A dozen students from Instituto Superior Técnico have been awarded merit scholarships under the ‘E-REDES Top Women Scholarship’ program, an initiative that aims “to encourage an increase in the number of women opting for technological areas”. The winning students will have access to mentoring sessions, in order “to arouse the interest of young students in technology and to attract young women who are graduating with master’s degrees in the fields of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science”. The scholarships are worth two thousand euros.

Along with mentoring, the students will have the opportunity to accompany their mentors on a working day at E-REDES and to take part in a lecture, where mentors will share their experiences and challenges as professionals in the energy sector. The program, which will run until June next year, will provide students with the opportunity to take part in a webinar with three active engineers and visit two of the company’s core business areas.

Rita Oliveira, one of the awarded students, says “it’s a great honour to have been awarded”, stressing that this scholarship “is a recognition of [her] enormous dedication to Computer Science and Engineering and the solid knowledge acquired at Técnico”. Looking forward to the mentoring program she is now part of, Rita Oliveira shares “this type of initiative dispel the idea that engineering is a more masculine profession”. “I find it very disturbing that so few women go into engineering, technology and science fields because then they won’t be part of the major advances”, she says.

The scholarship award ceremony took place on 20 November, at Energias De Portugal headquarters, between 2.30 pm and 5 pm.