On the 17th of July, the session "DeCivil/Companies Collaborative Partnerships: Presentation and lunch-debate" took place. This initiative by the DECivil Executive Committee essentially aimed to make known to companies operating in the Civil Engineering sector the possibilities for collaboration offered by the Dissertações de Mestrado em Ambiente Empresarial and Projetos Integradores em Ambiente Empresarial.

The companies present were: 360 ENGINEERING, AdP VALOR, ANA AEROPORTOS, AQUALOGUS, BRISA, CASAIS, CIVILSER, COBA, Conservation Pratice, ECOSERVIÇOS, EDIA, ENGEXPOR, ENGIDRO, GRID, Grupo Empresas RACE|UPK|SKK, HCI CONSTRUÇÕES, HTECNIC, JETSJ, JSJ, JULAR, Monumenta, MOTA-ENGIL, NCREP, OZ – Diagnóstico, Levantamento e Controlo de Qualidade em Estruturas e Fundações, Lda., SAINT GOBAIN PORTUGAL, SETH, STAP, TEIXEIRA DUARTE and TPF.

In addition to around 30 companies, the President of the Board of Directors of the Southern Region of the Order of Engineers, Engineer António Carias de Sousa, the members of the Fórum Civil, Sérgio Horzov and Inês Fonseca, the vice-president for Operations and Corporate Partnerships of Técnico, Professor Pedro Amaral, the Executive Committee of DECivil, Professors António Pinheiro, Inês Flores-Colen, Luís Guerreiro, Paulo Teixeira, Ana Paula Falcão and Carlos Tiago, and representatives of most of the scientific areas of DECivil, Professor João Correia (Construction), Professor Rafaela Cardoso (Geotechnics), Professor José Saldanha Matos (Hydraulics, Environment and Water Resources), Professor Rita Bento (Structural Mechanics and Structures) and Professor Maria do Rosário Partidário (Urban and Regional Systems).

The session program was as follows:

1. Welcome and presentation of session objectives. António Pinheiro, President of DECivil.
2. A premência de aumentar a atratividade dos cursos de Engenharia Civil. António Pinheiro, President of DECivil.
3. Ordem dos Engenheiros, um veículo entre a Academia e as Empresas. António Carias de Sousa, President of the Southern Region of the Order of Engineers.
4. Dissertações de Mestrado em Ambiente Empresarial. Luís Guerreiro, Vice-President of DECivil for Pedagogical Affairs.
5. Projetos Integradores em Ambiente Empresarial. Luís Guerreiro, Vice-President of DECivil for Pedagogical Affairs on behalf of the LEC and MEC Coordinator.
6. Rede de parceiros Técnico/Empresas. Pedro Amaral, IST Vice-President for Business Connections and Operations.
7. Debate.
8. Lunch, with continuation of the debate.

DECivil would like to thank everyone for their presence at the event and hopes that it can contribute to bringing students closer to the practice of Civil Engineering.