The executive team of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Partnership organized the first Orientation Day in Portugal for newly enrolled students in the ICTI Program.
The orientation was held on September 13th 2009, in Aveiro. More than 20 new Master and PhD students were present for this opportunity to get acquainted with the Program, the ICTI Executive teams from Portugal and Carnegie Mellon University, the country, and their peers.
During the morning, at the University of Aveiro, the students attended presentations created by the international students that have been living in Portugal for some months. Mate Boban (PhD in ECE), Eugene Danilkis (MHCI), Cristina Carias (PhD in TCE), Rita Ferreira (PhD in Math), and Sérgio Pequito (PhD in ECE) talked about the peculiarities of the country, the people,and the food, and explained how easy it is to find help and solve problems in Portugal.
Then Sanja Sontor, from ICTI@Portugal, and Lori Spears, from ICTI@CMU, talked about students’ issues including the health System in Portugal and the residence card. Francisco Veloso, professor at Carnegie Mellon, made a presentation on plagiarism and provided valuable advice that will help guide students in the future.
After lunch, all the students were invited to participate in a teambuilding activity called “Pedi-Paper”. Divided in four groups, the teams went into the city on a scavenger hunt equipped with clues to solve eight mystery questions. The winning team was “Mercantéis”, but the most important accomplishment was the excellent teamwork.