Smart City Ciudad 15 was the starting point for a very special visit: on Thursday 15 May, we welcomed a group of 5th-grade students from CEIP Poeta Domingo Velázquez to our MNX Online and TOURiLab offices. The school is located in El Matorral (Puerto del Rosario). The initiative came through their teacher, Saray, and was part of an educational project as original as it was ambitious: “Smart City – Ciudad 15”.
The goal: to analyse whether Puerto del Rosario could be considered a proximity city following the so-called “15-minute city” model—an urban approach that promotes access to essential services within 15 minutes on foot or by bike from anywhere in the city.
Projects like this help bring big concepts down to earth. Talking about a “15-minute city” is ultimately talking about quality of life: being able to walk to services, green areas, well-planned mobility, and spaces that encourage people to share and connect. It is also a way to learn to look at our surroundings differently: observing, asking questions, proposing improvements, and understanding that cities are designed for people.
What surprised us most was not only the topic, but the level of knowledge, involvement, and creativity the students showed. They told us they had already done fieldwork around the city to check whether it meets the model’s criteria. They also presented an interactive model built with LEGO bricks and programmed with Scratch, featuring wind turbines, a “smart” bus stop, and different forms of public transport—including a ferry and a bus.
During the visit, the group shared their reflections, asked very thoughtful questions, and showed genuine interest in understanding what we do at MNX Online. At their age, they were already comfortable with concepts such as sustainability, efficiency, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy. Some even told us they dream of becoming engineers, journalists, or politicians so they can help—through different perspectives—build better, more responsible cities.
Educational initiatives like this don’t just encourage critical thinking and teamwork—they also open up new ways of seeing where we live and imagining how to improve it locally. In a place like Fuerteventura, sparking early vocations in areas such as technology, urban planning, or clean energy can make a real difference for the island’s future.
At MNX Online, we took the opportunity to show them—through simple examples—how we work to support the transition towards more connected, sustainable, and efficient territories. We also talked about the island-wide project Fuerteventura Smart Island, promoted by the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, where we are actively collaborating to drive a coordinated smart-island model aligned with European strategies on digitalisation and sustainability.
We also shared the experience of the TOURiLab Technology Challenge, where vocational training students from Fuerteventura and Badajoz developed innovative ideas around smart tourism and data spaces. We explained that activities like this are just the beginning of a firm commitment to connecting technology and education from an early age—and that we would love to keep collaborating with their school through future visits, shared sessions, or small innovation “missions” adapted to their level.
We were genuinely happy to see that young talent is very much present in primary school classrooms too—and that, when given the chance and the right tools, students can surprise you (a lot) with new ways of understanding innovation. This visit will not be the last: we are already looking forward to returning the visit and seeing their model first-hand in their own environment.
Because building a smarter island also starts by listening to those who will have to lead it in the future.
