Free Nonsense

Learning is still free after all…

By Duarte Viveiros*

Every day we learn new things; however, with all the limitations that are put on us we sometimes have to benefit from the experience of our elders and learn the motivation and the skills to improve and to overcome challenges.

Competitiveness today allows us to better ourselves and to fight harder for our dreams. And what better way to remind you of this special month when we will be celebrating the 40^th anniversary of “Freedom Day” in Portugal[1].

In order to learn and fulfil the dream of one day becoming an engineer, I applied to college and was accepted at the University of Madeira. It was there that I finished my degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, and then afterwards I did a masters in Telecommunications Engineering and Power Grids.

I started working at INESC TEC in February 2013, when I arrived in Porto to complete my masters at INESC TEC’s Optoelectronics and Electronics Systems Unit (UOSE) with the theme “Optical Fibre Sensing System to Detect Gases”. Working at UOSE is funny sometimes because most members are physicists who are always in a good mood. So learning here is, in fact, a lot of fun.

Right now I’m working in a European project called ECOAL – MGT (Ecological Management of Coal Waste Piles in Combustion), where the goal is to install optical fibre sensors in self-combustion coal waste piles in order to remotely monitor the evolution of the combustion process. These coal waste piles are the result of coal mining.

The set of partners from various areas and cultures allowed me to evolve both personally and professionally, which pleases me very much because I can learn something outside my own area of expertise. Because I am originally from Madeira, which is an Island of volcanic origin, the fact that the Department of Geosciences, Environment and Country Planning at the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto (FCUP) is one of the partners in the project with which I interact the most has allowed me to look at the world of geology from another perspective, and so I’m delighted every time I go back home.

One of the funniest moments I’ve experienced during the project was when I went to the coal waste pile of São Pedro da Cova, Gondomar, where I found a beautiful horse in the middle of the road as I was going to the pile. And I was like: what do I do now? What happened next and what I have learned, I will tell you some other time.

To conclude I would like to thank INESC TEC’s Communication Service for the pleasant invitation to write to article for BIP. I take this opportunity to say that I’m very proud of being part of INESC TEC.

Please remember that learning is still free, but sometimes we have to do some nonsense. In this case, the nonsense is free, so let’s go for it.

Inesquian greetings!

*Collaborator at the Optoelectronics and Electronics Systems Unit (UOSE)