On March 24th, students from the Portela Secondary School participated in several activities throughout a day dedicated to Electronic Engineering, promoted as part of the European GreenChips-EDU project, which, among its objectives, aims to motivate younger students to pursue this field. The day was organized by Professor Marcelino Bicho dos Santos, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The students visited various locations, having direct contact with professors and students from the Alameda and Taguspark campuses, as well as professionals from the industry, such as SiliconGate and Synopsys.

The morning began with a hands-on activity where the students assembled an electronic system on a breadboard, connecting various components that allowed a LED to function, with help from faculty and students from the department, to whom they had the opportunity to ask questions. After this activity, they visited the workshop of the student organizations TLMoto and PSEM - Project of Mobile Energy Sustainability. Members of both groups shared their goals and the latest developments in prototype creation, showcasing how electronics play a key role throughout the process, from motor development to battery energy management.

The morning ended with a visit to SiliconGate, where integrated systems for energy management are being developed. As an example, earbuds were presented, which are implemented with four integrated circuits. These circuits respectively manage the energy and battery charging, Bluetooth connectivity, digital processing, and audio of the device. The students also visited the laboratory where various testing and characterization of the developed circuits are conducted, allowing for a comparison of their performance with the initial specifications.

Next, the visit continued on the Taguspark campus, where the students were put to the test again: they were challenged to assemble an electronic circuit and also program some of its features using Arduino. In this case, the students built an electronic die that, using a given mathematical expression, displayed a random number on an LCD screen. After the first assembly, the students managed to program functions to control the LED light in the circuit.

Later, they visited the control room of ISTSAT-1, where they learned more about the mission of the satellite developed by faculty and students at Técnico, which is currently active, as well as the headquarters of the Electronic Engineering Student Group - N3E. During the presentation, the students learned more about the Electronic Engineering course, as well as the initiatives and prototypes developed by the group, which also showcased its robot under development for this year's national robotics competition, taking place in Madeira.

The visit concluded at Synopsys, where representatives discussed some of the projects and products developed by the company, talking not only about software and database management and creation but also about equipment such as electronic chips.

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