SINFO 27 took place this week at Técnico – Alameda campus. The exhibition stands are surrounded by students, networking happens spontaneously and the renowned speakers share their experiences. There are those who say that SINFO is the biggest tech event in Portugal, and visitors had little doubt of that.
The programme of the event includes national and international speakers. As in previous years, each day is dedicated to a topic related to IT. Hannes Poser, CG supervisor at Imagine Engine, Garrett Fredley, programmer at Phoenix Labs, Alexandre Gazet, security researcher at Airbus Evaluation Team, Join Dale Mayeda, effects supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Krzysztof Rost, Effects technical director at Pixar Animation Studios, and Karen Cheng, head of Social Communication at 9Gag, are some speakers attending this year’s edition.
The day devoted to games was one of the busiest days at SINFO. Jamie Fristrom, lead engineer at Mojang Studios, gave one of the most popular lectures. The speaker talked about his career, Spider-Man 2 and the acclaimed Minecraft. “When I was thinking about this lecture and its structure, I thought about how young you are, most of you still attending university, and I realised that instead of talking about the differences in the game industry, it is more interesting to talk about how to make a career in this area” he said. Jamie Fristrom talked about his career and his passion for games.
We met Inês Batina, Informatics Systems and Computer Engineering 5th year student, at the end of the lecture. She confessed that she has been attending SINFO for some time. “It is time to start looking for a job and these fairs are always important to get in touch with companies, to deliver resumes, etc.”, she explains. “I am not quite sure about the area in which I am interested in working and I hope this event will help me to decide”, she adds.
According to Patrícia Pronto, Talgem Acquisition Trainee at Capgemini, “this is an opportunity to make our company known and to provide students information about job opportunities”. More than 50 companies participate in SINFO 27.
“The quality of speakers and the topics addressed makes SINFO a success”, says Miguel Regouga. “We insist on bringing the best speakers to this event, but this requires a lot of effort and much anticipation. Next month we will start to contact the speakers for the next edition”, he adds.
It is estimated that more than 7000 students and professionals attend the event throughout the week. “We try to improve this event year after year. The more demanding we are with ourselves and with the organisation of SINFO, the better it will be for Técnico and the participants”, highlights the student.
