The Técnico Lisboa event - PhD Open Days - completed a decade, with a thunderous success!

This year the PhD Open Days event completed a decade, with a thunderous success as we are used to. An event that was born in 2015, an initiative of Professor Luís Oliveira e Silva, President of the Scientific Council at that time, that challenged me to implement this outstanding event, together with the Vice-President of the CC at the time, Professor Leonel Sousa.

In 2018, the PhD Open Days was recognized as Good Practice, and with the change of the Vice-President of the CC, I started organizing the event with Professor Miguel Ayala Botto. Over the years, we had also the support of several professors who were part of the organizing committee, whom I would like to thank for all their support, as well as my team – the Post-Graduation Area. With the appointment of the Técnico Doctoral School, of which, I am a member of the board, the event began to be organized by this key component of Técnico Lisboa.

An event created for PhD students, providing a unique opportunity for over a thousand PhD students to connect, interact and present their research to the academic community, industry professionals and alumni. Featuring a permanent poster exhibition, showcasing the latest research carried out by PhD students, this year they had the privilege of the visit of Luís Montenegro - Prime Minister, Fernando Alexandre - Minister of Education, Science and Innovation and Pedro Reis - Minister of Economy.

The event included debates on cutting-edge scientific topics, student discussions about their PhD journeys, an alumni session where they shared their inspiring professional trajectories, the always expected Pitch competition and this year a session organized by the Técnico PhD Student Hub.

The event ended with the traditional “Out of the Box” session, this year with Mr. António Raminhos, well-known Portuguese comedian, followed by a casual Porto de Honra.

At the present time, this event is recognized by the entire academic community at Técnico Lisboa and even beyond its borders, leaving me very proud and with the feeling of mission accomplished. On my trips/missions, when I mention that we do every year an event of this magnitude for PhD students, the partners are very impressed and curious aiming for more information. It was a long journey and sometimes a wild road to the acceptance of the event, but with perseverance and hard work, it led to the culmination of its unreserved acceptance and the excellency of the event.