This round table brings together leading experts in mobility, urban planning, and transportation governance to explore the evolving landscape of sustainable and efficient mobility. Ana Paula Vitorino, José Gomes Mendes, and Paulo Humanes will share insights drawn from their extensive academic, professional, and policymaking experiences. Topics will include the role of interdisciplinary collaboration, the integration of transport systems with urban development, and the governance challenges of fostering sustainable and equitable mobility solutions in a rapidly changing world.

Ana Paula Vitorino

Since 2021, she serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Mobility and Transport Authority. She graduated in Civil Engineering, in the Urbanisation and Transport branch, from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). She also specialised in the Organisation and Management of Transport Companies and holds a master’s degree in Transport from IST. She has been an Associate Professor at IST since 1989 and researches at CESUR - Centre for Urban and Regional Systems. She has been a member of parliament since 2009. Between 2005 and 2009 she was Secretary of State for Transport and from 2015 to 2019 she was Minister of the Sea.

José Gomes Mendes

José Gomes Mendes is currently the President of Fundação Mestre Casais and a Full Professor of Regional and Urban Systems at the University of Minho. He served as Secretary of State for Enviroment and Mobility in the XXI Portuguese Government, Secretary of State for Planning in the XII Government (2015-2020), and member of the Parliament (2021). He was Chairman of the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance (2017-2019), Vice-Rector at the University of Minho (2009-2015), and Independent Expert and Project Evaluator for the following European Commission agencies (2001-2009): DG Research, (Brussels), European Training Foundation (Torino), Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency (Brussels). As a professor and researcher, he worked at several universities in Italy, Poland, the United States of America, Brazil and Mozambique. He is the author of more than a hundred scientific articles and books in the area of cities, transport and sustainability. He received the following awards: Personality of the Year of Portugal Smart Cities (Lisbon, 2024), Personality of the Year of the Fleet Magazine (Lisbon, 2019), Sendai Prize (Japan, 2003), António d'Almeida Foundation Award (Porto, 1989), Minho Industrial Association Award (Braga, 1987). José Mendes is a civil engineer with a PhD in Urban and Regional Systems and holds postgraduate degrees from the Universities of Oxford, Harvard and ISCTE.

Paulo Humanes

He is currently responsible at the LOGIT consulting firm. Holds a Master's degree in Engineering from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Became technical director at Jacobs, one of the world's largest engineering consultancies, focusing on cities, transport infrastructure and road safety. In 2010 he moved to Germany, where he worked at PTV group, a company owned by Porsche SE, where he became responsible for the Business Development and New Mobility areas. There he developed projects with institutions, governments and cities around the world in the area of sustainable, efficient and safe transport solutions, and later in transport digitalisation with car manufacturers. Returned to Portugal in 2021, to be the director responsible for the Mobility, Automotive and Cities area at CEiiA (Centre for Engineering and Development), Porto.

Marta Campos Ferreira

Marta Campos Ferreira is an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto and a Senior Researcher at INESC TEC. She holds a PhD in Transportation Systems from the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto (MIT Portugal Program). She has been involved in several R&D projects in areas such as technology enabled services, transport and mobility, with enormous impact on the economy and society and which resulted in several functional prototypes. The prototype developed under the Anda project gave rise to a mobile payment service for public transport in the Porto Metropolitan Area, in Portugal, which has been available to the public since June 2018 and is used daily by thousands of citizens.

In this round table, we will explore how a PhD journey at DEGI can impact professional success, specifically outside academia. To that end, four PhD laureates in Industrial Engineering and Management who have worked or are currently working in industry are invited to discuss their experience and assess how they measure the impact of their PhD project in their career.

Luíz Henrique Cherri

Luíz began his academic journey in 2007 at ICMC - USP, focusing on applied mathematics in Scientific Computing. Since then, he has completed multiple academic degrees, including master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral studies, predominantly at the University of São Paulo and partially at the University of Porto. With a dual Ph.D. in Computer Science and Computational Mathematics from USP and Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Porto, Luíz has dozens of scientific articles with hundreds of citations. He also conducted numerous courses and lectures and mentored master’s students. In 2017, Luíz founded his first company, transitioning from academia to the business world. Since then, he has been involved in dozens of consultancy projects, highlighting two notable endeavors: one focused on agricultural planning to maximize farm profits and another in the financial market, leading to the establishment of a quantitative investment management firm to which Luíz currently dedicate his full time.

Cristiane Ferreira

Cristiane has completed a Bachelor in Computer Science at the Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Brazil (2005), and a Master in Computer Science at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil (2007). Cristiane worked as an Optimization Analyst and Manager at Gapso (now Accenture) for 10 years before returning to academia to complete her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Porto, Portugal (2022), with a project entitled Scheduling in Collaborative and Dynamic Environments. Afterward, Cristiane returned to the business sector to work at Amazon. She has been working there for over 3 years and is currently a Senior Applied Scientist.

António Almeida

António Almeida is a Business Development Manager at INESC TEC, where he has been working since 2019. He has more than 10 years of experience in project management, solution architecture, and innovative product development in the areas of automation, control, and logistics. António has a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management from FEUP, which he concluded in 2014, and is also a visiting professor in the Department of Industrial Management. His doctoral thesis focused on new predictive performance management methods based on machine learning algorithms and complex systems modeling techniques for industrial environments. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed international journals and conferences and has actively participated in several national and European R&D projects. António also worked as an E-commerce Business Partner at Continente Online and as a Principal Product Manager for Farfetch Logistics and Supply Chain products.

Pierre Polzin

Pierre Polzin is an Economist with an MBA from IBMEC, a Masters in Economics from UFRJ, and a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management from FEUP. He is a Reviewer for the Journal of Management and Sustainability. Pierre currently works as a Senior Specialist Regulatory Technician in the Health Studies and Evaluation Department of the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS), having been an Advisor to the Board of Directors. He was responsible for the application of three projects to the support system for the digital transformation of Public Administration, SAMA 2020. Pierre is a Guest Assistant Professor on the Postgraduate Management course at the Escola Superior de Saúde de Santa Maria. He was a member of INESC TEC, an economist with an FCT research grant at FEP and an economist with a CAPES research grant at UFRJ. He was responsible for the Country Risk Unit and a voting member of the Credit Committee at Seguradora Brasileira de Crédito à Exportação. He was a member of the Supervisory Board of the José Ricardo Foundation, now the Funjor Institute. Pierre was the General Director of Infopulse Brazil and a consultant for the Dutch group Infopulse.

Bernardo Almada-Lobo

Bernardo Almada-Lobo’s main area of activity is Management Science/Operations Research. He develops and applies advanced analytical models and methods to help make better decisions, solving managerial problems in various domains (manufacturing, health, retail and mobility), with a special focus on Operations Management. He has coordinated and participated in several research, industry-based research and consultancy projects, including production planning and scheduling; supply chain management; reliability engineering; demand planning and forecasting; inventory management; human resources staffing and scheduling. PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management, UP. Advanced Management Programme from INSEAD. Degree in Management and Industrial Engineering (5 years degree), FEUP. Certified Analytics Professional from The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Cofounder of LTPlabs. Co-founder of Adjust Consulting that was merged into Glintt HealthCare Solutions SA. Member of the board of Trustees ("conselho de curadores") of Fundação Belmiro de Azevedo. President of JuniFEUP Former member of the Board and Head of Industrial Engineering and Management Research Center at INESC TEC Technology and Science - Associate Laboratory. Former Vice-Academic Director of IBM Center for Advanced Studies Portugal (IBM-CAS). Former Member of the board at NET - Novas Empresas e Tecnologias, S.A.