Offside
Lado B

What do Physics and Agriculture have in common?

Corporate

INESC TEC, in the words of our partners – Statement by ATEP - Amkor, by the voice of Rui Pedro Silva.

Limelight

"We want our robots (boats and submarines) to follow our example and to take advantage of their complementarity to reach ambitious goals.", Nuno Cruz (CRAS)

Serious Thinking

"I will have in my curriculum that my first job was in this impressive and prestigious organization. That is such a great honour!", Joana Costa (CESE)

Gallery of the Uncommon

Our Zen state of mind was disturbed a few days ago: an aspiring engineer found a suspicious package in an Electrotechnical bathroom.

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 TEC offering grants, contracts and other opportunities of the same kind.

Biptoon

More scenes of how life goes merrily on...

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Serious Thinking

Serious Thinking

Since 2016 (which isn't all that much but who knows…)

By Joana Costa*

  

For those who don’t know me, my name is Joana. I am in INESC TEC, sitting in the same desk, since November of 2016 right when I started writing my Master thesis. Like many others before me, I surrendered to the dynamism, flexibility and reputation that defines INESC TEC.

I currently do research on information systems, collaborative practices and how to enhance them through (you guessed it!) information systems.

The collaboration is something really important to me. I like to understand what are the best ways to motivate people to work together and share information and knowledge. For that reason, if you try to find me I’m usually at INESC TEC’s entrance sharing knowledge with my cup of coffee (a reusable cup which can be used at the coffee machine for over a year now).

CESE was the perfect place for me to adapt. Everyone likes coffee and most people use the policy “show me yours and I’ll show you mine” when it comes to their work and research. I face a number of very interesting challenges in this field of work, namely the need to try to get more information about managing change and how to motivate my colleagues and superiors to use the information system that is "my baby". This is because, despite not having developed it (because I am not an engineer), I consider myself one of the main driving forces in specifying its characteristics, understanding how it can adapt to working practices and how we can "force" people to use and optimize communication and dissemination in the centre without compromising their tasks and their already busy days.

We are now entering a more stable version of the system, which is already being used in its fullness by various elements of the centre and by all the others for certain tasks and this, honestly, fills me with great pride. In this way, I have a degree of freedom to enter into other projects and understand how different industries and teams work and what problems can arise from collaboration (or the lack of it).

I do not know how much longer I will stay here in the centre or what the future holds for me, but I know that I will have in my curriculum that my first job was in this impressive and prestigious organization. That is such a great honour!

Let me say one more thing: I would like to mention (this has nothing to do with my work) that we are fortunate to work in an institution that allows us to fill reusable water bottles and to wash the cups of coffee in the different pantries that exist in the building (for free).... Please try to reduce the amount of plastic you use. Recycling is not really the answer itself, but rather the reduction of waste! As someone very intelligent (Anita Horan) said "recycling is like plastic stopping for coffee on its way to landfill.”

 

* Collaborator at CESE (Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering)