USU Computer Scientist Omar Florez Building Bridge to Opportunities

Learning about and gaining access to educational opportunities can be difficult if you’re young, facing economic challenges and without mentors.

“The opportunities are there — it’s just finding a way to break through barriers that keep talented students and potential mentors from making a connection,” says Utah State University computer scientist Omar Florez. “But my friends and I believe we’ve developed just the tool to make those connections happen.”

And where do aspiring scholars of all income levels hang out? Try Facebook and other social media.

With friends from his native Peru, Florez, a doctoral student in USU’s Department of Computer Science, has developed a novel algorithm that automatically seeks out Latin American youths through social media and matches them with university scholarship and assistantship opportunities. Florez, Mauricio Cordova of the University of Texas and Alberto Muñoz Najar of Peru’s Universidad del Pacífico call their creation “PrimerosPuestos.”

“We’re students who received opportunities and used them to succeed in college,” says Florez, a recipient of a 2011 IBM Scalable Data Analysis for a Smarter Planet Innovations Award. “Now we have a way of giving back. We can share what we’ve learned and help others find educational opportunities, too.”

Their innovation is attracting attention. The trio’s Facebook page has more than 12,000 fans and counting and the number of hits to their website, primerospuestos.org, grows each day.

PrimerosPuestos is also gaining attention from potential investors. The project is one of seven start-ups from Peru that advanced from the 2011 Intel Challenge Latin America competition to the international Intel Challenge Nov. 8-10 in Berkeley, Calif.

The project was also a finalist in the October 2011 Wayra competition, a contest sponsored by Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica to foster technological innovation throughout Latin America. Through Wayra, which means “wind” in Quechua, Telefónica selected ten entries from eight countries for start-up funding. Though not a winner, PrimerosPuestos received accolades from Telefónica and welcome media exposure.

Colleagues at IBM, where Florez has served as an intern during the past couple of years, have also taken notice and are lending expertise and support to the project.

“We’re all students and we’ve been working on this project in our spare time,” Florez says. “But we’re getting an enthusiastic response from students, teachers, universities and business.”

In addition to helping teens and young adults find college-level opportunities, PrimerosPuestos connects primary schools in need with potential donors.

“Right now, we’re helping an elementary school in Peru collect donations to realize their dream of having a decent library,” Florez says. “Our site allows us to put schools in touch with appropriate donors who can quickly help. Our goal is to match each person or group in need with the best fit.”

Florez, who is conducting a research project in real-time transportation management with faculty mentor Curtis Dyreson, says one of the most fulfilling aspects of the project is he’s using what he’s learned at USU to help others.

“With this project, I’m using knowledge I’ve gained from studies in data mining, indexing and machine learning,” he says. “The project is making a real difference in people’s lives.”

Related links: