Scientific Advisor: David Manuel Martins de Matos (ist13500)
Organic Unit: Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Scholarship Theme: Administration, maintenance, and development of the RNL infrastructure
Duration: 12 months
Maximum Duration Including Renewals: 12 months

Objectives
The expected results encompass guaranteeing a robust, secure, and highly available infrastructure through efficient
operational administration and continuous service monitoring, while ensuring systemic reliability via rigorous preventive
and corrective maintenance.
Simultaneously, the objective is to drive RNL's technological evolution through the development of automation and the
integration of new paradigms, supported by a strategic research component that validates, through proofs-of-concept,
an innovation roadmap aligned with DEI's future needs.
Work Plan
1- System and Infrastructure Administration: this area of work encompasses the strategic oversight,
configuration, and operational management of the entire RNL infrastructure. Far from being a simple clerical task, this
administration function is an engineering discipline focused on ensuring the security, integrity, and efficiency of all active
systems and services. This requires a deep understanding of system architecture and involves the expert configuration
of core network services like DNS and VPNs, the management of the physical and virtualized server environments
hosting RNL's applications, the rigorous implementation of security policies and access controls to harden against
threats, and the continuous monitoring of system health to guarantee service availability and proactively optimize
performance.
2- System and Infrastructure Maintenance: this workstream involves the set of engineering practices
dedicated to ensuring the long-term reliability, security, and operational viability of the RNL infrastructure. This
maintenance is a structured process designed to preserve and enhance technological assets, extending far beyond
simple reactive repairs. It includes preventive actions, such as applying security patches and performing health audits to
preempt failures; corrective measures, which involve systematic troubleshooting and root cause analysis to engineer
permanent solutions for any faults; and adaptive modifications to update systems and ensure they remain compatible
with the evolving technological environment, thereby preventing obsolescence.
3- System and Infrastructure Development: this area focuses on the evolution, enhancement, and expansion of RNL's ITcapabilities through the engineering and implementation of new technologies. The development of the infrastructure isa proactive process of building for the future, which involves designing and deploying new systems and networksegments to support organizational growth. A key component of this is process engineering through the creation ofcustom automation scripts that streamline tasks, reduce human error, and enable more scalable management.Furthermore, this development includes the strategic integration of new technologies, such as cloud services orcontainerization platforms, to enhance the infrastructure's overall capability, resilience, and competitive advantage.4- Strategic Study and Solution Development for IT Management: This component represents the research anddevelopment (R&D) and strategic planning function for the RNL infrastructure, a forward-looking activity focused oncontinuous improvement and long-term alignment with organizational objectives. It involves proactive research andevaluation of emerging industry trends and new security paradigms to assess their potential benefit to RNL. To validatethese findings, this function includes designing and prototyping proof-of-concept solutions in controlled labenvironments to analyze performance and suitability before any full-scale commitment. Ultimately, this workculminates in the formulation of long-term strategic roadmaps, ensuring that all administration, maintenance, anddevelopment efforts are cohesive and purposefully guided toward a modern, robust, and effective technological future.

Contest Procedure
Applications must be exclusively submitted on the
admissions platform
of the
Instituto Superior Técnico
at
https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/fenixedu-admissions 
and requires registration and validation of the candidate's identity.
Applications are only accepted when the form available in the platform is correctly filled, submitted and locked withoutany validation errors. The mandatory documentation to submit in the scholarship aplication includes:
Curriculum Vitae
Proof of Qualifications (or declaration of honor in case you do not yet have the certificate)
Proof of Registration/Enrolment
Motivation Letter
The application submission deadlines can be viewed in the admissions platform.
The results of the contest will be made available in the same admissions platform