We are delighted to announce that Hugo Plácido da Silva, a Senior Researcher at the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and a Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon, has been honored with the prestigious 2023 IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award. Hugo, who serves as the Industry Relations Coordinator and Vice-Chair of the IEEE EMBS Portugal Chapter, embodies IEEE’s mission to foster innovation and collaboration. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Hugo for this remarkable achievement.

The IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on the engineering-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem. The accomplishments of the recipient should be of “significant importance” and should have made a distinguishing contribution to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of a country/region.

Hugo’s exemplary contributions extend beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors. As a member of IEEE since 2010 and a Senior Member since 2018, Hugo actively participates in IEEE activities. Beyond IEEE, Hugo is also one of the founders of PLUX – Wireless Biosignals, S.A., a global reference in the field of medical devices, where he currently serves as a Board Member and Chief Innovation Officer.

Throughout his career, Hugo has co-founded multiple innovative technology-based companies, operating in the fields of biomedical devices and data science for healthcare and quality of life. His dedication to innovation is reflected in his seven granted patents and over 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals, international conferences, and book chapters.

Hugo’s impact extends globally through his creation of BITalino, a low-cost hardware and open-source software kit used by thousands worldwide to develop biomedical signal projects.