Sílvio Rodrigues became fascinated by renewable energies since an early age. Técnico provided him with the skills to be successful in the competitive and challenging world of entrepreneurship. After getting his PhD from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and a three-month hiatus to follow his dream – visiting South America – he discovered his passion for Artificial Intelligence (AI).
At the age of 18, he already knew that he wanted to study at Técnico “one of the top engineering schools in Portugal”, he says. The renewable energies were already part of his wide range of interests, as well as electrical engineering and computer engineering, and for that reason, he entered the Electrical and Computer Engineering course. “Técnico provided me with the skills and opportunity to be successful in my career”, highlights the Técnico alumnus.
According to Sílvio Rodrigues “what most impressed me was the spirit of mutual aid among Técnico students”. He keeps good memories of his academic life, “the long days spent at DEEC [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering]” and, above all, the friends he made at Técnico that remain until today.
In the second year of his MSc degree, Sílvio Rodrigues decided to do his dissertation at TU Delft. “I was in the right place at the right time! In the final stage of my master’s thesis I was told about the doctoral project, which seemed very interesting to me, as it combined renewable energies with optimization”, recalls the young entrepreneur. “The main objective of the PhD was the development of a framework to integrate, automate and optimize the design of offshore wind farms”, he shares. “I accepted the challenge and I couldn’t have made a better choice”, stresses the alumnus.
After getting his PhD, he followed another dream: to discover South America, and then he entered the AI world. “It quickly became one of my passions! A few months later I created jungle with Tim Kock and Alex Helmer”, he says.
Artificial intelligence and the entrepreneurship adventure
“After entering the AI world, it was quite clear to me what my next step was: to create a company where I could combine renewable energies with AI, in order to create value in the renewable energy sector”, he says. And this is how jungle was created, in 2017.
Jungle currently monitors several gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy assets for a growing number of customers, such as EDP – Energias de Portugal, Generg,Ingka and Total Eren, and aims to accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy sources.
Although he is aware that technology has an important role to play in addressing climate change, Sílvio Rodrigues shares “the challenge of climate change can’t be addressed from just a technological perspective”, but rather through a combination of solutions.
After raising an investment of €1M, the IST spin-off is expanding exponentially and “is about to take the next big leap and raise our series A”, shares Sílvio Rodrigues.
Sílvio Rodrigues has no doubts that Técnico prepares its graduates “for successful careers”. “In my opinion, one of the most important things is that Técnico teaches us how to think and to quickly learn new concepts”, he stresses. “This was quite clear to me during my PhD, as I felt I had the skills to do a good job and, once again, when I entered the AI world”, he adds.
