INESC Porto is visited by the University of Austin

On July 6, INESC Porto was visited by a delegation of the University of Texas, in Austin, made of Ana Boa-Ventura and Arie Stavchansky.

The purpose of this visit was to discuss two proposals of collaboration between the USA and Portugal which, if carried out, will have the support of the State Department of Science, Technology and Higher Education.

One of them regards a programme in advanced Media – MediaGround – in collaboration with the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon (FCT/UNL). The second proposal is relative to the creation of an “entrepreneurial innovation” centre (temporary title) that boosts the connection between universities and industries in the Portuguese entrepreneurial scene.

The Advanced Media’s proposal will consist of Masters degrees and PhDs in which the degrees will be given by the Portuguese universities but in which the classes will be taught in the University of Porto, the FCT/UNL and the University of Texas, in Austin. The proposal has been discussed considering the elaboration of curricular plans and activities for a period of five years.

The writing for the new media and the participant media are among the scientific contents in which the College of Communication of the University of Texas (the partner in this proposal) plays an important role whether at a teaching level or at a production and research level; on the other hand, these pilot areas in new media are still underdeveloped in Portugal.

As for the proposal aiming at the collaboration between the University of Texas in Austin and other Portuguese institutions in the area of the companies’ incubation and of the collaboration Universities-Industries, the strategy to follow seems different from MediaGround’s. In this case, the interest is focused on the possibility of granting spin-offs and start-ups some visibility in the world market and especially in the North American one. Instead of Masters and PhDs in a strong area in our country, this proposal would create a structure of facilitation of occasional interventions of American specialists, namely to ATI - Austin Technology Incubator.

Young Portuguese entrepreneurs would go to Austin for short periods of time. This proposal involves the University of Porto, the Pedro Nunes Institute (Coimbra) and potentially the University of Aveiro which would have an elementary apport, given the historic importance of Aveiro in the strengthening of the communication between Universities and Industry.

Researchers and professors of INESC Porto, of the Faculty of Fine-Arts and of Journalism and Communication Sciences were present in the afternoon session, to address MediaGround.

We highlight the presence of Professor José Azevedo, as well as of André Almeida and Joana Miranda, who are in the area of that degree. Professor Heitor Alvéolos represented the Faculty of Fine Arts and, together with Professor Eurico Carrapatoso, he presented the Masters in Multimedia as an example of success of collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Fine-Arts.

From the USA side, the “entrepreneurial innovation” project is coordinated by  David Gibson of IC2 (Institute for Creativity and Capital) and the MediaGround project by Sharon Strover of the College of Communication, both from the University of Texas in Austin.

José Manuel Mendonça introduced INESC Porto, the University of Porto and the Institute of Resources and Common Initiatives of the University of Porto. He also referred the activities he is in charge of.
Artur Pimenta Alves was present in both sessions and without him this meeting would have never happened.
José Manuel Mendonça will represent the University of Porto in the next phase, which will involve the presence of a Portuguese Committee in Austin, this month.