Category Archives: Events

DEI Talks | “Research, teaching and services in Biomechanics: a virtuous marriage with informatics” by Prof. João Paulo Vilas-Boas

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The Porto Biomechanics Laboratory (LABIOMEP-UP) was created with the intention of bringing together the efforts of the critical mass of the University of Porto in the fields of Biomechanics, whether dedicated to teaching, research and university extension, in the fields of sports, forensics, clinical, health and safety, ergonomics, etc. It is, therefore, a unit whose vocation is transversal to most of the University’s territories and, therefore, eminently trans and interdisciplinary.

Dedicated to the study of the causes and effects of forces and tensions generated and applied by and to biological systems and prosthetic and orthotic devices, LABIOMEP-UP uses the measurement and processing of data related to internal and external forces to biological systems and their effects, namely kinematics and plastic adaptations. The operating domains extend from dynamometry to kinemetry, passing through electromyography, morphometry (internal – using medical imaging – and external – using planar and 3D geometries extraction), thermography, and bioenergetics. In any of these spaces, and particularly in the domain of its cross and integrated interpretation, information technology is recurrently present, either through “customer” applications or through dedicated solutions aimed at solving specific problems. This is, obviously, a virtuous marriage: one that flows without great tension being perceived between the merits and limitations of each party. On the contrary: they can no longer live without each other…

 “Research, teaching and services in Biomechanics: a virtuous marriage with informatics” will be presented June 28, 15:00, room B011 at FEUP, moderated by Prof. Rui Camacho (DEI).

“João Paulo Vilas-Boas was born in 1960; Full Professor of Biomechanics at the University of Porto, Faculty of Sport, since 2004; Head of LABIOMEP-UP – Porto Biomechanics Laboratory, University of Porto; ISBS Geoffrey Dyson Award 2022; Invited Full Professor of Biomechanics at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, since 2009; resident of the International Council Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming (icBMS); Head of the Biomechanics Laboratory of the University of Porto (LABIOMEP); Member of the Scientific Committee of the Doctoral Course in Sport Sciences of the University of Porto; Member of the Scientific Committee of the Doctoral Course in Physiotherapy of the University of Porto; Member of the Scientific Committee of the Doctoral Course in Occupational Health and Safety of the University of Porto; Member of the Direction Board of the Research Unit CIF2D / FCT; Participant and responsible for several financed research and co-promotion applied research projects; Promoter, co-promoter or advisor of more than 40 Ph.D. defended thesis in Portugal and abroad; Promoter of more than 95 M.Sc. dissertations; teaches Biomechanics and Swimming Science at graduation and post-graduation courses of Sport Sciences, Bioengineering, Physiotherapy and Podiatry in a number of universities in Portugal and abroad; Invited speaker at more than 220 scientific and professional meetings; Author of more than 760 presentations to scientific and professional meetings; Author of more than 420 scientific papers internationally published under peer review process, from which more than 290 indexed at SCOPUS (h-Index=32); Author and / or editor of 14 books with national or international circulation;

Editorial boards member of: Journal of Swimming Research; Springer Book Series: Lecture Notes in Computational Vision and Biomechanics (LNCVB); Journal for Computational Vision and Biomechanics; Revista Brasileira de Docência, Ensino e Pesquisa em Educação Física, Faculdade Central de Cristalina, Brazil; Motricidade; International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Review Editor of: Frontier in Bioengineering – Biomechanics.

Associated Editor of: Sports Biomechanics; Portuguese Journal of Sport Sciences; International Journal on Multidisciplinary Approaches to Innovation (IJMAI).

Peer Review boards of more than 30 international journals.

Chairman of the X International Symposium on Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming, Porto 2006; Co-chairman of the XXIX International Conference on Biomechanics in Sports, ISBS’2011, Porto; Swimming coach for more than 20 years, having participated at European and World Championships; Six times proposed and three times elected “Coach of the Year” of the Portuguese Swimming Coaches Association ; Three times Swimming Teams Portuguese National Champion (Futebol Clube do Porto); Coached bronze medalists in Dunkerque and Malta European Junior Swimming Championships; Olympic Coach at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004; Member of the board of the Portuguese Swimming Federation between December 2004 and 2008; President of the General Assembly of the Portuguese Swimming Federation from 2008 to 2012; Member of the Board of the Olympic Committee of Portugal since 2012; Vice-President of the Olympic Committee of Portugal since 2021.”

