Nuria Villoria Testillano, Lucía Adrián Tovar, Sandra Caamaño Gómez, Lucía Fernández Rosas, and Paula Fernández Rosas are 15-16 year ESO students at the IES Velázquez in Móstoles (Madrid). They are grouped under the name “LPSN Company,” where each plays an essential role in the development of the project that has taken them to San Francisco. With the help of their mentors, Telecommunications and Telematics Engineers and PhD candidates in the latter field, Cristina Márquez and Óscar Amador, and the support of their technology teacher, Gloria Roig, the five young women programmed a mobile application and created a business plan and a social media marketing strategy (@lpsncompany on Instagram and Twitter).
"When & Where," the app developed by these five teenagers, uses geolocation technology to primarily protect women walking or running alone in the street. The app, already available on Google Play, tracks the user's real-time location and, if it detects something unusual, asks if they are alright. If not, it allows the user to alert their chosen contact or emergency services. This way, if a problem arises, the app will show the exact time and location where the user was when it happened. As they explain in their promotional video, they were inspired by the various cases of kidnappings and murders of women that have occurred in Spain in recent years.
Cristina Márquez, who is working on her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Albert Banchs, deputy director of IMDEA Networks, will accompany LPSN Company to the Technovation Challenge final. Only 12 groups (6 senior and 6 junior) from the 1966-year-old class have been selected to present their proposals in Silicon Valley, the cradle of technology and innovation. The Spanish team will compete against teams from Brazil, Kazakhstan, Albania, India, and the USA.
Cristina Márquez's participation in the Technovation Challenge reaffirms IMDEA Networks' commitment to science outreach and the promotion of activities that strengthen young people's interest in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). She summarizes the importance of these activities with these words: “My main role has been to guide these girls wherever they needed help, whether it was in developing the tool or the code, or in crafting their message. Furthermore, as a researcher myself, I fostered a work environment where inquiry and idea generation were essential for the project's evolution, encouraging teamwork and their motivation to develop the skills necessary to make the app a reality.”
