The content coordinator of Academic Working Capital program, Diogo Dutra, presented AWC in one of the panels held at the 2nd Annual International Conference on Engineering Education & Teaching, that happened from June 5th to 8th in Athens, Greece. The event was organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research and gathered directors, professors and students from universities of different countries for discussions related to engineering education, focusing on innovation.
Diogo included a case study of the program to an article that he was developing for the conference on the impact of entrepreneurial education activities for engineering students in the final phase of the course. The article was written along with the professors of the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP) Marcos Barretto, executive coordinator of AWC, and José Reinaldo Silva. During the panel, held on day 7th, Diogo spoke about the importance of using the senior research project to create new entrepreneurial spaces for students and presented the work done at AWC as a success case.
“I presented what we do in terms of workshop, acceleration tracks and mentoring program. I made a parallel with education for entrepreneurship scholars who speak of practice-based learning”, said Diogo. “It’s not that theory X practice discussion, but it’s a real learning.” The content coordinator showed the results of the first edition – four of the seven finalist groups continued investing in their projects – and talked about how the 2016 edition is going, including the positive results of the Online Workshop, held on May 7th, 14th and 21st.
According to Diogo, the participation in the event provided an exchange of experiences and contacts with representatives from universities of many countries, which can generate new ideas to implement in the program. “I am very happy with the receptivity and complements to what we are doing,” he says.
