Highlights 2023

HIGH LIGHTS 2023

EDITORIAL

FEUP: committed to progress and sustainability

ABOUT FEUP

. FEUP in brief

U.Porto: an international player

. A comprehensive education

Research and innovation for the real world

. Alumni engagement

Sustainable development

INNOVATION AND FUTURE

FEUP Campus: a hub of diversity

. 1.5M€ to mitigate the effects of antibiotics on the environment

Faculty of Engineering leads European consortium linked to the railway

Interview to Cristina Videira Lopes: “Is AI taking over our future?”

Could the future of humanity be in the hands of engineering?

Desalination: new technology for converting sea water into drinking water

OUR PEOPLE

Interview to Paulo Pinho: “FEUP is progressively making the city”

MUCH + THAN ENGINEERING

Sofia Sá: between piano and computer keys

OUR PARTNERS

. FEUP joins INOV CONTACTO REVERSE pilot project

Since October 2022 it has been both a great honour and a great responsibility to lead FEUP. In the action programme, I set out the strategic goal of affirming FEUP’s position as an engineering school of international excellence in academic and civic education, research and innovation, and securing its reputation as a sustainable institution that has a positive impact on society, whether scientifically, culturally or economically.

With regard to education and training, FEUP will promote initiatives that encourage students who finish their first degrees to enter a master’s programme, enabling them to follow a full five-year education in engineering. FEUP will also strengthen its provision of post-graduate professional training, developed in partnership with public and private employers, aimed at adults already in the labour market.

In terms of research and development, FEUP will contribute to the University of Porto’s role as a research university, promoting knowledge development across its areas of activity at a global level, and integrating state-of-the-art expertise in all the teaching and training courses it provides. To this end, it should increase collaboration and articulation between R&D units, explore synergies and develop interdisciplinary research.

Regarding the economic and social enhancement of knowledge, given the current need for companies to produce increasingly more knowledge while enhancing their specialized know-how, installed technological capacity and innovative Products, Processes and Services portfolio, this creates conditions for

FEUP: committed to progress and sustainability

FEUP to benefit more strongly from collaboration with companies in an open innovation logic.

To accelerate the process of affirming and securing its reputation and achieving international recognition, FEUP should promote actions in the strategic areas of cooperation, internationalisation, digital transformation and communication.

When it comes to cooperation, FEUP should enhance its partnerships with other component institutions of the University of Porto, in order to seek greater coverage of interdisciplinary competences, as well as to obtain scale gains, and strengthen external cooperation, thus integrating different visions of the academic community and of society at large in its strategic and action plans.

With respect to the strategic issue of Internationalisation, there is a need to attract more and better international students, and to help retain this talent in our country, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of the region and the country.

In the context of the profound and accelerated digital transformation that society as a whole is undergoing, it is necessary to guarantee the improvement of information systems and the modernisation of management systems, promoting dematerialisation, standardisation and simplification of processes.

Regarding the strategic issue of communication, FEUP should actively collaborate in the development of new communication portals within the University of Porto and its component institutions and develop a

strategic plan of communication with its target audiences.

FEUP’s progress will depend on being able to hold the pillars of the organisation in high esteem. On a personal level, it is important to value the work of the people who make up the academic community, by motivating them and giving them a central role in strategic decisions related to their activities, seeking to carry out actions that will provide individuals with the best conditions for professional achievement, while maintaining a balance with personal and family life. The physical infrastructure is fundamental in providing the community with the best conditions to be able to go about its daily business and undertake its work, and thus it is now essential to construct three new buildings on the FEUP campus, which will enable the faculty to answer the urgent need for more spaces resulting from the expansion of its key mission activities.

Securing FEUP’s reputation will also involve strengthening its commitment to the value of culture, sport, social responsibility and sustainability, as well as the role of its commissariats.

It was with determination that I took on the mission of leading FEUP in challenging circumstances, with several threats looming on the horizon, which must be faced and overcome. Yet it also presented various opportunities, which we must seek to take advantage of, in an unstable and increasingly competitive world, looking to dignify the institution and contribute to the development and affirmation of FEUP at national and international level.

* FEUP Dean

Rui Calçada*

FEUP IN BRIEF

Founded in 1926, the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP) is the largest of the 14 faculties that constitute the University of Porto. With its origins in the Polytechnic Academy, created in 1837, FEUP is a leading institution of international repute, whose achievements in research and teaching have led to its current position at the forefront of engineering schools.

FEUP’s claim to be an international School of Engineering relies not only on the growing number of international students and researchers on the campus, but also on the strong cooperative relations that it maintains with businesses and leading higher education institutions in Europe and the rest of the world, with special emphasis on the USA and Latin America. This extensive collaboration ranges from establishing joint degrees and applied research to providing professional training and mobility programmes for students and staff. FEUP has come to expand its basis of cooperation, also participating in major international networks and prestigious engineering associations such as CESAER - Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research.

Worldwide recognition of FEUP’s quality also stands out in the high position it occupies in the most respected global rankings of Engineering schools. Together with the excellent comprehensive education it offers, this provides students with outstanding advantages in both national and international labour markets.

For the past 186 years FEUP has played a leading institutional role in the economic development of the city of Porto, the northern region and the country as a whole, both in terms of the quality of its education, producing engineers of world-class standard, and the scientific and technological breakthroughs that it has made, which have contributed to global scientific development, industrial progress and social well-being.

A DYNAMIC ATMOSPHERE

FEUP is located in the Asprela Pole of the University of Porto, an area designated as the Porto Innovation District. Concentrated within one square kilometre, this area is home to several faculties of the University of Porto, schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, private universities, a central teaching hospital, an institute of oncology and various national and international research institutes. The campus community numbers over 50,000 with around 40,000 students and 15,000 staff, together constituting a true technology hub. Here, the strong presence of engineering technologies, health sciences and entrepreneurship lend considerable impetus to the process of innovation.

The Porto Innovation District is where the core of the University of Porto’s Science and Technology Park (UPTEC) is located. UPTEC fosters the creation and development of business projects in the arts, sciences, and technologies, by supporting the effective transfer of knowledge and technology between U.Porto and the market. Over the last 15 years, UPTEC has supported more than 700 business projects and graduated 98 companies. Only in 2022, UPTEC has hosted more than 207 entrepreneurial projects – 144 startups, 21 anchor projects and 44 innovation centres – together employing over 2,100 people from 37 nationalities.

Today, the FEUP campus includes the facilities of the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) and the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC).

All in all, the Porto Innovation District is brimming with the entrepreneurial spirit and multidisciplinary research that have allowed FEUP to break new ground in which to operate and thus broaden its expertise.

Photo: Luís Ferraz

Texts: Liliana Carvalho

Francisco Piqueiro

U.PORTO: A DRIVING FORCE FOR THE NORTHERN REGION - AN INTERNATIONAL PLAYER

The University of Porto (U.Porto), located in the north of Portugal, is increasingly becoming a major contributor to global networks of academic and scientific excellence, helping to promote the worldwide transfer of its research results. As a research university, it contributes significantly to the country’s scientific output.

U.Porto is also aware of the crucial role it plays in socioeconomic development, both at regional and national level, through its interaction with wider society and the productive base in particular. It is therefore placing increasing emphasis on raising the value of its research activity by means of transferring knowledge and technologies to industry, together with genuine human talent, and creating partnerships with businesses, which have resulted in innovations with proven success in both national and international markets. Together with the University of Minho and the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro in 2015, the University of Porto created UNorte.pt, the first consortium of higher education institutions in Portugal, whose cooperation has brought the Northern region to a stronger position in Portugal and in Europe.

In the European sphere, U.Porto is one of nine major research universities which have together created a European University Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH) committed to building the European universities of tomorrow in response to the pressing issues facing the future of global health. This Alliance is led by University Paris-Saclay (France) and also includes Lund University (Sweden), Szeged University (Hungary), Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (Germany), University of Alcalá (Spain), UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Norway), University of Novi Sad (Republic of Serbia) and University of Hamburg (Germany).

U.Porto is a comprehensive institution, with a large number of faculties and schools providing a diverse range of knowledge, continually interacting and offering opportunities for training at all stages of life. As the university’s main aim is the all-round education of its students, it also offers numerous extra-curricular activities in areas ranging from sports and the arts to entrepreneurship and volunteer service. U.Porto is indeed the preferred choice in Portugal for those applying to an undergraduate programme, which means that every year the number of applicants is greater than the number of available places.

Recognition of the University of Porto as an institution of excellence is reflected in the high place that it occupies in global rankings. U.Porto is a key academic institution in the Portuguesespeaking and Ibero-American worlds and its leading international role is reinforced by the prestigious ties of cooperation that it has with countries which share linguistic or historical kinship.

THE CITY OF PORTO

Anyone who visits Porto for the first time immediately feels the pulse of a city that is not just the regional capital of northern Portugal, but also the main trading centre in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally known for its Port Wine trade, the region is home to a large cross-section of Portuguese industry, in particular the sectors of timber, furniture-making, textiles, garment manufacturing, footwear, metal-working and various engineering industries. Its commercial activity is facilitated by the cargo terminal at the port of Leixões, which handles 25% of Portugal’s international maritime trade, and by Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport. Indeed, the airport has been one of the VINCI Airports stations with the highest number of quality awards and international recognition. Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport connects Porto to 79 destinations in Europe, Africa, and North and South America via more than 30 airlines. The airport is situated approximately 12 kilometers (8 miles) north of Porto’s city centre, a travel distance of about 20 minutes by car.

