Incentive Award 2023

In a scenario of commemoration of the 112th anniversary of the University of Porto, 20 students received the Incentive Award, created to reward the performance and the results of the students who conclude their 1st year of their course with the best average.

In the list of students who concluded their 1st year, 2021/2022, with the best average, we find three students from L.EIC (FEUP/FCUP) with an average higher than 19 values. They are Félix Martins (19,73 values), Marco Vilas Boas (19,45) and Mansur Mustafin (19,33).

Félix Martins, who has always been curious about what is behind the functioning of programs and games, saw in Computer Engineering a so obvious choice that ended up influencing, in some way, the choice of his sister, 3 years older. He tells us that “the first year at the University of Porto was a challenging but very rewarding experience” and that what he liked the most was to realize that he was in the right course. The young student from Vila Nova de Famalicão, who hopes, 10 years from now, to have already completed his first major project with a positive impact on society, collaborating with people from different parts of the world, in order to enrich his experience and broaden his knowledge.

Marco Vilas Boas, who entered L.EIC from Barcelos Secondary School, where he discovered the taste for programming “because it involves a lot of logical reasoning and allows him to develop interesting and useful projects”, tells us that “this award symbolises the potential reward that arises when I put everything I am into something I like to do”. Despite the difficulties felt in the first year due to so many sudden changes, like leaving secondary school and entering university, with a move to the city of Porto in between, it was a year full of good experiences that “made him grow as a person”. The taste for solving “programming problems” is one of the reasons that led him to be part of the nucleus NIAEFEUP and neACM, but he says that were the several moments of conviviality provided by the nucleus that helped his integration in the FEUP community. He does not usually think much about the future but he believes that he will certainly be working in something that he likes and that challenges him, either in the areas of research, teaching or in the industry.

Mansur Mustafin was born in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan and acknowledges that the “pleasant and international environment” was one of the points that most impressed him in his first year at the University as well as his experience teaching in the “Uniformização de Matemática” course for other international students. He defined U.Porto with the word “opportunity” and hopes in 10 years’ time “to have a significant positive impact on the industry and at the same time continue my connection with the University to share my experience and knowledge”. He has lifelong learning ambitions and at this point wishes to “thank all the people who support me in this challenge”.

The Incentive Award, given annually since 2010, corresponds to an individual monetary prize, corresponding to the value of the annual tuition fee applied to national students at the U.Porto.

FEUPSal conquers the U.Porto Staff Cup

The Pavilion Prof. Dr. Galvão Telles was the stage for the final of the U.Porto Staff Cup 2023, in a night that was of celebration for FEUPSal, when beating the FMUP team by 1-0.

The FEUP Futsal team (currently composed by teachers, technicians and researchers), has 3 players from DEI, Amílcar Fernandes, João Pedro Dias and Pedro Miguel Silva, who highlighted the team spirit and sportsmanship that is lived in so many nights of play and that culminates now in a great achievement.

Pedro Silva, author of the only goal scored at 18 minutes of the first half, tells us that “it was a balanced game but FEUPSal team had greater control. Until the final whistle, there were several opportunities for both teams, but the result remained unchanged”.

FEUPSal thus won its first Cup, after being defeated in the previous finals in 2017 and 2019. On April 17, the FEUPSal team will take the field again, this time for the Championship final against the UP Inter team.

Rui Maranhão takes office as Director of ProDEI

On April 4thRui Filipe Lima Maranhão de Abreu, Full Professor at DEI, took office as the new Director of the Doctoral Program in Informatics Engineering.

