From 12 to 16 October, the e-Jornadas 2020 were the virtual meeting point for the community served by FCT's National Scientific Computing Unit (Unidade FCCN), with the sharing of the latest news on FCCN services and projects.
Over the course of 5 days, the 400 or so participants at the e-Jornadas 2020 had a total of 25 sessions on the Unit's services and projects FCCN. A total of 83 speakers took part in e-Jornadas 2020, sharing the most up-to-date information on the main trends in the technological and digital world for academia and research.
The various topics highlighted at the Unit's eJourneys FCCN are directly linked to the various pillars underpinning its services and the corresponding connection to national teaching and research institutions: Connectivity, Collaboration, Knowledge, Computing and Security and emerging technologies. Thus, topics such as Open Access, online threats, Cloud services, supercomputing or the role of collaboration tools in a pandemic context were some of the highlights.
This virtual edition of the days came about after the physical event - which was to be held in Leiria in May 2020 - had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even at a distance, the eJornadas served as a meeting point for the community served by the Unit FCCN, making it possible to share best practices, clarify doubts about services and publicize new features.
This year, the event included a "Capture The Flag" competition, promoted by the Unit's cybersecurity service FCCN - RCTS CERT. The competition was supported by MetaRed Portugal and brought together around 1,500 participants from 300 teams from all over the world who, for 48 hours, tried to solve the cybersecurity challenges presented. In the end, the EPT Team, from the Norwegian CSIRT Equinor, was the big winner and received a Google Kit Home Mini. A team from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), the STT Team, achieved the best national result, coming third.
At the closing session, the General Coordinator of the FCCN Unit, João Nuno Ferreira, highlighted the importance of the work carried out, underlining the advantages and disadvantages associated with working remotely. In the future, the aim will be to bring together the main advantages of the virtual and face-to-face modalities in a future event, he said: "We left these days with the challenge of trying to reconcile the best of both worlds in the future."
