> whoami

I am a 23 year old Electrical and Computer Eng. PhD student at Instituto Superior Técnico - ULisboa , with a knack for all things FPGA, embedded systems and reconfigurable computing. I am also a early-stage researcher at INESC-ID and INESC-INOVLabs.

I was born in Lisbon, Portugal on the 16th of September. My family is originally from Arraiolos, in Alentejo Central (mother’s side) and from Lisbon and Portalegre, Alto Alentejo (father’s side).

My PhD project - SMARTCHIP - has the objective to design a AI accelerator for embedded enviroments, with the possibility to be reconfigured for different networks. This accelerator will be prototyped in FPGA, being developed as an ASIC in a later stage. This project is supervised by Prof. Horácio Neto, Prof. Mário Véstias, Prof. Rui Policarpo Duarte, Prof. José Teixeira de Sousa and Prof. João Vaz.

I finished my ECE Master’s in November 2025, having majored in Computer Systems and minoring in Electronic Circuits and Systems. For my MSc Thesis I designed ARES, a Hardware/Software Co-Designed Embedded System for a Swin Transformer Layer execution, targeting aerial image segmentation. This work was developed at INESC-ID/INESC-INOV under Prof. Horácio Neto and Prof. Mário Véstias. My thesis was awarded a 19/20 grade.

From 2023 to July 2025 I was a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering teaching on the following courses:

• Algorithms and Data Structures
• Digital Systems
• Programming
• Computer Architectures

I enjoyed this experience throughly, having won the Excelence in Teaching award for the school year of 23/24.

I have also been hackin’ and tinkerin’ while involved with the HackerSchool hackerspace, which I belong to since 2021. At HackerSchool I have assumed the following functions:

• Board Member (Marketing) in 2022
• President from 2022 to 2024
• Board Member (Chief Hacker Officer) from 2024 until now

> more interests.txt

> grep “Academic Interests”

• Digital Systems Design and Verification
• Embedded and IoT Computer Systems
  • AI on the Edge
• Reconfigurable Computing
  • FPGA Prototyping
• Electronic Design Automation

> grep “Technical Interests”

• Open Hardware, Hardware Hacking and Right to Repair
• Linux and Open Source Software
• Smart Urban Agriculture
• Incremental Manufacturing Processes (3D Printing)

> grep “The ‘Cool’ Interests and Curio”

• I go to the gym, like target shooting and enjoy camping
  • But I am not a gym bro, just a gym buddy :)
• I enjoy cooking and barbecueing
• I like to produce spirits and I’m learning more on home brewing
• I smoke a pipe
• I really like dogs and I am medically alergic to cats
• I have strabismus, and had corrective eye surgery (that’s why my right eyelid droops a bit)
• I like traveling, especially inside the portuguese territory
• I do a bit of analog photography
• Finally I am a huge nerd
  • I am really interested in History (since I was a kid)
    • Pre-Roman Celtiberian Civilizations (such as Celtici and Lusitani)
    • European Dark Ages and Medieval Folklore, culture and wars
    • Modern-ish War Machines
  • I throughly enjoy reading
    • J.R.R. Tolkien worldbuilding tomes and fantasy
    • H.P. Lovecraft weird fiction
    • João Aguiar’s historical novels
    • Comic books: Lucky Luke, Astérix, Tintin, The Mercenary, works from Bilal, etc.
  • I collect Heavy Metal vinyls, with a preference for NWOBHM and Doom
  • I’ve DM’ed and played multiple Dungeons and Dragons and Call of Cthulhu campaigns.
  • I play a bit of Magic the Gathering