Arena Ação Jr. Hosts Pitch Day Featuring Innovative Solutions Developed by Students at UFSC
Arena Ação Jr.’s Pitch Day was held last Saturday, May 23, at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), bringing together students, mentors, companies, and representatives from educational and innovation institutions to present the solutions developed during the marathon held in Florianópolis.
The initiative was organized by Ação Jr., in partnership with the Sapiens Parque Connect project, InPETU hub, SINOVA, and partner institutions, presenting real-world business challenges to be solved in collaboration with the academic community. Over the course of approximately two months, participants took part in workshops, mentoring sessions, and working meetings focused on investigating problems, brainstorming solutions, and preparing their final pitches.
The opening ceremony featured Jennifer Reichert, open innovation coordinator for the Sapiens Parque Connect project, and open innovation analyst Paôla da Silva, who highlighted the journey of the Ação Jr. Arena and the process the teams had followed leading up to the final stage.
“Pitch Day marks the culmination of a journey built over the past few months, connecting students, companies, and professionals around real-world challenges. It was a very enriching process of collective development, knowledge exchange, and solution-building,” said Jennifer Reichert.
During the event, the teams KynoWave, Auralis, Metha Facial, and Sinnovation presented their proposals to a panel of judges composed of professionals working in the fields of innovation, technology, data, management, and entrepreneurship.
The KynoWave team presented a proposal focused on acoustic data infrastructure for monitoring environmental noise and disturbances to public quiet. Auralis, meanwhile, developed a continuous environmental intelligence solution, with a focus on automated compliance and operational evidence for critical sectors.
Metha Facial worked on a proposal based on transforming facial microexpressions into actionable data to support psychology professionals in real time. The Sinnovation team presented the “UFSC in Radar Mode” solution, designed to identify research with innovation potential at the university.
The Metha Facial team took first place in the competition, followed by KynoWave in second place and Sinnovation, which took third place. The winning teams received cash prizes and vouchers for training courses at the Indicium AI Academy.
Pitch Day took place during the Connect Ação event, which featured lectures and roundtable discussions by companies such as Indicium, Accenture, and Ambev. According to Frenti Ignácio, a talent acquisition analyst at Indicium, the company’s participation in Arena Ação Jr. stemmed from its connection to entrepreneurship and innovation projects linked to UFSC.
“Arena Ação Jr. stems from a movement that is very much in line with what we believe in as a company—bringing together universities, entrepreneurship, and the development of applied solutions. That is why we decided to support and participate in this initiative,” he emphasized.
In addition to the final presentations, the event marked the conclusion of a collaborative journey centered on real-world challenges, fostering creativity, teamwork, and the development of proposals with practical application potential. The initiative also reinforces Florianópolis’s role as an environment connected to innovation and talent development, bringing the academic community closer to the demands of the business sector. The organization plans to hold new editions of Arena Ação Jr. in the coming years.
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