Antioquian Inventors Tapped for ‘Colombia Great Inventor’ Prize Competition
Two young inventors from Antioquia — Rafael Vides Mesa and Daniel Cuartas Quiceno — are among 10 national candidates for the “Colombia Great Inventor” prize competition this year.
According to cell-phone telecom giant Claro – the “Great Inventor” prize sponsor – the winner of this year’s competition would obtain new funding to help move their inventions toward commercialization.
Vides is an electronics technician from Apartadó, while Cuartas is an engineering student from Medellin, according to Claro.
The Vides invention – a specialized drone — aims to help the Colombian military detect and destroy anti-personnel mines that have been planted by Colombia’s narco-terrorist guerilla groups. The land mines typically are placed in the perimiter of coca plantations — the raw material for cocaine narco-trafficking. Thousands of Colombian civilians (many of them children), soldiers and police have been victimized by such mines in recent years.
Cuartas meanwhile has invented a device that would enable physically handicapped people to use a glasses-mounted optical device for remote-control applications (such as television controls) simply by staring.
The “Great Inventor” (El Gran Inventor”) mobile application is available via Google Play or the Apple Store and can be installed on any computer, tablet, smart-phone or smart-TV, according to Claro.
Claro customers can choose which of the 10 candidates should win the “Great Inventor” prize by visiting a special Web site: www.claro-graninventor.com, according to the company.
