Instituto Superior Técnico


The Instituto Superior Técnico is the school of engineering and technology of the University of Lisbon. It was founded as an autonomous school in 1911, and was integrated into the Technical University of Lisbon in 1930. IST is the largest school of engineering in Portugal by number of enrolled students, faculty size, scientific production and patents.
IST has three campuses, all located in the Lisbon metropolitan area: the Alameda campus in Lisbon, the Taguspark campus in the Oeiras municipality, and the Tecnológico e Nuclear campus in the Loures municipality. The school is divided in 11 departments that are responsible for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Each department is organized in sections, which group together specific subjects within its scientific area. In addition, the laboratories of the several departments support the teaching and research activities carried out at IST.
IST is a member of several university partnerships, including CLUSTER, CESAER, T.I.M.E., TPC, and the ATHENS Programme.

History

The Instituto Superior Técnico was created from the split of the Lisbon Commercial and Industrial Institute into two schools. Following the implantation of the Republic in Portugal in 1910, Alfredo Bensaúde, a professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the IICL, was invited by Manuel de Brito Camacho, Minister of Development in the Provisional Government, to create and lead a new technical school, as part of nationwide education reforms. A decree approved on 23 May 1911 and published in the Diário do Governo declared that the IICL would be split into two schools: the Instituto Superior do Comércio and the Instituto Superior Técnico.
Alfredo Bensaúde was the first director of IST, a position he held from 1911 to 1920. He implemented its first pedagogical program, which had five engineering courses: mining engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and chemical-industrial engineering. Under his direction, there was an investment in theoretical-practical teaching where workshops and laboratories, as well as the library, played an essential role. He also noted for recruiting foreign teachers, which he considered to have an essential role in organizing some of the courses.
The first facilities of IST were located in the Rua da Boavista in Lisbon. In 1927, Duarte Pacheco became director of IST and started the project for a new campus for the school. He requested the design to architect Porfírio Pardal Monteiro, who counted with the collaboration of Luís Benavente, a fellow architect, in the project. The construction of the Alameda campus started in 1928 and was finished in 1935, with the inauguration happening the following year. IST became the first academic institution in Portugal with its own campus. In the meantime, in 1930, IST became part of the newly created Technical University of Lisbon. In 1948, IST hosted the "Fifteen Years of Public Works" exhibition, an event organized by the Portuguese State to exhibit the new infrastructures built in the first 15 years of the Estado Novo. The statue of a woman holding a square and compass, by Salvador Barata Feyo, placed in the northern side of the campus, is a sculpture from this exhibition that was permanently added to the Alameda campus.
Between 1952 and 1972, 12 study centres were established in Portugal, three of them at IST, in the fields of Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy, and Electronics. These centres were responsible for promoting faculty training and scientific qualification through doctoral studies in universities and research centres abroad.
In 1970, the minimum period for obtaining a bachelor's degree decreased from six to five years, and the number of students enrolled at IST significantly increased. During the 1970s, scientific research at IST also has a major increase, through the creation of the Interdisciplinary Complex building in 1973, which gathered together various autonomous research units.
During the 1990s, more engineering courses, including Master and PhD degrees, were added to IST's curricular offer. The facilities in the Alameda campus had the greatest expansion in this decade, with the construction of the Civil Engineering and Architecture Pavilion and the North and South towers.
In 2000, IST inaugurated a new campus in the municipality of Oeiras, specifically in the Taguspark, the first Portuguese science and technology park. In the academic year 2006–2007, the Declaration of Bologna was successfully implemented for all IST programmes, reducing the time to obtain a bachelor's degree to three years. In 2012, the Tecnológico e Nuclear campus was added to IST, following the discontinuation of the Technological and Nuclear Institute.
Today IST is involved with several of Portugal's research, development and technology transfer institutions and offers a vast number of degrees in science and engineering areas, at undergraduate, master and doctoral levels. IST is also part of several networks and international programmes to promote student mobility, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Campuses and facilities

IST has three campuses: the Alameda campus in Lisbon, the Taguspark campus in the Oeiras municipality, and the Tecnológico e Nuclear campus in the Loures municipality.

Alameda campus

The Alameda campus is the primary location of IST. It was inaugurated in 1936 as the first dedicated university campus in Portugal. It is located in the freguesia of Areeiro, in Lisbon.
The campus originally had seven buildings. Throughout the years, new buildings were constructed inside the campus, expanding the facilities of IST. Some of the buildings added after 1936 include:
  • The Interdisciplinary Complex, opened in 1973;
  • The Civil Engineering and Architecture Pavilion, opened in 1993;
  • The North Tower, opened in 1994;
  • The South Tower, opened in 2000;
  • The Social Action Pavilion, opened in 2003.
Currently the campus has a total of 26 buildings. Apart from lecture and research buildings, it includes a dedicated canteen building, a building for the students' association, playing fields for sports, an indoor swimming pool, and a kindergarten.

