'Giving meaning to the data is the most important thing to me'

Alumni Natanael Gomes earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from Brazil back in 2010. After six years working at Sao Paolo Metro system, he felt he was stuck. He wanted a radical change for his work and went back to school.

‘Back in 2018 I had two options, either I could stay at Sao Paolo Metro System for the rest of my life, or I had to make a career switch, and for that I needed a master's degree. I started to orient myself to masters. The study Smart System Engineering ticked a lot of boxes of interest such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence and fit my budget. ‘ 

‘For me this Master was the perfect mix between theory and solving practical issues. You will learn the right research tools and theory, in an applied way. One important thing we learned during this master's class is Python. We did not get Python as a course, but because you need to use it so much as a tool, you get comfortable with it soon enough.’ 

 ‘I also learned how to apply data as a smart system engineer. You are not just collecting data, but also interpreting the data and being able to create follow-up steps based on that data. For example, helping people based on data is something I consider meaningful. ‘ 

‘The combination of collecting data and applying it in practice and as a result helping people is something I have found in my current job at SENCILIA. This is a young startup who develops nature-inspired sensing solutions. I work on a lot of projects. At the moment I am helping to design a new flow sensor. This sensor is being used during medical infusion. I am also researching a smart shoe sensor. This sensor is monitoring mostly elderly people. There are as many as 10 different sensors in this shoe sensor. All these sensors give off data. The sensor can track and distinguish all the different movements of their feet.  

 This sensor is still in full development, but by analyzing this data correctly, in the future we will be able to detect potential Parkinson's patients at an exceedingly early stage. Building a system that can collect this data is one step but analyzing and giving meaning to this data is the next step and something that is the most important to me. That to me is really making an impact. 

‘For me, this Master was the perfect step to take for my new career. The skills and theory that I learned are a perfect match with the tasks I am doing at SENCILIA. Without this master's degree I would not be able to do the job I am doing right now.’