 João Nuno Mendes of GALP addresses the Symposium Bearing witness to the maturity and stature of the MIT Portugal Program within the research and development landscape in Portugal, the Second Annual MIT Portugal Conference was held on September 28, 2010, at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, attracting more than 300 participants including students, researchers, and industry leaders. The session featured the presence of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Mariano Gago, and several business leaders from established and startup Portuguese engineering companies, such as Galp, EDP, TMG, Novabase, Mota-Engil and Plux, that presented examples of several applied research projects being developed in collaboration between companies, Portuguese Universities and MIT in 3 main targeted application areas for research, namely: Electric Mobility, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, and Intelligent Systems of Energy and Transportation applied to urban environments. The need to reinforce the industry-university linkage was a key message from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education in the conference, as cited in the many press notices of the event. José Marques dos Santos, Rector of the University of Porto, reinforced the added value that the international partnerships and in particular the MIT Portugal Program, are bringing to the Portuguese universities by the capacity of working together and to the economy as a whole. The rector also emphasized the involvement of the industry in research projects and reinforced the need of more technological companies that may contribute to the change of the Portuguese economic paradigm. MIT Prof. Ed Crawley, the keynote speaker, emphasized the role of system thinking in identifying "emergent" qualities and phenomena that occur with changes to complex systems. The value of this type of thinking, Prof. Crawley stated, was in being able to see what happens when all the diverse pieces of such complex systems as political-cultural interactions and major technical projects come together. In the field of Electric Mobility panelists discussed ongoing projects in the area of intelligent networks that will facilitate the future use of electrical vehicles with intelligent batteries, buying and selling electric energy to the distribution network and allowing a greater incorporation of renewable energies by the effect of storage. In this context, the panelists pointed out the importance of cross-cutting collaborative research, new concepts and business models, the internationalization of differentiated solutions, products and services, and the development of intellectual leadership. Portugal is therefore considered to be a test bed for conceiving, developing and testing novel sustainable mobility solutions, exploring intelligent integration with energy network and transportation systems. As for the area of Stem Cells and New Medical Devices, results were presented of current projects concerning the treatment of bone and heart illnesses, as well as developmental of new medical devices applied to different pathologies. The development of orthosis to aid individuals with reduced mobility and neuromuscular disabilities of the locomotion apparatus was presented by Hugo Gamboa, CEO of PLUX, a grassroots technological new company. Dava Newman of MIT, who has been particularly associated with the development of the next-generation BioSuit for astronauts, presented key lines of further development in the bioengineering field. In the session relating to Intelligent Systems of Energy and Transportation, and its application to urban areas, recent results were discussed regarding the integration of renewable energies with buildings and intelligent systems of transportation. Prof. Carlos Silva presented new results associated with the Green Islands project, developed with the support of the Azores Regional Government, with the objective of reducing the consumption of fossil fuels in the production of electricity, transportation and other services in the region. António Vidigal, CEO of EDP Innovation, discussed the main investigation areas in the development strategy of EDP, and Pedro Montalvão, Director of Mota-Engil Energia S.A, focused on how Mota-Engil addresses the energy consumption of buildings, suggesting alternatives for their reduction.
The final session included comments by Rogério Carapuça, Chairman of Novabase, who mentioned university-company cooperation cases within international partnerships with capacity of qualifying Portuguese companies to internationalize and increase their penetration in worldwide emerging markets. The Conference was closed by the Secretary of State for Energy and Innovation, Carlos Zorrinho, and by the Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, who highlighted MPP's contribution to creating networks between universities, companies and research units, enhancing the creation of critical mass able to promote the international affirmation of Portuguese companies and to strengthen the Portuguese scientific and technological skills at a global scale. Posters, Publications Evidence Collaborative Research ResultsFor the 2nd Annual Conference around 150 scientific posters were prepared by Doctoral students involved in the Program covering the main focus areas of the conference. In addition three publications were produced, listed below as available downloads:  2010 MIT Portugal Brochure: Highlighting Collaborative Research
2010 Second Annual Conference Proceedings 2010 MIT Portugal Doctoral Student Profiles |
