The Técnico PhD student Tiago Caldeira was one of the 10 best employees of the 6th edition of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Government Excellence Award, in the “Future Jobs” category. These awards were launched in 2009 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ruler of Dubai. The award winners were announced at the Expo 2020 Dubai.
The award is part of Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program (SKGEP) and aims to encourage employees and federal government entities to serve and achieve happiness and wellbeing for all society segments.
With over 500.000 people working in UAE’s Public Sector, the name of Tiago Caldeira was proposed by the Higher Colleges of Technology, where he led the technology-based incubator team that directly supported the country’s vision to create the next generation of Emirati Entrepreneurs, through the launch of more than 100 local startups over the last 2 years.
Tiago Caldeira was one of the 10 winners in the “Future Jobs” category, along with people linked to space and nuclear agencies, genetics, telecommunications, organisations working on climate change, artificial intelligence, innovation and entrepreneurship. The Técnico student was the only foreigner awarded in this specific category, and the only European distinguished.
The award consists of 13 categories within the decorations of the Prime Minister, in which His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum honours distinguished models in their work who represented a good example for the government work team, in the last 3 years. Around 60 advisors from the Emirates and 120 international advisors were involved in the selection of the winners.
After completing a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Coimbra, Tiago Caldeira accepted the international challenge of working abroad. The Técnico alumnus started his professional career ten years ago, at Khalifa University, in Abu Dhabi.
He has led various international teams of companies and government departments in the field of education, technology and innovation. He was the trainer of the most awarded UAE team at WorldSkills 2017. Currently, Tiago Caldeira is Chief Operating Officer at Pulse.
The student maintains a close connection to Portugal and to Técnico, where he is attending a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and to his homeland Guarda. He regularly gives online training sessions on robotics and programming, aimed at young people from Associação Desenvolvimento o Talento (ADoT).
