Boards, consulting and companies

The FAROL instruments measure how organizations and people work with agentic AI, across six axes and five levels. At Porto Digital, the Technology Residency (Residência Tecnológica), which he designed in 2019, places squads of students on real challenges proposed by more than one hundred companies.

Giordano Cabral served for eleven years on the Board of Directors of CESAR: he was chair from 2020 to 2026 and vice-chair from 2015 to 2020. He remains a member of the institute.

Overview

The Centro de Estudos e Sistemas Avançados do Recife (Recife Center for Advanced Studies and Systems) is a private, non-profit innovation institute founded in 1996 in Recife, an anchor of Porto Digital. It describes itself as "a school, an experimentation lab, a research and development center, a venture builder". It has units in Recife (headquarters), Manaus, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Florida, plus the operation in Aveiro, Portugal. Official figures for 2026: 136 projects delivered per year, 95 clients per year, 20 segments, 1,000 startups boosted in the last two years, 4,500 active students at CESAR School and more than 1,000 staff. CESAR School, the teaching arm, offers bachelor's degrees, technology degrees, specializations, two professional master's programs and a professional doctorate.

CESAR from 2015 to 2025

CESAR School opened its professional doctorate in 2019, and in April 2023 CESAR announced its operation in Aveiro, Portugal.

In public education, in 2024 it launched, with the Government of Pernambuco, SENAI and SENAC, Florescendo Talentos, which is expected to reach more than 26,000 students in about 170 state schools. Since January 2025, a research cooperation with the Lemann Center at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Pernambuco State Department of Education has been evaluating the effectiveness of the program's technical track.

In research and development, the Smart Lipstick, a prototype lipstick applicator using AI and computer vision, was presented at CES 2025 and received the People's Choice award at the SXSW Innovation Awards 2025. In design, more than 30 designers from CESAR and CESAR School wrote O futuro das organizações pela perspectiva Design-Driven (Alta Books, 2023).

In 2021 CESAR held the 18th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music with CIn/UFPE. In 2025 the institute launched the magazine Horizontes Seguros, on cybersecurity and AI, and published its first Socio-Environmental Impact Report.

Institute awards

• 2021. Women on Board certificate for the Board of Directors.
• 2022. Great Place to Work seal, for the first time.
• 2023. SPE Awards, from the Society of Petroleum Engineers, for best research and development project of the last three years, and finalist for the ANP Technological Innovation Award, with the Digital Twin, a digital twin that monitors corrosion in flexible pipes used in oil production, built with UFRJ.
• 2024. Finalist for the SXSW Innovation Awards, in the Artificial Intelligence category, with a simultaneous translator from Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) to Portuguese text and audio, the only Latin American project among that year's finalists; and finalist, for the second year in a row, for the ANP Technological Innovation Award, with a digital twin that assesses the integrity of flexible risers, one of three finalists among 43 entries in the category.
• 2025. Among the 15 best companies with fewer than 5,000 employees for growing a career, in the LinkedIn Top Companies ranking; Best Scientific Paper at the Graduate Forum of ERAD Sudeste, of the SBC (Brazilian Computer Society), with UFF; winner in two categories of the Recife Innovation Award, with the Smart Lipstick and Inova.Ação PCD, a program for training and hiring people with disabilities in software development; and three trophies at the Brazilian Design Award: Popular Vote and Bronze in Social Impact Design for FAST, a free technology training program with MCTI and Softex, and Silver in Editorial Design for a zine made as a final project of the CESAR School Bachelor's in Design.

