INESC-ID

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  • Exploring programming languages at Philip Wadler’s Distinguished Lecture. From Ancient Greece to modern cryptography

    Exploring programming languages at Philip Wadler’s Distinguished Lecture. From Ancient Greece to modern cryptography

    Wearing a khaki suit and a Panama hat, Philip Wadler meets his audience for the Distinguished Lecture (Programming Languages) in Agda = Programming (Languages in Agda), organized within the scope of the BIG ERA Chair Project. This time, we got the explorer’s look. For other attendees, the professor of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society has chosen the Superman costume.

    Regardless of the cover, the expertise – spiced up with a touch of humour – is always assured. Wadler, a key developer of several programming languages, like Haskell and Java, is a notable figure in the field. “One of the most important personalities in the area”, Luís Caires, INESC-ID Information and Decision Support Systems and ERA Chair Holder, states while introducing the talk, which happened on June 4, at Instituto Superior Técnico (Alameda).

    Wadler’s connection to Portugal comes through both the brain and the heart. “It’s a very strong place in programming languages!”, he notes. The emotional bond comes from his wife, a Brazilian native and a big fan of the country.

    Author of several books on programming languages, the researcher and teacher has specialized in linear programming languages, “which is a tiny subfield of a subfield.” While talking about the subject, he often goes back to Ancient Greece and to the origins of the studies on logic, relating it to concepts like propositions as types and foundational logic ideas. “We’re working on programming languages that we’re designing now, but the designs are based on ideas and logic that go back to the turn of the 1900s or sometimes go back to Ancient Greece two thousand years ago.” Lewis Carroll, under his real name Charles Dodgson, also did some work on logic, Wadler exemplifies. “It is said that after Alice in Wonderland came out, the Queen of England said she wanted to see that author next book and it was on symbolic logic.”

    Explaining the title of his talk, he explains Agda is one of a family of “what are called proof assistants”, that also go back in time, to the cryptography genius, Alan Turing. “Everybody is aware of this notion that programmes have bugs, right? You see this all the time: You’re using the web and all of a sudden, the website dies and puts up a little message saying ‘Please contact service or something’. So wouldn’t it be nice if you could demonstrate that would never happen?”, he questions. The sort of systems used by Amazon, for example, and that come in very handy in the cryptocurrency world and that is where his cooperation, as a consultant, with the platform Cardano comes from.

    Writing proofs is not as simple as writing code. It requires highly trained individuals, who are not in abundance. “Artificial intelligence and machine learning classes and so on have around 400 students. My class has forty”, he compares.

    Another sector that might benefit considerably from the use of proof assistants is Large Language Models. “What does a large language model do? It’s a neural network trained on a very large body of texts. What it does is given a group of words, what word should come next to sound good? So it’s just trained to sound good, to impress and therefore they have the tendency to confabulate”, Wadler notes. The integration of proof assistants on the programming of these models gives us the possibility to avoid these mistakes. But always with “people involved”, he stresses. “To check the specifications and come up with new ways of doing proofs and teach them to the machines.” Bulletproof logic.

    Text by Sara Sá, Science Writer | Communications and Outreach Office, INESC-ID

    Images | © 2024 INESC-ID

  • Renata Castelo Branco at the final of the 3MThesis competition with her work on algorithms to draw buildings

    Renata Castelo Branco at the final of the 3MThesis competition with her work on algorithms to draw buildings

    How can one use algorithms to draw buildings? That is the question that Renata Castelo Branco, a junior researcher at INESC-ID, from the scientific area Graphics and Interaction, and a PhD student in Computer Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, answered to, in three minutes and with a single slide. “An algorithm is a set of instructions for the computer to execute the house model”, she explained, during her presentation in the final of the competition 3-Minute Thesis (3MT).

    Renata was speaking at the event, that took place on June 6, at the magnificent amphitheatre of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, Universidade de Lisboa (UL), with the twelve finalists coming from different faculties of UL and covering topics that go from literature, to politics and veterinary medicine.

    The 3MT academic competition at Universidade de Lisboa is designed to develop unique skills in doctoral students, such as communicating complex ideas simply and creatively to diverse audiences, following the rule of spending just three minutes and using a single slide. The competition is inspired by a format developed and patented by the University of Queensland, Australia (3MT®). And under the principle that “knowledge is too important to be closed, it must reach society”, said the vice-rector of UL, Cecília Rodrigues.

