8th edition of the Lab2Market programme honours project developed by Técnico researchers for reducing food waste
The five finalist teams of the 8th edition of the Lab2Market programme took the stage of the Técnico Congress Centre, at Alameda campus, on 5 June, to present the results of their work. After being assessed by the jury, the FreshIST team won the 2nd edition of the António Brandão Vasconcelos Award. The project involves a method that filters ethylene to prevent fruit and vegetables from ripening prematurely during transport and storage, thus combating food waste. The team is made up of Lívia Dias, Laura Esteves and Ricardo Ferreira, Técnico researchers working on projects at Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE).
In his opening remarks, Rogério Colaço, president of Técnico, thanked NTT Data and i-Deals, ‘two long-standing partners’, and stressed that the programme ‘aims to add value to the emerging ideas in the laboratory, within academic activity or in conversations between Técnico students’. He referred to Eduardo, a 12th-year student he had met minutes before the event and was now in the audience, and cited Lab2Market as one of the many activities the school offers its students to encourage them to develop projects of interest alongside their academic life. He also recalled the launch of IST-SAT 1, the first nanosatellite in the CubeSat format entirely developed in Portugal (and made by Técnico students), scheduled for 9 July.
The António Brandão Vasconcelos Award honours a Técnico alumnus and founder of NTT Data which, in collaboration with i-Deals, offered consultancy training to the finalists of this year’s Lab2Market. Lívia Dias, a researcher at CQE and a member of the winning team, thanked the programme mentors and professors who helped them throughout the project process. ‘This award is for the whole team’, she emphasised.
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