Telephone Booth

Today we visited FGV School of Economics, Sao Paulo, for a wonderful day getting to understand the perspective of a Brazilian private university. We are all very grateful to be welcomed so warmly.

It is, then, with some regret that todays [back]blip is of some work being done by USP (yesterday's visit). Brazilian universities seem to have a much stronger or visible connection to the community, and one of the pieces of work being done at USP is to help the blind. These telephone booths, widespread around Sao Paulo, are one particular concern for the blind, as their footprint is not represented on the ground and are really quite easy to crash into. What the scientists at USP are trialling is a sonar system to detect what is actually around blind people, rather than rely on the touch of their stick on an object.

It should be added, seems as we were at FGV, that the work they are doing in the community is no less visible, although is a lot more enterprise related. The students can join and run an "entity", effectively a university-underwritten enterprise, to develop their business acumen and deliver products and services to the community. The support they get from their teachers makes them feel valued and important, and these students really don't mind paying the equivalent of £1,000 a month because they enjoy it and because they know that FGV will support them throughout their career and that they will be able to repay this later in their career.