Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer

In each of us, there is a little of our parents, grandparents, and ancestors. What is it like for a father, mother, or grandparent to see their child doing the same things they once did? The same silly mistakes, the same gestures, the same discoveries, the same joys and sorrows.It  is both a pleasure and a concern. Sometimes it seems that children listen little to their parents, wanting to learn everything on their own. Sometimes, it seems they are just as we once were.

From the first time I heard the neologism “AI” as an abbreviation for “Artificial Intelligence,” it didn’t sit well with me. At first, it seemed like a translation mistake. Later, the term, probably of North American origin, was adopted worldwide. Since “artificial intelligence” is something that doesn’t exist and, God willing, never will, it was unclear what exactly people meant by it. It seems that the correct term would be “Intelligent Automatism – IA,” as some say, or “Co

I recognize that languages influence each other. I acknowledge that English has become the “Esperanto” of the financial market and international trade, and there’s no point debating it, besides using many abbreviated and practical words, such as A.S.A.P., OK, and “Help.” The same happens with new words, created and/or adapted to meet the demands of technological novelties, for example, “blog,” which comes from “web-log,” essentially a “public diary.” Would “record” be more

Water and sewage services need to be and can be self-sustainable, not least to avoid overloading the health sector, since they are...

It was January 2021, and the world seemed to be emerging from a semi-standstill that had begun in March 2020, caused by efforts to combat...

Seriously speaking, Roberto Carlos (1941, from Cachoeiro, Espírito Santo), and his constant partner, Erasmo Carlos (also from 1941, from...

ES - Engineering-Science Inc.  was an American company (Pasadena?-CA) focused on consulting and project design, very active and important...

As a practicing engineer, with two sons who are active engineers and a grandson studying engineering, all, like me, at our beloved UFRJ,...

A recurring topic of conversation at bar tables and in homes is “What’s your earliest memory in life?” In one of these conversations,...

It was 1966, and Carlos, my high school classmate, had passed the entrance exam for engineering at his first choice. Needing to work to...

The civil engineer Cláudio Manfrini was the principal consultant in Water Treatment at Comasp (now Sabesp). It was no small feat; we were...

It was 2007, and QQ Construções, an excellent and traditional Brazilian construction company, aimed to win a contract for urban...

Open Letter to the Members of the Engineering Club and to Engineers in General 01_ It is well known that the Engineering Club, engineers,...

School of Engineering at UFRJ, 1969, 4th-year Civil class. There were many students from other states. I became friends with Manuel...

Sitting Bull Gustavo de Almeida Nóbrega was a man from Patos, Paraíba, the son of a small rural producer, who arrived in Rio de Janeiro...

One of the most frequent topics in any conversation circle is about the strange names given to people by their parents, surely with the...

In 1998, I spent five days in Angola for work. Angola was in the midst of a full-blown civil war. During these five days, we were...

The Hiring of Engineering Services (and certainly others) Using the "Lowest Price" as a Decision Factor is a Grave Mistake It is...

The Last Woman? In the marble games of his childhood in Rio de Janeiro, in the years 1955-61, from 9 to 14 years old, he learned that...

These stories were told to me by the excellent engineer Fernando Penna Botafogo Gonçalves, a great friend and delightful person, who...