Edition #8 - November, 2012

The CEO Club hosted the finale of the Ernst and Young Enterpre-neurship Competition

P. 3

P. 4

Send us an email if you would like to join our team!

Check our review of this year’s Nobel prize win-ners.

P. 6

Nova is a place full of mysteries, check the full text in page 8.

The New York/NOVA Adventure: Testimony of our Foreign Reporter

Visit our website at: www.novanews.com.ptJoin us by e-mail: novanews@novasbe.pt

Like our facebook page: Nova Communica-tions Club

November, 2012November, 20122 3NEWSEDITORIAL

I decided to take a se-mester off from school

to take on a three month internship at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and become the foreign corre-spondent from the Nova News, reporting to you from the most exciting city in the world – New York!It has been a very event-ful trip. I had a couple of days to settle to work, the city and prepare myself to one of the biggest events of the year, where politi-cal leaders and diplomats from all over the world, come together to discuss the state of affairs . This is also one of the most hated weeks for drivers around midtown Manhattan, as the streets around the UN

A “Nova” Adventure at the UN

Our foreign corre-spondent gives us a lit-tle hint of what it’s like to work at the UN and live in New York.

Before... and After

Nova News edition 3, October 2011

New Masters Lounge

November 2012

are closed, and all hotels and restaurants are ac-comodating delegations from different countries, increasing traffic expo-nentially. Having heard about this, and the high level security surrounding the United Nations HQ, I decided to leave home an hour ear-lier than usual. Luckily, my blue UN badge that I swipe to get into the build-ing every day, was all I had to show the police offi-cer at the entrance of the street to be allowed in the

block – felt incredibly cool for a while there. The week of the GA con-stitutes a great opportu-nity with bureaus to meet up with diplomats and government officials they deal with, NGOs, the pri-vate sector ; Also given the human resources mobili-sation for this week, there are many side events, which aim to discuss more specific topics, and I had a chance to participate in a few. In this situation the UN badge with a big “A” did not help so much, as

a lot of them, even though they were considered open debates – were not open to UN interns, as there are so many !For me it was a chance to participate in conferenc-es, meet new people and learn about different top-ics. Alongside the General Assembly speeches, there are inumerous side events, that adress particular is-sues. Keep reading our newspa-per for more adventures.

Hetal Kanji

November, 2012November, 20124 NEWS 5

On November 26th, the finale of the En-

terpreneurship Competi-tion sponsored by Ernst & Young took place at NO-VASBE. It all started on the 23rd November and ended with this astonish-ing ceremony, in which only 6 teams were select-ed to compete for several prizes. The event was or-ganized and all the cred-its go to the CEO club of Nova.Over the weekend about 20 teams had to oppor-tunity to participate in workshops, conferences and sessions with their mentors as well as to de-velop their business model canvas, a model to develop businesses. After an eleva-tor pitch and presentation of the executive summa-

ries, only 6 out of the 20 teams were selected to present their projects to a panel of judges on the fi-nale. Starting with a cocktail with distinguished guests arriving one by one, the entrance to the A224 au-ditorium was swarming with conversations of ea-ger entrepreneurs. 6 dif-ferent ideas were present-ed: the market-oriented project of moving walls, an original alternative beach towel, renting en-vironment-friendly scoot-ers in Lisbon, creating a platform to share rides in Lisbon, saving water for hotels and easing the con-sumer decision-making process. Whether already seen or completely new ideas, with or without

preparation, all the entrepreneurs showed pride in their projects. The teams had people from different academ-ic backgrounds, clear and concise elevator pitches and the needed energy to start a new project. After the ques-tioning period by the audience, the judging panel secretly chose

Ernst & Young Enterpreneurship Competition

what would be the 3 win-ning projects. Salão Nobre was beauti-fully decorated that night as the guests shared differ-ent learning experiences in the entrepreneurial world and dined an amaz-ing meal. Afterwards, the judges’ decision was an-nounced, and the “Moving Walls” project emerged victorious, as well as two

NEWS

A beautiful event joining NOVA and the entrepreneurial spirit brought to you by the CEO club

Relaxation techniquesdemanding workload. Both professors and stu-dents should learn to relax as a way to suceed in both studies and the business world.After the positive recep-tion of students towards the workshop, Profes-sor Luisa Agante has an nou nc e d that the Nova community will have a me dit at ion group in the university.It will be ev-ery tuesday from 5.30-6.30pm at the room next to C amp o l i d e

Life is not only work. To get a hold of your

sanity, you need to take a break. That is why clubs like “Express Youself ” ex-ist: to explore the other creative side of being a professional.On the 6th November, the Express Yourself Club or-ganized a relaxation ses-sion with Professor Luisa Agante. The workshop introduced the students (from undergrad as well as graduate) to concen-traion and breathing ex-ercises, often useful in the academic and professional world as a way to control stress. While amusing and dynamic, this workshop was a welcome change of pace from the university’s

Church.The sessions are free but there will be a donation box in case people can donate something to the church for letting us use the room.You don’t have to bring

any material and simply show up with comfortable clothes.For more information contact the Express Your-self Club.

