In this "Testimonials" we interview Carlos Felgueiras, awarded with a Prémio de Mérito Celfocus em Engenharia de Software 2023/2024.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey at IST.

Hello, I am Carlos Felgueiras, I am 22 years old, and I completed my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering this year. I am originally from Amadora, but I spent most of my life in the north of Portugal, specifically in the Minho region. In the 2020/21 academic year, I entered the Técnico for the (still) Integrated Master's in Technological Engineering Physics. The following year, I decided to change my degree and switched to the Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering, as I have always had a passion for computers and programming.

What did winning this award personally mean to you?

It was extremely gratifying to be rewarded for the work we did. I felt that we were recognized not only for the work done in the course but also for the extra work we did during the month of June and presented in the final pitch. Receiving an award for our performance in a course is much more memorable than getting a 19 or 20 on the grade sheet.

Why are awards like this important?

I believe that the existence of this type of award ends up encouraging more students to strive and achieve better academic results. Moreover, the fact that the best students are chosen to compete in a final event creates an additional competitive environment. This environment ultimately leads to the development of new ideas that probably would never have been presented in the usual course setting.

In your opinion (aside from awards ;) ), what can and should be done to attract more students to Computer Engineering at Técnico?

Nowadays, high school students are still not very exposed to the world of computer science and programming at school. I believe that Técnico could offer summer courses aimed at young people of that age so they can truly understand what is done in LEIC, as well as gain the basics of programming and other related topics.

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

Try to apply what you learned in the course to personal projects. In the field of computer science, technologies evolve very quickly. Therefore, the course focuses more on abstract ideas rather than concrete implementations. So, I recommend that you undertake projects using these technologies. The knowledge acquired in the course will not only help you learn to use them much more easily, but using them will also help consolidate this knowledge.