[{"jcr:title":"Programa Lidera: Insper tech students work in real startup environments solving challenges","cq:tags_0":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/internacional"},{"richText":"Initiative by Women in Action enters its second edition and has already placed eight students in a monitored four-month immersion ","madeBy":"Por","tag":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper","title":"Lidera: Insper tech students work in real startup environments solving challenges","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"amarelo - verde - vermelho"},{"themeName":"amarelo - verde - vermelho"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"To promote collaboration between the Insper community and partner startups, eight female students from the institution have already participated in the Programa Lidera, an initiative by Women in Action, from Paulo Cunha Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, which aims to promote the presence of women in technology courses and careers, as well as in leadership positions.   Currently in the second edition, the program allows selected students from the programs of Computer Science and Engineering to experience the daily life of technology-oriented companies. For Ana Carolina de Magalhães, Engineering professor at Insper, the main objective is mutual contribution between all parties involved.   “We want to inspire and train young female talents to help develop an ecosystem where gender equality underpins a more innovative and fair future,” she says.   According to her, the initiative focuses on inclusion and diversification in the tech sector, offering these students the opportunity to be inside real startup environments from their undergraduate studies, receiving mentorship and practical training in a learning and professional growth environment.   Each program cycle lasts three to four months, during which students work on real, short-term technology projects that are aligned with the startups’ interests and compatible with the students’ profiles.   “The students will develop technical skills, many of which they may not have explored in depth during their undergraduate program, but which are widely used in the corporate environment,” the professor explains. “Furthermore, they will develop social skills, particularly in communication and organization, which are important for any career,” she adds.   The selection is based on matching the needs of startups with the students’ skills. A call is made to the companies, which submit a technology-based project and the desired profile for development. The startup itself does not necessarily need to be in the tech sector, as long as the proposed project is technology-driven and aligns with the program’s goals.   After an initial selection of submitted projects, students register and indicate their preferred areas of interest. A careful matching process follows, aligning startup requirements with student skills before assigning each project.   Creating a WhatsApp Agent     Beatriz Rodrigues de Freitas, an eighth-semester Computer Engineering student, is one of the students in the second edition and has been working with the startup ZapCircle since April this year. The company is developing an AI agent for communities, integrated with WhatsApp.   “The idea is that each group of users can customize this agent by changing interfaces such as name and language. The tool can be used to generate newsletters, summarize or highlight important points of the conversations, and respond to questions based on previous discussions,” explains Beatriz.   For her, the experience has been enriching. “I'm using a tool I've never used before, n8n, so it's already a learning opportunity. Seeing how they’re developing the idea is very interesting and gave me a clearer understanding of the process,” says the student, who dedicates about 10 hours of remote work per week to the project and participates in regular meetings with company representatives.   Beatriz says that the opportunity to observe the startup's dynamics and see how to apply what she learns at the university in real situations is the most meaningful part.   Dashboard Construction   Ellen Coutinho Lião da Silva, also an eighth-semester Computer Engineering student, joined the first edition of the program and worked with MABE Bio, a greentech that develops new materials, such as bags, from plants. The company, co-founded by Rachel Maranhão and Marina Belintani, partnered with Insper for its second project— the first was related to problem-solving work, achieving results that contributed to the permanent employment of some students from the program.   “From September 2024 to January 2025, I was responsible for creating the company's first dashboard. The requirement was to facilitate management by creating a visual map of key sales and investment indicators” says Ellen.   Another task was automating monthly and annual reports for investors, allowing team members to focus on higher-value tasks for the startup’s growth.   Ellen reports that she met weekly with one of the startup partners to align deliverables. “This taught me about communication and workload management, and reflects on business world topics, such as which indicators are relevant and why. This added value to my experience as a technology professional,” she affirms.   For the 21-year-old student, the experience aligns with her professional ambitions. “I plan to pursue a career in data engineering, and I feel that this first experience at MABE Bio aligns with that path. My main concern was to avoid creating graphs just for the sake of it, and instead ensure that the visualizations added real value to the co-founders’ daily work,” she says.   She has also completed two summer internships, at the startup Litti and at Morgan Stanley."}]