I'm Adriano, a machine learning engineer based in Porto, Portugal.

My previous experiences meant a lot to me, but I felt I had done what I set out to do and was ready to try something different. That brought me to ESN Porto, and joining turned out to be one of the best decisions I made.

After one semester, I took on the role of IT manager. Together, we developed the new ESN Porto website and a requisitions app to track the section’s inventory. We also built a scholarship evaluation platform used to review hundreds of applications, automated event descriptions, and created the website for the International Erasmus Games. During that time, we won the Lobos d’Ouro award for Best National IT Initiative.

Alongside my IT work, I helped organise 21 events, including trips, city tours, sports activities, and cultural nights.

Coordinated the department that recruited speakers and curated the programme for SINF, the annual informatics week at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. We delivered the largest programme in six years, featuring 11 talks and 8 workshops over four days, up from 4 talks and 2 workshops in the previous edition.

That edition also featured SINF’s first major international speaker, Steven Pemberton. I had the opportunity to welcome him to Porto and talk with him about what it was like to live through the early days of the internet, the origins of Python, and how he sees the future of technology.

ENEI was my first experience organising a conference. Throughout the year, I helped recruit speakers and shape the programme for this national student technology conference in Porto, featuring 25 talks and 21 workshops.

As part of the programme team, I worked on speaker outreach, scheduling, and logistics. It taught me that a first “no” isn’t always final, and that following up can sometimes open a door that seemed closed. I also got to work with incredible people along the way.

I started using UNI as soon as I joined university. When I discovered it was an open-source app built by students and used by thousands of others, I wanted to be part of it so i joined NIAEFEUP.

UNI had been growing for several years and was ready for a new look. For a year, two friends and I worked through the app, mapped out its features, and created mockups to rethink how it looked and felt to use. There was something especially rewarding about working on a product that my friends and I used every day.

A year later, I also joined the development team, and together we implemented the new version of the app.