Porto’s historic centre is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and its charm and beauty cast a special spell on the whole city. But no less enchanting are the modern buildings designed by acclaimed names in architecture such as Siza Vieira, Souto Moura and Rem Koolhaas. The pleasant atmosphere, excellent cuisine, and range of cultural and leisure activities at competitive prices have earned it praise from such international publications as the New York Times and Lonely Planet. The American magazine Forbes chose Porto as one of the 50 must-visit places for 2023 and when it comes to attracting foreign investment, Porto leads the Financial Times’ European Cities of the Future ranking.

A COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION

Studying at FEUP means joining a community of around 8,000 promising students at the largest faculty of the University of Porto, itself the second biggest university in Portugal, with over 34,000 students.

FEUP provides its students with top facilities and equipment combined with quality services that can keep pace with recent trends and students’ requirements. These include a library with 600 reading places and 33 computer labs with 550 working places, 150 of which are open round the clock every day of the year as are various study rooms.

FEUP has high quality standards and therefore seeks the best candidates from Portugal and abroad to accomplish its mission of producing competitive engineering graduates for the global labour market and key change agents for industry. In 2023 FEUP launched “CAMPUS FEUP”, a strategic network of high schools where a significant number of FEUP’s best students come from; the goal is to draw closer and find more ways to collaborate with these premium partners.

The excellence of the education offered is reflected in the success achieved by FEUP’s alumni in many highly reputable organizations around the World. To prepare students for the ’real world’, they are encouraged to participate in interdisciplinary assignments, and to take part in research, innovation and entrepreneurship projects from undergraduate level. FEUP also promotes the participation of students in company-proposed projects as part of their Masters dissertations as well as Summer internship programmes. Following the major restructuring of 2021 in undergraduate programmes, special focus is given to providing students with transversal skills far beyond the Engineering area as well as promoting ever closer ties with the professional world.

Besides all the curricular activities, FEUP offers a great array of extra-curricular options, including theatre, music and painting. Cultural events play a central role at the institution, including such diverse initiatives as film cycles, exhibitions, seminars, literature sessions, and conferences on many different topics.

The existence of a Cultural Commission at FEUP confirms the great importance given to culture and arts. Through its Cultural Commissioner, FEUP organizes shows open to the local community with emphasis on vocal and jazz groups and FEUP’s Classical Orchestra, one of the University of Porto’s most emblematic and successful cultural projects.

Extracurricular activities encourage students to get involved in projects that enrich their knowledge and promote social, professional, cultural and human growth. Thus, there are opportunities to acquire complementary training in addition to the curricular education provided at FEUP and to gain essential life experiences that are potentially enriching for future careers through currently ongoing projects in the area of Volunteering, Entrepreneurship Club, Debating Society and Engineering Radio.

When it comes to sports, a wide range of activities are offered, covering all types of sports, with FEUP athletes being distinguished with medals in several national and international competitions. The academic community recognises the vital importance of participation in sport and thus statutes can be requested that bring advantages to those who want to combine studies with sports.

Students also can develop their soft skills when, for instance, they engage in activities related to intercultural diversity, participate in groups dedicated to certain subject areas or join local or international associations such as BEST (Board of European Students of Technology), ESN (Erasmus Student Network) or InterUp (Youth Association for International Students).

Egídio Santos

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION FOR THE REAL WORLD

FEUP’s central position on the map of Research and Innovation (R&I) is certainly reinforced by its privileged location – the Porto Innovation District – and the international networks of which it is part. The Innovation Centre at the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (UPTEC) is located nearby. This centre is a clear example of the cooperation between the academic and business worlds: several innovation teams from national and international companies are established here, involved in the development of new technologies geared towards the global market.

The establishment of partnerships with external entities enables FEUP not only to enrich its research activities by sharing ideas and experiences, but also to seek appropriate solutions to current global challenges. For instance, in the area of energy storage, FEUP is partnering with DST Solar (coordinator) and many other national partners in the ‘NGS – New Generation Storage’ project, which represents a total investment of around 197 million euros.

At FEUP, the INOV Unit seeks to open new doors to the faculty’s presence in European knowledge networks and to leverage participation in and funding by European R&I framework programmes. It is a very important source of support to researchers, strengthened by another structure: the Industry Liaison Office (ILO). The ILO promotes close cooperation between FEUP researchers and national and international industry, thus fostering competitive collaboration and access to external funding. Countless projects demonstrate FEUP’s capacity to bring about innovation through its R&D units in conjunction with affiliated institutes, together forming a support platform for Faculty research.

FEUP’s considerable technical-scientific expertise has been applied in numerous technology transfer projects. The knowledge of university professors and researchers has also contributed to the training and consultancy services provided to the business and public sectors, as well as to the establishment of standardised procedures that guarantee the quality and safety of products and services. Promotion of entrepreneurship is undertaken through advanced training in innovation and technological enterprise, publicising of incentive programmes, organisation of counselling initiatives and contacts made with available companies and investors. A significant number of entrepreneurial projects, instigated by

staff and students, have given rise to start-ups and spin-offs. FEUP coordinates the European project ‘INVENTHEI -  Innovation and Entrepreneurship in HEIs’ which envisions that, by 2025, a critical mass of highly educated young entrepreneurs and innovators will be trained by the participating higher education institutions (HEIs), contributing to the emergence of highly dynamic innovation districts and favouring the setup and support of knowledge intensive companies on cutting edge technologies, value added products and services, and innovative business models.

FEUP also leads the field through the Business and Innovation Network (BIN@) initiative. This network, created in 2010, is a joint effort of academic and industry partners engaged in a sustainable platform for sharing best practices and opportunities in innovation. BIN@ has currently around 5,000 delegates worldwide (+60 countries) and has so far organised activities in Portugal, UK, Brazil, Romania, Poland, Estonia and the Netherlands.

FEUP encourages the application of the academic knowledge it generates to solving real-world problems. This is achieved by establishing strong links with business and industry, thereby opening the way to building long-lasting relationships of trust.

The corporate membership Programme FEUP PRIME, launched in 2018, gathers over 100 companies, aiming to establish a direct connection with the sources of talent and knowledge that provide the ability to stay ahead and deliver key innovations to the market.

We now have 15 FEUP Prime Partners, since Armis, REN and GSFAN have joined Jerónimo Martins, Metro do Porto, Mota Engil, Tridonic and Vestas, Rangel, Águas do Douro e Paiva, BA Glass, Advanced Cyclone Systems, Kaizen Institute, Natixis, and Vodafone and there are currently several PhD students undertaking research projects proposed by some of these companies within the scope of DoRPE - Doctoral Research Projects with Enterprises (DoRPE), which aim to offer companies a standard procedure to initiate a research project with FEUP involving a doctoral candidate and appropriate funding.

ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT

The alumni community is an important connection between FEUP and the world beyond its campus boundaries: our alumni represent both a valuable source of expertise as well as a bridge to hundreds of organizations and companies, many of which are strategic potential partners in the field of education and research.

As alma mater, FEUP continues to invest in alumni development, offering a broad choice of lifelong learning opportunities, as well as a range of significant benefits, from access to our lavish library resources to involvement in numerous conferences, concerts and other cultural and entertainment activities.

The alumni network is not only of interest for catching up with old classmates but is also useful for conveying information related to career or collaboration opportunities, as well as building a strong network and sharing relevant experiences.

FEUP’s Alumni Ambassador Programme is a keystone in the network project FEUPLink, which serves as a launchpad for a diverse range of initiatives, bringing our alumni from around the world closer to each other and closer to FEUP. As of 2023 FEUP has 31 active Alumni Ambassadors in 18 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Dubai, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Republic of Vanuatu/ Fiji Islands. Lisbon, in Portugal, also has an official representation since its community is of such a significant size.

FEUP is very glad to have an alumni community keen on staying in touch with their alma mater: from the beginning the commitment shown by our alumni has been very clear. They are willing to support FEUP in all fields of activity and participate eagerly in alumni reunions as well as in other social activities including networking and volunteering. According to Catarina Pinto, Alumna Ambassador in the United Kingdom:

“FEUP felt like home while I was studying and I wanted to keep the relationship with the university. Being an Alumni Ambassador was an opportunity that encouraged me to maintain that relationship.

It all started in 2018 when I was in Ireland. Being abroad has many challenges, new culture, new people, new habits, and becoming an ambassador I could easily get to know other people with that I had something in common - our university.

Being able to reach out to people and organize meet-ups, celebrate our culture, sharing experiences creates a feeling of belonging in a different country. In 2020 I’ve moved to the UK, where I am representing the FEUP at the moment. I moved here during the pandemic and like me, other alumni had difficulty in meeting new people. Being able to connect with people with whom you share the same past makes things easier. The embassies create communities where people can reach out when they have questions about country logistics, careers, or places to visit and it gives a feeling of comfort.

For me being an ambassador is more than flying the flag of my university in a new country and reconnecting with people in the same country. It is also being able to help people that want to go abroad but don’t know how or need help from someone who knows the country and helping students that have questions about life after university and outside Portugal. Being able to provide this help is really rewarding and my main mission in being an ambassador.”

