ABOUT ME
Software engineer, science lover and sports enthusiast
Who am I?
My name is Carlos Miguel Correia da Costa, I was born on March 2, 1991 and I'm from Sanfins de Ferreira (which is a village of great archaeological interest on the outskirts of Paços de Ferreira, Porto, Portugal).
It was in this quiet place in the neighborhood of Porto that I cultivated my spirit of adventure and exploration, as this area has a great scenery and terrain for cycling (especially enduro). It was also here where I spent my childhood and where I studied until high school in a sciences and technologies course.
I have always been a curious and autodidact person, and since early in my life I enjoyed science and its practical applications to improve the quality of life of people. And one of those areas that I always liked was computer science and electrical engineering, because of all the areas of science / engineering, it is the one that has the most impact on the way people interact and expand their knowledge. And more importantly, it is one of the areas that has the most impact in today's society to optimize the most varied tasks, giving more time for humanity to turn its attention to science and technology development while delegating less creative tasks to our loyal mechanical assistants (robots).
All around, I consider myself to be a very diligent and responsible person and I'm always looking to expand my knowledge in new technologies and complement it with other passions of mine (like robotics, space exploration, biotechnology, nanotechnology, among many others).
What have I learned?
During my masters at FEUP, I gained significant experience in designing and building software with both security and performance in mind while also using software patterns to improve the projects quality and long term maintainability.
I also learned that for any good project to succeed, you must have a very good team working together and cooperating to overcome any difficulties that may come up.
But like in any other area, the saying "If you want something done right, do it yourself" applies to everyone. And specially to me, since I consider myself to be a bit of a perfectionist, and when I do something, I want to do it right, otherwise there is no point in do it at all (meaning, if a project will ever be successful in today's global economy, it needs to have quality and solve real problems in order to persist and be useful).
Nevertheless, I will always consider myself a student of knowledge and I'm always looking forward to learn from other people and share my experience and my expertise.
What have I done?
During my master´s at FEUP, I gained significant experience in designing and building software from the ground up, having always in consideration the deadlines imposed and keeping in mind the project quality and performance.
Later on, my research in robotics at INESC TEC allowed me to deepen my experience in the development and improvement of large software projects.
What I want to do?
I'm looking forward to apply my experience in innovative projects and expand my knowledge in interesting areas of science and technology.
I have always appreciated the work done by researchers worldwide and I would very much like to continue to work in projects that aim to improve the quality of life of people and expand our understanding of the universe we live in.
What do I like?
Besides sciences and technologies, I consider myself a sports enthusiast.
My main sports are cycling (enduro, freeride, downhill), running and martial arts.
My interest for martial arts rise after seeing movies like Fearless and Ip Man, and understanding how they can be used to improve oneself both physically and mentally.
My main interest in learning martial arts is to apply then to self-defense and protection of others.
As such, I have practice Aikido and I will start learning Wushu in the near future.
Other than sports, I am an avid computer gamer and I like to watch science fiction series and movies. Among then, Eureka, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse are my favorite series.
Where have I been?
I'm naturally a very curious person, and although I prefer to explore nature in my enduro trips, I also like to visit new cultures and interesting places.
So far I have traveled to Munich (Germany), Newcastle (UK), Barcelona (Spain), Rome (Italy), among others.
My main interest when I travel is to seek places with scientific or historic interest, but as an explorer I like to discover new places and meet interesting people.