“Straight from the mouths of babes”

An original member of Ocean’s Eleven, João was forced to abandon the gang when told he had to lose the headlamp

When asked what his dad does for a living, 5 yr. old André Serpa beams proudly and answers “Daddy does magic!” 34 yr. old, YDreams Project Manager João Serpa laughs as he recalls his son’s reaction to watching him set up some of the cool apps, which João personally had a hand in developing, for the Braganza Science Center.

Before coming on board in January 2005, João and YDreams went back a long way. He first met company CEO, and co-founder António Câmara while getting his undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering at the New Lisbon University. “Prof. Câmara encouraged most of his students to take part in GASA, a research group he helped found in the early 90’s”, recalls João, “I joined GASA in ’95. The place was a little “geeky”, slightly anarchic, and given it was the mid-90’s, had an almost primitive access to the Internet, but it was an exciting place to be, and perfect for working on my mathematical modelling and delving into the brave new world of physical interfaces”.

In the meantime, João left GASA to pursue other projects, but late in 1999, Prof. Câmara encouraged him to apply for scientific research projects. He received funding, returned to GASA and embarked on research for EU projects and his PhD thesis in numerical modelling and tangible interfaces applied to environmental simulation.

Between 2001 and 2005, João lent a helping hand by collaborating with YDreams on proposals, brainstorming sessions, and programming for interactive installations that led to the Virtual Sightseeing scenic viewer and I-Garment. Taking on the role of Project Manager at YDreams seemed like a natural progression in his career given his history. But that wasn’t the only reason; turns out João loves working with people, as much as he enjoys ubiquitous computing and interactive interfaces, so Project Management seemed like the natural course.

As far as free time goes, João can be found ‘tinkering’ with the project he is most proud of: his son André. He also makes time for reading, music, sports and loves partying hard and travelling to off the beaten path locations!

We say, do as the kid says, and “keep making magic”.

Antão Almada and the Luso-American (Y)Dream

Eight years ago, Antão Almada was sitting in his cubicle as a Senior Software Engineer in Palo Alto thinking, “what next?” He was already happily married and had begun venturing into the world of fatherhood when he received a call from António Câmara asking him to come on board a new project, which would eventually become YDreams. Knowing from the start of his Silicon Valley adventure that he wanted to return to Portugal, he also knew that working with Professor Câmara could be an even greater experience than Paraform, and the laid-back environment he had become accustomed to would certainly be maintained. Eight years later, Antão is the Strategic Software Development Director at YDreams R&D unit, YLabs, where he is responsible for investigating and keeping up-to-date with up and coming technologies, and then applying them to YDreams products. Most of his day is spent on his computer, applying the most recent technologies to keep YDreams in the technological vanguard. All this is done using his ergonomic keyboard - a living relic from his Silicone Valley days.

His quiet and reserved exterior can fool the mere onlooker. When I arrived at YLabs to chat with Antão,, he was sitting behind a computer, surrounded by five YLabers while he cracked some sort of complex code using C#, his favourite computing language.

Antão has been at YDreams since its founding, has many prospects for the future and accomplishments from the past. To date, his favourite project has been the development of YDreams proprietary platform, in which all of our latest interactive installations are based. The development required a great amount of teamwork, and the result was an extremely innovative platform. Antão hopes YDreams continues to innovate in the field of reality computing and become a world leader in augmented reality. Projects that are underway are obviously top-secret, however, Antão assured me that we haven’t seen the last of Flapi yet. “Flapi is only a stepping stone for greater things to come.”

Computers aren’t everything for our Strategic Software Development Director. When I asked him what his main hobby was “Family” immediately shot-out. Having two small children is a full time job. Collecting miniature cars also captures his attention when he’s not out riding his BMX.