PRODEF day was held on November 11th, 2022, bringing together students from both Engineering Physics Doctoral and Master programs. This event was a collaborative effort between the Department of Engineering Physics of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and the Physics and Astronomy Department at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP).

The day's proceedings included two keynote lectures: Professor Francisco Taveira Pinto, Director of the Civil Engineering Department at FEUP, President of the Board of the Hydraulics and Water Resources Institute, and Director of the Hydraulics Laboratory, delivered a lecture on 'Marine Renewable Energy in a Changing Climate.'; and the second keynote lecture was presented by Professor Ernesto Galvão, leader of the Quantum and Linear-Optical Computation group at INL, and was titled 'Non-classicality and Quantum Information.'

In addition to the keynote lectures, the program featured oral presentations by PRODEF students and poster presentations by PRODEF and Master's students (engaging 21 ProDEF students and several master students), covering a range of scientific topics including optical and biosensors, optoelectronics and photonics, advanced materials, energy storage and harvest materials, and quantum and nanotechnologies.

During the awards session at the end of the day, PRODEF student Andreia Silva, a recent enrollee in the Physics Engineering doctoral program, was honored with the award for the best poster, titled 'Development and Characterization of Copper Solution-Based Artificial Synapses,' and PRODEF student Paulo Santos, a current doctoral student, received recognition for the best oral presentation for his talk, 'Nanoparticles for Enhanced Plasmonic Sensing at NIR.'

Overall, the inaugural PRODEF day was a rewarding day, with engaging lectures and thought-provoking presentations by talented students. The collaborative effort between the Department of Physics Engineering at FEUP and the Physics and Astronomy Department at FCUP served as a prime example of the power of interdisciplinary collaboration.

We are grateful to all who participated in the PRODEF day, and we hope that this event will serve as a springboard for future collaborations and achievements in the field of Engineering Physics.