Catarina Curado and Martim Lopes, undergraduate and master’s students in Applied Mathematics and Computation, respectively, were the winners of the literary contest “Who owns our knowledge?”, organised by the Técnico Library in partnership with IST Press. The award ceremony took place on 14 January in the Civil Engineering Museum, at Técnico – Alameda Campus.
Open Access Week was the inspiration behind this competition, as explained by Isabel Marcos, the director of Técnico Library: “knowledge is threatened by predatory publishing practices that make it very expensive”, she said also and stressing that “it is an asset that empowers individuals”.
The award jury was composed of IST Press collaborator Margarida Coimbra, Técnico Executive Director Nuno Pedroso, and Técnico President Rogério Colaço. Margarida Coimbra noted that “writing helps develop reasoning” and that “it is an illusion to think that great writers only come from the field of humanities”. She also expressed her hope that it would be “the first of many editions” of the award. Nuno Pedroso took the opportunity to emphasise that “what unites societies is the ability to share knowledge”. Rogério Colaço stressed that “one of Técnico’s most important missions is to consolidate knowledge” and how the Library and IST Press are an “armed wing” for this purpose.
Regarding the winning texts, which the President dubbed “texts of human thought”, Catarina Curado argued that “knowledge belongs to itself” because, in the student’s opinion, “it always comes from prior knowledge”. Martim Lopes highlighted the need to “invest effort in developing knowledge”, explaining that true understanding is not only found in books, but in the learning process itself.
