MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Winners of Uruguay’s Prado Show Hackathon Agro competition visited England

Carlos Capano, Juan Francisco Kniazev and Agustín Ackermann, shared their experiences from their trip to England with Ambassador Ian Duddy (L) and Pia Delisante Head of Programme (R)

Winners of the Hackathon Agro competition co-organized by the UK embassy in Uruguay, the local Cámara Uruguaya de Tecnologías de la Información (CUTI) and Fundación da Vinci, have visited England. Carlos Capano, Juan Francisco Kniazev and Agustín Ackermann, shared their experiences from their trip to England with Ambassador Ian Duddy, upon their return.

 The team presented an innovative solution for the prevention of the problem of barley net blotch on 9-10 September 2017 at Expo Prado. In the UK, they met with representatives from different organizations related to their project, such as Barley Hub, Harper Adams University and the Agritech sector of the Department for International Trade DIT.

During the Harper Adams tour, they saw how the university works with drones for farming or soil and tillage projects. They also visited the hands-free hectare project, where farming is done through robotics and technology, and no human has been inside the hectare since the project started, more than one year ago. Hackathon winners described the work as “spectacular”.

Capano, Kniazev and Ackermann didn’t know each other before the Hackathon and they come from different academic backgrounds: agro, business and IT. For them, this was a challenge but also an asset: “Different points of view are exactly what we needed”, they told ambassador Duddy.

At the moment, the team is working to validate their project and create a product from the idea that made them win the Agro Hackathon. They are looking forward to running tests and setting up their company in the near future.

During their trip, they presented their project and created links with English organizations that work in the field. The team is also planning to bid for funds and looking for organizations that could be interested in creating partnerships, especially IT companies working with drones or satellites.

The Hackathon Agro was co-organized by the UK Embassy, Cámara Uruguaya de Tecnologías de la Información (CUTI) and Fundación da Vinci with the support of FOMIN/BID, SIUR Travel, INIA and ICA, was declared of National Interest by the Uruguayan Ministry of Agriculture.