This article was published on February 10, 2012

Singularity University disembarks in Brazil with executive program and Call to Innovation


Singularity University disembarks in Brazil with executive program and Call to Innovation

If you think Singularity University‘s activities don’t go beyond Silicon Valley and NASA Ames, think again. The American university is partnering for the second time with the Brazilian educational institution FIAP to organize an Executive Program in Sao Paulo.

This isn’t the first time FIAP has opened its doors to events and encouraged innovation; besides its partnership with Singularity University (SU), it has recently promoted a TEDx, TEDxFIAP, which focused on “Entrepreneurs of the Future.”

As for SU, there’s no doubt that is a magnet for brilliant minds interested in thinking our future – no matter whether or not you believe the singularity is near.

Besides its high-calibre line-up, the transdisciplinarity of its approach is one of the key factors of its success, and its Executive Program in Brazil won’t be any different.

Scheduled to take place on March 16th and 17th, the intensive course will welcome multihyphenate speakers such as the university’s global ambassador Salim Ismail, its Biotechnology and Bioinformatics co-chair Andrew Hessel, the professor and academic Vivek Wadhwa, the cyber crime specialist Marc Goodman, the former NASA astronaut Dan Barry and the stem cell expert Daniel Kraft.

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The program’s tagline, ‘Are you ready for the future?’ gives a good idea of its agenda. From security to healthcare and robotics, keynotes will give the small audience some serious food for thought. Yet, participants won’t remain passive listeners, and are encouraged to engage with the content and exchange with the speakers.

As a matter of fact, FIAP’s team expects the course’s 200 participants to be fairly qualified. The program is targeted at CEOs, CIOs, entrepreneurs, government executives and other decision makers, FIAP says. Hence its hefty fee, up to US$3,200 for two days, which the IT university prefers to call an ‘investment’ – after all, understanding the future has no price.

A Call to Innovation

Yet, the impact of FIAP’s partnership with SU will go beyond the course’s lucky attendees. Indeed, both universities are partnering to launch a nationwide contest called Call to Innovation. To participate, Brazilians will have to submit tech-based ideas that could positively impact 1 million of their fellow citizens.

It’s worth mentioning that Brazil isn’t the only country where SU launched this contest; besides Mexico, Israel and Holland, the program will launch in ten additional countries by the end of March.

In each country, a winner will be picked, and receive a full scholarship to attend Singularity University’s ten-week Graduate Studies Program in California.

In Brazil, the winner will be announced in mid-April. Besides the SU scholarship and a round-trip ticket to the US, they will also receive a full scholarship for one of FIAP’s MBA programs. Says FIAP’s Innovation Director Nathalie Trutmann:

“Our ambition is to foster social entrepreneurship and help Brazil, so that the knowledge acquired during Singularity University’s course can be used to put in practice the tech innovation proposal that can transform and add value to the life of one million Brazilians over the next years.”

Have you already attended Singularity University or participated in one of the events it promotes? Let us know in the comments.

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