The alumni community is growing day by day and from 2022 is now linked on a platform available for all U.Porto alumni: https://connectinguporto.net

If you are a FEUP alumnus, we’d be glad if you could join the alumni community FEUPLink on this platform and, who knows, become our Alumni Ambassador to help make the community even larger - more information available on www.fe.up.pt/alumni

Egídio Santos

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The issue of sustainability, with all its economic, social and environmental dimensions, is currently a cornerstone of developed societies and their key institutions. Aware of its important role in society, FEUP strives to both optimise the positive impacts and to minimise the negative effects of its activities, while contributing to the UN global Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. In 2022, FEUP launched a huge project involving the whole community with the main goal of providing students with skills allowing them to actively contribute to economic, social and environmental challenges. This project is a great investment to enhance a culture of sustainability in the wider community.

FEUP’s Sustainability Commission actively works towards the promotion of sustainability policies, in particular those related to the environment. With a view to a more sustainable campus, significant achievements include the areas of energy and water consumption, circularity of materials, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as caring for green spaces, organic farming, sustainable food and mobility. The photovoltaic production unit for self-consumption represents one of the largest investments ever made; in total, 708 panels in an area of around 1,420 m², with a production of 394 MWh, corresponding to 8.5% of FEUP’s annual consumption of electricity and cost savings of around 100,000 euros.

FEUP is a signatory of the Porto Pact for Climate. Focused on promoting sustainable mobility, many initiatives have been carried out in this area, such as in European Free-Car Day, or through contests to promote the use of bike in daily commuting to and from FEUP by the academic community. It is also worth mentioning the environmental impact study carried out to estimate the institution’s carbon footprint, from which it was concluded that the largest fraction of emissions come from commuting.

FEUP has been a member of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges since 2019, and a founding member of the Plastics Pact since 2020 and of the Vidro + Platform since 2022. In 2019 FEUP hosted and co-organized the first Sustainable Campus Conference (CCS 2019), under the theme “Sustainable Development: Higher Education Institutions as Agents of Change”. This also consequently provided the theme for the Commitment Charter between the key national Higher Education Institutions with a view to implementing a “culture of sustainability” in higher education.

Social responsibility actions extend to the creation of opportunities for students to participate in volunteer projects at national and international level, such as GASPORTO, a non-governmental organization dedicated to aid and human development in Portugal and the developing world. Headquartered at the Faculty of Engineering,

GASPORTO has been undertaking significant volunteer work not only in the city of Porto, but also in Timor and Mozambique - its main goal being to instill in students an understanding of different cultures and to help make the world a better place to live in. FEUP also supports institutions located in the surrounding area, including IPO Porto (the Portuguese Institute of Oncology - Porto); Hospital do Joãozinho (Pediatric Hospital); Loja Social de Paranhos (Paranhos Community Store), which provides poor families with food, clothing, hygiene products and other utilities, to which FEUP contributes monthly; AJUDARIS – a local association that fights against hunger, poverty and social exclusion; and “Teach for Portugal”, a project which involves young graduates with secondary school students.

In 2022, FEUP supported the dissemination and implementation at FEUP of the initiative of U.DREAM, an organisation first developed at U.PORTO in 2012, with the mission of developing Social and Community Leadership skills in higher education students, encouraging them to serve, dream and inspire their communities, by example.

Last year FEUP also introduced the “FEUP Social Recognition Award” intended for an institution, with which it has worked regularly, of recognized merit and credibility that develops activities of social solidarity and promotion of community well-being in its area of intervention. The 2022 Prize was awarded to Centro Juvenil de Campanhã. FEUP supports the campaign Paper for Food which, in 2022, gave 23,243.53 € in food.

SOCIAL AWARENESS

FEUP plays a significant social role in the training of future professionals, policy makers and citizens, while through Research and Innovation it helps respond to society’s challenges, seeking to solve real problems.

In order to promote well-being, mental health, and inclusive education, improving students’ engagement and their learning conditions, FEUP has at its disposal a specialised service called the Orientation and Integration Office, which offers free counseling and psychological appointments, supporting the entire student community throughout their academic path, and also supporting students with special educational needs.

When it comes to student integration, the Intercultural Contact Point (iPoint) focuses on providing a soft landing for international students and promoting intercultural experiences within the whole community. IPoint upholds the acceptance of all forms of diversity within its community, whether related to race, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other kind.

FEUP CAMPUS: A HUB OF DIVERSITY

The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto is a vibrant hub of diversity, bringing together a thriving community from all corners of the globe. As one of the leading engineering institutions, it attracts students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

The multiple linguistic landscape of FEUP enables individuals to share their unique cultural heritage, traditions and perspectives. It promotes mutual respect and appreciation, leading to a truly global and inclusive learning experience. It also allows for the exchange of ideas, the exploration of diverse perspectives and the development of innovative solutions to complex problems.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

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1.5M€ to mitigate the effects of antibiotics on the environment

Ana Rita Lado Ribeiro, LSRE-LCM researcher at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), has secured 1.5 million euros in funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for a period of 5 years to be used in the development of Project ERA-ARE - A new ERA for environmental risk assessment: chirality as a tool to promote environmentally safe drugs.

Chirality is a geometric property present in three-dimensional and asymmetric molecules. Structurally, these chiral molecules exist in two distinct configurations, that is as an object and its respective mirror image (analogous to our left and right hands). These two forms, known as enantiomers, are non-superimposable. Enantiomers selectively interact with biological structures (macromolecules) that are also chiral (enantioselectivity). Since biological systems are intrinsically chiral, interactions with small chiral molecules, are enantioselective, as is the case with many drugs.

“It is the highest recognition of my scientific merit. With the ERC scholarship, I intend to set up and lead an internationally recognised research group, which is key to progressing my career in the field of environmental chemistry”, admits the 41-year-old researcher.

The line of research led by Ana Rita Lado aims to contribute to the understanding of the role of enantioselective environmental processes in the behaviour and fate of chiral antibiotics present in residual amounts in the environment. The results will be useful for preventing the development of resistance to antibiotics, on the one hand creating innovative guidelines for assessing the environmental risk of chiral antibiotics while, on the other hand, awakening the interest of the pharmaceutical industry in researching drugs that are safer for the environment.

With this funding, “the necessary conditions have now been met to implement and manage a multidisciplinary team with critical mass and skills in the areas of analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, microbiology, ecotoxicology and simulation, which can contribute to researching the relationship between the chirality of antibiotics and bacterial resistance in environmental scenarios”, envisages Ana Rita Lado, aware of the importance that the project may have in raising awareness of sustainability and environmental protection among the different players in the pharmaceutical industry.

Together with the Faculty of Engineering, this research project involves the German Federal Institute of Hydrology.

ANA RITA LADO

She is a researcher at the Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Processes – Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM) in the Chemical Engineering Department of FEUP, a structure integrated, together with LEPABE and CEFT, in the new Associated Laboratory ALICE.

With a PhD in Biotechnology and a specialist in Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Ana Rita Lado came to FEUP and the LSRE-LCM in 2014, as part of a post-doctoral program that she undertook until 2018. This same course took her to Loughborough University (UK), where she gained an enriching experience as a visiting researcher. She would return to carry out further research into Analytical Tools for Environmental Monitoring at the LSRE-LCM, as part of the research group dedicated to Catalysis and Carbon Materials.

But this is only part of a path of excellence which has seen her work translated into more than 85 publications in scientific journals and books reviewed by international peers in the areas of Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Science. She has further collaborated in about 20 research projects, as well as occupying the position of associate editor of Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, published by the prestigious publishing house Elsevier. Ana Rita Lado Ribeiro also featured in the last two editions of the “World’s Top 2% Scientists” in the area of Environmental Sciences, devised by Stanford University (USA), an initiative that annually recognises the most influential scientists worldwide, based on the number of peer citations in the respective publications; as well as the list of Highly Cited Researchers (Clarivate) recognised for producing multiple highly cited publications (top 1%).

Raquel Pires

Rita França

ABOUT

Faculty of Engineering leads European consortium linked to the railway

Project “InBridge4EU” brings together key players involved in European rail, promoting links between the industry and academia/R&D centers.

The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) will coordinate project InBridge4EU – ENHANCED INTERFACES AND TRAIN CATEGORIES FOR DYNAMIC COMPATIBILITY ASSESSMENT OF EUROPEAN RAILWAY BRIDGES, which aims to deepen knowledge in the area of railway bridge dynamics, with specific regard to the regulatory aspects associated with the design of this type of infrastructure.

The European consortium brings together 11 partners, among them founding members of Europe’s major rail infrastructure managers: FEUP (Portugal), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Universitat Jaume I, Universidad de Sevilla, ADIF (Spain), AVLS (France), DB Netz AG, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (Germany), Kungliga Tekniska högskolan (Sweden) and The University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom).

Overall, “InBridge4EU” aims to encourage development of innovative technologies to increase the capacity of the European rail network, removing barriers to its interoperability. At the same time, the project seeks to find ways of fully integrating the network, covering areas such as traffic management, vehicles, infrastructure and services. In short, to encourage the innovative capacity of the key players involved in European railways, coordinating the roles of the rail industry and academia/R&D centers.

“FEUP has been at the forefront of railway engineering, with a group of researchers from CONSTRUCT who have been greatly involved in developing advanced dynamic analysis of bridge-train interaction to assess the dynamic behaviour of bridges”, explains Pedro Aires Montenegro, assistant researcher from the Department of Civil Engineering and coordinator of “InBridge4EU”.

COMMITTED TO RAILWAY SAFETY

Moreover, this is one area of the project which FEUP will contribute to most, as well as “developing proposals for regulatory revision in the area of rail traffic safety and updating the damping coefficient values currently proposed by the codes”.

