Student Clubs Meeting Stimulates Cybersecurity Discussion and Debate

With support of the chapter and under the initiative of the Covilha Student Chapter, the Fourth Annual Student Clubs meeting took place in May at the University of Beira Interior (UBI), in Covilha, Portugal. The event, focused on Cybersecurity Aeronautics, Space and Defense, was attended by armed forces officers, university students and other key players to share research and development activities and opportunities with representatives from government, industry and academia. The conference opened with introductions from Antonio Fidalgo, university rector; Silvio Mariano, president of the faculty of engineering; and Rear Adm. Carlos Rodolfo, PRT N (Ret.), regional vice president, Atlantic Region, followed by Fernando Carvalho Rodrigues, keynote speaker. Cmdr. Luis Arsenio, PRT N, head of research and development for the General Directorate for Resources at the Portuguese Ministry of Defense, presented on opportunities and priority technology areas for research and development defense projects. Next, the student chapters of Almada, Covilha and Porto presented their research and development projects, followed by a debate moderated by Jorge Reis Silva, UBI professor and advisor of the Covilha Student Club. Eduardo Branco, Sevenair, moderated an industry panel discussion with Marcio Santos, Amazon (AWS); Paulo Pinto, AXIANS; Pedro Nunes, Edisoft /Thales Group; Rui Sabino, ESRI Portugal; Nuno Guilherme, INDRA Portugal; and Jorge Ramos, TIMWE Lab. These companies discussed their work experience in innovation, opportunities in defense and security, and emphasized the urgency of implementing measures of cybersecurity by design on all engineering projects, pointing out the dangers of not taking these considerations into account. Tiago Sanches, president of the Covilha Student Chapter and host of the meeting, presented during the closing session, and the final words were given by Rear Adm. Mario Durao, PRT N (Ret.), chapter president.