A palestra intitulada “Energy-awareness in compute acceleration: The role of FPGAs“, será apresentada pelo Prof. Shreejith Shanker no dia 30 de outubro, às 11:30, na sala B012, e será moderada pelo Prof. Tiago Carvalho (DEI).

Resumo:

“The talk will cover a set of projects that my team at TCD is working on, spanning embedded and distributed systems to high-performance media workflows, and how FPGAs are enabling an energy-performance trade-off in these applications.”

Sobre o Palestrante:

Shreejith Shanker é Professor Auxiliar de Computação Reconfigurável no Trinity College de Dublin, Irlanda, e lidera o grupo de investigação sobre arquitecturas reconfiguráveis, aceleradores e fluxos de trabalho. Os seus interesses de investigação incluem arquitecturas de computação reconfiguráveis e adaptáveis, computação em rede, fluxos de trabalho de pós-produção de media, ferramentas de automatização da conceção e sistemas incorporados distribuídos, com destaque para as abordagens de compromisso desempenho-energia e de conceção de códigos hardware-software.

A palestra “Declarative Programming” será proferida por Steven Pemberton, investigador de renome na área da Ciência da Computação e das Tecnologias de Informação e ACM Distinguished Speaker, no dia 23 de outubro, às 10h00, na sala B033, e será moderada pelo Prof. João Ferreira. A entrada é livre.

Resumo:

“In the 50s, when the first programming languages were designed, computers cost millions, and relatively, programmers were almost free. Those programming languages therefore reflected that relationship: it didn’t matter if it took a long time to program, as long as the resulting program ran as fast as possible.
Now, that relationship has been reversed, which I call Moore’s Switch: compare to the cost of programmers, computers are almost free.
And yet we are still programming in descendants of the programming languages from the 50s: we are still telling the computers step by step how to solve the program.
Declarative programming is a new approach to applications: rather than describing exactly how to reach the solution, it describe what the solution should look like, and leaves more of the administrative parts of the program to the computer.
One of the few declarative languages available is XForms, an XML-based language that despite what its name might suggest is not only about form. Large projects, at large companies such as the National Health Service, the BBC and Xerox, have shown that by using XFoms, programming time and cost of application can be reduced to a tenth and sometimes even much more.”

Sobre o Palestrante:

“Steven Pemberton is a distinguished researcher in the field of computer science and information technology, with a long and rich history of contributions to the development of the internet and the web. He is affiliated with the Dutch national research centre Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he conducts research on interaction, declarative programming, and web technologies.
At university he was tutored by Dick Grimsdale who built the world’s first transistorised computer, and who was himself a tutee of Alan Turing. After university, Pemberton — coincidentally — worked in Turing’s old department in Manchester, writing software for the 5th computer in the line of computers Turing had worked on.
Pemberton was the first user of the open internet in Europe when the CWI created the first connection in 1988, and has been involved with the web from its inception, co-designing several web standards, including HTML, CSS, XHTML, XForms, and RDFa. He chairs two groups at W3C.
In addition to his work on the web, Pemberton has also made significant contributions to other areas of computer science, such as the design of programming languages, having co-designed the language that Python is based on, and the study of human-computer interaction. His involvement with ACM includes being editor in chief of The SIGCHI Bulletin, and then ACM interactions for a decade; he has chaired the CHI Conference and he co-founded the Netherlands local SIGCHI group, and chaired several local CHI conferences there.
He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work, including the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award and the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Practice Award.
As a speaker, Pemberton is known for his engaging and informative presentations, which draw on his deep knowledge of computer science and his passion for technology, and cover both social and technological aspects of computing. His talks are always thought-provoking and entertaining, and he has been invited to speak at numerous conferences and events around the world. In 2023 he became an ACM Distinguished Speaker. He is bi-lingual in English and Dutch.
A fuller bio, videos, and a full list of talks is available on his website: https://www.cwi.nl/~steven”

A palestra intitulada “Software process modeling and test automation: Introducing the Reliable Software Architectures Research Group” será apresentada no dia 9 de outubro, às 15:30, na sala B031, e será moderada pela Prof. Ana Paiva (DEI).

