30 Nov Entrepreneurial potential in the area of photonics is discussed at Unicamp
Text: Vanessa Sensato
Event brought training and examples of innovative entrepreneurship in several areas
O Unicamp’s Photonics Integrated Laboratory (LIF) held on November 23rd the 1st Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the field of Photonics. The event brought together the community of the Physics Institute (IFGW) and Electrical Engineering (FEEC) at Unicamp, entrepreneurs and companies in the hardware area with the aim of discussing and fostering the culture of innovative entrepreneurship.
During the whole day, in addition to lectures with entrepreneurship concepts and round tables with entrepreneurs, the connections between participants were enhanced by a Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fairwhich brought together six companies from the Campinas region, active in the hardware area, to present their products and services and interact with students and researchers. The fair and lectures were held at the School of Electrical Engineering at Unicamp.
According to Professor Newton Frateschi, LIF’s coordinator, the event is part of a series of initiatives to promote innovative entrepreneurship in the area of Photonics in the Campinas region. “Unicamp has a huge potential to transform its scientific scientific results into the next technology-based companies.. We have to plant a seed in each area and act so that students and academics see entrepreneurship as a career option and as an opportunity to impact the economy and society of our country,” encourages the coordinator.
Frateschi also pointed out the need to work increasingly in a network. “In this event, we were able to gather internal partners, such as Liga Empreendedora and Unicamp Ventures, as well as companies and institutions interested in stimulating innovative entrepreneurship in the hardware area, such as CPqD and Padtec. I feel that the activation of the ecosystem was essential for the success of this first edition with very interesting discussions”, he evaluates.
The 1st Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Photonics was an initiative of LIF, within the scope of the National System of Photonics Laboratories (Sisfóton-MCTI), held with the support of the IFGW, FEEC, MTE, Liga Empreendedora, CCSNano, Inova Unicamp, OSA Unicamp, INFABIC, Forum Campinas Foundation, Eldorado Research Institute, and Idea.
Learn more about each part of the event, in the content below:
First block: “Opening of the event
The opening of the event featured a presentation by Dr. Alvaro Bedoya, Vice President of Optics’ Integrated Photonics Technical Group, on Career, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Alvaro talked a bit about his academic and professional career and highlighted the importance of student engagement in participating in student chapters. He also presented the program for the development of the semiconductor area in Australia, highlighting opportunities for work or entrepreneurship in this area. Next, Prof. Newton Frateschi, coordinator of Unicamp’s Integrated Photonics Laboratory (LIF), made a presentation on innovation and entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on the ideation phase of startups, where he discussed the issue of the business model. To this end, he described the process of using Lean Canvas for this purpose. Newton also highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in the academic community. At the end of the presentation, the LIF team conducted a process of discussing and filling out the Lean Canvas of the Apple company with the help and participation of the listeners to exemplify how the process is carried out. The iconic company was used as an example for this activity.
Newton Frateschi, LIF Coordinator
Second block: “Entrepreneurship Roundtable
In this block were discussed three fundamental topics for people who want to start a venture in the hardware industry: Design Thinking (Vandré Sales, CEO of Meliva), Pitch development (Vanessa Sensato, Journalist specialized in technology marketing) and Startup Fundraising (Rose Ramos, CEO of Match It). Thus, the best way to think about the problem to be solved, think about the audience to tell our story and pass our initiative in an appropriate way, and how to know the best fundraising options that can support the business were presented. In the discussions were problematized real cases of the participants and how the initial idea of the venture can change a lot during the realization of the project and how important the contact with the innovation ecosystem is.
Rose Ramos, CEO of the startup Match It
At the end of the block the participants had the opportunity to visit and learn about the activities and initiatives of the Photonicamp laboratory that is part of LIF.
Guided tour of the Photonicamp laboratory
Third block: “Hardtechs Roundtable, Incubation and Acceleration”
This block presented important information for future entrepreneurs who want to leverage and scale their business in a fast and sustainable way: Opportunities with hardtechs (Newton Frateschi, IFGW), How to incubate your startup at Unicamp (Mariana Zanatta, Agência Inova Unicamp), How to give your business a boost (Rosana Jamal, Baita Aceleradora). The discussion dealt with the challenges for hardware startups as well as the work done by Incamp, which is the incubator for technology-based companies at Unicamp and has the objective of supporting the creation and development of companies, enabling them through the interaction between the University and the network of partners, and the process of accelerating new businesses through the Baita Accelerator, which seeks startups with great potential in the market that are in the process of raising capital to operate efficiently.
Mariana Zanatta, Manager of Incamp
Recruitment and Innovation Fair
The event provided a fair with booths from companies of the Campinas and region’s hardware ecosystem that had the opportunity to present their products and services and interact with students and researchers, among them:
- Pósitron
- CPqD
- Padtec
- NTCOMP
- DMA Electronics
- Campinas Tech
Visitors interacting with companies and entrepreneurs
Fourth block: “Hardtechs Roundtable, Incubation and Acceleration”
In this block were presented the entrepreneurship initiatives that exist within Unicamp and real cases of companies and startups that operate in the hardware market and the experience of entrepreneurs and leaders in the area: Liga Empreendedora (Gabriel Thomas Dias de Freitas, Liga Member), Brasil Agritest (Anielle Ranulfi, CEO), Positron (Fábio Favari, CTO), NVIDIA (Jomar Santos, Development Manager), Lumentum (Luís Hecker, Business Director). The main innovations and applications in the agribusiness, automotive, visual computing, optical networks and laser applications sectors were presented.
Dr Anielle, Partner of the startup Brazil Agristet