News: In the Media

Facebook: What if we could timely manage the information that we share?

Vassilis Kostakos, from the Universidade da Madeira, and Norman Sadeh, from Carnegie Mellon University, are the principal investigators of the WESP (Web Security and Privacy) project. This project intends to empower users to control their privacy, to develop tools to protect users’ privacy, and to develop trustworthy services. WESP project is carried out in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Read the Portuguese article at Jornal i, Jornal i online , and Fibra Online (February 9, 2011).

Portuguese Researcher Talks about his Life as a Scientist
João Barros, the National Director of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, gave an interview about his life as a scientist. Recently, he won the IEEE ComSoc Young Researcher Award.

Read the Portuguese article at Expresso Newspaper – Única Magazine (January 15 th ).

Innovative Project Examines Privacy Online Habits
With the increasingly frequent use of social networking and communication via e-mail or instant messaging, data protection on the Internet has become a concern. Vassilis Kostakos, assistant professor of Wood Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI Wood) and the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is the principal investigator of the WESP (Web Security and Privacy), which addresses issues of security, privacy and trust in the context of web and location-based services. This project is carried out in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Read the Portuguese article at Ciência Hoje Online (Jan 30, 2011).

Portugal: 35 per cent of Research is Made in Universities and Similar Higher Education Institutes
In a time when economic constraints seems to be everywhere, the Portuguese investment in research and development continues to demonstrate signs of growth, currently coming to almost 2.800 million €, or 1.71% of the national GDP. Thus, the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnogia (FCT) has been pointed as one of the enhancers of this major investment, particularly through measures as a programme that led to hiring of 1.192 new doctorates since 2007 or international partnerships with institutions as MIT, UTEN, Carnegie Mellon or Harvard Medical School.

Read the Portuguese article at Diário Económico Online (January 16 th , 2011).

The broadband introduction in Portuguese schools is a synonym of inferior academic results, at least it was in the first years after its implementation. The conclusion emerges from the study “The Effects of Broadband in Schools: Evidence from Portugal”, developed under the Carnegie Mellon (CMU) Portugal Program and to publish this month in the specialized magazine “Review of Economics and Statistics”. Although it is not yet a conclusive work, the data demonstrates that the decline in results has its origin in a specific group of schools, explains Pedro Ferreira, co-author of the work and visiting professor of CMU.

Read the Portuguese article at Jornal “I” // Jornal “I” Online (January 12 th , 2011).

Portuguese Researcher Leads Centre in the USA
Inês Lima Azevedo, a researcher and professor of the Engineering and Public Policies Departament (EPP) of the Carnegie Mellon University, was chosen to lead the Centre for Decision Analysis in Energy and Climate Changes of this north-American university.

Read the Portuguese article at Oje Newspaper // Oje Online (January 11 th , 2011).

Portuguese Researchers will be Present at the FI-Week
Several Portuguese researchers will attend the Future Internet Conference Week – which will be held between December 13-17, 2010, in Ghent, Belgium. This event gathers more than two thousand specialists in the information and communication technologies area from all over the world. João Costa Seco, Pedro Bizarro, Fausto Vieira, and Ricardo Moreira, are the Portuguese who will show the positive impact of some of the research projects carried out in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by the Portuguesa Foundation for Science and Technology.

Read the Portuguese articles at Fibra Online (December 15 th , 2010), Mundo Universitário Online (December 14 th , 2010), and Diário Económico (December 14 th , 2010).

Manuela Veloso Named IEEE Fellow
Manuela Veloso is a Professor of Computer Science in the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and researcher of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program. Manuela Veloso is now a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) because of her research in the development of autonomous mechanisms for robots actions. Manuela Veloso is well-known all over the world for her research in the artificial intelligence areas and by her pioneer work in robotic football.

Read the Portuguese article at Expresso Newspaper (December 18th, 2010).

Identification and Risk Analysis in Programs

To anticipate risks and to adopt preventive measures to avoid possible errors in software programs will be one of the debate themes in the seminary “The Identification and Risk Analysis in Software Projects”. This initiative will happen tomorrow by 10 o’clock, in the Informatics Engineering Department of the University of Coimbra’s Science and Technology Faculty (FCTUC). The context of this seminary is the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, and it is for software engineers, team leaders and project managers who want to learn some more about identification and analysis of risks. The seminary will emphasize the “definition of success borders, risks identification process and their characterization, as well as the fundaments of the “mitigation techniques”.

Read the Portuguese article at Diário de Coimbra (December 10 th , 2010)