Polytechnic of Leiria and CERN – Cooperation Protocol

The Polytechnic of Leiria and CERN – European Organization for Nuclear Research signed, October 28, an agreement that will encouraging science and technology cooperation. The ceremony took place at the Biblioteca José Saramago and was signed by Nuno Mangas, chairman of Polytechnic of Leiria and Miguel Jimenez, director of the Department of CERN Technology.

Paulo Ferrão, President of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), who was at this event, admitted the importance of polytechnics institutions and was impressed with the cooperation involving the Polytechnic of Leiria and CERN, stating that “one can only be ahead of others if we are associated with the best.”

Triumph of the Internship students from Polytechnic of Leiria at CERN

This agreement follows the recognized work of master’s students in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering – Mobile Computing from the Technology and Management School (ESTG) first as Internship students and then later welcomed as collaborators. The purpose of the agreement is to encourage the scientific and technological cooperation existing between the two institutions. Bachelor and master students, would undertake their final course assignment oriented by both institutions working and solving technical problems identified by CERN.

This cooperation can also promote the emergence of joint research projects that involve teachers, master’s students and researchers of Polytechnic of Leiria, which thus can be associated to CERN. The research can address areas such information technology, communications, databases, control and industrial automation, industrial systems, distributed systems or infrastructure.

Founded in 1954, CERN is a laboratory located on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. CERN is one of the largest and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. This institution has the largest and most powerful particle accelerator world, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), used to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. CERN was one of the first organizations at European level which currently has 22 member states, among which includes Portugal.