The Técnico alumni Ana Rita Tomaz, Bernardo Catalão and Francisco Santos received the Secil Universities Award – delivered in partnership with Ordem dos Engenheiros and Ordem dos Arquitetos. These awards aim to promote the academic work and to enhance the public recognition of civil engineering and architecture students. The awards were delivered last month and recognised the works carried out in 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 academic years.
“My goal was to study a method for dimensioning buildings to resist seismic actions more efficiently than the one that is currently used in most offices”, explains the Técnico alumna, about her thesis “Seismic Analysis of Structures: Stress-resultant Interaction based on Response Spectra”. “Currently working at CivilSer, Ana Rita Tomaz is aware of the benefits of having studied Civil Engineering at Técnico. “The course combines a demanding theoretical component with a set of curricular units that replicate real situations / problems in an office. Now that I am working in this area, I recognise the advantages of using this methodology”, highlights Ana Rita Tomaz.
Bernardo Catalão, author of the work “Stress Field Models for Structural Concrete – Application to the Strengthening of Existing Foundations“, was visibly happy to be recognised for his work. “It is always very gratifying when we see our work recognised and I thank Secil for supporting the best works in Civil Engineering area every year”, says the alumnus. “In my opinion, this is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of Civil Engineering, not because of Secil’s dimension, but also because of its monetary value”, stressed Bernardo Catalão.
“Exploring the Strength of Thin Glass – Experimental and Numerical Assessment”, is the title of Francisco Santos’ work, which aims to efficiently test the strength of thin glass and to understand its potential applications in Civil Engineering. “I was surprised that a topic such as this one, which is relatively unknown but quite innovative, has been awarded”. Aware of the importance of this award, Francisco Santos considers that it “represents a unique opportunity to attest the quality of my work and brings us close to companies. In addition, it’s good to keep facing ambitious challenges with confidence”, adds the Técnico alumnus.
