• The president of the Cabildo highlights that the sustainability and digitalization approaches of the international event ‘Smart Green Island Makeathon’ coincide with the eco-island model defended by the Island Corporation.
• The organizing company, Dr. Setter ITQ, seeks to transform the island into an example of what a future life could be like, where self-consumption prevails and it is not necessary to burn fossil fuels.
• The marathon brings together more than 500 people from 29 countries, including 206 young talents from 50 universities and vocational training centers.

The president of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, highlighted the importance for the Island of the international educational event ‘Smart Greend Island Makeathon’ which is being held in the capital of Gran Canaria, “whose approaches of sustainability and digitalization coincide with the ecoisland model we defend for Gran Canaria”, he said, “and allows us to show the world that in this Island we can move forward in the coming years, to be one hundred percent self-sufficient, because we have all the conditions to do so”, he asserted.

The island president made these statements during his visit to Infecar, where, from this Wednesday until next Saturday, the sixth edition of this event is being held, and in which he was accompanied by Lluis Serra, rector of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Nayra Moreno, director of the Sergio Alonso Foundation, and Rainer Stetter, general manager of ITQ GmbH.

This initiative is promoted by the company Dr. Stetter ITQ GmbH, of the German group ITQ, with the funding of 25 private sponsors and the support of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, the Society for Economic Promotion of Gran Canaria (SPEGC), the Sergio Alonso Foundation, Canaragua and Hyundai, and aims to provide innovative, intelligent and sustainable solutions through the development of technological prototypes.

Thus, during the tour, President Morales stressed that this ‘Makeathon’ “makes it possible for us to share our experiences with people from 29 countries from different continents and that we can capture work proposals from other places that are compatible with those carried out here”. And, in addition, “it allows us to deepen in education, in the search for alternative models in sustainability and digitization, and in the internationalization of the Island,” he stressed.

This edition brings together 318 people from 29 countries, including 206 young talents from 50 universities and vocational training centers. In addition, as a novelty, programming and robotics workshops will be held for different educational levels, with the participation of about 100 students of intermediate vocational training and about 40 students from primary and secondary schools. And next Saturday there will be a ‘family day’ for around 40 families, which will raise the overall participation to half a thousand people.

Rainer Stetter, in turn, explained that Gran Canaria has been chosen as the venue for the ‘Makeathon’, because “it has a lot of sun and wind, which can generate renewable energies, with which everything can be done in robotics, automotive, among others”, he specified. “Our mission is to transform the whole island into an example of what a life of the future could be like, in which we are self-consuming first and do not need to burn fossil fuels,” said the general manager of ITQ GmbH.

For his part, Lluis Serra explained that this year, 17 students from the ULPGC are participating in the meeting, and that the commitment for the next edition is that this figure will rise to at least 40 or 50 students. He also emphasized the interest in checking the interaction that takes place in this meeting between vocational training and university degrees. “We have to learn to link vocational training with university education, in one direction and in another, and experiences like this help us to understand the processes, and that our students and our faculty experience it firsthand is very important,” concluded the Rector.

Because this marathon is promoting the meeting between students and representatives of university centers with international companies from different sectors, in order to work in unison on innovative and sustainable project ideas, in order to inspire young people for digital progress, allow them to generate sustainable ideas and design the first prototypes.

Finally, it should be noted that the ‘Makeathon’ is conceived as a new platform for many leading companies in their sector, which have the opportunity to attract young people who can see them work live for four days and learn about the proposals they make, working in multidisciplinary teams of companies and students, to connect the talent of youth with companies looking for highly demanded professional profiles.