Signed texts and public appearances

• April 16, 2019 · Round table on artificial intelligence at CESAR School. At the launch of Hybris: inteligência artificial e a revanche do inconsciente, by ambassador and writer Alessandro Candeas, he took part in the AI panel with the author and Eduardo Peixoto, moderated by Geber Ramalho (cesar.school).
• November 5, 2019 · HSM Expo 2019, São Paulo. Panel "O mundo em plataforma" (The world as a platform), as a speaker for CESAR (program).
• July 8, 2020 · "O imprevisível cenário pós-covid". Article signed as Vice Chair of the Board. The argument: innovation is a change in the behavior of market agents, and the pandemic removed the obstacle to behaviors that already existed, such as online teaching, remote work, e-commerce and remote customer service. The text closes with "we will have to be not only adapted, but adaptable".
• 10/21/2020 · 17th National Science and Technology Week, Recife. Talk "Panorama da Inteligência Artificial em Pernambuco" (Overview of Artificial Intelligence in Pernambuco), in the virtual program of the Recife Botanical Garden, as vice-chair of the CESAR Board and professor at CIn/UFPE (Recife City Hall).
• 05/11/2023 · Chtiiing 2023, Nantes. Panelist at the roundtable "Jeu dans la ville : un moyen de dépasser les frontières ?", for CESAR, at the Journées nantaises de la créativité.
• June 6, 2023 · "From 'Hello World' to an Array of A.I.-powered Design". A CESAR text with a statement from Cabral about the work with François Pachet (Sony CSL Paris) and Jean-Pierre Briot (Sorbonne), the preparation of "Daddy's Car" in 2016, the album "Hello World" and the technical path from style transfer to prompt-based tools.
• 31/12/2023 to 11/01/2024 · Retrospectiva 2023 series, LinkedIn. Eleven articles, among them "CESAR na Europa", on the operation in Aveiro, opened by directive of the Board; "O CESAR em transformação", on the institutional redesign and the 2023 expansion; "IA generativa"; and "Giro pelo mundo", with the year's events abroad (series index).
• 03/14/2024 · SXSW 2024. In Canaltech coverage of the Libras translator, a finalist at the SXSW Innovation Awards, as Board chair: "Nosso objetivo sempre foi trazer inovação de ponta para nossos parceiros e contribuir significativamente para melhorar e inovar produtos e serviços por meio da tecnologia." (Our goal has always been to bring cutting-edge innovation to our partners and to contribute significantly to improving and innovating products and services through technology.)
• 17/01/2025 · Grit Daily. "Beauty Gets Brainy: How Brazilian Innovation is Disrupting the Global Cosmetics Industry", on the CESAR smart lipstick prototype, which Cabral presented with three other team members at Pepcom, the press event of CES 2025, in Las Vegas. His statement, as Chairman of the Board for CESAR Innovation Hub: "This is just the beginning of how AI will transform beauty accessibility… The technology we've developed has potential uses far beyond lipstick application."
• February 14, 2025 · Horizontes Seguros magazine. In CESAR's publication on cybersecurity and AI, in Portuguese and English, a conversation between Eduardo Peixoto, CEO, and Giordano Cabral, then Chair of the Board, about the future of talent, education and risk management: "Cybercriminals are using Artificial Intelligence for sophisticated attacks. Future cybersecurity professionals need to think like A.I., to understand its details." (full publication)
• 03/26/2025 · Orange Dialogues, São Paulo. Speaker at the first edition of the meeting held by the Embassy and the Consulate General of the Netherlands, "Artificial Intelligence in the Netherlands, Brazil, and the World", as Board chair of CESAR (CGEE).
• 05/30/2025 · Fábrica do Futuro, Recife. Panelist at the "AI and the Future of Strategic Management and Leadership" panel, held by Rádio Novabrasil with Fits and Unit-PE (Novabrasil).

Images from the archive

Giordano Cabral is one of the five founding members of ARIES, together with Guilherme Cavalcanti, Sérgio Cavalcante, Fernando Holanda and Fernando Braga, and has served on the Board of Directors since January 2021. The agency was created for Recife's long-term planning, focused on social inclusion, reducing inequalities and adapting a coastal city to climate change.

Overview

The Agência Recife para Inovação e Estratégia is a private nonprofit association in Recife, registered in 2017 and active since 2018, qualified as a municipal Social Organization (Organização Social) by Decree 31,874 of October 22, 2018, under Law 17,875/2013. The CGU describes it as created to "think strategically about the long-term development of Recife, contributing to social inclusion and to the reduction of inequalities".

The work that defines it is the Plano Recife 500 Anos (Recife 500 Years Plan), the city's strategic plan with a horizon of 2037, the product of a management contract between the City Government and the Núcleo de Gestão do Porto Digital carried out by ARIES and published in a second edition by Cepe in 2022, bilingual, with a preface by Mayor João Campos. Since March 2023 the agency has held a management contract with the City Government, "Inovação e Estratégia para o Recife Futuro" (Innovation and Strategy for the Future Recife), worth R$ 15.3 million through March 2027 (Diário Oficial do Recife, 04/13/2023).

In 2025 the agency began carrying out two projects with public funds: CAJULab, on nature-based solutions in Cajueiro (R$ 2,428,354.40, from 2025 to 2027, according to the Mapa das OSC) and, as the delegated manager on the Brazilian side, FICOL 2 of the Recife–Nantes cooperation, financed by the French Development Agency: €2,210,000 in total, €1,500,000 from the AFD, from 10/15/2025 to 12/15/2028, with UFPE, Unicap, Porto Digital and CESAR as partners in Recife. The executive presidency was held by Marcos Baptista from 2019 to 2023 and by Mariana Silva Pontes since July 2023.

Projects

• CITinova Recife (2018–2023). The project "Promoting Sustainable Cities in Brazil" ("Promovendo Cidades Sustentáveis no Brasil"), funded by the GEF, implemented by UNEP and coordinated in Brazil by the MCTI, with the Núcleo de Gestão do Porto Digital as the contracting party, ARIES as the local executing agency, and a planned investment of more than US$7 million in Recife (Folha de Pernambuco, 03/21/2022). It left the city the Filtering Gardens and the Cais do Caiara, the Cais da Vila Vintém, inaugurated on May 27, 2023, and microstations monitoring microclimate, air, and water, along with studies on the carbon market, social housing, and climate change adaptation (project page).
• Jardins Filtrantes do Parque do Caiara (2023). The first in Pernambuco, at the mouth of the Riacho do Cavouco, in Iputinga, inaugurated on March 31, 2023, with an investment of about R$ 8 million (Prefeitura do Recife): about 7,000 m² and 7,500 native macrophytes treat 350,000 liters of water per day before it reaches the Capibaribe, with a 79% reduction in BOD and 76% in COD, according to ARIES. They received the Troféu Seriema 2023, from CREA-GO, in 1st place in the Natural Elements category, and are among the Brazilian experiences gathered in 2025 by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency and UN-Habitat in Caminhos para o desenvolvimento urbano sustentável.