Resumo:

“In this talk, I will give an overview of research done by the Reliable Software Architectures Research Group at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czechia. The focus will be on analysing software process data to detect project management (anti-)patterns, where we’ll discuss the challenges in modeling software process elements in a way that is conducive to mapping onto the information gathered in project management tools. We’ll also touch the topic of analyzing software implementations to perform advanced verification and testing.”

Sobre o Palestrante:

Přemek Brada é Professor Associado na área de Engenharia de Software no Departamento de Engenharia e de Ciência da Computação da University of West Bohemia, em Pilsen, Czechia. A sua investigação abrange as áreas de consistência da arquitetura de software, métodos interativos de visualização de arquitetura e metodologias de desenvolvimento de software, incluindo a análise de dados de processos relacionados. Leciona, ao nivel de licenciatura e mestrado, unidade curriculares de design e modelagem orientados a objetos, práticas avançadas de engenharia de software e também gestão do conhecimento. Atualmente, é Diretor de departamento e membro do Conselho da Informatics Europe, a associação de faculdades e departamentos de informática europeus.

A palestra “Networks, networks, and more networks: applications in humanities, data science, and machine learning” será apresentada dia 1 de outubro, às 14:45, na sala B004, moderada pelo Prof. Rosaldo Rossetti (DEI).

Resumo:

“It is known that networks or graphs can be used in machine learning and data science to represent and analyze data that has complex relationships. Besides these uses, networks are also relevant to the overall AI agenda in at least two aspects. First, it relates to automated data gathering and language models in the semantic web, since the actual data have to be acquired in some manner in order to form the graphs. Second, it can be used to accelerate learning tasks, as in the case of reinforcement learning. In this talk I present examples of how data is acquired and used in applications in the Humanities (history, storytelling) in order to discover patterns and/or to investigate assumptions. Then, I discuss applications on data science and machine learning, as for instance the use of networks in reinforcement learning, with examples from urban mobility and car to infrastructure communication.”

Sobre a Palestrante:

Ana Bazzan é Professora Catedrática de Ciências da Computação no Instituto de Informática da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em Porto Alegre, Brasil. A sua investigação centra-se em sistemas multiagentes, em particular na modelação e simulação baseadas em agentes (ABMS), e na aprendizagem multiagente no domínio dos transportes. Desde 1996, tem colaborado com vários investigadores na aplicação de ABMS e teoria dos jogos a domínios das ciências sociais, tais como a emergência da cooperação, o dilema do prisioneiro e jogos de bens públicos. Nos últimos anos, tem contribuído para diferentes tópicos relacionados com as cidades inteligentes, centrando-se nos transportes, bem como nas sinergias entre sistemas multiagentes, aprendizagem automática e sistemas complexos. Em 2014, Bazzan foi General Co-chair da AAMAS (a principal conferência na área dos agentes autónomos e sistemas multiagentes).

A palestra “Immersive Media and the Colombian Armed Conflict: Rethinking Journalism Through 360º Storytelling” será apresentada dia 10 de julho, às 16:30, na sala I-105, moderada por António Baía Reis (Professor Auxiliar e bolseiro de pós-doutoramento Marie Skłodowska-Curie – Departamento de Sociologia e Comunicação, Universidade de Salamanca, Espanha).

Resumo:

“This talk presents research on the use of immersive media, specifically 360º video technology, as a journalistic tool for covering the Colombian armed conflict and promoting narratives of peacebuilding. Drawing on a qualitative multiple-case study, the speaker explores four immersive projects that document post-conflict experiences from the perspectives of victims and former combatants.The presentation will examine the motivations behind the adoption of immersive technologies in these contexts and critically reflect on their potential, limitations, and ethical implications. Particular attention will be given to the emotional and narrative impact of immersive storytelling, as well as concerns regarding image manipulation and journalistic independence. By highlighting good practices and identifying key challenges, this talk contributes to a broader understanding of the role immersive media can play in conflict reporting and peace communication, offering valuable insights for journalists, media professionals, and scholars interested in emerging storytelling formats. In an increasingly polarized and crisis-driven world, this research invites reflection on how immersive journalism can foster deeper engagement with complex realities.”

