Marco Bravo and Alexander Bermeo, UPS students majoring in electronic engineering in the university's branch campus in Cuenca and members of the Telecommunications and Telematics Research Group (Grupo de Investigación en Telecomunicaciones y Telemática (GITEL), won the 2nd edition of the Matilde Hidalgo de Procel Award in the "Scientist of the Year" category. The award is given by the Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT for its acronym in Spanish).

The awards ceremony was held in the Centro Cultural Libertador Simón Bolívar del MAAC Cine in Guayaquil and was attended by the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado, who said "you are the country's human talent." He explained that higher education has changed and that each one of the projects that were presented in this competition demonstrate the talent of Ecuadorian university students.

Marco Bravo's and Alexander Bermeo's project was the design of a wireless system to monitor the tremors in patients with Parkinson's disease. This method is capable of giving a precise estimation of the intensity of the tremors, thus giving doctors a support tool so they can easily identify the seriousness of the disease and determine the type and the amount of medication needed by the patient.

This projects was presented in the "Health and Well Being" category, it was guided by professors Angel Soto and Monica Huerta who said the project began from the need to support people with this disease. The studies, design and construction of the project took about six months.

The students said they were very happy for having won the award, they thanked the university and their professors for all their support.