As happened in 2023, DECivil once again joined the Colégio Valsassina initiative "My first experience in the world of work", welcoming two of its 10th year students on the 17th to 21st of June 2024.
The objectives of this initiative were:

• Provide secondary education students with preparation that allows not only a direct connection to the University, but also to companies and work in particular.
• Stimulate skills in terms of responsibility, autonomy and maturity in students, preparing them for life after college.

During these five days, students Diogo Silva and Benjamin Kayat took part in the activities carried out in the Construction Laboratory and visited the Structures and Strength of Materials Laboratory, the Geotechnics Laboratory, the Hydraulics, Water Resources and Environment Laboratory and the Transport Infrastructures Laboratory.

In the Construction Laboratory they were accompanied by doctoral student Martim Nabais, where they began by weighing and optimizing the consistency of low carbon impact mortar mixtures, aiming to replace Portland cement with sustainable binders. Students also had the opportunity to monitor and carry out tests on density, total porosity, mechanical resistance (flexion and compression), shrinkage and chloride penetration. In addition to the production of mortars, it was possible to monitor the thermoactivation process of recycled cement produced at Instituto Superior Técnico.

In addition to the student Martim Nabais, with whom they worked most of the time, during this period they were accompanied by numerous teachers, laboratory technicians, researchers, doctoral and master's students, to whom DECivil expresses its gratitude: Rita Nogueira, Luís Picado Santos, Rafaela Cardoso, Carlos Tiago, Fernando Alves, Jorge Pontes, João Lazzari, Carlos Seruti, Reza Mohammadi Firouz, Miguel Tavares, Maria Concepcion Pacheco Menor, Joana Silva, Ângela Oliveira, Pedro Teixeira and Nicollas Moreira.

🔗 Biography: https://linktr.ee/decivil