Dário Pedro and Francisco Nogueira, respectively student and alumnus at the NOVA School of Science and Technology, are the winners of the Academy and Startup categories of the fifth edition of the Altice International Innovation Award, an innovation award that aims to reinforce Portugal's position in the development of innovation and recognize entrepreneurship and national talent.
Dário Pedro, student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD programme, stood out in the Academy category with his project 'Collision Avoidance on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles using Deep Neural Networks', which aims to identify an answer to avoid the collision of unmanned aerial vehicles through the use of Deep Neural Networks. Unmanned aerial vehicles can allow multiple applications, such as shipping goods, security, or, in the long term, transporting people. This solution helps to resolve the city's traffic problems, but since it requires a high level of safety and protection, Dário Pedro's work proposes a neural solution to prevent collision between static and moving objects, through use of artificial intelligence.
In the Startup category, the Glooma project, designed by former student of the Biomedical Engineering course, Francisco Nogueira, also received the highest distinction from the Altice International Innovation Award. Glooma is developing a home medical screening device that complements breast self-examination. Through a glove – SenseGlove, which uses piezoelectric sensors, it is possible to detect abnormalities, benign or malignant, in the breast tissue, and control its size and texture.
The Altice International Innovation Award, which had its first edition in 2016, aims to distinguish masters and doctoral students in Portugal, but also entrepreneurs and startups in the incubation phase and with a branch in Portugal or France.