The MIT Portugal Program has announced the winners of a new educational award for professors and instructors who have achieved teaching excellence and contributed significantly to educational innovation as part of the program. The award prizes, each for 3,000 €, are funded by the Luso-American Foundation based in Lisbon. According to MIT Portugal Program leaders, the awards, which are presented to professors in each of the four focus areas of the program, are a way to recognize the innovation and excellence exhibited by many of the instructors during the first full year of the program. "These awards recognize the extraordinary efforts of Portuguese faculty members, including many who are just starting their academic careers, to create educational programs that uphold MIT standards of excellence. In only the first year of offering PhD and advanced study programs, these award winners offered lectures rated by their students as outstanding, and designed innovative programs, often focused on students working together in teams to address real-world problems. These outstanding professors have contributed to educational programs of which Portugal can justly be proud," said Paulo Ferrão, National Director of the MIT Portugal Program in Portugal. The awards were given by the Focus Area leaders from Portugal and MIT based on the following criteria: - Student evaluation rankings,
- Outstanding contributions to the creation and management of innovative educational programs, especially in the first year of the program,
- Development of teaching standards and innovative practices.
The winners of this year’s awards are: Bio-Engineering: Cláudia Alexandra Martins Lobato da Silva, Assistant Professor at IST
Isabel Cristina A. Pereira da Rocha, Assistant Professor at Universidade do Minho EDAM: Ricardo Simões (formerly Universidade do Minho)
Arlindo Silva, Assistant Professor at IST TR SYS: António P. Antunes of FCT-University of Coimbra
Jorge Pinho de Sousa of FEUP, University of Porto Energy: Vítor Leal of FEUP, University of Porto The awards were presented in private ceremonies conducted by the focus areas earlier this month. | 
