Thais Velloso

Brazilian edtech pioneer creating inclusive STEM education for marginalized youth

Thais Velloso (b.1992) revolutionized STEM education access in Brazil through her startup CodeBrasil. Launching in 2016 with just $15,000 in seed funding, her platform now serves 120,000 students annually in favelas and rural areas. The platform's unique 'CodeMobile' buses equipped with solar-powered labs travel to remote communities, offering free coding and robotics classes.

Her 2019 partnership with Google created Brazil's first AI curriculum for high schoolers, adopted by 347 schools. Velloso's 2021 documentary CodeBreakers highlighted the first all-female team from Rio's Complexo do Alemão favela to win an international robotics competition. She was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020 and received the UNESCO Education Innovation Prize in 2022. Her recent initiative STEM Seeds trains teachers in Indigenous communities to integrate traditional ecological knowledge with modern coding principles.