The international program Magnificent Fellowship selected the Peruvian student Héctor Díaz Gómez, a Pronabec scholarship recipient, among the ten most innovative in the world for creating a platform that preserves endangered languages.
Díaz Gómez developed Gaia, a platform that allows anyone to create their own translator without needing to know how to code, with the possibility of preserving native languages that are in danger of extinction around the world.
Héctor, who is studying Economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) with the Beca 18 scholarship from the National Program of Scholarships and Educational Credit (Pronabec) of the Ministry of Education, explained the benefits of the platform.
“Gaia allows you to create translators without needing to know how to program. This opens the door for students, researchers, and anyone interested to contribute to the preservation of native or endangered languages”. he explained.
Also, he stated that the platform is equivalent to teaching a machine to speak a new language. And the more it is used —through the translations that are created— the more it learns.
But unlike us, this machine doesn’t forget: it stores, documents, and records the language. And that can make the difference between the disappearance of a language and its preservation.
Native Languages of Peru
Currently, Gaia already allows translation of seven native languages of Peru: Awajún, Shipibo-Konibo, Matsigenka, Wampis, Shawi, Achuar, and Asháninka. And as Héctor himself points out, the more people use it, its ability to translate accurately will continue to grow.
The Magnificent Fellowship program, which annually provides funding to young innovators from around the world, awarded in 2025 financial support of 30,000 dollars to each of the ten selected, including Héctor.
In addition to the monetary prize, the winners gain access to an intensive mentorship program and development activities in the United States, a country that Héctor has already traveled to in order to continue working on his project.
“There I’ve been able to share with other award winners, who are helping me improve the quality of the translations and work on what could be the fastest processing system in the world,” said the scholarship holder, who learned to program at the age of 17.
The scholarship holder commented that the support from Magnificent Fellowship is not a scholarship to study at a university or an internship at a company but “a prize to work on what you are passionate about and, at the same time, can help make the world a better place.”
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(END) RRC/JMP/ MDV
Published: 5/2/2025