Back in 2015, just after my graduation in Software Engineering at the University of Brasília, I was awarded as Best Innovation Project by the development of the Intelligent System to Increase Reliability in Public Transport. Also, I've contributed alongside another 2 projects with University of Brasília to win another award:
"The quality of the three works of the University of Brasília presented at Campus Future, the academic space of the 2015 edition of Campus Party, earned the University with Best Projects award. The institution in the federal capital displaced 42 others from all over the country with initiatives that included students and professors from the Department of Computer Science (CIC) and the Faculty UnB Gama (FGA). Transport system won the Most Innovative Project category."
In short, my award-winning project was an algorithm to identify relevant information on public transportation using GPS data from users using a mobile app that I've developed. It aimed to inform passengers, companies and the government about commuting times, peak times and the most used bus stops. The prototype identified 4700 bus stops in the Federal District and collected information during 116 trips.
Back in the day, already with the plans for starting up my consulting activities, I've said to UnB Newspaper:
“My intention is to use technology and contribute to better transportation, which helps people's lives”
These combined with my outstanding academic performance guaranteed me a six-month internship at the Fraunhofer Institute, in Germany, that later on became a Research Assistent position for a whole year and changed completly my original plans and life trajectory.
Professor Fabrício Braz, who was my supervisor/advisor at the time, proudly said to the UnB News: “It is very good to work with Rafael. He's very creative, determined and can't get enough”. Later on that year, professor Braz and I gave an interview to TV Senado (Brazilian Senate public television) talking about the importance of software engineering in the modern world and the perspectives of this branch in Brazil.
You can find the original article on University of Brasília website: https://www.noticias.unb.br/117-pesquisa/3529-reconhecimento-pela-capacidade-de-inovar in portuguese.
Also the interview to TV Senado on YouTube (interview held in Portuguese, with closed captions):