Yuliana Ante Urrea, Brigitte Carolina Montaño Gómez, Daniel Esteban Ausecha Navia, Dayana Jazmín Ramírez Córdoba, and Álvaro Efrén Bolaños Scalante, who form the DataLab team, won the competition that promotes the development and generation of ideas around regional issues.

With the proposal entitled 'Multivariate Analysis of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents at Risk of Use, Utilization, and Forced Recruitment in the Department of Cauca, 2023,' a team composed of students from the Political Science program at the University of Cauca won the 2023 Pacific Datathon, which took place on September 21st and 22nd at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente.

The team named DataLab consists of five eighth-semester students from the Political Science program. Each one has different areas of expertise, but they converge on data, its analysis, and visualization. They are: Yuliana Ante Urrea, Brigitte Carolina Montaño Gómez, Daniel Esteban Ausecha Navia, Dayana Jazmín Ramírez Córdoba, and Álvaro Efrén Bolaños Scalante, who discovered the call for participation and, together with Daniel Ausecha, began forming the group. 'We talked and asked ourselves what kind of material and research resources we had, and that's where the proposal became clear. In the first phase, 82 teams, which means over 700 students from the region, entered the competition. After several filters, 15 teams remained, including DataLab. The suggestions made during the reviews were taken into account to improve and have a very strong product to reach the final,' stated student Dayana Jazmín Ramírez Córdoba.

The Datathon is a competition where individuals interested in a particular field of knowledge come together and work in a multidisciplinary manner to address significant questions through data analysis. The competition, led by ProPacífico, aims to promote the use of regional information sources and encourage the consumption and analysis of data from the departments of Valle del Cauca, Chocó, Cauca, and Nariño for decision-making purposes. Additionally, it aims to foster the development and generation of ideas related to regional issues.

'It is essential to note that ours is the only team selected from the department of Cauca in a competition where a wide number of proposals were submitted from different universities. Therefore, we not only represent our program and university but the entire department. It is worth highlighting that the team's participation has been driven by their own initiative,' added the student.

'The proposal was initially created, estimating a population at risk, where 18,000 children and adolescents between 10 and 17 years old are vulnerable to these dynamics in the 17 municipalities categorized as vulnerable. For this, three important variables influencing the use, utilization, and recruitment of children and adolescents were determined: coca crops, the dimensional poverty index, and the presence and interference of non-state armed groups in municipalities with early warnings,' she indicated.

To travel, the five team members received assistance from ProPacifico and all the professors in the Political Science program, both financially and by creating spaces for those who were going to present the product. In this case, Efrén Bolaños, Daniel Ausecha, and Jazmín Ramírez delivered a very concise five-minute pitch capable of convincing the judges, who were highly important and recognized in the country.

'We take this opportunity to thank professors Carlos Ortega, Juan Carlos Varona, and Oscar Raúl Ospina, who made every effort for our work to receive the recognition it deserved. We are proud to inform that we were the winners of two awards: first, as the best team from the entire department of Cauca, and second, as the winners of the first place in the competition solving the regional security challenge, thereby raising the profile of the Political Science program at the University of Cauca.Yuliana Ante Urrea, Brigitte Carolina Montaño Gómez, Daniel Esteban Ausecha Navia, Dayana Jazmín Ramírez Córdoba, and Álvaro Efrén Bolaños Scalante, who form the DataLab team, won the competition that promotes the development and generation of ideas around regional issues.

With the proposal entitled 'Multivariate Analysis of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents at Risk of Use, Utilization, and Forced Recruitment in the Department of Cauca, 2023,' a team composed of students from the Political Science program at the University of Cauca won the 2023 Pacific Datathon, which took place on September 21st and 22nd at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente.

The team named DataLab consists of five eighth-semester students from the Political Science program. Each one has different areas of expertise, but they converge on data, its analysis, and visualization. They are: Yuliana Ante Urrea, Brigitte Carolina Montaño Gómez, Daniel Esteban Ausecha Navia, Dayana Jazmín Ramírez Córdoba, and Álvaro Efrén Bolaños Scalante, who discovered the call for participation and, together with Daniel Ausecha, began forming the group. 'We talked and asked ourselves what kind of material and research resources we had, and that's where the proposal became clear. In the first phase, 82 teams, which means over 700 students from the region, entered the competition. After several filters, 15 teams remained, including DataLab. The suggestions made during the reviews were taken into account to improve and have a very strong product to reach the final,' stated student Dayana Jazmín Ramírez Córdoba.

The Datathon is a competition where individuals interested in a particular field of knowledge come together and work in a multidisciplinary manner to address significant questions through data analysis. The competition, led by ProPacífico, aims to promote the use of regional information sources and encourage the consumption and analysis of data from the departments of Valle del Cauca, Chocó, Cauca, and Nariño for decision-making purposes. Additionally, it aims to foster the development and generation of ideas related to regional issues.

'It is essential to note that ours is the only team selected from the department of Cauca in a competition where a wide number of proposals were submitted from different universities. Therefore, we not only represent our program and university but the entire department. It is worth highlighting that the team's participation has been driven by their own initiative,' added the student.

'The proposal was initially created, estimating a population at risk, where 18,000 children and adolescents between 10 and 17 years old are vulnerable to these dynamics in the 17 municipalities categorized as vulnerable. For this, three important variables influencing the use, utilization, and recruitment of children and adolescents were determined: coca crops, the dimensional poverty index, and the presence and interference of non-state armed groups in municipalities with early warnings,' she indicated.

To travel, the five team members received assistance from ProPacifico and all the professors in the Political Science program, both financially and by creating spaces for those who were going to present the product. In this case, Efrén Bolaños, Daniel Ausecha, and Jazmín Ramírez delivered a very concise five-minute pitch capable of convincing the judges, who were highly important and recognized in the country.

'We take this opportunity to thank professors Carlos Ortega, Juan Carlos Varona, and Oscar Raúl Ospina, who made every effort for our work to receive the recognition it deserved. We are proud to inform that we were the winners of two awards: first, as the best team from the entire department of Cauca, and second, as the winners of the first place in the competition solving the regional security challenge, thereby raising the profile of the Political Science program at the University of Cauca.