The 2026 edition of the INNOVA Innovation for Society Competition brought together 11 projects from Cuban companies, institutions, and MSMEs this Tuesday, presented in a hybrid format before a experts panel. The event showcased applications of science, technology, and innovation across sectors such as energy, health, business management, tourism, and cybersecurity.

RELATED:

International InnoLabs Project Strengthens Innovation at Cuban University

The Informatics and Communications Business Group (GEIC) organized the event, combining in-person participation in Havana with virtual presentations from various provinces. According to organizers, this format allowed participants to showcase homegrown solutions to real-world problems and highlighted the talent of young people driven to innovate and develop.

A key project was TECXOL—the “National Ecosystem for the Intelligent Management of Photovoltaic Parks”—presented by Darien Armenteros Fernández of XETID. The platform is already implemented at the Mariel site and enables data capture and processing for autonomous decision-making.

Designed as an open, scalable system, TECXOL can be extended to microsystems and other forms of energy storage. It features constant monitoring and early warning systems, aligning with the goal of energy sovereignty.

Similarly, the MSME TECNOPRO SRL, based in Santiago de Cuba, presented LOCALLIGHT PLUS, a backup power monitoring system that integrates temperature, voltage, and efficiency controls. The project envisions future integration with solar panels under a circular innovation model.

The University of Camagüey contributed two research projects focused on applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to specific social issues.

The text reads, “The Informatics and Communications Business Group held the 2026 edition of the INNOVA Innovation for Society Competition. The event established itself not merely as a showcase for awards, but as a space for convergence.”

Additionally, Brian Jesús Ávila Sánchez presented the intelligent digitization of historical records regarding monoclonal antibody production at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM). The project employs open-source tools and predictive modeling to recover handwritten documents and create a digital twin capable of classifying and optimizing production batches. Its goal is to boost efficiency in a strategic area of ​​Cuban public health.

José Enrique Domínguez presented a web-based system for predicting water potability, developed in collaboration with the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Microbiology. The tool digitizes and automates sample analysis, classifies potability using AI, generates statistics, and issues critical alerts to support health-related decision-making.

ETECSA showcased a dashboard for effective cost management, leveraging the smart use of office software like Excel. The proposed solution is designed to be applicable to any organization in the country.

In the tourism sector, the Specialized Services Company GET presented the Tourism Intelligence Platform, which centralizes data on reservations, occupancy rates, and market trends. Already in use at two tourist hubs, the tool is set to expand into nautical and transport sectors, incorporating behavioral prediction and historical analysis capabilities.

DAPISOFT RG S.L.R., based in Granma, presented three solutions: SISMOS, a real-time seismic monitoring platform using low-cost sensors that can integrate with official infrastructure; CxCobrar, a tool for managing accounts receivable that utilizes predictive algorithms and requires minimal resources; and ISISCAI, an IT asset control and security system featuring automated audits.

Ukraine’s amphibious ground robot UNEX UGV can tow artillery guns, its project lead said in a video interview, Militarnyi reported on 13 October. The electric platform from ABRIS Design Group (ABRIS DG) also swims, climbs, and hauls cargo on its own deck.

The Defense Ministry’s robot tally, kept in its DELTA system, counts supply and evacuation runs. It logged 25,143 of them in August, a monthly figure that has climbed all year. In April, then-Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said the goal was for robots to handle all frontline logistics. A robot that brings a gun and its shells to a position adds artillery moves to that workload.

A gun behind, shells aboard

The robot can pull a gun or another wheeled vehicle of up to 10 metric tons (about 22,000 lb), the project lead said. Ammunition can ride aboard, so the gun and its rounds reach the position together. No crew has to go with them, he said, and the team has already demonstrated the setup. On its own deck, ABRIS DG says, the robot carries up to 1.7 tons (3,750 lb) on land and 1.25 tons (2,760 lb) on water.

ABRIS DG said US Army testers ran UNEX through scenarios that included towing Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs), which are armored US military trucks. The trials took place at the Army’s XTech competition in Vilseck, Germany, in March 2026. UNEX was picked as one of five winners, the company said.

Swims, climbs, backtracks

The robot can float for more than an hour. The team has already crossed the Desna River and narrow stretches of the Dnipro with it, the project lead said. Ultra-low-pressure tires spread its weight over soft ground and swamps. ABRIS DG says it climbs obstacles up to one meter (3.3 ft) high and drives out of water onto ice.

Explore further

Ukraine turned ground robots into a frontline workhorse. Its first competitive tender may reward cheap copies over proven machines, an officer warns

Operators steer it via Starlink or radio. An escort drone can add an overhead view to the robot’s own cameras. If the link drops, the robot retraces its route to where the signal last held.

It runs on a Ukrainian-made 78 kWh battery. The project lead puts its work time at up to six hours and its range at up to 120 km (75 miles), with a top speed of 20 km/h (12 mph). Load and terrain cut into those figures, he added. With a generator now in development, a mission should stretch to about 12–14 hours, he said.

