News: Success Stories

Internships Are Key to Establish a Connection with the Labor Market

Jerónimo Rodrigues is always up for new challenges, and during his dual degree Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) he has been benefiting from different opportunities, both in the academy and in industry. Currently conducting research at Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade de Lisboa (IST-UL), Jerónimo Rodrigues has done internships in top companies like Google, Qualcomm, and Honda, and as a result of that he now holds various industrial and academic patents.

Jerónimo Rodrigues, who is doing his Ph.D. as part of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, enrolled in 2008/2009 and is advised by João Xavier and Pedro Aguiar, from the IST-UL, and by Takeo Kanade, from Carnegie Mellon University. In an interview, Jerónimo Rodrigues tells us about his experience, the importance of internships and his expectations for the future.

CMU Portugal Program: During your dual-degree Ph.D. you have also worked as an intern in different companies. Can you tell us a bit more about that experience?
Jerónimo Rodrigues (JR) : I had the opportunity to work as an intern in companies such as Google and Qualcomm, and as a result of our work we now hold several industrial and academic patents. With Google I worked on a project called Google Wallet, and with Qualcomm I developed Augmented Reality applications. As part of my doctoral studies, I developed a binpicking system in collaboration with Honda Engineering. So I can say that my Ph.D. and internship work was directly used to develop industry products.

CMU Portugal: You mentioned that you have already worked at Google. What was the scope of your internship there?
JR: At Google I worked on the Google Wallet, which is an intelligent virtual wallet. In order to be able to stand the pace of competition and to apply technology that allows any person to start using the Google Wallet, Google invested in artificial intelligence so that all mobile phones could read bank cards with cameras, without requiring users to apply additional software or to introduce card data manually. Because cell phones have a weak computational power and because for safety reasons the information in the card cannot be sent to a server to be analyzed, it is necessary to use very efficient algorithms that run easily on the cell phone so that the task is performed easily and quickly. Google compared the project developed during my internship with the products developed by other companies, and decided that the know-how and technology developed at Google are better than the state-of-the-art of the competition.

CMU Portugal: What was your role in this project?
JR: I was responsible for designing and implementing the method to retrieve information from bank cards and send it to the cell phone using computer vision. The idea was to make this application more competitive comparatively to other solutions. The work resulted in several patents and in a product that can be used today by different people worldwide. I received a super star rating in an internal evaluation because even though the first prototype was developed in just three weeks, it proved to be faster and more precise than any identical application on the market.

CMU Portugal: How did this influence the research you do today?
JR: Today I believe it is very important to actually apply science, not just by demonstrating simplified prototypes, but also by trying to create systems that are as close as possible to real implementation. This is because now I understand better the concerns and difficulties that companies have when they try to bring research results to industry.

CMU Portugal: In your opinion, to what extent are internships important?
JR: I believe that internships are key to establish a connection with the industry in my area of expertise prior to concluding the doctoral studies. Moreover, it is an opportunity to get a good job after the Ph.D., and to understand the labor market and what companies expect from us. I apply this pragmatic view to my studies. Now I can clearly understand the differences between (1) research at universities, (2) working at a research centre within a company or (3) working as a software engineer at a company. In my point of view, the long-lasting separation between Portuguese academic institutions and industry require pragmatic ways of developing new collaborations between the two. Internships are a way to enable such collaborations because they trigger interactions among people and allow to better understand to outline a work plan along the motivations and goals of each institution. The students can be the link (or the excuse) for companies and universities to talk more and to promote possible synergies. Both have a lot to gain, but it is necessary for them to interact for these synergies to occur.

CMU Portugal: What about your work at CMU’s Robotics Institute?
JR: At the Robotics Institute I have developed a system for using automated learning in a binpicking task, for any given object, even for objects with textureless and shiny surfaces. This work has been developed as part of a collaboration with Honda Engineering, and the results largely outperform current state-of-the-art solutions.

CMU Portugal: Lastly, what do you expect for the future after you conclude your doctoral studies?
JR: In the future, I want to create my own technology startup, or maybe join a top technology company while providing consulting services to startups.

