Andina

Peruvians win Google Research Awards for third time

Google

Google

17:18 | Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Oct. 23.

The project developed by two Peruvian scientists has received recognition —for the third time— from Google Research Awards for Latin America (LARA) 2018.

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Professor Mirko Zimic's and pupil Jorge Coronel's investigation was aimed at facilitating early diagnoses of tuberculosis. 

Google distributed US$535,000 among the 26 selected projects. They came from Brazil (17), Colombia (5), Argentina (2), Mexico (1), and Peru (1). Four women were among the winners on this occasion.

Thanks to this investment, an algorithm of computer image analysis will be developed to program the patient's sample interpretation. Additionally, it will employ mobile data with the purpose of implementing it across any region of the Inca country. 

According to Google's Engineering Director for Latin America Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, the LARA 2018 initiative seeks projects with great potential that propose solutions to ordinary problems and create a true social impact. 

300 proposals were submitted on the sixth edition.

"We hope the number of non-Brazilian projects we receive will increase. (…) The importance of technology is to find solutions in a shorter term," he added. 

The Google Research Awards for Latin America are one-year awards structured as unrestricted gifts to support the work of world-class permanent faculty members and their students who are pursuing cutting-edge research in specific fields related to Computer Science at top universities in Latin America.

(END) SPV/ART/DTK/MVB

Published: 10/23/2018