Ana Lopes

other projects receiving 2nd and 3rd prize. The prizes in-cluded funding the future com-pany’s website, a viability study, 5000€ in equity, as well as other prizes. Personally, the conference was a nice change of pace and an amazing oppor-

tunity to understand what innovative projects are be-

ing carried on by students just like us. It is all about having an idea, and then having the strength to car-ry through it. The country is changing; a new active generation is emerging. Let’s hope Ernst & Young’s Competition is just the be-ginning. Congratulations to the CEO Club and keep the events coming!

Ana Lopes

November, 2012November, 2012

The 2012 Prize in Economic Sciences“I consider myself a mathematician and the award is for Economics. I never, never in my life took a course in Economics.”

Lloyd Shapley, 2012 Prize winner, quoted by the Associated Press

6 OPINION 7OPINION

“I never thought that (...) another

game theorist would win the [Nobel] prize

so soon (...)”

Last October 15, as al-most every student

from Economics, I was wondering who would get the Nobel Prize this year. To be precise, it is not technically a Nobel Prize. Unlike the awards in Medicine, Physics, Chem-istry, Literature and Peace, which started to be attrib-uted in 1901 following the will of Alfred Nobel, the Prize for Economic Sci-ences (also in his mem-ory) was only created in 1968 by the Swedish Cen-tral Bank on the occasion of its 300th anniversary. In the following year, the first winners were Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen. At first, my preferences were against what I ex-pected would happen. Since my fields of interest cover broadly Microeco-nomics and specifically Industrial Economics, I would have liked to have seen an emergent aca-demic in the area such as the French Professor Jean Tirole winning the Prize. Tirole is not only a lead-ing reference in Industrial Organization, but has also

worked in Finance and Corporate Governance. Another potential choice was William Baumol, one of the most influential living economists in the world. I would have liked to have seen this ninety-year-old American Pro-fessor receive the highest recognition for his scien-tific work and his whole life dedicated to Econom-ics, whose contributions – both important and di-verse – range from con-testable markets theory, the famous Baumol’s cost disease, the Baumol-Tobin model of money demand, and to his general equi-librium works on taxation and control of externali-ties. Jean Tirole and William Baumol were on top of my preferences. Howev-er, given the current and intense debates on the causes and solutions to the economic crisis, par-ticularly in Europe and in the US, I was expecting that the successors of Sar-gent and Sims, who were awarded for their empiri-cal research on macroeco-

nomics, would again be macroeconomists. After discovering the names of the 2012 winners I was,

to say the least, surprised. First of all, I was only fa-miliar with Lloyd Shapley, a famous mathematician (as he likes to call himself) and one of the greatest game theorists of all time. I never thought that after Nash, Harsanyi and Selten winning in 1994, and Au-mann and Schelling in 2005, another game theo-rist would win the Prize so soon. After spending several days reading some of their main works and official bi-ographies, I tend to agree with the choice. Indeed,

the 2012 Prize rewards a kind of engineering ap-proach to Economics. The original contributions of Shapley and Roth help us to understand situations when the traditional mar-ket mechanisms do not work well, that is, when prices cannot be used to allocate resources, and yet an allocation has to be made. The winners have never worked together, but their scientific contributions may be seen as comple-mentary. In the 1960s, Lloyd Shapley and David Gale worked together in a crucial concept in coop-erative game theory – the notion of stable allocation: “an allocation where no individuals perceive any gains from further trade”. Applying the idea of stabil-ity to pairwise matching, they presented the Gale-Shapley algorithm to solve the famous “stable mar-riage problem”. I am al-most sure that if Gale were still alive (he passed away in 2008), he would have also received this year’s Prize. In the 1980s and

“Moreover, who could have known that the 2012 prize winners would have contributed to im-

prove complex situa-tions such as match-ing human organs for transplant and

patients?”

1990s, using the abstract theory of Gale and Shap-ley, Roth engaged himself in finding practical solu-tions to real-world prob-lems. Focusing on the US reality, Roth started study-ing the existing inefficien-cies in the market for new doctors. Another practical application was matching students and public high schools. Using the Gale-Shapley algorithm, Roth worked in improving the admissions process in such a way so that it has become more efficient: the number of students assigned to schools for which they had expressed no preference was strong-ly reduced. Moreover, who could have known that the

2012 Prize winners would have contributed to im-

prove complex situations such as matching human organs for transplant and patients? Therefore, the practical value of Econom-ics as showed by Roth, us-ing the theory of Shapley, completely contradicts the

usual view of Economics as a “dismal science”.One additional observa-tion about this year’s Prize is the persistent picture of American and male hege-mony of the winners. In 2009, the political scien-tist Elinor Ostrom, who recently passed away, was the first (and still only) woman to win a Prize in Economics. Only time will tell if a European female will win the most desired decoration among econo-mists in the next few years.A final reference is worth mentioning about the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to one of the most altruistic cre-ations ever: the European Union. I am a staunch

pro-European. I believe that the EU is a living and remarkable example of how it was possible to engage neighboring coun-tries that fought against each other over the course of thousands of years, shed so much blood, fought two World Wars, and in the end participated in a single project aimed at bringing peace and pros-perity for all. I truly think that the founding fathers Schuman, Monet, Gasperi and Adenauer, wherever they are, should be very proud of the path taken by their ambitious project.

