21.227 – this was the number of participants in the Mostra U.Porto, which took place at the Pavilhão Multiusos in Gondomar, between April 20 and 23. Dedicated to students, this is the annual event of the University of Porto (UP), focusing on presenting the institution’s academic and research activities – this year under the motto “Prepare the future, know the present”. As in previous editions, INESC TEC participated in this event.
Over four days, students, teachers, researchers, and staff of the UP community presented their teaching and research works, promoting several interactive activities and demonstrating different services and technologies.
INESC TEC joined this initiative by presenting some of the institution’s robotic technologies in the industrial and maritime sectors, in order to motivate and engage with younger STEM students – by showing the work developed by R&D institutions dedicated to this area. Several researchers from the robotics, computer science and photonics areas represented INESCTEC at the event – including members of the Board of Directors; over four days, they presented INESC TEC and demonstrated some of the technologies developed by the institution.
Concerning the technologies showcased by INESC TEC at the event, it’s important to mention an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) capable of performing the analysis of civil infrastructures under constant maintenance, towards ensuring the safety and durability of assets and reducing the preservation costs, through a more effective management of intervention procedures. This technology was presented by researcher from the Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS).
The researcher from the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS) presented DART, an autonomous underwater vehicle that aims to collect deep-sea data and capable of submerging up to 4000 metres. Together with the navigation buoys and the docking station, the main advantage of this underwater robot is the fact that no human operator is needed; hence, it can support research teams in many tasks, namely those that are more complex and dangerous to people.
António de Sousa Pereira, Rector of the University of Porto, and Marco Martins, President of Gondomar City Hall, visited the event during the morning of April 21, emphasising the organisation’s “tremendous job” and the “added effort in the presentation of appealing stands”.
Over 4.900 elementary and high school students from 71 schools visited the Mostra, as well as hundreds of families and other participants who wished to know more about higher education and the research activities carried out by the U.Porto community. The event also featured more than 7.000 visitors online, with the event broadcast live throughout the four days.
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