After four days of immersion in nature, prototyping, and exchanging experiences, the “Ekos Hackathon: Hands in the Forest” comes to an end, promoted by Natura Campus in Belém, from March 16 to 20. The 32 participants, from various Brazilian states, got to know the local culture more closely and developed ideas aimed at presenting a prototype that connects people to nature.
The presentation of the projects was the final challenge for the participants of the Ekos Hackathon: Hands in the Forest: on Sunday, the 20th, after working for two days on prototyping ideas that help connect the Amazon and Nature to people's daily lives, our eight groups began early to showcase the results of their hard work and knowledge exchange. The presentations were highly rated, and three projects stood out as the top contenders: Project Kya, VirVer, and the grand winner of this edition, Project Quintal Mágico. The winning team consists of Pará student José Neto, São Paulo students Paulo Paciência and Marcela Porto, and Minas Gerais advertising professional Luiza Voll.
The winning project consists of connecting popular knowledge with new technologies for maintaining a backyard. “Many people like to have a space at home to grow plants, but with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, they forget to take care of them. The idea of the Quintal Mágico Club is to provide a package of selected seeds and sensors that will help in the proper cultivation of a small garden or yard,” explains José Neto, who studies production engineering in Belém and participated for the first time in a technology event like the Hackathon.
The proposal presented by the group is to provide sensors that measure, for example, soil moisture and indicate when the plant needs water, as well as other nutrients, through light indications and alerts in an app. Seven other projects were presented at the closing of the marathon last Sunday, including an educational board game that works with smells and textures of fruits from the Amazon and other biomes, encouraging participants to acquire knowledge about natural inputs.
“The greatest prize for me was the exchange of experiences. Our learning curve was very rapid, and knowing that we can make our ideas viable and useful is wonderful,” says José Neto.
Also without experience in technology, advertising professional Luiza Voll, one of the group members, was surprised by the group's ability to combine each person's knowledge and build the winning project. “From the beginning, everyone in the group listened to each other. Everyone wanted to learn, grow, and create an idea that was exciting for all,” she states.
Research shows that there is a disconnection for a large part of the people living in cities from nature. “We believe that Ekos has an important role in transforming this reality. The brand has been doing this for 15 years by bringing a piece of the Amazon into people's homes, and we want to broaden this perspective, impacting the daily lives of our consumers,” says Claudia Pinheiro, director of personal care at Natura, responsible for the Ekos brand.
There were over 30 hours of prototyping, during which the participants were in Belém and in the riverside community of Jauari, in Moju (PA), which practices sustainable management of murumuru and other Amazonian assets for the production of cosmetics in the Natura Ekos line. The participants competed for spots among more than 150 applicants and were selected based on the analysis of their profiles and ideas.
The “Ekos Hackathon: Hands in the Forest” is part of the Natura Campus open innovation program, created in 2006, which aims to establish a network of science and technology institutions, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, and funding agencies, connected to collaborate in generating disruptive innovation.
“Hackathons are extremely important for bringing new perspectives, solutions, and new technologies, which allow us to extend innovation in cosmetic products to offer innovative experiences to our consumers. The projects presented have the potential for viability,” says Luciana Hashiba, innovation manager at Natura.
The winners received as prizes 01 Ultimaker 2Go 3D printer and 01 kit with 10 plastic filaments for each group member. The winning group will also have the opportunity to visit Natura's headquarters in Cajamar and present their project to innovation leaders and a network of invited partners.
Additionally, all participants gained a wealth of knowledge during the four days of immersion in nature and prototyping at the Ekos Hackathon.
Tangible Result
During the event, Natura presented the first project developed by the company based on one of the winning ideas from its first Hackathon, held in 2014: a soap personalization system for the brand. Portable and easy to use, the platform allows the consumer to choose words and icons to engrave on the product's surface. The selection is made in software installed on a device connected to a small engraving machine.
The machine was adapted to allow greater flexibility in personalization. “The consumer is at the center of the choice and personalization, in an interactive way. They can go beyond just writing a name and engrave a message to gift someone, for example,” explains Luciana Hashiba, innovation manager at Natura.
This innovation resulted in the filing of a patent for Natura. The service is in the testing phase and is expected to be available to consumers in the second half of 2016.
Natura Innovation Day
On May 13, 2016, the Natura Innovation Day event took place at our headquarters in Cajamar.
During the event, the results of the Ekos Hackathon were presented, where each of the 8 participating groups talked about their prototypes developed during the journey.
A round table was also held with representatives from Coca-Cola, Itaú Unibanco, Instituto InnovAction, Senai, and Natura, in a debate about entrepreneurship and innovation with the theme “Results of using entrepreneurship and rapid prototyping tools in companies that are not in the IT sector.”
Additionally, the program Natura Startups was launched, aimed at generating business partnerships and open innovation with startups and innovative entrepreneurs.
Learn More
Meet the eight participating groups of the hackathon and the prototyped projects in our marathon
Check out an interview with more details about the winning group Quinta Mágico on our blog
