In this edition of Shine Bytes, we interview Teresa Correia, awarded one of the E-REDES Top Women Scholarships in 2023.

Tell us a little about yourself and your journey at IST

I am 22 years old, from Lisbon, and I really enjoy reading and watching movies. I chose the Computer Engineering and Informatics degree at the end of high school as my first choice, even though until the beginning of the 12th grade, I had never considered any area within engineering. When it came time to choose master's courses, as I still didn't know which specific areas I wanted to pursue, I chose two that connected my interests in general: Distributed Systems and Interaction and Visualization. I am now in the second year of my master's degree, working on my thesis in the field of information visualization.

What did winning this award personally mean to you?

Receiving the award was very rewarding, and I would say it is recognition of the effort over these years. It also means that during this next mentoring year, I will get to know the professional life at E-Redes better and will certainly improve certain soft skills.

Why are awards like this important?

I think they are important because they celebrate women in STEM, who in most cases are a minority. Perhaps the existence of these awards is a greater incentive for women to consider a possible career path in engineering.

In your opinion (aside from awards ;) ), what can and should be done to attract more women to science?

Perhaps sharing testimonials from women in these engineering areas where they explore what they work on and the difficulties they have faced. This is an attempt to bring the reality of these women a little closer to those who are about to choose what to pursue after high school, as they may not always know what kind of work they can do by choosing a path in these areas.

Do you have any advice for future female students in Computer Science and Engineering at Técnico?

I would say that resilience is one of the best characteristics they can have. Don't be afraid to seek help and ask questions both from professors and students from previous years, and don't let too much “unstudied” topics accumulate until exam time.