14-03-2019
The 7th edition of the curricular unit "Entrepreneurship" ended with the awarding of prizes to the four winning projects.
During five weeks, 1000 students were trained with entrepreneurial skills and were guided to turn a technological idea into a business idea. In total, 206 innovative proposals were created, but only 12 came to the stage of the FCT NOVA Main Auditorium on February 22.
The audience of almost 500 people mixed colleagues, teachers, department presidents and representatives of 50 companies that evaluated the students' performance. In the end there were four teams that conquered these FCT sharktanks.
The first prize, which was worth a week in the European Innovation Academy program to the five elements, went to MIP-IT. A project with a focus on public health and that intends to carry out a selective cleaning of antibiotics present in the water, a problem that no treatment solution solves.
Two teams were worthy of second place. Leafshield, which sold its proposal for a monitoring and alerting mechanism for agriculture and forest areas using sensors, shared the stage with Smart Swab. The latter wants to ensure that no more compresses are lost in surgeries.
In third position was the group Sensory Sock. Students propose a sensory sock that facilitates the creation of denture molds and monitors the patient.
The course unit "Entrepreneurship", coordinated by Professor António Grilo, is part of the "Curricular Profile", which introduced a very innovative vision of the teaching of Sciences and Engineering. Created by the hand of the now FCT NOVA Director, Virgílio Cruz Machado, has already trained more than 7000 students with the necessary skills for employability. As stated by Rui Ferreira, Vice-President of Portugal Ventures, "This initiative is excellent and necessary for the country. It is that entrepreneurship and innovation are the driving forces of a vibrant economy. "Isabel Neves, President of BA Club Lisboa and investor" Shark Tank Portugal "added," Even if you do not leave the company's own CEOS, these lessons are important and make a difference. When they confront the labor market, this initiative is therefore very commendable. "
