Octavio Cordero Palacios (Santa Rosa, Azuay, May 3, 1870 – December 17, 1930) was an Ecuadorian writer, playwright, poet, mathematician, lawyer, professor and inventor.

His father was Vicente Cordero Crespo, a poet who authored the play in verse "Don Lucas", and who was a scribe in Cuenca in 1889, and a conservative journalist and editor of the journal "El Criterio" in 1895.

He also translated works from French and English into Spanish, including a faithful rendition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".

In 1910 during the armed conflict with Peru, he joined the army reserves with the rank of sergeant major, and was named chief of engineers of the First South Division.

He created a topographic military map of Ecuador's southern border, and taught courses at the University of Cuenca on planimetry, altimetry, and the layout of roads, and construction of bridges and causeways.

He had already published the following essays: "Don José Antonio Vallejo, su primera gobernación entre 1.777 y 1.784", "El Azuay Histórico", "Pro Tomebamba", "Crónicas Documentadas para la Historia de Cuenca" and he promised to publish two new books, which he never did, perhaps due to his impoverished state.

He also invented a "numerical device that calculated perfectly the square root of numbers", as well as a "trigonometry text in verse".