The AIMS Meeting is a congress organized by a group of FMUL students and is strongly supported by the Students’ Association. It brings together big names of Medicine and Science and consists of lectures, debates and workshops.

We talked to Inês Mendo and Guilherme Vilhais, the AIMS general coordinators. The interview took stock of the event and the innovative way in which this year's congress was held. But there is more to know about this event and its coordinators.

Guilherme Vilhais, year 6 student of the FMUL Integrated Master Degree in Medicine, was born in Portalegre. He was one of the Students in the Pedagogical Council in the terms of 2017/18 and 2018/19, and a member of the Monitoring Committee of the Elective Subjects. He was involved in the creation of PC4Students, a way of bringing the Students of the PC closer to the students they represent.

At the end of year 3, he joined the Organizing Committee of the 10th Edition of the AIMS Meeting, in the Scientific Department. In the following year, he applied for the General Coordination of the 11th Edition of the congress, a position he held until the event was cancelled on 5 March 2020, following the start of SARS-CoV2 in Portugal. In order to complete the project that was cancelled due to the epidemiological context, he decided to continue to the next edition and applied for the General Coordination of AIMS, this time jointly with Inês Mendo.

Besides the AIMS Meeting, Guilherme Vilhais conducted a research project in Oncobiology at the Luís Costa Lab in the João Lobo Antunes Institute of Molecular Medicine, under the 22nd GAPIC Education through Science Programme. This project became the basis of his Master Degree’s Final  Work.

Inês Mendo is a student in  year 5 of the FMUL Integrated Master Degree  in Medicine and was born in Leiria. She was one of the Students in the Pedagogical Council in the terms of 2018/19 and 2019/20,. She closely followed the design of the plan to reformulate academic activities, in response to the pandemic that prevailed in March 2020. She was also as a Student of the Pedagogical Council included in the Logistics and Fundraising department of the 6th edition of Beyond MEd, the FMUL medical education congress.

At the end of year 2, she volunteered in Mozambique for the project “Medicine Closer: Mozambique”. In the following year, she was a member of the project's Organizing Committee, and contributed to the training of new volunteers.

At the end of the 2018/2019 academic year, she applied to the Organizing Committee of the 11th edition of the AIMS Meeting, and became a member of the Logistics and Fundraising Department. In May 2020, she decided to apply to the General Coordination of the project, together with Guilherme Vilhais.

(in portuguese)

Leonel Gomes

Editorial Team