UFSCar

304’2025 (2025-10-31) – Friday

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

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?

151’2025 (2025-05-31) – Saturday

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned about:

My ongoing relation with CBDN, the Brazilian Confederation for Snowsports, has added another, impressive chapter. Earlier posts about CBDN can be found on 240’2022 (2022-08-28), 304’2022 (2022-10-31) , 334’2022 (2022-11-30) , 31’2023 (2023-01-31) , 272’2023 (2023-09-29), and 91’2024 (2024-03-31) .

On 146’2025 (2025-05-26), I was invited to a ceremony to mark the conclusion of the 2024/25 winter sport season. It was held in São Paulo at MIS, the museum for image and sound. The whole event was very well organized, with both an initial cocktail with delicious salty and sweet snacks and a bigger buffet during the half-time break.

It was really interesting to see the enthuiasm of so many talented athletes, both those with normal body conditions and those who participate in the para athletic disciplines. And the ceremony, which meant to reward the best of those, was also very well planned and executed, with a ceremony master, Beth Romero, who is a well-known sports journalist. A video from the ceremony can be found in reference #1 below, and here are also some photos:

As you can see from the photo in the upper left corner, the auditorium was packed with expectation from the athletes, their families, friends and supporters. The bottom photo in the left column shows the ceremony master, Beth Romero.
The three photos in the middle column show, from top to bottom: – Two of the most rewarded athletes, Aline Rocha and Cristian Ribera, both world champions in para ski cross country; – Cristian Ribera, showing the Crystal Globe as World Cup champion, rewarded as Athlete of the Season, flanked by CBDN President Anders Pettersson and COO Gustavo Haidar; – Some of the CBDN staff present during the ceremony, from left to right: Laura Dias, Luisa Crisol, Luíza Calaça, Thatiana Freire, Gustavo Haidar, Matheus Sales, Laura Costa, and Rafaella Malafaia.
In the rightmost column, from top to bottom: – CBDN President Anders Pettersson welcoming the audience to the cremony; – The trophy awarded to the Athletes of the Year in their respective disciplines; – The trophy awarded to the Athletes considered Revelations or Highlights during the Year.

Another highlight this month is related to my student of the Swedish language, Gabriel Bertho. I teach him Swedish so he can communicate well with his fellow colleagues at Linköping University of Technology. Gabriel, who is a technology student at UFSCar, the Federal University of São Carlos,  spent four months in Sweden in 2024 on a robotics project. The result of that project was presented by him at the 1st Brazilian Conference on Robotics in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil during the last three days of April, 2025. Here are two pictures of Gabriel and his presentation at the conference:

Finally, this month’s header photo was taken by another of my Swedish language students, Laura Ponce, who currently lives in Greifswald, Germany, where she took this springlike photo on 121’2025 (2025-05-01).

A beautiful spring photo taken on 121’2025 (2025-05-01) in Greifswald, Germany by Laura Ponce.

Thank you, Laura! More about Greifswald can be found in reference #2 below.

That’s what I learned in school today! 

Ref.:

1: Cerimônia de encerramento da temporada 2024/2025

2: Greifswald

*: What did you learn in school today?

59’2023 (2023-02-28) – Tuesday

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned about:

How right I was in my post last month about the perils of summer here in the Southern hemisphere. In this post, I had planned to talk about an interesting event I participated in on January 19, but that has to be told next month. Instead I want to comment on the terrible weather conditions during the Carnival celebrations on the Northern coast of the state of São Paulo. Torrential rain combined with a cyclone resulted in huge landslides mainly in the municipality of São Sebatião. Besides the heavy material damage, more than 50 people lost their lives. See reference #1 below.

Jabaquara Beach in Ilhabela, Ilha de São Sebastião, SP, Brazil. Photo taken on 51’2023 (2023-02-20).

This photo was taken by my daughter Karina who happened to be in Ilhabela, the municipality on the island of São Sebastião, that only can be reached by a ferry from the continent. But I prefer to show the beauty that still exists after the catastrophe, so this photo from the beach of Jabaquara was taken on Monday, one day later, and while the Southern side of the island also suffered heavily from the catastrophe, as you can see, this view from the Northern side of Ilhabela is still breathtaking.

And speaking about about Karina, you may remember her from my post of 305’2019 (2019-10-31), when she presented a language project during an international conference in Salvador, BA, Brazil. Now she has concluded her academic studies and been awarded the Bachelor degree in Computer Science. That event was organized on 34’2023 (2023-02-03) and as a proud father, I am happy to show you a photo from it:

Ceremony to officialize the conclusion of studies for BSc in Computer Science at UFSCar, Federal University of São Carlos, on 34’2023 (2023-02-03).

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Brazilian cities unprepared for extreme natural events, experts say

*: What did you learn in school today ?