The second day of the FCCN Days included news and some of the most iconic moments of the annual meeting of the national teaching and research community.
"For the second year running, the record number of registrations for the FCCNDays was broken," said Francisco Santos, vice-president of the Foundation for Science and Technology. This figure, he added, illustrates "the dynamism of this community", which sees this event as a meeting point "for sharing experiences and continuous improvement". "We will continue to strengthen the role of the FCCN in the national Science and Technology system," he said.
Meeting in Coimbra
The opening session was attended by representatives of the two main partners in organizing this edition of the FCCN Days: Coimbra City Council and the University of Coimbra.
The mayor of Coimbra, José Manuel Silva, highlighted the importance of hosting this event in the city, taking into account the way in which it makes it possible to "equip Portugal with the necessary tools for its development"."We are transforming Coimbra into one of the most dynamic municipalities in the country and these are the right partners to help us," he stressed.
Earlier, the vice-rector of the University of Coimbra, Alfredo Dias, highlighted how "in a knowledge and information society, infrastructures and systems are fundamental". "Higher education institutions are very much supported by the FCCN," he said, before adding: "events like the FCCN Days are fundamental for sharing experiences and knowledge, building better solutions."
Also during the morning, the event's Keynote Speaker , João Gabriel Silva, explored the history of the installation of the first Portuguese computer, developed by the Department of Engineering and Electrotechnology at the University of Coimbra during the 1980s - the Ener 1000. At the end of his presentation, he highlighted the impact that this project continues to have nationally and internationally.
Community time
"This is the moment to share the news about FCCN services, presenting activities and projects in lightning mode." The phrase of FCCN's area director, Miguel Andrade, served as a way of introducing another of the morning's events - Zapping FCCN. "These short presentations can serve as a teaser and an invitation to delve deeper into these topics in the parallel sessions," he added.
Over the course of 10 4-minute presentations, members of the FCCN team, FCT's digital services, took to the stage to share updates on services such as b-on, PTCRIS, Polen, Certificates, Multimedia Services or Arquivo.pt, among others.
This was followed by Community Zapping , which, as the moderator of the session - Jorge China, from the University of Coimbra - explained, is "a very interesting moment to showcase the fantastic things that are being done in this country". The University of Minho, Coimbra City Council, the University of Coimbra and Lusófona University were some of the organizations that took to the stage to share cases of technological innovation applied in their communities.
IAedu. A new service focused on AI
One of the afternoon's parallel sessions focused on the main novelty announced during the event - the new IAedu digital service. The solution, as Francisco Santos pointed out, will make it possible to "put artificial intelligence at the service of researchers, democratizing access" to this type of technology, "through free access".
During the session to present the service, Salomé Branco, FCCN's deputy general coordinator, explained that "in a single portal, with federated authentication, it will be possible for the community to access various artificial intelligence solutions".
The first version of the portal was presented, which allows access to four LLM(Large Language Model) models. An expression of interest period will soon be opened for participation in the project's pilot by the institutions that are part of the FCCN network. The portal is based on Microsoft's Azure platform, and one of the project's requirements is the possibility of integrating new and different AI solutions.
Manuel Dias, from Microsoft, gave a presentation on Generative AI applied to the world of Higher Education, detailing the most popular AI tools. "It's impressive to see how usage continues to grow," he explained, explaining that the majority of uses are in areas such as critical thinking, writing or problem-solving.
Manuel Dias' presentation focused on some of the possible uses of AI in the context of higher education, which can be boosted by using the IAedu service. The expert also highlighted the importance of higher education institutions developing specific skills in this area. "We must look to the near future," he concluded.
The FCCN Days continue tomorrow with a third day of work, starting at 9.30am. You can find out more here.
