Engenharia de Rádio e Eletrónica

About Area

The Radio and Electronics Engineering area aims to develop solutions for future communication, computing, and sensing systems, based on expertise in microwaves, integrated photonics, digital and analogue electronics, and signal processing. These solutions are applied in radio/optical communications, human sensing, and embedded computing. In this context, research is focused on three complementary strands: the development of antennas and reconfigurable devices, exploring heterogeneous architectures and neuromorphic computing to enhance efficiency and adaptability to operational conditions; the pursuit of sustainable approaches, including antennas and electronic circuits based on 3D printing and materials that promote economic and environmental sustainability; and the integration of multi-modal communication and sensing, combining radio and video to enhance system performance and robustness.

Flagship Projects

CONVERGE

CONVERGE is an Horizon Europe project started on February 2023 and the main objective is the development of an innovative toolset aligned with the motto “view-to-communicate and communicate-to-view”. This toolset is a world-first and consists of vision-aided large intelligent surfaces, vision-aided fixed and mobile base stations, a vision-radio simulator and 3D environment modeler, and machine learning algorithms for multimodal data including radio signals, video streams, RF sensing, and traffic traces. CONVERGE will also provide the scientific community with open datasets of experimental and simulated data obtained with the toolset in the RIs, meet scientific and industrial requirements by addressing relevant 6G verticals, enhance the competitiveness of the involved companies, extend the European influence to world-wide recognized RIs, enable the creation of new RIs, contribute to the development of new environment-friendly tools, and help European Union to address its societal challenges.

TERRAMETA

TERRAMETA is an Horizon Europe project in the scope of the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS-JU) that started on January 2023 and aims to investigate revolutionary technologies for 6G and demonstrate the feasibility of Terahertz (THz) Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) assisted ultra-high data rate wireless communications networks. Novel high-performance hardware including the THz RIS and THz transmitter/receiver will be developed and advanced network analysis/optimizations techniques will be developed using these real THz components. The proposed TERRAMETA THz network will be driven by 6G usage scenario requirements and indoor, outdoor, and indoor-to-outdoor scenarios will be demonstrated in real factory setting and telecom testing field.