Hosting a community of more than 1000 PhD students, Técnico organised the PhD Open Days on 21st and 22nd April at Salão Nobre.

Professor Arlindo Oliveira, the president of Técnico, attended the opening session and stressed the “importance of the event”, which “allows knowledge and experience sharing”. “This is a great opportunity for you to understand the importance of what you are doing”, said the president of Técnico.

Professor José Manuel Viegas, Secretary General of the ITF – International Transport Forum explained the new challenges for public policies and research in order to achieve a sustainable mobility. “Everyone complaints about traffic jam”, said professor José Manuel Viegas, who considers that this is one of the main problems related to urban mobility. In turn, public transport does not operate properly and this ends up becoming a factor of social exclusion”.

According to professor José Manuel Viegas “we are facing great changes caused by digital connectivity, electrification and automation, and shared mobility”. During his speech, professor José Manuel Viegas said that paradigm shifts are required: “The transition from the internal combustion engine to the electric motor and the evolution of human driving towards automated driving”.

This year’s edition allowed a close interaction between PhD students and the invited researchers and included a workshop dedicated to help students improving scientific writing skills.

A Pitch competition will take place today, March 22. The 20 pre-selected PhD students will compete and the winner will get a free ticket to attend the Web Summit 2018.