On January 30th and 31st, the “DSIE’18th 13th Doctoral Symposium in Informatics Engineering” was held at the Faculty of Engineering of U.Porto (FEUP). DSIE’18 provides PhD students with a platform to present their scientific papers, discuss their ideas, gather feedback and get opinions from experts, colleagues, faculty and experienced researchers.

 

The Astellas Oncology C3 Prize, which had its second edition in 2017, is a challenge designed to inspire innovative ideas in improving the care of cancer patients.

They received more than 160 applications worldwide, from which they selected the five finalists who presented their projects at the Union for International Cancer Control World Cancer Leaders ’Summit in Mexico City: Kevin Bambury, from ONCOassist; Howard Isenstein of Care Progress; Cory Kidd of Catalia Health; Charlotte Vander Stichele, MindBytes; and Hernâni Oliveira, University of Porto, with the HOPE project that ended up winning the Big Prize. The winner received a $ 50,000 grant and the remaining finalists $ 12,500, and all gained access to MATTER, a health innovation community that will help implement their projects.

The HOPE application, by the student of the Doctoral Program in Digital Media at the Engineering College of the University of Porto, was born in 2013, when the UP researcher was developing his master’s thesis in Oncology at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS) and in the IPO. It aims to help children hospitalized in the pediatric oncology ward and provide information on the disease treatment process, and seeks to address two main difficulties for hospitalized children: anxiety and physical inactivity. Currently, it is also an app designed for the parents, helping them in the search for credible sources of information.

The Informatics Engineering Department travelled to Tondela for two days, at the beginning of February, to take part in a workshop of department analysis and strategy definition for the coming years, and to be actively involved with the municipality, offering fire prevention measures and actions.

The first day started with the discussion on the DEI Strategic Plan for 2018-2021, discussed in 3 main areas: Education, Research and Extension. Professor João Paiva Cardoso presented DEI ‘s various ongoing activities, followed by a group dynamic, organized by Professor Ademar Aguiar. Problems were identified and resolution strategies were suggested in 7 strategic purposes- to increase DEI graduates’ capacity to transform the Society; optimize the offer of education and training; reinforce, enhance and capitalize Research and Development; promote external cooperation; promote knowledge transfer; optimize the management of human resources; reinforce internal and external communication – and from the 7 working groups, many ideas emerged as well as the certainty that the opportunities for improvement are also many. The following presentations were made by Professor Eugénio Oliveira, with “Progression in the university career: Reflection”, by Prof. Eugénio Oliveira; Professor Rosaldo Rossetti, who promoted a strategic intervention by each professor in interdisciplinary areas; and Raul Vidal, who spoke about DEI’s relation to companies, a topic addressed from the perspective of Alumni students. To conclude the session, the guest Cristina Videira Lopes, professor at the University of California, presented “A personal vision about Informatics Engineering: teaching, research and collaboration with industry”.

The day ended with a dinner at the restaurant “Os 3 Pipos”, where they were extremely well received by the owner Mr. João Cavaleiro, in the company of his guests, Prof. Cristina Videira Lopes, the President of the Tonda ‘s Parish Council, Carlos Coimbra, his treasurer, Sara Pereira, and secretary, Ventura Sousa.

Saturday, the second day of the workshop, was divided into two activities. A group of professors from the department met with representatives of the Tondela City Council and neighboring Municipalities, to discuss the use of Information and Communication Technologies as a way of preventing and responding to natural disasters. The intention of the DEI’s representatives was to contribute with effective solutions, within the Informatics Engineering, reinforcing the department’s involvement in social issues. The partnership, which started in February, has already started to bear fruit through an LGP project, and it is expected that it will only be the beginning of the execution of ICT projects for the prevention and response to forest fires.

The rest of the group was involved in a voluntary activity organized by Montis – Nature Conservation Association – on one of the lands burnt in the October fires, managed by the association, in Vermilhas, Vouzela. Led by the guides Luís Lopes and Carolina Barbosa, DEI had the opportunity to help plant cork oaks and clean the burnt terrain, opening pedestrian paths so that it becomes easier to give a new life to what was lost four months ago. The initiative, despite being filled with good spirits, allowed a reflection on everything that was lost and a better understanding of the pain of those who helplessly watched the siege by fire.

The Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge is a contest of ideas promoted by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS with the aim of motivating and rewarding research of practical utility, and promotes new scientific knowledge through the awarding of prizes to students and researchers from Portuguese universities who present the best ideas, based on a completed thesis evaluated in the current or previous academic year.

The 2017 edition, 8th of the contest, featured presentations on several topics, from health literacy to the use of drones on car accident websites, with numerous innovative ideas displayed. At the Closing Event, the finalists were presented, followed by the evaluation of the jury and announcement of the winners.

Of the six finalists – 3 doctoral projects and 3 master’s projects – João Monteiro, Master in Computer Engineering and Computing, was awarded the second place in the master’s category by the HealthTalks app, which works as a management system of personal medical information and aims to improve communication between the doctor and the patient by providing information on medical terms.

