This article profiles EDAM LTI doctoral student Alexandre Ferreira da Silva.  On the 23rd of March, Alexandre Ferreira da Silva was awarded the 8th edition of the PVC Iberian Forum prize for the work developed during his PhD: a PVC smart foil. The recognition came in good timing, while he is concluding the Leaders for Technical Industries course at University of Minho, over the MIT Portugal Program in the Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing focus area.
Alexandre graduated in 2007 in Biomedical Engineering (Integrated Masters) and specialized in Medical Electronics at the same university where he is now pursuing his PhD – the University of Minho. Between 2006 and 2007 he spent six months at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, studying alternative manufacturing processes in order to evaluate their performance and justify their utilization on electrodes production. In 2009 he performed an industrial internship at TMG Automotive during four months, as a part of his doctoral studies. That same year he was a visiting student for four months at the MIT’s Materials Systems Laboratory. The Iberian PVC Forum Prize is not his first. In 2010 Alexandre received an award for the best oral communication in the city theme during the Engineering Week, of the School of Engineering of University of Minho, with the work “Skin-Foils with Embedded Optical Fiber Sensors”. Currently he is one of the students engaged in the Forum E3, organized by MIT Portugal Students, which will be held in 30th of June. How did you learn about the MIT Portugal Program and what motivated you to apply for the EDAM LTI PhD? I heard about the MIT Portugal program in the beginning of 2007. I was abroad, in Aachen, Germany, doing my Erasmus, when I received an e-mail sent by one of my professors from University of Minho. At that time, the e-mail focused only in the Bioengineering focus-area, as I was studying Biomedical Engineering. A few months later, already in Portugal, my supervisor told me about the EDAM focus-area and, when I searched for information, it turned out to be more appealing to me. It was not only the fact that the program had the MIT collaboration, although this was an important reference, but what caught my attention were the subjects of the field. I was looking for something that included companies and product development and EDAM met my ambitions. These were subjects that I had not taken before and that I felt were missing in my curriculum. Furthermore, it included an industrial internship that I also considered innovative. All this made me apply to the MIT Portugal Program in the EDAM focus-area. It was a choice that I have not regretted so far. What is your research project about and what do you hope to achieve? My research started to be related to the integration of optical fiber sensors in polymeric laminates commonly used inside the automobile. The goal was to perform structural health monitoring of the vehicle’s chassis. The work would be developed under a consortium partnership that includes University of Minho, MIT, TMG Automotive and FiberSensing. As we started the research, we soon found out that a smart-foil with integrated optical fiber sensors would have a broader application range, in which other fields besides the automotive would have a superior potential. Thus, my work has focused mainly in how to manufacture a smart-foil. The main goals were to have an overall structure that could be applied in a discrete manner, that could be fully customized in terms of shape, size and sensor positioning, that could be manufactured in industrial environment and that would be also cost-competitive. The smart-foil was fully developed from the formulation to the design of a concept machine for the automated insertion of optical fibers during the manufacturing process. The costs associated to the manufacturing have as well been analyzed and the structure has been proved to be cost-competitive. The product potential of the smart-foil has been evaluated by testing it in several real applications. The ultimate goal would be to provide the smart-foil as a product. The potential has been showed and the interest from third-parties’ companies has been also demonstrated. What are the major benefits of this project on peoples’ lives? There is a broad range of applications for the smart-foil. It can be used in the biomedical sector by applying it as a second-skin for the monitoring of the human-joints articulations. The automotive industry can take advantage, especially if the chassis become made of composites materials. The construction sector is another one in which the smart-foil can be a great ally in the detection of cracks in early stages, enabling an anticipated intervention. In general the smart-foil, due to its structure and easy installation procedure, tends to decrease the operation costs not only at the installation stage but also later during the monitoring in the inspection and intervention planning. How do you see this area evolving in the future? Smartness is one of the main keywords of this decade. The majority of the big structures made today are already called smart-structures due to functionalities that have been implemented besides the one of being a standard structure. The developed research has been following this trend. The smart-foil is a product for today, meeting the needs and issues of the companies that developed monitoring solutions. Looking further in the future, much of the performed research can be used for other innovative products based in the same concept. Thus, the smart-foil is for an actual product market but with the ability to be transferred to the future. How can this kind of research projects/ international partnerships contribute and cause impact in Portugal’s economic development? I am a strong supporter of the new research paradigm that combines industry and academia in one partnership. It is important to point-out that both work with different dynamics. While one performs R&D in a more applied manner looking for new differencing characteristics in their products and always looking for incomes, academia tends to use its knowledge in a more fundamental research. Nonetheless, both can take advantage of each other as they learn to work together. The universities have a variety of researchers of great knowledge and the industry recognizes the market needs. This leads to innovation and motivation. I believe that from these partnerships, innovative solutions emerge from a motivated research. The quality of the MIT Portugal’s research is a great example of the add-value of such partnerships. I believe that nowadays industries are more open to academia and academia became more respectful towards industry. What do you hope to do once you complete your degree? During the PhD I found myself interested in the academic field, where my expectations fall at the moment. As I believe in the industry-university partnerships, I think they need to be endorsed and stimulated and this is where I want to put myself. I have learned during my PhD to speak the industry and university languages that I desired to use in new research projects and in lectures. | 