    Renata’s presentation was vivid, clear and with perfect timing. Prior to announcing the first prize winner, the UL rector Luís Anjos Ferreira remembered that in old days the students were not allowed in the centre stage of the amphitheatre. “Today we have the students on this side, teaching the professors”, he stressed.

    Nuno Jordão, from Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, got the first prize, with a surprising presentation about genetic manipulation of virus to fight African swine fever, Nuno Gonçalves, from Faculdade de Ciências, with a talk about rainbows in other planets reached the second place and Marco Ribeiro on third, presenting a study about political conscience in medieval artisans.

    A video of all the presentations can be seen here.

    Images | © 2024 INESC-ID

  • 10, 9, 8…Ariane 6 is set for liftoff and we’re onboard

    10, 9, 8…Ariane 6 is set for liftoff and we’re onboard

    We are on the verge of a new dawn for European space exploration and for Portuguese academia. On its maiden flight, Ariane 6, the new European heavy lift launch vehicle, is carrying our ISTSat-1, the first university CubeSat satellite entirely conceived in Portugal. Handwritten on the coating of the rocket’s head, the so called fairing, are three names: João Paulo Monteiro, Manuel Santos and Tiago Santos – the junior researchers who travelled to the European Spaceport in French Guiana and signed the fairing before it was integrated on the rocket. “It was the most striking moment of our expedition”, confesses Manuel, part of the team of researchers and teachers at Técnico, members of the NanosatLab, a consortium led by INESC-ID.

    Besides this emotional moment, the team also had some technical work to do, like checking the nanosatellite battery status (spoiler alert: it was perfect!)

    The much-antecipated launch date – July 9 – was announced by ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher, at the Berlin Air Show, one of the most prestigious events in the aerospace sector, happening this week.

    There was a lot to overcome to reach this phase. The idea of building a university satellite came to light back in 2010, with technical and legislation questions to surmount and a pandemic that contributed to the delay in the construction of the Ariane 6, initially meant to be ready by 2020.

    Modular and agile, as reinforced by Aschbacher, Ariane 6 has a reignitable upper stage, allowing it to launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight. “This inaugural flight is considered an experimental one; it is a test flight, not a commercial one”, stresses the coordinator of the ISTSat-1 project, Rui Rocha. Fingers crossed!


    Text by Sara Sá, Science Writer | Communications and Outreach Office, INESC-ID

    Image caption: The NanoSat Lab team and Ariane 6. Image credits: Técnico, NanoSat Lab and ArianeGroup

  • INESC-ID Board members and researchers participate in Summer School on leadership in the age of AI

    INESC-ID Board members and researchers participate in Summer School on leadership in the age of AI

    Artificial Intelligence is forcing us to rethink and reshape everything, from leadership to research and innovation. It presents both a challenge and an opportunity. In this defiant and exciting context, INESC Brussels HUB is inviting 25 top R&I administrators, managers, researchers, and policymakers from across Europe to a highly dynamic “lunch to lunch” participatory workshop, taking place on June 5 and 6.

    With an emphasis on active engagement, this summer school ensures valuable and actionable outcomes for all attendees.

    The methodology includes presentations, collaborative discussions and workshops enabling participants to benchmark their practices against leading AI standards; gain insights and innovative strategies for their institutions; network with top experts from academia, industry and policy-making.

    INESC-ID President, Inês Lynce, along with other Board members and researchers from our institution will attend the Brussels meeting, joined by representatives from all other four INESC Group institutions. The list of participants includes AICEP Portugal Global, the European Research Council and various European research institutions.

  • Tackling EU’s AI Act regulation challenges: PLMJ and INESC-ID sign collaboration protocol

    Tackling EU’s AI Act regulation challenges: PLMJ and INESC-ID sign collaboration protocol

    On May 14, the law firm PLMJ and INESC-ID established a protocol to collaborate, each bringing their unique expertise, in developing and implementing specific programs to ensure that AI systems comply with the standards of the new European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation, the world’s first comprehensive AI law.

    This partnership aims to develop new methodologies combining law and technology to check AI systems at every stage, from design to deployment, to make sure they’re safe and fair. The two partners will also promote training and knowledge sharing to enhance understanding of AI’s technical and legal aspects.

