University was present at the three-day event at Cais Embarcadero
Monday, April 14 | 2025
With the theme “Beyond Resilience”, South Summit Brazil 2025 brought together more than 20 people for a three-day immersion in business, entrepreneurship, innovation, resilience, and much more. PUCRS was once again present at the event through its Corporate Solutions area, PUCRS Science and Technology Park (Tecnopuc), Corporate Education, PUCRS Careers, PUCRS Consulting, Institute of Petroleum and Natural Resources (IPR) and Institutional Relations Department.
As a sponsor of the Business Lounge, during the event, PUCRS further solidified its relationship with strategic companies and startups, participated in several panels with its professors and researchers and showed that the University is a space for innovation. Check out the main insights from one of the largest events in the area in Latin America below:
The rector of PUCRS, Brother Manuir Mentges, was the panel's mediator. “The Role of Science and Technology Parks in Territorial Development”, on Wednesday, April 9, at the Corner Stage. The debate was attended by Flavia Fiorin, operations and entrepreneurship manager at the PUCRS Science and Technology Park (Tecnopuc), Marcelo Favaro, director of the UFRGS Technology Park, and Silvio Bitencourt da Silva, director of Tecnosinos. In the panel, Ir. Manuir contextualized the birth of universities and innovation in the context of the quadruple helix: “universities, companies, governments and civil society. It is in this context that technology parks emerge”.
At the event, Flavia Fiorin explained that the parks are positioned with this interface and with the commitment to ensure that these propellers are articulated, as they are organisms of different natures, with challenges and density of demands, but that it is in the common objective that each of them complements each other.
“In scientific and technological innovation, one of the challenges and mission, for example, is to develop talent and transform the realities in which we operate, looking to the future. Connected to a reality with a unique and peculiar perspective. We look from the outside and see buildings with a large number of companies, but what we actually have are companies that are interacting with this development,” says the operations and entrepreneurship manager at Tecnopuc.
Technology parks are an important strategy for transforming research into a product connected to society. When addressing the concept of collaboration, the rector also mentioned the Alliance for Innovation and Happy Pact, movements of which PUCRS is a part in the city of Porto Alegre.
“Education must be connected to social realities. And the role of high-standard scientific research, which can support new businesses, is a vector, from technology parks, to engage people in purposes that are our challenges”, he summarized.
At the end, the rector, Brother Manuir Mentges, also highlighted the importance of student access and retention and the development of talent, after all, around 12 thousand people work in technology parks.
On Thursday, April 10, PUCRS held a breakfast with the university's partners in the areas of communication, business and politics in the Business Lounge. On the occasion, Brother Manuir Mentges emphasized that the University has always sought to get involved with the South Summit and that, for PUCRS, innovation is a strategy for generating impact and value for society.
“Our efforts are to fulfill our mission as a community university, prioritizing human rights and being a driver of social development for Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil. We want to make our structures available to the government, civil society, organizations and companies. Our vision is to be a new university for a new society and we want to be protagonists in this process.” said the rector of PUCRS.
The superintendent of innovation and development at PUCRS and Tecnopuc, Jorge Audy, thanked the partners, especially Wagner Lopes, CEO of South Summit Brazil, and Cláudio Gastal, president of Badesul, who helped bring the event to Porto Alegre. The founder and president of South Summit, María Benjumea, was also present and highlighted the importance of the University for the event.
“The university plays a fundamental role in the South Summit. We were born from a university with the conviction that transformation through innovation should not be limited to documents, but to practical application. You are incredible! We multiply the lessons we have learned from Rio Grande do Sul. One example is last year’s crisis, with the floods. What we saw was unity and help from all sides. And that is the only way to overcome problems: by constantly creating innovation, with people always at the center.”
South Summit Brazil CEO, Wagner Lopes, highlighted the University’s power in this ecosystem. “This is a very special space and it is great to be here with PUCRS, which is our home during the year, there at Tecnopuc. It has been a pleasure to share this journey.”
South Summit Global CEO Nacho Mateo added about the synergy that the event brings to the Capital. “South Summit Brazil is a successful case that we want to take to the rest of the world, as the event is a platform for global connection and innovation is the chave for development”.
PUCRS’s Vice-Rector for Undergraduate Studies and Continuing Education, Professor Adriana Kampff, participated on Thursday, April 10, at the Corner Stage, in the panel “Education and Talent Development for the Technology Market”. Under the mediation of the rector of UFRGS, Marcia Barbosa, the Academic and International Relations Pro-Rector of Unisinos, Guilherme Trez, and the Pro-Rector of Undergraduate Studies at UFRGS, Nadya Pesce da Silveira, also participated in the debate on the development of teaching in the world of technology.
In her speech, Adriana Kampff highlighted the relevance of the IT area and how this can be seen in practice at PUCRS. In this sector alone, the University has over 2.800 undergraduate students and 5 on-site courses, such as the Bachelor's degree in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. In addition to undergraduate and graduate programs, PUCRS also has integrated research lines and programs that seek to provide opportunities and knowledge to high school students, such as Dev The Devs, which has already trained 3.300 students from public schools. After all, for the pro-rector, talent development takes place in the education of the new generation:
“We have challenges from basic education onwards. The new curriculum includes computing and the development of computational thinking, not from a market perspective, but from a scientific perspective based on foundations.”
Adriana Kampff believes that, in addition to the technical thinking that should be developed in students, human skills are essential, whether for group work, remote work or digital work with intercultural teams. Always seeking confluence with other areas of knowledge and generating opportunities for co-creation to design solutions. The professor also emphasizes that the technology market remains buoyant and highly competitive.
“If we look at talent production, we have to discuss how we train ethical professionals who are committed to solutions and environmental impacts. Instilling these issues in discussions in a critical and connected way is essential. Our students choose where they want to work, and one swallow does not make a summer. So, if we build a critical mass, our students have the potential to start this movement in the market, to discuss the ethical use of data, for example, and how to do it better.”