Sobre o Palestrante:

Andrés David Castro Lotero é professor de língua espanhola com especialização em Cultura e Economia e doutorando em Ciências da Comunicação na Universidade de Passau desde 2019. Anteriormente, estudou Comunicação e Jornalismo na Colômbia e fez um mestrado em Estudos de Desenvolvimento na Universidade de Passau. O seu tópico de investigação é principalmente a utilização de novos meios de comunicação no desenvolvimento de comunidades vulneráveis e na construção da paz, especialmente em contextos latino-americanos.

A palestra “How to hack the Turing trap with Trustworthy AI?” será apresentada dia 12 de junho, às 18:00, na sala B008, com a moderação de João Pedro Moreira (DEI).

Resumo:

“In this talk, in addition to technical aspects (i.e., fundamentals and tools for developing and validating human-centric self-explaining technologies that are aimed at assisting in all phases of the design, analysis and evaluation of trustworthy intelligent systems), we will discuss Ethical, Legal, Socio-Economic and Cultural (ELSEC) implications of Artificial Intelligence. Special emphasis will be placed on how to certify if intelligent systems comply with European values.”

Sobre o Palestrante:

José María Alonso Moral holds a M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Telecommunication Engineering, both from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Spain, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. He is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Electronics and Computation of the CiTIUS-USC, Vice-Chair of the Task Force on “Explainable Fuzzy Systems” in the Fuzzy Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE-CIS), Associate Editor of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine (ISSN: 1556-603X) and the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning (ISSN:0888-613X), member of the IEEE-CIS Task Force on Fuzzy Systems Software, member of the IEEECIS SHIELD Technical Committee which is aimed at researching on Ethical, Legal, Social, Environmental and Human Dimensions of AI. He has published more than 190 papers in international journals, book chapters and conferences. His research interests include explainable and trustworthy artificial intelligence, computational intelligence, interpretable fuzzy systems, natural language generation, and the development of free software tools, etc.

A entrada é livre, sem necessidade de inscrição.

A palestra “Designing New Interfaces for Musical Expression: Opportunities and Challenges” será apresentada no dia 4 de junho, às 16:00, na sala B018, e será moderada pelo docente do DEI, Gilberto Bernardes de Almeida.

Resumo:

“Computer music has a compelling history, with initial attempts to perform computer-generated music live dating back several decades. Performing sounds generated by computers presents numerous opportunities and challenges for musical expression. Though virtually any sound can be synthesized and performed arbitrarily without the inherent physical constraints of strings, membranes, and columns of air, this freedom poses unprecedented challenges to instrument designers, composers, musicians, and concertgoers.
In this talk, I will discuss the design and use of several new interfaces developed at the Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory at McGill University, ranging from self-contained digital musical instruments and prosthetic interfaces for dance performances to fMRI-compatible electronic instruments used in neuroscience studies. I will highlight the unique context and challenges of each development, showcasing the critical importance of interdisciplinary research in this field. Finally, I will present an overview of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (www.cirmmt.org), a leading research centre established 25 years ago, focusing on sound and music, based in Montreal, QC, Canada. CIRMMT’s mandate is to eliminate the barriers between disciplines and research domains by supporting researchers and artists from various backgrounds to interact in ways not possible in traditional academic environments.”

Sobre o Palestrante:

Marcelo M. Wanderley is Professor of Music Technology at McGill University, Canada, where he directs the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT). His research interests include the design and evaluation of digital musical instruments and the analysis of performer movements. He co-edited the electronic book “Trends in Gestural Control of Music” in 2000, co-authored the textbook “New Digital Musical Instruments: Control and Interaction Beyond the Keyboard” in 2006, and chaired the 2003 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME03). He held invited research chairs in several European and American institutions, including Inria Lille, France, the University of Mons, Belgium, and the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is a member of the Computer Music Journal’s Editorial Advisory Board and a senior member of the ACM and the IEEE.