Prof. Rui Maranhão (publishes as Rui Abreu) holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science – Software Engineering from the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, and a M.Sc. in Computer and Systems Engineering from the University of Minho, Portugal. His research revolves around software quality, with emphasis in automating the testing and debugging phases of the software development life-cycle as well as self-adaptation. Dr. Abreu has extensive expertise in both static and dynamic analysis algorithms for improving software quality. He is the recipient of 6 Best Paper Awards, including a Distinguished Paper Award at ESEC/FSE 2019, and his work has attracted considerable attention. Before joining FEUP as a Full Professor, he was an Associate Professor at IST, U.Lisbon and a member of the Model-Based Reasoning group at PARC’s System and Sciences Laboratory and an Assistant Professor at the University of Porto. He has co-founded DashDash in January 2017, a platform to create web apps using only spreadsheet skills. The company has secured $9M in Series A funding in May 2018. He was a Visiting Researcher at Google NYC between 2019 and 2020, working on building systems and tools to increase the security of C/C++ codebases.

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

At the intersection of job quality and innovation” will be presented on Wednesday, April the 12that 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).

“Semana Profissão: Engenheiro” 2023

“O Futuro passa por aqui” is the motto that accompanies another edition of the event that fills FEUP with high school students, eager to know what is this about being an engineer.

“This is a unique opportunity for students to get to know our faculty, and the routes are designed to show the Engineer’s role in protecting the planet, improving humanity and building a better world”, says Sara Cristóvão, responsible for the organization of “SPE – Semana Profissão Engenheiro“.

During 3 days (March 28-30) FEUP intends to be an enlightening support in the decision making process of many young people when the time comes to start Higher Education. To achieve this goal, a programme rich in pathways/activities and clarification sessions for students and parents was created. In this 2023 edition, more than 1500 students and approximately 70 teachers and psychologists from the North to the South of the country are enrolled and will find in FEUP the opportunity to know the reality of an institution of Higher Education and to contact with its community of teachers, students, staff and student groups.

For those students who already know what they want to do and just need to confirm their choice, the monothematic paths are the perfect solution.

In this SPE session, Informatics Engineering organized the tracks 16 and 17 (P16 and P17), with various activities, focused on the following themes: “Artificial Intelligence Applications“, “Computer Security“, “Software Development and Testing Lab“, “Graphics, Interaction and Games“, “Informatics Multipurpose“, “Database and Web Applications Lab“, “Computer Lab“, “Capstone Project” and “Informatics at FEUP: how they are, what they do, what they eat and where they live” – which are intended to be a showcase of what is done in the Informatics and Computing Engineering program.

And if after the event there are still many doubts, the doors are still open to clarify them through Consultório de Dúvidas FEUP.

Team “magic FoRMuLa” won the “Innovative Design” challenge at EBEC Challenge Porto

The 15th edition of the European BEST Engineering Competition Challenge (EBEC Challenge) was held at FEUP from 4 to 6 March (local round) and challenged dozens of teams formed by students from FEUP and FCUP to design in 24 hours a prototype testing their creativity, problem solving skills, teamwork, and the possibility to be present at the national/regional round, with the winners of all local rounds in Portugal and Spain, in a final that will take place at the Polytechnic University of Madrid between 5 and 8 May 2023.

This competition is divided in two modalities, Case Study (theoretical test where a real problem of a company is given to solve) and Innovative Design (practical test where the main goal is to build a prototype, with a limited number of materials and at a low cost), being the “magic FoRMuLa” team the winner of this last modality, composed by four students of the Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering.

Lucas Santos, Francisco Pires, Rita Ramada and Mafalda Magalhães worked their magic and in 24 hours created a prototype capable of picking up rubbish from a water tank, both at the surface and at depth, and depositing it on a platform. To achieve their goal the team could only use materials available in the designated shop, which had a credit cost associated with them. Lucas Santos tells us that they were limited to existing stock, so having quickly started to run out of some essential materials, they were forced to make quick decisions between planning ahead for the prototype, managing the credits spent (which would influence the final score) and purchasing the materials they needed while they were still in stock.

And what was the secret to success? “Teamwork was one of the keys to our success, as each member brought different skills and knowledge to the challenge. Communication and coordination between each of us was key to ensure everyone was on the same page and working towards the same goals,” tell us the winning team whose decision to enter the EBEC Challenge was motivated by the desire to test their practical skills and the challenge of competing against other students.

