News: News

CMU Portugal Visiting Faculty initiative will resume in the Summer of 2022.  A group of five faculty from Portuguese Institutions will visit Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the second semester of 2022. This initiative allows faculty from Portugal to be hosted at CMU to develop ICT research and reinforce cooperation between the two countries. The 5 candidates were selected in the 2020 Call for Visiting Faculty and Researchers. The CMU Portugal Mobility Programs planned for 2020 and 2021 were suspended due to travel and health constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The five participants will now have the opportunity to spend a research period at CMU, Pittsburgh. The Visiting Faculty and Researchers Program is directed to researchers with a doctoral degree and supports an extended exposure to research and education best practices at a global level at Carnegie Mellon University. It fosters the integration of Faculty from Portuguese universities into international knowledge networks.

Since 2007, 81 faculty had the opportunity to visit CMU under the scope of CMU Portugal mobility programs. The Program has offered faculty the possibility of further developing their knowledge and skills as researchers, establish new research collaborations or reinforce exisiting ones, and experience Carnegie Mellon University culture and best practices.

This year’s edition will be attended by researchers from Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL)/ LASIGE, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)/ INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)/ Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and  Universidade do Minho/DEI.

The faculty will be granted a scholarship supported by the CMU Portugal Program and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

2022 Participants Profile:

Arlindo Oliveira: Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)/ INESC-ID
Department and Host at Carnegie Mellon University: Machine Learning Department, Professor Roni Ronsenfeld
Research topic: Developing the application of deep learning to novel areas

João Ascenso:  Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)/ Instituto de Telecomunicações
Department and Host at Carnegie Mellon University: Computer Science Department, Professor Artur Dubrawski
Research Area: Exploring new visual representation, processing and coding techniques leveraged on machine learning advances and their potential multimedia application.

João Saraiva: Universidade do Minho/ Department of Industrial Electronics
Department and Host at Carnegie Mellon University: Computer Science Department, Professor Claire Le Goues
Research topic:  Defining automated techinques and tools do repair energy inefficient programs

Naercio Magaia: Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa/ LASIGE
Department and Host at Carnegie Mellon University: Computer Science Department, Professor Justine Sherry
Research topic: State consistency framework for programmable network data planes

Paulo André: Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)/ Instituto de Telecomunicações
Department and Host at Carnegie Mellon University: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Elias Towe
Research Area: Planning of the collaborative research effort in quantum photonics and neuromorphic photonic systems

DEADLINE EXTENSION: The CMU Portugal Program has extended the application deadline for the Visiting Students initiative to  June 7th. 

 

A Call for applications to the CMU Portugal Visiting Students Program is open between May 2^nd and May 31^st, 2022. The initiative is aimed at 8 research visits to Carnegie Mellon University in 2022 and completed by December 31^st. The call is launched under the CMU Portugal Program and funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT).

The CMU Portugal Visiting Students Program will allow up to 8 talented masters and master’s students to immerse themselves in a research project at Carnegie Mellon. During 2 to 5 months, they have a chance to develop their knowledge and skills as researchers and explore new perspectives for graduate studies and career opportunities in cutting-edge ICT areas while being mentored by CMU’s leading faculty and researchers.

This mobility program is one of the key educational initiatives of the CMU Portugal partnership. The Visiting Students Program builds upon the success of the Undergraduate Internship Program initiated in 2014, which counted the participation of 41 students. Applicants must be pursuing a master’s degree and affiliated with a Portuguese Higher Education Institution or have finished their master’s degree in Portugal in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the past two years. Candidates must also be Portuguese citizens or foreign citizens with permanent residence in Portugal, affiliated with a Portuguese Higher Education Institution or Research Lab.

The CMU Portugal Mobility Programs planned for 2020 and 2021 were suspended due to travel and health constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  In 2022 the Program is happy to relaunch this initiative and expects to grant all the 8 available scholarships.

Candidates should read carefully the Call for Visiting Students Announcement and apply through the online application form available on the Admissions and Scholarships page.

The Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, is one of the 2022 Carnegie Mellon Honorary Degree Recipients, one of the highest distinctions presented to an individual by Carnegie Mellon. Heitor will deliver, on May 13, the keynote address at the Commencement ceremony for master’s and doctoral degree graduates and receive a Doctor of Science and Technology honorary degree. CMU Honorary recipients are a source of inspiration to Tartans and their families gathered at graduation between May 13-15.

Manuel Heitor has served since November 2015 as Portugal’s Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education and was, between 2005-2011, the Portuguese Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education. Heitor has been a longtime supporter of the CMU Portugal Program and of all its initiatives, strengthening the relationship between Carnegie Mellon and the Portuguese scientific and innovation ecosystem throughout the years.

