[{"jcr:title":"Insper scholarship students visit the innovation environment of Silicon Valley","cq:tags_0":"area-de-conhecimento:tecnologia","cq:tags_1":"area-de-conhecimento:engenharia","cq:tags_2":"area-de-conhecimento:ciência-da-computação","cq:tags_3":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/programa-de-bolsas"},{"richText":"Students Gabrielly Susko, Alan Barbosa, and Fernando dos Santos spent a week in California as part of the prize for winning the Campus Mobile competition","madeBy":"Por","tag":"area-de-conhecimento:tecnologia","title":"Insper Scholarship students visit the innovation environment of Silicon Valley","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"azul marinho / vermelho / branco"},{"themeName":"azul marinho / vermelho / branco"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"The excitement from the 13th edition of Campus Mobile, held earlier this year, continues for three Insper scholarship students who won the national competition for ideas and solutions for mobile devices, organized by Instituto Claro. Gabrielly Carneiro Susko, from Computer Engineering, and Alan Matheus Alves Barbosa and Fernando Vieira dos Santos, from Computer Science, flew to San Francisco, in the United States, as part of their prize. It was the first trip abroad for all three of them, which made the anticipation for their week in California even greater. The group landed on Saturday, September 13, and had two free days to explore the city before the official Silicon Valley schedule began. They took many photos at Golden Gate Park — one of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks — walked around their hotel near Union Square downtown, and rode the city’s iconic cable cars. Alan and Fernando even ventured on a self-driving car ride. Both admitted to feeling a mix of excitement and fear as the vehicle moved on its own, the steering wheel turning without a driver. “But it seemed to know what it was doing,” says Alan. From Monday to Friday, the itinerary was packed. The group visited the Consulate General of Brazil in San Francisco — which has a science, technology, and innovation department to support Brazilian initiatives — and toured the campuses of Stanford University in Palo Alto and the University of California, Berkeley. They also attended lectures and meetings at AWS and the startup accelerator Plug and Play. While Gabrielly visited the headquarters of Notion (productivity apps) and Genentech (biotechnology), Alan and Fernando extended their tour at AWS and took part in a hackathon — the name for marathon programming events. Gabrielly believes it will be hard to experience anything as remarkable anytime soon. She was awarded for Curso Ideal, an app that recommends academic and professional opportunities, and says the tension started long before the trip: “Since it was my first time leaving the country, the journey started early, with all the passport and visa paperwork. Still in São Paulo, I was so anxious that I even got sick the Friday before. A whole movie was playing in my head. I kept wondering what the immigration officer would ask when I arrived, and imagined not being able to explain why I was there and getting sent back home.” During visits to AWS and Stanford, she heard positive feedback about Brazilians’ work ethic and adaptability in U.S. companies and academia. Brazilian student Mila Barbosa, currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford, even recorded a video for Curso Ideal, sharing her path toward a career in Biology — perfectly aligned with the app’s focus on academic and professional mentorship. “The most amazing thing, beyond meeting new people and seeing those beautiful university buildings, labs, and research lines, was the shift in perspective about our professional potential,” Gabrielly says. Alan, on the other hand, was especially focused on building partnerships to strengthen the projects that competed at Campus Mobile. “I’m really interested in entrepreneurship, so I was thrilled to see the startup work environment,” he says. “I wanted to be part of that ecosystem. I know we’re not there yet, but someday we will be. We made several contacts at Y Combinator during a startup pitch event and heard CTOs from Silicon Valley companies talk about the potential of artificial intelligence.” Technology’s omnipresence left a strong impression on the two young developers, who are working together on Passabot, a chatbot that sends flight options via WhatsApp messages. (Their teammates in the winning Campus Mobile project were Bianca Freitas, a Unicamp graduate, and Leonardo Piana, an ITA student.) “I think the first thing that catches your eye when you arrive in the Valley is how dominant technology is,” says Fernando. “You see ads everywhere — especially for AI companies — in airports, subways, billboards. You can tell the market is huge and competitive.” Dreaming Even Bigger During their days in the Valley, Gabrielly, Alan, and Fernando realized they needed a more global vision for their products, which had been focused solely on the Brazilian market. Alan recalls that two people wanted to try buying plane tickets via WhatsApp but couldn’t because the service was only available in Portuguese and priced in reais. “They told us to hurry up with the app’s internationalization — people would love to buy flights via chat — and that opened our minds to the idea that Passabot could go worldwide,” says Alan. Fernando agrees: “Most startups there already have international clients; they’re born global. It’s a completely different product mindset.” With similar insight, Gabrielly received the same advice from analysts at Insper’s Paulo Cunha Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub after returning to Brazil. “The way we’re developing our product now is very regional — a Brazil-only solution — and that’s not financially sustainable abroad,” she says. “But instead of getting discouraged, we decided to start thinking of new products that could, in the future, allow us to scale globally. I think we can make a bigger impact than we originally planned.” Curso Ideal also includes students João Guimarães and Marcio Vicente from the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA), Felipe Leão from Inteli, and Carolina Rabelo from the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Last week, it was announced as one of the 80 educational initiatives competing for the 2026 Prêmio LED, organized by Globo and the Roberto Marinho Foundation. At the University of California, Berkeley, for example, the students attended a lecture about the school’s innovation and entrepreneurship programs and met people from various countries and backgrounds, all at different stages of their entrepreneurial journeys. “One takeaway from this trip is that everyone creating something seems to be aiming to become a unicorn — the biggest company in their field,” Gabrielly reflects. “Hearing their ambitions and inspirations made me feel less of an impostor. I realized I’m not less capable than anyone else.” There was still plenty of time to explore at night, visit clothing and tech stores, and interact with other Campus Mobile winning teams. “The coolest thing about Silicon Valley is that it attracts people from all over the world,” says Alan. “The cultural diversity was incredible. We were always eager to talk, especially to practice our English. We had such high expectations for this trip. The three of us come from humble backgrounds and knew we probably wouldn’t return to San Francisco anytime soon. So we wanted to make the most of every second — staying up until we dropped, then waking up to explore something new.” Fernando went viral on Instagram with an 18,000-like video of his cable car ride — but the trip also marked another first for him: touching the ocean. Ironically, for someone from a country with 7,500 kilometers of Atlantic coastline, it happened on a Pacific beach. Was the water cold? “Oh, incredibly cold!” laughs Fernando, a native of Rio Maria, in Pará, who had only stepped on river sand before. “I just got my feet wet. It was chilly, and we arrived a bit late. There were a few swimmers, but I think they were used to the cold water.” In Campo Geral, a novel by João Guimarães Rosa, the young Miguilim once asks: “Mother, what is the sea?” And when his mother sighs — never having seen it — he wonders, “Is the sea what we miss?” College, friends, projects, victories, travel, and recognition: unforgettable moments of emotion. It’s hard not to imagine that, for Fernando — and also for Gabrielly from Paraná and Alan from Pernambuco — that week in California felt like gazing at the ocean for the very first time."},{"jcr:title":"Gabrielly Susko","fileName":"Gabrielly Susko.jpeg","alt":"Gabrielly Susko"},{"jcr:title":"Fernando dos Santos","fileName":"Fernando dos Santos .jpeg","alt":"Fernando dos Santos"},{"jcr:title":"Alan Barbosa","fileName":"Alan Barbosa .jpeg","alt":"Alan Barbosa"}]