Class of 2025: Yuri Braga emerges as an entrepreneurial engineer
Using his computer engineering education, Braga blends his passion for software systems and health care to create a new start-up.
Name: Yuri Braga
College: College of Engineering
Major: Computer engineering-software systems
Hometown: Salvador in Bahia, Brazil
Plans after graduation: Braga plans to work with his brother on developing health industry connections for their burgeoning startup, CareFuse.
Favorite Hokie memory: “On one of my spring break trips, I went on a mission trip to Florida, where I was able to share about the gospel and just show love and care to people. It was super special to be able to do that with a community of friends.”
Destined to be an engineer
Braga’s parents knew from an early age their son would never follow in their footsteps.
“Both my parents are doctors, but they didn’t push me to do medicine,” said Braga, a computer engineering student in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “They thought my mind was more hardwired to do engineering, math, and problem-solving. I even took personality tests, and those pointed me to engineering too.”
A high school soccer player from Brazil, Braga chose Virginia Tech for its affordability, its highly ranked engineering program, and its Hokie Spirit.
“I talked with alumni, and the amount of joy they shared about being a Hokie was really cool,” Braga said. “Everyone really loves this community. Virginia Tech just had everything I was looking for in a university.”
Broken bones are good for business
Braga is fascinated by “smart” engineering — using data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and more, in problem-solving to make life easier. But it was his broken femur that sent him down a new path of using engineering to help people be healthier — the closest he’s ever come to his parents’ line of work.
“My brother also suffered a knee injury after I broke my femur, so we both had to go through the orthopedic process,” he said. “We found a gap in predicting patient outcomes after surgery, so we want to develop software that would compile orthopedic data to create patient-focused recommendations regarding the benefits and risks of surgery.”
Together, Braga and his brother, a medical school student in Brazil, are building a startup they call CareFuse, denoting the fusion of engineering and health care. Braga plans to focus on corporate partnerships after graduation, both in the United States and Brazil.
An ambassador’s advice
In between developing his business and attending software systems classes, Braga participated in club soccer and was an active member of the campus ministry, Cru at Virginia Tech. He conducted research for three years with both the Terrestrial Robotics Engineering and Controls Lab and the Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics, and he joined the Christian fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi.
Braga also served as the electrical and computer engineering ambassador president, working alongside 24 other undergraduates to answer questions for high school and first-year college students and showcase what the department has to offer.
He learned to balance it all with the support of mentors such as his academic advisor, Mary Brewer, and Creed Jones, collegiate professor and assistant graduate director for Master of Science programs in electrical and computer engineering, both of whom he credits with guiding him to be an encouraging peer and honest engineer.
“I think making connections and talking to people is something that has had a huge impact on me,” he said. “So I really recommend coming into college with humility, being very eager to learn from other people, because there’s always something to learn from someone else.”
