More than 200 people attended the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program Diploma Ceremony held on February 22, 2010 in Coimbra, Portugal. This event celebrated the achievements of the sixty dual degree Pro-fessional Master’s graduates of December 2008 and December 2009.
With the sound of classical music and an audience that included faculty, staff, family, and friends, the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal program graduates received their diplomas from the rector of the Portuguese university that hosted them, and from the President of Carnegie Mellon University. The four Professional Master of Science degrees awarded included Information Networking (Carnegie Mellon University and Universidade de Aveiro); Information Technology-Information Security (Carnegie Mellon University and Universidade de Lisboa); Human-Computer Interaction (Carnegie Mellon University and Universidade da Madeira), and Software Engineering (Carnegie Mellon University and Universidade de Coimbra).
In his welcoming remarks, José M.F. Moura, ICTI@CMU director, emphasized the boldness of the sixty graduates who “believed and won the challenge of doing a dual Professional Master’s degree program.” The student speaker, Nuno Seixas, earned his degree in Software Engineering, stated that “besides being extremely demanding, the Professional Master’s were also technically complete, and always focused on applying knowledge to problem solving for the industry. By graduating from these programs, we got the technical knowledge, but also a new way of looking into problems, a new way of finding solutions. Overall, we got a whole new way of thinking and working. This knowledge is perhaps the most valuable that we could get, and it can be applied throughout our entire career, no matter what kind of work we might be doing.”
“Now we are officially agents of change,” said Nuno Seixas.
The keynote speech was given by Alfredo Baptista, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Portugal Telecom, who shared his professional and personal reflections. Baptista emphasized that “with work, perseverance and humility it is always possible to get where we want.” He explained the role of Portugal Telecom in the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program, which aims “to contribute to the advancement of technology and innovation.”
“I am certain that the success of these professionals will con-tribute to the accomplishment of companies in which they work, and also to the success of Portugal,” said Alfredo Baptista, CTO of Portugal Telecom.
During the ceremony, Portuguese rectors, their representatives, and the president of Carnegie Mellon University spoke about the importance of the dual degree Professional Master’s programs to their universities, and to the economic development of Portugal.
The ceremony was attended the Portuguese rectors of the Universidade de Lisboa and Universidade de Coimbra, António Sampaio da Nóvoa and Fernando Seabra Santos. Also, the Vice-Rector of the Universidade de Aveiro, José Fernando Mendes, a Representative of the Universidade da Madeira, Nuno Nunes, the President of Carnegie Mellon University, Jared Cohon, and the directors of ICTI@CMU and ICTI@Portugal, José M.F. Moura and João Barros. The Professional Master’s Program Coordinators from the Portuguese universities and from Carnegie Mellon, along with faculty, staff, family members of the graduates, and friends were also in attendance to witness this festive event.
March 2010
