When RailTEC graduate research assistant, Vitor Alves, graduates next month from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign he will be continuing his family’s tradition of railroading. “My first interest was in engineering, but now I’m the third generation of my family in railroads,” said Alves. “My grandfather, father, and I have worked for railroads.”
After earning a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 2021 from Federal University of Sao Joao del Rei in Brazil, Alves worked at a Brazilian railroad company, MRS, where he learned about RailTEC from a coworker. “MRS has a connection to RailTEC,” he said. “My colleague, Josue Bastos, was a University of Illinois alumni, and his previous adviser (Assistant Professor J. Riley Edwards) was looking for someone to help with research. I was excited about learning more about the country and the culture here, and I knew if I had the opportunity to study railroads here, I would take it,” Alves said.
“RailTEC is one of the most prestigious rail research centers in the world, and the University of Illinois is an outstanding university,” he added. Alves began his studies at Illinois in January 2023 and in December will receive a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering, with a focus in transportation and data science.
At MRS, Alves operated a drone and collected data that he used for track inspection work. 
“The drone captures overhead photos of the track. I collected these images, processed them, and created 3D models using a technique called photogrammetry,” he explained.
His knowledge of track inspection and data collection has been valuable to the RailTEC program where Alves uses different systems to inspect track condition, collect data, and create a metric for objectively assessing track. “I have traveled across parts of the U.S. to conduct track inspections,” he said. “With the equipment you can see specific points of track and see the condition, degradation, and maintenance of the track.” The data collected assists RailTEC research scientists who are investigating the main causes of train derailments and the longitudinal movement of tracks for possible prevention of track buckling.
Alves said his experience as a Graduate Research Assistant in the RailTEC program has been professionally and personally fulfilling. “I have made very good friends here with the faculty and team, and I’ve attended a lot of conferences with good networking,” he said. “RailTEC has definitely put me in a good place with job opportunities in the U.S. and Brazil.”