The well-known company D-Link has renewed its support for the “Digitalize your Town” initiative, and on this occasion it has opted for a new educational competition Aimed at students in the 4th year of ESO and 1st year of Baccalaureate, whose objective is the creation of projects that can be used to contribute to the development and digitization in rural areas. These projects are focused on solving real problems in their towns and regions.
This competition has the participation of the Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineers (ETSIT) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), and the truth is that it is a very interesting proposal and with a very clear value for everything it represents, and because it encourages younger students to venture into the world of technology, and specifically in network solutions.
Digitizing emptied Spain is quite a challenge, and this competition picks up the gauntlet without any fear. In it will participate 20 teams of students from educational centers spread over different provinces linked to the rural environment, such as Ávila, Cáceres, León, Murcia, Soria, Teruel, Zamora and Zaragoza. The competition of this second edition of “Digitalize your town” began in December 2022 and will end on June 21, 2022, with an awards ceremony that will take place in Aranda de Duero (Burgos).
As tutors of the teams they have participated university students studying telecommunications on different Spanish campuses at the UPM, and also at the University of Zaragoza, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the University of Valladolid and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena. His mission has been to guide and support the contestants in the development of the proposals.
The objective of the project is promote training in digital skills for the new generations, as well as encourage STEAM vocations (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths). In the same way, it is intended that all parties involved in the initiative become aware of the problem of depopulation in rural areas, seeing it as an attractive environment for entrepreneurship in which to develop their professional career.
At the corporate level, this second edition of “Digitalize your Town” It has the participation of companies such as D-Link, Huawei and the Cellnex foundationin addition to the involvement of the Aranda de Duero City Council and the support of Teleco Renta (plan to promote Telecommunications studies).
The theme of the projects presented is very broad and the quality of the presentations and their detail is outstandingwith videos and different materials that explain what the project is for and how it has been carried out both at the component and software level.
All the teams They have focused on proposing solutions to real problems in their towns or regions within the field of transport, health, agriculture or livestock. There are also proposals related to tourism. The jury, made up of experts from the telecommunications sector, including D-Link, will choose the 3 winners. In addition, another prize will be awarded to the team that obtains the highest number of “likes” on the competition’s Instagram and YouTube accounts with the presentation video of its proposal.
Antonio Navarro, general director of D-Link Iberia, has commented:
«We are very grateful to the UPM and to ETSIT for having given us the possibility of continuing to contribute our grain of sand to the promotion of engineering applied to rural areas. At D-Link we have the necessary technology to facilitate Internet access in rural areas where there is no broadband infrastructure, with various ranges of 4G/5G devices, as well as access points that allow long-distance radio links to extend the coverage to villages or isolated areas from Internet access nodes”.
More information: Digitize your town.
