An article predicting the future of particle technology in the next century, featuring a scientist from the University of Coimbra, has been selected for the English magazine's 2023 editorial. Chemical engineering research and designpublished by the Institute of Chemical Engineering, a global organization in this scientific field.
Hey Scientific work Co-authored by Graça Rastero, professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra. This study was selected from among 408 articles published in the English journal, in this field, in 2022, and it is the only one in which a Portuguese researcher participated among its authors.
It is “a collection of ideas about future developments of particle technology and its applications in various sectors, which resulted from… Brainstorming “This research is part of the groups of different authors from different European universities,” says Graça Rastero, coordinator of the Particle Technologies Laboratory at the University of Coimbra.
“In addition to looking at the 1970s, the decade in which this region began to take shape, we focused on the future and what the contribution of particle technology to the development of the region could be over the next 100 years,” he adds. .
According to the researcher, the call to publish an article in this field actually appeared last year, on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the United Kingdom.
Multidisciplinary molecules
Particle technology is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that deals with processes involving particles, whether in the context of aerosols, pharmaceuticals, medicine, soils, detergents, the environment, food, and others. The first laboratory in the region appeared in Portugal at the University of Coimbra.
Essentially, “the article highlights how fields such as energy, global warming control, and medicine, among others, can benefit from advances in particle technology. It is also referred to as artificial intelligence and Machine learning It can lead to development in this field, allowing, based on the data collected, to improve particle characterization techniques, for example in the case of aerosols,” explains the teacher.
The article also highlights how the use of artificial intelligence can be combined to improve and control the processes themselves and design new particle-based products.
In the text, a link is also made to the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields, where it is believed that in a few years it will be possible to “develop smart molecules that know in our body where to go and, given the information they collect from the body, act and release the most appropriate active ingredient and where it is needed.” mechanism.