The robot is not built for the zero line, the project lead said. It works 20–30 km behind the front, at night, where armor would add little. Developers also plan demining and air defense versions. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry codified the robot and cleared it for use in its forces in April 2025.

Google has asked the European Union’s General Court to suspend an order requiring it to make search data available to competing search engines and artificial-intelligence services while its wider legal challenge proceeds.

The application for interim measures follows Google’s challenge to a European Commission decision adopted in July under the Digital Markets Act. The company argues that implementation before the court rules on the main case could cause serious harm to the privacy of European users.

The Commission maintains that its requirements already contain safeguards for privacy, security and personal data.

At the centre of the dispute is Article 6(11) of the Digital Markets Act, which requires Google to give eligible rival search services access to anonymised ranking, query, click and viewing data on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

The Commission opened specification proceedings in January and adopted binding measures on 16 July.

The rules explicitly allow AI chatbots offering search functions to qualify for access.

Brussels argues that Google has accumulated a quantity of search information which competitors cannot readily reproduce. User queries and interactions can improve search algorithms, reinforcing the position of an established provider and creating a substantial entry barrier for newcomers.

EU Today examined the issue in April, when the Commission first set out its proposed Google search-data sharing measures.

The final July decision turned those proposals into binding requirements.

The inclusion of AI services gives the case wider significance. Generative AI products increasingly answer questions directly rather than sending users through a conventional list of search results. That is putting AI developers and traditional search engines into increasingly direct competition.

The Commission’s data-access framework is intended to reduce the advantage obtained from data accumulated by designated gatekeepers and make it easier for competing services to enter the market.

Access will not be unrestricted.

Applicants must operate a genuine online search service in the EU and satisfy eligibility requirements. Established applicants generally need at least 50,000 average monthly EU users during the previous year, while newer companies can qualify under investment criteria.

They must also comply with security and data-protection requirements and undergo independent auditing. The Commission can exclude applicants presenting public-security risks, while the data must be processed within the European Economic Area or under arrangements providing equivalent protection.

Google argues that these safeguards do not remove the underlying privacy risk.

The company has therefore asked the General Court for an interim suspension while judges consider the legality of the Commission’s decision.

The case adds another front to an increasingly difficult relationship between Google and Brussels.

In July, the Commission imposed two Digital Markets Act fines on Google totalling €890 million. As EU Today reported following the penalties, one case concerned Google’s treatment of its own services in search results while another dealt with restrictions preventing app developers from directing users towards alternative offers.

The dispute subsequently developed into a wider transatlantic issue when President Donald Trump threatened a Section 301 trade investigation in response to the EU penalties, a development examined by EU Today.

Google has meanwhile begun altering some of its European services in response to regulatory pressure. Earlier this month it changed the presentation of European search results, while warning that the new format could make searches less useful.

The present case is different because it deals with access to the underlying information generated by searches rather than only the way results are displayed.

The Commission wants qualifying competitors to obtain data that could help them improve their own services. Google says opening those datasets creates privacy and security risks which cannot simply be reversed if it eventually wins the court case.

That is why the interim application is important.

Google is not asking the court merely to overturn the Commission decision at the end of the litigation. It wants implementation halted before the full case is resolved.

Unless judges intervene, the Commission timetable continues.

The wider dispute will determine how far Brussels can require a dominant digital platform to share data accumulated through its own users in order to encourage competition — an issue that is becoming increasingly important as search and generative AI converge.

At a conformation show, purebred dogs are evaluated by judges according to written documents that strive to capture the exemplary features of each breed. (These standards are searchable via the American Kennel Club; my dog’s breed standard, for instance, is “interested and even mischievous” in expression, but might be faulted for a “short, prancing, or choppy gait.” Noted.) Hannah Berger files a remarkably observed dispatch from one such show in Virginia, where she has traveled to consider show dogs as signifiers, “the ideal against its approximation.” There’s plenty of human folly here, not limited to the interpretation of a “breed standard” and its pursuit over time. A janitor ceaselessly sweeps away dog hair; a mother silences her child as one might a yapping pet. Berger layers her observations into an ending so clever that I gasped.

Now under the jurisdiction of the American Kennel Club in the U.S., conformation shows measure the degree to which a dog “conforms” to its “breed standard,” a document that transmutes historical function into superficially measurable and marketable qualities: proportions, attitude, gaiting patterns. These documents vary widely in length and style. The greyhound’s standard, for example, is a spare two-hundred-word document that strays from sobriety just once in its description of the eyes: “dark, bright, intelligent, indicating spirit.” The standard of the Coton de Tulear, the bichon-like “national dog” of Madagascar, is nearly eight times as long, describing colors and shapes in percentages and angles. Its “joie de vivre” is mentioned twice.