April 2014

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Feature at Exame Informática (May 2014)
The Portuguese that Transformed the Google Wallet

Filipe Condessa Seeks to Make Medical Image Segmentation Faster And More Efficient

Image segmentation plays an essential role for medical image analysis, and for that reason, it is fundamental to improve segmentation techniques. That is precisely the goal behind Filipe Condessa’s research work, a dual degree Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade de Lisboa (IST-UL) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), as part of the CMU Portugal Program. Recently, Filipe Condessa, with his two co-advisors from Portugal and CMU, published a paper at the SPIE Proceedings Image Processing: Algorithms and Systems XII, volume 9019, titled “Alternating direction optimization for image segmentation using hidden Markov measure field models.”

Co-written with Filipe Condessa’s co-advisors, José Bioucas-Dias (IST-UL) and Jelena Kovacevic (CMU), the paper presents a method that makes the classification of segmented images faster and more effective. “The paper was the basis for an invited presentation I did at the IS&T/SPIE 2014 Electronic Imaging Conference,” said Filipe Condessa and “in it we present a novel algorithm for image segmentation which separates itself from the generally discrete nature of the algorithms for image segmentation as it introduces a continuous hidden field that drives the segmentation,” the student explained.

In computer vision, image segmentation is the process of partitioning a digital image into multiple segments in order to simplify and/or turn the representation of an image into something that is more meaningful and easier to analyze. According to Filipe Condessa, t he main impact of the method presented in his paper “is the ability to quickly find optimal solutions to segmentation problems by formulating them as a convex problem, instead of an integer optimization problem where optimal solutions are not attainable in a timely manner,” he clarified, adding that “this method allows us to obtain a better classification performance in large datasets.”

In digital pathology, for instance, the goal is to discover and classify tissues in images acquired by microscope imaging, and the method presented uses the contextual information more effectively, thus expediting the classification process. “Comparatively to previous methods, the prior information required is one order of magnitude lower. This makes it easier for the histopathologist to train the classifier,” explained Filipe Condessa.

The method can be applied to automatically classify tissue in digital pathology and to discover and categorize landmasses in multidimensional images acquired by remote sensing instruments (hyperspectral imaging). Here, “the results allow us to obtain state of the art results,” said Filipe Condessa, enrolled in the dual degree program since the academic year 2011/2012.

“At the moment my research is focused on improving the performance of the classifier without improving the classifier itself. We add contextual information and a rejection option to a generic classification system to improve the performance,” the student stated explaining that the method achieved an 85 percent performance on 90 percent of the data set, as opposed to the previous 55 percent achieved with traditional methods.

Image segmentation can not only be used for medical purposes (for instance, to locate tumors and other pathologies, measure tissue volumes, medical diagnosis, plan surgeries), but also in content-based image retrieval and object detection, among others.

April 2014

Luís Correia Elected to European Association for Communication Technology

Luís Correia, a faculty member and researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade de Lisboa (IST-UL) / INOV-INESC, involved in the dual degree Ph.D. program in Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) of the CMU Portugal Program, was elected to the General Assembly of 5G-PPP, a European association that brings together a diversity of stakeholders from the communication technologies area. The main goal of the association is to implement a strategic roadmap for research and innovation to improve competitiveness and innovation, stimulating economic growth and job creation.

Luís Correia was co-advisor of Rathapon Saruthirathanaworakun, along with Jon Peha, from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Rathapon finished his dual degree doctoral program in EPP, at IST-UL and CMU, in the academic year 2012/2013, and he is now an engineering specialist at the True Corporation – True Move. Rathapon’s dissertation title was “Gray-Space Spectrum Sharing with Cellular Systems and Radars, and Policy Implications.”

Other than Luís Correia, six additional members were elected to the 5G-PPP. The association seeks to foster a stronger, more competitive and more innovative telecommunications industry. It’s ultimate goal is to provide solutions to important societal challenges as identified in the Digital Agenda, such as drastically reducing energy in network operations and optimizing radio frequency usage.

CMU Portugal: You have been elected to the General Assembly of the 5G Association. What will be your role?
Luís Correia (LC): I will have the opportunity to interact with colleagues from industry and academia, and contribute to identify the main research directions towards the development of the 5th generation of mobile and wireless communications. This is expected to have a strong impact, given the European presence in this area of telecommunications. Moreover, because I am an academic, this is an opportunity to convey the messages of the academic community to industry.

CMU Portugal: What does this election mean to you?
LC: It is an honor. Being involved in European R&D activities for many years, this election shows the recognition that many colleagues, from both academia and industry, have for the work I have done and my contributions to the area.

