In a scenario of commemoration of the 112th anniversary of the University of Porto, 20 students received the Incentive Award, created to reward the performance and the results of the students who conclude their 1st year of their course with the best average.
In the list of students who concluded their 1st year, 2021/2022, with the best average, we find three students from L.EIC (FEUP/FCUP) with an average higher than 19 values. They are Félix Martins (19,73 values), Marco Vilas Boas (19,45) and Mansur Mustafin (19,33).
Félix Martins, who has always been curious about what is behind the functioning of programs and games, saw in Computer Engineering a so obvious choice that ended up influencing, in some way, the choice of his sister, 3 years older. He tells us that “the first year at the University of Porto was a challenging but very rewarding experience” and that what he liked the most was to realize that he was in the right course. The young student from Vila Nova de Famalicão, who hopes, 10 years from now, to have already completed his first major project with a positive impact on society, collaborating with people from different parts of the world, in order to enrich his experience and broaden his knowledge.
Marco Vilas Boas, who entered L.EIC from Barcelos Secondary School, where he discovered the taste for programming “because it involves a lot of logical reasoning and allows him to develop interesting and useful projects”, tells us that “this award symbolises the potential reward that arises when I put everything I am into something I like to do”. Despite the difficulties felt in the first year due to so many sudden changes, like leaving secondary school and entering university, with a move to the city of Porto in between, it was a year full of good experiences that “made him grow as a person”. The taste for solving “programming problems” is one of the reasons that led him to be part of the nucleus NIAEFEUP and neACM, but he says that were the several moments of conviviality provided by the nucleus that helped his integration in the FEUP community. He does not usually think much about the future but he believes that he will certainly be working in something that he likes and that challenges him, either in the areas of research, teaching or in the industry.
Mansur Mustafin was born in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan and acknowledges that the “pleasant and international environment” was one of the points that most impressed him in his first year at the University as well as his experience teaching in the “Uniformização de Matemática” course for other international students. He defined U.Porto with the word “opportunity” and hopes in 10 years’ time “to have a significant positive impact on the industry and at the same time continue my connection with the University to share my experience and knowledge”. He has lifelong learning ambitions and at this point wishes to “thank all the people who support me in this challenge”.
The Incentive Award, given annually since 2010, corresponds to an individual monetary prize, corresponding to the value of the annual tuition fee applied to national students at the U.Porto.