On 18 and 19 October, Técnico’s Oeiras campus hosted the first edition of JunctionX Lisbon, an international hackathon that challenged students and young professionals to develop innovative solutions in the areas of artificial intelligence, finance and society.
For 36 hours, participating teams tackled challenges presented by various Challenge Partners—leading companies and institutions that posed specific problems to be addressed through technology. AGlintt presented a challenge focused on integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into internal processes for researching and organising information. Albatroz Engenharia sought solutions for identifying invasive acacia trees in Portuguese Mediterranean forests using Artificial Intelligence. The Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) challenged teams to integrate various sources of Intellectual Property, including patents, scientific articles, and internal data, in order to assess the potential of emerging technologies.
“Some partners have already expressed interest in contacting the teams to assess the feasibility of implementing the solutions in a real production context”, said the organization team, highlighting the high technical level demonstrated by the participants.
The team ‘Três Mosqueteiros’ (Three Musketeers), composed of Duarte Pereira da Cruz, Daniel Borges and André Pagaime, undergraduate students in Computer Science and Engineering at Técnico, stood out among the competitors for their project ‘Chega d’Acácias’, an Artificial Intelligence-based tool capable of identifying and predicting the distribution of invasive species of the Acacia genus in Portugal, using satellite images and georeferenced data.
The team received a prize of €500 and will represent Técnico in the international edition of JunctionX, in Helsinki, where they will compete with top programmers from around the world for more than €50,000 in prizes.
For participants, the experience also served as an opportunity for learning and collaboration. “We always enjoy participating in these types of challenges. It’s a way to apply what we’ve learned and go beyond what we do in class”, shared Bernardo Chagas, an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering.
“The challenges were ambitious, and that made everything more interesting. We had to learn a lot and apply what we knew in a short time”, added Rui Guerra, a teammate and master’s student in Data Science and Engineering.
The first edition of JunctionX Lisbon brought together around 20 participants, including students from Técnico and other national and international institutions. For the organisers, the event marks the beginning of a collaborative innovation process with growth potential.
The event was promoted by the Gradient association, founded by Diogo Franquinho and Diogo Andrade, both PhD students in Mathematics at Técnico, with the aim of bringing academia and industry closer together, stimulating entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of technological solutions that make a real-world impact.
“The goal of our association is to connect academia and industry and promote innovation”, explained Diogo Franquinho, Lead Organiser and founder of the event. “We chose Técnico’s Oeiras campus because it is part of a business ecosystem and shares the same mission of collaboration and knowledge transfer”.
JunctionX Lisbon was organised by Gradient, with the support of Instituto Superior Técnico – Oeiras Campus, Oeiras City Council and various business and technology partners.
