Serious Thinking

30 years at INESC TEC - Chapter II - How did CAP came to be?

By João Ferreira* 
 

I would like to talk a bit about the history of CAP (Center for Applied Photonics) which was first known as GOE (Optoelectronics Group), not to be mistaken with GOE (Portuguese Special Operations Group) or even with the other GOE (also an Optoelectronics Group) which was created later in the Physics Department. GOE was born under the scope of Project SIFO (Network of Optical Fibre Integrated Systems) just like INESC Porto itself.

Working on this project was a learning process full of surprises and adventures for those who participated in it. We were coming into touch with new technologies and simultaneously creating an organisation (today we can say an institution) through the most basic foundations. There was suffering, there was joy, there were mistakes, there was a lot of work involved. But something tangible emerged both in the accomplishment of the project and in the distinct aspects of organisation and training that it required. When Portugal opened its doors to Europe with the admission into research institutions like CERN, it greatly contributed for the staff training of INESC Porto.

When SIFO ended, there was a phase of a certain elusiveness.

There was now a cohesive technical staff, distributed into areas of expertise and with established leaderships. The organisational machine was already working in cruising speed, even though it was very limited if compared to present times.

How could INESC Porto take advantage of the knowledge that it acquired, of the well-equipped labs and of the considerable stock of components?

It is important to remind you that the main area of activity of INESC Porto was the hardware development. Some of the components were pretty expensive, in particular but not only, the ones that were related to the optical fibre technologies, which were taking their first steps in Portugal; the simple acquisition of components was difficult due to the lack of distributors, frequently resorting to import, often times directly from the manufacturers and only after a detailed explanation about the sui generis situation of a group of mad men trying to develop technology in the middle of the desert.

By taking advantage of all of this accumulated wealth, a new challenge arose since the money wasn't entering the vaults like it used to.

Then there was the time of academic training, already claimed by the junior staff. That's right my friends, pursuing a Master's Degree wasn't a given, it was necessary to organise the Master in Telecommunications in FEUP, which was deactivated back then. Many did their Masters (some just did half of it), some others pursued their PhDs. Some grants eased the charges linked to salaries.

The external training also came up. The companies, both industrial and commercial, who were satellites to the telecommunications, were eager to get a hand on the knowledge that INESC TEC had since acquired: optical fibre, audio and video processing, integrated voice, data and video networks. Believe it or not, other kinds of knowledge also started to be coveted like: word processing, spreadsheets, databases; personal computers started to be used in the companies.

This was followed by trainings funded by the government and the European Union, technicians received specialised training after the secondary education and graduated students completed their trainings with advanced knowledge. Phone numbers from the trainers and technicians were also distributed among everyone for every eventuality as you can see in the accompanying figure. Why did I need to conceal them now, even though most of them should already be outdated?

Signs of the times...

The telecommunication sector had since trained their own staff, the optical fibre was no longer a novelty and INESC Porto's participation started to decline. Simultaneously, the Institute started to bond with the industry and spreading their areas of activity.

In CAP, or UOSE, Optoelectronics and Electronic Systems Unity, as it was known back in the day, new collaborations started to be developed with companies such as Cabelte, Efacec, Cunha Barros, EDP. Then, the figure of the Technology Transfer Centres started to emerge, in particular in Optoelectronics. They were expected to specialise in that connection with the industry whose future seemed bright and full of huge salaries. Unfortunately, they didn't last long.

CAP's coordination was now at the hands of José António Salcedo and it was during his tenure that we received collaborators from the former Soviet Union namely Oleg Okhotnikov, valuable scientist and beloved friend.

When called to perform his duties on the outside, Salcedo sought his collaborators, analysed their profiles and created a three-headed leadership composed by Armando Lourenço, José Luís Santos and Ireneu Dias. Armando set off to Aveiro while the duo Zé Luis - Ireneu remained in office for a long and fruitful time.

With Zé Luis' arrival, CAP abandoned the optical communications and started to use that know-how in the sensors field. This change actually happened due to Zé Luis himself who having worked with optical fibre communications and also with optical atmospheric communications, had since concluded his PhD in optical fibre sensors under the guidance of Pereira Leite. This unit gained a following in FCUP developing projects in optical fibre sensors. From these followers, we can name some important figures: António Lobo Ribeiro, Luis Alberto Ferreira and Francisco Araújo who in collaboration with Salcedo were the founding members of Multiwave. Subsequently, Luís, Kiko, Maia and also Pedro Antão Alves together with Zé Luís and with support from INESC TEC, gave rise to FiberSensing. 