According to Pedro Aires Montenegro, it is necessary to propose a thorough regulatory review of certain criteria currently stipulated in the structural Eurocodes, with a view to developing safe, but less expensive, bridge designs.

He warns that “in fact, some of the criteria currently stipulated – such as those concerning assessment of rail traffic safety – are based on conservative empirical rules that can be improved using advanced numerical simulations compatible with current computational capacity”.

This also applies to the creation of simple approaches that can be adopted by infrastructure managers “to swiftly assess the behaviour of existing bridges in view of changes in the type of rail traffic that have been taking place in recent years”, caused mainly by vehicles that were not covered by the calculation models used at the time they were measured.

Text: Raquel Pires Photo: rights reserved

Raquel Pires Rights reserved

IS AI TAKING OVER OUR FUTURE?

“The end of programming (as we know it)?”: this was the motto of the lecture that Cristina Videira Lopes, researcher and professor at the University of California (USA), presented at the last Creativity Talks conference cycle held at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).

Cristina Videira Lopes

Cristina (Crista) Videira Lopes is a Chancellor’s Professor in the School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with research interests in Programming Languages, Software Engineering, and Distributed Virtual Environments. She is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Scientist. She is the recipient of the 2016 Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest for her work in the OpenSimulator virtual world platform. Her book “Exercises in Programming Style” has gained rave reviews, including being chosen as “Notable Book” by the ACM Best of Computing reviews.

Students, professors and researchers, eager to hear this Portuguese specialist who lives and works in North America, discussed this “brave new world” of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its consequences for the future of computer science and education, not forgetting, of course, the role we humans play in it.

“For the past 80 years, programming has meant translating a high-level, semi-formal specification of a desired effect from natural language into computer instructions using an artificial programming language”, explains Cristina, known as Crista in the USA.

Mastering these translations requires knowledge of algorithms and data structures, talent and years of practice. But with the introduction of Large Language Models (LLMs) – a type of AI algorithm that uses deep learning techniques and large data sets to understand, summarise, generate and predict new content – the notion of programming is changing.

What is the impact of natural language technology, such as ChatGPT, in the field of computer science?

The impact is huge - in some areas more than others, but very strong overall. Neural networks have been a topic of research for decades and progress has been relatively slow, with only a slight acceleration in the last decade. The development of LLMs in the last two years has had frankly surprising results. Few people predicted that scaling up the infrastructure would result in such a quantum leap!

In terms of research, this surprising result has caught some colleagues off guard, especially those in the field of natural language processing, who are now faced with a kind of discontinuity in their field. But they are only the first. This is going to affect the rest of computer science, because many of the problems we study are going to be greatly simplified by the use of LLMs.

Is it safe to say that we are facing a new era in the way computers process and interpret human language?

Yes, of course. But these models go far beyond the conversations we have with chat bots. The applications are much more extensive than having conversations.

What implications do AI-based programming systems have for professionals in these technological areas?

There are not yet many empirical studies on this. But I have heard some software engineers say that they have had a productivity boost of 50% or more. Code that a year ago took 30 minutes to write and test, now takes 15 or less. AI doesn’t give perfect solutions, but the code is good enough for engineers to modify it quickly.

Of course, the economic consequences are yet to be seen: if software engineers are 50% more productive, will the industry take advantage of this boost and make useful products 50% faster or will it cut hiring by 50%?

We will see in the near future.

In terms of education, what can we expect? In your opinion, what are the main advantages and disadvantages?

Students are always the first to use the new technologies that help them get better grades and/or work less! In this respect, there is now an asymmetry in teaching, in the sense that students are using ChatGPT daily and teachers (and their classes) are not at all prepared for this situation.

Personally, I am strongly in favour of integrating these technologies in teaching, but this will require some investment from teachers, educational institutions and entrepreneurs. Our role as teachers is to make the students learn. LLMs have enormous potential to be personalised tutors. We need to develop these tutors and find ways to prevent students from using chat bots simply to get good grades without learning anything. Machine learning cannot replace human learning.

What is the potential of ChatGPT as a tool for creating new business models and digital transformation of companies and industries?

First, we must understand that ChatGPT is not an LLM: it

Say hello to Albertina!

is an application that uses an LLM. LLMs are much more interesting than ChatGPT. They are also much more useful for creating new applications and new businesses.

Right now, there is a real “gold rush” happening in Silicon Valley related to LLMs. It is difficult to follow developments, as they are so fast. But I have no doubt that in 5 years all software applications will have “intelligent” components.

What can we expect in the future when it comes to the development of new applications in the field of AI?

How far can we go?

A while ago I made a prediction on Twitter, half joking: in the next 5 years, there will be the first scientific breakthrough resulting from collaboration between people and AI. Of course, AI agents have no representation in human society, but their interventions in science and technology will start to be on the same level as peer-to-peer collaborations. After that, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see in my lifetime a super-intelligence capable of finding solutions to very difficult problems, such as cures for cancer.

Can AI replace human creativity? A new language model entirely in Portuguese has been launched, but will it replace human beings? Albertina is the name of a text generator created from the joint efforts of research teams at FEUP and the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon.

The “Portuguese ChatGPT” produces texts, translations, dialogues with people (and digital assistants) as well as producing automatic subtitles. For now, this version is aimed at public and private researchers and organisations, whether large or small, from all sectors of the economy.

The project team, which includes researchers Henrique Lopes Cardoso and Tomás Osório from the Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC), are already preparing the next and improved version of Albertina to be launched in July - the GPT-PT.

Machine Learning cannot replace human learning

COULD THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY BE IN THE HANDS OF ENGINEERING?

I don’t know if anyone has thought of this title for a series streaming on Netflix, but I can’t deny I’ve spent more than enough years following the day-to-day activities at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) to believe that it may very well be true. And with a bonus track included: every day, new discoveries are being made in these laboratories and corridors, across a spectrum covering almost everything that makes our world work.

Raquel

New generation batteries, cleaner fuels, smart monitoring systems, new carbon fibre materials, mitigating the effects of antibiotics on the environment, interoperability between autonomous vehicles, advanced manufacturing, urban planning and mobility, green hydrogen… we could go on, because everything involves engineering intervention, in some kind of response to the challenges that are constantly arising. The contribution of science to society is unquestionable, as it enables advances in the fields of health, food, environment, technology and energy. Science creates knowledge, improves people’s education and quality of life, reducing inequalities and building bridges.

In the last year, one of the areas highlighted at FEUP concerns the biofilm industry, communities of microorganisms – such as bacteria and fungi –that are incorporated into a matrix that they produce. Although they are still little known, biofilms affect several important areas of society such as health, industry and the environment.

“In health, they are recognised as one of the main causes of chronic infections and the development of resistance to antimicrobial agents by microor-

ganisms”, affirms Nuno F. Azevedo, researcher at FEUP’s Laboratory of Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE). He has dedicated himself to biofilms since 2001, when he began his PhD looking into the possibility of H. pylori being transmitted by water and “one of the possibilities for the microorganism to survive in water was its incorporation into biofilms”, he recalls.

It was the start of a scientific career that took him through the University of Minho and then on to a four-year connection with the University of Southampton (USou), in the UK, when he completed his postdoc. He later joined LEPABE as a Research Fellow. Last July, he was awarded an ERC Grant, worth 2.5 million euros. It is the first ERA Chair led by the Faculty of Engineering and will create a group of excellence in biofilm engineering.

It is a huge opportunity that will enhance interdisciplinary collaboration between several research groups from the Faculty of Engineering with other European and international institutions. Although the project is focused on biofilms, the areas of knowledge it draws on include organic chemistry, image analysis, statistics and informatics.

With over 20 years of experience researching biofilm bacteria in industrial systems, Darla Goeres leads the team at the Standardized Biofilm Methods Laboratory (SBML) at the Center for Biofilm Engineering, at the University of Montana (USA), whose mission is the development and validation of quantitative standard methods for the cultivation, treatment, sampling and analysis of biofilm bacteria.

In March 2020, she was appointed Research Professor of Regulatory Science, with full responsibility for

creating a regulatory science program at the Center for Biofilm Engineering with the aim of involving regulatory and industrial decision-makers in the development of tools to enable innovation in science and technology in the sector.

She is a member of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and facilitated the acceptance of the first approved standard methods for biofilm bacteria.

The scope of this ERA Chair also involves plans to hire 8 researchers, from PhD students to auxiliary researchers. It has been confirmed that this will include the arrival of Darla Goeres, from the Center for Biofilm Engineering at the University of Montana in the USA, considered a world reference in the area of biofilms, for a collaboration that will last for a period of 24 months to monitor the work of the team led by Nuno F. Azevedo at FEUP (see box above).

Moreover, this is an area in clear expansion within the Associated Laboratory ALiCE, which includes LEPABE. There is a new generation of researchers investing heavily in the study of this microbial community, one of whom, Laura Cerqueira, was awarded at the latest Montana BioFilm Science & Technology Meeting 2022, which took place in the USA at the end of July. Her Young Investigator award-winning research was based on a preliminary model for the use of mRNA-PNA-FISH with the aim of studying the regulatory mechanisms of Legionella pneumophila. From this model it will be possible to clarify the organisation and functional development of biofilms and their role in the virulence of L. pneumophila in water systems under different physicochemical conditions, disinfection treatments and in the presence of different microbial consortia.

