A delegation led by the President of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is in Portugal on July 16 and 17, 2017. The visit is an initiative of the Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, and the President of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Paulo Ferrão, with the purpose of discussing the future of the partnership between Portugal and a CMU.
Farnam Jahanian, the President of CMU, has a scheduled meeting with Manuel Heitor, the Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and with Paulo Ferrão, the President of FCT.
Also on the agenda are meetings, visits to companies, and an extended debate with representatives of Portuguese universities and research institutions, as well as entrepreneurs, business leaders, and representatives of other public institutions.
“The partnership between CMU and the Portuguese universities has already created a fertile international ecosystem, in capturing talent, in research, and the flow of ideas and people, between academia and companies, that has already resulted in a unique culture that goes from science to innovation. This spirit has given rise, for example, to 11 startups within the scope of the Program, with hundreds of jobs in cutting edge technologies in the country and that have already attracted a very significant foreign investment. The purpose of this visit is to deepen the collaboration between Portugal and CMU as an agent of change, by developing activities that are significantly different from those traditionally associated with the university and which reinforce the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation of Portuguese academics, creating jobs of high quality and wealth in Portugal”, states the director of the partnership at CMU, José M. F. Moura.
The Carnegie Mellon delegation, in addition to the President, Farnam Jahanian, is composed of Manuela Veloso, Head of the Machine Learning Department; Jodi Forlizzi, of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and the School of Computer Science; Raj Rajkumar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of the Metro 21 initiative and the GM Collaborative Research Lab; Rick Siger, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Engagement at CMU; and José M. F. Moura, Director of the CMU Portugal Program at CMU.
July 2017
