Limelight
THE LIMELIGHT SERIES
From 2019, each month BIP will start interviewing all the collaborators that were nominated for “Limelight”, thus highlighting the merit of all that are selected by the Coordination of the Centres or Service Managers for being in the “Limelight” in the previous month. Congratulations to the nominees!
SPEAKING WITH CLÁUDIA ROCHA (CRIIS) and FILIPE TEIXEIRA, HUGO SANTOS and TIAGO OLIVEIRA (CTM)
- Cláudia Rocha, CRIIS
1 - How did INESC TEC came up on your path?
My first contact with INESC TEC was due to a project of a course unit of the 3rd year of the Integrated Master in Bioengineering, in which I had the opportunity to work with one of CRIIS’ robots. The curiosity and the interest intensified to the extent that, during the following years, I wanted to promote my knowledge in this area through optional course units. Moreover, my thesis’ project culminated in the development of a robotic system in cooperation with CRIIS. At the end of my training, I was given the opportunity of integrating the centre, and my decision to accept it was an obvious choice, mainly due to the spirit of friendship, mutual help and companionship that live here, and for being motivated with the existing projects.
2 – We ask you to please comment on your nomination by the CRIIS' Coordination:
“I nominate Cláudia Rocha for Limelight for her performance and professionalism in the organisation of the IEEE ICARSC2019 conference and the ROBOTICA2019 event. Cláudia played a key and highly relevant role in all the initial preparation of the events mentioned before, organising much of the information and dealing with contacts with almost all the entities involved. Besides preparing the organisation of the events, she also participated in two competitions (Middle Size League and Freebots) and offered an enormous support during the entire event. She coordinated a team with several volunteers and actively participated in the assembly and disassembly of the equipment used in the events. She has always shown an outstanding voluntarism and friendliness, which resulted in several compliments by a great number of participants. She truly is in the Limelight...”
I would like to begin by thanking all the kind words and trust that were given to me in order to be part of the organisation team of the Portuguese Robotics Open 2019. I feel accomplished because my work has positively contributed to the event, so that people could enjoy the different activities and the conference. It was definitely a tremendous privilege to attend the several competitions and to be able to participate alongside my colleagues in two of the competitions. The experience, the mutual aid and the acquired knowledge have actively contributed to our training and evolution. The success of the event would not be possible without the support of the entire team: Professor António Paulo Moreira, Professor Manuel Silva, Professor Luís Paulo Reis, Professor José Lima, Professor Pedro Costa and Professor Luís Almeida. I’m very happy to see my commitment and work being recognised. It gives me strength and motivation to continue the journey that I have been taking at INESC TEC.
- Filipe Teixeira, Hugo Santos and Tiago Oliveira, CTM
1 - What was this job with Continental, that gave you this nomination?
Filipe Teixeira: This work aimed at creating a remote monitoring solution for underwater environments, one that would be capable of combining high levels of reliability, low energy consumption and the auto-configuration of the network. The work was developed in close collaboration with Continental, with regular meetings and improvement of the solution and support documents, with the result being an innovative solution considering the existing both the state-of-the-art and the business solutions.
Hugo Santos: The work with Continental consisted in the development of an underwater radio communication solution to be implemented in one of the company’s products. Since at OET we already have some experience with the radio part of this kind of solutions, my job was to develop the hardware of this full custom solution. In turn, the developed solution triggered the preparation of a patent since the performance attained was several times greater than that of a typical underwater radio communication solution. The work itself suffered from the usual setbacks encountered in this kind of customized and more disrupted works. However, I can assure will all confidence that this is the kind of work that motivates me and my CTM colleagues as researchers. In the end, given the results obtained through the solution, we can say that the work turned out really well.
Tiago Oliveira: This work emerged from the need of Continental to establish underwater wireless communications in one of its products. For this purpose, we have been asked for the specification and design of a solution, according to the requirements and use cases. The established solution included a radio and a network components, both having been evaluated using simulation and theoretical analysis. Since this was a service provision, this work required a continuous effort from the team in order to meet the designated deadlines and the client’s demands. In the end, the result was very positive, with two patents already being in prospect.
2 – We ask you to please comment on your nomination by the CTM Coordination:
“The CTM Coordination nominates the researchers Filipe Teixeira, Hugo Santos and Tiago Oliveira for Limelight. This nomination is based on the decisive contribution of this team to the success of R&D service provision with Continental Teves, Germany. The work and communications solution developed by the entire CTM team was widely praised by Continental, leading to the preparation of two patents to be submitted soon. The level of commitment and excellence in the work carried out, contributed decisively to the affirmation of INESC TEC's skills among Continental in the communications area, to INESC TEC’s international affirmation in the underwater communications area and to the establishment of a new partnership in this strategic area for CTM and INESC TEC.”
FT: I would like to thank the Coordination for the nomination in this project, which was definitely exploratory and challenging to everyone. The collaboration of Rui Campos and Luís Pessoa was also essential for the success of the project, which actually opened the way to new collaborations not only within different areas of CTM but also with Continental Teves, in an area of great industrial and scientific interest.
HS: I believe that this work only achieved this kind of success due to the close collaboration between CTM’s researchers with different skills, namely Filipe Teixeira and Tiago Telmo in the protocol and high-level solution aspects and, in my case, in the physical part that is mostly related to electromagnetism and electronics. The fact that underwater communications are strategic for INESC TEC was another reason that led us to have a somewhat deeper thinking and to try and develop a more disruptive solution that could place INESC TEC at a higher level in this area, especially because the client's requirements demanded so.
TO: On a personal level, this work was definitely a good experience that was both demanding but also very enriching. Seeing our work being recognised feels very rewarding and as such, I can only thank this nomination and congratulate the entire team for the work carried out.
