yanara Alvarez worked on a piece of engineering designed to obtain and purify water by condensation. This means that when you turn on and expose Water-Y to the external environment, in a few hours, water will be obtained from the air. The purpose of this device is to give people who are in a state of emergency the facility to obtain purified water in cases when it is impossible to find.

The entrepreneurships that won this call agree to be part of the Open Future global incubation network, which will be carried out within the incubation program of Yachay EP, in Innopolis during 12 months, accessing all the services it offers (co-working, networking, technical innovation consultancies). Likewise, they will be part of the international showcase of start-ups to access investment funds of the network and national and international acceleration opportunities.

Written in collaboration with the Fili Tech and Water-Y teams.