08-11-2021
Filipe Santos de Oliveira, Computer Science Engineer by the Department of Computer Science at NOVA School of Science and Technology and a member of the Portuguese Armed Forces, tells in the first person how his participation in the Support Group for the Covid19 Vaccination Task-Force Coordinator in Portugal was.
“The course at NOVA School of Science and Technology was absolutely complete and challenging. The graduation training is extremely comprehensive and allows us to see which areas are preferred and, therefore, in the Master's, choose the best classes in the discipline of choice. The constant encouragement for students to excel, combined with the freedom to develop new ideas and solutions, enables them to develop fundamental skills for the future. The training is demanding and with a strong and essential practical component. But the spirit of cooperation between students and the dedication of the faculty allows them to successfully overcome the difficulties encountered.
The year 2020 will go down in history as the year in which Portugal, like many other countries, was hit by the COVID epidemic19. The emergence of vaccines to combat this disease led the Armed Forces to be called upon to make their contribution. In November 2020, a operational group was set up to prepare a national vaccination plan against COVID 19. At that time, Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo, who belonged to the operational group, requested the integration of soldiers whose training was explicitly in the areas of Mathematics and Computer Science. As follows, the Decision Support Nucleus of the General Staff of the Armed Forces was created, coordinated by Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo as a member of the Task-Force (TF) for the preparation of the Vaccination Plan against COVID-19 in Portugal. I had recently completed the Integrated Masters in Computer Science and, as a result of the acquired skills, I benefited from the privilege of being part of this group. The plan appears in mid-December 2020 and, of course, included a chapter exclusively dedicated to Information Systems, as these would be fundamental for the control of the entire logistical vaccine operation. With the appointment of Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo to the position of TF coordinator in February 2021, I joined the TF Coordinator Support Nucleus.
The knowledge and skills acquired during the course were, for me, decisive. There was a need to develop team projects, overcome procedural problems, outline support systems for logistics operations, define data models, processes between databases and application development. Computer Science has proved to be a determining factor, in a complex process, of indisputable importance, at the service of society, Portugal and the Portuguese.”
Filipe Santos de Oliveira completed the Integrated Master in Computer Science at NOVA School of Science and Technology in November 2020 and is a member of the Army Geospatial Information Center (CIGeoE).
