As part of the project, three computer labs were created to provide students with the necessary skills to enter the competitive job market.

The Catholic University of Portugal inaugurates the Institute of Computing and Data Science in the Regional Center of Braga. In the digital era in permanent evolution and overwhelming data production, knowing how to extract information and use it requires a specialized approach and adequate tools, explains the University.

As part of the project, three computer labs were created with the aim of promoting a close connection between research results and the development and improvement of processes in the Portuguese industrial sector.

“These spaces were equipped with computers equipped with hardware and software, in order to respond to the most recent challenges inherent in the collection, treatment, analysis and visualization of large volumes of data”, he adds.

According to Vítor J. Sá, coordinator of the Computing and Data Science area at the UCP Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, “the new institute will make an important contribution in terms of teaching, research and collaboration with the business sector, which in Braga is particularly active and creative, to boost the era of artificial intelligence and evidence-based decision-making, which happens with the discovery of existing patterns in data that only computers, when properly programmed, can unravel.”

Católica Braga opened in 2022 the Degree in Applied Data Science, composed of a highly qualified teaching staff specialized in Computing and Data Science, as well as in Mathematics and Statistics.

The approved strategic plan includes partnerships with technological and competitive companies in the Minho region, so that complex and real problems are studied in the programs of the curricular units of the Degree in Applied Data Science.