Architect and Urban Designer skilled in teaching AutoCAD and SketchUp along with Illustrator

Find out more about Leandro

• Can you tell us about your first experience using a computer?

  I came across computers through a Windows handout that I found among my father's books when I was a child. My mom wouldn't let me play outside sometimes, and during that time I was reading my dad's books, who was finishing school at the time.

• What is the technological evolution that has marked you most and what will be, in your eyes, a turning point in this field?

  The emergence and popularization of smartphones was undoubtedly something compelling, especially since it managed, in a few years, to be present in the hands of practically all age groups and incomes.I believe that the next technology that will radically revolutionize the world will be the internet of things, when everything is connected to the internet and we can control them from our cell phones.

• xplain your expertise, your interest in it and, more broadly, its importance in the computer world.

  I started operating AutoCAD in 2008, when I was attending high school (and civil construction technician school, as well), and because I liked architecture and civil construction so much, my hobby was redrawing plans and inventing what to do with AutoCAD. At that time, I learned how to draw very rigorously and within the technical norms of representation, elaborating my own drawing patterns, based on those norms. Later on, at architecture school, I discovered that AutoCAD was not a software used only for technical drawing (raw and rigorous), but could be the basis for flattened and laser-cut or CNC-cut projects, in addition to commercial standard drawings, such as humanized blueprints.

• Do so-called 'visionaries', such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg inspire you or do you have other role models?

  I think these people managed to put themselves in the shoes of others, first of all, and think about what they could do for others and that's why they were able to develop amazing products. They gave people what they wanted, knowing that they didn't know they wanted those things yet.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  I can't remember any specific episode, but during classes, students often laugh about their computer addictions when they realize how difficult it is to get rid of them in order to be able to draw faster.

• What would you say to an uncomfortable person in front of a screen who says that "IT is too complicated"?

  I like the thesis of the American historian and sociologist, Richard Sennett, that "to do is to think", because most of the things I know, I learned by doing and allowing myself to make mistakes. As important as successes, mistakes teach us what not to do, and with the help of someone who allows us to make common mistakes, but without leaving us stagnant or stressed at some point, it undoubtedly shortens the path and makes things more comfortable. I would say something that is a bit of a cliché: don't be afraid of making mistakes.

• What are your other passions, related or non-related to computers?

  I like studying languages, mainly oriental, going to (contemporary) art exhibitions and being outdoors, having nothing to think about or nothing to do.

• What makes you a Superprof in IT?

  I think that nothing artificial can replace what we have in us as a product of our personal trajectory, which involves our culture, interests, curiosity, ability to feel empathy for others and to use our skills to help them, in addition, of course, of our personal motivations. We do things because we are interested in them, while machines do things because they are programmed to.