 

Two of his most recent visits to Carnegie Mellon University Campus in Pittsburgh, 2019 and 2021, were focused on strengthening and reinforcing the cooperation between Portugal, Carnegie Mellon University, and Industry through the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program.

Among many other initiatives, Manuel Heitor has promoted the Program Go-Portugal — Global Science and Technology Partnerships Portugal to stimulate the internationalization of Portuguese science and technology research, fostering the creation of scientific and qualified jobs and new technology-based companies. He has also been particularly involved in the development of the Portuguese and European Space strategies, and the enforcement of research and innovation policies, including advanced computing. Heitor is a full professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) from Universidade de Lisboa and was the founder and director of IN+, IST´s Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research.

This year, two other recipients will join the Portuguese Minister in delivering Commencement keynote addresses, including Billy Porter and Frances Arnold. Billy Porter is a CMU alumnus, an Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award-winning actor, singer, director, composer, author and playwright. He will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree and deliver the keynote address at the Commencement ceremony for bachelor’s degree graduates on Sunday, May 15. Chemistry Nobel Laureate, Frances Arnold, will receive a Doctor of Science and Technology degree and will deliver the keynote address at the doctoral hooding ceremony on Saturday, May 14.

The full list of honorary degree recipients I available on CMU’s original article.

 

 

Manuela Veloso, CMU Portugal Faculty, Emeritus Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the CMU School of Computer Science, and head of J.P. Morgan AI Research was one of the 111 Members and 22 International Members elected by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) this year.

The world-renowned computer scientist and AI researcher was distinguished “for contributions to machine learning and its applications in robotics and the financial services industry” adding this recognition, which is among the highest professional distinctions awarded to an engineer, to her long list of achievements.

The NAE honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”

These most recent members bring the total of U.S. membership to 2,388 and the number of international members to 310. The newly elected engineers will be formally inducted during the NAE’s annual meeting on Oct. 2, 2022.

The full list and more information is available in the NAE’s original press release available here.

The second edition of the CMU Portugal initiative “Affiliated Ph.D. Programs” ,supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), will accept applications between February 15 to March 31, 2022 for up to 12 Scholarships for the 2022/2023 academic year. The selected candidates will be hosted by Portuguese Universities and benefit from a research period at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for up to 12 months.

The Affiliated Ph.D. Programs initiative has the objective of strengthening the collaboration between the Portuguese higher education institutions and Portuguese companies through a strong partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and with the support of FCT. It offers Ph.D. scholarships in selected cutting-edge areas of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in any Portuguese University, in the following CMU Portugal related areas:

• • • Computer Science,
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering ,
    • Engineering and Public Policy,
    • Human-Computer Interaction,
    • Language Technologies
    • Robotics,
    • Software Engineering.

The scholarships are available on a competitive basis and will fully support the tuition fees plus provide a monthly stipend for up to 4 years, including financial support during the research period at CMU. After the Ph.D. conclusion, candidates will be awarded one degree granted by the Portuguese Host Institution.

The admissions period will run from February 15th 2022 at 12:00 (GMT) to March 31st 2022 at 12:00 (GMT).

To apply please visit the “Admissions and Scholarships” page on the CMU Portugal website. You can also check the Call information at FCT Website. 

The Affiliated Ph.D. Program was launched for the first time last year and selected 12 PhD candidates for the 2021/22 academic year. The CMU Portugal Program has currently 46 active students, including both Affiliated and Dual Degree students and so far 85 have successfully graduated.

 

Susana Sargento, a researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) of Universidade de Aveiro (UA), is one of the nominees for the Inspiring Women Activa Award in the Business category, along with three other Portuguese female candidates.

In 2018, Susana joined the list of eight CMU Portugal Scientific Directors but her connection to the program comes long before that. In March 2012, she co-founded the vehicular networking company Veniam, a CMU Portugal Program startup born as a spin-off Universidade de Aveiro, Porto and Instituto de Telecomunicações. The company works on the development of an Intelligent Networking platform to allow vehicles and other moving objects to exchange large amounts of data between each other and the cloud, towards the creation of an ‘internet of moving things’.

With a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UA (2003), she is currently Professor at the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of the same University. In 2016, she won the European Union Women Innovators Award and under the CMU Portugal scope, she led the large-scale project S2Movingcity, a 4-year project launched in 2014 on massive urban sensing of people, vehicles, and environment, supporting data-driven city planning and decision making.

Throughout her career, she has worked very closely with telecom operators, manufacturers and municipal entities being currently responsible for the European project Aveiro STEAM City, for the construction of a multi-technology communication infrastructure in Aveiro to support innovative services in the area of mobility, environment and energy.

Soummya Kar, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Faculty member of the CMU Portugal Program has been elevated to fellow status in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology.

The CMU Professor is currently the principal investigator of CMU Portugal Large- Scale Collaborative project, Building Hope. This 3-year project proposes to develop and validate a tool for Holistic Optimization of Prosumed Energy (HOPE) of buildings. Kar is also presently the Supervisor at CMU of Dual Degree Ph.D. student Cláudio Gomes and has supervised three other Dual Degree students, now alumni.

IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fits this prestigious grade elevation. Kar’s research interests span several aspects of stochastic adaptive control, decision-making, learning, and inference in large-scale networked dynamical systems.

CMU Original article: https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2022/01/18-kar-ieee-fellow.html

Throughout 2021, the CMU Portugal Program has continued to support its main activities but has also launched some new initiatives, such as the new Educational Program“Affiliated Ph.D. Programs” which offered 12 Scholarships for students to attend a Portuguese University, and a new Call for Exploratory Research Projects which added 6 new projects to the portfolio of 77 that were already supported since the launch of the Program in 2006.

But the year started with a change in the Program’s leadership with the appointment on January of a new CMU Portugal National Co-Diretor, Inês Lynce, Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and President of INESC ID who assumed the co-direction alongside Nuno Nunes, replacing Rodrigo Rodrigues who was in office since the renewal of the Program in 2018.

Here’s a brief overview of 2021 :

 

January (27) – Inês Lynce appointed as CMU Portugal National co-director in replacement of Rodrigo Rodrigues (2018-2020).

January (25-27) – External Review Committee Meeting (ERC) with the evaluation of the Program’s performance between 2018 and 2020 (online)

January to February – “Data Science Talks @CMUPortugal”:

• • • • Session 1 I Jan. 28: “Conversational Assistants for Complex Search Tasks” by Jamie Callan (CMU)
      • Session 2 I Feb. 11: “AI Learns to Race: Machine Learning for Autonomous Driving” by Eric Nyberg (CMU)
      • Session 3 I Feb. 23: “Social, Cultural and Political Biases through the Lens of NLP” by Ashique Khudabukhsh (CMU)

February (15) – Announcement of the first CMU Portugal Call under the new initiative “Affiliated Ph.D. Programs” offering up to 12 Scholarships for the 2021/2022 academic year.

February (25) – Online Info Session: “How to apply to a CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. Program Scholarship”.

From April to June – “User Experience Design Talks @CMU Portugal”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May (19) – Announcement of the CMU Portugal Call for Exploratory Research Projects (ERPs) in strategic emerging areas of ICT.

May (20) – CMU Portugal participation as partner of the Bauhaus of the Seas International Conference under the scope of the  New European Bauhaus (NEB) Initiative.

June – Announcement of the 11 new Dual Degree Ph.D. Students selected under the Program’s Dual Degree Ph.D. Initiative for the 2021/22 Academic year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June (28) – CMU Portugal at Encontro Ciência 2021 Summit with the Session “The contribution of the CMU Portugal international partnership for the high-tech ecosystem in Portugal”

July (7-15) – 11th edition of the Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School (LxMLS 2021), a virtual school co-organized by Instituto Superior Técnico, Instituto de Telecomunicações, INESC ID, Unbabel, Priberam and CMU Portugal.

September (21) – Announcement of the 12 CMU Portugal students selected under the Program’s Affiliated Ph.D. Programs Initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September (13) – José M.F. Moura, CMU Portugal Director at CMU awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by Universidade de Lisboa

September (15) – 2021 CMU Portugal Doctoral Symposium at Pavilhão do Conhecimento in Lisbon with the participation of CMU Portugal dual-degree, CMU Portugal affiliated and Ph.D. candidates conducting their doctoral thesis under one of the CMU Portugal research Projects

September (16) – IST Distinguished Lecture by CMU Portugal Director José M.F. Moura titled “A story that weaves itself by detecting data on hard drives”

October (7) – “2021 Fall Welcome Back Lunch” organized on campus at Carnegie Mellon University to welcome CMU Portugal Ph.D. students at CMU.

October (27) – Online Info session “How to apply for a CMU Portugal Dual-Degree Ph.D. Scholarship” with the participation of +90 potential candidates

November (29 and 30) – Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education visits CMU

December (7) – Webinar #1 of the AIDA Webinar Series (5 Webinars September 2022) organized by the project with CMU Portugal support.

December (10) – Announcement of the 6 new Exploratory Research projects supported under the CMU Portugal Program for 12 months

December (21) – Minister Manuel Heitor distinguishes José M.F. Moura with the Medal of Scientific Merit