The Challenge - 2021

Fraunhofer Portugal wishes to motivate and award research of practical utility through the attribution of Prizes and Distinctions to students and researchers that contribute to the philosophy behind Fraunhofer Portugal's vision, ‘A Driving Force in Innovation”, and its mission, to develop ‘Research of Practical Utility.

Objective

The Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge is an idea contest promoted by Fraunhofer Portugal with the objective of motivating and rewarding research of practical utility, through the attribution of a scientific prize to MSc and PhD students and researchers from Portuguese Universities.

The Challenge consists of awarding the best ideas based on graduation theses that were developed having ‘Research of Practical Utility’ in mind. By this we mean ideas based on theses' concepts that clearly demonstrate a concern with the direct applicability of its results in industry and markets.

Participants

The Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge is open to all individual applicants that are/were MSc or PhD Students and Researchers in Portuguese Universities, developing their research activity ideally within the areas of AI, Cyber-Physical Systems, HCI and other related Sciences, Processing Technologies in Agricultural or Environmental Sciences, Food Production and Water Treatment.

Note: Individual applicants with past or present collaboration with Fraunhofer Portugal or with its founding associates, research centres or project partners, are not eligible for participation in the Challenge. This includes past or present employees, thesis students, scholarship students, members of the Jury and their respective direct family.

Ideas

The concepts submitted to contest (Ideas) must be based on an MSc or PhD thesis/work developed by the Participant, resulting in an academic degree from a Portuguese University.

The ideas must be based on theses concluded and graded in the academic year of 2019/2020, that were not submitted in previous editions of the Challenge, or that have been concluded and will be defended and graded in the academic year of 2020/2021, and provided that they have not been submitted in previous editions of the Challenge, nor any other competition sponsored by Fraunhofer Portugal.

The submitted ideas should reflect and comment their potential impact on the scientific areas currently being developed by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS and Fraunhofer Portugal AWAM, namely:

a) Human-Centred Design – user research and understanding of technology users, co-design of technology, and technology assessment;
b) Artificial Intelligence – edge and computer vision, sensor fusion and embedded intelligence, cognitive systems and deep learning, and predictive modelling and recommendation;
c) Cyber-physical systems – embedded electronics, communication and networks, edge and cloud computing, and quality assurance and pre-compliance.
d) Membrane Technology;
e) General Process Engineering;
f) Sensors and sensor grids;
g) Energy Systems.

Deadlines

The Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge 2021 will follow the chronogram below, divided in three rounds:

1^st Round

01/June/2021: beginning of the idea submittal period;

31/Jul/2021: end of the idea submittal period;

06/Aug/2021: send applications to the Jury;

13/Sep/2021: announcement of the 1^st round results (all the eligible applications);

16/Sep/2021: end of the clarification request period.

2^nd Round

14/Sep/2021: beginning of the additional documentation submittal period;

20/Sep/2021: end of the additional documentation submittal period;

24/Sep/2021: send applications to the Jury;

13/Oct/2021: announcement of the 2^nd round results (up to 10 finalists);

17/Oct/2021: end of the clarification request period.

3^rd Round

27/Oct/2021: Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge Closing Event:

> public presentation of the best 2^nd round results;
> announcement of the 3^rd round results – The Winners;

03/Nov/2021: end of the clarification request period.

Jury

Meet the people who are part of this year's jury panel:

Liliana Ferreira

Liliana Ferreira is the director of Fraunhofer Portugal and Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

Liliana Ferreira holds a PhD in Informatics Engineering from the University of Aveiro, and has worked as a researcher and guest researcher in several research groups as Philips Research Eindhoven,the Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering of Aveiro, IBM Research and Development, Ubiquitous Knowledge Lab of the Technical University of Darmstadt and in the Linguistic Department of the University of Tübingen.

Her main research activities are in the area of Human Language Technologies, Information Extraction, Medical Knowledge Representation, and Health Informatics.

Hugo Gamboa

Hugo Gamboa is an Assistant Professor at the Physics Department of the Sciences and Technology Faculty of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and Senior Scientist at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS.

PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, he founded PLUX, a technology-based innovative startup in the field of systems and wireless medical sensors.

Thomas Härtling

Thomas Härtling received both his diploma and PhD in physics from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Since 2010, he has been with the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft leading a group focusing on “Optical testing and nano sensors” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, Dresden, Germany. Also since 2010, he is affiliated with Technische Universität Dresden at which he was appointed professor in 2018 in the field of “Nanotechnology and Nanosensors” in the department of electrical engineering and information technology. His research interests circle around sensor and measurement approaches for process-integrated production monitoring based on nanoscale optical materials and structures with a focus on biotechnology, environmental technology, and agriculture. In 2020 he was appointed director of the Fraunhofer Portugal Center for Smart Agriculture and Water Management AWAM in Vila Real, Portugal.

Awards

The 12^th edition of the Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge will award a total of €9.000 (nine thousand Euros) in scientific prizes.

The scientific prizes are divided into two categories: MSc and PhD theses. Each category has three placements (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd Prize).

In addition, the award winners may also receive the opportunity to join the Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS or the Fraunhofer Portugal AWAM research teams, depending on their overall performance in the Challenge. 

For more specific informations, please consult the Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge 2021 - Terms & Conditions and the Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge 2021 - Contest Presentation. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.