The Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge is a contest of ideas promoted by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS with the aim of motivating and rewarding research of practical utility, and promotes new scientific knowledge through the awarding of prizes to students and researchers from Portuguese universities who present the best ideas, based on a completed thesis evaluated in the current or previous academic year.
The 2017 edition, 8th of the contest, featured presentations on several topics, from health literacy to the use of drones on car accident websites, with numerous innovative ideas displayed. At the Closing Event, the finalists were presented, followed by the evaluation of the jury and announcement of the winners.
Of the six finalists – 3 doctoral projects and 3 master’s projects – João Monteiro, Master in Computer Engineering and Computing, was awarded the second place in the master’s category by the HealthTalks app, which works as a management system of personal medical information and aims to improve communication between the doctor and the patient by providing information on medical terms.
The contest welcomes ideas from master’s or doctoral degrees, in the areas of Information and Communication Technology, Multimedia and other related sciences, having received 44 applications in this latest edition, from 21 universities, both on the continent and on the islands. The ideas presented were evaluated according to criteria such as innovation and originality, technical feasibility, practical applicability and market potential, by a judge composed of members of Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, namely Liliana Ferreira (Director), Pedro Almeida (Member of the Executive Board) and Filipe Soares (Interim President of the Scientific Council), as well as a panel of invited Experts that included João José Pinto Ferreira (Director of the Master’s Course in Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Engineering College, University of Porto), Clara Gonçalves (Executive Manager from UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto), Pedro Aguiar (CEO of Ah Business) and Nuno Carvalho (CEO of Healthcare City).