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  • 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.

  • Tokyo within reach of an internship: opportunity for INESC-ID PhD students

    Tokyo within reach of an internship: opportunity for INESC-ID PhD students

    It starts with an internship and it may end up in marriage. “Portuguese students love Japan,” reveals Emmanuel Planas, the professor in charge of the International Internship Program at NII- National Institute of Informatics, in Tokyo. “In some cases, after the internship they get a job and get married”, he adds after his presentation, last week, at Técnico Oeiras, to present the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between INESC-ID and the NII. Through this agreement, INESC-ID’s and IST’s Master’s in Computer Science students are invited to apply to an internship.

    This MOU with INESC-ID has been in place since 2011, after Rui Prada, from Artificial Intelligence for People and Society research area and a teacher at Técnico, became aware of this possibility, while completing a post-doc at NII. “I realised it was a good opportunity for students.”

    Finishing his tour around Europe to present this competitive program, established with the most reputable institutes in the world, the acting director of the Global Liaison Office explained to the audience the main aspects of the MOU. Every year, the NII receives 140 masters’ and doctoral students to this paid internship, lasting 2 to 6 months.

    At NII, located in the centre of the metropolis, very close to the Ministry of Education from Japan, there are 350 scientists, working in three research areas. Before applying, candidates must choose a topic and approach a senior researcher to work with during the internship. There are two calls every year, one in April and another in September, with 60 to 70 interns accepted per call. In each institute there is a referee who receives the applications, selects them and sends them to NII. AT INESC-ID, Rui Prada is the person in charge.

    Ana Carrasco, a PhD student, working in social robotics at GAIPS, has spent six months at NII under the MOU and highly recommends it. So much so that she is considering applying once more. “It’s an amazing experience”, she summarizes. “People are so friendly that I hardly felt the language barrier”, Ana adds, anticipating what might be felt as an obstacle by potential candidates.

    So far, around 40 students from INESC-ID/Técnico have joined the programme, Rui Prada estimates. ‘Ja ne’ Tokyo.

  • A year in review: 2023 INESC-ID Annual Report now available!

    A year in review: 2023 INESC-ID Annual Report now available!

    The 2023 INESC-ID Annual Report has been released! The report, published in Portuguese, offers a comprehensive overview of the INESC-ID community, including the latest facts and figures, project updates, and achievements from the past year. It also presents highlights of our research, development, and innovation throughout 2023, alongside detailed information about our organisational structure, mission, and strategic objectives.

    Download the 2023 Annual Report here, and get to know our institute better with this retrospective.

  • The world needs more girls and women in tech and INESC-ID is helping to achieve that goal

    The world needs more girls and women in tech and INESC-ID is helping to achieve that goal

    It is inevitable! There is a natural urge to hold the dancing robot when it interrupts the choreography, falling down as programmed. This act, performed at INESC-ID Social Robotics Lab, from the Group of AI for People and Society (GAIPS), captured the full attention of elementary students from Agrupamento de Escolas de Miraflores, Oeiras, who were participating in the International Girls in ICT Day, celebrated at Técnico’s Taguspark Campus, on April 24th.

    If gender equality were attained in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, a market of up to 50 billion euros would open up, according to UNESCO. And this in only one of the reasons to celebrate and encourage girls to enrol in a career in this area.

    Since 2011, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has been promoting the event to raise awareness and stimulate girls and women to pursue a career in Science Technology Engineering Art and Math (STEAM). To mark the date, the GIRLSTEAM’24 received 150 students, who participated in activities promoted by INESC-ID and other research centres, such as the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (IBB) and the Games Lab.

    During the visit, the students learned that besides entertaining, robots can also help children with autism navigate a world of sensory overload or accompany impaired people complete some tasks. And even solve some complicated math calculations. “Can they divide by zero?”, asked young Mateo.

    We could wager 100% of the youngsters that visited us are, in a way, gamers. But it certainly came as a surprise to realize that games can be a way to study altruism, as Samuel Gomes, also from GAIPS, does, or to cope with diseases, as the INESC-ID researcher, Sandra Gama, from the Human Lab, at the Graphics and Interaction (GI) group, pursues.

    In Europe, women hold just 22% of the tech industry’s positions and worldwide, out of the 7 million people who work in the ICT sector, only 30% are women. It is widely recognised technology is the language of tomorrow, cutting across many different professions, from health to economics. Girls must have a role in the future – for the sake of mankind.