Laura Cerqueira uses this technique to locate individual cells in biofilms, thus allowing the study of their three-dimensional spatial distribution. By adapting PNA-FISH to specific mRNA sequences and combining it with high-resolution imaging techniques, the model enables the study of gene expression in individual cells in biofilms, combining spatial and functional information from cells in their original environment.

HYALURONIC ACID:

THE NEW BALM FOR WOUNDS?

But the paths that lead towards embarking on a particular research project are not always so defined from the outset. That is the view of João Transmontano, responsible for the company Portus Pharma, who, during a trip to São Paulo within the scope of the BIN@ network in 2016, ended up crossing paths with the delegation from the Faculty of Engineering. A chance conversation about a new, 100% effective chestnut sterilisation method used by Professor Adriano Carvalho in a family project, ended up leading to the intention to collaborate.

DARLA GOERES: AN INTERNATIONAL REFERENCE IN PORTO

It is estimated that 80% of microbial infections result from bacterial biofilm resistance, which represents about 100,000 annual deaths in the US alone, affecting different human activities ranging from food processing and transport to public infrastructure

The purpose was determined in due course and in line with the activity of Portus Pharma, a company from Portalegre investing in the development of raw materials of natural origin for clinical use in the treatment of wounds (bed sores, pressure ulcers, burns, diabetic foot, post-surgery healing).

João Transmontano challenged the researcher Adriano Carvalho to create a honey sterilization process for clinical purposes – H2Cure was thus created, a project involving UMinho, ICBAS, FEUP and the company Portus Pharma in Portalegre.

“The role of FEUP in this consortium consists in developing an instrument based on the application of a high frequency electric field, based on GaN technology and/or the application of power ultrasound capable of carrying out the complete sterilisation of the honey”, explains Pedro Coelho, responsible for the Faculty of Engineering’s Innovation office, and who, while still in Brazil, attended the first exploratory conversations relating to this research. “It is vital to ensure that this sterilisation process is able to guarantee the absence of organisms with biological viability, not least because everything involved in hospital practice is tremendously scrutinised”, he adds.

Besides Adriano Carvalho, the project team also includes the experienced researcher Armando Araújo and Agostinho Rocha on a scholarship linked to H2Cure. The researchers aim to launch a prototype dressing derived from honey and hyaluronic acid, products widely known and used in Portugal for the prevention and treatment of chronic wounds. Other compounds such as hyaluronic acid will be added to the therapeutic properties of isolated

honey, contributing to faster and more effective healing of wounds, and leading to distinctive new formulations for the medical device market, superior in performance to existing ones and at a lower unit and aggregate cost.

“OUR EVOLUTION COULD BE FASTER”

And what is it like to be a young scientist in Portugal? What investment has been made in the future of science? We tried to find out what they themselves had to say, starting with Nuno F. Azevedo, who argues that there was “certainly some evolution”, although it could and should have been “faster”. The researcher recalls that 20 years ago, access “to both equipment and scientific articles by other authors was limited”. On the issue of the brain drain abroad, he says that “the mobility of young people is particularly desirable” and that the focus is not so much on that but on ensuring that “Portugal becomes attractive to all researchers, regardless of their origin, and to provide conditions for our Portuguese researchers with international success to want to return”.

In his view, “it must be clear to any researchers whom we may want to attract that they will be well integrated and able to undertake the research they want in Portuguese institutions with all the conditions required”. He backs up this idea with an incident he knows well: “When I got my first position as an assistant researcher at FEUP, I also had the chance to stay at the University of Southampton as an Assistant Professor. To try to convince me to go to Southampton, the University was going to provide an installation grant which allowed

me to hire two PhD students, to buy reagents for them to be able to conduct their work and even a fully equipped autonomous laboratory space”. He argues that although “support like that is not part of our reality”, if we really want to compete with the most advanced countries at a scientific level, “we have to study and implement the strategies they use to attract researchers”.

The dice have been cast and the truth is that never before has there been so much talk about the need to invest in science. Proof of this is the Recovery and Resilience Plan launched by the European Commission in response to the effects of the post-Covid pandemic, which will be a unique opportunity to invest in mobilizing projects and areas with economic impact. And FEUP is in this race.

BIG TRENDS FOR 2023

Every year there are renewed forecasts about the key pointers to what major discoveries will be made in the near future. One of the most awaited is always that of science: what can we expect?

The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation provides a set of prospective studies based on articles by a number of very interesting figures.

Carlos Fiolhais, with reference to “Nature”, points to some of the areas that continue to be hot topics: climate change and energy will remain on the political and media agenda, with the need to find ever more alternatives to fossil fuels, with hydrogen gaining ground on several fronts, as well as new generation batteries.

In the field of medicine, in this post-pandemic period, genetic vaccine tests are being carried out that protect both from Covid-19 and flu. As a result of the innovation brought about by the

pandemic, new vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis and genital herpes will be tested. Carlos Fiolhais considers it likely that the future will bring us “spray vaccines”. Still in the area of health, it is predicted that we will see the first applications of gene therapy and that advances in anti-Alzheimer’s medicines will continue.

2023 marks the affirmation of data science on a global scale: the tech giants continue to invest heavily in the management and availability of data, especially in cloud-based banks. Companies have increasingly invested in incorporating machine learning in order to simplify processes and become more competitive. Along with artificial intelligence, the future involves technological development anchored in big data and concerns about cybersecurity, in addition to ethical issues that may have implications for the lives of each one of us.

Photo: Egídio Santos

Sustainable desalination: new technology for converting sea water into drinking water

With an estimated market potential of 7 billion, this new technology could be the solution to several issues concerning sustainability in the water sector. The preliminary results are promising and have already resulted in SeaMoreTech, a spin-off from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).

Desalination is one of the suggested solutions for combating water scarcity and drought, which will occur more frequently and more intensely in the coming years, due to climate change.

Eva Sousa and Sofia Delgado have created a method of making use of the materials present in brine – extremely salty water which can often be highly toxic as a result of seawater desalination – obtained through a process known as Reverse Osmosis.

This solution will make it possible to obtain minerals that are crucially needed in the pharmaceutical, automotive and electronics industries, whose value chains have been severely disrupted due to processes dependent on Russia and China and in consequence of the entire geopolitical situation arising from the conflict in Ukraine.

“By appreciating the value of brine, which is typically seen as a by-product, or residue, we can, in fact, very quickly and efficiently, return all these minerals to the industries that desperately

need them while also making reverse osmosis technology itself viable, for example by doubling efficiency in recovering drinking water”, explains Sofia Delgado.

“We are in Portugal, a country with 900 kilometres of coastline, so we have to focus on the obvious, which is working on developing a sustainable blue economy. There is an enormous potential here that we must harness so that we can enable all the steps that will follow, such as protecting marine species and ecosystems”, adds Eva Sousa.

The researchers met when they were conducting studies within the scope of their respective doctoral theses at LEPABE based on electrolysers and fuel cells for the production and use of green hydrogen. Focused and highly motivated by the results they have obtained on a laboratory scale, they are committed to their main objective for the coming months which is to work on commercialising this technology in a sustainable way and to be able to make the use of seawater viable for the production of green hydrogen or for communities to use as drinking water.

Raquel Pires Photo: rights reserved

BIN@SOUTH YORKSHIRE: BRINGING UNIVERSITIES CLOSER TO INNOVATION

Perhaps the spirit that animated the city of Sheffield on the 10th and 11th of May is best encapsulated in the Treaty of Windsor, signed between Portugal and England in 1386, which is considered the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in force. The Faculty of Engineering, in conjunction with the University of Sheffield, organised a mid-term event for the BIN@ network that brought together a hundred people, mainly young entrepreneurs and facilitators from all over Europe, with the desire to bring the worlds of business and academic research closer together. Much more, though, was to come out of it.

Raquel Pires University of Sheffield AMRC

Expectations were high. Especially after a pandemic that changed the course of those who believe in the logic of open innovation based on an international platform for sharing knowledge and good practices, where everyone is called to collaborate. Science and technology parks, industrial partners and investors, incubators and economic development agencies and some entrepreneurs, together constituting an informal network capable of mobilising and bringing added value: all joined in attending the Business & Innovation Network (Bin@) mid-term event held in Sheffield.

The success story of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) at the University of Sheffield was the starting point for two days dedicated to innovation. It is one of the most successful innovation hubs in the South Yorkshire region.

“We are the living example that industry and academia, when they combine synergies, are able to mobilise and provide exceptional solutions to local SMEs and large global companies”, said Paul V. Hatton, Director of Research and Innovation at the University of Sheffield, as he opened the welcome session at the AMRC.

South Yorkshire is known worldwide for the production of cutlery, steeped in a heritage that dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries based on the iron and steel industry that arose from the vast number of mines crossing the

county. And since the region still supplies most of the steel used in British industry today, it is not hard to see that it was precisely this industrial heritage that led to the foundation of the AMRC, promoted by Professor Keith Ridgway and Adrian Allan, local businessmen working in close collaboration with local politician Rich Cabourn. They developed the strategic vision of “using cutting tools and machining innovations to cut exotic aerospace metals harder, faster and more competitively than any other company in the world”, explains Ben Morgan, Director of Research at the AMRC. We are keen on finding out why. “Manufacturing is in our blood and manufacturing matters.”

The Boeing company believed in the project from the beginning. And so was found the player that would forever determine the AMRC’s history. That was in 2001 and the years that followed saw strong growth and expansion: 20 employees became 600 and in addition to Boeing, other companies joined the project such as Rolls Royce, Mclaren, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency, as well as suppliers such as CTI, Nikken, Sandvik and Mahr.