    Pedro Lomba, the coordinating partner of the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications sector at PLMJ, emphasised that “the compliance assessment with the AI Regulation—a pioneering law—will be unlike anything we have done so far in Technology Law”, and stressed the necessity for multidisciplinary knowledge about “a rapidly evolving family of technologies, some of which are new,” and the significance of partnering with “a robust technological partner like INESC-ID, which has performed unparalleled work in these areas.”

    Inês Lynce, President of INESC-ID, highlighted the institute’s extensive AI research and its contribution to providing a balanced view on AI’s potential and risks, and pointed out the critical need for “strong collaboration between entities skilled in legal and technological domains, a collaboration made possible through this partnership.”

    Read the full  PLMJ’s press release here.

    (image source: Generative AI)

  • Advancing Monitoring of Pandemics and Contagious Diseases: M.U.S.T and GMU visit INESC-ID

    Advancing Monitoring of Pandemics and Contagious Diseases: M.U.S.T and GMU visit INESC-ID

    A delegation of experts from the Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T) and Guangzhou Medical University (GMU) visited INESC-ID on May 17. The delegation was interested in learning about INESC-ID, as part of a collaboration between the three entities for the advancement of health monitoring.

    INESC-ID welcomed the delegation in the morning, presenting both INESC and INESC-ID to the participants while also taking the opportunity to showcase ongoing projects within the scope. 

    “The goal of this interaction is to develop and provide methods and algorithms that can be used for monitoring and predicting the evolution of pandemics, and other contagious diseases”, revealed Arlindo Oliveira, INESC President and INESC-ID researcher, who presented the INESC group. 

    Inês Lynce, president of INESC-ID, who was also present, and gave an overview of the institution, referred to the  “cooperation, and data sharing amongst the institutes benefits all parties involved, representing a key element driving them towards achieving the common goal.”  

    The effort in this area has been supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology and the Guangzhou National Laboratory and the project is led by professors Arlindo Oliveira, Ana Teresa Freitas and Hon Chi Tin.

    Images | © 2024 INESC-ID

  • INESC-ID’s researcher awarded a Fulbright scholarship to advance cancer treatment

    INESC-ID’s researcher awarded a Fulbright scholarship to advance cancer treatment

    When the gene editing technology, known as CRISPR-Cas, has come to light, a small revolution in the way we manage illness has started to happen. The potential to diagnose and treat health conditions, such as cancer, exponentially increases when Artificial Intelligence is incorporated. That’s exactly what Emanuel Gonçalves, a researcher at INESC-ID specializing in Automated Reasoning and Software Reliability and a teacher at Técnico, will be doing over the course of his sabbatical at the Broad Institute, of MIT and Harvard, under a Fulbright scholarship that he has just been awarded. “The Broad Institute is a leading institution in the area!”, stresses Emanuel. “And the Fulbright Program is, at the moment, one of the few supporting sabbatical leaves, with the advantage of including the possibility to take the family”, adds the father of two infants.

    During his three months stay in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the second trimester of 2025, the researcher will analyse a rich CRISPR-Cas9 screen resulting from lab work previously done by the experimental team. Emanuel, who has been working on the application of machine learning to cancer biology and drug resistance, particularly integrating high-throughput functional genetic screens with rich multi-omic technologies – allowing for the analyses of multiple types of biological data simultaneously – plans to develop an efficient method for modelling this information, enabling combinatorial-based editing screenings. That is, to study several interactions and disturbances among proteins simultaneously.

    This visit to The Broad Institute will further “enhance IST and INESC-ID’s participation in the international DepMap consortium”, a platform aimed at empowering the research community to make discoveries related to cancer vulnerabilities. Additionally, “it will provide insights into emerging technologies shaping the next generation of machine learning models in cellular biology,” the researcher noted in his application.

    Fascinated by the potential of gene-editing to study cancer, Emanuel has been involved in a series of studies focused on applying CRISPR-Cas9 screens on a large scale. The ultimate goal during his stay at the Broad Institute is to employ novel machine learning approaches to stratify patients effectively and identify drug targets in innovative ways.

