In Fall 2025, two CMU faculty members, Daragh Byrne and Laurie Heller, visited Portugal for extended research visits. These visits supported ongoing collaborations with Portuguese research teams, helped advance work with CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. students, and advanced joint research in HCI, design, auditory perception, and immersive technologies.
Daragh Byrne, Associate Professor in the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, was in Portugal, from October 9 to 20, 2025, hosted by Nuno Nunes & Valentina Nisi (Interactive Technologies Institute – ITI). The visit combined working sessions on two doctoral research projects with embedded participation in ITI’s research culture (informal lab interactions, discussions with students, and networking with faculty).
Daragh Byrne currently serves as the CMU supervisor for the Affiliated Ph.D. students Mathilde Gouin and Matteo Cappello, who enrolled in CMU Portugal in 2024.
During the visit, Byrne worked with Valentina Nisi and CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. student Mathilda Gouin to shape an initial plan for a MtH Temporalities Design Probe: a probe-based method to operationalize MtH temporalities theory in HCI/design research contexts. The group defined candidate probe activities and documentation practices for MtH encounters, conducted a one-day outdoor working session at Gulbenkian Park and Museum, and developed an initial plan for a comparative probe study deployable across Lisbon and Pittsburgh.
The group also initiated a survey paper and taxonomy mapping of MtH temporalities across HCI, design, and DRS-related literature as well as established a literature review and screening methodology, drafted an initial taxonomy/coding scheme and began cataloging papers for review.
Planning sessions with CMU Portugal Affiliated PhD Student Matteo Cappello clarified the agenda for a Deep Time Digital Storytelling experience and its associated design research. In addition, a field visit in the Lourinhã region provided grounding through collections and landscapes, including:
- Museu da Lourinhã (curator discussion; paleontological collections and potential research links).
- Praia da Calada (geological outcrops of the Porto da Calada Formation).
- Praia de São Lourenço / Santo Isidoro (coastal cliffs and historic fort within landscape).
- Ericeira (brief stop including a local interactive museum).
Laurie Heller, Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and director of the AuditoryLab,visited Portugal from November 1 to December 20, 2025, hosted by Ana C. Pires & Pedro F. Campos (Interactive Technologies Institute).
On November 11th, Laurie Heller was a guest lecturer at Universidade de Coimbra for CogBooster’s research team. Hosted by Jorge Almeida, her lecture focused on “Human perception and recognition of environmental sounds”.
Heller’s visit was part of CMU Portugal’s 2024 Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). The CMU Portugal-PRR Collaborative Research Grants aim to support collaboration between CMU research groups and the Portuguese research teams participating in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) Mobilizing Agendas (a Portuguese application program that aims to implement a set of reforms and investments aimed at restoring sustained economic growth, after the pandemic, reinforcing the objective of convergence with Europe over the next decade). Heller and Dr Pires laid the groundwork for a research study, refining planned surveys and protocols.
Heller’s other activities included playtesting the Portuguese VR experience, AnimalPOV-PT, with dozens of Portuguese-speaking adults, and one day of the DevGamm conference in Lisbon where she learned about the gaming industry from expert talks where she demonstrated a VR experience with 4 different Portuguese game developers who gave valuable feedback and insights.
She followed up those meetings with a visit to one Portuguese gaming company that was starting a VR game- Infinity Games- where they tried each others’ experiences and had mutual suggestions and ideas to share about best practices in VR.