Project Developed at IDL is one of the European Astro Pi Challenge Winners

Portuguese team led by Carlos da Camara, researcher of the Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL) and professor at the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL), was one of the winners of the European Astro Pi Challenge 2019. This European Space Agency (ESA) educational project, carried out in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, offers young people the opportunity to conduct scientific research in space through the development of computer programs that are then tested on board the ESA. The Portuguese team, called Firewatchers, involves Tomás Alvim, student of the 2nd year of Physics at FCUL, Alexandre Santos, student of the 1st year of Physical and Technological Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Rafael Silva, student of the 1st year of Physics at FCUL and Núria Moreira, student of the 1st year of the integrated master's degree in medicine at the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS). The project proposed to use photographs taken aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to detect areas burned as result of forest fires. Since healthy vegetation reflects light with near-infrared radiation, it would be expected that using a blue filter would distinguish between burnt and healthy vegetation areas more effectively.

After planning and carrying out their own scientific investigations, the teams analyzed the data they received from the ISS and at the end presented a brief report highlighting the results and conclusions of their experiments. One of the awards for the 11 winning teams was an online seminar with ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, who is also currently responsible for the European Astronaut Center in Germany, where astronauts train for space missions. The meeting took place on June 18 and each team had the opportunity to ask Frank questions about his life as an astronaut.

You can see the video of the meeting here (the Portuguese team appears in the lower left corner).

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