  • Fostering Collaboration for Technological Advancements: A Partnership Between SGInnovate and INESC-ID

    Fostering Collaboration for Technological Advancements: A Partnership Between SGInnovate and INESC-ID

    It is one of the largest markets in the world, making the collaboration between SGInnovate, a leading Singaporean government-backed organization, focused on deep tech innovation, and INESC-ID an excellent opportunity to foster partnerships and drive technological advancements with societal impact. “Innovation knows no borders, and we hope that our initial engagement with SG Innovate marks the beginning of a fruitful partnership, particularly in facilitating access to new funding mechanisms and markets for innovative ideas,” notes Sílvia Castro, Head of the Innovation Office at INESC-ID, who was part of the team that received a Singaporean delegation visiting the premises of INESC-ID.

    SGInnovate, private-limited company wholly owned by the Singapore Government, specialized in supporting and scaling Deep Tech startups, aiming to address global challenges through innovation. Based in Singapore, it is focused on developing Human Capital and deploying Investment Capital to empower entrepreneurial initiatives around emerging technologies like Advanced Manufacturing, AgriFood, Healthcare, Biomedical Sciences, and Sustainability. Juliana Lim, SGInnovate’s Executive Director & Talent, and Samantha Fong, Manager of Partnerships, were also hosted by Miguel Correia, Board Member of INESC-ID.

    The tour was also an opportunity to meet with representatives from INESC-ID’s startup, including Diogo Rato Co-Founder of Testwaves, Miguel Freire Co-Founder & CEO at Neural Shift, Alexandre David Chief Operating Office at VoiceInteraction, and Marcelino Santos, Co-founder of SiliconGate. “SGInnovate has supported so far around two thousand startups in Singapore. A collaboration between INESC-ID’s startups and SGInnovate may open doors to the expansion on these startups to Singapore, and from there to the Asian market. This is an incredible opportunity for the expansion of their business”, stresses Miguel Correia.

    The visit was organized in collaboration with ANI, Startup Portugal, and AICEP, and included other Portuguese research institutes. “Together, we are laying the groundwork to amplify the impact of our deep tech solutions”, summarizes Sílvia Castro.

    (Image: Sílvia Castro with the SGInnovate delegation members, Juliana Lim and Samantha Fong | © 2024 INESC-ID)

  • In the Media: Luísa Coheur discusses AI emergence in classrooms with Público newspaper

    In the Media: Luísa Coheur discusses AI emergence in classrooms with Público newspaper

    INESC-ID researcher Luísa Coheur* and professor at Técnico has recently been interviewed by national newspaper, Público, about artificial intelligence (AI) integration in classrooms and the challenges it presents to teachers.

    Joined by several fellow educators, Luísa Coheur’s highlighted the rise in the use of AI by students and why it’s inevitable, providing advice to teachers and parents alike, on the advantages AI tools can provide, like assistance and increased classroom engagement, while not neglecting that they should not act as a replacement for skills acquired during the lessons.

    Read the full article (in PT) here.

    *Luísa Coheur is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science at Instituto Superior Técnico and a Researcher at INESC-ID, in the “Human Language Technologies” group. Her preferred research topics focus on Dialogue Systems, Question/Answer, and Machine Translation (including for Portuguese Sign Language).

    (image source: Generative AI)

  • Advancing Compiler Technology: Nuno Lopes receives Google Research Scholar Award with Alive2 Project

    Advancing Compiler Technology: Nuno Lopes receives Google Research Scholar Award with Alive2 Project

    Nuno Lopes*, researcher at INESC-ID and professor at the Department of Informatics at Técnico, received the prestigious and highly competitive Google Research Scholar Award, which includes a grant of $60,000.

    The award was given for his research in the area of automatic verification of compilers, which Nuno Lopes has developed in the last decade. In the past, this work had already been recognised with two distinctions for best papers at the Programming Language Design and Implementation conference (PLDI), and a technology transfer award. The prize money will be used to hire students to work on Alive2 for LLVM compiler verification, a tool developed by INESC-ID and used by several companies, including Google.

    The prize is awarded annually by Google and aims on funding world-class research conducted by early-career professors who are pursuing research in fields relevant to Google. This year, only two were granted in the area of Software Engineering and Programming Languages worldwide, with INESC-ID being one of the recipients.

    *Nuno Lopes is a researcher within the High Performance Computing Architectures and Systems Scientific Area at INESC-ID and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico.