The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) welcomed, on Thursday (24/3), the CEO of NINA and highlighted innovation and technology 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 technology integrated with various applications to standardize, centralize and track reports of harassment and violence in urban mobility, in addition to using the data obtained to develop public policies . 

The event took place in the auditorium of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS), one of the ISD units in Macaíba (RN). An advertising professional by training, Simony spoke to the audience made up mainly of students from the Institution's Masters in Neuroengineering. “What I wanted to show is that there are often possibilities that are in front of us and we let it pass because we believe that we are not from a certain area or specialty. I'm an advertiser, I developed a startup that works with data, and what we want is for the scientists on the benches and in the laboratories to also see the possibility of bringing solutions that have an impact on society out of them”, she said. 

Simony went to the Institute at the invitation of the Master in Neuroengineering from ISD, 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 that is our motto. I feel that even if Simony is in another area, she can help people to encourage themselves to develop new projects. Her product emerged from research conditions, to later become a startup. We want students to feel that they are capable of taking the solutions they create outside of 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 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 ticket collector in the public transport system in Recife, Pernambuco. “At ISD, there is already a proposal to transform social reality. What we have to do now is stimulate these ideas to the point that they become models that will be able to reach people and improve their lives”, highlights Simony César.