Brazilian Silicon Valley

Brazilian Silicon Valley is an epithet commonly applied to the city of Campinas, Brazil, because if its similarity to the 'real' Silicon Valley, located in California in the USA.

Campinas has rightfully owned this distinction because it has several features, such as:

1. A modern city, located near a giant metropolis, São Paulo
2. A vibrant, high-tech university and research environment, composed by the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the Pontificial Catholic University of Campinas (PUCCAMP), the Center for Research and Development in Telecommunications (CPqD), the National Laboratory of Syncrotron Light, the Renato Archer Research Institute (CENPRA), the Brazilian Company of Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA), the Agronomical Institute of Campinas and the Biological Institute of Campinas, the Food Technology Institute, the Eldorado Institute and several others. Campinas boasts of a researcher/population ratio equal to the most developed centers
3. A number of high-tech, non-pollutant industries have settled around Campinas, such as IBM, Lucent, Nortel, Compaq, Motorola, Fairchild, 3M, Texas Instruments, Celestica, Bosch, etc.
4. The development of several industrial parks and incubators for high tech companies in the fields of microelectronics, computers, software, telecommunications, etc.

Contributed by Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD