The competition took place in a hybrid format from August 28 to September 5 and culminated in an in-person session for project development, presentation, and evaluation in Quito, Ecuador. Pombo was part of the team alongside Efren Bautista Linares, Eng., and Dr. Ismael Martínez Ramos, both from Mexico.
HackTech El Niño 2026 took place as part of IEEE Rising Stars Latin America and Caribbean 2026, an event that brings together students, young professionals, and leaders in engineering and technology from various countries in the region, featuring activities related to education, innovation, professional development, and collaboration.
A Solution for Predicting Floods
The team developed FloodLens, a solution designed to predict and analyze the impact of floods by combining open data, risk estimation models, and satellite observations.
The proposal aims to provide a lead time of between 72 and 24 hours to identify areas that could be affected by flooding. Once the event occurs, it uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Sentinel-1 satellite to monitor the territory and compare the initial estimates with the actual impact.
FloodLens thus combines two stages: early risk assessment and subsequent verification using satellite data. The goal is to generate accessible information that can aid in decision-making during these types of emergencies.
https://youtu.be/ccWEHeuOTI0
Innovation and Regional Collaboration
The projects were evaluated by a multidisciplinary panel of five judges, who considered the quality of the prototype, its social and climate impact, technical feasibility, and the final presentation.
For Pombo, the experience also provided an opportunity to collaborate with professionals from other countries in the region on developing a technological solution to a problem with social and environmental implications.
This achievement comes on top of his participation in the previous edition of a hackathon held as part of IEEE Rising Stars, in which he took first place.