Category Archives: Events

PhD Defense in Digital Media: ”Narratives of Our Age: Intergenerational Digital Storytelling and Cultural Identity”

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Candidate
Juliana Carolina Campos Monteiro

Date, Time and Location 
June 4, 14h30, Room Professor Joaquim Sarmento (G129), DEC, FEUP

President of the Jury
António Fernando Vasconcelos Cunha Castro Coelho, PhD, Associate Professor with Habilitation, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto.

Members
Paulo Nuno Gouveia Vicente, PhD, Associate Professor, Departamento de Ciências da Comunicação, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;
Daniel da Cruz Brandão, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Ciências da Comunicação, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho;
Teresa Margarida Loureiro Cardoso, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Educação e Ensino à Distância, Universidade Aberta;
Dinis Miguel de Almeida Cayolla Ribeiro, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Ciências da Arte e do Design, Faculdade de Belas Artes, Universidade do Porto;
Carla Susana Lopes Morais, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto (Supervisor).

Abstract
The expansion of digital tools and participatory media created unprecedented possibilities for the maintenance and sharing of social memory and cultural identity knowledge. These possibilities are expanding in parallel with a context of an increasingly aged society, where elders are privileged keepers of regional cultural knowledge but often don’t have the opportunity to pass it on to future generations, making it prone to shortly disappear. This research approaches digital storytelling during intergenerational exchanges as a stage for a participatory contribution to the maintenance of cultural identity. We sought to determine how intergenerational dynamics can give place to cultural identity narratives, as well as how digital media can support the maintenance of cultural identity. For that purpose, we promoted the project NOOA: Narratives Of Our Age, with the premise of bringing generations together in sharing stories on topics such as Memories, Crafts, Myths, and Traditions, to endorse the continuity of the cultural identity of the Vale do Sousa region, using the potential of digital media in this process. With an action research design and an ethnographic approach, from 2018 to 2021, this project reunited three intergenerational groups, composed of participants aged 16 to 85 years old, in a set of activities designed to foster intergenerational dynamics. We sought to gather qualitative perceptions about the phenomenon of storytelling in the participatory maintenance of cultural identity through intergenerational dynamics. To this end, our research was based on data collected through detailed observations and through the application of semi-structured interviews and group discussions. We developed a five-step intergenerational storytelling framework to encourage the exchange of cultural identity knowledge, including digital registration, dissemination, and discussion in-person and online. This framework was submitted to a cyclical evaluation and its adjustments, in accordance with the action-research method, and it was implemented in three phases: phase one corresponded to a group dynamic component, through brainstorming and story planning; phase two corresponded to the creation of digital stories; phase three corresponded to dissemination, with the publication and sharing of these stories in the project’s digital spaces. These steps were conducted through in-person digital storytelling activities, in which cultural identity knowledge was shared and discussed in intergenerational partnerships, resulting in the participatory creation of 35 digital stories, that were afterwards shared and also discussed on the Project’s digital spaces. The outcomes of the activities, as well the enthusiasm and the reflections that occurred during the process, highlight the investment of participants in the transmission and maintenance of knowledge related to their experiences and knowledge acquired throughout life, in a family and community context. The observations of intergenerational dynamics, as well as the results of the semi-structured interviews, suggested a growing curiosity, involvement and overall understanding and retention of the stories of cultural identity, by both seniors and juniors, as well as a growing curiosity of senior participants regarding the pervasive digital reality presented to them by the juniors. Likewise, we observed the importance of empowering groups with spaces of sharing, both face-to-face and online, to enhance intergenerational exchanges around the knowledge of cultural identity. By promoting opportunities for intergenerational dialogue and empowering groups with face-to-face and online sharing spaces, we contributed with the development and application of a storytelling framework and digital spaces to safeguard, discuss and disseminate some of the specific cultural knowledge of the region of Vale do Sousa in Portugal. We observed the potential of using digital storytelling dynamics to break through barriers of communication between generations and to perpetuate and value cultural identity knowledge, acquired throughout life. This research goes beyond the aim of documenting the envisaged cultural identity knowledge, by combining creativity during the digital storytelling processes with connectivity among the participants on a community level, by sparking the dialogue between generations and enhancing the social impact of cultural identity knowledge and the self-knowledge value that generations are able to share through stories. We examined the opportunities and challenges of digital media as a platform and a catalyst for cultural identity maintenance, situating the problematic of cultural literacy in a contemporary setting. We conducted a thorough assessment of the stakeholders involved in participatory cultural identity maintenance in our present context, adding the observation of their synergies in a real context. This allowed us to examine the diversity of outcomes and the multiplicity of variables that contribute to it, as well as to grasp the impact that this new information flow paradigm may have on how we currently approach cultural identity maintenance.

