Mobility with cars, but also with other types of vehicles (bicycles, buses, drones, boats, etc), is witnessing great changes in the last years. Commuting from one place to another, is a fundamental need for humans, so companies are eager to create innovative digital products and services to address that need. Wireless connectivity for vehicles enables the communication between cars and their internal and external environments, which will improve traffic safety, instantaneous alarming of emergency services, optimize routing and planning, and make public transport services more flexible towards the individual user.
Main Topics
This 2-week programme consists of focused lectures, project work, customer interviews, site visits to companies and socializing events. The lectures, keynotes and visits cover technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in relation with the smart mobility. They will be interleaved with a main team-project where each team will work on a business challenge provided by a partner company. Participants will be coached by industrial, scientific and business mentors, who will follow the business idea development at all levels and help them to pitch it in front of a real industrial board of potential investors. The cases will be provided by the industrial partners involved in the teaching and mentoring activities. The cases, which are relevant societal challenges, will be developed at an industrial level, as real solutions to real problems. These challenges will be provided by companies and other organizations (potential candidates are Aptiv, Bosch, Cap Gemini Engineering, Citröen, Continental, Europcar, Jaguar, Mercedes, Uber). Those companies will benefit from the provided ideas and solutions, which they can use or adopt. In some cases, those solutions can enrich the company’s product portfolio.
Intended Audience
The Summer School is open to young professionals as well as Bachelor, Master or PhD students, who want to deep-dive in emerging digital technologies and learn how to turn these technologies into business. This will enable them to become innovators in the sector of the smart mobility.
As the programme has a focus on business innovation and entrepreneurship, there is no need to have specific technical backgrounds or any coding knowledge to join our Summer School.
Location
The summer school will take place in Braga in different facilities located in the University of Minho and in the industrialized region of Minho (companies, research laboratories, and companies). Several companies are already leading a movement towards a cluster on urban mobility in this Northwestern region in Portugal (e.g. Bosch, Continental). University of Minho is collaborating in important academia-industry research projects with these key players, particularly in the mobility area, which makes this summer school a natural extension and add-on of this reality.
Braga is served by the Porto International Airport (50 kms). The beautiful landscape of the area, the sunny beaches and the Portuguese gastronomy will make it a unique and unforgettable experience. The social events may include activities in the mountains, beaches, nearby cities (Porto, Guimarães, Lisbon).
Accomodation
A list of available hotels located in Braga nearby the University of Minho will be posted soon.
Local school organizers will provide you with all support you may need.