There is a difference between sponsoring an academic project and sitting alongside a student to write code that will go into production. DW-Corp chose the second option and does so consistently within UnB, not as a one-off marketing initiative.
Why a company invests in R&D at a university
Research and development takes time and money, and the return rarely appears in the following quarter. So why do it? Because the two hardest problems for any software company—solving real technical challenges and finding capable people to solve them—are exactly the problems the university is also trying to address.
When this coming together is done well, everyone benefits. The company tests ideas and technologies with less risk. The university brings education closer to concrete problems. And students graduate already knowing what it means to deliver real software, rather than simply pass an exam.
UnB Gama, LAPPIS, and what is now LabLivre
DW-Corp's main partnership is with UnB, more specifically with the UnB Gama campus, the Gama Faculty (FGA). That is where LAPPIS (Advanced Laboratory for Software Production, Research, and Innovation) is located, now known as LabLivre.
The lab is the meeting point. It is not a room borrowed for one talk per semester; it is the space where students, professors, and the company work side by side on software that genuinely needs to work.
“Building real things” is not a figure of speech
The part that sets this partnership apart is simple to describe and difficult to do: building things together. Not simulations, not throwaway exercises, but real systems with real requirements, deadlines, and those frustrating decisions that only appear when something is headed to production.
This changes the nature of learning. A student who takes part in a real delivery deals with code review, integration, technical debt, and the difference between “it works on my machine” and “it works for the user.” These are things no exam can teach.
A dual focus: product and professional development
The research here does not pursue publication for its own sake. The focus is on two very concrete areas: product development and professional development.
Product development, because ideas need to become usable software, and the lab is a good place to experiment with architectures, tools, and approaches before committing them to a client. Professional development, because each project is, in practice, an advanced internship: students learn by doing, alongside people who already do it. The two reinforce each other. Better products require better people, and developing better people requires real products to practice on.
The connection to Software Craftsmanship Brasília
None of this would work without a shared technical culture, and that is where Software Craftsmanship Brasília (SCCB) comes in. The initiative brings an emphasis on doing things well into this collaboration: clean code, testing, peer review, and continuous learning.
SCCB provides the shared vocabulary and values that allow the company, professors, and students to speak the same language when building. It is what keeps “building together” from becoming merely “putting people in the same room.” One clarification is important: this work with UnB, LAPPIS/LabLivre, and SCCB is separate from LabTech, which is an initiative of UDF.
What comes next
University–industry partnerships often fail when they are merely decoration: a logo on a banner, a forgotten scholarship in a drawer. DW-Corp's partnership takes the opposite approach, with a consistent presence, joint construction, and a focus on two things that truly matter: products and people.
It is a long-term investment with compounded returns. Every piece of software delivered leaves code behind, and every student who graduates through the process becomes a professional—sometimes the next teammate. In the end, building together is the most honest way to build the future.