Dr. Ferreira received during the project training from Prof. Andrew Ellis, and other colleagues at Aston addressing various topics, such as: project management, IP, technical writing, open access and research data management, as well as career and personal development planning. He successfully completed Introduction to Learning and Teaching Practises (ILTP) course and Postgraduate Certificate in Learning &Teaching in Higher Education (PGCert).
The Fellow’s training needs were addressed through a personal Career Development Plan aimed at diversifying and complementing his research skills and knowledge, providing him with a range of special technical training in the area of optical communications and DSP techniques.
During HSPACE, the Fellow has extensively developed his communication, teamwork, networking and initiative skills as described in the following:
Communication
• Authored 19 peer-reviewed publications, 9 of which as 1st author, including IEEE and OSA high-impact journals.
• Widely participated in international leading conferences in the field, 13 conference papers (7 presented) 4 of which were invited.
• Member of the AIPT board which activities include but are not restricted to strategic planning, financial broad picture, decisions on internal proposals, and evaluating performance.
• Delivered 3 outreach actions including one summer school (“Building a 3dB Noise Figure Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifier” through the Nuffield Research Placements programme).
• Successfully applied to the ERC Starting Grant 2017.
• More than doubled the number of citations during HSPACE reaching 438 citations with H-factor 10 and I-factor 10, according to Google Scholar database.
Teamwork
• Main responsible for the setup of a bespoke computing cluster for optical communication systems simulations.
• Delivered more than 20 hours of lectures and tutorials in optical communications and mathematics.
• Co-supervised the work of 1 PhD student managed by Profs Ellis.
• Collaborated with multiple PIs on the development of consortia and proposals in the area of optical signal processing.
Networking
• Strong personal network with colleagues from academia and industry.
• Influenced the formation of research proposals in terms of the development of scientific ideas, consortium building, proposal preparation (including conflict management) and final preparation.
• Participated in international collaborative projects (INSPACE and PEACE). Maintained individual collaborations on 30% of the papers published since joining Aston.
Initiative
• Leading inventor on one patent regarding spatial-division multiplexing and optical capacity enhancement: “Twin-Fibres for Communication beyond the Kerr Nonlinearity Limit”.
• Leading the creation of a start-up on optical capacity enhancement through the Research and Enterprise Office at Aston University.
