Ep 56 - Caninos Loucos, Labrador (a Raspberry Pi alternative) and some cool Blockchain use cases on it

I had the pleasure of meeting Geovane and his colleague in a
obscure little corner of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in
the Eureka Park section. I was excited to find a really cool
little yet powerful computer that is an alternative to Raspberry
Pi (as well as befriend two awesomely Brazilian technologists).
This unit is proudly made in Brazil and rivals their English
counter part (the Pi).


On this episode of LAB Radio we caught up with Geovane
Fedrecheski a computer science engineer, Ph.D candidate and team
member of a Raspberry Pi alternative called Labrador. 


Geovane Fedrecheski


"In my career, I have helped LG Electronics to deliver great
mobile phones for all Latin America and collaborated in the
creation of a free MOOC that teaches IoT for non-technical
people. I have taught programming for both children and adults,
co-founded and dropped out of a startup, and did theater classes
for two years to enhance my communication skills. I currently do
Research and Software Engineering at University of São Paulo,
where I also happen to be a PhD student. I think computers shall
help and empower people. Thus, as a scientist, my goal is to use
technology to enhance peoples' lives."


Geovane is a Ph.D. student where he does research and development
of a Internet of Thing (IoT) framework called the SwarmOS. This
entails investigating how to best manage security authorizations
in swarms of IoT devices. Geovane developed an access control and
Blockchain solution as well as a network discovery algorithm. His
work was published in various scientific journals and
conferences.


The Labrador (Raspberry Pi alternative) is a fairly robust and
powerful computer. One of the benefits Geovane mentioned when we
were talking at CES was the potential for outdoor applications
(like weather elements). Believe it or not, the Raspberry Pi is
not ideal for outdoor locations which makes it a pretty poor
choice for outdoor IoT applications (which are greatly needed for
smart cities as an example).


As stated in their collateral:


"The Caninos Loucos Labrador board is a Brazilian Single Board
Computer, with open Hardware and Software, that can be used to
create Internet of Things applications.It is composed by two
boards: the Labrador Core Board, which has all features of a
modern computer, and the Labrador Base Board, which expands its
communication options by providing a large variety of
connectors.The modularity of the Caninos Loucos Labrador board
allows for greater flexibility in hardware interface prototyping.
Other Base Board models can be used, with specific
functionalities required by custom applications.This board set
features ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection, is compact,
resistant, and can be used in a range of applications, from
personal projects to commercial applications."


Here are more on the specifications of the
board:


 


After listening to this episode you will learn:


About Geovane's background and how he got into computer
science

What LSI TEC is 

What type of research and work he does in Internet of Things
(IoT)

What the Caninos Loucos single board computer is (Raspberry
Pi alternative)

Why and how did this project come about 

What its specs are and what can be done with it

A few Blockchain use cases for the board

Geovane's thoughts on CES 2019 and technology that got him
excited

What excites him the most about the state of technology (and
the Blockchain)