A little over a month ago, Nubank’s office in Vila Leopoldina, São Paulo became the meeting point for the Clojure community in South America. The second edition of the Clojure South conference gathered over 200 professionals, students, and language enthusiasts for two days of knowledge sharing, connection, and a shared passion for functional programming. 

It was a celebration of a community that grows collaboratively and that, within Nubank, has found not only an active and vibrant space, but also a real-world showcase of how functional programming, simplicity, and engineering excellence guide the way we build technology every day.

Why events like this matter

Clojure is a language built around collaboration, curiosity, and the desire to rethink how we develop software, and these same principles shape the spirit of Clojure South. By hosting and fully supporting the event, Nubank reinforces its commitment to strengthening the Clojure ecosystem not only internally but across South America.

Bringing together people from different countries, backgrounds, and experience levels creates a virtuous cycle: more learning, more shared practices, and more real solutions emerging from technology. It’s an essential step toward consolidating the region as a global reference for the language.

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Highlights from the talks

Over two days, the conference offered a rich program: the first dedicated to hands-on workshops on Clojure and Datomic, and the second featuring talks by national and international guests, with highlights including several Nubankers, such as Alex Miller and Alessandra Sierra, Principal Software Engineers, Raíssa Barreira and João Lanjoni, Software Engineers.

12 Years of Component, with Alessandra Sierra

Alessandra revisited the journey of the Component library, created 12 years ago. With just over 200 lines of code, it profoundly influenced how Clojure systems are structured, inspiring extensions, variations, and even ports to other languages.

The talk connected history, impact, and reflections on how much the library achieved its original goals and where it can still evolve.

AI and incremental testing in Clojure, with Raíssa Barreira

Based on her master’s research at USP, Raíssa presented an incremental strategy for generating unit tests with the help of AI.

She showcased the main challenges, the tools involved, and how bridging academia and industry can improve software quality in large-scale systems.

NuFileBox Reverse: secure file management with Clojure, with Eric Bispo and Isaac Borges

Eric and Isaac, from the NuFuturo team (a partnership between Nubank, UFBA, and IFBA), showed how Clojure became the “brain” of a security architecture for file uploads and analysis.

NuFileBox Reverse orchestrates encryption, multiple programming languages, and real-time malware analysis with YARA, a concrete example of Clojure solving critical security challenges.

Joy of Data, with Alex Miller

Alex offered a different perspective on how we deal with data in everyday development. Instead of fragile structures, boilerplate, and frustration, Clojure treats data as simple values that can be transformed and composed.

He demonstrated how this mindset not only simplifies software but also makes working with data more enjoyable.

Elegant interfaces with ClojureScript, React, and UIx, with João Lanjoni

João explored how to build modern front-ends using ClojureScript, React, and the UIx library. He discussed the limitations of older approaches like Reagent and how UIx offers a more idiomatic and integrated layer for building elegant interfaces using the latest React features, all within ClojureScript.

Beyond the code

Between workshops, talks and coffee breaks, conversations ranged from macros, the Datomic database, to career paths, from distributed architecture to how we can train the next generation of Clojure developers in Brazil, reflecting themes that marked the sessions, such as the future of the Clojure ecosystem, real-world applications at scale and the evolution of the language in the industry. For those who were there, one thing became clear: events like this build community, connect generations, and help keep technology alive.

The second edition of Clojure South proved that there is a strong, curious, and committed community shaping the future of the language in South America. Nubank is proud to be part of this story and to support initiatives that strengthen the ecosystem.

And if there was one sentence that captured the spirit of the event, it was this one, heard in the hallways:

“Clojure isn’t just about parentheses. It’s about people building things together.”

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