The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) welcomed last Thursday, March 24th, the CEO of NINA and one of the innovation and technology highlights of 2020 featured by Forbes Under 30, Simony César, for a lecture on entrepreneurship and innovation. Simony, who is 29 years old, is the creator and manager of NINA, a startup that offers integrated technology into various applications in order to standardize, centralize and track reports of harassment and violence in public transports. In addition, she uses the data obtained in order to help governments to develop more effective public policies. 

The event took place in the auditorium of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neurosciences (IIN-ELS), one of the ISD units in Macaíba (RN). Graduated in Publicity and Propaganda, Simony spoke to an audience made mainly of students from the Institution’s Master’s Program in Neuroengineering. “What I wanted to show is that many times there are possibilities that are in front of us and we let it go by believing that we are not from a certain area or specialty. I am an advertising professional, but I developed a startup that works with data, and what we want is for the scientists who are on the benches and in the laboratories to also see the possibility of creating solutions that can impact society outside of their comfort zone”, she said. 

Simony was invited to the Institute by the Master in Neuroengineering Bárbara Meneses, who met her at an event aimed at women scientists in Rio de Janeiro. “I feel that the Institute has great potential to develop solutions for society, because social transformation through education is our motto. I feel that even if Simony is in another area, she can help and encourage people to develop new projects. Her product emerged from research, to later become a startup. We want students to feel that they are capable of taking the solutions created by them outside the laboratories and transforming them into products that make a difference”, says Bárbara.

Simony was nominated by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences for the BRICS Young Innovator Prize 2018, which recognizes projects ideated by young scientists that aim to develop innovative solutions to improve living conditions in emerging countries. The idea of creating NINA came from her own experience as the daughter of a woman who worked as a collector in the public transport system in Recife, capital of the State of Pernambuco. “In ISD, there is already a proposal for the transformation of social reality. What we have to do now is stimulate these ideas to the point where they become models that will be able to reach people and improve their lives”, highlights Simony César.