Tiago Lopes da Silva

November, 2012November, 20128 HUMOUR 9HUMOUR

The building of Nova School of Business

and Economics at Campus de Campolide is certainly a place that all under-graduate students of the Institution will remember with affection or at least with the so called “sau-dade” for the rest of their lives, for reasons as varied as classes, friends, knowl-edge, fulfilment of ambi-tions, first experiences or even dreams. Supposedly, Masters’ students should continue growing their af-fection for the building if they were already students of the Institution or to cre-ate a new relationship with it, if they come from other university. And for the majority of the 2012-2013 class, this certainly hap-pened during their first semester. However, for the Economics students, this was not the case...since the beginning of the semester, classes such as Microeconomic Policy Analysis, Econometrics, Economics of Health and Health Care, Games and Markets and Competition Policy were and are tak-ing place at Palacete Hen-rique de Mendonça, just in front of Corte Inglés. Was it because Econom-

ics students became more important than the rest? Was the Masters Coordi-nation Office concerned with their weight or health status, such that it de-cided to proportionate

them at least a 20 minutes walk promenade every day? Was it to strengthen bonds between Econom-ics’ students? Or, more simply, were all the rooms in the building of Cam-pus de Campolide full?The answer may surprise you since we are already in December: nobody really knows. Both teach-ers and students hear rumours of “rooms being full”, but nothing was con-firmed in detail, and there are students who claim that at the time of classes, there are vacant rooms in the building of Campus of Campolide. And so,

the idea that the School is trying to promote healthy fitness habits is spreading like wildfire across Eco-nomics students and even teachers. In the second trimester, thought, a new objective seemed to be added to the supposedly proportion of fitness habits: improve-ment of mental health, es-pecially memory, to avoid diseases such as Parkinson or Alzheimer in the fu-ture. Indeed, while in the first trimester classes only obliged you to walk at least

20 minutes every day and were always at a set room, now they are scheduled to a different room every day,

so that you really must be a

Mysteries at Nova

“(...) classes were and are taking place at

Palacete. Was it because Economics

students became more important?

Was the MCO con-cerned with their weight or health

status?”

“(...) the ideia that the School is trying to promote healthy habits is spreading like wildfire across Economics students and even teachers.”

04/12: Deadline for reg-istration in “Concurso BES Realize o seu Son-ho”

06/12 at 5pm: Choose Your Finance Electives by NIC (Nova Invest-ment Club)

Activities for December 2012

genius to memorize them all and for once. At least, Economics students try to explore the patterns and trends of rooms for each class, which is surely de-veloping their brain. How-

ever, sometimes it is just impossible. Take a look at the picture above, for in-stance, which represents the rooms scheduled for the classes of Competition Policy for this trimester.

Could you memorise it in 30 seconds? 1 minute? If yes, congratulations, you should probably be the type of intelligent person this mad design of rooms was made for. If not, do not worry, some of the best Economics’ students in the country cannot do it either. Focus on be-fore class preparation, carry a schedule of rooms with you, and get ready to walk. You can do it. As Mark Twain once said, “When we remember we are all mad, mysteries disappear and life stands explained”. Maybe we should try it.

Our Analysts predict...

Are the Economics stu-dents more athletic? Yes, especially when com-paring samples of students across time. Time appears to be a very significant variable.

Are the Economics student more united?Yes, the sense of comrade-

ship has increased among new students.

Are the professors also be-coming more athletic?Probably yes. We leave this question and conspiracy for future writers and our readers to speculate on.

Can the aim of this change

in classes be the promotion of culture between students upon seeing the Palacete’s statues in its garden?Whether an aim or not, it has already happened. Tourism in the gardens has increased, often with the aid of maps given by the Palacete.

Is this change in classrooms a policy to create jobs and employment (by providing the rooms assigning enti-ties a stable job)?Absolutely.

November, 2012TRIVIA

NOVA News TeamExecutive Staff:Ana Lopes

Journalists:Ana Lopes, Ana Rita Borges. André Coelho, Clara Gil, Hetal Kanji, Luís

Filipe, Miguel Aguiar, Rafael Barbosa and Tiago Silva

10

What happens when frogs park illegally?

They get toad.

What do you call an alligator wearing a

vest?

An investigator.

What did the house wear to the party?

Address.

!Classic Joke Square!

AlPhAbEt SoUp