    (Image: students participating in GI and GAIPS activities at GIRLSTEAM24 | © 2024 INESC-ID)
  • “GPT is wonderful! Use it without fear, – but with caution”, advises Luísa Coheur at Técnico Open Day

    “GPT is wonderful! Use it without fear, – but with caution”, advises Luísa Coheur at Técnico Open Day

    The auditorium was completely full, mostly of youngsters, who wanted to listen to Luísa Coheur’s talk at Técnico Open Day: “ChatGPT – potentials and risks.” And there was no disappointment, since a good share of the participants stayed beyond schedule in a very vivid conversation with the researcher at INESC-ID’s Human Language Technologies (HLT) lab and a teacher at Técnico.

    The talk started with a retrospective on the origins of the now ubiquitous Large Language Models (LLM). “They were not born today, they are the result of many years of study in natural language processing, and also machine learning”, the researcher noted.

    Starting on the sixties of past century, the field has grown ever since, with an impressive evolution after the first public presentation of the most famous LLM, GPT, in 2019. “The first versions generated text that was correct, but still a bit confusing”, Luísa told the audience. “But with GPT-3 it is madness!”

    Assuming herself as a great enthusiast of the models, the researcher and teacher urged the students to incorporate this tool in their lives, including to fulfil their academic tasks. “I use it all the time, to prepare classes or to make presentations like this one”, Luísa revealed, giving the example of the illustrations, all created through instructions given to the model.

    But if first half of the conference was devoted to the advantages of using LLM, the second was focused on the risks. “Never trust it completely, always check.” Voice and image manipulation, made up sentences, invented sources, are the most critical aspects of this technology. But there is only one way to fight it: is to know it well and be aware of its faults.

    As the former President of USA, Franklin D. Roosevelt, famously said: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

    Another presentation that also generated interest from the participants, was the one about the first University CubeSat, a satellite entirely conceived and developed in Portugal, in a collaborative team that includes INESC-ID researchers, Gonçalo Tavares and Moisés Piedade. The conference was delivered by João Paulo Monteiro, one of the researchers responsible the project, who will likely be at French Guiana in September, to assist the launch event.

    (Image: © 2024 INESC-ID)

  • Electric Vehicles vs. Climate Change: INESC-ID at Técnico Open Day 2024 with EV4EU Project

    Electric Vehicles vs. Climate Change: INESC-ID at Técnico Open Day 2024 with EV4EU Project

    INESC-ID marked its presence at the Técnico Open Day 2024, held on April 20 at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, showcasing the Horizon Europe project EV4EU. The day was filled with lectures, interactive experiences, guided tours, and a science fair with 40 research projects on display, offering visitors a unique opportunity to discover the school and its initiatives.

    At the event’s Science Fair, EV4EU took center stage at the INESC-ID stand, where researchers Cindy P. Guzman and Larissa Montefusco, engaged with many curious visitors who stopped by to chat. Under the title “Electric Vehicles Management for Carbon Neutrality: Discover how electrical vehicles can contribute to the fight against climate change”, they shared the project’s latest developments and discussed how its planned solutions can support the massification of electric vehicles while contributing to the decrease of carbon emissions and global warming.

    Técnico Open Day 2024 was a major success, with over 2000 visitors throughout the day. With contributions from Departments, Students Associations, associated Research Units and Institutes, this was a day dedicated to celebrating diversity in the fields of engineering, science, technology and architecture, engaging the community with the best of what our science has to offer.

    Know more about the project here.

  • OLISSIPO organises Workshop on How to Design a Graphical Abstract

    OLISSIPO organises Workshop on How to Design a Graphical Abstract

    Last Friday, we had the pleasure of hosting a workshop on “How to design a graphical abstract,” organised by OLISSIPO. The workshop was specifically tailored for Early-Stage Researchers and had Rita Félix, science communicator, illustrator, and designer from the CNC Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, as speaker and instructor.

    Throughout the day, participants delved into the specifics of graphical abstracts, gaining valuable insights into their structure and learning practical tips for enhancing clarity and appeal in their designs, without the need for software like Adobe Illustrator. They were encouraged to bring their graphical abstracts to the workshop, to share with the group, receive feedback, and collaborate on refining their designs. By the end of the day, each attendee left with an improved version of their graphical abstract, following several presentations and discussions.

    The aim was to equip participants with the necessary design tools and insights to create compelling and clear visual representations of their research, highlighting INESC-ID’s dedication to fostering a culture of effective science communication and equipping its researchers with the tools and knowledge necessary to share their work with broader audiences.