»Student from Bahia participating in Science and Engineering Fair USA

SESI SCHOOL
scientific reseach
Sisi

SESI student Rector Miguel Calmon, Heloisa de Souza will present a project on Non-Traditional Food Plants (PANCs). The event takes place between May 13th and 19th.

Bahian student Heloisa de Souza, of SESI Rector Miguel Calmon, will participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair – Regeneron ISEF, which is considered the largest science and engineering fair in the world, takes place in Dallas, in the United States, from May 13 to 19. The vacancy was won to join the delegation that will represent Brazil at the international scientific event at the International Science and Technology Fair (Mostratec), in November last year, with a project on non-traditional food plants (PANCs).

At the age of 15, Heloisa is furthering her study of English to present the project APPANC: Development of an application for scholarly publication of PANCs At the science fair. In the research project, under the guidance of Professor Carol Pereira-Silva, I developed application To announce the types of PANCs that are common in the Northeast region. In total, the app collects 15 vegetables, explains their characteristics, ways to identify them, nutritional properties, benefits, contraindications, and recipes to encourage the consumption of PANCs.

“I was very happy to have been chosen to participate in ISEF. Exposing the project to other people is a great opportunity. Fostering dissemination of PANCs is exactly the purpose of the project. Being able to show this to other young people, in another culture, is very rewarding,” says the student, who is leaving to the United States on May 12, on her first international trip.

scientific reseach

Heloisa has been involved in the scientific preparation program at Escola SESI since the eighth year of primary school, when she began researching PANCs. “I was surprised to find that they have great nutritional properties, but they are not used much in everyday life, and I think it is important to publicize these vegetables. In addition, the dissemination of this information can also contribute to reducing the problem of food insecurity, which affects many of people,” says the young woman who will be traveling accompanied by teacher Lorena Brito Góes Vieira, from the school’s Scientific Initiation Programme.

Since then, it has advanced its research and, as next steps, is considering expanding the types of plants available, covering plants from other regions of the country, as well as making the app available on app stores to expand access to the tool. For this, the young woman began to study the programming language.

This is the third year in a row that a project developed by SESI students has won a vacancy to participate in the SESI School Regeneron ISEF. “The accreditation of projects to international science fairs such as the ISEF is recognition of our work with the Scientific Adaptation Programme, which seeks to awaken our students’ interest in research and the search for solutions to current problems,” celebrates the Director of Scientific and Technological Education at Sisi Bahia, Fernando Moutinho.