Text and illustrations from the e-book, now free to download, describing the 17 women’s computing path

Valuing the work that women do in science, and encouraging girls to follow the same path. With this aim, a group of students from the Campo Grande campus of the Federal Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul (IFMS) produced the e-book “Hidden Heroes: Stories of Science Never Told”.

The book is freely available on .’s website editor, chronicles the course of 17 women in computing through texts and illustrations produced by the students themselves. To download it, simply buy it at no cost.

The e-book was produced by 11 students from the technical courses in Informatics and Electricity at Campus Campo Grande, three of whom are on scholarship and eight are collaborators.

Giovanna Franco, 18, was responsible for telling the stories of Doroty, who was instrumental in space research in her time (p. 23), and the stories of Mary “The Three” (p. 32), Mary (p. 38) )) and Maria Cecilia (p. 53) , responsible for the great discoveries in the field of mathematics.

The student reports that it is difficult to gather information about the scientists.

“It was very difficult to find a reference on the Internet because these women are in hiding. A lot of research was done in other languages, and we had to turn to social networks and relatives to be able to find parts of these researchers’ stories,” she recalls.

The author highlights that participating in this project in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, gave life meaning.

“It is important to tell these stories, it is essential that there be representation, not only in this field, but in other areas as well. This work has contributed a lot to developing my critical sensitivity, in my ability to be a woman, to be a citizen, and hopefully to touch others He also touches me,” Giovanna points out.

Student Bianca Ribas, 17, who is also responsible for producing the scripts, notes that participating in the project added lifelong knowledge.

“What caught my attention the most was how much women have done in the technological world and how strong they are in continuing their jobs, despite their underestimation and loss of credibility,” she comments.

Bianca also highlights that teamwork was essential to building a harmonious book. He says text production was focused on making the material accessible to readers of any age.

“In the bibliographical research, I looked for different aspects of these women’s lives, information that could be added to the stories. Next, I produced the narration and tried to adapt the language as much as possible so that the children could understand the texts more,” he explains.

As for the term that was never told in the book’s title, Bianca explains that the reason is “Now the stories are told in our book.”

The project – As a result of an expansion project, the e-book has received institutional support in the amount of R$ 17,200 to be produced, through a public notice allocating resources exclusively to the participation and training of female guides in exact sciences, engineering, technologies and computing.

The “Inspired by Computing” project was proposed by Professor Márcia Cristaldo, of Campus Aquidauana, and also developed under the guidance of Professors Cláudia Fernandes and Marta Luzzi, of Campus Campo Grande.

“It all started when Professor Marcia contacted us to propose a partnership with NuAR, IFMS Animation and Script Nucleus, a project we developed four years ago. In this group, students study authors, write scripts, draw, compose music and make animations”, explains teacher Claudia.

Marcia has worked with girls ages 9-14 since 2017, and during tech workshops in public schools, she’s always been talking about inventors. However, there was a lack of materials with age-appropriate illustrations and stories. It was then that the combination CTRL + FEMME decided, as an extension of Noir, to produce the e-book.

She asserts, “This is the first Brazilian book that speaks only of women in science, a publication that will certainly help introduce girls from childhood into technology, as well as reduce gender inequality in this sector, and enrich the scientific and technological world.”

Production of the book began in the second half of 2020, and almost all meetings were held due to the pandemic. A comprehensive work that included the stages of research, the selection of the women whose path would be recounted, the selection of the discoveries of these researchers and later information gathering, the production of texts and illustrations, and finally the design of the book.

The final phase of the project, the correction of stories, was carried out in a collaborative manner.

“After reading the texts for the first time, I shared them with all the students and professors so that they could make suggestions in a collaborative way. The same was done with the illustrations, the first drawings were sent to the group and, based on the cooperation, it was possible to modify the colors, fonts and backgrounds”, Teacher Marta explains.

At the moment, the book is being printed by the publisher Brazil Publishing Autores e Editores Associados. 250 copies will be printed.

to get to know – At the end of October, the project “Noir: Between Narratives, Illustrations and the Great Stories of Women Who Made Technology around the World” was one of the winners of the 2021 edition of the International Science and Technology Fair (Mostratec), which was held online.

The project took second place in the “Education and Humanities” category, and also received credentials to participate in the upcoming edition of Isef (International Science and Engineering Fair / International Science and Engineering Fair), which was held in the United States (USA).

At Mostratec 2020, the NuAR project was awarded the prize for publishing a scientific article by Revista Liberato. The article was published in the October issue of this year (pp. 17-18).

More information about the project is available on Instagram’s NuAR.