• Travessias Capibaribe (2022–2023). A national competition for designs of pedestrian and cycle footbridges over the Capibaribe, held with the City Government and Porto Digital (ArchDaily, 07/07/2022).
• Primeiro a Infância (2017–2024). The Urban95 methodology, from the Bernard van Leer Foundation, applied in Recife, which joined the network in 2017 (Urban95): actions in all of the city's political-administrative regions; three pilot squares, among them Praça da Árvore, next to the Compaz Governador Eduardo Campos, designed with about 1,100 children and 700 caregivers; the Guide to Remodeling Early Childhood Squares; and Bebetecas (baby libraries) in every Compaz. The early childhood squares became municipal policy, with at least one in each region (project page).

• Cidades em Transição (2022–2025). An ARIES forum that brings together Brazilian and foreign cities, among them Medellín, Nantes, London, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, around the climate emergency (page).
• Toró de Ideias (2022, 2024 and 2025). Idea marathons for downtown Recife with the City Government; the 2024 edition was dedicated to Rua Nova (Jornal do Commercio, 05/08/2024).
• V.U.C.O. (2023–2024). Urban experimentation from the first phase of the Recife–Nantes cooperation: the V.U.C.O. Lab was inaugurated on October 20, 2023, at Rec'n'Play (Recife City Government), and the route from Praça do Diário to Pátio de São Pedro, in Santo Antônio, received a totem, floor paintings, a shade cover and furniture made from two tons of recycled bottle caps (Jornal do Commercio, 08/05/2024).

• CITinova Belém (2024). Co-creation with a gender perspective in the initial phase of CITinova in Belém, focused on COP30 (page).
• Downtown Recife Plan (2025). Centro do Recife na Rota do Futuro (Downtown Recife on the Road to the Future), a downtown rehabilitation plan coordinated by ARIES and presented by the City Government on April 9, 2025, with a survey of 12,500 people in 94 neighborhoods and a focus on housing, active mobility, economic revitalization, and social and cultural development (Recife City Government).

• CAJULab (2025–2027). Nature-based solutions in the upper part of Cajueiro, in the Beberibe basin: filtering gardens and draining planters, a living lab for training and co-creation, and 12 paid apprentices from the community. ARIES's proposal ranked 1st nationally, with a perfect score, in the Fundo Clima's Periferias Verdes Resilientes call, with the result announced on November 4, 2025 (Plenax, 11/18/2025; project page; Um Só Planeta, 03/01/2026).

• FICOL 2 (2025–2028). The first public call of the second phase of the Recife–Nantes cooperation is the Call for Ideas "Climate refuge for the surroundings of Pátio de São Pedro", opened on October 8, 2026, with R$ 50,000 in prizes.

Work at ARIES

The Board of Directors is chaired by Francisco Cunha; Cabral holds the seat for founding, full or sustaining members, elected by the General Assembly (list of board members). Outside the board, Cabral works on institutional strategy and on raising climate finance from UNEP and AFD; he coordinates, for ARIES, the digital twin of downtown Recife with Arup, with a territorial catalog, historical series and geographic layers to support public decision-making; and follows the filtering gardens front.

In the Recife–Nantes cooperation, which he helps coordinate ("Uma França mais completa", LinkedIn, 01/04/2024), he took part in the technical mission from Recife to Nantes in April 2022 (Prefeitura do Recife) and in the delegation of the London–Paris–Nantes mission from May 24 to 30, 2026, with meetings at Arup, the Catapult, and Central Saint Martins, and a session with UNEP. In Nantes, at the Chtiiing festival, he took part on May 28 in the panel "Géopolitique du numérique : la bataille des souverainetés".

In 2026 he gave an AI training workshop for the team and took part in drafting the agency's AI use policy. ARIES was a pilot for the FAROL instruments and, with CESAR School, hosted the climate resilience hackathon on July 10.

Milestones

Overview

Technology park in Recife, created in July 2000 as a public policy of the State of Pernambuco, with an initial investment of R$ 33 million. It is managed by the Núcleo de Gestão do Porto Digital (NGPD), a private nonprofit association created in December 2000 and qualified as a state Social Organization, which operates under a management contract with the State Government; the president is Pierre Lucena, since 2018. The territory covers 171 hectares in Bairro do Recife and Recife Antigo, with more than 230,000 m² of restored historic buildings, and there are also operations in Caruaru, Petrolina, Brasília, Sergipe and Aveiro, Portugal. In the 2025 report, the park had 541 companies, 24,079 employees and revenue of R$ 7.4 billion, up 19%.

