May 11th was the date chosen for the delivery of the Vodafone merit award for the groups of students enrolled in the curriculum unit of Mobile and Wireless Networks of the Department of Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering (DEEC) in the academic year of 2020/2021. The award ceremony featured a final pitch of the four best projects and took place at the VA1 Amphitheater of the Civil Engineering Building.  The winning project was SmartMirror, an intelligent mirror that activated its features through facial recognition.

The event started with the intervention of Professor Pedro Amaral, professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DEM) and president for Business Connections and Operations, who expressed gratitude to Vodafone and admitted as an objective of Técnico “to let society be part of Técnico and that the Técnico could be a part of the society. “This was followed by an intervention of engineer Rui Gomes, representing Vodafone, who talked about the importance of the existence of “people who see the problems of the world and create something useful for society”.

The presentation of the the four best projects, presented by the groups of selected students then took over the auditorium.  Fechapp was the first project presented, with the development of an application that allowed access to several locks simultaneously. This was followed by the presentation of the Mobile Air Quality Measurement with GPS Stamp, a project that allowed the measurement of air quality through GPS coordinates. SmartCOMF was the third pitch of the day and aimed to create an alternative to air conditioning with the creation of a radiant floor, composed of water segments, which allowed to achieve thermal comfort, reuse resources, and allow cost reduction. Finally, the presentation of SmartMirror was followed, which consisted of the facial recognition of the person who positioned himself in front of an intelligent mirror and who added at the same time several Widgets (graphic interaction elements) with a greeting, the main news of the day, in real time, and the weather forecast.

Then the jury met to deliberate. SmartMirror was the winning project and won a merit prize worth 1,310 euros. A donation of 873 euros was also made to improve the quality of teaching, a value attributed to the department to which the curricular unit under evaluation reports. Professor Luís Miguel Silveira, professor at DEEC and researcher at Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering – Research and Development (INESC-ID) received the donation, in representation of the department.

Also the president of Técnico, Professor Rogério Colaço was present and closed the ceremony saying that “Portugal can not waste talent” and took the opportunity to also thank Vodafone for its contribution in this initiative.