The Mexican student contest "Premio Intel por un México competitivo" combines both entrepreneur objectives with technical research and skills. The contest was initiated during a meeting with Craig Barrett and Dr. Fafael Rangesl, ITESM dean. Focusing on promoting a nationwide entrepreneur culture, the contest attracted 79 business plans from 19 Mexican states representing Baja California in the northwest to Chiapas in the south.

The projects focused on entrepreneurial efforts in technology with themes such as mobility, digital home, convergence, consumer electronics, wireless technologies, and electronic gaming.

The December 2004 awards ceremony was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City and gave a lot of visibility to the 15 contest finalists, with 25 members of the press and 15 members of the investment community attending. The first-, second-, and third-place winners received grants of $25,000, $15,000, and $10,000, respectively, from Intel, as well as incubation services from the Technical University of Monterrey. The winning projects included a voice over IP product, a biometric identity verification hardware and a process to securely seal mail for government bids. Craig Barrett presented the award to the first-place winner of "Premio Intel.": Marcus Dantus and Serge Kruppa of SimiTel.

"Through this venture we have proven that Mexico possesses a high degree of talent able to design projects and integrate them in Intel's production chain at an international level," said Gerardo Villarreal, general director of Intel Mexico.

The 2005 plans for "Premio Intel por un México competitivo" are currently under development.