Since the academic year 2013/2014 EBEC Challenge Porto is credited with 1.5 ECTS as a training action of 40.5 hours. The Case Study competition is called “EBEC Porto 24h – Case Study” and the Innovative Design competition is called “EBEC Porto 24h – Team Design” having been a success in each edition.

Photo: BEST Porto

Pedro Fardilha Barbeira (L.EIC) launches “Verbal Alquimia”

Next March 21st, at 18:30, in the FEUP’s Library (Floor 0), the 3rd year student of Informatics and Computing Engineering, Pedro Fardilha Barbeira, will launch “Verbal Alquimia“, a poetry book where “we are challenged to share the deepest feelings inherent to the Man, not because it moves us, but because it offers us the freedom to think, to feel and – for the most daring – to live”.

In conversation with Pedro Barbeira he confessed that “Computer Engineering came a bit out of the blue”. His dedication at the time (we were in 2013) to computers and games, and his “schisms” in robotics – he dreamt of making medical prostheses – made him choose Computer Science. But the first years of college, where he had to divide his energies between complex personal challenges and a whole new world that was very different from high school, proved to be a real “Cabo das Tormentas”.

One day he decided, as he tells us, “to return to the program and really face this “Adamastor”, which insisted on projecting its shadow on my path”. On the way he discovered a passion for programming: “In it I found the perfect conciliation between Method and Creativity, those two facets of Order and Chaos, so close and necessary”. The interest grew not only for the “more “esoteric” disciplines – Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Compilers – but also for the more pragmatic ones – Web Development, UI/UX, among many others”.

When we ask him what the connection between writing and computer science is, Pedro tells us that the connection between the two emerges in what he imagines to be his dream life: “Writing is an indispensable tool when it comes to sharing knowledge – I believe to be the truest, oldest and deepest heritage of Humanity. Given the current state of the world, I believe that evolution will come about precisely because of the sharing of experiences and experiences – so necessary for empathy and cooperation – as well as a re-evaluation of the value of subjective experience – so forgotten by our deeply objective society. As such, I feel that programming will allow me to develop and explore my own ideas, at the level of applications focused on the common user, as well as to enhance the expansion and evolution of businesses and projects in which I really believe. The literary capacity contributes a lot to the clarity and specificity of oral expression, as well as to the ability to weave analogies, that ancestral vehicle of wisdom transmission, abilities that are central to the management of people and teams, to the interaction with clients and employers, as well as to the analysis and observation of social problems that we can try to mitigate or correct through our programmes”.

Talking about the future he tells us that he wants to invest on freelancing when he feels ready and dreams of “being at the head” of his own business. “Letters provides me with the analysis, synthesis and understanding skills I feel I need to make an impact at the level I consider relevant, and Engineering provides me with the technical tools and skills necessary to achieve these goals. A strong reminder that Knowledge is plural and transversal, and that sometimes the most evolutive solutions are found in the least expected places”, shares with us the student who will soon let us know “his visions through the twisted meanders of the poetic verses that flow through him”.

Entrance is free, you are all invited.

CreativityTalks | “The End of Programming (as we know it)” by Prof. Cristina Videira Lopes

“This talk is an exploratory tour through this brave new world, and its consequences to our field and to Computer Science (CS) education,” anticipates the speaker of a presentation on a topic that due to the advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in “Large Language Models (LLMs)”, mediately exposed by ChatGPT, promises to revolutionise software development.

“The End of Programming (as we know it)” will be presented by Prof. Cristina Videira Lopes, with moderation by Prof. João Paulo Fernandes, on March 23, 18:00, room B035, with online broadcasting via Youtube.

By the speaker: “For the past 80 years, “programming” meant translating a high-level, semi-formal specification of a desired effect from natural language into computer instructions, using an artificial programming language. Mastering these translations requires domain knowledge of algorithms and data structures, talent, and years of practice. Large Language Models (LLMs) are disrupting the very notion of “programming.” The disruption is profound, and at two levels: (1) LLMs are capable of doing those translations automatically, and (2) many of the desired effects can be obtained without the use of algorithms or data structures. This talk is an exploratory tour through this brave new world, and its consequences to our field and to CS education.”