CreativityTalks | “The creative individual: from the confluence of requirements to cognition challenges” by Fátima Morais

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The twelfth session of Creativity Talks will have as speaker the distinguished researcher from the University of Minho, Fátima Morais, about “The creative individual: from the confluence of requirements to the challenges of cognition”.

“Creativity is explained in the conception of a network of interacting variables, personal and social. However, the focus of this work will be on the individual, the initial actor in the gestation of a creative idea.  Rather than trying to answer what creativity is, it will reflect what a creative individual requires – the term ‘requirements’ potentially implies the operationalization of concepts, hence a proactive and concrete stance of promotion. In this context, after understanding the creative individual as a confluence of different dimensions, his or her cognition will be targeted in greater detail. The creative cognitive processes are the tools that typically mark, in quality and in greater frequency of use, the individuals who provoke innovation. This analysis will carry the responsibility that such tools are applied and promoted in everyone’s daily life – several examples of this educational challenge will be shared. It is hoped that such sharing will allow new ideas in the practices of those who listen to us”.

Maria de Fátima Morais has a degree in Psychology from the University of Porto and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Minho. At the latter University, she is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education. She is a researcher at the Centre for Research in Education (CIEd) at the University of Minho. She is a member of the National Association for the Study of Intervention in Overgiftedness (ANEIS) and of the International Network for Research, Intervention and Evaluation in High Intellectual Abilities (REINEVA). She belongs to the Scientific and Editorial Board of some journals. She has been a consultant for associations that study and promote creativity (e.g. Torrance Center Portugal; ANEIS) and has published nationally and internationally on this subject.

The session will take place on June 22, at 18:00, in room B008 of FEUP, and will be moderated by Manuel Firmino Torres, Professor at DEI. It will also be broadcasted via Youtube.

The entrance is free but registration is required.

DEI Talks | “Internet of Things and Security” by Prof. Mostafa Azizi

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“Internet of Things and Security” will be presented on Wednesday, June 21, at 14:45, in room B006, moderated by Prof. António Pimenta Monteiro, from DEI.

By the Author:

“Internet of things (IoT) as a new discipline has emerged since more than two decades, it is a technology vision to widen the classic Internet by integrating new applications and connecting
physical devices (such as sensors, actuators …). Reinforced by AI, IoT has gained a broad presence over different economic sectors, namely industry, agriculture, transportation, logistics, health, management of cities and homes … According to some criteria of energy autonomy, distance and smartness level, several connection types and protocols are available. Similarly as for the OSI or TCP/IP models for computer networks, IoT could be also perceived as a succession of at least three layers (Edge layer, Fog layer, and Cloud layer). Some connection protocols, such as RFID, ZigBee, WIFI, NB-IoT, and LoraWAN, are used for the communication infrastructure, while other protocols such as MQTT, CoAP, and HTTP are considered at the application level. With the advent of Industry 4.0, the proliferation of IoT was intensified, leading to the emergence of smarthomes, smartcities, smartfactories, industrial IoT (IIoT), Medical IoT (MIoT) … IoT combined with AI and data engineering is transforming our daily lives and environments. Meanwhile, this wide use of IoT is facing real security threats that could disrupt the availability of the services or inject fake data streaming. Unfortunately, most of the used devices are not prepared to protect themselves, and do not assure the least level of security. In this talk, we will present some concepts, technologies, and applications of IoT; then, we will deal with the IoT security aspect and raise awareness on this topic.
Keywords: IoT/IIoT, Industry 4.0, Smart devices, AI, IoT layers, IoT protocols, Security.

Mostafa AZIZI received a State Engineer degree in Automation and Industrial Computing from the Engineering School EMI of Rabat, Morocco in 1993, then a Master degree in Automation and Industrial Computing from the Faculty of Sciences of Oujda, Morocco in 1995, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Montreal, Canada in 2001. He also earned tens of certifications in Programming, Networking, AI, Computer Security … He is currently a Professor at the department of computer engineering, ESTO, University Mohammed 1st of Oujda. His research interests include Security and Networking, AI, Software Engineering, IoT, and Embedded Systems. His research findings with his team are published in over 100 peer-reviewed communications and papers. He also served as PC member and reviewer in several international conferences and journals (See https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qlTcK5MAAAAJ).”

