Ana Luísa Machado, Joana Pereira Ramos and Rafael Couto Carneiro Win Best Pitch Prize in Digitalisation, AI, and Process Innovation at ALiCE Connect 2026

Ana Luísa Machado, MSc research fellow at LSRE-LCM, and Joana Pereira Ramos and Rafael Couto Carneiro, PhD students at LSRE-LCM, presented the innovation proposal “Accelerating Photocatalyst Discovery for More Sustainable Chemicals and Fuels” at ALiCE Connect 2026, where they were awarded the Best Pitch Prize in the thematic area of Digitalisation, AI, and Process Innovation.

The concept brought together the diverse research experiences of each group member by combining a multimodal machine learning framework with in-lab synthesis and testing of new photocatalysts, aiming to close the loop between digital and experimental catalyst discovery. This idea marks an important step towards innovation, and we look forward to its future achievements.