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Rodrigo Barbosa e Silva

Program Year : 
2020
Fellow Type: 
Postdoc
Academic Degree: 
PhD
Previous Education: 
PhD in Technology and Society - PPGTE UTFPR Curitiba
MTech in Technology
BSc in Systems Analysis - Unicentro, Guarapuava-PR

I'm an educator, entrepreneur, researcher, analyst, mentor, and non-profit activist, favoring understanding computation as a practice of freedom. I translate the Freirean concept of education as a practice of freedom into technologies as practices of freedom and creativity. My research helped the Center of Strategic Studies and Debates of the National Congress (Brazilian House of Representatives) to enhance the National Policy on Digital Education (Lei 14533/2023).

I hold a Ph.D. in Technology and Society from PPGTE/UTFPR. From 2018 to 2020, I served as a postdoctoral scholar at the Lemann Center at Stanford. In 2016, I was part of the Visiting Student Researcher program. My research focus is public policy in Science and Technology toward a more democratic and equitable technological society. I'm involved in tech initiatives applying free software, teaching/learning, IoT, and low-cost open-hardware devices such as Arduino, Gogo Board, and Raspberry Pi. I supervised and developed platforms for e-transactions, digital identity, big data, natural language processing, and machine learning. I've led dozens of technology initiatives in Brazil's public and private sectors.

I am deeply interested in helping the Brazilian technology industry explore the potential of programming and innovation as tools for emancipation, development, and freedom. To accomplish this macro goal, we need to ensure that every student and every teacher in the country will have access to the fundamentals of computing and technology and will develop a sense of oversight and quality control over these tools.