The June 2023 issue of NEWS-ID — the INESC-ID Newsletter — is out! You can read it here.
Containing recent news from our researchers and their projects, open positions and some extra bits of content, our monthly newsletter is a great one-stop spot for great content on computer science and electrical and computer engineering.
You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.
Professor Arlindo Oliveira presented his new book — Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (the Portuguese title for “Science, Technology and Society”) — yesterday, 26 June 2023, at Sala Âmbito Cultural in El Corte Inglés in Lisbon.
President of INESC, Distinguished Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and a researcher at INESC-ID, Professor Oliveira has published Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade following his successful article series in the Portuguese newspaper Público over recent years. Divided into 14 sections, the present volume covers themes as varied as the fourth industrial revolution, technological literacy, artificial intelligence, budding financial systems, the environment or the COVID-19 pandemic.
Closing with a section on the future of humanity, and as a true polymath with an eye set on the big questions, Professor Oliveira tackles the nature of intelligence, humankind’s place in the cosmos and what the future may hold for our species. As Professor Oliveira writes in the book’s introduction “[A time traveler from the 18th century, dropped in today’s world] would clearly understand what Arthur C. Clarke said: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’” Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade shows you exactly why.
As well as a researcher and professor, Professor Oliveira is a prolific author, having published, amongst other titles, The Digital Mind: How Science Is Redefining Humanity (2018) with MIT Press.
Maria Inês Conceição has won first place at SIRESP Desafio Inovação 2023 (SIRESP Innovation Challenge 2023).
Maria Inês was awarded for her project “Lightweight indoor environment mapping using micro aerial vehicles (MAVS)” at the second edition of the SIRESP Tech Days, on 02 June 2023. A PhD student in electrical and computer engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico and the Intelligent Networks and Communications Systems (INCS) research area at INESC-ID, Maria Inês reported that “It was a great experience! It allowed me to present my project and get to know other very interesting projects developed in this area.”
Part of the activities of SIRESP, S.A. in promoting innovation in the field of new communication technologies, training and skills enhancement, SIRESP Desafio Inovação “meets the training objectives of Higher Education students and is seen as an added value to stimulate the development of ideas, particularly in the new generations, promoting national engineering and the development of innovative technological solutions in the context of the SIRESP network.” “The exchange of ideas, perspectives and opinions regarding the projects presented, and their possible future developments, was very interesting,” Maria Inês commented, “[as well as] important for the continuation of my work.”
The SIRESP network is the Portuguese State’s exclusive communications network for command, control and coordination of communications in all emergency and security situations.
Renata Castelo Branco was one of two Portuguese PhD students selected to take part in the TNC23 Future Talent Programme, which took place earlier this month in Tirana, Albania.
Together with João Brandão (a student at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto), Renata — a PhD student in INESC-ID’s Graphics and Interaction research area — was chosen by FCCN (the Scientific Computing Unit of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT) and GÉANT (the collaboration of European National Research and Education Networks, NRENs) to take part in TNC23’s Lightning Talk Challenge and share her story and project.
The Future Talent Programme’s Lightning Talk Challenge “offers students and young professionals the opportunity to present their project or idea to TNC’s international audience,” an opportunity that Renata seized to speak about The Algorithmic Design Sketchbook, her PhD work on algorithmic design, integrating computation and architecture.
“The use of programming and the changes that this approach imposes on traditional design processes have limited its use to industry giants”, Renata explains. Her project then seeks to “make algorithmic thinking more accessible, complementing it with visual and dynamic development and explanation mechanisms, thus promoting its widespread use in industry.” On speaking in the Lightning Talk Challenge, Renata added that “Often, as researchers, we transmit our discoveries in a very technical way, since communication is directed to an equally technical and specialized public”, highlighting that initiatives such as the Lightning Talks “inevitably lead to making an effort of synthesis, simplification and focus on real contributions to society.”
TNC is the largest and most prestigious research and education networking conference in the world, attracting a diverse audience of hundreds of participants from more than 70 countries every year.
José Borbinha has been elected a Corresponding Member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.
