On Saturday, August 29, we met via Zoom for the seventh edition of Open Tech, our traditional knowledge exchange meeting between the team and the community. The call exceeded all expectations, we had more than 140 participants to whom we greatly appreciate the time shared, even at a distance.

Beyond «Tech»

As always, the meeting had a wide variety of topics, addressing technical issues, general interest and essential skills in multiple formats. We shared technical knowledge in Commerce, information security, machine learning, among others. Other talks addressed topics of special interest such as the Uruguayan economy or the future of Telco in Uruguay and how to improve the organization from a recipe book of ideas to put into practice when planning and organizing time.

The agenda of the event is co-constructed by the Pyxis team. Contributors postulate their topics, the format in which they would like to present and then vote: the most interesting ones are added to the final agenda.

In addition to the talks we have workshops on quantum computing and writing. And we premiered the panel as a new format of the event. We invited leading women in the sector to reflect on gender inequality in the IT industry. We thank Silvia Nane (T Machine), Isabella Antonaccio (Uruguay XXI), Sylvia Gonzalez (HG), Teresa Pérez del Castillo (UN Women) and Leidy Carbajal (HackLab Girls LATAM). It was a pleasure to have their contributions on a topic that requires special attention and action from all of us.

Ethics in innovation

The Open Tech ended with a keynote by Arleen Salles, researcher at the EU Human Brain Project.

Arleen invited us to reflect on ethics and innovation in technology projects. «Advances in technology and Artificial Intelligence provide a number of benefits, but their potential social impact requires that their design, development and implementation be responsible,» she said.

Arleen introduced the RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) paradigm, examining the advantages and limits of the approach in its practical application.

We thank Arleen for her warmth and clarity in inviting us to reflect and care for responsibility in every project in which technology inhabits. We share her talk for those who wish to go deeper into the subject:

Do you want to know more about Open Tech? We invite you to watch the following summary: