RailTEC Student Spotlight – Jose Augusto Venancio Da Silva Ramos

The RailTEC program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has placed Jose Augusto Venancio Da Silva Ramos on the right track for a career in the rail industry.  Prior to graduating last month with a master’s degree in civil engineering from Illinois, Ramos earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2019 from the Federal University of Technology – Parana, Brazil. Ramos had been working since 2020 at Rumo, Brazil’s largest railroad, when he learned by happenstance about RailTEC from a friend’s friend.

“His friend’s friend, Ian Germoglio (2022 MS), was about to graduate from here (UIUC) and knew they were looking for good students interested in railroad research,” Ramos explained. “I talked to Ian about RailTEC, and the projects sounded interesting and were related to what I was doing with data from track inspection and modeling,” he said. When Ramos joined RailTEC in January 2023, it was also his first time in the United States. He found everyone at UIUC to be warm and welcoming, but not so much the Central Illinois winter weather. “Everyone is really nice – the faculty and the students, but winter is really winter here,” Ramos said. “There is snow and cold, and it is the opposite season to Brazil.”

As a RailTEC Graduate Research Assistant, Ramos’ research entailed understanding the degradation of track using novel data. To accomplish that, Ramos operated a Laser Rail Inspection System (LRAIL) which uses 3D laser scanners and computer vision to identify track components and the condition of the track. “With multiple inspections of it, we can see how track is degrading over time,” he explained. “My main role was dealing with the giant amount of data and extracting relevant information from the data.”

“It’s a tool that can improve reliability and safety because people aren’t walking on the track to do inspections,” he added. In addition to his research, Ramos took on a leadership role as president of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way (AREMA) Student Chapter, helping to advance the goals and objectives of RailTEC. “It was a great experience and put me in a leadership position, bringing together students and rail industry professionals,” he said.

Through RailTEC, Ramos has made many connections in the rail industry that have led him to a new job this month in asset and data management for railroads at VisioStack in Greenville, SC.  “I have enjoyed going out on field visits, and I have met a lot of people in the rail industry,” Ramos said of RailTEC. “It is a unique experience, and I’m very thankful for the exposure I have had to conferences, industry experts, and all the management team and staff from RailTEC.”