Offside
Limelight

Jaime Cardoso, Alexandra Marques and Ricardo Vilaça

Have your say

"When I arrived at FEUP [Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto] about a year and a half ago I created a new R&D group called BRAIN (Biomedical Research And INnovation), which has now joined INESC TEC", João Paulo Cunha (BRAIN)

Free Nonsense

"I was invited to write an article for the “free nonsense” section, and I accepted carefree and with conviction...", Pedro Almeida (DIL-CG)

Gallery of the Uncommon

The Communication Service had access to the justifications that people write on their time clocks whenever they have to skip work or when they arrive late. And some of the explanations provided are pretty bizarre...

Where are you now?

Every month INESC TEC sends highly qualified individuals into the market...

Jobs 4 the Boys & Girls

In this section, the reader may find reference to public announcements made by INESC Porto offering grants, contracts and other opportunities of the same kind.

Biptoon

More scenes of how life goes merrily on...

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Where are you now?

Every month INESC TEC sends highly qualified individuals into the market. These individuals often then go on to occupy important positions in some of the best national and international companies or they opt to form spin-offs. As the best way to perform technology transfer is through individuals, this section is dedicated to collaborators that trained at INESC TEC and now star in other companies and institutions.

Ricardo Sousa

Ricardo Sousa, Institute of Telecommunications, Researcher

  • Year when you began working at INESC TEC and when you left: 2008-2012
  • Unit(s) at INESC TEC where you worked: Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM)
  • Name(s) of project(s) you were involved in: BCCT, BCCT.3d and Semantic PACS

Inevitably, changes occur. However, new and greater challenges await us and that’s what makes us grow. The change for me came in the middle of last year when I started working at the Telecommunications Institute (IT) at the Faculty of Science. To some extent, my work at IT is similar to what I did at INESC Porto, and so the transition was smooth.

Since the work is similar, all my previous INESC Porto experience was helpful. Obviously all the people who worked with me and supported me every day played a crucial role, so I would like to thank all of them.

My view of INESC Porto remains: it is a solid and cohesive institute with a well-defined strategy and a vast human potential. The future of INESC Porto will depend on its management and use of current employees, especially due to the uncertainties brought about by the national and international scene.

Telmo Oliveira, TomTom, Junior Software Developer

  • Year when you began working at INESC TEC and when you left: 2010
  • Unit(s) at INESC TEC where you worked: Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM)
  • Name(s) of project(s) you were involved in: RobVigil and LUL.

I am currently working at TomTom, at one of the company’s centres in Amsterdam. The company is probably best known for their GPS products.

My experience at INESC TEC helped me because of its very international environment, which is precisely what I have now. Despite being in The Netherlands, the official language in the company is English. Secondly, because I was able to develop many technical skills during my stay at INESC TEC, which allowed me to integrate the team easily. I have gained those skills during my dissertation (supervised by Professor Luís Corte-Real) and also during my grant period, with the supervision and help of two researchers at INESC TEC: Pedro Carvalho and Lucian Ciobanu.

The various presentations that were held in the Visual Computing and Machine Intelligence Group were also quite interesting and the debates in the end helped me develop my critical thinking.

I haven’t been away for long, but I believe that external communication has improved and that INESC TEC is now more accessible. I have also noticed that there is now greater contact with the business world.

Cláudio Costa, Alten France (Amadeus IT Group SA), Product Definition Engineer

  • Year when you began working at INESC TEC and when you left: March-July 2009
  • Unit(s) at INESC TEC where you worked: Information and Computer Graphics Systems Unit (USIG)
  • Name(s) of project(s) you were involved in: Palco Principal 3.0

After finishing my project at INESC Porto and my master's thesis at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), I moved to Lisbon where he started working as a consultant at GMS Consulting (now Maksen), a consulting company specialising in the Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunications markets. In parallel, I decided to pursue my interest in the tourism and hospitality industries and completed an Executive Master in Hospitality Management.

After a year I embraced a new challenge, this time internationally. I started working as consultant in the largest IT solutions firm for tourism in Europe (and one of the leaders worldwide) – the Amadeus IT Group in Cote d'Azur, France. Here I was capable of combining both areas, information technology and hospitality, working as a functional analyst.

Even though the work is different, my experience at INESC Porto was very important in the sense that it gave me work habits and responsibilities that academic life does not offer. The fact that at INESC Porto I worked with a multidisciplinary team – including researchers, academics and young entrepreneurs – also allowed me to develop an attitude and ability to analyse problems, something which has been very useful throughout my career.

I confess that I have not followed the evolution of INESC Porto since my departure, also because of the geographical distance, but from what I've read in several online publications, it appears to be in "good health" and that’s great. I hope it continues like that, always on the path of excellence!