Keywords: Intergenerational Digital Storytelling, Cultural Identity, Cultural Literacy, Participatory Action-Research.

PhD Defense in Digital Media: ”Computing by going back in time: Composing video sequences through multimodal generative coordination”

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Candidate:
Luís Henrique Pinto Arandas

Date, Time and Place:
June 03, 14:30, Sala de Atos FEUP

President of The Jury:
António Fernando Vasconcelos Cunha Castro Coelho, PhD, Associate Professor with Habilitation, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto.

Members:
Luísa Maria Lopes Ribas, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Design de Comunicação, Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Universidade de Lisboa;
David Fernandes Semedo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Informática, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;
André Sier, PhD, Invited Assistant Professor, Departamento de Artes Visuais e Design, Universidade de Évora;
José Miguel Santos Araújo Carvalhais Fonseca, PhD, Full Professor, Faculdade de Belas Artes, Universidade do Porto (Supervisor);
Gilberto Bernardes de Almeida, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto.

The thesis was co-supervised by Professor Mick Grierson, Professor in Computing, and research leader at the Institute of Creative Computing at the University of the Arts, London.

Abstract
This project proposes a set of methods, inspired by the human experience of vision and time, for developing video sequences using trained generative models. The methods serve the production of video sequences, with patterns derived from trained models found in literature on metacreation and in the artworld. This project defines possible futures where the now pervasive generative models can be reused in computer simulations that focus on the human experience of video and mental images; models which, because of how they are trained through archives and records representing both the human and the physical world, can capture media themselves and represent specific moments in time.

The research outputs are in film and audiovisual installation, proposing that practice can further benefit from self-reference, using deep generative models as synthesisers of video, sound, and text. The methods produced take advantage of natural language guidance and deep generative models in ways that can be understood as sampling, sequencing, and translation, following computing literature and AI design. Each result can be understood in larger domains such as: 1) short films from text inputs, in the film Irreplaceable Biography; 2) discursive installations from video datasets, in the installation Time as meaning; and 3) short films from video inputs, in the film Man lost in the convergence of time and the collaboration all YIN no YANG. This research extends on the use of generative practice following a construct of language in the human mind, behaviour, and visual experience as inspiration for the experience of video. These projects further define what can be a broader understanding of directionality and representation of the past using systems of memory that learn, are networked and produced following structure found in nature and human experience.

Keywords: Video composition; Deep generative models; Time-travelling; Human visual experience; Predictive representations.

PhD Defense in Informatics Engineering: ”Enhancing Research Data Lifecycle: Solving Observation-centric and Reproducibility Challenge”

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Candidate
Artur Jorge da Silva Rocha

Date, Time and Place
May 17, 14:30, Sala de Atos FEUP

President of the Jury
Pedro Nuno Ferreira da Rosa da Cruz Diniz, PhD, Full Professor, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto

Members
José Luís Brinquete Borbinha, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Informatics Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico da Universidade de Lisboa;
Irene Pimenta Rodrigues, PhD, Associate Professor, Informatics Department, Universidade de Évora;
Rosaldo José Fernandes Rossetti, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Informatics Engineering, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto;
Ademar Manuel Teixeira de Aguiar, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Informatics Engineering, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (Supervisor).

Abstract
“Observation is central to most research methods independent of the paradigms used. From the observational roots of positivism to the subjective individual experiences of interpretivism, most, if not all, scientific studies require repeatedly observing features over time. Documenting observations and the processes used to acquire them, capturing the context of observations, and identifying relationships between observed features in a structured and meaningful manner is extremely important for the interpretability and reproducibility of research results. It is common that the effort preceding data processing, including steps such as data cleansing and structuring, vastly outweighs the time spent writing and tailoring the algorithms for processing and analysis. Therefore, having a conceptual framework instantiated in models, methods, and tools to effectively record observations in a structured way, independently of their nature, along with associated features and context, would help reduce the effort of preprocessing and potentially contribute to increasing the quality of results. Analogously, derived features resulting from the processing of the original observations can benefit from a similar approach, thus making the workflows on research data more explicit and reproducible. This research work is focused on the data collection and analysis stages of the research data lifecycle. It has been done in the context of diverse research projects, over several years, contributing to structure knowledge across different research domains. The research encompassed the identification of new needs, the design and prototyping of novel solutions, and their application to concrete high-demand environments to test, refine, and validate the proposed solutions, which are collectively consolidated as an enhanced approach for the lifecycle of research data. As a result, this work provided contributions of different types, of which we highlight observation templates and observation framework. These main contributions were validated in the context of the respective research projects and scientific publications.”

