The Application Development module will address the use of web technologies and their deployment. We shall focus in the development of earth monitoring applications and will provide participants with comprehensive training on building and deploying web-based applications for environmental data analysis and visualisation. We will leverage previous knowledge of programming to manipulate geospatial data, do API integration, and server-side development. The module emphasizes practical skills through hands-on labs that should become a catalyst for the hackathon project, enabling participants to create dynamic applications for monitoring phenomena like air quality and climate change. By the end, participants gain the expertise to develop scalable, secure web tools for effective earth observation.

The Data Analysis module will focus on collection, processing, modelling and analysis of earth monitoring data. The practical session will give students hands-on skills for handling, analysing and visualizing data efficiently and effectively, making use of Python data science and machine learning libraries. The module will prepare the students to make the best use of open data in the hackathon project.

Earth observation (EO) is the gathering of information about planet Earth’s physical, chemical, and biological systems via remote sensing technologies, usually involving sensors aboard satellites. The acquired data is usually digital imagery, which is used to monitor and evaluate the status of, and changes in, the natural and human-made environment. This module aims to provide trainees with the principles of satellite EO giving an idea of its potential to monitor the state and progression of the environment and can support informed decisions about the planet's health and sustainability. In addition, participants will learn about the usefulness of EO satellite data for the efficient and sustainable management of coastal areas and will have the opportunity to explore databases and apply this data to a real-world case study, in Ria de Aveiro (Portugal).

The quest for high-speed wireless communications in space and space to Earth is entering a new phase with the development of ultra-high-capacity optical and RF wireless communication systems. Leading space agencies, including NASA and ESA, are launching programs to demonstrate the proof-of-concept for both optical and RF communications in satellite scenarios (SatCom). Additionally, private companies like SpaceX are heavily investing in these technologies, as evidenced by recent news and press releases. This tutorial will cover the basics of both optical and RF wireless communication, including a hands-on demonstration, and also introduce advanced features of state-of-the-art optical and RF transceivers for free-space optics and RF links.

Radio communications or Telecommunications, and RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging), are supported by electromagnetic waves that propagate (in air or vacuum) with an approximate speed of 3E08 m/s (just like light). In Radio communications, waves support the transmission of information (in a similar way to an airplane supporting the transport of goods or people); Radar uses the reflection of electromagnetic waves to not only detect but also estimate the distance at which one or more objects are located. These systems are like the senses (vision, hearing) and transmission (speech) of ships (air or space). Without these systems, they would not be able to survive in space, nor would they be able to send useful information. This module aims to provide trainees with an idea of ​​the potential of these systems from both a theoretical (calculation or simulation) and practical (experimental) point of view.

Software Defined Radio is a key paradigm in designing, deploying, and maintaining modern communication infrastructures, from low bitrate, massive systems, to high speed, low latency counterparts. It is even more relevant and critical in the case of non-terrestrial systems, due to the requirements of reliability and upgradability. Current technology allows the direct digital processing of radio-frequency signals, improving flexibility and integration. This tutorial will cover the fundamentals of software-defined radio, namely, concepts, architectures, development tools, implementation devices, and prototyping platforms, including hands-on demonstrations of transmission and reception system examples.

Nuno Borges Carvalho (S’97–M’00–SM’05-F’15) was born in Luanda, Angola, in 1972. He received his Diploma and Doctoral degrees in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. He is a Full Professor and a Senior Research Scientist with the Institute of Telecommunications, University of Aveiro. He is the director of the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics at UA, and an IEEE Fellow. He coauthored Intermodulation in Microwave and Wireless Circuits (Artech House, 2003), Microwave and Wireless Measurement Techniques (Cambridge University Press, 2013), White Space Communication Technologies (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Wireless Power Transmission for Sustainable Electronics (Wiley, 2020). He has been a reviewer and author of over 400 papers in magazines and conferences. He is the Editor in Chief of the Cambridge Wireless Power Transfer Journal, an associate editor of the IEEE Microwave Magazine, and former associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques and IET Microwaves Antennas and Propagation Journal. He is the co-inventor of six patents. His main research interests include software-defined radio front-ends, backscatter communications, wireless power transmission, nonlinear distortion analysis, and measurements in microwave/wireless circuits and systems. He has been involved in the design of dedicated radios and systems for newly emerging wireless technologies. Dr. Borges Carvalho is a member of the IEEE MTT ADCOM, the past chair of the IEEE Portuguese Section, TC-20 and TC-11, and belongs to the technical committees, TC-25 and TC-26. He is also the Chair of the URSI Commission A (Metrology Group). He was the recipient of the 1995 University of Aveiro and the Portuguese Engineering Association Prize for the best 1995 student at the University of Aveiro, the 1998 Student Paper Competition (Third Place) of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS), and the 2000 IEE Measurement Prize. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the RFID Council and was a previous Distinguished Microwave Lecturer for the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. In 2023, he is the IEEE-MTT President.

