Unicamp granted this Monday (25), in a ceremony held in the auditorium of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Cristiano Amon, a former student of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Feec) and global president of Qualcomm, one of the largest companies in the world in the areas of computing and telecommunications. Marked by emotion, the ceremony was attended by professors and leaders from the university and Qualcomm, as well as Cristiano's family and friends.
The title of Doctor Honoris Causa is granted by Unicamp to people who have made relevant contributions to science, letters and arts, in addition to having provided important services to society and the university. Names such as Oscar Niemeyer and Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns are part of the list. Cristiano Amon became Unicamp's 29th Doctor Honoris Causa and the youngest to receive the title. The initiative was approved by the University Council (Consu) on September 24 of this year in recognition of the professional advancement and successful trajectory achieved by him at the head of Qualcomm, a company where he has worked since 2004 and assumed the presidency in January 2018.
According to Luiz Carlos Kretly, a professor at Feec and one of those who led the nomination process, no other professional trained by Feec reached the level achieved by Cristiano, which serves as an example to all students at the university. "For Electrical Engineering, this is a consecration of our effort, from the point of view of having the training of academic and industrial leaders. This was very widely accepted in the (communications) department, it went to the Congregation and was a unanimously awarding the title to Cristiano. This crowns the work that we have been developing over the last few decades and is a motivation for our students, we say in the classroom: 'look, a former student here is world president of Qualcomm', not even the students are very aware of the importance of this", celebrates Kretly.
Cristiano joined Unicamp in 1988 on the Electrical Engineering course and graduated in 1992. Before joining Qualcomm, he worked at companies such as Vésper and Ericsson, having in his history participation in the development of technologies such as CDMA, 3G and 4G . For him, one of the university's greatest contributions was the encouragement to think beyond one's possibilities. "At Unicamp I learned not only the fundamentals of electrical engineering, but to seek information, to see and think a little further ahead and prepare myself for these transitions. There have never been so many opportunities in the area of technology and engineering as there are today and the distances are shorter, students don't need to think only about Brazil. You can think about the global market, there are important transformations happening because of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and 5G. I think this creates opportunities for growth in engineering and my advice is: you can think big", comments the new doctor.
Closer relationships with large companies
Before the title was awarded, Cristiano participated in a conversation with the press about Qualcomm's projects for the country and the importance of the company strengthening ties with universities. Also present were Marcelo Knobel, rector of Unicamp; Rafael Steinhauser, president of Qualcomm for Latin America; Luiz Carlos Kretly and Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of Fapesp and professor at the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW). He explained that the company invests in short, medium and long-term research and that, for these projects over 10 to 15 years, collaboration with universities is essential. "It is precisely the role of the university to carry out long-term research, these are things that really take time. I think that today companies have a lot of difficulty carrying out long-term research and this is a role that the Brazilian university can fulfill", explains Cristiano .
At the beginning of the year, Qualcomm announced the installation of a semiconductor factory in the city of Jaguariúna, in the metropolitan region of Campinas, based on a joint venture with the manufacturer USI, from Taiwan. The proximity to Unicamp favors the development of joint projects and opens up possibilities such as the installation of new research centers. According to Marcelo Knobel, these are relationships that promote the full development of society. "We have myths in Brazil about the issue of public universities that are not verified. For example, that there is no cooperation between companies and universities. Maybe at some point this happened, but they are growing more and more, it is a growth exponential increase in cooperation between universities and companies. There is also the myth that it is something difficult, but it really isn't. We have the role of carrying out quality research, training human resources and it is, really, through education the only way to make the country grow", highlights the rector.
"I'm experiencing a lot of emotions"
In the audience, Cristiano's friends and family celebrated the title and remembered his time as a student at Unicamp. The proudest were the parents, who will now be able to celebrate yet another achievement of their son. "It's not because he's my son, but Cristiano has always been an outstanding boy. Very studious! And when he entered Unicamp he had a characteristic, he didn't write anything down. I bought books and he studied there, that made he became self-taught. To this day, if he wants to know something, he buys the book and goes deeper", says Salvador Amon, Cristiano's father.
His mother, Ana Maria Amon, also explained that Cristiano's title is another of many celebrations experienced by the family. "It's such a big emotion that it doesn't fit in my heart! I'm also very happy because on Saturday we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, so I'm experiencing a lot of emotions," she said emotionally.