The ecosystem shows no signs of slowing down, let alone the automotive and aviation industries. Ben Morgan takes the opportunity to inform us that to support supply chains and local economies, it was necessary to expand, and so joint facilities have now been established with Airbus, in Broughton.

WHERE, IN THE END, IS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM?

Day two took us to Sheffield’s city centre, more specifically to one of the characteristic Victorian-style rooms in the Victoria Crowne Plaza Hotel. The time had come to share and debate the big issue that had brought us there: how to bring academia closer to innovation structures; what strategies work best; and what mechanisms can be triggered. Ultimately, to discuss whether universities are aligned with the third of these missions.

One of the most impressive moments featured Peter Hopton, an electronics engineer from the Sheffield region, who after a serious accident and a near-death experience, decided to change his life. He is one of South Yorkshire’s most awarded and successful entrepreneurs, with outstanding companies and business ideas. His secret? “Perhaps the fact that I devoted myself to detecting inefficiencies in the systems, which quickly led me to the field of GreenIT”, explains Peter. “I invented Iceotope, a server cooling technology that has received millions of pounds of investment and which I believe will change the data center and server industry forever,” he continues. We are told that promising advances are being made in the technology enabling electronics to be encapsulated inside liquid-filled slides.

He is used to public speaking, and is often and regularly invited to speak about sustainability and technology at regional, national and international conferences. He sits on the information technology and strategy committees of the British Computer Society (BCS) and was part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Green IT mission in Tokyo.

There is nothing random about Peter Hopton’s story; it serves especially well to exemplify what the BIN@ network is and how it has welcomed an ever-increasing

number of open innovation enthusiasts. What they like most is its informality and willingness to carry through projects arising from current concerns and opinions. They say it without reservation.

“We are, above all, a group of good friends who dreamed of one day bringing two cities together”, confides Mark Sanderson, who in 2010 assumed the position of Innovation Center Manager at the University of Sheffield and is still living in the city. Although he is no longer formally linked to the Academy, he has never abandoned the BIN@ project, having remained one of Pedro Coelho’s main points of contact in Sheffield ever since. The head of the INOV Unit at FEUP recognises the importance of such interim events to the dynamics of these entrepreneurs and that the BIN@ network’s vitality can be guaranteed, judging by the participation that the event enjoyed in Sheffield. And those of us who were there can surely testify to that.

POINTING TO THE FUTURE

One recent project that has contributed most to this dynamism is called INVENTHEI. Coordinated by the Faculty of Engineering since 2021, it has obtained 1.2 million euros of European funding to invest in the training of talented and entrepreneurial young people, “highly driven by innovation and capable of boosting regional innovation ecosystems; above all, promoting the creation of technology-based companies, the development of products and services with high added value and growth based on innovative business models”, explains Gil Gonçalves, project coordinator.

In addition to FEUP, the consortium includes the Faculty of Pharmacy (FFUP), the Competence Center for Active and Healthy Aging, U.Porto Inovação and UPTEC. These are

ADVA

photography

ADVA photography

joined by working groups from the University of Pardubice (Czech Republic), Valahia University of Tărgoviste (Romania), TTK University of Applied Sciences (Estonia), University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain); the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) and Inova+ (Belgium).

“Most members of the INVENTHEI consortium are associated partners of BIN@. For us it made sense to use all this know-how and years of contacts promoted by the network to boost the project on a European scale”, clarifies Pedro Coelho. Promoting a European network of innovation-oriented research ecosystems, with a special focus on the fields of manufacturing and health (Knowledge and Innovation Communities involved: EIT Manufacturing and EIT Health) has fit easily within the aims of the BIN@ network and it has been a happy marriage.

In the aftermath of the event in Sheffield, Pedro Coelho could not be more pleased: “It was a great opportunity to witness and learn from the incredible development of the AMRC, to re-connect with various local partners and to bring the University of Sheffield back to the forefront of the BIN@ network”.

But anyone who thinks the team will take time off for a long break is mistaken! Plans are already on the table for the transition from INVENTHEI to Deep INVENTHEI, the new EIT project focused on promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in areas of deep technology) and the University of Sheffield is once again aligned with FEUP. “We are delighted to continue this relationship with our partners in Sheffield, based on trust and mutual benefit”, concludes Pedro Coelho.

businessandinnovation.net

DINNER ALUMNI @SHEFFIELD

The FEUP delegation that was in Sheffield, led by the Dean, Rui Calçada, also had the opportunity for an alumni dinner in the city centre, attended by former students currently based in the cities of Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and Sheffield.

“FEUP is progressively making the city”

Paulo Pinho is a leading Portuguese specialist in urban mobility and for 20 years has been responsible for coordinating the Porto Metro Expansion Plan, an “applied research project” which has completely revolutionised the Porto metropolitan area. He was also in charge of the Regional Development Plans for the Territories of the Azores and Madeira and the Municipal Development Plans for Matosinhos, among other cities. He is the founder of CITTA - Research Centre for Territory, Transport and Environment, which he coordinated until 2022.

Mafalda Leite Egídio Santos

years ago FEUP moved to the Asprela campus, at the time the largest public building built in Portugal. What did that project represent in terms of urban planning and mobility?

I must say that, in contrast to the enthusiasm shown by most of my colleagues, I followed the development of the new Faculty project with some initial concern. This concern had nothing to do with the architectural solution advanced by architects Pedro Ramalho and Luís Ramalho, which produced this remarkable building complex that, 20 years on, maintains its quality, functionality and timelessness. While, on the one hand, as a faculty member, I felt that working conditions would greatly improve, which as it turned out was to everyone’s satisfaction. On the other hand, I knew that it would mean leaving the city centre behind that, even then, was showing some signs of decline, which would only get worse in the years to follow. I lived in Glasgow, from 1981 to 1985, to pursue a specialisation and PhD in the field of Urban Planning, and while there I had the opportunity to experience the profound consequences of central urban decline following the prosperity and expansion of the 1960s, of which Glasgow, in Europe, was a prime example.

Yet cities are living entities, continually in a state of transformation, and so following the period of decline, and in reaction to it, there was a phase of strong public investment in urban rehabilitation, followed, soon after, by a boom period for property and the rehabilitation of degraded and empty buildings in the city, which accompanied and was to a great extent in response to Porto’s success as a tourist destination. And while that tourism success solved old problems, it (un)avoidably created new ones.

Looking back now, I must put my initial concerns into perspective and recognise with satisfaction that the transition from FEUP to Asprela, under the competent and committed leadership of Prof. Marques dos Santos, then Dean of FEUP, brought new life to the Faculty and contributed so decisively to developing and affirming its prestige both nationally and internationally. Even the city itself has come to forgive FEUP’s relocation and has grown closer. In return, FEUP is progressively making the city, as the Campus surrounding the Faculty continues to develop and cement its importance.

From the beginning, you were linked to the creation of study cycles in the areas of territorial planning and urban design. What motivated you to put these areas “on the map” of engineering education?

I believe you are referring to the Masters and PhD courses in the area of Planning, since the specialisation in Spatial Planning, founded by Prof. Valente de Oliveira within the Civil Engineering degree course, dates from the 1970s (2022 marking 50 years).

Starting with the Master’s degree course, initially called Planning and Design of the Urban Environment (corresponding to the current Master’s in Planning and Urban Design), it was a joint initiative between FEUP and FAUP, led, on FAUP’s side, by Professors Nuno Portas and Fernandes de Sá, and, from our side, by myself and Professor Isabel Vazquez. The course was mainly aimed at our undergraduate students in engineering and architecture, while also taking in students from other backgrounds. In the mid-1990s, teaching of the first Master’s degree in Urban Planning began. Success was immediate. The course opened doors in the job market and allowed job progression, especially in local authorities.

Every year the course had (and continues to have, now under the direction of Professor Brandão Alves) many more applicants than places to offer. Over the last decade, the number of international students has risen sharply, and they are currently the vast majority, thus creating a particularly stimulating and challenging teaching and learning environment. And I am pleased to note that although FEUP and FAUP have very different cultures and approaches to teaching/ learning, the partnership between these faculties has been maintained over the years in very similar ways to those initially agreed.

The creation of the Doctoral Program in Spatial Planning (PDPT) completes training in this scientific area at FEUP, which is thus divided into the three cycles of academic study. The need to create a doctoral program exclusively dedicated to Spatial Planning has long been felt, and the initiative for its creation in 2012/13 was and continues to be unprecedented within the context of university higher education in Portugal. The preparatory design and organization work involved the collaboration of Professor Isabel Vazquez and Professor Paulo Conceição, who were later joined by Professor António Pais Antunes of FCTUC with whom we had been negotiating the extension of CITTA to researchers in the field of Transport and Planning at the University of Coimbra.

What drove the creation of CITTA and what multidisciplinary knowledge did it bring?

I must confess that of the various initiatives that I have led or participated in at FEUP, the creation of CITTA was perhaps the most challenging and passionate for me. The idea began to take shape right after we moved to Asprela. What led us to embrace new challenges wasn’t just that we now had a larger space and improved working conditions, but also that the perception that FEUP was changing and, in fact, the entire research system in Portugal with the decisive influence of the former Minister for Science and Higher Education, Mariano Gago.

It became clear, at least for some of us, that the future of the Portuguese university depended on the way in which its research activity could progress and become globally established, since, in most cases and certainly at FEUP, the challenge of providing quality teaching had long been achieved, as was widely recognized, both nationally and internationally.