Ricardo Figueiredo is an researcher at Instituto de Telecomumicações, Aveiro in the scope of project NewSpace. His research focus on nonlinear characterization of microwave systems. Mr. Figueiredo is an affiliate member of the Microwave Measurements Committee of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology, and the Early Career Representative for Electromagnetic Metrology, Electromagnetic Measurements and Standards of the International Union of Radio Science.

Samuel S. Pereira was born in 1995 in the city of Albergaria-a-Velha. In 2018, he finished his M.Sc. in Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal, and in 2024, he finished his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the same university. His main research interests include reconfigurable systems, software-defined radio, and delta-sigma-based transmitters. He also works with C-RAN applications for 5G and beyond.

Arnaldo S. R. Oliveira received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He is currently a Senior Researcher at the Telecommunications Institute, University of Aveiro. He teaches computer architecture, digital systems design, and embedded systems at the University of Aveiro, where he is an Associate Professor. He is the author or co-author of more than 160 journal and international conference papers. His research interests include reconfigurable digital systems, software-defined radio, and next-generation radio access networks.

Daniel Poças holds an MSc in Biological Engineering with a specialization in Environmental Technologies from the University of Minho and a postgraduate degree in Integrated Management Systems from SGS - Société Générale de Surveillance and Universidade Fernando Pessoa. He is a certified project manager in agile methodologies - SCRUM. As a researcher, he worked on the fundamentals and pre-commercial applications of electrochemical reactors for energy generation and storage in various application contexts. For the past fifteen years, he has been active in the field of innovation management (Process Engineer, Project Manager, R&D Business Development) in both the private sector - IT, and the public sector - Research and Higher Education. Currently, he is an R&D Business Developer and Science and Innovation Manager at the Instituto de Telecomunicações, where he focuses on three main areas quality management in research and innovation projects; support for proposal submissions and funding applications to national and international, private and public funds, and the development, implementation, and management of strategies, architectures, processes, and innovation activities mediated by technology. Since 2022, he holds the position of Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Aeronautics, Space, and Defense Competitiveness Cluster (AED). He is a team member of various R&D projects as well as projects promoting public policies for business resilience, particularly those related to the network of digital innovation hubs DIH - Connect5, PTCentroDIH, the national test beds network – NextGeneration Mobility and Aveiro Smart and Connect Spaces, the network of Free Technological Zones – ZLT Aveiro, as well as the network of Technology and Interface Centers – CTI - Instituto de Telecomunicações.

Fábio D. L. Coutinho received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, in 2017, 2019, and 2024, respectively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Telecommunications Institute (IT-Aveiro), Portugal. His work has involved the design and hardware acceleration of digital signal processing functions for modern wireless systems, with a focus on FPGA-based implementations. He has contributed to national and international research projects related to 5G and future 6G networks. His research interests include deep learning for physical layer functions, hardware-aware neural networks, and real-time embedded communication systems.

Guilherme Lourenço obtained his Integrated Master’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Aveiro in 2023. Since 2021, he has been involved as a researcher in several projects at the Institute of Telecommunications, and since 2024 he has been enrolled in the doctoral program in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include spectral sensing, hardware acceleration, digital signal processing, and deep learning applied to telecommunications.

Miguel Dias

Nuno Silva

Pedro Casau is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of the University of Aveiro and a Researcher at IT-Instituto de Telecomunicações. He received the B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering in 2008 from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). In 2010, he received the M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from IST and enrolled in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. program at the same institution which he completed with distinction and honour in 2016. He held the Research Assistant position at the University of Macau and was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Systems and Robotics in Lisbon. He participated in several national and international research projects on guidance, navigation and control of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and satellites. His current research interests include nonlinear control, hybrid control systems, networked control systems, event-triggered control, vision-based control systems, controller design for autonomous air-vehicles and spacecraft systems.