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What does the future hold for Portugal’s cities?  Will national policies spark a renewed economy? Will population and economic growth stagnate?  And given the possible scenarios of the future, what strategies should cities adopt today?

The MIT-Portugal Program’s Strategic Options for Integrating Transportation Innovations and Urban Revitalization (SOTUR) team raised these questions on July 9^th, 2010, as it convened a group of Portuguese engineers, architects, politicians, and other experts in Lisbon to continue ongoing discussions of urban and transportation planning and policy in Portugal.  In the last of three stakeholder workshops, the research team presented the results of two-plus years of work in urban systems modeling, developed under the SOTUR project, which aims to identify possibilities for leveraging the land use-transportation interactions to enhance urban revitalization in Portuguese cities.

The analysis presented built on the ideas developed during the previous SOTUR stakeholder workshops, which began early this year. The series of three workshops was designed to collaboratively develop scenarios of the future; identify possible intervention measures; and, ultimately, better link the integrated urban development-transport models developed by the SOTUR team with local reality and stakeholders.  In the first two workshops (held in Coimbra in January and Porto in March), participants helped to construct three potential future scenarios—subsequently named “New Dynamics,” “Social Crisis,” and “Technology as a Way of Development.”  The research team used these narratives of the future as the background parameters in applying integrated quantitative models, the methodology and results of which were presented last Friday.

The SOTUR team hoped that, after seeing the demonstration of modeling techniques, stakeholders would consider how the methods might benefit their organizations and, more generally, planning in the country.

Executives from leading energy companies and initiatives in Portugal brought their know-how about their projects and about the energy market to a series of discussions with MPP Sustainable Energy Systems students called the Windows on Companies Sessions, held weekly at the MPP offices in TagusPark from June 17-July 2.

João Nuno Mendes of GALP presents to SES students

The main objective of the Windows on Companies sessions was to provide MIT Portugal energy students new insights from business leaders about the main challenges being faced by energy companies, both in terms of technology and engineering systems, and how new or existing research areas can tackle them within a business environment.

The first session, conducted by António Vidigal, showcased the latest developments from EDP Inovação in technologies associated with the exploration and development of renewable energy resources. Rogério da Ponte, representing energy services company SelfEnergy, talked about the view of a medium sized company in the energy sector that is growing rapidly due, in part, to its bet on a innovative business model and internationalization.

João Nuno Mendes explained how Galp is addressing new ways to approach the consumer, and the services it is offering. Alexandre Alves, from RPP Solar, talked about Portugal’s largest current private investment in the energy sector – the Integrated Project of Solar Energy – in Abrantes, in central Portugal, and the challenges and opportunities that arise from this investment.

As an effort to create new understandings and synergies among students and corporate leaders that can lead to career opportunities and research links, the Sustainable Energy Systems students appreciated the Windows on Companies sessions. It will be repeated in Fall 2010 and subsequently as the MIT Portugal Program seeks to deepen the connection among its students and industrial partners.

A new research partnership proposed between MIT Portugal and Continental Mabor and 96 doctoral students’ posters were two highlights of the MIT Portugal Program’s strong presence at this year’s edition of Ciência, an annual conference that offers an “encounter with science and technology.”

The Ciência 2010 conference was held July 4-7, 2010, at the Lisbon Centro de Congressos, organized by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) and the Council of Associated Laboratories (CLA) in association with Ciência Viva.

Luis Rocha (UMinho) presents on his "smart stent" project

This year’s edition was marked by the participation of a record 2500 participants, 150 research units, more than 400 PhD posters, and many university representatives and elected officials. It gathered not only students and faculty but also around 60 companies and research centers, allowing the program to address a wide variety of thematic areas and to foster symbiosis among companies, universities and research centers.

The final presentations of the third edition of MIT-Portugal Bio-innovation teams (BioTeams) took place July 7, 2010, in a public session within the Ciência 2010 Program in Lisbon. BioTeams is a mandatory course of the advanced program in Bioengineering Systems of the MIT Portugal Program, with very particular characteristics. During a full semester the students are given real technologies, selected from Portuguese labs, and are asked to engage in a search to evaluate and exploit their market potential.

As real projects, the BioTeams ideas and assumptions have to be validated through contacts with worldwide professionals and other stakeholders. This makes the interview process very intense and provides the students with a sound perception of the business reality. These contacts take place globally, and the students have the opportunity to develop their own networks that include Portuguese companies, such as MIT-Portugal Program affiliates and others. During the semester, the students visited several entities, including technological parks such as BioCant, Spinpark, CITEVE and CENTI, and companies such as Biotempo, Stremmaters and GenIBet. At the final presentations, Pedro Pissarra (Biotecnol) and Raquel Fortunato (GenIbet) presented their business experiences and guests from different business fields were invited to discuss the projects with the students.

BioTeams student project team members at Ciência 2010

The projects developed in this edition were diverse including the use of new biomaterials, development of new bioprocesses and state of the art bioinformatics systems. The technologies proposed for the BioTeams were developed at laboratories from University of Minho, Universidade Nova Lisbon (ITQB and FCT) and Instituto Superior Técnico.