José Paulo Vilela Soares da Cunha (S'90-M'92) was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 9, 1965. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1988 and the M.Sc. in electrical engineering in the area of control systems from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1992.Currently, he is a teacher at the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Rio de Janeiro (CEFET-RJ). His research interests include the application of variable structure control to mechanical systems and the development of instrumentation and measurement systems for underwater vehicles.