Rita Carneiro and Bruno Vaz were selected to participate in TNC 2022, under the Lightning Talks challenge. This will be an opportunity for them to share their work, namely how it uses technological resources in the area of IT or computer networks. 

Share a story or a project in a 5-minute presentation at the biggest annual networking conference. This is the challenge launched by GÉANT and FCCN in Portugal to all higher education students, as part of the Lightning Talks challenge. Four applications were submitted to the program by FCCN . Rita Carneiro, from Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and Bruno Vaz, from Universidade do Porto, decided to take part and were chosen by the challenge jury to share their work .

Rita Carneiro is a PhD student in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property at the School of the Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University and will present her work using Artificial Intelligence technologies to characterize and categorize digital heritage archival collections .

Lightning Talks Rita Carneiro

Bruno Vaz, in turn, is a master's student in Data Science at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, and will share how he has worked on the use of generative adversarial networks (GAN) in the detection of fake news models, through the creation of synthetic datasets. 

Prior to their presentation at the TNC - scheduled for June 14 - selected students have the opportunity to participate in workshops on public speaking preparation, as well as support in creating an effective presentation. This guidance is provided by GÉANT, as well as travel and accommodation costs to Trieste, where the conference takes place. 

So far, the experience has been "super rewarding," says Rita Carneiro. The PhD student believes that the program is improving her communication and presentation skills: "[Trainer] Michael Koenka is an excellent professional," she adds, before concluding: "He keeps us motivated and helps us in all the fields we need.


For Bruno Vaz, the experience so far has been enriching, "both personally and professionally. " I have gradually become better at sharing my technical ideas in simple and clear terms," explains the student, who also highlights the contact with students of various nationalities and the knowledge about other projects and ideas as "extremely instructive

BrunoVaz FCCN, FCT Digital Services

You can learn more about the Lightning Talks challenge and the scheduled presentations on the TNC website

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