Unesc Innovation Fair awards innovative ideas

Ten projects, four minutes for each presentation, and the opportunity to turn ideas into businesses. The 13th Innovation Fair at Unesc brought together proposals from entrepreneurs in the academic community and external participants on the evening of this Friday (10/30), at the Ruy Hülse Auditorium. The program was part of the 17th Science and Technology Week (SCT) at the University.

The first place went to Pequenos Corajosos, followed by ProfitCore in second, and Habitron in third. The projects were evaluated by a panel responsible for selecting the top three presentations. The awards include cash prizes and a 50% scholarship for admission to Unesc's incubator for ideas and businesses, with the possibility of advancing the development of the proposals.

The coordinator of the Innovation Fair, Christian Engelmann, highlights the open nature of the initiative. Unlike other entrepreneurship actions that follow the development of ideas, the fair receives already structured projects for presentation and evaluation.

“Each pitch is a surprise for us. We also have the opportunity to see what the academic community is developing. In this edition, eight projects came from the internal community of Unesc and two were submitted by external participants,” he emphasizes.

Persistence transforms results

Winning first place also represents a new stage for the members of Pequenos Corajosos, Rodrigo Júnior and Pâmela Bartozeik. The idea began to take shape during the Unesc Challenge held last month. In their first experience, the team did not achieve one of the top three placements.

At the Innovation Fair, presenting the main points of the startup secured the first place. “The result reinforces the importance of seizing opportunities, improving the communication of the proposal, and persisting in the development of the business,” Rodrigo states.

The experience also highlights the role of innovation initiatives in bridging ideas, specialized evaluation, and incubation possibilities. With the award, the winning projects gain encouragement to advance in the next stages of development. We participated in the Unesc Challenge last month when we began to develop the project idea. At that time, we did not manage to place among the top three. The presentation did not go as we expected, and we did not achieve the desired result.

"The achievement is very important, especially because it shows that results also depend on timing, opportunity, and how we present the idea to the evaluation panel,” adds Pâmela.

The 17th Science and Technology Week at Unesc was sponsored by Plasson do Brasil, the Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy of Santa Catarina (CREA-SC), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), the Federal and Regional Councils of Biology, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI).