Instituto Superior Técnico once again opened its doors to various secondary school student projects for the FAQtos Award. The final ceremony, held on 5 July, showcased ideas related to the theme “Explore Radiofrequencies”, all realized in free-format projects. This year’s edition featured 36 teams, involving a total of 137 students, 32 supervising teachers, and 29 different schools.
According to Luís M. Correia, Técnico professor and project coordinator, “this competition has served as motivation for students to engage in extracurricular activities, also involving their local communities.” In addition to highlighting the quality of the projects submitted each year, he emphasizes Técnico’s role in supporting these initiatives—”being a reference school, Técnico’s involvement clearly serves to motivate and attract students to compete for the Award.”
The winning team of the competition, Sky Watchers, from the Penacova Basic and Secondary School in Coimbra, presented the project “Remote-Controlled Drone”. The work involved developing an innovative drone designed to assist in the surveillance and prevention of forest fires in rural regions, often affected by such situations. This drone operates via radiofrequency communication, allowing remote control from a distance. Equipped with two cameras (one thermal and one conventional), the drone identifies heat sources and visually monitors large forest areas in real-time.
Second place was awarded to the EPSWater team from the Professional School of Salvaterra de Magos, Santarém. The students developed an autonomous and sustainable surface vessel, “EPSWater”, which integrates the necessary sensors to obtain precise measurements of pH, temperature, turbidity, water salinity, and conductivity. The project’s goal is to contribute to preserving river water quality by collecting data on-site. The system features mobile communication via GPRS or through LoRaWAN technology between the user and the vessel.
Third place went to the RFExplorers team from DIDÁXIS – Teaching Cooperative of Vila Nova de Famalicão, Braga. With the project “WS on the Air”, the students explored the functioning, utility, and safety of Radiofrequencies by creating an autonomous weather station capable of collecting and transmitting environmental data in real-time. To achieve this, they designed a system based on environmental sensors, an Arduino microcontroller, and data transmission modules via Wi-Fi.
The top three teams in the competition were awarded amounts of 500, 1000, and 1500 euros, respectively.
The FAQtos project aims to publicly provide relevant information about electromagnetic radiation in mobile communications, including concepts related to electromagnetic waves and exposure limits, among other aspects.
Last year’s winning team, from Vilela, in the Paredes region, created the Elder Tech kit, which consists of a set of modules made up of sensors that include fall detectors, gas, temperature and rain sensors, automatic lighting and air conditioning, among others.
In 2023, the winners came from the Francisco Franco Secondary School in Madeira and developed the Nefertiti project, a necklace-shaped device (which can be worn around the neck as a clothing accessory) that monitors vital signs, detecting and signalling states of anxiety so that the user can carry out relaxation routines.
