About Me

My aunt started her undergraduate studies in Physics, only to drop it one year later. Nevertheless, I inherited her textbooks and, when I was twelve years old, it was with joy that I tried to comprehend physics at a much higher level than the one I was used to. I remember that, of all those books I inherited and foreseeing my career choices, my personal favorite was "Optics and Quantum Physics".

After elementary school, I went for a technical diploma from the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology (IFPB), in Maintenance of Computer and Networks. During my four years there, I had the chance to learn the basics of electronics, computer networks, setup of Windows and Linux servers... There, I made my mind to study Electrical Engineering. It was there that I started doing research, first about security concerns of RFID applications and then in wireless sensor networks based on ZigBee.

During my undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering, my attention was primarily drawn to Electromagnetism, Digital Signal Processing and Computer Networks. I did research on the latter, more precisely working with Elastic Optical Networks. This project allowed me to learn what it really means to research: I had to manage my time, read state-of-the-art articles, discuss with my adviser, propose solutions that might or might not work (frequently the latter), present papers on conferences, write and publish papers in journals, and so on. After two years of work, this research culminated with the development of the Simulator for Elastic Optical Networks and of a novel algorithm that surpassed all the others proposed until then. It was when I finally developed this algorithm that I was sure: I can do research.

Although Computer Networks were clearly interesting to me, I decided to do my Master studies in Phelma, France, not in Telecommunications but rather in Microelectronics, where I eventually tended to follow a path into Optoelectronics. Even though Optoelectronics and Optical Networks share the "Optics" that flows through since my childhood, I was motivated to make such a change because, with the former, I could work closer to Physics. It was not by chance that my favorite class was Semiconductor Physics (followed closely by Development of VLSI Circuits, as I also grew fond of Digital Microelectronics).

Optics (and, by consequence, research) is not my single love. I am also a passionate teacher, and used to always sign up for tutoring activities. For two years, I gave weekly classes in "Linear Algebra", "Probability" and "Signal and Systems Analysis". The day before the exam, it was common for me to receive tens of emails from desperate students. As a project under the Rotaract Club of Campina Grande, I also organized classes in basic mathematics (such as subtraction, multiplication, decimal numbers, fractions...) to students in fragile social situations. The fact that they were much behind in mathematics, together with their immense interest in our classes, showed me how much of a herculean work must be made to improve education in Brazil. I would be fulfilled if I could go on to be at least half as good a teacher as the ones I have had in my life.