The Industry Day took place on 31st October, at Técnico – Alameda Campus, in the Great Hall. Several topics were covered during the morning, such as collaborative projects, funding and teaching. This was the 2nd edition of the ‘Industry Day’, an event organised by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DEM) with a view to “facilitating future cooperation with the business community” and addressing “the challenges of Industry 5.0: sustainability, resilience, human-centric”.
Rogério Colaço, the president of Técnico, delivered the opening remarks and highlighted the school’s relationship with companies, going back to 1911 to recall the school’s genesis – which “came from of the Ministry of the Economy [at the time called the ‘Ministério do Fomento’]”, something “completely different” from the other higher education institutions of the time. For this reason, the president of President argues that “the [School’s] main mission is to contribute to scientific and technological development and to increase the country’s competitiveness”, something that “can’t be done by locking higher education institutions behind walls, in castles”. On the contrary, he says “these initiatives that open up Técnico and bring in people and companies are not only very important to us but also the reason for our existence”.
The event’s programme included a round table with DEM professors and students, discussing the challenges of ‘Industry 5.0’. Several projects developed by DEM’s student organisations, as well as dissertation and thesis posters were on display in the Great Hall. The event also included a pitch session, where MSc and PhD students had the opportunity to present their works and be awarded.
MSc students awarded
- 1st place (500€) – Mariana Rodrigues Januário (Assessing Decarbonization Scenarios using Municipal Residential Energy Modeling)
- 2nd place (250€) – Marta de Melo Massuça (Radiant Emissions in Hydrogen Enriched Flames)
- 3rd place (150€) – Diogo Santa-Rita (Refitting of a low-swirl burner for a fuel mixture of methane and hydrogen for ceramic industry applications)
PhD students awarded
- 1st place (500€) – Manuel de Figueiredo Sardinha (Design and development of fused filament fabricated non-pneumatic tires)
- 2nd place ex aequo (250€) – Nelson Matos (Avaliação Da Resistência Ao Impacto E Otimização Da Simulação De Compósitos Laminados)
- 2nd place ex aequo (250€) – Pedro Pontes (Cooling of a HCPV panel using microchannel heat sinks)
The initiative was sponsored by Produtech R3, a project funded by the European Union under the NextGeneration EU programme.