São Carlos

304’2025 (2025-10-31) – Friday

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Today, I learned about:

The month of October, 2025, was the month when I got to learn more about the UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle. What, you say, is that? It is the formal name for what colloquially is named a drone. Then most of you at least know what I am talking about.

I signed up for a course to learn more about drones in São Carlos, state of São Paulo, Brazil. São Carlos is a great university city, with two well known public universities, UFSCar (Federal University of São Carlos) and USP (State University of São Paulo), besides other private ones. It is said to be the city in Brazil that has the highest rate of academic doctors per capita. More about São Carlos can be found in reference #1 below.

But of course there are also other schools beyond the universities. One of them is a federal technical school called IFSP São Carlos (Federal Institute in the state of São Paulo) and the city also has an educational foundation called FESC. IFSP and FESC have partnered up to offer a course named “Drones in action”, where 10 intensive classes of 2 to 3 hours each teach everything a layman needs to know about projecting, developing and deploying a drone, including not only technical details, but also legal regulations and security aspects. Right now, we are exactly in the middle of this course and I must say that it really has broadened my mind immensely. Here is an illustration from the course material:

This is the title page of the first class in the series about Drones in action: project, development and deployment. The course is presented by four enthusiastic persons (Guilherme Zonta, João Teodoro, Rafael Bastos, and Thiago Carvalho) from Instituto Federal de São Paulo in São Carlos, and is coordinated by Rogéria Kapp from Fundação Educacional São Carlos.

I got interested about finding out more on the subject and was lucky to retrieve an article from Nature in 2015, where the researches discuss how insects can fly and inspire developers of drones in their quest for light-weight, yet fast and powerful drones. I urge you to read the article which also gives very basic facts about why objects can fly. See reference #2 below.

Update 348’2025 (2025-12-14)

On 338’2025 (2025-12-04) was held the last class in the series Drones in action: project, development and deployment, with practical experience on how to navigate a drone. Today, I also obtained an e-book presenting a summary of the course, you can find it in reference #3, below.

And since I had participated in all activitities from the start, I also obtained a certificate for that, see the following photo:

Here you can see a photo taken on 338’2025 (2025-12-04) of me (guess who?) in the center with the following persons, from left to right: Thiago Carvalho Nogueira, Rafael Bastos Arantes, João Pedro Teodoro Batista , Guilherme Leonel Zonta Avi, and Rogéria Kapp.

Today’s header photo and also the following ones were taken by my friend Juliane Vianna who recently had some marvellous days on the Spanish island of Mallorca. More about Mallorca can be found in reference # 4 below.

Pictures from Sa Coma and Porto Cristo on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Photos taken by Juliane Vianna on 303’2025 (2025-10-30).

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: São Carlos

2: Aerodynamics, vortices and robobees

3: Fundamentos de VANTs – Projeto, construção e operação

4: Mallorca

*: What did you learn in school today?

334’2022 (2022-11-30) – Tuesday

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned about:

As I promised you in my post of 304’2022 (2022-10-31) , here is the beginning of my story about how Brazil is investing in bringing up a generation of skiers that hopefully one day will be able to compete on an elite level around the world.

To start with, the house you see in today’s header has a sign saying NEBAR, it is an abbreviation in Portuguese for the attribute Núcleo de Esportes de Base e Alto Rendimento, which means Nucleus for Basic and Highly Productive Sports in English. It is a joint project between the Special Secretary for Sports of the Federal Government’s Ministry for Citizenship, the Department of Physical Education and Human Motricity at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), and CBDN. See also reference 1 below.

Here are some more pictures that I took while visiting the NEBAR team:

In these photos you can see three of the members in the rollerskiing coaching team, from left to right Fabio, Guilherme, and Carol. And in the smaller photos, from top to bottom, Guilherme gives us a closer look on one type of rollerski, with a large assortment in the background; and of course, there is a need to wear special boots to fit into the skies; and finally Carol shows us two different types of boots, the left one can be used both for rollerskiing on a paved road and in cross country skiing on snow, while the right one only is suited for rollerskiing. Photos taken on 330’2022 (2022-11-26).

During 2023, I will follow the NEBAR team and report more on their activities.

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: NEBAR

*: What did you learn in school today ?

