Knowledge Networks News 3rd MIT – Portugal Program Governing Committee Meeting 3rd MIT – Portugal Program Governing Committee Meeting
- 10/10/2007
The MIT – Portugal Program Governing Committee will meet for the 3rd time on 10th October 2007, one day before the first anniversary of this program’s launch, to evaluate the report on the first year of activities and to discuss plans for the coming year’s activities.
This Governing Committee is chaired by the President of the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), João Sentieiro, and also includes the MIT Chancellor, Phil Clay, the former MIT Engineering School Dean, Tom Magnanti, the President of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luis Magalhães, and the respective directors of the program at MIT and in Portugal, Dan Roos and Paulo Ferrão.
The MIT – Portugal Program was launched on 11th October 2007 under the Partnerships for the Future scheme as part of the Commitment to Science for Portugal's Future initiative.
Work carried out in the first year involved roughly 60 MIT professors, including one Nobel Prize winner and three Institute Professors (distinction obtained by only 14 of approximately 1000 professors at MIT) and 180 professors and researcher from 7 Portuguese universities and 11 research institutions involved in the program.
The following aspects from the first year of activities are of note:
- Joint PhD programs and other post-graduate programs involving different Portuguese university institutions were implemented for the first time ever in Portugal. 7 programs are operating onto which approximately 130 students have already been admitted, some of whom are foreign. These programs include 4 PhD programs in the following fields: Bioengineering Systems,Leaders for Technical Industries, Sustainable Energy Systems and Transportation Systems. The 3 other post-graduate programs are as follows: Leaders in Transportation, Sustainable Energy Systems and Technology Management Enterprise.
- The new post-graduate training programs created during the first year of implementation of the MIT – Portugal Program already encompass approximately 130 students and have boosted the ability of Portuguese institutions to attract students from different countries, namely from Brazil, Finland, Greece, Italy, Moldova and Romania.
- The Engineering Systems area has been launched in Portugal, focussing especially on complex processes associated with industrial production systems, sustainable energy systems, bio-engineering systems and transport systems.
- Projects of interest to the Portuguese entrepreneurial fabric have been launched, namely for the roughly 20 companies in the automotive and energy sectors that are affiliated to the program.
- AGNI inc. has recently invested in Portugal, which was planned in close collaboration with the MIT-Portugal Program, to develop high-tech products, focussing particularly on fuel cell battery design and development, with applications in:
- High energy efficiency technologies for harnessing endogenous and renewable potential (for example, landfill biogas)
- Microgeneration technologies, which meet demand by integrating distributed production technologies in networks that link up with centralised production.
- Car propulsion systems.
This investment also includes the creation of a R&D centre for which AGNI Inc. plans to hire approximately 40 PhD holders, along with roughly 30 more graduates and masters holders for the manufacturing unit.
- The Ciência Viva Agency has also become affiliated to the MIT – Portugal Program, ensuring that the Program will reach the youngest sections of the population.
For more information go to the MIT - Portugal Program website.