In the early 2000s, research at DEC was organized around a single research centre, CEDEC, which brought together all areas of specialisation in civil engineering; structures, constructions, materials, geotechnics, hydraulics, communication routes and planning. In the FCT evaluation process that followed, except for an error in 2002 or 2003, the panel of external evaluators criticised the excessive heterogeneity of the scientific areas and recommended their subdivision in order to safeguard greater internal coherence, in terms of core research areas. Thus was CITTA born, at that time with only 5 PhD researchers, combining the areas of Spatial Planning and Communication Routes. The first years were not easy for the new Centre and we quickly had to turn to applications for the European funds that were bearing fruit, to the point that we were contacted by colleagues from FCTUC who proposed that they be integrated within CITTA. The ensuing reorganisation represented a real refoundation of CITTA, now with two

centres, in Porto and Coimbra, reinforcing its international ties and multidisciplinary research. As a result of this development process, we now have over 100 integrated researchers, 50% of whom hold PhDs, achieving the classification of Excellent in the last FCT evaluation.

What do you expect from FEUP in 20 years?

In Planning we usually say that the future cannot be predicted, it is prepared! And to prepare FEUP’s future, its various bodies have known how to choose successive leaders, the recent election of Professor Rui Calçada being another good example. If there is one thing that I value greatly at FEUP, it is the direct and open critical spirit, as well as the deep respect for differences of opinion. This characteristic fosters a healthy and intellectually stimulating environment that pervades FEUP’s attitude and approach to life, existing freely in the space we call home. We will certainly go on developing our knowledge of how to teach, carry out research and influence public policy, though we are increasingly required to know how to “teach to learn”, “teach to do research” and how to exercise the rights and duties of active citizenship.

With the accelerated pace of history, ideas and scientific knowledge have become commonplace, as the ways of accessing them have multiplied and become easier and more widespread. As is well known, the great challenge facing the process of teaching/learning in the future is to provide students with skills and expertise that are both professional and (inter)personal, and which are also unbounded in time and space. In other words, being capable of training engineers, with the ability to adapt to the most diverse contexts, forms and styles of work, ensuring, at the same time, that wherever they are, they are able to coordinate and lead multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, without losing sight of the social and environmental dimension of the activity they carry out.

At FEUP, the challenge of providing quality teaching had long been achieved

Large-scale projects like CITTA, such as the challenge of planning the expansion of the Porto Metro, are the product of teamwork. Whether it is the rigor of diagnostics, the technical and scientific basis of the action strategy, or the pertinence of the final proposals, they all reflect the quality of the work team responsible. Although a professional commission from FEUP, we saw this work as a true applied research project. We were aware of its importance for the city and for the entire Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP), and we were confident in our knowledge of the various skills and areas of expertise involved in ensuring the work would have effective consequences and leave a mark on subsequent investments in network expansion.

What the Metro Management and the Metropolitan Board hoped to achieve with the project was to extend existing lines into new, more peripheral areas, thus serving municipalities not yet covered by the AMP. In 2006, as work progressed, it became clear that the expansion of the network would have to reverse the strategy followed in the first phase of investment, thereby leading to a radial network made up of two axes, one North-South, serving Asprela, and the other East-West, concentrating several lines whose ends opened in several directions. Indeed, all the scientific evidence showed that the success of a

metro network is strongly linked to the way in which it is integrated within the urban space, favouring the areas with the highest density of people, jobs and services, and the journeys that most effectively correspond to people’s travel needs. Moreover, it was necessary to consider the genuinely polycentric nature of the Metropolitan Area of Porto and the establishment of a true reticular structure that would enable flexibility of movement to be introduced which the initial network did not allow.

It would be easy to conclude that the space of divergence emerging between the technical vision, based on scientific evidence, and the political vision, influenced by the decision-making bodies of Porto Metro and the City Council, was eventually reduced through the ensuing process of dialogue and agreement, eventually to be transposed into a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the government. Unfortunately, we were then close to the deep economic crisis that the country went through between 2011 and 2015, which resulted in the postponement of investment in the expansion of the Porto Metro. More recently, and in good time, investment has been resumed, with a renewed impetus, despite all the inconvenience that has been caused and will continue to be caused in the various work fronts spread across the city.

COORDINATION OF THE PORTO METRO EXPANSION PLAN: FROM CHALLENGES TO MAKING A MARK ON THE CITY

SOFIA SÁ: BETWEEN PIANO AND COMPUTER KEYS

With over 2,500 monthly listeners on Spotify, the student of Informatics and Computing Engineering at FEUP recently released the album “Real” on streaming platforms.

Sofia Sá combines her passion for music –more specifically for the piano – with technology and informatics, the degree that she chose after completing her pre-university education with an average of 19.8 out of 20. “I am aware of how difficult it is to make a living from the arts in our country”, she says, explaining why she chose engineering instead of music.

By the age of 13, she had already released “Invisível”, her first solo album, with tracks in Portuguese and English, which stemmed from the course in piano and musical training that she followed

throughout primary and secondary school. After getting used to playing in public and performing on stage, Sofia became “more courageous, perfectionist and hard-working”, integrating all the areas she was dedicated to.

“I’ve always been involved in dance activities, photo sessions and acting, but never to the detriment of school or university”, she says. Today, having already performed a solo show to the public in Oliveira de Azeméis, she is sure of what she likes, not knowing what the future holds for her: piano or computer keys.

Mafalda

Age and place of birth?

19 years old. Oliveira de Azeméis, Aveiro.

How do you spend your free time?

I always save time for being with friends and family, watching series/music/podcasts, doing physical exercise, working towards my course and stopping for a while to listen to myself – to meditate or do certain activities that I find therapeutic, such as cooking or dancing to the sound of a good tune. In addition to the piano, I also like experimenting on the drums, guitar and ukulele.

A favourite book?

I prefer reading news to keep up with current affairs. I also like to research what I’m learning at university to complement my studies.

A favourite music?

I’m not a fan of the definition “favourite” because what I like changes. At the moment, I’m addicted to Sofia Sá’s new album, I don’t know if you’ve heard it…!

A favourite food?

The food that most warms my soul is homemade food, food made by my mother. Unfortunately, they don’t serve that in any restaurant.

A favourite movie?

I like series more than movies. If “a favourite series” is the answer to this question, I would say that I love “Stranger Things” and “Glee”.

A dream trip?

I would love to visit South Korea, but luckily I get to travel a lot. The places I most enjoyed visiting so far

were Miami, the Nordic countries and Japan, for the incredible and different culture I came across. More recently, I visited Dubai and loved the grandeur. In fact, any trip can be fantastic if you have good company.

A goal to achieve?

I work towards daily goals that make me feel satisfied and proud at the end of my day. I don’t like to create expectations or have unrealistic dreams. I always do my best to work hard and do activities to cultivate good mental health – cultural activities, socializing, doing exercise and sparing time for myself. That’s the only way I’ll be able to function in the future, where I want to have a job that doesn’t just sustain me but fulfils me, without ever forgetting time for my health, family and friends.

An inspiration?

A bit cliché, but my family. I don’t look at anyone else the way I look at my parents and my sister. Oh, and my cat too, of course!

A life project

I would very much like to participate in something that involves acting at a higher level (I belong to the FEUP theatre). It’s a pet interest I’ve had since I was a little girl and I want to at least try it. Recording video clips is like a little character that I can embody in front of the camera, but I’d like something more challenging. I want to continue creating music and sharing it with those who appreciate it, because that is without a doubt one of the most rewarding things I can have. One day, perhaps, I will also expand my voice by creating a podcast, because in addition to singing, I love to talk about topics that excite me.

FEUP joins INOV CONTACTO REVERSE pilot project

The program aims to attract and retain international talent studying in Portugal, as a way of strengthening the competitiveness of companies and combat the nation’s “demographic winter”.

The Business Roundtable Portugal Association (BRP) and the Portuguese Investment and Foreign Trade Agency (AICEP) announced in February, at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), the launch of the INOV CONTACTO REVERSE programme, an initiative that will allow Portuguese companies to offer internships in Portugal to young foreigners who complete their master’s degree in Portugal.

The aim is to take advantage of the international talent studying at Portuguese universities - around 70,000 students - and attract them to national companies, reinforcing the availability of international staff and helping to strengthen the skills and international vision of these organisations. FEUP is the first higher education institution in Portugal to take part in this pilot project, which begins in the first semester of this year.

Globalisation is a critical factor for the growth and reinforcement of companies’ competitiveness and, consequently, for the creation of national wealth. According to the entities responsible for the INOV CONTACTO REVERSE program, the presence of international talent in companies will contribute to training local teams with knowledge of the dynamics and culture of the market in the country of origin of these talents, allowing them greater potential for expanding business in those same markets.

Moreover, international talents may, in the future, represent important assets in the sense that when they return to their country of origin, they will maintain ties with the company where they worked, taking with them the knowledge they have gained of both places and becoming ambassadors for Portugal and Portuguese companies in other markets, as well as in the national market.

For Rui Calçada, dean of FEUP, “this is an initiative to which the faculty is enthusiastically associated, aware of the added value for companies of the diversity and skills of its international student community”. And he adds that “the faculty has active policies for the intercultural integration of the more than 1,200 degree students it welcomes from abroad, and since 2021 has participated in the High Commission for Migration’s network of Local Support Centers for the Integration of Migrants.”

