“The participants are, in a way, already winners”. This is how Rui Pedro Vaz, Partner at Deloitte, summed up the project presentation session for the Deloitte Merit Award in Software Architecture. The event brought together Computer Science and Engineering master’s students at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, for a series of pitches.
The initiative took place as part of the “Software Architecture” curricular unit, where students developed proposals focused on the design of complex systems throughout the semester. The final session was held online and featured the presentation of three projects to a jury composed of Técnico professors António Rito da Silva and Pedro Monteiro, and Deloitte representatives Rui Pedro Vaz and Miguel Mendes.
The projects showcased the practical application of knowledge acquired at Técnico, exploring topics such as distributed storage systems, digital platforms inspired by existing solutions, and the use of large language models in software architectures. The potential and challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence tools were at the heart of the proposals.
The need for human governance mechanisms in the use of artificial intelligence stood out among the topics discussed, as did the difficulty of responding to diverse user, developer, and organisational profiles. The solutions presented sought to address these challenges through more flexible and adaptable software architectures.
António Rito da Silva, the senior lecturer of the curricular unit, emphasised the importance of the partnership with Deloitte, describing it as “an important support for student learning”, and congratulated the students on their work throughout the semester.
Deloitte’s participation is part of its collaboration with Técnico in the context of merit awards, helping to expose students to real-world challenges in the technology sector. The winner of the 2025/2026 Deloitte Merit Award in Software Architecture will be announced at the end of the academic year, during an event dedicated to celebrating Técnico’s merit awards, supported by members of the Técnico Partner Network.
