The SEI project brought together researchers and students from Escola Secundária Garcia de Orta to build a vehicle for the latest Festival Nacional de Robótica. The initiative ended this month with the team’s presence at the SEI.ence 2026 Showcase, where INESC TEC also ran a workshop.
To school one brings books, pens, backpacks… chips, circuits and batteries? Over the past few months, researchers from INESC TEC and students from the Porto School of Engineering (ISEP) have been actively involved in the SEI project – Society, School and Research.
At Escola Secundária Garcia de Orta, the challenge set for the students focused on “developing a robot to compete in the First Challenger event at the Festival Nacional de Robótica,” explained Gabriel Araújo, one of the INESC TEC researchers involved in the activity – alongside Rui Meireles and two ISEP master’s students, Guilherme Ferreira and Pedro Alves.
During “15 sessions, each lasting two hours, the students built the robots and developed the software needed to compete,” explained the INESC TEC robotics researcher.
According to Gabriel Araújo, the initiative, promoted by the Porto city council, “aimed to bring together state schools in the municipality with research centres and higher education institutions, towards developing a joint project” between researchers and students.
Bridging the gap between the laboratories and the classroom led to a trip to the city of Barcelos for the 2026’s Festival Nacional de Robótica. The students proved they had done their homework, bringing home four medals from the junior leagues of FNR 2026 – aimed at elementary, secondary and vocational schools across the country.
The Garcia de Orta teams – with their respective line follower robots – claimed both first and second place in the First Challenger Level 1+2 (Category 3) and First Challenger Level 3 (Category 3) events. These accolades added to INESC TEC’s tally at the festival, mainly in the Dragster (first place), Robot@Factory Lite (first place), and Robot@Factory 4.0 (second and third places) events.
Then, in May, the SEI.ence 2026 Showcase brought the current academic year’s SEI project to a close. Held at the Alfândega do Porto Congress Centre, the fair was designed to present and showcase the work developed across the various scientific and technological fields explored by the schools. At their stand, the team involved in the project was supported by researchers Ana Alves and João Coutinho (INESC TEC) and Ruben Santos (ISEP).
Throughout the day, INESC TEC not only showcased the work carried out in the field of robotics and autonomous systems (including the marine technologies associated with the INESCTEC.OCEAN Centre of Excellence) but also “ran two workshop sessions on mobile robotics for the students taking part in the event,” emphasised Gabriel Araújo.
With the researchers’ guidance, the goal was to build a line follower robot in a computer simulation environment. Combining theory and practice, “it provided a first hands-on experience with robots, programming and typical challenges in the field, in an accessible, interactive and motivating way.”