The faculty head also points out that “the world-class scientific-technical education which FEUP’s courses provide is comple -

mented with essential transversal skills for professional and civic life, undertaken with close ties to the business community, with regard to enhancing knowledge and developing talent”.

As for AICEP President Luís Castro Henriques, “this initiative is based on the success of one of AICEP’s acclaimed programs – INOV CONTACTO – which for 25 years has achieved remarkable results both in terms of its impact on companies’ competitiveness, as well as the transition to active life and career progression of the young people who have joined it. INOV CONTACTO REVERSE has all the potential to become a significant new instrument for promoting business growth and the internationalisation of the Portuguese economy”.

INTERNATIONALISATION OF TALENT

INOV CONTACTO REVERSE will get off the ground with a pilot project that envisages establishing 6-month paid internships, in a real work context, where each talent will have the opportunity to collaborate with one of the host entities – partner companies from the program. For the implementation of the pilot, the initiative is counting on 10 companies from the BRP Association to participate, providing a combined total of 12 internships.

The project will enable testing of the program’s operating model, which is based on Inov Contacto, and will ensure that the program adapts with regard to the specificities of this talent pool, thus allowing it to repeat the success of the original program in attracting and training young people with internationalisation skills.

According to Filipe de Botton, a member of the BRP Association and leader of the Globalisation Working Group, “there is currently a difficulty in accessing qualified talent in Portugal. We viewed the 70,000 young foreign students at our universities as an opportunity to retain that quality factor in the country they have chosen for their master’s degree. Such retention will create skills, and produce growth, as well as accelerate the globalisation of our business community, by making SMEs bigger and more competitive”.

As of September, the program’s promoters believe they are in a position to increase the number of internships, now being set up in parallel with Inov Contacto.

Photo: rights reserved 32

YEAR IN REVIEW

13 JAN 21 JAN 27 JAN

The Main Auditorium hosted the 2022 FEUP Day celebrations, an annual event aimed at reinforcing the spirit of the academic community. As well as an opportunity to recognise business partnerships, the program also included public tributes and performance awards to members of the institution.

Three FEUP PhD students won the ITU Machine Learning in 5G Challenge, an international AI competition. The award-winning project focuses on the development of a neural network for classifying modulations in telecommunications signals.

FEUP recognised 26 international degree students who stood out for their admission and/or attendance ratings in the academic year 2021/2022. The program, aimed at undergraduates, provides financial incentives to FEUP international students based on academic merit.

08 APR

At the World Summit Awards 2021, two students from the Master’s in Software Engineering at FEUP were winners in the “Culture & Tourism” category with the ZOOMGUIDE platform. It aims to make cultural discovery more interactive and accessible, enabling users to access available multimedia content in several different languages.

13 JAN 25 FEB

FEUP Industrial Engineering and Management student Inês Ribeiro is one of the winners of the 2021 edition of the APGEI Master Award, which aims to recognise recent graduates from all the second cycle master’s degree courses in Industrial Engineering and Management across the country based on their academic merit.

25 MAR 07 APR 08 APR 08 APR

Tiago Sotto Mayor, from the Transport Phenomena Research Center at FEUP, is part of a team who developed reactors that simulate the effect of microgravity in space to synthesise high quality 2D crystalline materials. The results earned a cover on Advanced Materials magazine.

05 APR

Eduardo Silva, student at FEUP, became national university Judo champion in the -81kg category. Also taking part in this competition were fellow FEUP students João Soares, José Ramos and Luiz Miguel Coelho.

The Career Award from the Portuguese Society of Fracture and Structural Integrity was given to Pedro Camanho, Full Professor at FEUP, for his long research career in the study and simulation of deformation and fracture mechanisms in advanced composite materials.

The Portuguese League Against Epilepsy recognized Elodie Lopes, student in the Doctoral Program in Biomedical Engineering at FEUP, for her study of brain biosignals, which may allow early detection of epileptic seizures.

On the occasion of FEUP’s annual Conferment Day ceremony, Carlos Moreira da Silva, former president of BA GLASS, received the FEUP 2021 Career Award, a prize which recognises excellence in the careers of graduates from the faculty who are highly esteemed within their profession.

Egídio Santos

Egídio Santos

Of the 50 scholarships – each worth 5 thousand euros – awarded by Huawei in the areas of technology and engineering as part of its Seeds for the Future 2.0 program, 14 were given to students from various study cycles at FEUP and FCUP.

Daniel Guimarães, Gonçalo Martins and Gonçalo Ramos, students of Mechanical Engineering at FEUP, won a Vodafone competition with a project for a smart road crossing aimed at increasing pedestrian safety, reducing the number of pedestrians being run over on the road.

Tiago Ferradosa, professor and researcher at FEUP, won the 2021 Young Investigator Award from the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, awarded to researchers who stand out for their scientific contributions in the fields of Marine Science and Engineering.

Michael Grätzel, one of the leading chemical researchers of our time, often named as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Porto, on a proposal from FEUP.

Two researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at FEUP won the 8th edition of iUP25k – the University of Porto’s Business Ideas Competition – with their E-RecyOuro project, an innovative idea for recovering gold and other rare precious metals from electronic waste.

Several teams of students, professors, alumni and researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at FEUP dominated the 2022 National Robotics Festival, in an environment of cooperation and competition in the field of autonomous robots.

The first edition of Porto Communication in Higher Education: Building Trust took place at FEUP, a Staff Week aimed exclusively at professionals in the area of communication in Higher Education and which was attended by 70 staff from communication offices across several European universities.

FEUP alumni Pedro Silvestre and Maria Serôdio won 1st and 2nd place at the 18th edition of the Primus Inter Pares Award, an initiative from the Expresso newspaper and Santander Totta bank to discover future business leaders from the academic community.

The Faculty of Engineering launched “FEUP - a world awaiting you”, an initiative targeting 11th and 12th year students who have yet to choose their university course, with the aim of providing clarification sessions to support these students in deciding on their academic future.

Roberto Vaz, Digital Media alumnus from FEUP, won the Best Paper Award with a doctoral project in the area of accessibility in museums which seeks to use information and communication technologies to enable a more inclusive and participatory society with regard to culture.

A team from the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, based at FEUP, and from IEETA/U.Aveiro became world champions at RoboCup 2022, the world’s biggest Robotics competition that took place in Bangkok, Thailand.

FEUP’s Formula Student team, a student group only set up in 2021, won the Concept Class race at Formula Student UK 2022, also winning 2nd place in the same race at Formula SAE Italy 2022.

IACES – LC Porto, headquartered at FEUP, was the big winner of the 2022 edition of the International Civil Engineering Competition, an international event that challenges Bachelor and Master students in different areas of Civil Engineering.

The Faculty of Engineering welcomed more than 260 mobility students taking part in Orientation Days, a welcome program to provide guidance to newly arrived students on their study program for the semester ahead, providing administrative, academic and cultural support.

05 SEP 09 SEP rights reserved

Alumni from the Master’s in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship at FEUP launched a startup of ready-to-eat meals made 100% from plants. The project’s mission is to facilitate plant-based eating with nutritious and practical meals.

SEP 15 SEP

JUL 25 JUL 01 AUG 22 SEP 22 SEP

Hugo Campos, a Chemical Engineering student at FEUP, became world university beach volleyball champion, along with João Pedrosa, from the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, in the final of the championship that was played in the city of Maceió, in Brazil.

Pedro Aires Montenegro, researcher at DEC/ FEUP, won 1st place in the Civil, Mechanics and Systems Engineering panel of the Individual Contest for Stimulating Scientific Employment awarded by the Foundation for Science and Technology.

DEMec/FEUP Full Professor João Manuel Tavares won the award for the best paper on image and video processing, delivered at the International Conference on Systems, Signals and Image Processing 2022, for his innovative work in the area of the diabetic foot.

03 OCT 14 OCT

Researcher Laura Cerqueira, from the Laboratory of Process, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy Engineering at FEUP, received the CBE Young Investigator Award from the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University for her research in the field of biofilms.

The FEUP Career Fair returned to its in-person format at the Faculty of Engineering, bringing together more than 100 national and international companies to recruit the best talent from all areas of Engineering at the institution.

Growing the innovation economy was the central theme of the 1st edition of the BIN@Minas event, in Brazil, promoted by the INOV team at FEUP. The initiative connected academia with the job market, identifying good business opportunities and new partnerships.

Sister and brother Ana and Pedro Walgode, both students at FEUP, became world figure skating champions in the Dance Pairs competition at the World Skate Games 2022, which took place in Buenos Aires.

Telma Moreira, a student at FEUP, was one of the 15 women selected - among 7,000 candidates - to participate in The Women’s Academy for Rural Innovation program, which aims to train women in the technological revolution.

Three FEUP researchers awarded with Fulbright Scholarships for 2022/2023 will have the opportunity to develop their research at American universities or research centers.

Zero defects is the main objective of the openZDM project, a consortium of 20 partners from seven European countries - including FEUP - which brings together academia and industry in the search for more sustainable and efficient solutions.

Three FEUP alumni - Mário Couto, João Pacheco and Rodrigo Afonso - saw their academic dissertations awarded at the 2022 edition of the APREN Award, promoted by the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association.

The big winner of the 18th edition of the COTEC SME Innovation Award was the project to develop powerbanks for refrigerated trucks by Addvolt, a FEUP spin-off company, having been selected from over 200 candidates.

R&D units whose host institution is FEUP or interface institutes

D rI vI nG