With a strong international academic background, Carla Costa is the newest Assistant Professor to join the Department of Engineering and Management (DEG). She holds a Master’s degree from Instituto Superior Técnico and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU | Portugal), Pittsburgh. Before returning to Portugal, she spent twelve years as a faculty member at Utrecht University and Maastricht University, in the Netherlands.

At Técnico, she currently teaches Engineering Economics and Corporate Strategy, and is expected to teach units in entrepreneurship, her core area of expertise. Carla emphasises the growing importance of entrepreneurial skills in engineering education:

Young graduates will have increasingly diverse careers that require initiative and the ability to create their own opportunities. Entrepreneurship education - especially when practice-based - equips students with the tools to test and develop their business models and fulfil their ambitions. With the innovation potential already present at Técnico, expanding entrepreneurship training will be like lighting a fuse.

Her research focuses on the economics of entrepreneurship, particularly the role of entrepreneurs in the emergence and expansion of new industries. She studies how workers from pioneering firms who found their own companies often help create and strengthen regional clusters through local knowledge spillovers. One of her key case studies is the Portuguese precision moulds industry, concentrated in Marinha Grande and Oliveira de Azeméis. She also researches entrepreneurship ecosystems, including the impact of pre-acceleration programmes on early-stage entrepreneurial development.

Reflecting on this new chapter, she notes:

After working in business schools, I am genuinely excited to return to Técnico. I have always felt most at home at the intersection of technology and management, and I believe entrepreneurship education can have a transformative impact here.

Outside academia, Carla enjoys an active lifestyle — practising yoga, hiking, tennis, and spending time outdoors, making the most of Portugal’s unique natural light.

Welcome to DEG, Carla!