Community story

Google Solution Challenge 2023

BuzzBusters, an AI mosquito trap built by a Bolivian student team, became one of the global winners of the Google Solution Challenge 2023 — and the starting point of the community work I do today.

Read the BuzzBusters case studyRead how it all started

Timeline

How it happened, step by step

  1. 01 — 2023 · Solution Challenge

    Months of iteration and demos

    Long remote sessions, mentor reviews and repeated field tests. Most of the work was unglamorous: making detection reliable enough that public health data could be trusted.

    Mauricio Nuñez presenting the trap prototype in a remote review session

  2. 02 — 2023 · Global result

    Top 3 winner, worldwide

    BuzzBusters was selected as one of the global winners of the Google Solution Challenge 2023, among thousands of student teams from more than 100 countries.

    BuzzBusters team wearing Solution Challenge Top 3 Winner shirts

  3. 03 — 2023 · Santa Cruz

    Recognition at home

    The university and local authorities recognized the team. What mattered more was what the win unlocked: other students started asking how to get in.

    Team at the UAGRM recognition ceremony

  4. 04 — 2023 · Coverage

    The story went public

    National press, Google's own blogs and LinkedIn carried the story. A Bolivian student team competing — and winning — globally stopped being an abstract idea.

    Press coverage of the dengue early-warning system winning a global Google award

  5. 05 — 2023 → today

    From one team to a community

    That win is where the community work really began: mentoring other teams, running hackathons and workshops, and eventually founding YAIS Lab so the next generation would not have to start from zero.

    Award ceremony photo shared by the university celebrating the international win

Footage

In motion

  • Solution Challenge — footage

    Clips from the Solution Challenge stage of the project.

  • Team walking back after a late working session
  • Team members after a working session in Santa Cruz

Recognition

UAGRM recognition

Recognition granted by Universidad Autónoma "Gabriel René Moreno" (UAGRM) for winning first place worldwide in the international "Solution Challenge 2023", an event funded and organised by Google.

  • Team and UAGRM authorities holding the recognition certificates
  • Receiving the UAGRM recognition certificate from the rector and vice-rector
  • Press note: students win Google's Solution Challenge 2023

Coverage

Press and posts

See the events portfolio

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