Paula Alexandra Agra Graça (4410-301E-8499)

Curriculum Vitae

Paula Alexandra Agra Graça

Paula A Graça is a PhD student at Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and assistant researcher at the Center of Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS) of Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência (INESC TEC). Having concluded her master's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering by FEUP in 2020, she became an invited assistant lecturer at FEUP in the same year and since then taught the courses Digital Systems and Circuits. Her research focuses on underwater acoustic localization and communications, with special interest in digital circuits, signal processing and underwater robotics.

Read full resume ↓

Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Paula Alexandra Agra Graça

Citation names

A. Graça, Paula

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 4410-301E-8499
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6317-0897

Email addresses

paula.graca@fe.up.pt (Professional)
paula.a.graca@inesctec.pt (Professional)

Websites

https://paulaaagraca.github.io/ (Professional)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulaaagraca/ (Professional)

Knowledge fields

Engineering and Technology - Electrotechnical Engineering, Electronics and Informatics - Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Engineering and Technology - Electrotechnical Engineering, Electronics and Informatics - Communication Engineering and Systems

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English	Upper intermediate (B2)	Advanced (C1)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Advanced (C1)
German	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2021/02/15 - 2025/09/15 Ongoing	Doctoral Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Doutoramento) Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
2015/09/15 - 2020/09/15 Concluded	Integrated Master in Electrical and Computers Engineering (Mestrado integrado) Major in Telecommunications, Electronics and Computers - Microelectronics Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal " Relative Acoustic Localization with USBL (Ultra-Short Baseline)" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	15/20
2018/09/10 - 2019/09/20 Concluded	ERASMUS (Outros) Major in Communication acoustics, signal processing for audio technology, VLSI design, internet of things and nanoeletronics Technische Universität München, Germany	15/20

Affiliation

Teaching in Higher Education

	Category Host institution	Employer
2020/09 - Current	Invited Assistant (University Teacher)	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal

Others

	Category Host institution	Employer
2022/10/01 - Current	PhD Fellow	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal

2020/09 - Current	Research Assistant	Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência, Portugal
	Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Portugal
2020/02 - 2020/09	Research Trainee	Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência, Portugal
	Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Portugal

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2021/03/01 - 2022/09/30	SPRING 821423 PhD Student Fellow Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência, Portugal	Concluded

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2018/10/01 - 2021/09/30	Comunicações Subaquáticas Sem Fios de Longo Alcance e Banda Larga PTDC/EEI-COM/29466/2017 Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência, Portugal Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Concluded

Other

	Designation	Funders
2020/11/01 - 2021/01/31	AutoMon NA Research Fellow Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência, Portugal	Concluded
2020/03/15 - 2020/09/15	GROW NA Master Student Fellow Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Tecnologia e Ciência, Portugal	Concluded

Outputs

Publications

Conference abstract	"Experimenting with RF-433MHz for Low-Cost Short Range for Edge Device Communications". Paper presented in IJUP'20 - 13th Meeting of Young Researchers of University of Porto, Porto, 2020. Published
Conference paper	Paula A. Graca; Jose C. Alves; Bruno M. Ferreira. "Multi-Objective optimization of Sensor Placement in a 3D Body for Underwater Localization". 2022. 10.1109/oceans47191.2022.9977053 Bruno Ferreira; Jose Alves; Nuno Cruz; Paula Graca. "On the localization of an acoustic target using a single receiver". 2022. 10.1109/oceans47191.2022.9977130
Journal article	Paula A. Graça; José C. Alves; Bruno M. Ferreira. "Sensor Placement in an Irregular 3D Surface for Improving Localization Accuracy Using a Multi-Objective Memetic Algorithm". Sensors (2023): https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146316. 10.3390/s23146316 Bruno M. Ferreira; Paula A. Graça; José Carlos Alves; Nuno A. Cruz. "Single Receiver Underwater Localization of an Unsynchronized Periodic Acoustic Beacon Using Synthetic Baseline". IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering (2023): https://doi.org/10.1109/JOE.2023.3275611. 10.1109/JOE.2023.3275611
Thesis / Dissertation	"Relative Acoustic Localization with USBL (Ultra-Short Baseline)". Master, Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, 2020. https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/132656.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2020/02/12	Experimenting with RF-433MHz for Low-Cost Short Range for Edge Device Communications	IJUP'20 - 13th Meeting of Young Researchers of University of Porto University of Porto (Porto, Portugal)

