UPS students from Guayaquil along with students from Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) and Universidad Estatal de Guayaquil took part in the 2016 Latin American Rally on Innovation, whose aim is to develop a cultural proposal on innovation with a social commitment. 

The aim of the Rally, which has now been held on three occasions, is to stimulate interdisciplinary, multi level, multi age, and intercultural collaboration among students by considering that participants are of different ages, different universities and semesters. Due to this there were three groups: Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca. "What's important about this event is that it's Ecuador's first time participating", said UPS student Angel Godoy.

This competition is about solving real problems with creative solutions that are not limited to technology but are sustainable through a business model. "The activities were prepared by non governmental organizations from Latin America", said Angel Godoy.

Some of the topics were: "Challenges regarding bananas", "Water purification", "Disposal of diaper waste", "Solid waste", "Parkinson's disease", "Applications for the blind", and others. 
Based on these topics, students chose the challenge of Parkinson's disease and presented a digital hand prototype that projected the movement suffered by people with this disease. It works through sensors located in the patient's hand. "The idea was to present a system that helps people with Parkinson's to hold objects in a stable way," said Godoy said. 

With this technique these students managed to win first place in the Innovation category. For participants, this activity made them to realize that teamwork allows you to achieve great goals.  

"Each one of the students contributed in a timely manner with their ideas and proposals in order to win," said UPS professor Susana Lam, who accompanied students in the competition.