on 04-06-2020
In 2015, I started an FCT Post-Doc grant at IT in collaboration with the Centro de Automática y Robótica, CSIC-UPM in Madrid, Spain.
I started in IT in the beginning of 2010, working in the FCT project “FEfOF”, under the supervision of Professor Paulo André. My main task was to contribute towards the study of the catastrophic optical fiber fuse effect, its characteristics and impact in optical fiber networks.
Based on the work developed during that year, and fascinated by the possibility to purse a doctorate degree, I was granted a FCT PhD grant the next year. My work, still under the supervision of Professor Paulo André, targeted the study of the degradation of optical fibers’ lifetime and its impact in optical fiber communication networks.
In the final stage, our work developed into the recycling of the damaged fibre, in order to cost-effectively produce Fabry-Perot optical fiber sensors. I have concluded my PhD in 2014. The topic, explored in the final stage of my PhD, gave me new perspectives of research, which I planned to pursue within my Post-Doc research.
In 2015, I started an FCT Post-Doc grant at IT in collaboration with the Centro de Automática y Robótica, CSIC-UPM in Madrid, Spain. This collaboration aimed to develop smart optical fiber solutions to be integrated in physical rehabilitation exoskeletons, in order to improve the wellbeing of debilitated patients.
The development of this type of solutions led to a more ambitious design, towards the development of an e-Health monitoring system, through an integrated optical fiber sensor network, capable of monitoring health conditions in the lower limbs. This last topic was supported by IT through the financing of the internal project WeHope - Wearable e-Health optical fiber monitoring systems, encouraging me and our team to pursue other substantial financing sources.
IT has definitely helped me grow as a researcher, and was always a support in all my academic path. For that… Thank you!
on 04-06-2020
Today I’m still a very proud Researcher at IT, an Invited Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal and Chief Innovation Officer at PLUX. (see more)
Sharing my learning and accomplishments at IT with the world! I first joined the lab in 2004 while pursuing a MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), under the supervision of Professor Ana Fred and integrated on what evolved to become the Pattern and Image Analysis (PIA) group. This work proposed several contributions, especially to the then emerging field of biometric recognition based on Electrocardiographic (ECG) signals. The conclusion of the MSc started me on a path in entrepreneurship as one of the co-founders of PLUX - Wireless Biosignals, S.A., a company established in 2007 to develop innovative biomedical solutions. When an opportunity came to further develop my studies, there was no place other than the IT where I saw myself doing so, and in 2010 I joined the lab as a full-time researcher once again enrolled in a PhD in ECE at IST with a scholarship from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and Professor Ana Fred as supervisor. Completed in 2013, my dissertation proposed new methods and applications of physiological sensing, and was a corollary of the unique environment found at IT. Results include a patented technology for “off-the-person” ECG biometrics and establishing the foundations to what is currently CardioID - Technologies Lda., founded in 2014. The most iconic output, however, was BITalino, an award-winning low-cost hardware and open source software toolkit, recently recognised by the European Commission’s DG-CONNECT as the best “Industrial and Enabling Tech” in their Innovation Radar Prize 2017. Now with thousands of devices in use by leading academia, industry and individuals at large in more than 60 countries, BITalino is redefining biomedical education, research and prototyping, and it all sprung out of the ingenuity fostered by IT. Today I’m still a very proud Researcher at IT, an Invited Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal and Chief Innovation Officer at PLUX. I’ll be forever grateful to IT for providing the groundings and culture of excellence upon which most of these achievements are rooted, and can only hope that others may benefit from such a stellar experience.