On December 3rd, 2025, the CMU Portugal Program hosted its annual student gathering, in both Lisbon and Pittsburgh. The event brought together the Affiliated and Dual Degree Ph.D. students who were joined at CMU by visitors from the Visiting Faculty & Researchers and Visiting Students programs, for a skills workshop, followed by a networking lunch.
In Lisbon, the event gathered 34 Dual and Affiliated students from Universidade de Aveiro, Universidade de Coimbra, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Universidade de Lisboa, Universidade do Minho, and Universidade do Porto. It was a great opportunity for Ph.D. candidates from universities across the country to connect and socialize with their fellow colleagues right before the holiday season.
The event started with a coffee and breakfast reception, followed by a brief introduction and welcoming remarks by João Fumega, CMU Portugal’s Education Officer. Students then divided into two groups for two simultaneous workshops by Chaperone.
“Scientific Writing Skills for Researchers”, led by Ana Osório Oliveira , provided participants with key principles for publishing in international scientific journals, focusing on authorship guidelines and writing skills and “Communicating Data to Non-Experts”, led by Gil Costa, covered essential visual communication concepts, such as storytelling, accuracy, color, type and graphical abstracts, also providing software tools and inspiration resources.
Once the workshops wrapped up, the students gathered to exchange insights about their sessions, followed by a networking lunch.
In Pittsburgh, the CMU Portugal office partnered with the Student Academic Success Center to offer a seminar on “Communicating Data to Non-Experts” taught by Dr. Chanara Andrews-Bickers, Assistant Director of Communication Support Programs. The workshop taught principles for creating graphs and tables that non-experts could understand. Students learned to think of their data as a story that needed to capture the audience’s attention, and were introduced to strategies for minimizing distractions to this story so audiences could quickly grasp the main point.
Participants included 14 Dual and Affiliated PhD students in 5 departments (Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering and Public Policy, Machine Learning and Software and Societal Systems); as well as 7 visiting students and visiting faculty and researchers hosted by 4 departments (Computer Science, Engineering and Public Policy, Robotics and Software and Societal Systems).
After the skills seminar, the cohort gathered for CMU Portugal’s annual holiday luncheon. This offered students and visitors an opportunity to network and connect before the Fall semester comes to a close.
