SINFO has moved online to a new and innovate format without compromising its quality. More than 60 companies are attending this year’s edition. On the 3rd day of the event, the SINFO team has no doubt to say “this edition is exceeding our expectations”.

The SINFO’s virtual stage has been invaded by IT professionals since the beginniFng of the week, and it’s going to be like this until 5th March. Renowned professionals from GitHub (Denise Yu, Senior Software Engineer), Google (David Hogue, Design Leader on Android User Experience) and Microsoft (Bruno Nuño, Principal Scientist) participate in the 28th edition.

The programme includes lectures and more than 90 individual sessions. In addition, more than 100 prizes will be awarded during the week. The usual SINFO outdoor tent placed at Técnico-Alameda campus has been replaced by an online platform.

As in previous years, each day of the event has an associated topic. This Wednesday, March 3, the day was devoted to cybersecurity and included a lecture by David Seidman, Senior Director of Threat Detection at Salesforce and the panel “From the IST to The World”, which brought together 3 Técnico alumni: António Afonso (Facebook), André Nogueira (Google) and Diogo Mónica (Anchorage).

The panel was moderated by the president of Técnico, professor Rogério Colaço, who challenged the three participants to an informal conversation. The alumni agreed without hesitation and shared their experiences, memories, and future prospects, and also the challenges that the new generation of engineers will face.

“I acquired extremely valuable skills at Técnico, many of which I use on a daily basis”, says António Afonso. “I think that the knowledge that we have acquired is really the most important”, he added, highlighting the rigorous thinking and the analytical capacity of Técnico graduates.

André Nogueira highlighted the importance of soft skills and warned of the ethical questions that haunt the IT world and that must be taken into account by educational institutions. “Computers can do an increasing number of things, but that doesn’t mean that they must do all the things that they are capable of” he said. “This issue is becoming increasingly important in many areas of the IT industry,” he added.

According to the three alumni, the world is becoming increasingly technological, and the growing demand for engineers and quick and easy access to information facilitates the decision-making of current and future generations regarding professional choices. “As Marc Andreessen said, software is eating the world, and it is absolutely true. Engineers add value to companies. At this moment, all companies are becoming increasingly technological”, said Diogo Mónica.

The alumni were challenged by professor Rogério Colaço to leave some advice for Técnico students, namely those who are entering the job market. “Leave your comfort zone and place yourself in uncomfortable situations”, said the co-founder of Anchorage. “Don’t stay at that company just because it’s close to your home or something like that. Try to do internships in companies outside Portugal, and preferably in different companies, because being exposed to different experiences will give you a better understanding of the place where you feel better ”, added André Nogueira.

New activities and the constant focus on innovation

This year’s edition was organised so that “the spirit and attractiveness of the previous SINFO editions were maintained”. “This year we wanted to freshen up a little bit SINFO activities”, highlights Miguel Regouga.

The Lunch Talks are a new activity and an opportunity for SINFO sponsors to share knowledge about a topic related to their area in just 30 minutes. “In addition, we offer a Speed Dating option, where participants and company representatives can have a shorter and more informal type of interaction”, says Miguel Regouga. SINFO participants were also given the opportunity to develop soft and hard skills, and to network.

More than 60 companies attended this year’s edition including everis, Xpand IT, Deloitte, Sky, Bosch, Claranet, KPMG, among others.

In the first three days of the event, SINFO had more than 2500 active participants. Miguel Regouga stresses “one of the biggest restrictions of in-person events is the limitation imposed by room capacity. This year, we have an average of 200 active participants per session, and this number increases to 400 in lectures, which is fantastic and exceeded our best expectations,” says the Técnico student.

“SINFO has grown at national and international level”, says Miguel Regouga. “We had participants from different parts of the country, from universities, polytechnics and secondary schools”, he adds. The SINFO 28 also captivated many professionals. “We had participants from more than 50 countries from all over the world, which is a fantastic milestone”, says the student.

The SINFO tagline has been “the biggest free tech conference in Portugal”. “We feel that we have gone further this year. We feel that we are becoming one of the biggest technological events not only in Portugal, but also in Europe”, says the Técnico student.