José Ferreira, Aerospace Engineering alumnus, received an honourable mention at the 29th Young Engineer Innovation Awards, delivered by Ordem dos Engenheiros – South region, for his research carried out at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
“It’s an artificial intelligence tool that allows access to a method of measurement that is considerably accurate for tests in wind tunnels”, explains the alumnus. “By their nature, these tests are of high complexity and very expensive”, he adds.
The proposed solution allows access at reduced costs. “Using a simple camera and a laptop, this methodology allows the calculation of crucial parameters using an artificial intelligence algorithm”, stresses José Ferreira.
According to the author, this solution is of particular interest to “higher education institutions, namely research activities in the field of experimental fluid mechanics, proving to be a very economical solution, based on open source software and offering reduced complexity”.
In addition, these applications can be used in industry, to identify dynamic vibration phenomena and can be complementary to current strategies, “increasing the reliability of these methods and allowing a less intrusive solution in the test phase”, explains José Ferreira.
The Técnico alumnus highlights “this award is very important because it’s an opportunity to disseminate the new national values, which will act as the driving force of our country in the short term”. “This knowledge-trust relationship, promoted by prestigious institutions, is an important contribution to national progress in several fields, namely in engineering sciences”.
José Ferreira is currently involved in INFANTE project – the development of the first Portuguese micro-satellite. At the same time, he teaches at the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (IPS) and coordinates the international working group on Commercial Space – Space Generation Advisory Council.
The 29th Young Engineer Innovation Awards also recognised Madalena Ponte (2nd award winner) and Ana Sousa and Tiago Ribeiro (Honourable Mention).
