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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Information Processing and Networking Critical Infrastructures and Risk Assessment Technology, Innovation and Policy Applied Mathematics
About the CMU-Portugal Program

Overview

The Portuguese Government, through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, is entering into a long-term collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) focusing on basic research and education. The objectives, framework and structure of the collaboration were developed during a six month assessment study conducted by CMU between March and September 2006, which concluded that the excellence of the research identified in Portuguese research centers throughout the assessment exercise recommends that CMU foster collaborations with Portuguese institutions. It refers that “…CMU has recognized from the beginning the goals of the Portuguese government and of the Portuguese Universities and Research Institutions, their quality and international reputation, as well as the excellence of their faculty.…we recognize that Universities and Research Institutions in Portugal are of high quality and are internationally recognized, and their faculty includes first-rate researchers. Our assessment also identified structural shortcomings and inadequate practices that constraint the activity of the faculty and limit the impact of these institutions. The success of the CMU-Portugal initiative will depend very much in recognizing these insufficiencies and confronting them directly. The administrations of several Portuguese Schools and Universities that we contacted consistently reassured us that they are prepared to address any identified deficiencies.”

The CMU-Portugal Program is governed by an international virtual institution, the Information and Communication Technologies Institute (ICTI), which is focused on Information and Communication Technologies, with two poles: ICTI@CMU, resident at CMU, and ICTI@Portugal, resident in Portugal. The Institute has a unified administration: a Board of Directors, an External Review Committee, and the directors of each pole.

The Portuguese Government intends to strengthen the country’s knowledge base at an international level through a strategic investment in people, knowledge and ideas and the CMU-Portugal Program has been designed together with other international partnerships with renowned research and education institutions worldwide to contribute adequate funding to support the development of basic research and education and to foster a set of new and diversified institutional partnerships. It should also be noted that the goals of the overall operation include launching and promoting new research-based consortia at a national level and the CMU-Portugal Program contributes for this effort by involving 12 different universities, 8 schools of higher education, together with a large number of research centres and 4 Associated Laboratories. From CMU, there are 6 Colleges, 8 Departments, and 6 Research Centers and Institutes that have direct involvement in this Program.

ICTI and the CMU-Portugal Program holds the promise of great impact on the educational and research system in Portugal. The CMU-Portugal Program has the following overall goals:

  1. Create in Portugal first rate, internationally recognized, education and research programs in areas of great interest to the Portuguese society, including information technology, critical infrastructures, risk assessment, technology, innovation, and policy, as well as selected basic sciences, in particular, applied mathematics;
  2. Promote in Portugal a new generation of technology-based companies, involving telecom operators, software companies and related institutions able to foster new economic activities at an international scale;
  3. Recruit in the national and international arena a large number of students, post-docs, faculty, and researchers to join the education and research programs in Portugal;
  4. Increase significantly the number of advanced degree graduates in a short period in highly relevant areas. Over 5 years, this collaboration will involve directly close to 300 post-graduate students (some 215 at the advanced degree level and 85 at the doctoral level);
  5. Immerse the Portuguese institutions in a symbiotic environment with a leading international research institution;
  6. Leverage the research carried out in Portugal with the research carried out at CMU in the context of these collaborations with a corresponding multiplicative effect;
  7. Promote change and adoption of best practices by Portuguese Universities to make them nimble, to rapidly recognize and respond to new challenges and opportunities;
  8. Establish a productive working relation between Universities and Research Institutions and high technology companies.

The CMU-Portugal Program is organized in three dimensions: advanced degree programs, doctoral programs, and research projects. The advanced degree programs and the doctoral programs are dual degree programs, i.e., the graduates of these programs receive two degrees – one awarded by Carnegie Mellon University and one awarded by the Portuguese Partner University. As such, the programs are structured to satisfy the degree requisites required by Carnegie Mellon University and the Portuguese University awarding the degree. The advanced degree programs are delivered by Carnegie Mellon University in partnership with a Portuguese University.

There are three such programs:

  1. Software Engineering, to be launched in partnership with Universidade de Coimbra, with faculty from other Portuguese Institutions;
  2. Information Technology with focus on Information Security, to be launched by Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, with faculty from other Portuguese Institutions; and
  3. Information Networking, to be launched by Universidade de Aveiro in collaboration with Instituto de Telecomunicações, with faculty from other Portuguese Institutions.

Doctoral degree programs include PhDs in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Language Technology, Mathematics, and in the areas of Technological Change and Innovation and of Engineering and Public Policy. The research projects are in a number of areas and they complement well the educational programs.

The program will also involve CMU and Portuguese faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral associates and research staff. Visiting appointments of faculty at CMU and in Portuguese institutions will enrich the collaboration. Portuguese graduate students will spend time at CMU as visiting students and Portuguese students will be encouraged to apply to CMU for graduate degrees. The collaboration will involve opportunities for a significant number of professionals.

To develop the program in Portuguese institutions it is expected, besides the involvement of their faculty, the establishment of new contracts with invited professors and postdoctoral researchers with recognized merit in international basis, in a way that reinforces their education and research capability.

The program envisages the collaboration of students, researchers and professors of Portuguese institutions with research teams at CMU, where the “ICTI@CMU” will be developed, involving around 40 professors, and 80 graduate students at CMU annually. All CMU professors, researchers and PhD students will have a co-affiliation with a Portuguese Institution.

Industrial affiliates

The Program will involve a new companion effort, “CMU-Portugal Industrial affiliates” with the goal of fostering new research consortia in collaboration with CMU and Portuguese research groups, leading to new frontiers of transatlantic collaboration in science and technology. Companies that, from the start, have a major role in the CMU-Portugal Program include the incumbent operator (i.e., PT: Portugal Telecom, SGPS), major national companies and multinationals operating in Portugal, such as Novabase SGPS S.A. and SIEMENS S.A. – Portugal, respectively, and a set of technology-based firms, including Critical Software S.A., SkySoft Portugal – Software e Tecnologias de Informação S.A., Altitute Software S.A., Priberam Informática Lda. In addition, technology-based firms associated to INOVA-RIA (Associação de Empresas para uma Rede de Inovação em Aveiro) are also committed to participate in the Program.

Leadership

The CMU Program Director is José Moura, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Portuguese Program Director is Victor Barroso, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico.

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