Last Saturday, May 28th, 2022, 32 former students of the Bachelor in Electrotechnical Engineering from FEUP, LEE.1972, headed to Viseu, for the long-awaited 50th anniversary commemorative meeting.
During an afternoon of long conversations at Quinta da Magarenha Restaurant, they remembered the times of Rua dos Bragas, the adventures lived in the youth, the great events that marked an effervescent time among the student community, the professional paths and the families. The memories, religiously kept for years, are proudly shared in these meetings that are living proof that friendships resist time and life.
And so much has changed in Engineering in the past 50 years. From 18 440 m2 of Rua dos Bragas, home to 6 undergraduate courses and some postgraduate courses, 61 teachers, 551 students (with only 6.5% female students) and 48 staff members, it grew in 2001 to 93 918 m2, thus giving rise to new possibilities of evolution at Asprela. This allowed for a growth that in 2020 counted with 9 Departments, 56 degree courses and 46 non-degree courses, 611 teachers, 7518 students enrolled in degree courses and 1113 in non-degree courses (32% female) and 257 staff members.
Raul Moreira Vidal, Emeritus Professor at the University of Porto and former teacher and Director of DEI, member of the Organizing Committee of the event, of which António Taveira de Vasconcelos, Henrique Albuquerque Cruz, José Cardoso Ayres and Maria dos Prazeres Lomba also took part, reveals that “the secret for these meetings to continue to take place is the immense desire to celebrate friendship, to keep alive the ties that unite the harvest of 72, to remember and pay homage to colleagues who have already left”.
“A retrospective look is necessary. To understand the evolution of things, to understand that informatics and technologies have a cradle, this exercise is fundamental!” says the Professor, who reminds us that for him Engineering is a Dream Come True, believing that the new generations will not let the motto “Engineering with Soul” fade away in everything they create.
*Data refers to 1969/1970