Our Leader
Spotlite
Spotlite is a portuguese startup that develops risk monitoring solutions for critical infrastructure using remote sensing and satellite data. Spotlite’s goal is to leverage satellite data and analytics powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide continuous risk monitoring and assessment. By combining Earth Observation imagery with AI algorithms, Spotlite is able to set up early-warning systems, enable more efficient predictive maintenance strategies, and to provide comprehensive insights into key issues such as structural health, ground stability, and vegetation management. These technologies enable infrastructure managers and maintenance operators to monitor multiple risks, including ground motion, external interference, vegetation encroachment and other vulnerabilities. Spotlite primarily targets critical sectors such as transportation infrastructure (highways and railways) or energy networks (both in the electrical and in the oil and gas sectors, including powerlines, pipelines, wind farms and solar plants). Through the solutions provided by Spotlite, these industries are able to enhance safety, optimize maintenance costs and prevent critical failures.
Over the last years, Spotlite has been distinguished with a number of prizes and recognitions, including the European Commission Seal of Excellence. Spotlite has also established a close relationship with the European Space Agency (ESA), which has funded several Spotlite’s projects through multiple programmes since 2017 (ESA-BIC Portugal, ESA-SS Small ARTES, ESA-BA Demonstration Project, ESA Φ-lab InCubed).
Our Partners
SOLVIT
SOLVIT is a company with focused mostly on innovation, developing its activity in the study, development and production of solutions mainly dedicated to the communications sector, although extending its activity to other sectors. The company, which started its activity in 2016, is a young company with a large pool of highly qualified engineers in the fields of telecommunications, information systems and embedded systems, which guarantees an effective research and development capacity in the different areas in which it is involved, providing it with the capacity to develop complete systems. The company has strong ties with the academic world, with several of its employees teaching at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa.
One of SOLVIT's focuses is the railway sector, for which it has developed unique tools for planning and optimizing mobile communication networks, as well as solutions for remote monitoring of railway infrastructure. This sector integrates the strictest technical specifications in accordance with international directives and standards, especially in safety.
Solvit has extensive experience in the management and development of projects involving both hardware and software. In connection with WISE, the following projects stand out:
Ferrovia 4.0 - Development of safety systems related to the railway environment, supported by sensors placed in the infrastructure for remote monitoring and prediction of landslides on railway embankments.
SGOC - Sistema de Gestão de Obras de Contenção (in portuguese) - integrated solution for the management of containment works for the portuguese railway and road manager IP - Infraestruturas de Portugal.
Custodian - Sensory Network Platform for Sustainable Fishing, funded by the EEA Grants Blue Growth Program, led by SOLVIT - Development of a sensor-based system for the management and control of fishing gear for small boats.
His areas of expertise include telecommunications, critical communications, information systems, sensing and monitoring systems, radio planning for public and railway mobile communications systems, security systems, embedded systems, geographic information systems, edge computing, cloud computing, full-stack development, web applications and REST APIs, DevOps & backend.
UMinho
The University of Minho (UMinho) is a public university with administrative and financial autonomy, founded in 1973 and with academic activities starting in 1975/76. Its mission is to generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge, grounded in freedom of thought and the plurality of critical perspectives, promoting higher education and contributing to the construction of a societal model based on humanistic principles, in which knowledge, creativity, and innovation are key drivers of growth, sustainable development, well-being, and solidarity.
UMinho has consolidated its path as a research university, as demonstrated by the recent evaluation exercise promoted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), which resulted in 1 Research Unit (RU) rated as Exceptional, 10 rated as Excellent, and 11 rated as Very Good, covering the areas of Exact Sciences, Natural Sciences, Health Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities.
UMinho is also a member of five Associated Laboratories, one of which – the ICVS/3B’s Associated Laboratory – is exclusively composed of UMinho’s R&D Units in the field of health and biomaterials. Additionally, it ranked second among Portuguese higher education institutions in the U-Multirank 2015 global ranking. It is also one of the Portuguese universities with the highest number of spin-offs arising from research activities developed by its academic community.
Thus, UMinho presents itself as a relevant partner for this project, with a team endowed with essential skills and deep know-how to carry out scientific research in the proposed areas. Some relevant projects related to WISE include:
SIRMA – Strengthening Infrastructure Risk Management in the Atlantic Area: A predictive maintenance project based on big data (multi-platform remote sensing and mass collaboration).
SAFEWAY – GIS-Based Infrastructure Management System for Optimized Response to Extreme Events on Terrestrial Transport Networks: Designed as an IT solution that contributes to infrastructure resilience across three time dimensions (before, during, and after an event), where a robust decision-support system was developed, combining physical condition metrics and predictive models that assess the impact of various actions.
GIIP – Intelligent Management of Port Infrastructures: Focused on developing a decision-support platform for integrated port asset management, based on the application of advanced models/algorithms for analysing and predicting the structural and functional degradation of assets, integrating advanced sensing tools and performance/risk forecasting models.
InfraCrit – Development of a Management System for Critical Infrastructure: Aimed at creating a Geographic Information System platform (SIGPIC), proposing a smart technological solution for the protection and management of critical infrastructures, capable of mapping and managing them based on a criticality index, predicting its evolution over time, and simulating and assessing the impact of disruptive events.
The project team is composed of multidisciplinary experts covering the necessary competencies for the proposed activities, including experience in coordination and management of national and international projects in the field of transport infrastructure monitoring and risk assessment, expertise in the development and implementation of risk analysis methodologies, and strong background in the development and application of artificial intelligence tools to address complex geotechnical problems in transport infrastructure systems.
Infraestruturas de Portugal - Observing entity
Although not part of the consortium, Infraestruturas de Portugal is participating as an observer as a company with an interest in the project area. IP is the public company resulting from the merger between Rede Ferroviária Nacional - REFER, E.P.E. (REFER, E.P.E.) and EP - Estradas de Portugal, S.A. (EP, S.A.), by which REFER, E.P.E. merged with EP, S.A. and was transformed into a public company and renamed Infraestruturas de Portugal, S.A. (IP, S.A.). The merger took place on 1 June 2015, pursuant to Decree-Law 91/2015 of 29 May. In practice, road and rail infrastructures are now managed by a single company, according to a common, integrated and complementary strategy. The purpose of IP, S.A. is to design, project, build, finance, maintain, operate, upgrade, extend and modernise the national road and rail networks, including the management and control of rail traffic. With the Portuguese State as its sole shareholder, it is under the supervision of the Ministries of Infrastructure and Housing and of Finance.
As an infrastructure manager, IP has participated in many international projects, with a focus on European projects, as well as several national projects, making a significant contribution to ensuring that technological and scientific developments are aligned with the needs of decision-making processes. In this project, as a user of asset management platforms, IP will participate with observers representing the asset management area, the tunnels and containment works unit and road inspection and diagnostics.