INESC TEC Autumn Forum debates Digital Transformation of the Companies

INESC TEC Autumn Forum debates Digital Transformation of the Companies

More than 200 participants attended the 4th edition of INESC TEC Autumn Forum 2018, which took place on 23 October at the Almeida Garret Library in Porto.

13th November 2018

A forum for public discussion brought together companies and researchers

With the theme "The companies that create the digital. The companies that are recreated by the digital", the fourth edition of the Autumn Forum, gathered companies and researchers in the same room, opening up the debate, in a general way, about the theme of Digital Transformation.

In a forum for public discussion, the sessions conducted throughout the day pursued two specific perspectives: one is related to companies that create the software and all the new digital ecosystem; and the other is related to the companies that, through the digital, can transform and reinvent themselves when facing new challenges and opportunities. 

The path between universities and companies

During the first intervention of the opening session of the Forum, José Manuel Mendonça, Chairman of INESC TEC’s Board, enhanced "the commitment of INESC TEC in investing in the alignment of technology transfer skills in order to meet the challenges of the companies".

Pedro Rodrigues, Vice-Rector of the University of Porto (U.Porto) for the Research, Innovation and Internationalisation areas, declared that "INESC TEC is an institution of excellence in research and knowledge", whose "activity has reached a high level of scientific sophistication", and advocated the commitment of U.Porto in the contribution for the knowledge economy.

The opening session ended with the intervention of Manuel Heitor, the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education. "We’ve got used to see INESC TEC as a reference for everything that changes in digital", declared the minister who also expressed his conviction that, even with the possible disappearance of some jobs, digital transformation will create more and better jobs.

It is from interaction that innovation can emerge

The morning works continued with two invited presentations.

The first one was made by António Murta, Managing Partner, co-founder and CEO of Pathena, a specialised investment company that was created in 2007 and is located in Portugal. It aims to promote the success of companies related to Information Technologies. In a presentation about “Big Data: Potencial e Riscos” (in English “Big Data: Potential and Risks”), António Murta declared at some point that: “I’m not afraid of Artificial Intelligence. But I’m very afraid of the Natural Stupidity. But what I'm even more afraid is of Artificial Intelligence in the hands of the Natural Stupidity”.

The second intervention was conducted by Yike Guo, Professor of Computing Science in the Department of Computing at the Imperial College London. The director and founder of the Data Science Institute of the Imperial College, an institute focused on the multidisciplinary applications of Data Science, spoke about “Big Data for Better Science”. In a presentation of the work developed in this institute, Yike Guo gave us the idea that “the research in Big Data links statistics, machine learning and signal processing and it's from the interaction of these components that innovation emerge."

The crossover between the companies and the digital

During the afternoon, there was two debate sessions with several guests.

The first session with the theme "The companies that create the digital" had a keynote from João Barros, President and CEO of Veniam. The debate also included the participation of Hélder Dias (Farfetch), João Graça (Unbabel), Pedro Faria (Feedzai) and Rui Barreira (Critical Software). Rui Oliveira, member of INESC TEC’s Board, was the moderator.
 

"The companies that are recreated by the digital" was the theme of the second session, which had Manuel Carvalho, Director of Público newspaper, as keynote speaker. The debate was also attended by Gonçalo Caseiro (Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office), João Günther Amaral (Sonae MC), João Pedro Galveias (RTP) and Jorge Ferreira (IKEA Industry). Aurora Teixeira, researcher of INESC TEC’s Centre for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE) was the moderator.
 

Both debates resulted in several ideas and challenges to be left for further consideration.

An explosive future

“Data are the new oil, Artificial Intelligence is the new electricity”. This was how Rita Marques from Portugal Ventures started the summary of what was presented throughout the day. Rita Marques, who was responsible for the main conclusions of the Forum, focused on several focal points and declared that “the future is explosive” and “it’s not just an extension of the present”. It is necessary to be more efficient, to ensure that there is still “someone who cares for people”, and to respond to this new paradigm that was created in the business world.

Next year there will be more

Pedro Guedes de Oliveira, coordinator of the Organising Committee of the event, was responsible for closing the Forum, making a balance of the previous editions with a certainty that this day “was a success”. “Even though this is an initiative from INESC TEC, everything else was possible due to the participants. They are the ones who really deserve the most credit for this success", he declared.

João Claro, Chief Executive Officer of INESC TEC, also had a final word of thanks to all parties involved: “it is an honour that INESC TEC can mobilise itself like this on an annual basis and that it can count on such generous and relevant contributions from the invited experts.”

And this was how the invitation for INESC TEC Autumn Forum 2019 was ensured.

The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC, U.Porto-FEUP, U.Porto-FEP and UMinho.