PR Science, Technology & Research Trust announces that proposals of artificial intelligence & bio-chemistry were selected finalists at Global Impact local edition

San Juan, P.R. – The Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (PRSTRT) announced that three researchers and innovators were selected as finalists at the local edition for Singularity University Global Impact Competition. An Architecture professor at the Catholic University of Ponce, a doctoral chemical student at the University of Puerto Rico and a technology entrepreneur will begin the interview process tomorrow, April 15th., 2016.

Twenty entries, from local universities and the private sector, submitted at this first round, were evaluated by five local and international judges, experts in the respective fields. The three finalists will be interviewed -via Skype- by a panel of judges made up of renowned professionals from Singularity University and Puerto Rico. The winner will be presented at an Award Ceremony, on May 24th. 2016, with the presence Dr. Nicole Wilson, Vice President of Singularity University.

“Innovators in Puerto Rico are developing ideas that can exponentially advance knowledge and the development of humanity, and many are doing so in total anonymity. The Global Impact Competition is designed to identify these innovators and their projects and provide them with a powerful platform from which they may scale their projects to the rest of the world. It also seeks to inspire other entrepreneurs and motivate them to continue the arduous task of research, technological development and innovation,” said Ivan Rios Mena, Chief Operations Officer of the Trust and organizer of the event in Puerto Rico.

The finalists are Wilfredo Mendez, professor at the Catholic University of Ponce, Simara Laboy Lopez, a doctoral student at the University of Puerto Rico and businesswoman Jocelyn Javernick. Professor Wilfredo Méndez’s proposal aim to design and build structures with materials that instinctively respond to their environment, investigating materials that imitate nature. Specifically seeks to build buildings that change shapes and properties when an earthquake occurs, to increase the safety of thousands of people living in highly active seismic zones. The doctoral student in chemistry Simara Laboy submitted a project to create technology to purify and remediate water contaminated with nitrates, thus providing clean water to billions of people who do not have access to it and die or become ill because of it. Entrepreneur Jocelyn Javernick submitted a proposal to develop sustainable and cheap drones to map and monitor rivers worldwide and then decontaminate.

Proposals handle artificial intelligence technologies, robotics and bio-analytical chemistry and global issues serve mid-environment, water and resilience to natural disasters. These proposals handle exponential technologies artificial intelligence, robotics and bio-analytical chemistry. Serve global issues mid-environment, water and resilience to natural disasters.

This international initiative Global Impact of Singularity University, seeks to identify innovative proposals to improve the living standards of billions of people worldwide over the next five to ten years technological solutions. The proposals also had to consider and respond to the priorities established in the research areas described in the cross-national programs of science, technology and technological innovation.

The winner of the Global Impact Competition in Puerto Rico will be invited to take part in the Global Solutions Program competition in Silicon Valley, all expenses funded by the Trust, including enrollment fee, travel, food and lodging, for a period of ten weeks. The most innovative proposals will have the opportunity to be developed further as startups and accelerators in Singularity Labs so as to receive venture capital investment from the Silicon Valley investment community.

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About Singularity University : Founded by Peter Diamandis, creator of XPrize, and by Ray Kurzweil, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the current director of Engineering at Google – is an academic institution located at the NASA Research Center in Silicon Valley. It is sponsored by Google and NASA and receives the support of organizations at the forefront of innovation, such as IDEO, International Space University, AutoDesk, 3DSystems, Genentech, Cisco, Kauffman Foundation, Trotec, among other companies and institutions. Its objective is to bring together, educate and inspire leaders and innovators so that they may work in the development and application of technologies focused on solving world problems. Each year it selects 80 brilliant minds from all over the world to take part in its Global Solutions Program, where they work with exponential technologies alongside foremost academic experts and international executives, all in the development of technological solutions to humanity’s main challenges.