Clara heard the future on the waves and came to Porto looking for it

Clara Gouveia did not grow up “thinking about electrons and electric vehicles”; but deep-down, engineering was “already a certainty”. She left São Miguel – and vastness as far as the eye can see – to study in Porto. In a journey full of challenges addressed with an “open mind”, she recently found another one: becoming part of the new Board of Directors at INESC TEC.  

These are uncharted grounds. The author Fernando Aires described them as follows: “Suddenly, nature may rise in howls, the ground may open, and the constellations may be disturbed”. Clara realised this early on, as a child. Her father – who for several years oversaw the medium-voltage grid on the Azores islands – went on some “adventures” to fix the most “troubled howls” that plunged São Miguel into darkness.

His reports echoed at home, during the family reunions – resonating with a person who no longer feared Mathematics and Physics. “The stories my father told were not specifically directed at me. I listened closely to him, as he addressed my cousins – who already nurtured an interest in engineering. In my case, engineering was already a certainty, but I was unaware of it”, stated Clara Gouveia, electrotechnical engineer.

But engineering could wait. There was still plenty of time: “I did not grow up thinking about electrons or electric vehicles”. The days were filled with football games during recess, piano and ballet lessons. Concerning these activities, the island’s conditions did not interfere: “Growing up in São Miguel was the same as growing up anywhere else”. But Clara left something behind; something she truly misses. The connection to the beaches and the sea – where nature howled more intensely – is always present. Now, 20 years later, the island is not part of her day-to-day life. She no longer feels “quite small”, as when she observed the horizon in Poças.

Leave… to stay

Then came the university, Porto, backpacking times, research, and INESC TEC – in this order. “It was a major change”, she said. She could no longer listen to the sea echoing inside a seashell: engineering – which had been a certainty – guided her to the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).

“I had never been to Porto before. For someone coming from the Azores, it is a major change. I truly missed the green landscapes and the blue sea. It was quite shocking, in fact. This is something that all Azoreans feel when they move away from the islands”, she explained. She had experienced it before. When she took ballet lessons, she came to Lisbon for exams; she travelled with the Ana Cymbron Dance Studio to Macau; and during a summer course in the capital city, she realised that ballet could no longer be an option.

In Porto, everything was different: but engineering is not something she regrets. Clara Gouveia holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from FEUP. She joined a class with 180 people (with only 20 women). “It’s not easy; I felt confident, but I also felt isolated and a deeper awareness of myself,” she recalled. Through music, she gets to know a different environment: “At FEUP, I got involved in the Students’ Association (becoming students’ representative in the Academic Affairs Council), in the Praxe and in the Tuna. Arts were always part of my life, and FEUP’s Tuna Feminina (TUNAFE) was an incredible experience, because it was solely composed of women. However, “there was a certain imbalance”. The differences between the Tuna and the classes were “good”, but also had many “disadvantages”.

Across the country – from substation to substation

After completing the five-year degree, it’s time to make “big decisions”; for instance: returning to the Azores or staying in Porto? The second challenge: to start a career in research or take a shot at the job market? This one was easier: “I wanted to explore, see new things and get my hands dirty”. And so it was. But first, she had to decide: staying or leaving?

“It was a very difficult decision, considering everything it implied for my parents. My brother, who was also studying in Porto, had decided to stay here. If I did the same and stayed in Porto, the house would be empty. I had the opportunity to work in the Azores; but then I thought that if I stayed there, my career would not advance, and things would be harder”, she mentioned.

She completed her thesis and decided to stay in Porto. When Clara said she wanted to get “her hands dirty”, she took it seriously; and so, she began a life on the road, working on several substations, and focusing on renovating said infrastructures. A six-month experience characterised by learning, backpacking and nights spent at different hotels. She returned “to base” during the weekends. And she realised that working on construction sites might not be the best path.

A constantly evolving INESC TEC and a “huge challenge”

She crossed paths with ballet dancing yet again. She was already working at INESC TEC when she decided to go back to ballet lessons; she said that the “passion for dance” – like many other things she brought from the Azores – “had always been part of her”. She uses the same words when talking about her research career, and the opportunity she had to work with Prof. Hélder Leite, within the scope of a research project at FEUP. “I decided it was worth the risk and I returned to FEUP”.

She joined INESC TEC midway through her PhD. In 2011, she joined the Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES), one of INESC TEC 13 research Centres; and she came across an always-evolving Institute: “The Centre welcomed close to 80 people, dedicated to major projects, and a focus on electric vehicles. Today, INESC TEC is quite different; it went through a significant expansion, and it’s always changing – namely considering the way we perceive people and our structure”.

Throughout these 13 years, Clara Gouveia has carried out research work in energy management solutions and digitalisation of the distribution network, while managing research projects, performing consulting activities with national and international companies, and leading the EMS/DMS area and the process of automation of CPES networks. In 2021, she embraced another challenge and joined the Board of Directors of the MARTIFER Group; in addition to the management and administration experience inside a large company, she acquired a new vertical outlook of organisations.

Now, she’s dealing with another challenge: becoming part of the Board of Directors at INESC TEC. She talked about a “huge responsibility” and “major challenges” – and “it would not be funny otherwise”: “Despite not plying a purely executive role, I must face some interesting challenges in certain domains, like collaborating with companies and monitoring cross-cutting projects, for example. I tend to showcase my experience in innovation, contributing and monitoring more closely the major initiatives like the PRR and cross-cutting projects; but also want to learn more, not only in terms of my daily role as member of the Board, but also from other INESC TEC activities”.

“Grasping”

Thinking about her path until this very moment, she recalled the major contributions of the members of the INESC TEC community that allowed her to pave her way: Manuel Matos’ “out-of-the-box” thinking; Luís Seca’s dexterity to coordinate teams, José Manuel Mendonça‘s ability to captivate others, or João Peças Lopes’ bright ideas about what the electrical system of the future should be.

The journey at INESC TEC, and everything that came before, is the result of many opportunities that she grasped, “fearing the unknown, but always with an open mind and strong sense of commitment”. The same way she grasped memories of her time near Lagoa do Fogo, the sunsets with her feet buried in the dark sands of Santa Bárbara beach, and the scent of the ocean – that she misses while she’s in Porto.