With their Centauri project, the geolocation platform designed to expedite the response of the authorities and the community in emergency situations such as sexual violence or disappearances, the uniandinos engineers María Gabriela Torres, Laura Valentina Ávila, Isabel Buitrón and Geisson Ponce, were finalists of the ActInSpace Colombia 2022.
The group of researchers won the competition in Bogotá and they were finalists together with Universidad Nacional project that proposed bringing an insect farm to Mars.
During the final of the national competition, which took place virtually on December 1, Centauri took second place after facing the Orbitalities project of the Universidad de Antioquia, finalist for Medellín.
It is important to remember that ActInSpace is the most internationally recognized space science innovation contest, which seeks that its participants use space technologies, data and patents to launch a startup that achieves a real impact that improves the quality of life of people and protect the planet.
Isabela Buitrón, president of the IEEE Student Branch of the Universidad de los Andes and chief executive officer of Centauri, assure that this business idea was born as a tribute to women like Rosa Elvira Cely, who was assassinated in May 2012 in Parque Nacional de Bogotá and despite asking for help from the emergency line, she was not rescued in time.
And it is that violence against women is a very serious issue, whose figures are worrying. According to data from the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, at least one of them is a victim of domestic violence every 50 minutes and is sexually assaulted every 28 minutes.
With Centauri, whose slogan is "We take care of you from space", users can, through the application installed on their cell phone or other devices, activate a panic button that expedites the community's response to different emergency situations due to through manual gestures that are recognized by the App.
This is possible thanks to the fact that Centauri uses satellite technology that allows knowing the location of people or things in real time and without a Wi-Fi connection.
Additionally, according to Laura Valentina Ávila, Centauri's chief financial officer, the application offers three levels of emergency contacts. The first is friends, family or people you trust, the second is the quadrant of the police officer closest to the area of the incident and the third is a guardian angel, who are users of the same platform who protect themselves in the community.
The application also allows sending an alert signal if the person detours from their usual route, through Machine Learning algorithms, taking photos and sending real-time location if the cell phone is turned off, among other features. With Centauri, reporting an emergency to 123 is reduced from one minute to 10 seconds, guaranteeing that it will be dealt with promptly.
"Participating in ActInSpace was a goal we had with the Centauri team. From our experience at the university, we know that these are the best opportunities to put into practice the skills we have acquired during undergraduate. In the competition in Bogotá we faced to teams with innovative ideas and impressive pitch models. Seeing ourselves immersed in this high-level environment was essential to motivate us to build a project with a high social impact, hand in hand with space technologies. I would highlight the accompaniment and support from the mentors during the more than 24 hours of the event and in the preparation phase for the final as for the future of Centauri, we made many contacts in the Colombian aerospace industry that will support us in consolidating the project Centauri, a citizen security solution arose from a need that we identify in our daily life and as engineers we are interested in scaling it hand in hand with the aerospace technology, said Isabela Buitrón.
For her part, María Gabriela Torres added, “my experience at ActInSpace has been one of the most enriching I have had during my university life. Isabela, Valentina and I had known each other since the first semester and we met Geisson for the Hackathon, but despite this, we worked very well as a team. They are all incredible people and being able to share with them made this whole experience much more enjoyable. Although he was demanding, there was no shortage of jokes that lifted our spirits, we took care of each other and we were always willing to contribute something to the team. We gave 100% to represent the university in the best possible way. This can be seen in the result, we have a future as entrepreneurs and as engineers”.
About the organization of the event
In Colombia, the Organization of this event was in charge of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with its Technology-Based Entrepreneurship Program innovaTE and ANEIAP, the Universidad de Los Andes and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce through the Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the National Government, iNNpulsa Colombia and with allies such as Oracle Academy and the Scientific Committee of the Aerospace Sector COCSA.
In Bogotá, it had sponsors such as Compensar, SAAB, AEC and the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce. The local organization in Medellín was in charge of Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín and was sponsored by Universidad de Antioquia Foundation, the Ruta Medellín Innovation and Business Center and the Medellín Mayor's Office.