CMU Portugal: You have an extensive curriculum as a professor, researcher and as a participant in R&D activities in the telecommunications area. What are the new challenges that this role brings?
LC: The challenges are both technical and organizational. In terms of the technical aspects, I will have to contribute with new ideas and concepts for the development of new networks and mobile and wireless communication systems. However, as a researcher this is a normal challenge, and the fact that these ideas need to be implemented in a time frame of about ten years creates additional constrains. As far as the organizational aspects are concerned, representing the community in an association means that I need to be capable of expressing the views of my colleagues during the meetings, and also to help reach consensus, so that decisions are made properly.

March 2014

Making Software Systems Dependable and Capable of Adapting

Software systems are becoming increasingly central to the support of everyday activities, and for that reason it is important to improve their dependability and optimize their performance, while at the same time reducing their development and operational costs. This is particularly relevant, for instance, in applications such as renewable power plants, where uncertainty in the operating conditions is common. This is where the Assuring Dependability in Architecture-based Adaptive Systems (ADAAS) project, carried out in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program, comes in.

Led by Rogério de Lemos, faculty member at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra (FCTUC), in Portugal, together with David Garlan, from CMU, the main outcomes of the ADAAS project had a concrete impact on Critical Software, who “will be changing its practices on how to develop self-adaptive software systems,” explained Rogério de Lemos. CMU Portugal: What were the main outcomes of the Assuring Dependability in Architecture-based Adaptive Systems (ADAAS) project? Rogério de Lemos (RL): In terms of applying architecture-based solutions to self-adaptive software systems, and in particular CMU’s Rainbow [Architecture-based Adaptation of Complex Systems], the main outcomes of the project can be viewed from two perspectives: during run-time, architecture-based solutions are more resilient to faults and they react quickly to changes; during development-time, the solutions are more easily maintained and incorporated into legacy systems. In order to achieve the outcomes mentioned above, the ADAAS project has established innovative procedures for evaluating the resilience of self-adaptive systems. In addition to these findings, there were other equally important results, such as an improved fault detection algorithm that allows events to identify faults, which are detected indirectly by observing lower level events. Another important outcome was a goal-based approach to self-adaptation that encompasses a technique to dynamically generate adaptation strategies from high-level goal policies, and the fact that we used different approaches to support the dynamic adaptation of replicated data grids. CMU Portugal: What is the main impact of these outcomes? Rogério de Lemos (RL): One concrete impact of these outcomes is that Critical Software will be changing its practices on how to develop self-adaptive software systems. They have noticed that it is important to have not only a separate entity, such as a controller, for managing the changes in the target systems or its environment, but also a language, such as Stitch, to represent the strategies that manage the adaptation. CMU Portugal: Is the ADAAS solution being applied to one of the Critical Software projects? Could you tell us a little bit more about this technology transfer experience? RL: In order for ADAAS to evaluate architecture-based self-adaptive solutions, Critical Software, the industrial partner of ADAAS, has made one of their products available – the Data Acquisition and Control Service (DCAS). DCAS is a middleware used to monitor and manage highly populated networks of devices in renewable energy production plants. This is a proprietary software that has allowed us to perform several evaluations on the resilience of architecture-based self-adaptive software systems. Several of the results related to this work have either been published already, or are in the process of being published. During the process of incorporating Rainbow into DCAS, Critical Software and ADAAS researchers held several regular and ad hoc meetings. In those meetings, ADAAS researchers would describe the novel approaches being incorporated into DCAS, and discuss the results obtained. Right from the beginning, Critical Software acknowledged the advantages of incorporating into their practices the technical solutions adopted by ADAAS. CMU Portugal: Recently, both PIs [Rogério de Lemos (FCTUC) and David Garlan (CMU)] were members of the organizing committee of the Dagstuhl Seminar on “Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems: Assurances,” which took place in December 2013. How was this event important for the project and for the research team involved? RL: The motivation to organize this Dagstuhl seminar on assurances for self-adaptive software systems actually came from initial discussions within ADAAS. It was clear that a special forum was necessary to discuss the current state of the art, and to identify challenges in the area. Unfortunately, since this Dagstuhl seminar was organized very late in the project’s lifetime, it had little impact back on the project. However, the experience obtained in ADAAS was very useful for setting up the agenda of the discussions. Some of the presentations at the Dagstuhl seminar were directly related to the outcomes of the ADAAS project. However, since the work started with the seminar will continue through working groups, the members of the ADAAS project will have the opportunity to have an impact on the research agenda for the area. __________ The ADAAS project focuses on provision of self-adaptability to enhance system dependability and reduce overall operational costs, and to improve support for the practical applications of self-adaptation. The project started in 2010 and was completed in 2013. The project was carried out by the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra (FCTUC), Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL), INESC/ID, Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade de Lisboa (IST/UL), and Carnegie Mellon University, with Critical Software. ADDAS aims at developing a language to express adaptability strategies that can be dynamically generated and modified.

 

In a time when finding a job is a challenging task, having a multidisciplinary résumé is key to get the attention of employers. Understanding engineering and business, for instance, especially in the increasing global environment that we live in, is viewed as a career asset. Bearing that in mind, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Porto Business School (PBS) have created a master’s program that allows students to receive training both in engineering and in business, while experiencing two different education and business cultures, in Portugal and in the U.S.. Developing graduates who ambassadors and leaders in technological change is the main goal of the program, which is now on its third edition.

The MS/MBA in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is a double degree program that allows students to simultaneously obtain a Professional MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE), awarded by CMU, and The Magellan MBA diploma, awarded by PBS. According to Jelena Kovačević, head of the ECE department at CMU, “we are hoping that our graduates will become our ambassadors and leaders in the fast changing technological landscape.”

The double degree is now starting its third edition and it keeps bringing on board a large number of students. One of the reasons that makes the program so appealing is the fact that it equips students with skills to start their own tech companies. In addition to that, companies may see the program as an opportunity to obtain more qualified employees. This is confirmed by Jelena Kovačević, who says that “from the point of view of companies, the program provides a pipeline to potential employees who will be able to understand and develop both technical and business aspects of their jobs.”

“During my professional experience I worked on various challenging technical projects with setups spanned across the globe. These experiences allowed me to understand the importance of having both technical knowledge and management skills. The MS/MBA dual degree was the best alternative for me when I decided to pursue higher studies. The program allowed me to experience both the Europe and the American cultures as I strengthened my education in these top tier programs. Both programs are unique in their own way and I feel more prepared for real world challenges.” – Vishal Shahane (alumnus of the ECE MS/MBA), recently hired by Amazon to become Systems Engineer in their AWS team

According to James Garret, dean of CMU’s College of Engineering , the program gives students a chance “to experience two different education and business cultures during their studies,” a perspective that is highly valuable “in an increasingly global context,” he adds. According to Jorge Farinha, vice-dean of PBS and one of the mentors of the MS/MBA, “the great performance that these students experience in the program, either at Porto Business School or at Carnegie Mellon, is a promising sign that they can aspire to great challenges in the future.”

For graduates looking for a place in the business world, the program gives them an advantage because students are not only trained in ECE, but also in Business. And this is where the partnership with PBS becomes crucial. “Many of our graduates look for career opportunities within the business world and this program gives them an advantage,” explains Jelena Kovačević. For Jorge Farinha, the partnership with CMU “ is also exceptional. And we believe this will certainly bring huge benefits for students and companies, and will foster the development of new entrepreneurs in hi-tech areas, hopefully bringing many direct and indirect benefits to the Portuguese economy,” he explains.

“We already have a great partnership with the technical universities in Portugal, so this extension of our relationship allows us to build on and strengthen our valued relationship with our Portuguese colleagues.” – James Garrett, dean of CMU’s College of Engineering

“We truly believe that combining expertise in technology and business knowledge is definitely a very powerful tool that these students will be able to use not only for their benefit, but also for the benefit of the organizations they will be involved with,” said Jorge Farinha.

The MS/MBA is the result of a triple partnership since while doing their MBA program in Porto, students also attend a number of courses (typically two) at the Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto (FEUP), which will grant them credits for the MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering. “This allows students to reduce the duration of their MS in ECE in Pittsburgh from the usual 1.5 years to just one year,” Jorge Farinha reveals.

