The 2021 CMU Portugal Doctoral Symposium took place on September 15th at Pavilhão do Conhecimento in Lisbon and gathered 24 students who presented their research work developed under the CMU Portugal Program. The welcome session had the privilege to begin with a brief speech from Rosalia Vargas (President of Agência Ciência Viva), Inês Lynce (on behalf of CMU Portugal Directors), José Paulo Esperança (Vice President of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), and Manuel Heitor (Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education).
The main goal of this new initiative was to foster a supportive community of Ph.D. candidates and promote a collaborative research environment by providing participants the opportunity to present their work plans and discuss the results with their peers. The six parallel sessions, held simultaneously in two separate rooms (Auditorium and Library), were chaired by a diverse group including CMU Portugal alumni, scientific directors, and leading experts from the Program´s affiliated companies.
The 24 presentations were given by 13 Dual Degree Ph.D. candidates, by 3 of our new Affiliated Ph.D. candidates already involved with the Program through research projects, and 8 researchers conducting their thesis under the framework of CMU Portugal projects (ERIs, ERPs, Large-Scale projects). Together, they provided evidence for a perspective on the diverse and multidisciplinary research developed under the scope of CMU Portugal Program.
At the end of the day, the goal was successfully achieved, and the debate included the enthusiastic participation of all the panel speakers and the audience.
The first session at the Auditorium was dedicated to Language Technologies and chaired by CMU Portugal alumnus Zita Marinho, a Research Scientist at DeepMind. Presentations were led by Gonçalo Raposo (IST), Gustavo Gonçalves (FCT UNL), John Mendonca (IST) and Patrick Fernandes (IST).
João Paulo Cunha, CMU Portugal Scientific Director from FEUP, chaired the second Auditorium’s session which counted with four presentations: two in the area of Computer Science led by researchers from CMU Portugal projects TAMI and SCREEN DR both from FEUP: Maria Helena Montenegro e Almeida and Teresa Araújo. Dual Degree Ph.D. students Alex Gaudio and Manuel Reis Carneiro presented next, in the area of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Lastly, João Abreu from Outsystems, a CMU Portugal Affiliated company and the promoter of our Large-Scale Collaborative project GOLEM led the final session. All presentations were related to Computer Science, starting with Ricardo Brancas (IST) who just joined the Program as one of our 12 new Affiliated Ph.D. students, Margarida Ferreira (IST), Luís de Sá (FCT UNL) and Claudio Gomes (FCUP), all Dual Degree Ph.D. candidates.
To watch the Auditorium sessions, please visit our YouTube:
Three other sessions were organized at the Library, starting with a group of 4 Dual Degree students which included Daniel Ramos (IST), Maria Casimiro (IST), Paulo dos Santos (FCUL) and Pedro Valdeira (IST), and Abdelghafour Abraray conducting his PhD research at Universidade de Aveiro, under the scope of the ERP “Intelligent Beamforming Metasurfaces for Future Telecommunications.” The chair of this session was Feedzai’s CTO and co-founder, Paulo Marques, who has a long-lasting relationship with the Program, now as our Scientific Director and in the past as Visiting Faculty and adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Feedzai, a Portuguese Unicorn company, was one of the first startups created under the scope of the CMU Portugal Program and is now one of our Affiliated partner companies.
Lia Patrício, from FEUP, is CMU Portugal most recent Scientific Director and took part for the first time in a CMU Portugal event. This debut started in a great way in a session focused on Engineering and Public Policy where our Dual Degree students Afonso Amaral and Jihoon Shin shared the work that they are developing under the scope of their Ph.D.
Finally, the last session at the Library centered on health issues with three of the speakers involved in CMU Portugal research project TAMI from INESC TEC, Joana Rocha, Sofia Pereira and Wilson Silva, who promoted a fruitful discussion moderated by Francisca Leite from Luz Saúde. Moreover, at the end of the day Francisca Leite was highly impressed with their work leaving a door open for future collaborations. Fernanda Famá, one of the three CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. candidates, was the last speaker of the day presenting work that she will now develop under her Ph.D.
To watch the Library sessions please visit our YouTube:
Both sessions are available online at CMU Portugal and Abstracts can be accessed at CMU Portugal 2021 Doctoral Symposium Abstracts.
