I just heard some great news from my friends at DUTO, SA - the Colombian start-up that developed a way for visually-impaired students to read information from computer displays through touch sensitivity. DUTO was just announced as the winner of an innovation contest called "World of Solutions: innovations for People with Disabilities," sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank. Over 150 proposals from 22 countries were considered in the contest.

DUTO is no stranger to innovation awards. The company, which began as the undergraduate thesis of three students at the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, a small college in the mountains of Colombia, won the 2007 TICAmericas competition, and the founders have toured the world showing off their technology and drawing attention to their business.

This latest award demonstrates the growing power of innovation contests and awards as a way to cast the spotlight on innovation at the frontiers of the global economy, and drive home the point that talent knows no borders and no limits. Congratulations to CEO María Fernanda Zúñiga Zabala, co-founder John Alexis Guera Gomez, and the rest of the DUTO team.

Obligatory book plug: The full story of this unlikely success can be found in Young World Rising, due out in June