The Residência Tecnológica (Technology Residency) is a course integrated into technologist programs at six partner institutions, with more than 100 companies. The Embarque Digital, a scholarship program of the Recife City Government for people who completed all of high school in the public school system, was implemented in 2021, with R$ 30 million and 2,000 places planned through 2024; by September 2026 it had 3,043 enrollees and 1,130 graduates (Prefeitura do Recife).

Origin of the Residency

In 2019, Porto Digital had more than a thousand open positions in 355 companies going unfilled. The program aimed at this problem, Empregaço, had enrolled more than 700 IT graduates and employed less than 5% of them.

Giordano Cabral was invited to redesign the model. Drawing on consultations with institutions, students and companies, he designed the Software Development Residency (Residência em Desenvolvimento de Software): cycles with names and deadlines (kick-off, rise up, grow up, take off), each closed by a demo day, squads of students working on real challenges proposed by companies, and industry mentors working alongside the professors. In the first cohort, employability came close to 100%.

In 2020 the Residência opened a cohort of 60 free places for public school graduates, selected by their ENEM scores. On September 14, 2021 the model became public policy of the Recife City Hall with Porto Digital: the Embarque Digital, created by Decree 34.913, with scholarships for public school students in two-and-a-half-year technologist courses, under a collaboration agreement between the Recife Department of Education and the Núcleo de Gestão do Porto Digital. The article "Embarque Digital", published by Cabral on LinkedIn on 01/10/2024, in the Retrospectiva 2023 series, gathers the results: the supply of IT courses in the city doubled, 2,000 scholarships were awarded, more than half of the scholarship recipients had no one in their family who had reached higher education, dropout fell by half, 51.8% of the first cohort was employed before graduating, and the ecosystem came to have more Black, mixed-race, and women professionals than it had before.

Work at Porto Digital

Cabral has coordinated the Residência Profissional Tecnológica (Professional Technology Residency) since September 30, 2019, with R&D&I scholarships from Softex Recife in the 2022–2023, 2024, and 2025 cycles. He designed and technically coordinates the platforms that run the Residency and the Embarque Digital: enrollment, selection, monitoring, accountability reporting, and the interface with companies and government, operating in Recife and Aracaju. In 2026 the in-house management system went into production, and Cabral organized A Engrenagem: o modelo Porto Digital de Residência Tecnológica, a manual for replicating the program in other cities, and wrote with Marcela Valença Co-educação, on how companies, universities, and government learned to train together the talent they said did not exist.

He has also been an internationalization consultant to the Porto Digital Management Office since September 2019: he designed the park's internationalization strategy and, in April 2026, sat on the pitch panel of Cais do Porto, the park's internationalization program. On September 25, 2025, he spoke at Conexão Europa, held by Porto Digital and Cais do Porto, on Brazilian companies entering Europe: "There are several ways to internationalize: exporting is one of them, having a digital presence is another" (Jornal Digital, 09/29/2025).

At Rec'n'Play, he was curator of the technology track of the 4th edition, in 2022, with Monica Bouqvar and Henrique Foresti; a discussant in the conversation "Aprendizagem inteligente? Como a IA transforma a educação" (Intelligent learning? How AI is transforming education), at Arena Educação, on October 16, 2025 (Jornal do Commercio); a panelist at Rec'n'Play Health Chapter, on August 27 and 28, 2026, in the session "Como aprender, ensinar e avaliar na era da IA" (How to learn, teach, and assess in the age of AI); and a thematic specialist in the curatorial analysis of the 2026 open call.

The program is also an object of study: Cabral is a co-author of "Mercado de trabalho em TI: análise de um experimento de aproximação entre academia e indústria no Porto Digital" (VALENÇA, DINIZ, PINCOVSKY, FRANÇA and CABRAL, WASHES 2023, SBC), and the Residency was the subject of his research as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford, from September 2023 to August 2024. In the article "Silicon Valley" (01/02/2024), he compares the companies he visited in the Valley with CIn and Porto Digital.

How far the two programs have come

• Technological Residency. More than 100 partner companies; cohorts in Recife, Aracaju and Brasília; partner institutions CESAR School, FICR, Faculdade Senac, Unicap, Unit (Recife and Aracaju) and Universidade Católica de Brasília. In the second half of 2025 there were more than 40 companies and more than 70 mentoring sessions for about 2,300 students in Recife, out of a total of 3,700 across the three cities (Jornal Digital, 01/20/2026). From the 2024.1 cohort of Embarque Digital, 185 students graduated, about 70% of them employed (Residency's LinkedIn).
• Embarque Digital. Scholarships from the Recife City Government in partnership with Porto Digital for students who completed all of high school in public schools and live in Recife, at six institutions: CESAR School, FICR, Senac, Unicap, Uninassau and Unit. The program placed 2nd in the Enap Public Sector Innovation Contest (2022 cycle, results in January 2023), was a finalist for the IASP Inspiring Solutions 2023, and won the Social Innovation category of the 1st Recife Innovation Award, in 2024.
• 2026. Cabral administered the "Meu Mapa de IA" census to students in September. Porto Digital published a manifesto on teaching in the age of AI, presented by him at Unicap on August 3 and at UFPE's opening lecture on August 13.

