About

Welcome to my website!

My name is Francisco Fonseca and I am a Aerospace Engineer student at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) at Universidade de Lisboa.

I did MIT Flight Vehicle Engineering Capstone Course as part of a collaboration with MIT Portugal Program. The course theme was a preliminary design of a Stratospheric Climate Observing System based on high altitude solar electric observing platforms. Although intended for fourth year students, I was selected during my second year. I was a member of the Avionics team and finished with grade A.

Here is a list of current active projects/collaborations:

• HackerSchool:

  • Board member with the following tasks:

    • Management of the Nucleus Projects.
    • Organization of the Nucleus Workshops.
    • Creator and Organizer of the internal Capture the Flag Cybersecurity competitions.

  • Active member:

    • Project HS Robotic Logo Arm (Creator and Active Member):

      • Project Theme: Robotic arm that mimics the users drawing with a camera on a piece of paper.
      • Task: Develop the software dedicated to the drawings (Robotics, C ++ and OpenCV).

    • Project HS Game (Creator and Project Manager):

      • Project Theme: Multi game platform developed in Unity.
      • Task: Manage the project’s tasks and work delegation.

    • Project HS Robot (Active Member):

      • Project Theme: Labyrinth solver robot equipped with an arm capable of picking up objects recognized with a camera.
      • Task: Development of the environment interaction of the robot (Robotics, Simulation, C ++, OpenCV and Systems).

• AeroTec:

  • Project UAV - Alameda Research Team (UAV-ART) (Active Member of the Control Team):

    • Project Theme:
    • Design and develop autonomous aircrafts.
    • Task:
      • Develop a control simulation for the aircraft’s autonomous landing sequence(Simulation, Simulink, Systems and Control).

  • Project Olissipo Air Team (OAT) (Active Member of the Electronics Team):

    • Project Theme:
      • Design and develop an aircraft for the Air Cargo Challenge competition taking place in Munich in 08/2022.
    • Task:
      • Assemble the aircraft’s electronic system and develop a control simulation (Systems, Python, Simulation and Control).

• IPFN - Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear:

  • Project FRIENDS(Fleet of dRones for radIological inspEction, commuNication anD reScue):
    • Project Theme:
      • Design, develop and validate a fleet of drones equipped with navigation and radiological sensors for inspection and monitoring of scenarios with nuclear threats.
    • Task:
      • Help with design, construction and assembly of drones for the fleet (Robotics,3D Modelling, 3D Printing, Systems and Electronics).

• MOV.AI - The Robotics Engine Platform™:

  • Project Theme:
    • Autonomous Mobile Robots development in a Robotics Engine platform based on ROS.
  • Task:
    • Simulation of drones with sensors and autonomous navigation for transport of packages in an external environment with obstacles.

• AeroLiga:

  • Tasks:
    • Management of a small team that works to find new sponsorship opportunities for the biggest university football competition at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa.
    • Create the legal and financial basis which allows this organization to establish stable partnerships.
    • Negotiate deals to improve the financial conditions of the organization.