Creativity Talks | “ ‘Design thinking’ and its relationship to other disciplinary approaches” by Prof. Nathan Crilly

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Efforts to promote creativity often centre on encouraging people to engage in ‘design thinking’. Although this term has many different meanings, many of these meanings centre on the idea that even non-designers should behave more like designers. That is, people should treat whatever they are influencing as though it is something they are designing, whether that is a service, an organisation, some legislation, a piece of policy or anything else. The application of design thinking to these projects might include (amongst other things) an emphasis on developing an understanding for users, visualising ideas and iteratively testing prototype solutions. Although design thinking is often considered in isolation, it can easily be connected to approaches such as ‘systems thinking’ and ‘entrepreneurial thinking,’ which are also relevant to how problems are identified, framed and solved.

In this talk, Prof. Nathan Crilly will consider how these different approaches are related to each other, and how they are related to other similar approaches from other disciplines that might support us in undertaking creative work.

“ ‘Design thinking’ and its relationship to other disciplinary approaches” will be presented April 23, at 6pm,  at the CTalks YouTube channel, moderated by Prof. António Lucas Soares (DEI).

All the information about the talk can be seen at the Creativity Talks webpage.

“Nathan Crilly is Professor of Design at the University of Cambridge, where he researches human behaviour as it relates to design. This includes studying the behaviour of the people doing design work (e.g. designers’ creativity), and the experiences of those people who interact with design outcomes (e.g. users’ experiences). Nathan teaches design, creativity and communication at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He also teaches design thinking at the executive level, promoting innovation across a broad range of business sectors. Nathan plans, manages and conducts commercial research to deliver user insights for design projects focused on various markets, including consumer health, digital devices and sporting equipment.”

SEMINÁRIO | “Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity: The (lack of) security of Machine Learning models” by João Vitorino

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There are several technological and ethical challenges that undermine the trustworthiness of Machine Learning. One of the main challenges is the lack of robustness, which is an essential property to ensure that ML models are used in a secure way. Improving robustness is no easy task because the models are inherently susceptible to adversarial examples: data samples with subtle perturbations that cause unexpected behaviors. ML engineers and security practitioners still lack the knowledge and tools to prevent such disruptions, so adversarial examples pose a major threat to ML and to the intelligent systems that rely on it.

“Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity: The (lack of) security of Machine Learning models” will be presented by João Vitorino (ProDEI student), March 21, at 14:00, room I -115.

Short Bio:

João Vitorino is a researcher at GECAD, an R&D unit of ISEP, and a PhD candidate at FEUP, in the Doctoral Program in Informatics Engineering. He holds a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence Engineering, in addition to several certifications in the fields of AI and computer networking. He has collaborated with various companies and institutions in international R&D projects, and has been responsible for the conceptualization and development of AI solutions for several real-world cybersecurity applications.
The focus of his work has been adversarial robustness in complex tabular data domains. He has developed an intelligent method that performs realistic adversarial attacks, and training mechanisms that provide secure ML models for complex tasks like cyber-attack classification. João was awarded the “2023 Outstanding MSc Thesis Award”, by IEEE Portugal Section. His thesis “Realistic Adversarial Machine Learning to improve Network Intrusion Detection” analyses the robustness of machine learning algorithms and proposes the “AP2M – Adaptive Perturbation Pattern Method”.

DEI TALKS | “A Survey of Tasks Derived from or Related to Natural Language Inference” by Prof. Martin Víta

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“Natural language inference (recognizing textual entailment task in the past) belongs to the most prominent tasks in current NLP, it is a keystone of natural language understanding. NLI can be stated as a classification task whether a given hypothesis can be inferred from a  given premise. In this talk, we are going introduce a large variety of tasks accompanied by illustrative examples and review corresponding state-of-the-art results. This talk may serve as starting point for anyone who want to apply new approaches and models to investigate these not so much known tasks (as well as apply them in downstream applications).”

“A Survey of Tasks Derived from or Related to Natural Language Inference” will be presented February 23, at 17:00, room I 025, moderated by Prof. Carlos Soares (DEI).

“Martin Víta graduated at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague in the field of discrete models and algorithms. Later, he obtained PhD degree at the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University in Brno in natural language processing. Currently, he serves as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, Prague University of Economics and Business where he teaches mathematics and text analytics. He is also a researcher at Czech Academy of Sciences where he focuses in ML and text mining topics.”

