At Facens, university extension and sustainability are interrelated concepts that aim to bring the academic community closer to the social and environmental challenges of society. Through its extension programs, Facens University Center contributes to the promotion of sustainability by sharing its knowledge and resources to address relevant issues in areas such as the environment, economic development, health, among others. Our students and professors have the opportunity to apply their knowledge in practical projects, contributing both to the development of future professionals committed to sustainability and to the sustainable development of our society.
In its 3rd annual edition in 2024, the Smart Forests project maintained its goal of developing intelligent, high-impact solutions to improve the quality of life and sustainability of forest communities, through challenges launched to six teams formed by 24 students from CESUPA (University Center of the State of Pará) and Facens.
In this edition, the project featured a major innovation: the introduction of UniFlorestas, a learning platform with content related to sustainability, bioeconomy, forest belonging, soft and hard skills, among other topics addressed by the project. Its purpose was not only to train the 86 students participating in the initial stages of the project but also to serve as an open-access platform for the community as a whole, aiming to bring even more knowledge on these topics to the public.
Visit:
UniFlorestas.
After an immersion process in the platform’s content, the finalist students were selected to implement solutions that promoted the bioeconomy in the two biomes where the project takes place: the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest.
In the Atlantic Forest, the Juçara team worked with the artisans of Banarte Fibra, an association of women who use banana fiber to produce handicrafts in the city of Miracatu/SP. The association faced great difficulty in drying the raw material for handicrafts—the banana fibers—since they depended on the climate in an extremely humid region.
The solution delivered was a pair of smart dryers that control internal temperature and humidity and are powered by solar energy. This solution allows the Banarte artisans to dry banana fibers regardless of weather conditions, in larger quantities and in less time, further enhancing income generation in the community.
In the Amazon, the Jambu team sought solutions for solid waste on Cotijuba Island, in Belém/PA, in partnership with the Women’s Movement of the Islands of Belém (MMIB) and the Cotijuba Island Environmental Work Cooperative (CAIC). The solution delivered was the construction of machinery that facilitated the extraction of coconut fiber—an organic residue widely present on Cotijuba Island—which can be used in different applications. The team also worked with CAIC to introduce a handicraft process using the extracted fiber, enabling the creation of pots, mats, and more. In addition to generating a new source of income, these fibers can also be used as fertilizer, promoting different income-generating opportunities that had not been explored before.
To develop their solutions, the finalist teams received seed funding of R$13,000.00, considering both the development and replication of the solutions, with the goal of increasing the project’s impact on the participating communities.
During the 3rd edition of Smart Forests, the project coordination also worked on replicating the Fruit Harvesting Poles for Tall Trees, the winning solution from the 2nd edition of the project in 2023. This replication consisted of delivering 20 pole-and-lift kits to two communities: Igarapé do Combu and Igarapé do Piriquitaquara, both located on Combu Island in Belém/PA. In this way, it was possible to further expand the impact achieved by the project across its different editions over the years.
Smart Forests 2024 was sponsored by Alcoa, Reservas Votorantim, Veolia, and Munksjö, whose support was fundamental for carrying out the activities.
In this edition, the project also received two recognitions at the QS Reimagine Education Awards, highlighting the relevance of its existence for students, communities, and biodiversity. Learn more in the section Awards and Recognitions.
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Smart Forests.
EcoGinc is an innovative project that takes place in public high schools in a gamified and collaborative way, where students are organized into teams, with each classroom representing a team, and are guided by volunteer students from various Facens programs. The main goal of EcoGinc is to inspire participants to become agents of change in their lives and communities through practical experiences, as well as to strengthen school dedication, foster sustainable thinking, increase students’ confidence and self-esteem, encourage teamwork, develop social skills, and promote citizenship and altruism.
In its 6th edition, we introduced the idea of providing an Emotion Panel (inspired by the movie Inside Out) so that students could express themselves during the activities. It also served as a thermometer for the project’s organization team to evaluate potential improvements.
