Next March 21st, at 18:30, in the FEUP’s Library (Floor 0), the 3rd year student of Informatics and Computing Engineering, Pedro Fardilha Barbeira, will launch “Verbal Alquimia“, a poetry book where “we are challenged to share the deepest feelings inherent to the Man, not because it moves us, but because it offers us the freedom to think, to feel and – for the most daring – to live”.
In conversation with Pedro Barbeira he confessed that “Computer Engineering came a bit out of the blue”. His dedication at the time (we were in 2013) to computers and games, and his “schisms” in robotics – he dreamt of making medical prostheses – made him choose Computer Science. But the first years of college, where he had to divide his energies between complex personal challenges and a whole new world that was very different from high school, proved to be a real “Cabo das Tormentas”.
One day he decided, as he tells us, “to return to the program and really face this “Adamastor”, which insisted on projecting its shadow on my path”. On the way he discovered a passion for programming: “In it I found the perfect conciliation between Method and Creativity, those two facets of Order and Chaos, so close and necessary”. The interest grew not only for the “more “esoteric” disciplines – Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Compilers – but also for the more pragmatic ones – Web Development, UI/UX, among many others”.
When we ask him what the connection between writing and computer science is, Pedro tells us that the connection between the two emerges in what he imagines to be his dream life: “Writing is an indispensable tool when it comes to sharing knowledge – I believe to be the truest, oldest and deepest heritage of Humanity. Given the current state of the world, I believe that evolution will come about precisely because of the sharing of experiences and experiences – so necessary for empathy and cooperation – as well as a re-evaluation of the value of subjective experience – so forgotten by our deeply objective society. As such, I feel that programming will allow me to develop and explore my own ideas, at the level of applications focused on the common user, as well as to enhance the expansion and evolution of businesses and projects in which I really believe. The literary capacity contributes a lot to the clarity and specificity of oral expression, as well as to the ability to weave analogies, that ancestral vehicle of wisdom transmission, abilities that are central to the management of people and teams, to the interaction with clients and employers, as well as to the analysis and observation of social problems that we can try to mitigate or correct through our programmes”.
Talking about the future he tells us that he wants to invest on freelancing when he feels ready and dreams of “being at the head” of his own business. “Letters provides me with the analysis, synthesis and understanding skills I feel I need to make an impact at the level I consider relevant, and Engineering provides me with the technical tools and skills necessary to achieve these goals. A strong reminder that Knowledge is plural and transversal, and that sometimes the most evolutive solutions are found in the least expected places”, shares with us the student who will soon let us know “his visions through the twisted meanders of the poetic verses that flow through him”.
Entrance is free, you are all invited.
