This year’s Industry Day, organised by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DEM), coincided with the inaugural TÉC4Defence event, which was organised by five students’ organisations (Physics Group (NFIST), Aerospace Engineering Students’ Organisation (AeroTéc), Lisbon’s New Satellite (LISAT), Fórum Mecânica, Electrical and Computer Engineering Students’ Organisation (NEEC)) at Instituto Superior Técnico. On 14 November, the Técnico Innovation Center powered by Fidelidade became the stage for several roundtables, presentations, and an exhibition of prototypes developed at Técnico with potential applications in the defence industry.
In previous editions, Mechanical Engineering Industry Day has brought together professors, researchers, students, and companies—this year from the defence sector—to facilitate cooperation between DEM and the business community. “We hope that the event will be a milestone in the relationship with our partners”, said Paulo Fernandes, the Head of DEM. During the opening ceremony, the coordinator of TÉC4Defence, João Martins, pointed out that the initiative’s goal was to “showcase the work developed by Técnico students who will be the engineers of the future”.
What looked like a normal video call was, in fact, a secure quantum network “already tested by professionals”, which allows “point-to-point communication at any distance” and whose next step “is industrialisation”, assured Pedro Martins, José Antunes, and Nuno Neves, researchers at Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores – Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC ID). This “tunnel network” is the result of work on the DISCRETION project, which has since been completed, and the PTQCI project, which is still underway.
“Quantum computers are a daily threat to cryptography”, warned Catarina Bastos, a Técnico alumna and Head of Secure Communications and Quantum Technologies at Daimos, who spoke on the panel “New Technologies in the Defence of Portugal and Europe”. Gonçalo Teixeira and Preeti Yadav, researchers at the Quantum Information & Quantum Optics hub (QIQO), a joint collaboration between the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion (IPFN) and the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), are working on a possible alternative: quantum communication using a single “quantum computer-proof” photon, he assures. This system is robust even in daylight and can always detect any attempts at interference. The only way for the message to be decoded by anyone other than the intended recipient would be breaking the “unbreakable laws of physics”.
Placing biosensors in the joints of a robot’s hand is one of the goals of Susana Freitas, a researcher at the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores – Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC_MN). This will enable robots to develop a sense of touch and make them faster, since “vision is slower because it requires more image processing”. Scaling up biosensors for both domestic and international markets is one of the team’s goals.
The one with the sharpest vision is Vigilant, a robot dog whose main missions are surveillance and scouting. Currently, Vigilant is capable of identifying civilians and military personnel. It recognises Portuguese army camouflage, and it is planned to teach it to identify other patterns from both Portuguese and foreign armed forces, explains Bruno Cândido, a researcher at the Mechanical Engineering Institute (idMEC).
In the context of defence, “drones are a means of delivering intelligence (information),” said Pedro Petiz, director of strategic development at TEKEVER (a member of the Técnico Partner Network), who participates in the round table “Defence and Industry: challenges and opportunities from an industry perspective”. Alexandre Athayde, also from idMEC, focuses his research on aircraft. He brought a low-cost drone that consumes very little energy during its operation, as well as another with vertical take-off and landing capabilities, thus requiring minimal space. The latter is one of the scientist’s challenges – “to keep it stable during the transition”.
Also working at IdMEC, Francisco Vieira shows “the behaviour of a structure under very high loads”. The computational model he developed allows for simulation to be compared with real-world cases, enabling analysis of structures made from different materials. This technology can, for example, “be applied in ballistics” to predict the impact of a projectile.
The Técnico Industry Day proved that “research, development, and innovation are essential components driving progress in this field”, as shared by the Army Colonel Arlindo Domingues, in the morning debate “Innovation and Technological Development: Challenges and opportunities from a defence perspective”.
