On Wednesday, May 8th, CMU Portugal at CMU hosted by NOVA Medical School Professors Helena Canhão, Dean; João Conde, Vice-Dean for Research; and Pedro Oliveira, Dean, and Leid Zejnilovic, Director, Data Science Knowledge Center from the NOVA School of Business and Economics.
The group visited Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to explore partnerships with CMU’s Tepper School of Business and Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy strengthened its collaboration with the CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator, a recently launched initiative between two leading Portuguese Academic Institutions—NOVA Medical School and the Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE)—under the CMU Portugal program.
Leid Zejnilovic, João Conde, Helena Canhão, José M.F. Moura, and Pedro Oliveira
Under the CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator, participants will engage in various activities, including workshops, product development support, mentoring, networking, investor presentations, expansion into the American market, corporate partnerships, and sustainability strategies. The goal is further to accelerate the growth of startups in the Portuguese ecosystem, focusing on applying knowledge in artificial intelligence, supported by CMU expertise, including a Patient Innovation Bootcamp where participants will visit and develop their businesses at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Throughout the visit the group engaged in fruitful discussions with the Tepper School of Business’ Dean Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou; Tad Brinkerhoff, Assistant Dean, Masters Programs; Willem-Jan van Hoeve (Ph.D.), Senior Associate Dean, Education; Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research; and Alan Montgomery (Ph.D.), Head, Ph.D. Program; Professor of Marketing.
The Patient Innovation delegation at CMU Tepper School of Business
Next, Kit Needham, Assistant Dean for Entrepreneurship Initiatives; and Director of Project Olympus spoke with the group on the work of Project Olympus, CMU’s internal incubator to assist with turning cutting-edge research and great ideas into startups.
Lastly, the group met with Professors of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, including Beibei Li, Professor of IT and management; Rema Padman, Trustee Professor of Management Science and healthcare Informatics; and Ananya Sen, Assistant Professor of Information Technology and Management.
According to Pedro Oliveira, Dean of the NOVA School of Business and Economics, “the visit and meeting at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business was very productive and promising. The Tepper School is a top business school with a strong focus on AI, data analytics and areas that are highly relevant for our schools at Nova and partnerships. In the meeting with Dean Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou we explored the possible collaborations.”
Helena Canhão, dean of the Nova Medical School, reflected on the visit’s positive impact “The visit strengthened the collaboration with CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator and promoted collaborations with Professors at Heinz College who are developing exciting projects that apply to healthcare domains.”
