On 2 July, the Técnico Merit Awards ceremony took place in the Main Hall of the Alameda campus, an initiative celebrating the dedication and excellence of students throughout the academic year. The event featured Pedro Amaral, Vice-President for Business Interface, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, who highlighted the importance of the awards granted by the partner network in strengthening the connection between companies and the academic community, and also emphasised the merit of the distinguished students.

Next, the panel discussion "Rewarding Merit, Shaping the Future: The Impact of the Business Ecosystem in Academia" took place. The session included an intervention by Nuno Horta, President of DEEC, who stated that these initiatives give visibility to the work developed by students with external stakeholders beyond the academic community, while also recognising student work and contributing actively to the improvement of teaching conditions. He also referred to the innovation-driven environment at Técnico, which encourages students to develop real-world projects, both within curricular units and through student groups.

After the roundtable, the merit awards ceremony took place.

Pedro Leite won the Brisa Merit Award in Distributed Estimation and Predictive Control. The other finalists were Francisco Vaz, João Guilherme, Miguel Simões and Tomás Brogueira. The evaluation was carried out by Sérgio Pequito, Rita Cunha and Alexandre Alves.

Leonor Gonçalves was awarded the Celfocus Merit Award in Machine Learning. Diego Castañeda, Henrique Simões, João Guilherme and Tomás Miguel were also finalists. The jury was composed of Nuno Horta, Alexandre Bernardino and Bruno Ribeiro.

Tomás Maia was awarded the Deloitte Merit Award for the Best MEEC AP Student – Telecommunications. The other finalists were Duarte Barreto and Nuno Batista. The decision was made by Rui Castro, Mário Silveirinha, José Sanguino, Hugo Pinto and Pedro Sanguinho.

Henrique Rodrigues and Dinis Silva won the Fidelidade Merit Award – FidAward in Spoken Language Processing. Other finalists included David Gadiega and Vasco Fernandes, Gonçalo Santos and Caio Freitas, and Miguel Soares and Francisco Rolo. The jury was composed of Alberto Abad, Bruno Martins and Nuno Santos.

Manuel Marques was awarded the Tekever Merit Award in Aerospace Engineering. The other finalists were Adriana Oliveira and Gonçalo Coelho. The evaluation was carried out by Paulo Fernandes, Nuno Horta and Nuno Matos.

Carolina Antunes and Ricardo Rodrigues won the Vodafone Merit Award in Mobile Networks and Internet of Things. The other finalists were Miguel André and Pedro Alves, João Santos and João Pequeno, and Gonçalo Santos and Marek Pawlowski. The jury was composed of Nuno Luís, Luís Caldas de Oliveira and Rui Gomes.

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