Symposium on Informatics @DCE 2023

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The 5th edition of the Doctoral Congress on Engineering (DCE) will take place at FEUP on June 15 and 16, with this program.

The Symposium on Informatics, integrated in the event, will take place Friday, the 16th, in B034, with the co-organization of ProDEI, PDMD and MAP-i, where some of the ongoing research work of the 3 doctoral programs will be presented.

The Keynote: Digital dreams, real thrills: unleashing the power of XR in performing arts and beyond, conducted by Prof. António Baía Reis (PDMD Alumnus), will take place right after the opening session.

Abstract: As virtual worlds expand and develop, the integration of live performance and XR technologies becomes a prominent aspect not only in the arts and entertainment sector, but also within corporate and various other industries. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of immersive experiences and virtual platforms, creating a diverse array of live performances and interactive moments. Groundbreaking productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Ferryman Collective, Double-Eye Studios, and La Cuarta Pared VR have paved the way, while spontaneous events like poetry slams on VR Chat or Rec Room continue to gain traction. In this presentation, XR researcher and performer António Baía Reis will delve into the Avatarium method, a work in progress that aims to explore the ecosystem of virtual worlds and their implications for the future of performing arts and beyond. By identifying unique challenges and opportunities, we will uncover the potential of digital performance to transform not only arts and culture but also reshape how corporations and various industries engage with virtual realms.

Bio: António Baía Reis is an interdisciplinary university professor, researcher, and artist with an unwavering passion for extended reality (XR) and interactive media, along with their boundless potential to connect with broader society. He holds a BA in International Relations, a Professional Acting Diploma, an MA in Communication Sciences, and a practice-based PhD in Digital Media. The latter was completed in collaboration with the University of Porto and Stanford University, focusing on XR, creative processes, and social change. With a diverse artistic background spanning professional acting, music, and multimedia art for over 10 years, he has been developing a creative and research portfolio at the intersection of digital media, VR, performance, experimental music and film, and art installations. Having prior experience in digital media and the arts and cultural industry, including executive-level positions such as his role as Academic Executive Director at the Los Angeles-based company Umaya, where he was involved in multidisciplinary teams collaborating with brands such as Loewe, Nvidia, AMC, Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica, and MasterChef, Reis regularly shares his knowledge in XR, digital media, communication, the arts, and their interconnected fields across various sectors. Currently, he is an Invited Assistant Professor at both Universidad Complutense de Madrid and NOVA University of Lisbon, where he shares his expertise in digital and emerging media at the postgraduate level. He also leads research on emerging media and communication as an integrated PhD researcher of the Innovation on Digital Media research lab at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid. As the Course Director for the “Live Performance in the Metaverse” course at the Multiverse Institute for Arts & Technology (MIAT) in Milan, he mentors students in designing and executing live performances using VR and other innovative technologies. Additionally, he is the founder, stage director, and VR actor of La Cuarta Pared VR, a pioneering virtual reality theater collective based in Madrid that explores live acting and performance in virtual realms. Recent awards and special achievements include receiving a MSCA Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2021 for his groundbreaking project aimed at enhancing science communication through immersive media arts. As a published author in leading scientific journals and the Director and Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Cinema & Territory, as well as a member of the editorial board of the Q1 journal Media Practice and Education, Reis continues to contribute to scholarly discourse. More at www.antoniobaiareis.com

The program of the session can be seen here.

Linking Great Partners – “Learning by Innovating” is presented on June 2 at FEUP

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We start the week already thinking about Friday and the celebration of another edition of the DEI’s flagship event, LGP – Linking Great Partners, that will return to the Auditorium José Marques dos Santos after the “Unboxing Edition“, hosted last year by Lionesa Business Hub.

On June 2, the teams formed by 250 students from several master programs of the Faculty of Engineering of U.Porto (Informatics and Computing Engineering, Software Engineering, Multimedia, Services Engineering and Management, Eletrical and Computer Engineering) and 5 students from the Faculty of Fine Arts of U.Porto ( Communication Design), will go on stage to present the 23 technology based projects developed over the semester.

