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INESC TEC – focusing on quality instead of quantity

Por Dewan Fayzur*

Coming from Bangladesh, with a background in Computer Science and Engineering, INESC TEC gave me an opportunity to apply various computational intelligence techniques to the Power and Energy Systems area. After graduating from United International University (UIU), in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was appointed faculty member in the same university. However, deep down I wanted to work at least for a year in another country where I could experience new challenges apart from the ones I was used to, learn new cultures which are different from my own, understand new people without knowing their names and personalities as opposed to growing up knowing everyone’s names and personalities. The job offer from INESC TEC back in December 2010 gave me most opportunities I was looking for.

I began working at INESC TEC just under four years ago. I remember my first day at INESC TEC like it was yesterday, as it was a very cold day winter day. I started by working with the Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering (CESE) for a national project, where I developed a state-of-the-art model of high-performance hybrid algorithms to coordinate wind-hydro-thermal power production. The model was based on mathematical programming that uses optimisation in order to coordinate different power sources when planning generation. I was able to learn new things and improve my knowledge while working with CESE until mid-2013. It was a great experience for me for that two and half year period. The advantages of working in a collaborative research environment is worth mentioning, and the cooperation of other colleagues, even though they were not always from the same research group, surpassed everything.

After that, in July 2013 I started working at INESC TEC’s Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES). This time I took on a new challenge in CPES and decided to work in a European Union project towards sustainable wind and solar forecasting, which was completely different from my previous work. The work environment at CPES is similar to that of CESE. In terms of work environment, sometimes I cannot distinguish which centre I am working in. In a nutshell, INESC TEC is a family where I found cooperation is the key to everything.  The freedom to work, think and explore new research directions is very much welcome here. I really appreciate the work style and the corporate culture at INESC TEC, as the institution focuses on the quality, rather than on the quantity of work.

Now looking back to the starting point, I believe I have found a way to overcome all the challenges life presented to me, except one: I still haven’t got a good knowledge of the Portuguese language. But I guess now I have much more command of the language comparatively to what I knew in my early times here. While living in Porto, I could see that the city attracts students and visitors from all over the world, and I’ve had the opportunity to get to know people from different cultures. But what stood out for me was the Portuguese cuisine, weather and friendly population, and for those reasons I consider Porto my second home.

*Collaborator at the Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES)