Técnico Lisboa

University

The teaching and research focus of the IST is on architecture, engineering, science and technology. The specialist database ISI Web of Science contains 2,000 published scientific papers of the institute.

 

Instituto Superior Técnico

Das IST ist Teil der Universidade de Lisboa und wurde 1911 gegründet.

Es verfügt über drei Campus, die sich alle im Großraum Lissabon befinden. Das Institut bietet 19 Bachelor-, 32 Master- und 33 Doktorandenprogramme4 an 10 Fakultäten an. Zurzeit sind 10.468 Studenten an der IST eingeschrieben.

The Faculty

Student life takes place on three campuses: the Alameda Campus, the Tauguspark Campus and the Tecnológico e Nuclear Campus.

The Alameda Campus, which is centrally located in Lisbon, offers opportunities for educational and research-based activities. The Information Technology Laboratory and the Analysis Laboratory are located there. The campus also has a sports facility, catering facilities and four museums.6

The Tauguspark Campus is located in the municipality of Oeiras, on the site of a science and technology park.7

The Tecnológico e Nuclear Campus is located in Loures and focuses its teaching and research projects on nuclear science, radiation protection and nuclear safety.

Student life

Lisbon is located on the Atlantic coast and the Tagus River, which is also called the Tagus. The summer months are on average very warm and sunny. Winter temperatures are mild.

 

Campus life

The IST offers various sports and recreational opportunities. Students can visit one of the four museums, for example.

 

University city

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. Well-known sights are the Rossio, the Praça do Comércio or the Castelo de São Jorge.

 

Student experiences

Study time: Spring2016
Academic level: Master
Patrick S.

“From February 2016 until July 2016 I have been studying Information Systems and Computer Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico as part of a semester abroad. […] I took part in IS-Link's program and I was more than positively surprised. Not only the organizational effort was lower than expected, but also the accumulated experiences and the new social contacts left behind an instructive time.”

Planning and Accommodation:
“The first step is to apply at IS-Link for an exchange with the chosen university. […] After my arrival, it only took a week until I found a room near the university with good access to public transport. […] “

Studying at the Instituto Superior Técnico:
“The courses usually consist of a lecture and an exercise, whereby the lecture provides the theoretical background for the exercise in which you get practical experience by using the knowledge in a particular project. Regarding the teaching language, most of the courses does not specify one. It is taught in Portuguese until someone attends the course, who does not speak Portuguese. The documents are always in English independent from the spoken language.”

Living in Lisbon:
“Lisbon and the surrounding area offer many cultural attractions, beaches and leisure activities. Combined with the lower cost of living compared to Germany, Lisbon is an ideal destination for students. In particular, basic food is more favourable in Portugal […]. Because of the variety of public transportation (bus, train, subway, taxi, uber) a car is not necessary. But the "Viva Card", a monthly ticket for bus, metro and train in Lisbon […] is recommended. During my stay I had no language barriers. Even older locals spoke understandable English. Portuguese people are very open-hearted and always ready to help foreigners.”  

Traveling through Portugal:
“Portugal has a good network of buses. Thus, cities like Faro (Algarve) and Porto can be reached within a few hours. […] Although there are only ~300km between Porto and Lisbon, linguistic and culinary differences can be identified. In addition to the big cities, I would also recommend visiting smaller towns or villages in the middle of Portugal. Far from the tourists you get a better insight into the Portuguese mentality. […]"

Study time: Summer 2021
Academic level: Master
Leonardo B.

Application

My decision for the city of Lisbon was mainly based on a previous holiday in the city as well as the warm, sunny weather during spring and positive stories about a great culture. Therefore, I applied at IS:link at the start of the winter term 2019/2020 for a seat in the upcoming academic year 2020/2021 in the program “Computer Science & Engineering”.[…] I would recommend to timely decide on which course you would like to visit and also to coordinate with IS:link about your choice.After completing the application, I got notified by the IST that I was accepted and could download my learning agreement.[…] 

Course Enrollment

As stated previously, a preselection of courses had to be made during the application. Of course, you can change your courses until four weeks after arrival but keep in mind that you must coordinate and sign your new learning agreement as well. Other than that, the IST uses an online platform called “Fenix” where you can enroll for your courses, plan your timetable, and receive further information about the courses.

Be careful that the IST has two campuses: Alameda and Taguspark. I highly recommend choosing courses only at Alameda as it is situated in the heart of the city, while Taguspark is an hour drive away.

Studying @ IST

Studying at Técnico means to study at one of the best and renown technical universities in Portugal.[...] I opted to choose only two courses due to previous experiences of other students and I think it was the right balance between workload and free time. Due to Covid restrictions, all teaching activities took place remotely via Zoom. [...] I enjoyed it as it was different than most courses back at UDE and I learned a lot. All professors that taught me were very kind, helpful and provided good support.

Life in Lisbon

Lisbon is a beautiful city and really has its own flair that you need to experience for yourself. May it be because of the architecture, the warm light of the streetlamps at night or the yellow trams running through the city – the life during my short stay in Lisbon really impressed me and I thoroughly enjoyed the everyday life. Even though Lisbon is the Portuguese capital, it did not feel overcrowded or hectic.[...] 

The Portuguese people are very kind and joyful. Having no Portuguese language skills and only speaking English was never a problem. During the stay, I learned a few phrases so I could even order “pães” and “bolos” in the morning.

In terms of food, I think that everyone will get satisfied. There are many restaurants, ranging from different cuisines, and the prices are comparable to German restaurants, sometimes even slightly lower. Vegetarian and vegan options are also not missing, and Uber eats provided a really convenient way for lazy days. Due to the location close to the sea, you should try traditional sea food like their famous Bacalhau. And of course, the delicious Pastel de Nata pastry is a must-eat! Either from their origin in Bélem or any other small bakery.

Free-time activities & travel

First of all: Lisbon is hilly! As “the city of seven hills”, you can guess that when you explore the city by foot, you may have sore feet after a day of sightseeing. However, you should definitely do it because the most places worth seeing are walkable in the city center and as a bonus you get to see the beautiful streets with many azulejos (colorful tiles), cute little shops and of course enjoying the sun. Further, there are many opportunities to visit the plenty of miradouros (viewing points) as the city has many hills where you get nice views over the city or just sit down and have a break. Besides a walking tour to explore the miradouros, you could stroll through the old town of Alfama, visit the Castelo de Sao Jorge, have lunch at the Time Out Market, go shopping in Chiado, have a picnic at the Parque Eduardo and head for a night drink in Bairro Alto.

For traveling longer distances, I recommend getting the Navegante Metropolitano, a monthly ticket for using public transport in Lisbon’s Metropolitan Area. It costs 40€ per month (30€ if you are 23 or younger) and allows you to use all metro lines, busses, trams and even trains in the greater Lisbon area. Therefore, you can visit the beaches in Costa da Caparica or Carcavelos, explore the fairytale city of Sintra with its Pena Palace, discover the coast in the city of Ericeira or take a photo at the most western point of continental Europe at Cabo da Roca where you can also wander around and discover hidden beaches like Praia da Ursa. Besides public transport, it is really affordable to use Uber or Bolt as a taxi service. The convenience by simply calling an Uber via the app at every time of the day can come very handy sometimes (for example to have dinner and some drinks at Lx Factory)!

Alexander S.

When I think about my time as an Erasmus Student in Lisbon I associate it with a lot of great memories. After all, it is for a reason that the city was chosen as the winner of the Erasmus Awards 2017 for being the best city for doing your stay abroad. The weather is great every day – it is sunny, warm and the climate is very different than the German one in a positive sense. The people that you meet there and the ones that I had the pleasure to meet were very kind and friendly[...]

The Institute

Tecnico is a subsidiary of Universidade de Lisboa and is focused on engineering and technical studies with the corresponding program for our exchange being the studies ”Information Systems and Computer Engineering”. Very important to say in this regard is that all studies at Tecnico are very engineering-oriented leaving the management or business side, for example, completely out of focus. All courses are strictly connected with programming languages and skills and involve creating programming artifacts which require more than profound knowledge in the different programming languages. Python, Mathlab and Java skills are all required in a far more deeper sense than basic skills within all course I was able to visit. Whoever does not feel  very well prepared (for example, being able to fulfill a SEP project alone if you compare it to the modules Business Information Students had to complete at our university in the Bachelor’s degree) should probably reconsider whether Tecnico is the right choice for them. [...]

Everyday life in Lisbon

Moving on from the university to everyday life in Lisbon, it is a city that I can only recommend. The variety on cuisine offerings can satisfy every taste and especially for students there are many (small) restaurants that offer a good menu at a more than reasonable price (My top two picks: 100 Montaditos and Ground Burger). Further you have a huge cultural variety offered including many museums, theaters, cinemas, etc all providing interesting insights in both the Portuguese and international cultures. When living in Lisbon it is reasonable that you subscribe for the public transport card (which costs around 36 Euro a month) since this will give you the possibility to travel within the city as much as you want and will give you the freedom to be wherever you want whenever you want.[...]

Surfing

Surfing is an unbelievably great experience (at least for me) and for Erasmus students it is offed at a very acceptable price – you pay around 5 Euro to get to Costa da Caparica, where the surf lessons take place, and you pay around 15 Euro for 2 hours of surf lessons with rental of the equipment (for more information look up Gota dÁgua Surf School).

Jan V.

Accommodation

Ich would suggest searching for an accommodation early on as, there are limited apartments in Lisbon, which is also reflected in the prices. I found my accommodation over Aribnb. They have special prices for long-term stays. My accommodation was pretty small and costed about 500€ a month. In return I had a small 14m2 apartment for myself. My fellow students searched together for an apartment which I would highly recommend, because of the smaller prices. Adventurous people can of course also join an existing commune with unknown people.

Lisbon as a city

The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about Lisbon is that it is a hilly city. Not without a reason it is called the city of the seven hills. But because of that hills you can find beautiful viewpoints. Also, the tiny apartments are characteristic for the city. Especially in Alfama or in the old town. Latter is a nice place to visit especially at the weekend for going out. Besides I often visited the surfing spot on the other side of the river Tejo called Costa da Caparica.

Everyday life

I would recommend choosing your accommodation so that you can take the metro to the university and also to other places, as bus travel was very annoying for me at times. There is a timetable, but it was mostly ignored (sometimes the bus arrived too early, sometimes too late). In addition, the buses were often overcrowded (especially in the evening). For shopping, there are several supermarket chains in Lisbon (Continente, Lidl, Pingo Doce, Jumbo.) In general, I can recommend the Pingo Doce, where there is a sufficiently large assortment at reasonable prices. Overall, I would estimate the price level in the supermarket chains to be somewhat higher than in Germany. 

The people in Lisbon are really helpful and kind if you ask them and the majority of the inhabitants speaks reasonable English. At university the communication in English was easier, of course.