Milestones

Giordano Cabral has been a member of the Technical-Scientific Council of Instituto Caldeira since 2026, created that year, and participates remotely, from Recife.

Overview

Innovation hub in Porto Alegre, a private non-profit association founded in 2019 by more than forty large companies from Rio Grande do Sul, among them Banrisul, Sicredi, Renner, Gerdau, Panvel and Agibank. Since 2020 it has occupied the former Renner factory, in the Navegantes neighborhood (22,000 m²), and in March 2026 it opened a second building, in the 4th District (33,000 m²). In 2024 it brought together 250 companies on site and 512 connected, "about 15% of Rio Grande do Sul's GDP with a direct relationship" (Exame). In 2026 the institute reports 700 startups, more than 560 member companies, more than 120,000 young people from public schools and 55,000 m². The president is Pedro Freitas Valério, since 2019.

Overview

Alumni CIn is the nonprofit association of alumni of the UFPE Informatics Center (CIn), created to "bring together, integrate, and engage" the Center's graduates and to invest in its academic activities. The Recife Municipal Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation, created by Municipal Law No. 18,974 of November 2024, formulates, proposes, and evaluates the city's innovation policies, proposes the Municipal STI Plan, and structures the Recife Innovation Award. The Special Committee on Computer Music of the Brazilian Computer Society promotes research in computer music and organizes the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, held every two years. CITi is the junior enterprise of CIn/UFPE, founded by undergraduate students in 1997, which provides IT consulting, develops software and websites, and offers courses.

Alumni CIn

Giordano Cabral was elected executive president of Alumni CIn at the Ordinary General Assembly of October 14, 2022, for the 2022–2025 term, succeeding Hermano Perrelli de Moura (CIn portal), and remains in the post in 2026. The administration's plan organizes the association into four tracks: Continuing Education; Career and Mentoring; Entrepreneurship, Partnerships, and Funding; and People, Community, and Networking. Governance is decentralized, with open accounts.

Recife Municipal Council for Science, Technology and Innovation

Cabral has been an alternate council member since October 2024. On March 16, 2026, he took part, as a council member, in validating the guidelines of Recife's Municipal Artificial Intelligence Strategy, launched at Porto Digital.

SBC Special Committee on Computer Music

Cabral was a member of the committee's steering group and chaired it in the 2022–2023 term, with Filipe Calegário as vice-chair. In organizing the symposia, he was local coordinator of the 12th SBCM in 2009, with Geber Ramalho; technical committee chair of SBCM 2013; a member of the program committees in 2007, 2009, and 2011 and of ICMC 2010; and general coordinator of the 18th SBCM in 2021, with Filipe Calegário, held by CIn/UFPE with CESAR.

CITi

Cabral was among the students who founded CITi on March 17, 1997. He was courses director in 1997, executive president in 1998, and a council member from 1999 to 2000.

Board member training

Board Member Training at Fundação Dom Cabral, in July 2015; Board Member Training at IBGC, from August to November 2019; and Executive Education in Business Management in the Digital Age, at CESAR School, in 2020–2021.

Other activities

• Porto Digital Management Center: member (2026).
• Voxar Labs (CIn/UFPE): researcher since October 2021. Takes part in the mixed-reality-on-laptops project with Samsung (SiDi), which resulted in the article "Mixed Reality Laptops" (SVR 2022) and in patent BR 10 2024 018431-9, filed by Samsung Eletrônica da Amazônia and UFPE on September 6, 2024 and published on March 24, 2026: the laptop webcam and a deep learning model track the user's head and move the scene's virtual camera in six degrees of freedom, with no glasses or extra sensor.
• 16th National Science and Technology Week (2019): he proposed the project to CNPq in partnership with the Recife City Hall, the Olinda City Hall, and Porto Digital; the opening was held in the CIn amphitheater on October 21, 2019 (CIn portal).

Giordano Cabral founded Daccord in 2000, in the computer music group of the UFPE Informatics Center, to bring to market the result of his master's dissertation: D'Accord Guitar, later Violão Player, a virtual teacher for guitar, viola, and cavaquinho. The company was pre-incubated at Recife BEAT, incorporated as a corporation (sociedade anônima) in 2001, and in 2004 was among the debut companies of Porto Digital. In 2003 the software was already being sold in the United States and Europe. In 2026 the company remains active, run by Rodrigo Pereira, with Cabral on its ownership roster.

