FEUP in brief

Texts: Liliana Carvalho

Founded in 1926, the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP) is the largest of the 14 faculties that constitute the University of Porto. With its origins in the Polytechnic Academy, created in 1837, FEUP is a leading institution of international repute, whose achievements in research and teaching have led to its current position at the forefront of engineering schools.

FEUP’s claim to be an international School of Engineering is not simply due to the ever-increasing number of foreign students who choose it as their destination every year; nor is it merely a result of the many foreign researchers who enrich the scientific work carried out by the Faculty and bring a multicultural atmosphere to the campus. Important though this international community is, the main thrust of internationalization at FEUP comes from the cooperative relations that it maintains with businesses and prestigious higher education institutions in Europe and the rest of the world, with special emphasis on the USA and Brazil. This collaboration covers aspects as diverse as the establishment of joint degrees, applied research, professional training and mobility programmes for students and staff.

FEUP has come to expand its basis of cooperation, also participating in major international networks and prestigious engineering associations such as CESAER - Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research.

Global recognition of FEUP’s quality can also be seen in the high position it occupies in the most respected international Engineering rankings. This, along with the excellent comprehensive education it offers, provides its students with outstanding advantages in both the national and worldwide labor markets.

For the past 183 years FEUP has played a leading institutional role in the economic development of the city, the region and the country, both in terms of the quality of its education, producing engineers of world-class standard, and the scientific and technological breakthroughs that it has made, which have contributed to global scientific development, industrial progress and social well-being.

A DYNAMIC ATMOSPHERE

FEUP is located in the Asprela Pole of the University of Porto, an area designated as the Porto Innovation District. Concentrated within one square kilometre, this area is

Photo: Luís Ferraz

constituted not only by several faculties of the University of Porto and schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, but also by private universities, a central teaching hospital, an institute of oncology and various national and international research institutes. With 50,000 talented people working here, it is primarily a technology hub, where the strong presence of engineering technologies, health sciences and entrepreneurship lend considerable impetus to the process of innovation.

The Porto Innovation District is also where the core of the University of Porto’s Science and Technology Park (UPTEC) is located. UPTEC is a structure which brings together over two hundred projects, including startups, innovation centres, anchor companies and entrepreneurial projects. In 2013, UPTEC was recognized with the Regio Stars Award in the category “Smart Growth”, organized by the European Commission - the first time a Portuguese university had received an award for regional development projects at European level.

All in all, the Porto Innovation District is brimming with the entrepreneurial spirit and multidisciplinary research that have allowed FEUP to break new ground in which to operate and thus broaden its expertise. Today, FEUP houses the facilities of the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) and the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC).