There are 19 students from IC/Ufal who are participating in Edge Academy, a talent development program, and are practicing techniques in different projects
Scholarship holders from Edge Academy, a talent development and academic excellence program, are already working on professional Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) projects, signed through partnership agreements with companies that are currently in Edge’s client portfolio. Of the 67 students from the Ufal Computer Institute currently involved in the initiative, 19 are already performing low and medium complexity functions and activities within the deliveries, supervised by the Program’s coordinator and by technical leaders and managers of the respective projects.
The students work as Developers and Quality Analysts in different programming languages, in Software Engineering, Embedded Systems and Artificial Intelligence projects. The scholarship holders’ experience in real R&D&I projects represents a significant milestone in their careers. By applying the knowledge acquired during their training in a challenging professional environment, young talents have the chance to develop practical skills, build a network of contacts and accelerate their professional growth.
Lilian Fabrício, a Computer Engineering student in her 8th semester, is one of the Academy scholarship recipients who is working on a project as a Quality Analyst. According to Lilian, this is an opportunity to gain experience in an area she had no knowledge of before joining the Program. “Working as a Quality Assurance professional has been very interesting. The project is complex and challenging, but I have learned a lot from the more senior QA professionals at Edge, who are very helpful when I have questions and also provide guidance on courses in the area,” explains Lilian, who considers her experience at Edge Academy to be very positive and has added a lot to her resume.
Samuel Lucas, a Computer Science student in his 5th semester and an Academy scholarship recipient, has started working as a Full Stack Developer on another project. Among the activities he has developed is configuring the development environments of a system. “I joined the project recently, but it has been a very good experience. I believe that the main challenge is the technical part, which makes me seek out other knowledge that I have not yet learned in the classroom, but I have a lot of support from the team and I have developed more and more”, says Samuel.
About the Academy – Aimed at students in Computer Science and Engineering courses at the Federal University of Alagoas (Ufal), Edge Academy is an initiative made possible with resources from Softex Nacional, which aims to stimulate academic excellence and the production of knowledge throughout the undergraduate course, in addition to developing professional and technical skills and competencies in students, promoting corporate and entrepreneurial culture, making the program Edge’s main source of qualified labor for projects in the present and in the future.
At the Academy, scholarship holders have easy access to professionals and researchers from different areas of activity, as well as professional and career guidance, with individualized monitoring based on the triad – career planning, performance improvement and psychoeducation focused on career development.
“Edge Academy was created to develop talent, offering multidisciplinary preparation for the market, with alignment between theoretical and practical bases, with the objective of training professionals prepared to feed the innovation ecosystem in Alagoas. We are in the third class, with 67 scholarship holders, and we will continue to grow, developing people to impact the world through technology”, says Willy Tiengo, IC professor and coordinator of the Edge Innovation Center.