Overview

A music software company from Recife, with two legal entities under the same brand. Daccord Music Software S.A., founded in 2001, was the company behind the Finep awards from 2007 to 2012 and, starting in 2014, began operating as Escribo. Daccord Tecnologia Ltda, opened in 2014, is the one that uses the brand today: Rodrigo Pereira has been managing partner since 2016 and is CEO; Giordano Cabral has been on the roster since 2018, and Filipe Calegário since 2020 (Quem Somos).

The company makes software for learning instruments (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, drums, recorder), iChords, which recognizes chords in audio files, multimedia courses, and teaching material for schools, and has run an online store since 2001. According to the company, its products have been used in 116 countries; in 2016 there were more than 4 million users (Quem Somos), and the number of countries, which was more than 58 in 2006, passed 100 in 2010. From it came MusiGames Studio, in 2007, the education front that began operating as Escribo in 2014, and the spin-off Audio Alerta, a lineage that Cabral recounts in the article "As sementes que vamos lançando pelo caminho" (LinkedIn, 01/09/2024). It declares partnerships with CIn/UFPE, CESAR, the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, and the MusTIC group.

Role at the company

• 2000. Development lead: the D'Accord product line (16 products), from 2000, and D'Accord Violão Player, from 2001, with I. Zanforlin, R. Q. C. Lima, and H. Santana.
• 2003–2008. During the PhD in Paris, at LIP6 and Sony CSL, consultant and instructor in computer music, audio processing, and interactive systems.
• 2008–2010. Chief technology officer. Coordinated the project "Audio API for New Media" (FINEP, Economic Subsidy 2009), the basis of the audio technology in MusiGames' games, and "iChords.Net"; was a research fellow on "iChords: melody and harmony recognition engine" (RHAE/CNPq, 2008–2010), coordinated by Américo Amorim.
• 2009–2014. Presented the company at music education events, including the 12th SBCM (2009), the Feira Música Brasil (2009), the Ateliê Informática e Música of the Year of France in Brazil (2009), regional ABEM meetings (2011 and 2012), Porto Musical (2013) and the ISME World Conference (2014), and at the BETT Show in London (2011 and 2012). Pitched the company at the 2012 Finep Prize.
• 2011. Organized, through Daccord Music Software, the teacher's and student's books for the Music Creation, Recorder, Keyboard and Guitar courses, with Erika Pessoa Araújo, Evandro Natividade and Anuacy Fontes.
• 2018–. Partner at Daccord Tecnologia Ltda. iChords received support from FACEPE, under the Tecnova program. In 2026 he is overseeing the migration of iChords to AI programming tools.

Milestones

Awards

• 2005. National Young Entrepreneur Competition (Cojem), Softex, in Campina Grande.
• 2006. Santander Banespa Entrepreneurship Award, Technology category, with iChords.
• 2006 and 2007. Nominations for the Epsilon Award (European Software Conference), with Violão Master and Dicionário de Acordes; nomination for the Shareware Industry Awards, with Violão Master.
• 2007, 2008 and 2009. 3rd, 2nd and 1st places in the Finep Innovation Award, Small Company category, Northeast stage; national finalist in 2009 (2009 award ceremony video).
• 2009. Finalist for the Dell Award for Excellence in Technology.
• 2011. Giordano Cabral placed 2nd as Entrepreneur of the Year in the INFO 2011 Award, with 13% of readers' votes (INFO Exame no. 310, December 2011, p. 67).
• 2012. Winner of the Northeast stage of the Finep Innovation Award, Small Company category, among 81 entries in the region, with the Turma do Som and Saiba+ Enem projects and a R$ 200 thousand prize (Revista Brasileiros, Jan/2013; Mundo Bit / Portal NE10, 10/18/2012).

Products

• Learning to play instruments. Violão Player (2001; 2.0 in 2007), Dicionário de Acordes de Violão e Guitarra (2003), Afinador Virtual (2004), Curso de Violão (2005), Dicionário de Teclado, Partitura, Easy Tuner and Bateria Player (2005), Teclado Player, Drums Player, Free Clef, Violão Master and Personal Guitarist (2006), Guitar Method and Keyboard Player (2007), Curso de Teclado (2008), Flauta Player, Curso de Guitarra and Keyboard Method (2009).
• iChords (2008; 2.0 in 2009). Opens MP3, WMA and WAV files and shows, on a virtual guitar or keyboard, at three difficulty levels, the chords being played (iChords 2.0 page). It won the Santander award in 2006, while still a prototype. Today it is a free app, "ichords: cifras em tempo real", with more than 10 thousand downloads on Google Play: chords synchronized with the music, video recording of the performance, playlists, and key and speed adjustment. It has its own website, ichords.app, and a YouTube channel.