A palestra intitulada “Governança de Inteligência Artificial: Erros, Desinformação e Desafios Contemporâneos” será apresentada no dia 16 de maio, às 10:30, na sala I-105.

Resumo:

Nesta sessão dupla, os investigadores André Lemos e Haline Maia exploram, a partir de perspectivas críticas e interdisciplinares, alguns dos principais dilemas que emergem da crescente presença da inteligência artificial na vida social, educacional e informacional.

André Lemos foca a sua apresentação nas falhas e perturbações que atravessam os sistemas algorítmicos, discutindo como a IA pode ser não apenas eficiente, mas também precária, incerta e opaca. Através de uma abordagem sociotécnica, analisa os erros da IA como elementos estruturantes da cultura digital contemporânea.

Haline Maia traz à discussão as implicações da IA nos ecossistemas informativos, com ênfase no jornalismo e na desinformação. Partindo de um estudo que combina metodologias participativas e avaliação ética de impacto tecnológico, apresenta reflexões sobre como alinhar tecnologias como deepfakes e fact-checking automatizado com valores humanos fundamentais.

Cada uma das intervenções terá uma duração de 30 minutos, terminando com um espaço de debate com o público. A palestra integra a pesquisa Governança de Inteligência Artificial no Brasil e em Portugal: Cruzamento e Tendências. Apoio CNPQ/MCTI/FNDCT 22/2024.

Sobre os Palestrantes:

André Lemos é Professor Titular da Faculdade de Comunicação da Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) e coordenador do Lab404. Doutor pela Sorbonne, com pós-doutoramentos no Canadá, Irlanda e Brasil, é referência internacional em cibercultura, mediações tecnológicas e estudos sociotécnicos. Autor de mais de 15 livros e vencedor de diversos prémios, atualmente investiga os efeitos dos erros, falhas e instabilidades nos sistemas digitais. É pesquisador nível 1A do CNPq e membro titular da Academia de Ciências da Bahia.

Haline Maia é investigadora afiliada ao INESC TEC e ao CIRCLE (Lund University), além de Professora Associada no IPAM. Doutorada pela FEUP em Media Digitais, atua nas áreas de governança da IA, ética algorítmica e educação. Com 15 anos de experiência em comunicação, tem produção académica indexada e participação ativa em projetos internacionais sobre jornalismo automatizado e estratégias digitais.

A palestra intitulada “Safe Evolution of Smart Contracts Supported by LLMs and SMT Solvers” será apresentada dia 24 de abril, às 14:00, na sala B006, com a moderação de Nuno Macedo (DEI).

Resumo:

“The focus of this talk is a framework that supports the safe deployment and upgrade of smart contracts based on the design-by-contract (dbc) paradigm. The input is (i) an interface specification with invariants and pre- and postconditions for each function, and (ii) an implementation to be verified. The deployed version of a smart contract must conform to this specification. Specification evolution might involve both changing the data representation as well as extending the interface with new functions, provided the evolved specification is a refinement of the original one. A distinguishing feature of the overall approach is the automation of the verification process in a hidden formal methods style. Since developers tend to be reluctant to provide formal specifications for software components, we are investigating state-of-the-art NL processing technologies, using Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly, ChatGPT, to automatically infer formal (dbc) interface specifications from textual requirements. Also, when an upgrade involves change of data representation, we use the Alloy Analyser to automatically infer the relation between the two data representations. The applicability of the framework is evaluated in the context of Solidity smart contracts that implement some Ethereum standards. This project is a collaboration between Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Brazil), The University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre (UK), and The Blockhouse Technology Limited (UK).”

Sobre o Palestrante:

Augusto Sampaio is a DPhil from Oxford University, Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of York, Commander of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science, and a Professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. His main research interests are software engineering formal methods; formal approaches to testing; design, simulation and verification of robotic systems; and safe evolution of smart contracts. He is an Editorial Board member of Formal Aspects of Computing (ACM) and Science of Computer Programming (Elsevier), and has been a PC member of leading conferences in the field (FM, ETAPS, SEFM, ICFEM, ICTAC …). He published more than 150 papers and supervised 60 PhD and master’s students.