Bernardo Lopes and Rodrigo Zink Ramos, undergraduate students in Computer Science and Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, won the 5th edition of the NTT DATA Merit Award in Machine Learning, which recognises the best projects developed as part of the ‘Machine Learning’ curricular unit. The final round took place on 25 February at NTT DATA’s premises in Lisbon.
For Bernardo Lopes, the challenge resulted in “a great learning experience”. He highlighted the opportunity to explore technical resources he had not been familiar with while developing the project. Rodrigo Ramos emphasised that “this wasn’t just a class to get good grades. We had the opportunity to work with very interesting theoretical and technical content and to present the project in a corporate context, which is very motivating”, also referring to the experience of applying their knowledge to real challenges in industry.
The final pitch featured seven teams composed of undergraduate students in Engineering Physics and Computer Science and Engineering, as well as master’s students in Applied Mathematics and Computation at Técnico. Hugo Dionísio, Director of Advanced Analytics Practice – Business Consulting at NTT DATA, congratulated the finalists for their dedication and highlighted the importance of the connection between industry and academia. “Mastering Artificial Intelligence is transforming every sector. Our connection with the academic environment allows us to take this innovation further, applying it to real-world problems and helping us understand whether we are doing so in an ethical and responsible way”, he said.
Técnico students were challenged to apply machine learning techniques acquired during the seven weeks of the curricular unit to address the theme “Detection of Portuguese Fake News”.
The jury was composed of Miguel Couceiro and Andreas Wichert, both professors at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DEI), and Hugo Dionísio, from NTT DATA. The assessment considered criteria such as understanding of the challenge, the ability to apply and extend the learning techniques acquired, the degree of innovation, and the quality of the presentation of results, as well as the rigor and relevance of the outcomes achieved.
Public recognition of this distinction will take place during a general initiative at the end of the academic year, where a donation will also be awarded to the department responsible for the curricular unit to support improvements in the quality of teaching. The initiative is the result of a collaboration between Técnico and NTT DATA, as part of the Técnico Partner Network, and aims to recognise the work carried out by students and to encourage the application of knowledge acquired in an academic setting to real-world problems.
