School of Technology students won national challenge
School of Technology 
students Talles Feijó (Electrical Engineering), Jonathan Culau and Guilherme Rocha (Control and Automation Engineering) have won the national leg of Act In Space, the only global event to offer contestants the chance to work with patents of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French Space Agency (CNES). The event took place from May 25-26 at Global Tecnopuc. PUCRS was the only Brazilian university to be home to the national leg. 72 other cities in 34 countries all over the planet have been home to it too.
The winning project is a low cost solution consisting of stratospheric balloons for monitoring crops in order to reduce the damages caused by plagues. The business model designed by students would be financially accessible to family farmers and would bring more stability to them and to the productive chain. Delivering an impeccable presentation, the RTC Control team won over the judges and secured its spot in the finals in Toulouse, France, on Jun 27. Students are ready for a presentation to be delivered in English, by the Idear – Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Entrepreneurship and Innovation of PUCRS team and will be accompanied by Business School professor Dr Vicente Zanella.
The event
Act In Space is intended to promote the creation of startups using space technologies that have an impact on our everyday lives. In Brazil, the event has been promoted by Idear, with the support of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), the Consulate General of France, the School of Technology of PUCRS and the Office of the Vice President for Undergraduate Studies and Continued Education (Prograd). The activity received the support from PUCRS’ Science and Technology Park (Tecnopuc) and the University’s Business School.
The 14 groups that joined the program have designed projects inspired in actions that have an impact on everyday life, with focus on social and humanitarian issues. 140 applicants signed up, 80 of which have done on-site activities for 24 hours to find the answers for the needs of the future as they invented new uses and services derived from space technology in order to solve social problems and face the challenges of the contemporary world.
The top three projects in the national leg secured a spot in the Tecnopuc’s Business Modeling Program – Startup Garagem. The program features a business mentoring program for three months and an area for each team to use during this period. All participants have earned a complementary hours certificate.
