Last weekend, the very first Science Hack Day in Colombia was held in

Medellín. I had the privilege of attending the event and was struck by

how incredibly dedicated all of the attendees were.

At 9am sharp (an

hour before kickoff), the majority of the 120 attendees had already

arrived and an estimated 80 people ended up hacking overnight. Science

Hack Day Medellín was hosted at Ruta N, a gorgeous

newly developed innovation hub in the city that hosts dozens of

Colombian startups.

The hacks at Science Hack Day Medellín ranged

from a cyborg house plant to a sign language translator. Teams also

focused on urban innovation for the city of Medellín – demonstrating

water filtration systems and 3D models of pedestrian zoning on busy

motorways. Three teams were the recipients of the dorky-yet-awesome

SCIENCE medals in the end. Perhaps one of my fondest memories from the

event is watching the first winning team's name be projected onto the

screen and a loud yelp from one of the team members blurting out,

immediately followed by an embarrassed covering of his mouth as the

entire audience turned to look at him. His team proceeded onto the stage

to receive their medals and the same young man who had yelled out in

extreme disbelief/excitement went up to one of the judges and picked him

up with a huge hug.

The majority of attendees were young (between the ages of 16 to 25).

Some were confident in their ability to prototype ideas, while others

felt unequipped. As with all creative endeavors, everyone who attended

worked through their own uncertainty of what to prototype, how to

achieve it and how to work together as a team. Pushing through this

early stage of figuring out what to create is always a challenge.

At one point during the event, I spoke with a young woman who felt

intimidated seeing all the robotics and circuit boards being used by

teams around her. She told me that she felt her team had an idea but

didn't have much they could contribute since they didn't have any

hardware/programming skills. I, myself, have no real

hardware/programming skills (or even a formal education in science!), so

I am very familiar with this sentiment and have fought to make Science

Hack Day open and welcoming to everyone with or without "hacker" skills.

So, hearing this from her broke my heart a little, as I had forgotten

how it's not always easy to see the value in your uniqueness, especially

in your youth. I pointed out to her that her team had done a lot of

research and that valuable "hacks" aren't always the ones you can see

being built around you – sometimes they're the unique ways that people

compile and curate information openly on the web. For the first time

since we started chatting, I saw a spark in her eye and watched as she

knew exactly what her team could contribute. It was sincerely awesome to

watch her and so many other teams persevere through to excitement and

pride in building an idea in less than 24 hours.

In my travel to Colombia and getting to know some of the people in

Medellín, I heard a lot about, and yet only scraped the surface of, how

the country of Colombia had persevered over the last few decades in the

face of many difficult challenges. There is no doubt in my mind that the

perseverance of Colombia comes from the amazing people that live there,

and more specifically the incredibly tenacious youth that are driving

innovative work forward. The people I met who converged over the Science

Hack Day weekend at Ruta N were truly some of the most endearing and

dedicated people I have had the opportunity to meet. Medellín is

increasingly becoming a beacon for innovation in South America and I'm

excited to have witnessed the budding of a science hacker community

within it.

Ariel Waldman is the global

instigator of Science Hack Day,

a 48-hour-all-night event where anyone excited about making weird, silly

or serious things with science comes together in the same physical space

to see what they can prototype within 24 consecutive hours. Anyone can

organize a Science Hack Day in their city – a how-to guide is available

at http://sciencehackday.org/howto. Ariel will next be reporting from

Science Hack Days in China and Madagascar!

Photos: Matt Biddulph and Denny Villalobos