In this "Testimonials" we interview Miguel Pereira, winner of MIUP 2024.

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

I'm Miguel Torrinha Pereira, and I'm in my first year of Computer Engineering at Alameda.

I started getting interested in computing in the 9th grade and entered the world of informatics olympiads in the 12th grade.

What did winning this award personally mean to you?

I was expecting my team to place well, as both my teammates, Laura Muliar, a first-year LEIC student, and Tiago Sousa, a second-year LEBiol student, are very experienced. But finishing in 1st place was a surprise.

Winning is nice, but that's not my main goal. I participate in this kind of competitions because I enjoy the experience itself, which is even more fun as a team, and I like talking with other competitors about their experiences, their thoughts on the competition, discussing different problems, and possible solutions. In general, I enjoy the community. Additionally, I find solving problems quite satisfying, especially when the solution is elegant. There are many algorithms and data structures that are incredibly elegant (they form the theoretical foundation for solving problems in computer science competitions).

Why are awards like this important?

In my opinion, this type of competition is important for several reasons.

First, they’re fun! Additionally, they provide a way for people take make the effort and dedicate themselves to stand out in a way that isn’t possible in the regular academic environment, at least in secondary school. Finally, I’ve dedicated a lot of time to training for competitions. I think that if I hadn’t participated, I wouldn’t have spent so much time learning new concepts and honing my problem-solving skills. In a way, I was able to progress and improve more by participating in these competitions. I believe the same happens with other competitors.

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

I believe a good way to attract more students to Computer Science and Engineering at Técnico would be to encourage interest in computing. One way to achieve this is by increasing the number of participants in informatics and computer science competitions. This could be done simply by publicizing more of these competitions, as many people would like to participate but do not, simply because they’re unaware they exist. In just the first month of classes at IST, I met three people who would have participated if they had known they existed.