Gil Gonçalves, coordinator of this curricular unit, tells us that this year’s edition was named “Learning by innovating“, for promoting learning through the development of innovative solutions, intending to reinforce the importance of the link between the University and the Industry. June 2, it will be presented in 4 acts:

The first one – learning with society – is composed by a panel with LGP startups that have developed solutions in collaboration with associations (for example, the Cerebral Palsy Association of Porto) and with research units;

The second and third acts – learning with industry – include LGP startups which have developed solutions in collaboration with companies from different areas (technological consultancy, IT solutions, manufacturing industry, health, …);

The last act – learning with the market – includes the startups that explored ideas proposed by the students and developed those products interacting with the market.

From this which is known to be a “living laboratory”, which creates a unique context and provides students with the ideal environment to develop and practice transversal and multidisciplinary skills of project management, collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and communication, will come out projects carried out with real companies, born from proposals of technological products based on needs validated by the market.

Throughout the various stages of the LGP methodology – from the organisation of companies and multidisciplinary teams, to the presentation of the product – students contact clients, partners and competitors, encounter the complexity and uncertainty inherent in technology-based innovation, and experience first-hand the culture of a startup.

The Linking Great Partners event can be followed on social networks and on the event’s Youtube channel.

XX Conference on Information Science brings to discussion the “Ethics in the Information Era”

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On the 22nd of May, the FEUP Auditorium will host the XX Conference on Information Science, an event promoted by the undergraduate and master  students of the Information Science programs, a partnership between the Faculties of Arts and Humanities and Engineering of the University of Porto.

As in previous years, the aim of the conference is to promote an open discussion of a current theme, involving the participation of guests, the promotion of the Bachelor and Master’s degrees, as well as of the skills of its graduates and masters, among different business, institutional, professional and academic areas.

Under the theme “Ethics in the Information Era“, the programme of the edition that celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the conference includes an opening conference on Ethics and ethical issues in the context of organisations.

This will be followed by two panels that will analyse the global conjuncture, as well as the current and future challenges regarding the ethical parameters assumed by the different organisations in the use of information in the set of services made available. Two panels will also address the issues of access, understanding and evaluation of information in different media, and also the responsibility and ethical behaviour when dealing with research data and personal information in the digital era.

Before the closing session there will also be a round table with invited Alumni who, over the two decades, have benefited from an innovative model of training in Information Science at U. Porto and who, at the same time, have actively contributed to the success of the Conference on Information Science over twenty years.

Registration is free but compulsory, HERE

Datattack is back for its 2nd edition

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Organized by IEEE UP Student Branch, NEB-FEUP/ICBAS and NIAEFEUP, the second edition of Datattack took place last weekend (April 21-23), a 24 hours Data Science hackathon that aims to offer students the opportunity to contact with professionals in this area, enriching the marathon experience.

On the 1st day of the event, 2 workshops were held: Rain and river level analysis using data science, where participants could analyse the relationship between the amount of rainfall and the level of a river, using the numpy, pandas, matplotlib and sklearn libraries to perform the analysis and create a model to determine the possibility of flooding and, CRISP-DM – An Introduction to Effective Data Mining, an introduction on data mining and how CRISP-DM works, with a discussion on a case study at the end.

The 2nd day was dedicated to the competition itself that started at 10:30 am on the Saturday and ended 24 hours later with the teams of four to five elements working intensely to accomplish the proposed tasks and thus be awarded the prizes for best project.

The winning teams:

1º Lugar: DataFreaks

2º Lugar: Asociación Fusqi

3º Lugar: Attack on Python

“Organising a Data Science event for students is key to inspiring the next generation of Data Scientists. By providing opportunities to explore and learn about this growing area, we can help them develop critical skills and prepare them to deal with the ever-increasing volume of data we will face in the future,” stresses the event’s organisation.

CreativityTalks | “The Creativity Virus” by Katja Tschimmel

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Creativity is one of our most precious human resources. We owe to it our civilisation, our culture, and every benefit that arts, science or technology offer. Today, we live on the results produced by creative people over the ages. In this sense, creativity is inexhaustible. Creativity creates creativity. We can define creativity as the capacity to transform ideas and knowledge to obtain new knowledge. Creative thinking and action create new creative thinking and action. Creativity is contagious, and so infects the people around us. This is the idea which will be explored in Katja Tschimmel’s talk. In this approach, she will not focus only on the creative individual – the artist, the designer, the writer or the scientist – but she wants to understand the creative person as an integral part of a complex system. A living system which can be a group of people, a team, an organisation, a city or/and the whole society. This Creativity Talk aims to infect the audience with creativity by 1. offering knowledge about the creativity phenomenon and 2. inspiring the generation of new ideas and knowledge through information, images and short thinking exercises.

