The PowerPoint projected on the wall of the Técnico Congress Center shows one sentence: “Electrical and Computer Engineering is the blood and nervous system of the modern world”. It’s just after 5.30 p.m., on October 19, when the second Técnico MasterTalk. Mário Figueiredo, professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DEEC) is the speaker of this MasterTalk.
Professor Mário Figueiredo highlighted more than 15 examples of areas that DEEC master’s students can explore: he talked about satellites, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, the electronics used in aircraft – avionics -, the internet of things, medical applications, ISTSat-1, robots that follow orders, detecting plastics in the oceans and analysing movements during sports practice, among others.
Luísa, a secondary school student, says she liked the MasterTalk “because it addressed all these topics”, even though she hasn’t decided on one yet. Although she hasn’t started her university journey, the student found out about the MasterTalks through her physics teacher and enjoyed hearing about “computers, energy and sustainability”, with a focus on the latter.
Margarida Amado, a 3rd-year university student, also enjoyed the lecture. The final year Aerospace Engineering student came at the invitation of a friend, also encouraged by her interest in this field. “I was already inclined to pursue a MSc in Electrical Engineering and now, after seeing some of the thesis work, I’ve realised that these are things that really interest me,” she explains. She also pointed out that she is very happy with her degree. If she went back to when she had to make the decision, she “would choose it again”.
Once the presentation was over, Mário Figueiredo shared “preparing the MasterTalk was very cool”. “I discovered things that were being done in my department that I didn’t know about, so it was a great experience also for me,” he explains. For those who are undecided about what they want to study in the 2nd cycle, the professor left a suggestion: “the most important thing, and I always recommend it, is that people do something they enjoy. Do what you love as long as you can”. The professor advises to “look at the professors’ websites. Even if you don’t understand everything, [it’s useful] to look at the published articles to get an idea of what kind of work they’re doing”. Finally, the professor highlights what he considers most relevant – “you only learn things that you enjoy learning. Curiosity is the engine that fuels our learning”.
The next MasterTalk, led by Arlindo Oliveira, is scheduled for November 16 and will focus on the master’s programmes offered by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