Creativity Talks | “Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination: The Creative Act of Value Sensitive Design” by Batya Friedman

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The thirteenth session of the Creativity Talks, the first of 2024, will have as keynote speaker the distinguished University of Washington Professor Batya Friedman, a value sensitive design (VSD) pioneer, an approach that takes human values into account when designing technical systems. She will demonstrate how her work in this area has resulted in robust theoretical constructs, dozens of innovative methods and practical toolkits such as Envisioning Cards. Value-sensitive design has been widely adopted and is currently used in architecture, biomedical informatics, civil engineering, cybersecurity, energy, global health, human-computer interaction, human-robotics interaction, information management, legal theory, moral philosophy, technology policy, transport and urban planning, among other areas.

“Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination: The Creative Act of Value Sensitive Design” will be presented February 22, 18:00, on the You Tube channel of the C Talks, The session will be moderated by Prof. Eliana Santiago, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.

All the information on this talk can be seen on the Creativity Talks webpage.

“Batya Friedman is a Professor in the Information School and holds adjunct appointments in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, the School of Law, and the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington where she co-founded the Value Sensitive Design Lab and the UW Tech Policy Lab. At the heart of Dr. Friedman’s work lies a fascination with cultivating moral and technical imagination. Dr. Friedman pioneered value sensitive design (VSD), an approach to account for human values in the design of technical systems. Over the course of three decades, her work in value sensitive design has resulted in robust theoretical constructs, dozens of innovative methods, and practical toolkits such as the Envisioning Cards. Value sensitive design has had wide appeal globally where it has been used in architecture, biomedical health informatics, civil engineering, computer security, energy, global health, human-computer interaction, human-robotic interaction, information management, legal theory, moral philosophy, tech policy, transportation, and urban planning, among other fields. Additionally, value sensitive design is emerging in higher education, government, and industry as a key approach to address computing ethics and responsible innovation. Today, Dr. Friedman is working on open questions in value sensitive design including multi-lifespan design, and designing for and with non-human stakeholders – questions critical for the wellbeing of human societies and the planet.”

Presentation of DEI’s Master Programmes

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The Department of Informatics Engineering will promote a session aimed to introduce the master programmes hosted by this department. The session will be held on Wednesday afternoon, February 14, in FEUP Auditorium.
It will be an opportunity for undergraduate students to find out details about these masters, their areas of study, employability and the prospects associated with attending a second cycle of studies.
This session aims to provide guidance and clarification, thus making the choice a little easier when it comes to submitting an application.

Programme
14:45 | Reception of participants
15:00 | Opening Session
15:15 | Presentation M.EIC – Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering (Prof. Rui Rodrigues)
15:30 | Presentation M.IA – Master in Artificial Intelligence (Prof. João Cardoso/ Prof. João Pedro Pedroso)
15:45 | Presentation MM – Master in Multimedia (Prof. Jorge Barbosa)
16:00 | Presentation MCI – Master in Information Science (Prof. Carla Teixeira Lopes)
16:15 | Presentation MESW – Master in Software Engineering (Prof. João Pascoal Faria)
16:30 | Presentation MECD – Master in Data Science and Engineering (Prof. José Luís Borges)
16:45 | Q&A (with intervention from the secretariat)

The session is free and does not require registration. Everyone is invited!

DEI TALKS | “Architectures for building Extraordinary Software” with Joseph Yoder, Graziela Simone Tonin, Neil Harrison and Filipe Correia

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When building complex systems, it can be all too easy to primarily focus on features and overlook software qualities, specifically those related to the architecture. Pressure to adapt to and shape the market requires organizations to add new features, accommodate new interactions, and have new teams work on adapting the software. Some believe that by simply following Agile practices—starting as fast as possible, keeping code clean, and having lots of tests—a good architecture will magically emerge. While an architecture will emerge, if there is not enough attention paid to the architecture and the code, technical debt, and design problems will creep in until it becomes muddy, making it hard to deliver new features quickly and reliably. Sometimes a straightforward software architecture that starts out small when communication is easy can support guided, incremental architectural changes and can gradually evolve with its environment, remaining fit for its purposes. Other times it is not so simple: the initial software architecture can be poorly suited for supporting required changes, or the accumulation of suboptimal architectural decisions (also known as architectural technical debt) can be too severe. It is essential to have a sustainable architecture that can evolve through the project life-cycle. Sustainable architecture requires ongoing attention, especially when there are evolving priorities, a lot of technical risks, and many dependencies. This will be a roundtable spirited discussion by invited panelists and participants discussing architectural considerations for designing systems, specifically on architectures for building excellent software.

“Architectures for building Extraordinary Software” will be presented February 7, 15:00-16:15, in room B033 and will be moderated by Carlos Duarte (DEI).