 “The Creativity Virus” will be presented by Katja Tschimmel on May 4, at 6 pm, room B021. The session will be moderated by Prof. João José Pinto Ferreira and will also be streamed via Youtube

Free entrance but registration required.

Short-Bio:

Katja Tschimmel, German by birth and Portuguese by choice, is a consultant and executive trainer, researcher and lecturer, coach, and conference speaker. Having a Ph.D. in Design and a Master in Applied Creativity, Katja researches and works in the fields of Creative Thinking, Design Thinking, Creative Processes and Innovation for more than 25 years. She is the author of several books and articles about Creativity and Innovation. Katja Tschimmel is the managing owner of MINDSHAKE, a Consultancy in Creative Thinking and Design (www.mindshake.pt). She is also a Guest Professor at the University of Porto (FEP/FEUP) and Porto Business School, giving Master Classes in several other educational higher institutions in Portugal and abroad. Since January 2023, she is the Portuguese Ambassador of the World Creativity and Innovation Week (https://wciw.org/)

DEI Talks |”Network construction from data and network visualization” by Prof. Eliška Ochodková

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“Network construction from data and network visualization” will be presented on Wednesday, April the 26th, at 14:30, room I-105, moderated by Prof. Rui Camacho from DEI.

 

By the author:

The lecture will show how to extract data from vector data in the form of a network – and how the analysis of the constructed network helps to improve the results of classical datamining, e.g. to reveal otherwise undetectable relationships.  The advantage of networks is that the data is extended with links between certain (similar) pairs of data objects.

If we focus on biomedical data, the network approach is one of the innovative multivariate approaches to analyze complex biomedical datasets.  Patient profile similarities are essential for observers to study and visually assess relationships between groups of similar patients, and to do this, patient data is converted into a patient similarity network.

 

Bio

Dr. Eliška Ochodková is an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VŠB – Technical University Ostrava. She holds a Master’s degree in computer science from Palacký University in Olomouc and a PhD degree in computer science ( in cryptography) from VŠB – TU Ostrava.

Her research interests are social network analysis (network science) and bioinformatics, focusing on the analysis of biomedical data using network construction from biomedical data.  Currently she is also working on new methods for protein complex detection and information processing and retrieval from microarray data.

She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses related to data analysis and cryptography. She is a Deputy Head of the Department of Computer Science at home university.

 

DEI Talks | “At the intersection of job quality and innovation” by Prof. Christopher Mathieu

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“At the intersection of job quality and innovation” will be presented on Wednesday, April the 12th, at 14:30, room B021, moderated by Prof. António Coelho from DEI.

By the author:

“The link between innovation and job quality is increasingly elaborated in empirical studies (Duhautois, et al. 2020; Laursen & Foss 2014; Mathieu & Boethius 2021, 2022; Muñoz de Bustillo, et al. 2022). Job quality has been found to be linked to both the generation of innovations as well as the implementation of externally generated innovations at the workplace level. This presentation examines the mechanisms and cumulative factors behind these processes drawing primarily from a Horizon 2020 project (quinne.eu) examining the generative relationship between job quality and innovation in nine industries, from computer games to healthcare, across the EU (Mathieu & Boethius 2021, 2022).”

Chris Mathieu is a sociologist of work and organization at the Department of Sociology, Lund University. From 2003-2014 he was at the Department of Organisation, Copenhagen Business School. His primary field of research is the organization and quality of working life. From 2015-2018 he was coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project QuInnE (quinne.eu) – Quality of Jobs and innovation Generated Employment Outcomes. In this project he was responsible for studies of innovation and work in the computer games industry and specialist healthcare. He was editor of the Oxford Handbook of Job Quality (OUP, 2022) with Chris Warhurst and Rachel Dwyer. In addition to innovation, job quality and employment issues, he has also published widely on specialist surgical training, gender in organisations, and cultural policy and production, especially inter-occupational collaboration and career in the film industry (see Mathieu & Visanich (2022) Accomplishing Cultural Policy in Europe: Financing, Governance and Responsiveness; Mathieu (2012) Careers in Creative Industries, Routledge).