Event organisation

	Event name Type of event (Role)	Institution / Organization
2017/09/01 - 2018/07/29	The IEEE R8 Students and Young Professionals Congress is the largest student event in all region 8 (Europe, Middle East and Africa). It gathers both students and young professionals members from all Sections in this region, providing an environment that enhances and fosters the engineering sense and capabilities. My role as Head of Branding was to lead and manage the team that creates all the branding and overall image of the event, run the social media, supervise the website and communicate with the media. (2018/07/25 - 2018/07/29) Congress (Member of the Organising Committee)	IEEE, United States
2018/04/01 - 2018/04/30	Volunteer at "Mostra UP" and "Semana Profissão: Engenheiro" (2018/04/12 - 2018/04/15) Exhibition (Member of the Organising Committee)	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
2017/04/01 - 2017/04/30	Volunteer at "Mostra UP" and "Semana Profissão: Engenheiro" (2017/04/20 - 2017/04/23)	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2022/01/17 - 2022/01/27	ESA Academy training session during which university students are introduced to the concurrent design of a CubeSat mission. Guided by ESA experts, the students learn to use the Open Concurrent Design Tool and identify design drivers. Divided into teams, they first create a subsystem concept to later achieve an already identified mission concept, function tree and product tree, using concurrent engineering. The workshop helps to better prepare the university students that are planning to embark on a CubeSat project or are at the early stages of one. Workshop	Online CubeSat Concurrent Engineering Workshop 2022 European Space Agency, France
2021/07/19 - 2021/07/23	DEEPFIELD - Workshop on Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques for Image Classification and Segmentation, hosted by the Polytechnic University of Milan. Workshop	DEEPFIELD - Deep Learning for Image Classification and Segmentation Politecnico di Milano, Italy
2021/07/19 - 2021/07/23	The goal of the European Agent Systems Summer School (EASSS 2021) is to provide an exchange of knowledge among individuals and groups interested in various aspects of autonomous, agent-based and multi-agent systems research and practice. Workshop	22nd European Agent Systems Summer School (EASSS 2021) Universidade do Porto Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial e Ciência de Computadores, Portugal
2020/06/01 - 2020/06/28	16 hour intensive training course on Machine Learning techniques using Python Workshop	Introduction to Machine Learning with Python Ordem dos Engenheiros, Portugal
2019/11/26 - 2019/11/27	Workshop exploring the capabilities of Xilinx Zynq SoCC through practical exercises with HDL design and FPGA. Lectured by Prof. Tomasz Kryjak from the Computer Vision Laboratory in AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków Poland Workshop	Introduction to real-time video processing on heterogeneous computing platforms Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza imienia Stanislawa Staszica w Krakowie Wydzial Informatyki Elektroniki i Telekomunikacji, Poland Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
2019/10 - 2019/10	The EUvsVirus Hackathon is an event that gathers teams of people from around the world to come up with solutions to fight problems that arose from the global pandemic situation, in areas such as Health & Life, Business Continuity, Social & Political Cohesion, Remote Working & Education, Digital Finance, among others. Other	EUvsVirus Hackathon European Comission, Belgium
2017/02/14 - 2017/02/14	Microsoft IoT Labs - workshop focused on Raspberry Pi and IoT, introducing their relation with the Windows 10 IoT Core, Node-RED and connection to the cloud. Workshop	Microsoft IoT Labs Microsoft Portugal, Portugal

Association member

	Society Organization name	Role
2020/03/01 - Current	IEEE Portugal Section	Social Media Manager - Communications Team
2018/09/15 - Current	IEEE Women in Engineering	Volunteer
2016/09/15 - Current	IEEE University of Porto Student Branch	Volunteer
2016/09/15 - Current	IEEE Robotics and Automation Society	Volunteer

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2022/02 - Current	Circuits 2	Bachelor in Electrical and Computer Engineering	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
2021/09 - 2022/02	Circuits 1	Bachelor in Electrical and Computer Engineering	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
2020/09 - 2022/02	Digital Systems	Bachelor in Electrical and Computer Engineering	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal

Mentoring / Tutoring

	Topic	Student name
2022/03/02 - Current	Reconfigurable pinger for underwater acoustics applications	Manuel de Magalhães Carvalho Cerqueira da Silva
2022/03/02 - Current	Reconfigurable pinger for underwater acoustics applications	Miguel Filipe Santos Silva

Distinctions

Award

2022	Huawei Merit Scholarship Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Portugal, Portugal
2021	3rd national place in IEEEXtreme 15.0 IEEE, United States
2019	6th national place in IEEEXtreme 13.0 IEEE, United States
2017	1st place in competition SciTeCH 2017 Board of European Students of Technology, Portugal

Other distinction

2022	PhD Scholarship from FCT (2022.09452.BD) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2018	IEEE medal of recognition Jim Jefferies, United States