Two Aspire Leaders Program alumni from Mexico, Francisco Zuriel Lopez and Angel Solis, have been recognized by Forbes México 30 Under 30 2026 for work addressing challenges in their communities through innovation. Lopez was selected in the Sustainability and Social Impact category for his work with SoilTronix Robotics, a deeptech agricultural company using robotics and artificial intelligence to address soil degradation and expand access to precision agriculture. Solis was recognized in the Social Impact category for his work with Kukulmat, an initiative connecting education, Indigenous languages, cultural identity, STEM, and emerging technologies. While their projects operate in very different spaces, both alumni are demonstrating how technology can become a tool for expanding opportunity and creating solutions rooted in the communities they serve.
Two Paths to Impact, One National Recognition
For Lopez and Solis, recognition by Forbes México represents an important milestone in projects that have grown from ambitious ideas into initiatives creating measurable impact.
Lopez’s work centers on a challenge fundamental to the future of agriculture: soil degradation. Through SoilTronix Robotics, he and his team are developing mobile robotic systems that bring real-time soil analysis directly to farmers, helping make sophisticated precision agriculture technologies more accessible.
For Solis, the journey began much earlier. At 17, he founded Kukulmat with an initial focus on creating educational materials in Indigenous languages in Mexico. As the initiative grew, so did its scope. Kukulmat began exploring how ancestral knowledge, education, emerging technologies, and cultural identity could strengthen one another rather than exist in separate spaces.
That experience led Solis to a principle that continues to shape his work: “Talent is everywhere, but opportunities are not.”
Kukulmat became his way of helping close that gap, connecting areas that are often treated separately, including cultural identity and STEM, ancestral knowledge and emerging technology, and local communities and wider education and innovation ecosystems.
For Lopez, the Forbes recognition similarly offered validation while reinforcing that the work behind SoilTronix Robotics is far from finished.
“This recognition validates that we’re heading in the right direction, even as we recognize there’s still much work ahead. On a personal level, I hope this achievement will inspire countless other young people to pursue entrepreneurial ventures and leverage science and technology to address the challenges they identify around them,” Lopez shared.
Their recognition places two very different approaches to innovation alongside one another, showing how social impact can emerge both from developing new technologies and from rethinking who has the opportunity to access and shape them.
From Agricultural Fields to Classrooms, Technology Becomes a Bridge
At the center of Lopez’s work is SoilTronix Robotics, a deeptech agricultural company designing and manufacturing advanced mobile robotic solutions to address soil degradation.
Its technology combines mobile robotics, advanced sensors, and artificial intelligence to analyze soil health directly in agricultural fields. Rather than requiring farmers to purchase expensive equipment, SoilTronix operates through a Robot as a Service model, providing access to precise soil information as a service and lowering the barrier to using precision agriculture technologies.
The company is currently working with agricultural communities in central Mexico and has secured more than $25,000 USD in funding from BeVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship and other institutions to support its growth.
“SoilTronix Robotics was established to bridge the gap between farmers and modern technology, because agriculture remains one of the sectors most disconnected from technological innovation,” Lopez reflected.
Solis has been addressing a different kind of access gap through Kukulmat. Since its creation, the initiative has reached close to 3,000 people across more than 11 communities and three states in Mexico, distributed more than 2,000 educational tools, trained 15 Cultural Ambassadors, and established a community cultural center in Chiapas.
Its programs range from community publishing to STEM and robotics, but one experience became particularly meaningful for Solis. Through Exploradores del Pasado, a culturally rooted robotics initiative in Chiapas, more than 55 Indigenous children participated in STEM learning experiences. Five students, four girls and one boy, later represented their community at a national FIRST LEGO League competition in Monterrey and earned a place at an international stage.
For Solis, their accomplishment revealed that the technology itself was only one part of the impact.
“What mattered most was seeing young people encounter possibilities that had previously felt distant, while remaining deeply connected to their language, culture, and community,” Solis reflected.
Across both initiatives, technology serves as a bridge rather than an endpoint. SoilTronix is working to bring agricultural innovation closer to farmers, while Kukulmat is creating opportunities for young people to engage with STEM and emerging technologies without asking them to leave their cultural identities behind.
Building Opportunities That Can Multiply
The journeys behind both projects have also shaped how Lopez and Solis understand leadership.
For Lopez, entrepreneurship brought obstacles that reinforced the importance of continuing to build even when progress is difficult.
“What we’ve learned most importantly along the way is that determination, discipline, and perseverance are the most critical elements for entrepreneurship. Because despite the challenges, if you remain committed to your goals and keep working toward them, good things will come,” he said.
Solis’s understanding of opportunity was shaped in part by his own education. Receiving a full university scholarship expanded what he believed was possible and connected him with people, ideas, places, and experiences that changed his trajectory. Over time, he began recognizing how many pivotal moments in his life existed because someone else had first created an institution, scholarship, community, or program that opened a door.
Kukulmat became one way to create more of those doors for others.
His approach to leadership evolved alongside the organization. What began as a teenager trying to manage nearly every part of a project himself gradually became an effort to connect people, institutions, and ideas so that opportunities could continue growing beyond his individual involvement.
“A scholarship can change a person’s trajectory. A fellowship can enable an idea. An idea can become a pilot. A pilot can earn trust. And eventually, an opportunity originally given to one person can become an opportunity available to an entire community,” he said.
From Aspire Opportunities to What Comes Next
Aspire has intersected with both alumni’s journeys in different ways.
For Lopez, the Aspire Leaders Program provided an opportunity to connect with emerging leaders from around the world while developing his understanding of leadership beyond entrepreneurship and technology. “The Aspire Leaders Program was an incredible opportunity to connect with talented young people globally and discover what genuine leadership really means,” he said.
Solis’s relationship with Aspire continued to evolve after completing the program. He first participated as a learner and later contributed to the community as an Aspire Community Leader in Mexico City. Aspire support also became part of Kukulmat’s growth. Social Impact Seed Funding supported its Cultural Ambassadors Program and the creation of Hijxs del Maíz, while the Community Action Award helped expand work in robotics, cultural leadership, and institutional development. “I experienced firsthand what can happen when an organization chooses to invest in someone’s potential, and then gives that person the trust to create opportunities for others,” he said.
Now, both alumni are looking toward the next stages of ventures that have already moved well beyond their starting points. Lopez plans to scale SoilTronix Robotics’ production so the company can serve more farmers while expanding its robots to support a wider range of agricultural tasks. His long-term goal is to position the company as an agricultural innovation leader developing robotic systems for the future of food production.
Solis plans to strengthen Kukulmat’s work in Chiapas while creating more spaces where young people, educators, and communities can imagine and build futures shaped by their own knowledge and priorities. Personally, he hopes to continue placing himself in environments where different cultures, disciplines, and perspectives can challenge how he understands the world.
For two ALP 2024 alumni recognized on the same national stage, Forbes México 30 Under 30 represents more than an individual achievement. Lopez and Solis are building in different fields, but their work shares a common direction: expanding who can participate in innovation and ensuring that technology and opportunity reach communities too often left outside of them.