For the first time, the event featured a performance by Bateruja Facens (Facens’ university drumline), during the closing ceremony.
Facens is the only university in Latin America to participate in the Ecological Belonging research project, developed by Georgetown University—one of the most renowned higher education institutions in the world—and by The Wellbeing Project, a network of more than 400 organizations that promotes a culture of well-being for change agents across different sectors. The purpose is to discuss and establish the field of ecological belonging as an academic activity and theme to be addressed within course curricula, with the support of volunteer students, alongside exchanges of experiences and knowledge with other universities.Nine Facens students participated in the project during 2024, which takes place in periodic meetings for discussions.
Some of Facens’ international partners in the program include: University of Ljubljana, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Community Arts Network, MIT Media Lab, ALV, Armonia, Omidyar Network, and Lululemon.
The Paralympic Gloves project was created in response to a request from Willian Santos, coach of Paralympic athletes at the Vila Gabriel Sports Center (a municipal sports center in Sorocaba). Initially, eight pairs of Paralympic gloves made of ABS and produced on a 3D printer were requested. In partnership with the Facens FabLab, the gloves were designed to improve performance in competitions, replacing the adhesive tapes that athletes were used to using.
The connection, facilitated by the LIS (Social Innovation Lab) at Facens, also aimed to provide greater comfort for the Paralympic athletes, since the gloves can be produced in different sizes when 3D-printed. Initially, three pairs were produced, but the project grew, and more gloves were later delivered to the athletes.
Five athletes benefited from the initiative: Ieda, 28 years old, who competes professionally and is ranked second in Brazil in the 100m sprint in the T53 class; Gabriel Henrique Martins, 12 years old, who won 3rd place at the National School Paralympics in 2023; Jhonatan da Costa and Alice Garcia, both 11 years old, who competed for the first time in the 60m race at the School Paralympics; and Isaac Carvalho, 17 years old, who has been using the gloves for a longer time with excellent performance—currently 3rd place in the Brazilian U20 Championship in the T34 class.
Learn more about the Paralympic Gloves.
Vitor Hugo Estefano Barbosa, a student of Systems Analysis and Development at Facens, won first place at HackLab FNESP 2024, an entrepreneurial marathon that brought together 35 students from 26 Higher Education Institutions across the country.
The students, from both on-campus and distance learning programs, were divided into seven teams and had the opportunity to develop innovative solutions for real challenges in Brazilian higher education, presented by Semesp. Vitor was part of one of these teams, IEDA – Inteligência Educacional Adaptativa (Adaptive Educational Intelligence).
Learn more about the paralympic gloves HackLab FNESP award.
The open-source project coordinated by the Liquid Galaxy Lab was selected to participate as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code 2024 program, a global initiative that connects developers with open-source organizations, enabling collaboration and the development of innovative projects.
Learn more about RUXAILAB.
Among more than one thousand competitors and 60 universities, the Omegabotz team—dedicated to competition robotics within LINCE, the Facens Innovation and Student Competitions Lab—won 1st place in Mini Hockey, 3rd place in Pro Hockey, and 3rd place in LEGO Jr. Sumo at the RSM International Challenge 2024, held in Mogi das Cruzes (SP).
Learn more about the RSM Challenge International.
Three students stood out at the Minoan Robotsports Global Olympiad, held at the Heraklion Arena on the island of Crete, Greece.Frederico Martinelli (Mechatronics Engineering), Henrique Bicudo Paulino da Silva (Computer Engineering), and Guilherme Felipe Reis Soares (Computer Engineering) ranked 2nd in Roaming (Autonomous Boat), 2nd in Pro Line Follower, and 5th in Autonomous Mini Sumo 500g.
The competition gathered more than 3,500 competitors, 1,412 teams, and over 32 countries were represented.
Learn more about the MRC Global Olympiad.
