Coppe shines with four winning projects at the Brics Industrial Innovation Contest 2024
Planeta COPPE / AI and Digital Transformation / Business Incubator / Electrical Engineering / Metallurgical and Materials Engineering / News
Date: 19/09/2024
Coppe/UFRJ stood out impressively at the “Brics Industrial Innovation Contest 2024”, taking four projects to the podium in different thematic areas. Out of these projects that shone, three were developed entirely at Coppe, winning third place, while the other one began its journey at the institution and secured second place. This competition, promoted by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), gathered 200 innovative proposals from companies, research institutions, technological parks and universities from the Brics+ countries.
One of the highlights was the revolutionary project by the Control and Automation, Application Engineering and Development Laboratory (Lead), which brought an innovative solution with autonomous drones for tracking, take-off and landing in dynamic environments. Under the coordination of professor Alessandro Jacoud, the robotic system combines autonomous aerial vehicles and unmanned surface vessels to detect oil spill, using advanced sensors. Besides that, the project is also able to collect meteo-oceanographic data and apply artificial intelligence algorithms for oil spill analysis, offering a significant impact in environmental preservation.
Another project that shone was developed at the Laboratory of Non Destructive Testing, Corrosion and Welding (LNDC). The research resulted in an innovative cement paste, which releases a “green” inhibitor against corrosion, especially useful for CO2 injection well installations for carbon capture and storage. Coordinated by professor Tatiana Almeida, and with researcher Merlin Bandeira on the lead, this project aims at protecting metallic pipelines in a critical context for sustainability.
Aquapower startup, incubated at Coppe, also won third place in the “Energy Electronics” category. Its innovative solution consists in the installation of small-scale turbines in the pipelines of cities and industries, generating electrical energy efficiently. The company CEO, Franco Vernazza, highlighted that the company is already implementing projects in Brazil and even planning a pilot in China, demonstrating this technology’s viability and potential.
It was at Coppe’s Business Incubator that the basis for another winning project sprouted, the Vidya startup, which won second place in the “Artificial Intelligence—Large Language Models” area, with its innovative platform for the operation and maintenance of industrial plants. The Vidya Software Platform (VSP) integrates reality capture data and engineering, using artificial intelligence to optimize maintenance and predict failures. With over 24 companies in Brazil and the US already benefiting from it, this technology is a true bridge to industrial innovation.
Marcela Rolim Ribas, Marketing coordinator at Vidya, says that the software has the potential to generate an impact on the entire industrial chain and, therefore, having a bridge for expansion in BRICS is extremely strategic, especially bearing in mind the various incentives and programs this network possesses.
In total, nine Coppe projects stood out in the final, all with high technological potential in areas such as robotics, industrial automation, carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), green hydrogen production, among other low carbon technological applications.
- BRICS
- Innovation