A researcher of the INESC-ID Information and Decision Support Systems (IDSS) research area, as well as a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Professor Borbinha was elected a Corresponding Member together with four other IST professors (three additional colleagues were elected Effective Members of the Academy).
Professor Borbinha’s fields of expertise within IDSS include information systems analysis, conceptual modeling and business processes covering concerns of requirements engineering, enterprise architecture, and management of business information systems in general.
Founded in 1779, the Lisbon Academy of Sciences “promotes scientific research and […] stimulates the enrichment and study of thought, literature, language and other forms of national culture.” Members of the Academy are elected amongst Portuguese citizens responsible for scientific or literary production of outstanding quality.
Professor Arlindo Oliveira is presenting his new book — Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (Science, Technology and Society) — on 26 June 2023, 6:30pm at El Corte Inglés. Professor Oliveira is President of INESC, Distinguished Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico as well as a researcher at INESC-ID.
Come and join the discussion!
Translated synopsis:
For hundreds of thousands of years, technological evolution was so slow that the future looked essentially similar to the past. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution changed this state of affairs, opening the door to ever more frequent scientific and technological developments. Today, no one expects the future to look like the past. New technologies, new challenges, new possibilities and new threats appear almost daily, profoundly transforming society and the way we live.
In this “Science, Technology and Society”, professor and columnist Arlindo Oliveira addresses topics as diverse as energy, the environment, astrophysics, computing, the metaverse and artificial intelligence, with a focus on the impacts that technological changes will have on our society and its consequences for the future of humanity.
Those who are curious about what’s to come (and who isn’t?) will find here a wealth of information that will help them navigate the increasingly complex technological society in which we live.
Ana Paiva recently participated in RTP’s television program Sociedade Civil.
A researcher within the INESC-ID Artificial Intelligence for People and Society research area and Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (as well as the Katherine Hampson Bessell Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute), Professor Paiva joined a panel to discuss the frontiers of artificial intelligence (AI). ChatGPT was an inevitable topic, but so were the potential regulations and uses of AI.
An internationally-recognized expert on autonomous and embodied conversational agents and robots, Professor Paiva was recently elected Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
You can watch the full episode of Sociedade Civil here.
INESC-ID researchers Rui Prada, Diogo Rato and Pedro M. Fernandes have received the first ever António Brandão Vasconcelos Award.
Set up in honour of the founder of the iLLP@Técnico – Innovation Lean LaunchPad, the acceleration programme that became Lab2Market@Tecnico, the António Brandão Vasconcelos Award recognises “the most outstanding team within the Lab2Market@Técnico program, which, with the support of NTT Data Portugal and i-Deals, aims to identify and support the path to market of projects and technologies developed by researchers, teachers, and students of Instituto Superior Técnico.”
And the most outstanding team within the Lab2Market@Técnico program is exactly what the three Artificial Intelligence for People and Society (AIPS) researchers were. Sharing, with three additional teams, three months-worth of training on how to turn their unique ideas into a viable business, Professor Prada, Diogo and Pedro — both PhD students at AIPS — were recognized for their project Testwaves, through which they intend to explore AI-based solutions for automated play-testing. The budding company has exciting plans for the near future, so definitely stay tuned.
The Testwaves team received the António Brandão Vasconcelos Award, worth a cash prize of €3,500, on 31 May at Instituto Superior Técnico.
Photo credit: Departamento de Engenharia Informática (DEI), Instituto Superior Técnico.
Two new keynotes have been announced for ISD 2023: Professor Arlindo Oliveira (IST / University of Lisbon) and Professor Geert Poels (Ghent University).
The 31st International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD 2023) provides a major forum for research and developments in the field of information systems and will be hosted by Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, Portugal, on August 30–September 1 2023.
This year’s theme is “Information systems development, organizational aspects and societal trends.” More information and registration in the link above.
Registration is available here.
The May 2023 issue of NEWS-ID — the INESC-ID Newsletter — is out! You can read it here.
Containing recent news from our researchers and their projects, open positions and some extra bits of content, our monthly newsletter is a great one-stop spot for great content on computer science and electrical and computer engineering.
You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.