The contest welcomes ideas from master’s or doctoral degrees, in the areas of Information and Communication Technology, Multimedia and other related sciences, having received 44 applications in this latest edition, from 21 universities, both on the continent and on the islands. The ideas presented were evaluated according to criteria such as innovation and originality, technical feasibility, practical applicability and market potential, by a judge composed of members of Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, namely Liliana Ferreira (Director), Pedro Almeida (Member of the Executive Board) and Filipe Soares (Interim President of the Scientific Council), as well as a panel of invited Experts that included João José Pinto Ferreira (Director of the Master’s Course in Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Engineering College, University of Porto), Clara Gonçalves (Executive Manager from UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto), Pedro Aguiar (CEO of Ah Business) and Nuno Carvalho (CEO of Healthcare City).

The first edition of the Gulbenkian New Talents in Artificial Intelligence Scholarship Program, which aims to distinguish university students who demonstrate high academic merit and encourage the development of their culture and skills in artificial intelligence, awarded two grants to André Cruz and Xavier Fontes, students of the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

The two students, selected through a competition, will receive a ten-month training scholarship and join a training and advanced research program in Artificial Intelligence, supporting their work with renowned researchers in the field. The first workshop of this edition took place on November 17, 2017.

André Cruz’s project “consists of applying information obtained by computational semantics to a Coreference Resolution model, and seeking to improve the state of the art in this area. One purpose, among others, is to introduce the model generated in an argumentation mining framework currently under development at LIACC (ArgMine), and to evaluate the benefits of this addition for the argumentation mining task. ”. Xavier Fontes’ project focuses “on the development of a hybrid forecasting model, capable of using information from the temporal domain and at the same time sporadic stimuli to predict a given variable. This choice of a hybrid model comes from the curiosity to combine two different approaches in order to obtain better results than each of the individual parts. ”.

Regarding the importance of these scholarships, Xavier says that it is an excellent opportunity to develop skills in a field of studies where he has always wanted to work and hopes that it will be the beginning of a path with a positive impact in the field of Artificial Intelligence; André hopes that this program will allow him to focus more on this area, which has many applications, and where there is a strong research component.

Professor Eugénio Oliveira reinforces the honor for the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto to have two of his students among the elected, to whom the Scientific Committee has associated the respective tutors also from FEUP. The students of MIEIC, Xavier Reis Fontes and André Cruz are already being tutored in their work by DEI professors and members of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (LIACC), Daniel Castro Silva and Henrique Lopes Cardoso, respectively. In addition, the Program will be repeated next year, and expects the good participation of FEUP students to continue, motivated by the scientific area of ​​Artificial Intelligence.

Congratulations to André and Xavier, and best wishes for an excellent job throughout this program.

The FEUP employability survey is in progress. If you completed the course in 2016/2017 feel free to participate!

The employability rate is an indicator of the professional success of FEUP graduates and is crucial to reinforce FEUP’s position on the international map of schools that generate talent!

Every year the FEUP Employment Observatory conducts the study “Employability Survey” of its graduates. Through this study, it is possible to know the employability indicators and have a more in-depth knowledge about the transition processes to the labor market. Based on the results obtained, FEUP plans its strategy to support all students and graduates in their academic, professional and sociocultural development process (see employability rate 2016).

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Remember that by answering this survey you will be contributing to the affirmation of FEUP as an international reference engineering school.

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Henrique Ferrolho, who completed the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering in 2017, is in Scotland developing the software for “Valkyrie”, a humanoid robot, which will help humans to settle on Mars. After embracing the ERASMUS + program at the School of Informatics in Edinburgh, and due to his demonstrated potential, he was invited to elaborate his master’s thesis based on NASA’s robot programming. Although robotics is not his area of ​​expertise, and he was not waiting for the invitation, he accepted it without hesitation.

In addition to having the opportunity to program a robot as unique as the “Valkyrie”, the FEUP master also received another good news: he won the only PhD position in robotics at the University of Edinburgh for European students (although there are five places, four are reserved for UK students and only one for European students). This doctoral program is provided by two collaborating universities – Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh – and has allowed Henrique to be exempt from tuition fees and receive around 65 thousand euros of funding to focus on the robot over the next four years.

Annually, the University of Porto celebrates the members of the institution that stood out the most during the previous year. In the amount of 999 euros (equivalent to the annual fee), the Incentive Prize 2017 is intended for students who, in the academic year 2015/2016, completed their first year with the best average in the 14 colleges of U.Porto (the colleges with more than 1500 students enrolled students distinguish two or more students). The aim is to promote and encourage excellence among students since their first year of enrollment at the University.

Last year, during the Solemn Session that commemorates the 106th anniversary of the U.Porto (22nd March), 22 students were awarded one of the Incentive Awards, an initiative that, for the eighth consecutive year, distinguishes the best first year students from each college at U.Porto. Among them, four students from the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering: Francisco Andrade, Xavier Pontes, João Damas and André Cruz.

Congratulations to the four and keep up your excellent work.

On the 30th and 31st of January, the “DSIE’18 13th Doctoral Symposium In Informatics Engineering” took place at the Faculty of Engineering of U.Porto (FEUP). DSIE’18 provides PhD students with a platform to present their scientific work, discuss their ideas, collect feedback and get opinions from experts, colleagues, teachers and experienced researchers.

In the context of the celebrations of its 105th Birthday, the U.Porto will distinguish retired teachers who have provided and will continue to make a special contribution to the University. It is already known the names of the seven teachers and researchers who will be this year awarded the title of Professor Emeritus of the University of Porto.
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