Asneira Livre

“The Portugal chapter”

Por Şenay Sadic*

“The Portugal chapter” of my life started three years ago, when I moved to Lisbon aiming to start my PhD studies at the MIT Portugal program. The interdisciplinary structure of my PhD program also brought some uncertainties which made me look for projects and institutes I could possibly get involved with. Luckily, my questions were answered when I had a meeting with my current supervisor, Prof. Jorge Pinho de Sousa and I learned about INESC TEC.

In the following year, I got assigned my PhD thesis project that is associated with the UESP unit at INESC TEC and moved from Lisbon to Porto. Coming from a background with “a bachelor in management engineering, a master in industrial engineering and three years of work experience as a research assistant at Istanbul Technical University, UESP was the perfect fit for me. INESC TEC creates a bridge between research and industry, which makes research more down to earth and industry more cutting edge. It is a collaboration in which everyone wins. I believe that every bit of research has lots of efforts behind and should be taken advantage of in practical terms, even if it is about retrieving the “knowledge of how not to do it”!

Another characteristic that makes INESC TEC interesting for me is the variety of projects and the people popping up every week at some table in the office! There is always a flow in the work force and the content of projects, and this characteristic makes the work environment very dynamic and interesting.

Finally I want to talk a little about my relationship with Porto, which was love at first sight! In the summer of 2008, when I was a tourist visiting Porto with no possible plans to move, I remember walking by the river and suddenly saying “I could live here”. It took a year for me to move to Portugal and ending up in Porto!

The city smells like history, but once you go to the Clérigos at night, you know are in the 21st century! Porto is a small cozy city where one can always find some interesting activities or events to follow, new restaurants to discover and some more vinho verde to drink! Even if the entire city was asleep, the ocean would welcome you with great views. As a person coming from a city like Istanbul with a population of 15 million people, I learned from Porto that you don’t need to endure all the traffic and the crowd to have a happy active life. For sure, this is an advice I will follow while choosing my life path and possible cities to live in.

Where you spend your late 20s is, I believe, a decision which will affect your future significantly. Now I know that three years ago I made a big and brave decision, which now I can also say was a smart one.  Living in Portugal for me was much more than doing a PhD. I learned a lot about life and met people from all around the world. I can’t put these things on my CV, but they fit greatly to my personality. Obrigada Portugal!

*Colaboradora na Unidade de Engenharia de Sistemas de Produção (UESP)