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).

The first edition of the Gulbenkian New Talents in Artificial Intelligence Scholarship Program, which aims to distinguish university students who demonstrate high academic merit and encourage the development of their culture and skills in artificial intelligence, awarded two grants to André Cruz and Xavier Fontes, students of the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

The two students, selected through a competition, will receive a ten-month training scholarship and join a training and advanced research program in Artificial Intelligence, supporting their work with renowned researchers in the field. The first workshop of this edition took place on November 17, 2017.

André Cruz’s project “consists of applying information obtained by computational semantics to a Coreference Resolution model, and seeking to improve the state of the art in this area. One purpose, among others, is to introduce the model generated in an argumentation mining framework currently under development at LIACC (ArgMine), and to evaluate the benefits of this addition for the argumentation mining task. ”. Xavier Fontes’ project focuses “on the development of a hybrid forecasting model, capable of using information from the temporal domain and at the same time sporadic stimuli to predict a given variable. This choice of a hybrid model comes from the curiosity to combine two different approaches in order to obtain better results than each of the individual parts. ”.

Regarding the importance of these scholarships, Xavier says that it is an excellent opportunity to develop skills in a field of studies where he has always wanted to work and hopes that it will be the beginning of a path with a positive impact in the field of Artificial Intelligence; André hopes that this program will allow him to focus more on this area, which has many applications, and where there is a strong research component.

Professor Eugénio Oliveira reinforces the honor for the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto to have two of his students among the elected, to whom the Scientific Committee has associated the respective tutors also from FEUP. The students of MIEIC, Xavier Reis Fontes and André Cruz are already being tutored in their work by DEI professors and members of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (LIACC), Daniel Castro Silva and Henrique Lopes Cardoso, respectively. In addition, the Program will be repeated next year, and expects the good participation of FEUP students to continue, motivated by the scientific area of ​​Artificial Intelligence.

Congratulations to André and Xavier, and best wishes for an excellent job throughout this program.

The FEUP employability survey is in progress. If you completed the course in 2016/2017 feel free to participate!

The employability rate is an indicator of the professional success of FEUP graduates and is crucial to reinforce FEUP’s position on the international map of schools that generate talent!

Every year the FEUP Employment Observatory conducts the study “Employability Survey” of its graduates. Through this study, it is possible to know the employability indicators and have a more in-depth knowledge about the transition processes to the labor market. Based on the results obtained, FEUP plans its strategy to support all students and graduates in their academic, professional and sociocultural development process (see employability rate 2016).

Because we want to hear from you, accept the invitation, fill in the INQUIRY!

Remember that by answering this survey you will be contributing to the affirmation of FEUP as an international reference engineering school.

More information: Emprego@fe.up.pt

Henrique Ferrolho, who completed the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering in 2017, is in Scotland developing the software for “Valkyrie”, a humanoid robot, which will help humans to settle on Mars. After embracing the ERASMUS + program at the School of Informatics in Edinburgh, and due to his demonstrated potential, he was invited to elaborate his master’s thesis based on NASA’s robot programming. Although robotics is not his area of ​​expertise, and he was not waiting for the invitation, he accepted it without hesitation.

In addition to having the opportunity to program a robot as unique as the “Valkyrie”, the FEUP master also received another good news: he won the only PhD position in robotics at the University of Edinburgh for European students (although there are five places, four are reserved for UK students and only one for European students). This doctoral program is provided by two collaborating universities – Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh – and has allowed Henrique to be exempt from tuition fees and receive around 65 thousand euros of funding to focus on the robot over the next four years.

Annually, the University of Porto celebrates the members of the institution that stood out the most during the previous year. In the amount of 999 euros (equivalent to the annual fee), the Incentive Prize 2017 is intended for students who, in the academic year 2015/2016, completed their first year with the best average in the 14 colleges of U.Porto (the colleges with more than 1500 students enrolled students distinguish two or more students). The aim is to promote and encourage excellence among students since their first year of enrollment at the University.

Last year, during the Solemn Session that commemorates the 106th anniversary of the U.Porto (22nd March), 22 students were awarded one of the Incentive Awards, an initiative that, for the eighth consecutive year, distinguishes the best first year students from each college at U.Porto. Among them, four students from the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering: Francisco Andrade, Xavier Pontes, João Damas and André Cruz.

Congratulations to the four and keep up your excellent work.

On the 30th and 31st of January, the “DSIE’18 13th Doctoral Symposium In Informatics Engineering” took place at the Faculty of Engineering of U.Porto (FEUP). DSIE’18 provides PhD students with a platform to present their scientific work, discuss their ideas, collect feedback and get opinions from experts, colleagues, teachers and experienced researchers.