Instituto Superior Técnico congratulates Luis Felipe Costa, a former student of Instituto Superior Técnico at the Oeiras Campus, on winning the Educational Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computational Science Education. The prize was awarded by ACM SIGHPC, a group of researchers working on high-performance computing from the Association for Computing Machinery, in the field of Education, on September 28th in Atlanta, USA. This international award recognizes Luis Felipe’s outstanding work in teaching computer science applied to education, in particular his PhD thesis, under the co-supervision of Professor Ana Moura Santos, entitled “Heroine’s Learning Journey” (HLJ). The solution put forward in the thesis to promote gender equality in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and support girls who wish to pursue a career in the area, has already been successfully applied in the context of the Erasmus+ FOSTWOM project for gender equality in STEM.

In particular, in the 2022 edition of the technical MOOC Machine Learning, Maths & Ethics: Hands-on, female participation was among the highest in online STEM courses (59%, when the average rarely exceeds 20%), with great activity from young Brazilian women from remote areas of Brazil. In the article published on the results of Heroine’s Learning Journey, you can read more about the project’s strategies for promoting diversity and motivating young people in STEM courses, increasing their attractiveness to women. This work has already received the Seal of Good Practice in Teaching and Internationalization in 2020 and the SBC Seal of Innovation in 2024 and continues to inspire global efforts for gender equality in education.

During his collaboration with Técnico, Luis Felipe was also involved in several important projects, such as the “STEM in Schools” program, which promotes scientific literacy through practical and interactive activities, developed in partnership with the Oeiras City Council. Within this project were initiatives such as “Oeiras Educa”, which bridges the gap between formal education and non-formal educational offerings in the municipality of Oeiras, with themed workshops, talks with scientists and activities that bring primary and secondary school students closer to science and technology in a playful way. Another initiative of this project is the “Bag of STEM”, an experimental kit created to help elementary school teachers implement practical and fun activities in line with the curriculum.

Luis Felipe also promoted activities in the ROB9-16 robotics club, where young people could deepen their knowledge of the world of technology through workshops held during the school vacations.

Currently, Luis Felipe continues to develop research projects at the Laboratory of the Future, mainly the Equality STEM project. His contribution not only reinforced the role of education in social transformation, but also underlined Instituto Superior Técnico’s commitment to promoting innovation and inclusion.

Link to the award announcement: https://sighpceducation.acm.org/events/award24_announce/

Link to the Erasmus+ FOSTWOM project: https://fostwom.eu

Link to the MOOC (latest edition): https://courses.elearning.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/courses/course-v1:MOOCs+lematecX+2024/about

Link to thesis: https://www.cos.ufrj.br/index.php/pt-BR/publicacoes-pesquisa/details/15/3082

Link to Internet Access article: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10416858