The FIDWARD awards ceremony took place on 8 May in the Main Building’s Meeting Room at Alameda campus. Nuno Policarpo, a master’s student in Computer Science and Engineering, won the Merit Award powered by Fidelidade for the best student in 2023/2024. Pedro Ferreira won the FIDAWARD IN Deep Learning Merit Award for the student with the best performance in the Deep Learning curricular unit in the 2024/2025 academic year.
“It’s been a challenging journey, from the shock of the first Calculus test to writing the thesis. This award symbolises the end of a stage at Técnico”, said Nuno Policarpo, who is currently pursuing a PhD under the CMU Portugal program. Pedro Monteiro and Alberto Abad, professors at Técnico, and Rosa Mimoso, representing Fidelidade, were the jury of the award, worth 2,500 euros.
For the Deep Learning Merit Award, the challenge was to present a practical application of deep learning models to real-world problems. Five students were previously selected to present their work: Afonso Ribeiro, Guilherme Coimbra and Pedro Ferreira, master’s students in Data Science and Engineering, as well as Bernardo Soares and Tiago Lourinho, master’s students in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Pedro Ferreira won the competition and received a prize of 1750 euros. The jury consisted of professors responsible for the curricular unit, André Martins and Mário Figueiredo, and José Vieira, Data Science Manager at Fidelidade.
During the ceremony, the president of Técnico, Rogério Colaço, emphasised the importance of this collaboration, noting ‘there aren’t many national patrons with the capacity for intervention that Fidelidade has demonstrated. He also mentioned that the existence of an award motivates students to go further and contributes to one of Técnico’s strategic goals – opening the school to society.
Pedro Amaral, the vice-president of Técnico for Corporate Interface, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, highlighted that the partnership with Fidelidade has been ‘a real game changer for Técnico from various perspectives. ‘What will last the longest is the diploma received by the students, which, unlike money, cannot be spent and lasts forever’, he added.
Mário Figueiredo, the senior lecturer of the Deep Learning curricular unit, stressed the significance of the curricular unit he has been teaching for four years, emphasising the need for constant updates due to the rapid advances in the field. “Moreover, it’s one of the few courses at Técnico resulting from collaboration between two departments: the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DEEC) and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DEI), which symbolises our goal for Técnico—greater collaboration between departments”, he noted.
Sérgio Pequito, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, encouraged students to sustain their spirit of excellence, saying that “they are the face of Técnico to the companies out there.” Ana Teresa Freitas, head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, emphasised that initiatives like this can significantly impact departmental development. Miguel Cacho Teixeira, President of the Pedagogical Council, expressed his satisfaction in observing that what motivates students most is their desire to learn, considering the award an additional incentive. “When I was a student, there were no incentives of this kind”, he recalled, while also highlighting the growth in opportunities available today.
At the event, Rosa Mimoso, Head of Business Delivery at Fidelidade and a Técnico alumna, emphasised the company’s pride in supporting the students’ efforts and its commitment to training highly qualified professionals. ‘None of this would be possible without the dedication and commitment of the professors’, she added.
The initiative also included a donation of 1150 euros to improve the teaching and learning conditions of the Deep Learning curricular unit, awarded to each of the departments that share its coordination. As part of the FIDAWARD IN Computer Science and Engineering, the coordination team of the Master’s programme in Computer Science and Engineering was also awarded a donation of 1660 euros to improve the quality of teaching. Pedro Monteiro, coordinator of the master’s programme, thanked the company for its willingness to award this prize and congratulated the students.
