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Brazil Lab’s Carlos Nascimento Wins First Round NASA International Space Apps Challenge

Carlos standing in front of NASA sign.

Creating something out of this world almost came naturally to Carlos Nascimento, literally while he slept. Read about his innovation here.

Carlos recently won the first stage of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge. Yes, that NASA – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration…

Carlos developed a solution responsible for dynamically organizing the entire circadian cycle of astronauts, using Convolutional Neural Networks, being able to interpret brain frequencies, predict and stimulate the next stages of sleep.

“I could not have done this without the experience and knowledge I earned by working at ADP Brazil Labs,” said Carlos. “At the innovation center, we are working on a project that uses machine learning, which gave me the necessary knowledge and inspiration that I used for the NASA competition.”

NASA’s hackathon was the largest globally to develop an innovative app for its astronauts. With only 48 hours of active development, Carlos decided to focus on machine learning and brain signals. He gathered a team of his friends to select the challenge. They thought: “You know what? Everybody has some kind of sleep problem! Let’s help with that!”

Carlos will represent Brazil on the global stage, where they will choose the six best solutions.

At ADP, Carlos and his team work on a product that leverages machine learning. According to Carlos, “The best thing about working with Machine Learning is that the field is always evolving with new ideas and updates.”

Carlos stands on a wooden platform overlooking rolling hills

Before Carlos travels to spaces and places, we caught up with him to learn just a little bit more:

What advice do you have for someone looking to participate in a global challenge?

These events are about innovation and teamwork, so choose your team wisely with professionals from different fields like designers, developers, and data scientists and read a lot about the subject you plan to solve.

What is your must-have app personally?

Brave Private Browser. We should always be very careful with our data. Like we are at ADP.

What is your favorite movie?

Interstellar.

Carlos NascimentoIf you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Chocolate. I probably wouldn’t live much, but it would be a happy life.

What is the best advice you ever received?

Treat everyone the way you would like to be treated.

What’s the best place you’ve ever traveled to on vacation, and why?

That would be Arraial do Cabo. It’s close to my hometown, Rio de Janeiro. It has the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen.

Carlos will receive an award from the U.S. Embassy in Brazil for his work in the NASA Challenge. Results for 40 finalist teams, and six winning global teams, will be revealed in January 2021!

Congratulations, Carlos! Good luck to you and your team in the next round!

Learn more about working at Brazil Labs.

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