Limelight

Every month, this section will honour a collaborator for an exceptional contribution in his/her area of activity. BIP’s Editors will have the final choice. However, the cooperation of every Unit Coordinator is precious since they will be the ones suggesting which collaborator should be distinguished...

Carlos Tavares

1.  How does it feel to be chosen for the “Limelight” section for the month of December?

I am very proud and pleased. It means my work is acknowledged.

2. How long have you been working at INESC Porto and what is your connection to the institution?

I’ve been working at INESC Porto for almost two years, always as a research grant holder.

3. How did the opportunity to work at INESC Porto come up?

The opportunity came up in the sequence of a traineeship for students back when I was a senior student. I worked at INESC Porto during my traineeship and I ended up staying until the end of “CAALYX” project.

4. What is your degree?

Computer Engineering.

5. Which was the first challenge that made you “sweat” while working at INESC Porto?

CAALYX made me “sweat” a lot over ever since I started working on it. That was my first non-academic project and I participated in every stage, practically since the project’s design. All of it was new and challenging. However, I would say that creating the prototype was the hardest part, mainly because it depended on work carried out by other partners that were geographically scattered and so there wasn’t always a common vision for the system. For that reason, there were several advances and setbacks during the development of the project. On the other hand, due to this factor, I had to travel frequently, which wasn’t that bad.

6. Which was your first great victory?

My victories are entirely related to the results that we have been achieving with CAALYX. Here, I would like to emphasize the maturity and acceptance (and that was not easy to achieve) that the system has already achieved with the end users. A greater victory would be the project’s approval and commercial exploitation.

7. Do you want to follow an academic career or do you intend to try and achieve some experience in the industry?

I would like to do some research work for the industry, yes. Using science to create palpable innovations with an impact on the industry is one of my dreams. In a sense, I think this is a way of combining the two paths because I believe that whoever does this type of research ends up contributing greatly, not only to the industry, but also to the academic world.

8. Who would you say is/was a role model for you at INESC Porto?

I think it would be unfair for me to choose one only person as my role model because there are many valuable and experienced people at INESC Porto. I think I have been benefitting a lot from the diversified knowledge and contribution of many people. Therefore, I would say that I don’t have one role model – I have plenty.

9. We are in the third edition of the “Limelight” section and you’re the first collaborator under the age of thirty. Does that add some responsibility to future projects?

I don’t see it as a factor of additional pressure. I believe that we should be responsible and dedicated in everything we do.

10. What would be your advice for a young researcher?

This is a complicated question because I haven’t achieved that much myself so I’m not in the position to give any advice to anyone. Either way, I would risk saying that one should look to achieve more and more experience. This can be applied to every job, not only to research. For that, it is important t work with competent people from whom we can learn. At the same time, it is also important, in my opinion, to work on projects that will give us some visibility, enthusiasm, challenge and motivation. If possible, I think people should start getting familiarised with the process of research when they’re still in college, participating in research projects that allow students. This is a good way of understanding what research is and if we want to make a career out of it. If you’re organised, it’s perfectly possible to combine the participation in these projects with school.

11. Which are, in your opinion, the main assets that INESC Porto offers to a researcher starting his career at this institution?

Using my previous answer as a starting point, we can see that INESC Porto has all the ingredients to a successful recipe in the career of any researcher: reputed people and projects with strong impact and visibility.

Additionally, the work environment is great and the working hours are flexible, which allows us to combine personal and professional matters (for instance, Master’s or Doctoral Degrees). At the same time, the institution has a great administrative structure which takes a lot of weight off our back.

12. We will end this short questionnaire by asking you to comment on what António Gaspar, coordinator of your Unit – USIC – had to say about you when he appointed you for the “Limelight” section.

“I would like to appoint Carlos Tavares for the “Limelight” section. In December, he spent several weeks in Italy preparing the CAALYX field test, solving problems 7 days a week. It is important to highlight that INESC Porto is this project’s Technical Coordinator.”

That was true! Before we started the tests with real users, it was necessary to solve many problems: some had to do with the complexity of a real usage environment, while others were caused during the system’s configuration and installation.

Since not all of the partners could travel to the place where we were performing the tests in order to solve problems on their own, INESC Porto’s responsibility as technical coordinator had to be extended to all of the system’s components and that led to weeks of intensive work. Nevertheless, this was a growing experience due to the amount of activities that were necessary in order to perform the tests.