- 26 de mai. de 2021
- 3 min para ler

DANIEL IS ON HIS WAY!

From ISEP to the World!

Who is Daniel?

I think I am still figuring out who I am, but I can tell you who I was until now. My name is Daniel Castro, a 24-year-old student from ISEP, born and raised in Porto.

My journey began at a very young age when I started playing Hockey and developed my first passion for sport and strategy. It helped me understand better what teamwork means and made me realize the importance of every member in a team.

I have my parents to thank for this opportunity and for all that they have taught me throughout my life. Since a very young age they gave me the opportunity to travel the world and develop this second passion I have, to travel and look for the unknown.

My third passion, music, also stems from my family. Since I was 13 years old, I became involved in all kinds of different music projects with my brother, who right now is my biggest influence to stay connected with this passion.

Despite all this, I always thought about numbers first instead of words, and from a very young age I realized the importance of the management of the world and its resources. My favorite subjects were Mathematics and Geology, they helped me see the world as a History book. I also believe they helped us (humans) to understand where we came from and how we were before, all we have to do is study this book to understand it, or at least try to.

So, the decision to study geotechnical engineering was easy and a great choice for my future.

About Daniel's Education

In ISEP (Porto's Superior Institute of Engineering) I quickly found a family that helped me to never give up and that were with me through all the good and bad times. And since I could not remove music out of my life, I joined the Tuna (traditional musical group from Porto, formed by students) of ISEP. I was able to play and travel all through Portugal with them, entertaining and charming the ones who heard us along the

way.

To complement my academic side, I applied to Erasmus and went to study in Poland (Krakow) where I accomplished the dream that I had to travel all over Europe, to experience new cultures and creating a brand new lifestyle.

When I came back from Erasmus, I was a volunteer for @justachange and helped to build houses for people in need, in the free time I had from my studies and Tuna.

Once I finished my Bachelors in 2019, I did a Summer internship in which I had the opportunity to come in contact with all the work that was being done in the office as well as in the field and participated in a "full displacement piles" related research.

Daniel on the field!

After this, it was time to go back to my studies: I started my Masters in Geotechnical Engineering but quickly realized that I couldn't just study so I started working in a rock dismantling company that handled drilling with explosives (Almada Hotel in Trindade), excavation works (Bolhão Tunnel) and rock dismantling in quarries. I thoroughly appreciated this opportunity since even with the spreading of COVID-19, I was able to continue working on something I loved and was such a source of knowledge for me.

My studies are getting to an end so I decided it was time to start thinking about my thesis. My first thought was for it to be related with drilling and blasting since I worked on the sector for almost a year. However, I didn't want my thesis to be similar to many others before and so I contacted the O-Pitblast team, asking them for help. They received me with open arms, despite COVID-19 being at its worst in Portugal. They proposed I studied models of fragmentation and vibration in order to help with the development of a software for underground blasting and I was very pleased and grateful for this opportunity.

Right now, I feel like I am working with the best drilling and blasting software and that I have the chance to help with its development!

O-Pitblast has helped me not to feel like just another employee and has helped me to improve my knowledge, pushing me to be a better professional and a better person.

My perspective of the future is...

I want to spread the O-Pitblast message to the whole world and to travel with this amazing team.