• Education in schools. Turma do Som (2012), the Recorder, Music Creation, Keyboard and Guitar courses, in teacher's and student's books (2011), and Saiba+ Enem (2012).
• Books and songbooks (2012–2015). O melhor de Legião Urbana, Songbook Bossa Nova vol. 1, Songbook Cazuza vol. 1, Songbook Djavan vol. 1 and Harmonia e Improvisação I.
• Store. Since 2012 it has distributed third-party software in Brazil, such as Finale, Guitar Pro, Band-in-a-Box and EarMaster. The catalog grew from 15 brands in 2016 to 30 in 2019 and has 31 in 2026, among them Avid, Steinberg, Waves, iZotope, PreSonus and Fender (brands), with a dedicated page for educational institutions. In 2019 it opened pre-sales of the Fretlight line, guitars with lights on the neck that show songs, chords, scales and riffs.
• Brazyle. A database of Brazilian songs created by the company, the Brazilian part of Sony CSL's Flow Machines artificial intelligence project for music creation (Quem Somos, 2022). In 2018 the FIC program in Porto Alegre presented the company as "the Brazilian bridge of the European Flow Machines project" (mescla.cc, 10/01/2018).

Press

O Globo ("Em sintonia com o mercado de música"), O Estado de S. Paulo ("Professor de música virtual"), Folha de S.Paulo ("Softs de música levam estúdio para casa"), Diário de Pernambuco ("Vendedor 24 horas", 01/04/2006), Jornal do Commercio (Cojem, 06/08/2005; British Council, 10/01/2008; Prêmio Finep, 11/17/2009; investment of more than R$ 1 million, 02/10/2010; MusiGames leads iPad downloads, 05/26/2010), Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios ("Bateria virtual do Recife para o mundo", 01/19/2009), Época Negócios ("Eles fazem diferente", 02/26/2010), Agência Sebrae de Notícias and FAPEMA ("Empresa exporta software musical para 85 países" and "Empresa pernambucana faz sucesso com jogos para iPhone", 10/28/2009), Finep's Revista Inovação em Pauta (no. 7, Oct/2009, and no. 8, 2010), Backstage (March 2010, iChords), Instituto Claro ("Softwares potencializam ensino de música nas escolas", 12/04/2012), the Mundo Bit blog on the NE10 portal ("Pernambucana Daccord vence Prêmio Finep de Inovação", 10/18/2012), Música & Mercado ("Daccord desenvolve software para a indústria musical", 05/07/2019).

Images from the archive

MusiGames Studio was founded by Giordano Cabral in 2007 as a business unit of D'Accord Music Software, at Porto Digital, to apply the company's audio technology to games. Its best-known game, Drums Challenge, was released on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch on June 13, 2009, and ended its launch month in fifth place among the best-selling music games in the United States; the iPad version, released in April 2010, was the best-selling music game on the device in the United States and the United Kingdom that year (JC Online, 04/04/2012). The project that opened the studio was DJ Nights, announced for PC and consoles; Drums Challenge reached the market first. The debut on Android was Leds, released on July 21, 2009, simultaneously for iPhone and for the G1 phone, at US$0.99 (Pocket Gamer, 07/22/2009). Games for Nokia's Symbian^3, PlayStation Minis for PSP and PS3, Facebook and Orkut, educational games, and advergames followed.

Overview

Games business unit, created in 2007 at Porto Digital. In May 2010 it had 28 people. Its catalog covered iPhone and iPad, Android, Symbian (Nokia), PlayStation Minis (with Sanuk Games, 2011), Facebook and the web, as well as advergames. In September 2012 the studio's website listed as partners Apex-Brasil, Chillingo, CIn/UFPE, CNPq, FACEPE, FINEP, I-play, Oberon Media, Porto Digital, Sanuk Games and Stream.

Work at the studio

Cabral was the development director. He presented the studio at Game Connection 2009 ("Jeux vidéo du MusiGames Studio"), at the Mobile Application Showcase at Macworld 2010, in San Francisco, in February ("MusiGames Studio titles for iOS"), at GDC and Game Connection in March 2010, and at Nokia World 2011.

The MusiGames product line, with nine products in 2009, and the games below carry his name as author, several with Renan Lima, Dante Araújo and Leocádio Tiné.

Games

Part of the catalog was commissioned work. In 2016, the company listed custom games made for Coca-Cola, Mattel, Rock in Rio and Grupo Abril, and for the artists Julie Thompson, Charlie Morgan and Robbie Rivera (About Us, 2016).