Short-Bio:

Cristina (Crista) Lopes is a Professor in the School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California, Irvine, with research interests in Programming Languages, Software Engineering, and Distributed Virtual Environments. She is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Scientist. She is the recipient of the 2016 Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest for her work in the OpenSimulator virtual world platform. Her book “Exercises in Programming Style” has gained rave reviews, including being chosen as “Notable Book” by the ACM Best of Computing reviews. https://www.ics.uci.edu/~lopes/

Workshop | ” Artificial Flora: Evolving Shapes With Superformula” by Martinus Suijkerbuijk

The workshop will take place March 27th, at 14:30, room I323.

Registrations: https://forms.gle/ygPt14JE6a5soXaK6

By Martinus Suijkerbuijk:

“With the parametric tools in blender –geometry nodes– it is possible to create, with relatively simple node-based algorithms, great procedural pipelines. This functionality can be expanded with the integration of Python within blender, and amplify possibilities of creation and automation.

For this workshop, after some basic introduction of evolutionary algorithms and its application in creative practices, the participants have the opportunity to experiment with a custom designed evolutionary algorithm that can evolve a large variety of shapes. The shapes architecture is based on Johan Gielis’ Superformula. After we established our own dataset of shapes, through evolutionary selection, we’ll proceed with designing our own procedural algorithm to create a collection of artificial flora that the participants can use in their own virtual environments. Keywords: Blender, Evolutionary algorithms, geometry nodes, python, procedural modelling.”

 Martinus Suijkerbuijk is an artist, designer and engineer that currently is working towards completing his artistic research PhD at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norway. His artistic research is focused on the concept of Computational Aesthetics, which he explores through the use of AI empowered Artificial Aesthetic Agents (AAA) in virtual environments. His diverse background has enabled him to present his research and work at cultural institutions such as ZKM and MetaMorf, as well as technology conferences like CHI 2018 and Philips Trend Event.

For further queries please contact Prof. António Coelho (DEI).

DEI Talks | “Computational Inaesthetics: Expanding the Boundaries of Artistic Research and Computational Aesthetics” by Martinus Suijkerbuijk

“Computational Inaesthetics: Expanding the Boundaries of Artistic Research and Computational Aesthetics” will be presented on Friday, march 24th, at 14:30, room I-105, moderated by Prof. António Coelho from DEI.

By the author:

“The increasing use of digital technologies in artistic practice, coupled with the recent emergence of AI, has led to a growing intersection and mutual influence between two related fields: artistic research and computational aesthetics. Artistic research involves using artistic practices to generate new insights and understandings about the world and reflect critically on the process of creating art. In contrast, computational aesthetics involves the theory, practice, and implementation of aesthetics within the domain of computing, and in its most formal version relies on mathematical and computational methods to generate and evaluate art.

However, there has been criticism of computational aesthetics for failing to account for the subjective and non-algorithmic nature of aesthetic experience. Nonetheless, this presentation proposes a practical framework that seeks to resolve this critique by highlighting an expanded view of computational aesthetics, which the presenter terms Computational Inaesthetics.

Through the discussion of basic concepts and principles of artistic research and computational aesthetics, and through the analysis of a selection of artworks by the presenter, the presentation explores the ways in which these fields can inform and enhance each other. Furthermore, the presentation provides an overview of the artistic contents and theoretical underpinnings of the presenter’s artistic research PhD project.

Overall, this presentation showcases the exciting potential of bringing together artistic research and computational aesthetics to expand our understanding of aesthetics, art, creativity, and the role of technology and computation in society.”

Martinus Suijkerbuijk is an artist, designer and engineer that currently is working towards completing his artistic research PhD at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norway. His artistic research is focused on the concept of Computational Aesthetics, which he explores through the use of AI empowered Artificial Aesthetic Agents (AAA) in virtual environments. His diverse background has enabled him to present his research and work at cultural institutions such as ZKM and MetaMorf, as well as technology conferences like CHI 2018 and Philips Trend Event.