My name is Fábio Pelicano, I’m 31 years old and was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. I’ve been teaching for the last 15 years of my life, the majority of those dedicated to teaching Math, even though I majored in Aeronautical Engineering.


Yeah, I know you expected to see me in front of a blackboard or in a library, doing some integrals. Come on, at least I tied my hair so that I would not look like one of the most famous people ever!

    For the last 8 years, I’ve been teaching at Insper, a very prestigious business school in Brazil. In 2015, Insper made the decision to start an Engineering school based on the Olin College of Engineering model, and my career began to take a turn. First, I had to rethink the whole teaching-learning cycle; second, I had to take on a new subject, one which I had very little prior knowledge about: Electromagnetism.

    That in the second semester of 2016, and through my students, in a very short period of time, I began to witness the marvels of the makers’ world. It was amazing to see all the stuff those sophomores were doing at Insper Fablab: machines made from wood, cardboard and plastic; well-designed robust structures; robots… and the most amazing thing was: all these contraptions were computer controlled!

    I truly did not know at that point in my life that this kind of power was available to such a large public at a relatively low cost. And, as I saw what my students could do, I couldn’t help but wonder: “Had I had access to those tools during my undergraduate years, instead of just performing computer aided calculations, would I have become an engineer?”

This picture quite accurately represents a typical day during my college years…

       
…and these, exactly what my students are capable of doing. I have a hunch they are learning a lot more than I did!

    Well, I most certainly could not answer that question, but what I could do was setting myself to learn some new skills. As luck would have, almost at the same time I was invited to join FabAcademy, which could not have happened at a better time.

    Now, here I am, hopeful to learn some new abilities and – who knows? – try a new career.