Milestones

• 2007. Creation of the unit; 2D/3D art team formed; work begins on DJ Nights and on an in-house audio engine, the "MusiGames Engine".
• 2008. Américo Amorim, executive director of D'Accord, represents the MusiGames project at the British Council's International Young Creative Entrepreneur award, in London.
• 2009. Drums Challenge among the best-selling music games on the App Store in the United States and the United Kingdom; Edge magazine, in August, mentions MusiGames in a piece on self-publishing on the iPhone; interview with Finep's Revista Inovação em Pauta ("Brasil inova em jogos eletrônicos", no. 7); presence at SBGames 2009; Prêmio Finep de Inovação 2009, Northeast stage, for D'Accord/MusiGames.
• 2010. Drums Challenge HD is the best-selling music game on the iPad in the United States and the United Kingdom for the year; in December, Santander's video "Conexões de Ideias" (Connections of Ideas) shows Marcelo Tas playing Drums Challenge.
• 2011. Vice/Creators Project publishes "Playful musical puzzle apps from MusiGames" (01/13/2011) and an interview with Cabral (01/17/2011); in April, INFO Exame runs his profile, "Conservatório digital" (Digital Conservatory), in the feature "A cara da inovação" (The Face of Innovation); in December, he places 2nd as Entrepreneur of the Year in the INFO 2011 Award, with 13% of readers' votes; Drums Challenge for Nokia; games for Coca-Cola (Drums Challenge Coke and Rock in Rio Burn Game); Drums Challenge for PlayStation Minis, with Sanuk Games.
• 2012. The website is repositioned as "games for smartphones, tablets and social networks", educational games and advergames.
• 2014. In December, Cabral's association with the studio ends.

Press

Pocket Gamer, "Leds! word puzzler out for iPhone and G1" (07/22/2009); MacMagazine, "Desenvolvedora brasileira MusiGames Studio lança jogo de bateria para iPad" (04/12/2010); Jornal do Commercio, "Musigames lidera downloads do iPad" (05/26/2010) and "Game da D'Accord em sétimo lugar" (03/17/2010); Gamesauce, interview with Américo Amorim (01/06/2011); Vice/The Creators Project, "Playful Musical Puzzle Apps From MusiGames" (01/13/2011) and "Behind The Brazilian Mobile Gaming Scene: Q&A With MusiGames Founder Giordano Ribeiro" (01/17/2011); INFO Exame, "Conservatório digital" (no. 302, April 2011, p. 76) and "Prêmio INFO 2011" (no. 310, December 2011, pp. 66–67); AFJV, "Drums Challenge coming soon on PlayStation Minis" (04/09/2011); JC Online, "Jogo pernambucano chega ao PlayStation" (07/01/2011) and "D'Accord ensina música com diversão" (04/04/2012); Folha de S.Paulo, "Facilidades da App Store atraem criadores de jogos brasileiros" (07/10/2011); AppAddict, "Chillingo and MusiGames get some rhythm w/ DJ Nights" (11/09/2009); Revista Edge (August 2009); Revista Inovação em Pauta, Finep (no. 7, October 2009); Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios (01/19/2009); FAPEMA and Agência Sebrae de Notícias (10/28/2009); Metacritic (entries for Drums Challenge and DJ Nights Eurodance).

Images from the archive

Escribo is the corporation founded in 2001 as D'Accord Music Software, which from 2014 on operated as Escribo, focused on education, while the Daccord brand continued in a new company (Our history). Giordano Cabral was a founding partner from 2001 to 2017.

Overview

Edtech and digital publisher based in Recife: games, animation, and interactive systems for education. It produced digital content, games, and pedagogical consulting for schools, publishers, and school networks: Turma do Som (2012), the Recorder Course (Curso de Flauta Doce), digital books for publishers (2014–2015), and the Frei.re System (2016–2017), with partnerships with Abril Educação (2010), Saraiva (2011–2012), FTD (2013), Ibep (2013), and SM (2014). In 2026, escribo.com describes itself as "pedagogical AI for Early Childhood Education and the Early Grades", headquartered in Recife.

Work at Escribo

Cabral was chief technology and creative officer and, in 2012, edited the Turma do Som books with Cecília Cavalieri França.

Products

• Turma do Som. A music education project for the early years of elementary school: teacher's manual, student book, DVD with animated cartoons, interactive games on timbre, pitch, rhythm, and style, a music production app, and training and pedagogical support for schools. It was developed in 2010 and 2011 and launched in March 2012; that same year it was already in use in schools in Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo. The platform's press kit, from May 2012, details 25 games organized into four thematic blocks (sound, pitch, time, and structure), content explained through animated videos with characters in the style of Japanese cartoons, and a portal that works as a social network. Production took "about 15 months" and was carried out by a "multidisciplinary team of developers, musicians, graphic artists, and educators". Pedagogical consulting was provided by Cecília Cavalieri França, a doctor in music education and professor at UFMG, who became a character in the animations. The commercial launch was at the 19th Educar/Educador fair, held May 16–19, 2012, in São Paulo. In 2015, Turma do Som was a finalist for the Jabuti Prize, in the Digital Children's Book category.

• Curso de Flauta Doce. For the later years of elementary education, designed to meet the compulsory music education requirement established by Law 11,769/2008: the instrument's anatomy and history, fingering, notes, transposition and repertoire, with digital support for the computer lab.
• Digital Educational Book (LED). Digital books for publishers, in 2014 and 2015.
• Sistema Frei.re (2016–2017). Printed and interactive books with games and activities, content customizable with students' photos and names, game creation, in-person educational consulting and performance tracking; in 2018, courses in programming, robotics, making and the creative economy.

Milestones