IT approach of Nicaraguan students captures the attention of NASA

Sept. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- On May 2013, a group of Nicaraguan students received global recognition at the 2013 NASA International Space Apps Challenge, a collaboration aimed to improve life on earth and life in space through the development of Apps.

Among 9,000 other participants from all around the worldand 770 other IT projects, the 8^th grade American Nicaraguan School students were a highlight for the “Most Inspiring” category. The team consisted of Andew Slick, Juan Pablo Abaunza, Fernando Ortiz and iOS developer Sheila Slick.

Their iSpot it! App received an Honorable Mention for the Most Inspiring Award, a category that honors the solutions that managed to capture the hearts and attention of the panel of judges, which consisted of NASA and other governmental and non-governmental organizations representatives.

iSpot it! focuses on the social aspects of the International Space Station (ISS), with the intention of creating awareness, maintaining connections and making the ISS more fun. Some features of this App are that it gathers all the ISS social media links, tracks your location and shares it when the ISS is spotted, and has a link to watch the Ustream Live Camera.

The winners and honorable mentions of this challenge only featured four Latin American cities: Guatemala City, Guatemala; Mexico City, Mexico; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Managua, Nicaragua. The country’s featuring in this event is consistent with the measures the country has been taking to improve its technological environment.

For instance, the Government of Nicaragua has decidedly taken action to foster a favorable business climate that promotes the successful development of outsourcing services, including Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO). Among the ITO investment opportunities in the country are the mobile applications development, software development, tech support, hardware and servers maintenance, e-commerce, integrated hospital management system, web page design, application development, digital marketing campaigns, hosting, B2B training and certification, custom software development, and search engine optimization.