Let me just leave a note here to mention some names that were part of CAP during that time: Francisco Pereira, Gaspar Rego, Pedro Sobral, João Sousa, Ednan Joani, Alberto Maia, Filipe Pinto, José Carlos Azevedo, Andrei and Cezarina Mardare, Paulo Moreira, Pedro Cavaleiro Dias, Paulo Marques, current coordinator of CAP, and many more that I just can't remember their names right now.

Everyone who coordinated the group that gave rise to CAP left their distinct mark.

Pereira Leite successfully completed project SIFO and became a teacher of the Master's Degree at FEUP that had been organised by Pimenta Alves. In the same Masters, there were other teachers like José Ruela, Mário Jorge Leitão, Nunes Ferreira, Marques dos Santos, Raul Vidal, Soeiro Ferreira, Lobo Pereira, Espain de Oliveira.

Sérgio Ferraz Santos, even though reluctantly, had a brief stint where he showed his good will in supporting students and the ongoing duties.

With Sílvio Abrantes came the access network work simulation, which was made in copper as back then people believed that having optical fibre in a subscriber's home wasn't really necessary since there wasn't a need for such large bandwidth. There was also the establishment of a training course about optical fibre communications (INTELEC) and some work on distance training.

Salcedo's return to INESC TEC and to the group's coordination coincided with a strong time of funded training (European Social Fund) but also with the opening to companies as mentioned before where I would like to highlight the collaboration with Efacec, in particular in the optical atmospheric communication field.

Zé Luis brought in his specialisation in optical fibre sensors not only to the group but also to his students, Master and PhD students of great value, some of them eventually being entrepreneurs of their own while some others continuing that line of research, developing and widening its scope. From this time, I would like to highlight project PROTEU and its substitutes for monitoring the Ria de Aveiro Lagoon as well as measuring electric current on high voltage, with optical fibre.

We are now in current times with Paulo Marques, who has been developing the manufacturing field with short pulse lasers, while not ceasing to strengthen the sensors activity. CAP spread its knowledge, including researchers in many distinct fields such as: chemistry, materials, biology, OCT imaging, thin films. I will not go into detail about the most recent activity for that same reason. It is new so it's still not possible to have a distanced and comprehensive look into it. I had the temptation of referring some researchers from that period that aren't part of CAP anymore. But I quickly gave up on that thought because there has been so many great researchers and I simply cannot choose some of them without being unfair.

CAP as we know it today is the work of many people. It is only fair to say that we had great leaders. The path was never easy and never in a straight line, being full of obstacles and zigzags. But with a great effort, astuteness and some luck, we managed to bring it forward. I feel the need to highlight Ireneu Dias' co-coordination since very rarely do we find in one person so many attributes: intelligence, consideration, capacity for communication and spirit of sacrifice (maybe a bit too much). I am sure that both Zé Luis and Paulo Marques can agree with me about this.

I mentioned earlier about how lucky we were concerning leadership. But the same can be said to the administrative support. Since the beginning of INESC Porto and GOE, to the UOSE until it being known as CAP, this group has always had people as competent as they were different, which I will name for the chronological order in which they entered the group: Eunice Ferreira, Cidália Lima, Renata Rodrigues, Ana Isabel Oliveira, Luísa Mendonça. To you all, my sincere thank you.

My activity within the group has always been more in the hardware side of things, once in communications and now in the sensors: optical emitters and receivers, synchronism, signal conditioning. Alongside the circuits and systems project, software has also been part of my everyday life: Pascal, Fortran and MatLab simulation; data acquisition and equipment control with LabView.

The time is already taking its toll on me. I admire and envy those who are capable of working at the same rhythm as if time didn't go by them; there are others, like me, whose bodies don't seem to know the sustainability rules from Social Security. Signs of the times and of the new gods. And poor me, I may be excommunicated, but I just didn't turn myself to the market god nor to the money god. I know there isn't just one way of doing things right but letting them be and hope they regulate themselves is certainly not the way to go. Don't forget that entropy is always rising.

It is likely that I will have to leave INESC TEC at some point, whether on my own free will or not. Until then, I will keep using and transmitting the knowledge I gained over the years in any way it can be useful. In the same level as knowledge are values and conduct rules that others have passed onto me and that I make sure to not only keep them to myself but also to pass them onto the younger ones.

Farewell.

Much love

* Collaborator at CAP (Centre for Applied Photonics)