304’2022 (2022-10-31) – Halloween

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Today, I learned about:

As you read in my post of 240’2022 (2022-08-28) , although Brazil does not have the natural conditions to be a country involved in winter sports, there are two Brazilian confederations, CBDG (sports on ice) and CBDN (sports on snow). For the former part, there is of course the possibility of building an ice arena, which you also saw in that post. But what do you do to create good conditions to practice on snow in a country with mainly tropical and sub-tropical climate?

CBDN has found a way! There is another sport which mimics cross country skiing, but without snow. It is called roller skiing, for details see reference #1 below.

I had the pleasure of attending a roller skiing competition in São Carlos, SP, Brazil two weeks ago. The following photo shows me testing the winners’ podium, and yes if it could hold me, then the athletes would have no problems to be receiving their well-earned medals.

Me testing the winners’ podium before the prize giving ceremonies of the third stage of the Brazilian roller skiing circuit, held in São Carlos, SP, Brazil on 287’2022 (2022-10-14)

Here you can see two pictures from the competition on 287’2022 (2022-10-14), when the topic was a 1,4 km sprint with qualifications, semi-finals and finals, as well as the top trio in both the women’s and the men’s competition. Reference # 2 below gives all the details about the competition.

In this photo can be seen the finish in the women’s 1, 4 km sprint. It is also very clear to see how the skis used by the athletes are.
A photo showing the finish in the men’s 1,4 km sprint
A video clip showing the fascinating finish of the men’s 1,4 km sprint
The winning trio in the women’s 1,4 km sprint: 1) Eduarda Ribera (only 17 years old!); 2) Gabriela Neres; 3) Mirlene Picin. All three from Brazil.
The winning trio in the men’s 1,4 km sprint, 1) Claudio Oliveira, Brazil; 2) Victor Santos, Brazil; 3) Yonathan Fernandez, Chile.

Next month, I will give more details about the roller skiing organization within CBDN.

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Roller skiing

2: Circuito brasileiro de rollerski etapa III

*: What did you learn in school today ?

273’2022 (2022-09-30) – Friday

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Hoje, eu aprendi que:

Brasil pode não ser o país mais rico financeiramente, mas quando se pensa em riqueza cultural está definitivamentemente no topo.

Tive o prazer de assistir um show com o sambista Paulinho da Viola e sua família no Sesc em São Carlos na semana passada. A foto abaixo mostra Paulinho flanqueados por Beatriz e João. Paulinho toca seu cavaquinho com mestria, Beatriz canta e João toca o violão, e ainda há um trio acompanhando por piano, bateria e guitarra.

Paulinho é uma homem muito carismâtico. Possui 79 anos, mas da maneira que ele age parece mais como um jovem artista de 29 anos, impressionante! No show foram apresentadas várias músicas conhecidas dele, de uma carreira com mais de 50 anos. Para quem quer conhecer as músicas, há amplas possibilidades pela internet, mas quero somentar acrescentar uma estória que ele contou.

Paulinho está muito ligado à escola de samba carioca Portela, mas uns atrás participou, sem querer, numa competição de canções de samba em São Paulo e ganhou um prêmio. Isso não foi recebido bem na Portela. Em compensação, Paulinho escreveu “Foi um rio que passou em minha vida”. A estória completa segue aqui, mas infelizmente a qualidade do som não está muito boa:

Paulinho da Viola conta a estória que fez ele compensar a Portela com a bela canção “Foi um rio que passou em minha vida”.

Mais sobre Paulinho na referência 1, abaixo.

Paulinho da Viola with daughter Beatriz, son João e and a trio performing at Sesc in São Carlos on 263’2022 (2022-09-20).

(The story above in Portuguese is about a show that the samba legend Paulinho da Viola held in São Carlos last week. The header photo shows him together with his daughter Beatriz and son João, as well as an accompanying trio. More about Paulinho da Viola can be found in reference #2 below.)

And, finally, soon there will be some photos from my May visit to Ouro Preto. In my blogs from 151’2022 (2022-05-31) and 181’2022 (2022-06-30) I already showed you some pictures, and during the month of December there will be more to come.

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Paulinho da Viola (em português)

2: Paulinho da Viola (in English)

*: What did you learn in school today ?