User:Jeanmousinho/Efficient use of our resources

Efficient Use of Our Resources was the second international workshop organized by NEECIST / JLC Lisbon, a non-profit electrical engineering association of IST/UTL (Technical University of Lisbon). This event was held in Lisbon and Alentejo during the days 24th to 30th August 2009.

The event consisted of a seven days long workshop, taking place in Portugal, under the subject of “Efficient Use Of Our Resources”. Aiming the exploration of the modern energy saving technologies used in Portugal and the new and renewable ways of energy production, as well as the needs of the future, this workshop will allow the participants to share different scientific and cultural points of view and to learn how they can contribute to the efficient usage of natural resources as engineering students.

The event was supported by JLC Lisbon, NEECIST, SECIL, Junta de Freguesia São João de Deus, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Junta de Freguesia São João de Brito, Junta de Santo Estêvão, Junta de Freguesia de Santa Justa, OservIt, AEIST and Instituto Superior Técnico.

Participant List
In this event 16 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students were invited from several countries from all around Europe: Christina Koutsouba and Michalis Malafekas	from Athens, Gergely János from Budapest, Mustafa Demirag from London, Nikola Risteski from Maribor, Oksana Skorobogaca from Riga, Irina Trajanoska from Skopje, Matthias Egli from Zurich, Dalibor Jelaca and Jelena Matovina from Zagreb, Sofija Puric, Drazen Draskovic and Iva Lazovic from Belgrade and Elena Diaconescu from Bucharest.

Event Resume
Efficient Use of Our Resources was the second international workshop organized by JLC Lisbon, dated August 2009. In this event the organization tried to apply to youthinaction European program, the initial aim of the activities were adapted to the requirements of this program. We decided to keep most of those activities as they were planned initially so the academic part of the event was mostly based on visits to the companies related to the event's subjects (renewable energies, sustainable architecture and recycling). The event had two parts (the same happened in our first event, 2007 Power Your Future) the first 3 nights were in Lisbon and the rest of the days were in Alentejo (south to Lisbon).



In Lisbon the participants stayed in the university (Technical University of Lisbon) residence located in the center of Lisbon. There was sightseeing on the first day to Belém with a city rally in the afternoon. At night participants had a dinner in a great restaurant in Alfama (an old typical location from Lisbon) after a small sightseeing there. This dinner had the presence of Fado singers and everyone experienced the listening of this Portuguese music genre in a typical atmosphere. The next day participants visited INETI (research and development building featuring sustainable architecture) and ValorSul (recycling center). At night there was another great dinner featuring Fado near Rossio, another typical location from Lisbon.



During the trip to Alentejo participants had a chance to visit SECIL (concrete company, EUOOR sponsor) and cross the Sado river in a ferry boat. In Alentejo the participants stayed in the house of one of the organizers featuring a swim pool and good location, near to the beach. The temperature was around 37-40º, was great for using the swim poll and going to the beach. There was a visit to Amareleja solar field and Alqueva dam. At night dinners were in the house as well the social activities. The international day featured a big table full of food and drinks from different parts of Europe, the participants had exposed their great cooking skills and everyone exchanged good feelings and tastes. During the Alentejo stay there was also time to build a solar cooker made of simple materials.

In the end (which, unfortunately is always part of the good things) there was a dinner in a beach restaurant before the farewell party in the Alentejo house where participants gave their presents to the organizers and exchanged some personal toughs about the event.