 

Short Bios:

 “Joseph (Joe) Yoder is a research collaborator at IME/USP, president and a fellow of the Hillside Group (www.hillside.net), a group dedicated to improving the quality of software development, and is a founder and principal of the Refactory (www.refactory.com), a company focused on software architecture, design, implementation, consulting, and mentoring on all facets of software development. He is best known as an author of the “Big Ball of Mud” pattern, illuminating fallacies in software architecture. Joe is also a co-author of “A Scrum Book: The Spirit of the Game”; which includes 94 patterns and 2 pattern languages about getting the most out of Scrum. Joe teaches and mentors developers on agile and lean practices, architecture, flexible systems, clean design, patterns, refactoring, and testing. Joe has presented many tutorials and talks, arranged workshops, given keynotes, and helped organize leading international agile and technical conferences. Joe believes software is still too hard to change and wants to do something about this. Recently, the ACM recognized Joe as a Distinguished Member in the category of “Outstanding Engineering Contributions to Computing” and the Hillside Group awarded Joe as a Hillside Fellow.”

“Graziela Simone Tonin has worked in the technology market for over 19 years in Brazil and abroad. Ph.D. in Computer Science. She received the US IBM World Award and the Women of Value Award. Graziela mentors and worked in several national entrepreneurship and innovation programs, such as Innovativa Brasil. Ambassador of Clube Bora Fazer, an entrepreneurship community. She works as a professor at Insper Institution, a Teacher of Executive Education and customized programs for C-Levels, and also is a professor in the Computer Science and Engineering program. She led the Women In Tech Project and co-leader in the Gender Front of the Diversity Committee at Insper. Graziela leads volunteer projects throughout Brazil through the Grupo Mulheres do Brasil. In addition, she is part of a worldwide research project that analyzes initiatives aimed at women in software engineering.”

“Neil Harrison is a professor and former head of the Department of Computer Science at Utah Valley University, USA. He led the department for seven years, in which he directed the creation of three new baccalaureate programs and two new emphases within the BS in Computer Science program. He oversaw the rollout of a graduate program. He led the accreditation of the software engineering program, and the re-accreditation of the computer science program.

Dr. Harrison is the author of over twenty-five widely cited articles in the areas of software patterns, software architecture, and software engineering and organizations. He is the co-author of the book, “Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development.” He has been a leader in the software patterns movement and is the namesake of the “Neil Harrison Shepherding Award”, which is awarded annually at patterns conferences. He has been an invited speaker and keynote speaker at conferences, including Agile Portugal. Dr. Harrison holds a PhD from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), an MS from Purdue University and a BS from Brigham Young University, all in computer science.”

“Filipe Correia is a professor of Software Engineering at the University of Porto / FEUP and a researcher at INESC TEC. In the past, he played other roles, from software architect to coach, to developer.His research interests tend to revolve around software design, architecture, agility, and DevOps. In the last few years, his work has been focusing on microservice-based architectures and the highly maintainable and flexible systems they allow to create, and on strategies to improve the Developer Experience across the software development lifecycle. You can find more information on Filipe’s website.”

“Carlos Duarte (Moderador) is a software engineer and researcher at INESC TEC. He is also a PhD student at FEUP’s ProDEI, and an invited assistant lecturer at FEUP (software engineering course). He previously worked at DevScope. His research interests revolve around software architecture, more specifically architectural erosion and evolution. Currently, he is researching the relationship between architectural erosion and technical debt, and how software visualization techniques can help identify and prevent erosion from affecting software systems. His Master thesis focused on improving the refactoring experience in IDEs, allowing the creation of custom refactoring tools by describing detection and transformation patterns using a DSL. The thesis won the 2022 Vestas award for best Master thesis in informatics engineering at FEUP.”

DEI TALKS | “Let’s discuss about Models and Languages for embedded systems in Industry 4.0” by Prof. Julio Medina

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“This talk proposes to have a conversation about the trends in conceptual modelling languages used for the design and analysis of real-time and embedded systems in the context of the ever changing industrial environments but never changing business demands”.

“Let’s discuss about Models and Languages for embedded systems in Industry 4.0” will be presented February 1, at 11:00, room I-105, moderated by Prof. Gil Gonçalves (DEI).

Short Bio:
“Julio Medina is Associate Professor at Universidad de Cantabria, Spain. His main research areas include the modeling of real-time distributed systems for schedulability analysis and dependability, standards and languages for the representation of such models, and their usage for modular and component-based development software engineering strategies. He contributes to the OMG in the standardization of languages like SysML, MARTE, UCM, UTP, among others.”