«HAL 9000» Juan Roberto Robles and Víctor Callejas, members of Makers UPV, among the nominees of NASA’s Space Apps Challenge 2018
Juan Roberto Robles and Víctor Callejas, members of Makers UPV, the student community of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) that transcends the purely academic field, have overcome the local phase of Space App Challenge, the international hackathon that NASA convenes annually for developers, designers, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs or students, who are invited to try to solve one or several proposed challenges.
Space App Valencia took place from October 19 to 21, simultaneously with its completion in more than 200 cities around the world. It was attended by 60 participants divided into 6 teams, of which only 2 have achieved access to the final phase of the Space App Challenge, where they will compete with the rest of the projects nominated globally.
Callejas, student of the Degree in Computer Engineering (ETSINF-UPV), and Robles, student of the Degree in Aerospace Engineering (ETSID-UPV), form the Space Odyssey team, which finished in second place the aforementioned local phase with Hal 9000, an assistant spatial design with self-scalable architecture that notifies and informs about new releases, besides helping to solve doubts about space and even create works of art.
They aspire to repeat the successes of Space Helmet and Mars UPV
Thus, Space Odyssey, also awarded in the local phase with the Best Concept Mission award, aims to repeat the successes achieved by students of the UPV in 2016, when Mars UPV reached the top 5 of the international contest, or in 2014, year in which Space Helmet was proclaimed absolute winner of the Space Apps Challenge in the Public Decision category.
Now, it will be necessary to wait until the beginning of December, date in which the 30 finalist projects will be announced and, in case of reaching this milestone, in mid-January 2019, which will be when the jury of the contest makes the winning projects public. . Good luck!