The search for technological innovation, that is the mission of Challenge 2.0, a competition oriented to students from different universities in the country interested in developing an application of Web 2.0 that will function in the cyber portal of the newspaper El Nuevo Día.

Wednesday February 4, 2009 is the last day that proposals for Challenge 2.0 may be submitted. The competition is sponsored by the Center of Technological Innovation of the College of Business Administration and the College of Engineering (ADEM by its Spanish acronym), both of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM), as well as El Nuevo Día, Apex Technologies, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.

This was announced this past Thursday, January 22, 2009, during the presentation of the Enterprise Agenda corresponding to the second semester of the 2008-2009 academic year, as well as the commencement of the competition.

Doctor Mario Vecchi, president of Apex Technologies, and Carlos Mercado, Vice President of the company and a graduate of the UPRM Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, participated in the conference.

As explained by doctors José A. Cruz and José Romaguera, both ADEM professors, students will submit original ideas and functions for the development of the utility Web 2.0. The second stage will consist of an evaluation by a panel of experts who will then select the winning team.

“The important thing is that they have to put their concept to work. The Web 2.0 application has to be installed and tested,” explained Cruz, director of the Center of Technological Innovation of the College of ADEM.

The challenge for students will be to develop an innovative application and include a minimum of three categories for Web 2.0; among these are image, news, tagging and purchases. Also, they can incorporate video, marketing, community and recommendations, all related to the content of El Nuevo Día’s cyber portal.

Those interested in participating may do so individually or in a group with a maximum number of 3 persons per team. Members may be from different academic concentrations.

The award consists of $3 thousand for each participant of the winning team (a maximum of $9 thousand per team). They will have the opportunity to participate in an internship at Apex Technologies and attend the conference Microsoft Professional Developers 2009, which will be held in Los Angeles. They will also receive a laptop computer and an electronic subscription to Endi.

“This initiative is the product of an alliance between the private sector and the UPR for undergraduate and graduate students in Puerto Rico,” Romaguera added.

For more details visit the webpage: http://www.apex.pr/reto2-0.

Challenge 2.0 offers the opportunity to students from distinct academic concentrations to develop an application for web 2.0.

Doctor Mario Vecchi, president of Apex Technologies attended the presentation.

Carlos Mercado, Apex Technologies Vice President, also presented at the conference.

Courtesy photos