We congratulate Virginia Norma Puente Jara, Héctor Hugo López Jiménez, and Sofia Herrera Salazar, students from the Bioengineering and Computer Science programs, who, after winning first place in Road to Start Hack 2025 in Peru, traveled to represent our country at Start Hack GLOBAL 2025, the most entrepreneurial hackathon in Europe.

This hackathon brought together 600 hackers from around the world, who had to develop a solution focused on one of the nine challenges within three days.

They chose the United Nations’ G20 Global Land Initiative, focusing on helping the Sahel region, a cause with which we feel deeply connected due to its similarities with some regions of Peru.

The team tells us: “Our solution consisted of a multidimensional map that not only visualizes desertification but also integrates variables such as deforestation, rainfall, food scarcity, and demographics. By combining these factors, we wanted to see more than just one side of the story. Our goal was to provide a comprehensive view of the region’s challenges, helping to uncover correlations and patterns.”

With this data, they created predictive models to anticipate risks and alert community leaders early, enabling proactive decision-making and leveraging data to drive change.

This experience has been truly meaningful for the team, as they had the opportunity to represent Peru at a Global Hackathon and also learn about how they created a solution with real impact, leveraging technology and AI to help both people and the environment in the Sahel region.

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