Taguspark campus

IST inaugurated a second campus in the Taguspark, a science and technology park in Porto Salvo, in the Oeiras municipality, in 2000. The campus consists of a main building, a sports field and a hall of residence.
Taguspark is located about 14 km to the west of the Alameda campus. A free shuttle bus service connecting the Alameda and Taguspark campuses is available for exclusive use of the IST community.
As of the academic year 2023–2024, three bachelor's degree programmes and five master's degree programmes are lectured in the Taguspark campus.

''Tecnológico e Nuclear'' campus

The Tecnológico e Nuclear campus was added to IST in 2012. It is located in Bobadela, in the municipality of Loures, about 9 km northeast of the Alamada campus. Prior to its addition to IST, the campus belonged to the Technological and Nuclear Institute '', which was extinguished in December 2011 by governmental decree.
The campus contained the only nuclear reactor in Portugal, which was used for more than 50 years for scientific research. The reactor was stopped on 11 May 2016 and dismantled in 2019.
As of the academic year 2023–2024, two master's degree programmes use the facilities in this campus: Radiation Protection and Safety, and Science and Technology for the Cultural Heritage.

Halls of residence

IST has two official halls of residence for its students:
  • The Eng. Duarte Pacheco residence, located in the freguesia of Parque das Nações, which opened in 1998 for students in the Alameda campus.
  • The Prof. Ramôa Ribeiro residence, located in the Taguspark campus, which opened in 2013 for students in this campus.

    Education

As of the academic year 2023–2024, IST offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the following domains:
IST is also actively involved in several networks and international programs to promote student mobility, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Through a large number of agreements with other institutions worldwide, IST students can join double degree programmes and joint PhD programmes with universities in Europe, the United States, Brazil, and Israel.

Affiliations

IST is a member of several academic and scientific networks and associations, including:
IST students have a variety of groups and activities that they can join.

Students' association

The students' association of the Instituto Superior Técnico is the organization that represents and supports the students of IST. It was established on 11 December 1911, when IST was just 8 months old.
In the present day, the AEIST organizes activities and initiatives in the areas of social responsibility, culture, sports, training, employability and recreation.

Sports

IST and its students' association are represented in various sports.
The most notable sports team from IST is the Clube de Rugby do Técnico, a rugby union club founded in 1963. The club has become three-times champion of the top-tier rugby league in Portugal, four-times winner of the Portuguese Rugby Cup, and winner of the Portuguese Super Cup in 1994.
The students' association competes in basketball, chess, futsal, handball, karting, padel, rugby sevens, squash, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball.

''Tunas''

IST has three tunas:
  • Tuna Universitária do Instituto Superior Técnico, the male tuna, established in 1993
  • Tuna Feminina do Instituto Superior Técnico, the female tuna, established in 1994
  • Tuna Mista do Instituto Superior Técnico, a mixed tuna based in the Taguspark campus, established in 2006
The TUIST organizes each year the International Tunas Festival of the City of Lisbon, which is held at the Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon.

Other groups

Notable student groups in IST are:
Some of the most notable recurring events organized by students of IST are:
  • Arraial do Técnico, a music festival that takes place at the Alameda campus at the start of the academic year, organized by the AEIST
  • SINFO, a tech conference organized by a dedicated team. Takes place annually since 1993

    Reputation

Rankings

The University of Lisbon, which IST is part of, is the institution represented in global university rankings. Nevertheless, IST is represented indirectly in the rankings for the specific subjects of engineering and technology.
SubjectGlobal rankNational rank
Engineering and technology1831
Chemical engineering101–1501–2
Civil and structural engineering51–1001–2
Computer science and information systems201–2501
Electrical and electronic engineering151–2001–2
Mechanical, aeronautical, and manufacturing engineering1371
Petroleum engineering51–100—

SubjectGlobal rankNational rank
Computer science501–6003
Engineering401–5001–2

Employability

In a survey conducted in 2022 to 1450 IST postgraduates who graduated during the year 2020, 96.7% of the inquired indicated that they were employed, 80.4% reported that they got employed within 6 months of their graduation, and 73.6% indicated that they are working in their field of study.

Criticism

IST has a reputation for the high level of difficulty of its courses, which results in a considerable number of dropouts in the undergraduate courses. Students and graduates have criticized some of the courses' programmes for being too focused on theory and lacking practical training.
A 2021 survey to IST students, which gathered 1,987 responses, revealed that 16% of the students felt that they had been target of moral harassment and 5% had been target of sexual harassment.

Notable alumni

IST alumni have held prominent positions in politics, research organizations and the business sector, in Portugal and internationally. Three Prime Ministers of Portugal were IST alumni, of which one currently serves as the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
File:António_Guterres,_23.03.23.jpg|thumb|António Guterres, current Secretary-General of the United Nations, licenciatura degree in electrical engineering in 1971|250x250px
File:Maria_de_Lourdes_Pintasilgo__.jpg|thumb|Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Portugal, licenciatura degree in chemical-industrial engineering in 1953|250x250px
Academics, researchers and inventors
Entrepreneurs and businesspeople
Politicians and diplomats