The first day of the 1st 2015 Workshop of the Academic Working Capital program was full of discussions on technological business and design. The authors of the 12 proposals selected in 2015 attended lectures, showed their projects to colleagues, listened to feedback and comments and made analysis. The topic of the 1st workshop, which is taking place between July 13th-16th in the auditorium and in classrooms of the building of Mechanical and Naval Engineering of the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP), is “Detailed design and construction”.
During the opening of the workshop, held on the morning of the 13th, the expert in Innovation Diogo Dutra explained that entrepreneurship is not an easy walk and compared this process to a hero’s journey. “What we expect is that you leave here with a consistent design, a list of coherent materials and a minimally thought out business model,” he said.
The representative of Instituto TIM Anna Carolina Meireles said the idea of Academic Working Capital comes from a similar project carried out in Italy that supports startups. “Technological entrepreneurship is the key if we want to invest in human development,” she emphasized. Anna Carolina recalled the 2-year anniversary of the Instituto TIM, celebrated in July. “The Institute is very new. A foundation takes a long time to show results, and we have already seen solid results,” completed.
For the rest of the day, students attended a lecture by professor Marcos Barreto on engeneering design and another, given by Diogo, on business model. They also participated in a Presentation Fair, in which they showed their projects to colleagues and heard feedback. Divided into clusters according to the application of each project and guided by advisers, the students discussed the competitors and created problem tress.
The second day of the workshop will be dedicated to user experience and the third day, to engeneering thinking. In the fourth and final day, they will present their projects again, already incorporating the feedback and guidance received during the previous days.
