André Clérigo won the IEEE Outstanding MSc Thesis Award – Portugal Section.

His master’s thesis, titled “On the Integration of Communication, Sensing, and AR Towards Road Safety”, was supervised by Pedro Rito, Susana Sargento, and Maximilian Schrapel from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. This innovative work addresses the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) in smart cities by proposing a groundbreaking solution that integrates Augmented Reality (AR), smart city infrastructure, and advanced communication technologies like ITS-G5 and 5G. 

The system leverages data from smart city sensors and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications to detect and predict road collisions, providing dynamic alerts through an AR-based headset. Tested extensively in the Aveiro Tech City Living Lab in Portugal and the Autonomous Driving Test Field Baden-Württemberg in Karlsruhe, Germany, the system has demonstrated its potential to enhance pedestrian safety and usability significantly. 

The IEEE Outstanding MSc Thesis Award recognizes exceptional contributions to technological advancement, and André’s work exemplifies this standard by addressing critical challenges in road safety with innovation and real-world application.