Have your say

INESC TEC and CISTER - reaping the mutual benefits of a union

By Stefan Petters*

Close to four years ago I arrived to the CISTER research unit, here in Porto, with my family tagging along.  At the time, it was a good deal smaller than it is today, but with remarkable visibility and impact in the community. This mark of excellence together with a substantial potential made me transfer from a well-known operating systems group on the other side of the planet, to join the effort in this adventure and subsequently work as a research line leader in the unit. The unit grew substantially in the intervening years, becoming one of the largest and best known research groups in embedded real-time systems in Europe. Then about one and a half years ago, CISTER joined the INESC TEC universe.

This move was a milestone in CISTER's development. Given that I'm by trade an electrical engineer but work in a computer science setting, I really appreciate that the transition opens up more options to collaborate on a wider scale in particular with Portuguese industry. At the same time, CISTER's expertise is something which fit nicely in INESC TEC's portfolio enabling internal collaborations. As with all unions of partners, it takes some time for things to settle, but I believe this has come to pass now and we can finally reap the mutual benefits of said union.

This scope for collaboration is even more important with the current difficult climate, which requires close interaction of a number of players in the research landscape, to tackle bigger and more challenging problems. This value proposition aims to make INESC TEC competitive in the race for international, i.e. mostly European funds. Additionally, its combined voice can be used to be heard in the policy centres of the government, to continue to provide an attractive work environment and hence retain the expertise needed in Portugal. 

*Director of the Research Centre in Real-Time and Embedded Computing Systems (CISTER)