INESC TEC part of the Government’s Digital Transition Week schedule

A delegation led by Pedro Siza Vieira, Minister of Economy, State and Digital Transition, visited INESC TEC in March, to learn more about different projects with a strong digital component, in the fields of energy, serious games and virtual reality, industry 4.0 and climate change.

The visit started at the Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles Laboratory, where the delegation was introduced to technologies in the field of artificial intelligence and with application in energy, developed within the scope of the InteGrid project (solutions for intelligent energy grids), as well as to the ePredator technology (for controlling a wastewater tank pumping system.).

At the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), Pedro Siza Vieira and André de Aragão Azevedo, Secretary of State for Digital Transition, were welcomed at the Graphics, Interaction and Games Laboratory, where they got to know some INESC TEC projects on virtual environments and new pedagogical methodologies in the field of IT – namely the BEACONING gamification project, and another project focusing on an augmented book for the introduction to creative writing. The MASSIVE infrastructure was also presented at FEUP.

Other innovative projects led by FEUP and INESC TEC were presented at FEUP’s Noble Amphitheatre, since they represent an effort towards the digital transition that the Government seeks to promote during this term. Among them were the iMan Norte Hub, related to industry 4.0, and the SAIL project, which studies climate change.

At the end of the visit, the Minister expressed his desire to convert digital transformation into a tool at the country’s service. “The economy is based on people’s knowledge, on the training of Portuguese people for digital challenges and on the transformation of companies. Hence, scientific, technological and higher education institutions must be the key to our digital transformation”, said Pedro Siza Vieira, committing himself to guarantee better financing conditions, support for the acquisition of equipment needed for research actions and adequate access to data, thus placing said resources at the service of companies, research and innovation.

This visit was part of the Government’s Digital Week, an initiative that aims to raise awareness of new support measures for Digital Transition, in particular those aimed at promoting technology-based entrepreneurship.