Created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Entrepreneurship Impact Award 2023 was awarded to Hugo Plácido da Silva, a professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and researcher at the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT). According to the official website, this award “recognises an individual who has had a significant impact on the engineering-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem”. The Técnico professor is the first Portuguese citizen to be bestowed with such a prestigious award.
Hugo Plácido da Silva was awarded due to his work involving BITalino, a low-cost piece of hardware that can be incorporated into the construction of medical equipment, in projects involving body signals or in teaching. It is compatible with hardware blocks with sensors for electrocardiography, electroencephalography, motion and more. It’s an electronics board that fits in the palm of your hand and can be used both in a classroom and in applications, including drones, robots or even door control systems through muscle contractions.
The hardware, launched in 2013, is used to provide students with hands-on laboratory sessions and has already an installed base of 10k+ units worldwide. Classes involving the BITalino can be held in person or online, ensuring that each student has the opportunity to interact individually with the signal acquisition platforms, thus guaranteeing a more pedagogical experience.
The Técnico professor and researcher was taken by surprise by the news of the award – “I was very surprised when I received the news, it seemed unbelievable; I had to read it several times until I managed to process it”. According to Hugo Plácido da Silva “being honoured with this award is undeniably one of the highest appraisals in the realm of my professional achievements”: He also left a word of appreciation to his family, friends, colleagues and students along the way.
The award was based on criteria such as entrepreneurial spirit, value creation, impact and sustainability of the candidate projects.
Besides being a Técnico professor and an IT researcher, Hugo Plácido da Silva is also one of the founders of PLUX – Wireless Biosignals, S.A, a company that is part of the IST Spin-Off Community and which provides the BITalino equipment on which this award is based.
