Journey
From code to people
Twenty years between the university, startups and innovation centers. Each book came out of a stage of this journey, and almost all of them revolve around the same question: what drives the people who make technology?
“Computer programs are basically written by people, and what people think and how they behave strongly affect the whole software production process.”
That idea took a computer scientist from the very objective field of programming to the subjective ground of human behavior. Each book tells, in its own way, a piece of that story.
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2005
The first incubated startup
Before the books came entrepreneurship. While still an undergraduate, César had his first startup incubated. That experience would come back, almost twenty years later, as a book.
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2006
Bachelor’s in Computer Science
He graduates in Computer Science from UFPE. His final project, supervised by Prof. Fabio Q. B. da Silva, already studied how professional profiles and individual aptitudes fit software factories: the seed of the subject that would stay with him from then on.
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2009
Master’s in Computer Science
At UFPE, with a CNPq scholarship and supervised by Prof. Fabio Q. B. da Silva, César went into the field to listen to development teams in Recife and understand what motivates the people who build software. The dissertation was selected by the university’s program that publishes its best theses and dissertations.
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2009
Exchange in the United States
A season in the United States studying English at the International Language Institute. The language would become a working tool: much of the research that followed was published in English, starting with Classical Theories of Human Motivation.
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2010
Book
The first book
Motivation in Software Development Teams comes out from the UFPE University Press, with a tool to assess the motivation of each professional and support motivation programs in companies.
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2013
Doctoral research stay at The Open University
A CNPq-funded sandwich doctorate in the United Kingdom, supervised by Professor Helen Sharp, whose contributions are also part of Classical Theories of Human Motivation.
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2014
PhD in Computer Science
He earns his PhD from UFPE with the thesis A Theory of Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers, supervised by Prof. Fabio Q. B. da Silva in the HASE (Human Aspects in Software Engineering) research group.
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2015
Professor at UFRPE
He becomes a professor in the Department of Computing at UFRPE, where he teaches Software Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction and Human and Social Aspects of Computing.
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2018
Book
Classical Theories of Human Motivation
The theoretical study for the PhD left behind a complete body of material on the great theories of motivation. Choosing only seven out of hundreds of works was hard; the result was published in English, on Amazon.
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2019
First startup with private investment
A startup in which he is a partner receives private investment for the first time: the entrepreneurship that began in college reaches a new stage.
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2020
Professor in the CESAR School doctoral program
He starts teaching in the Professional Doctorate in Software Engineering at CESAR School, as well as in the master’s program and executive education courses.
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2022
Head of Knowledge at CESAR
As Head of Knowledge at one of Brazil’s largest innovation centers, he leads the research groups in Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Quantum Computing.
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2024
Book
From the classroom to the book
When ChatGPT arrived, the essay César used to assign his students stopped making sense. Redesigning that activity gave rise to the “Create & Critique” pattern and to Educational Experiences with AI.
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2024
Book
Back to startups
The CETEPA project, a FACEPE-funded community center for entrepreneurship and technology in the Zona da Mata Sul of Pernambuco, was the spark to gather almost twenty years of experience with incubation into Incubation Processes for Startups.
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2024
Associate Scientist at TDS.Company
He becomes an Associate Scientist at TDS.Company, a strategic consultancy for “phygital” business that conceives, designs and operates products and services with public and private institutions.
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2025
Postdoc at the University of Bari
A postdoctoral position at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, in Italy, funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU program, researching human factors and quantum software engineering.
Along the way
- Junior enterpriseHe presided CITi, UFPE’s computing junior enterprise (2003–2004), and was quality director of the federation of junior enterprises of Pernambuco (2005).
- QueroFicarRico.comA personal finance blog he wrote and edited from 2007 to 2010, with about 60,000 readers a month.
- AwardsBest paper at ESEM 2011 (ACM/IEEE), 3rd best paper at SBES 2009, 3rd best work at SBES 2012 and 1st place at CTRL+E 2017.
- Research at CESARAs Head of Knowledge (2022–2024), he led the raising of more than R$100 million in research projects with FACEPE, FAPESP, Embrapii and other agencies.
- CybersecurityHe coordinates the Embrapii CESAR Competence Center in Cybersecurity, since 2024.
- Electric mobility in NoronhaHe coordinates the project on sustainable applications of electric mobility on the island of Fernando de Noronha, with ANEEL, since 2019.