“Having this double degree taking place so quickly was definitively an achievement on its own but the most relevant success was the extraordinary quality of the 11 students recruited so far in the first two editions. They were extremely hardworking, motivated and with excellent academic background, alongside a relevant professional experience. The great performance that these students experienced in the program either at Porto Business School or at Carnegie Mellon are very promising signs that they can aspire to great things in the future.” Jorge Farinha, vice-dean PBS

The program is very attractive for a number of reasons. First of all, there are not many programs worldwide combining technology with a strong business perspective. Secondly, both Carnegie Mellon and FEUP are world-class institutions in different areas of engineering, while Porto Business School is listed on the top-100 Best European Business Schools according to the Financial Times . “This ensures that the teaching quality is at the highest standards and also that students interact with many organizations and managers that can give them a unique perspective on business and technology,” Jorge Farinha concluded.

April 2014

Living Carnegie Mellon University Through the Faculty Exchange Program
The Faculty Exchange Program is on its seventh year and the balance thus far could not be more positive. Since the Program started in 2009, more than 56 faculty members from 11 Portuguese universities and research institutes have already benefited from this pioneering initiative provided by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Experiencing the atmosphere and culture of a top university, while engaging in teaching and research activities, and having an opportunity to broaden contact networks, are just some of the Program’s positive points highlighted by the participants.

The goal of the Faculty Exchange Program is to allow faculty members to share and discover best practices through cultural immersion. While at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), faculty members are exposed to the same environment and working conditions as any colleague at CMU. There, the visitors have the opportunity to join research groups, teach courses in a specific area of interest, at undergraduate or graduate level, and participate in various activities. And the same applies to Carnegie Mellon faculty who stay at a Portuguese university.

According to João Claro, national director of the CMU Portugal Program, the strong participation of researchers from several Portuguese universities is a reflection of the important benefits that both researchers and institutions see in this initiative. But even more expressive of the program’s success is the positive feedback of the participants on their experiencesand the impact that they can have back home.

One of the main goals outlined by faculty members who spent at least one semester at CMU is getting to know new the educational practices and apply them in Portugal. José L. Valente de Oliveira (Assistant Professor, Universidade do Algarve, 2012) stated: “Accompanying two courses allowed me to learn the several differences and similarities in the organization and pedagogical practice of different course topics, level of theoretical detail, student projects and homework. Based on this experience, and on my own research in the field, I’ll be proposing a graduate course on Machine Learning in my home faculty. The research environment is truly inspiring. This visit was a great experience that I fully recommend to other colleagues, and I would like to repeat it in the future.” Fernando Morgado Dias (Assistant Professor, Universidade da Madeira / Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, 2013) shared the same opinion: “During my stay at CMU my goals were to attend and participate in at least one course to experience the CMU culture, to understand the methods used and possibly apply them in Portugal, and to develop a professional connection with colleagues at CMU in order to foster future collaborations. I wanted to expand my knowledge in areas that are relevant to my research (…). Both courses I attended are project based and the approach followed at CMU will certainly influence the next edition of this course at the Universidade da Madeira.”

According to Alberto Rodrigues da Silva (Associate Professor, Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade de Lisboa, 2012): “When I originally planned this stay at CMU I had two main goals: attend one or more courses from the Professional Masters of Software Engineering to have a better understanding of the dynamics of these courses and programs; and to develop a professional relationship with faculty members and researchers that can lead to joint projects in the future. This period was also a great time from a social and cultural point of view, as I have met friendly people and discovered nice places in Pittsburgh.” Ana Barros (Senior Researcher, INESC TEC, and Adjunct Professor, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 2012) also added: “Upon conclusion of my faculty exchange visit at the Carnegie Mellon University I feel very optimistic and enthusiastic about nurturing the collaboration seeds initiated within this program. While at CMU, I participated in two reading groups (…) where the goal was to create a common understanding of the fundamental principles surrounding global competitiveness and technological change. I believe that these reading groups are a very healthy way of fostering common understanding, learning and collaboration between research teams, and therefore I will encourage similar initiatives in my home institution.”

Most faculty members also see the stay at CMU as an opportunity to broaden contact networks and to promote future partnerships. This is confirmed by Diogo Gomes (Assistant Professor, Universidade de Aveiro, 2012), who stated: “I wanted to expand my knowledge on cloud computing infrastructures by contacting directly with the several ongoing projects taking place at the Parallel Data Lab (PDL) at CMU. In the future, I expect to continue collaborating with the PDL in Cloud Computing through new projects and eventually co-supervise Ph.D. students. All the experience gained will allow me to include new topics on cloud computing in the M.Sc. courses at DETI, in Portugal. Overall my stay at CMU was very fruitful and enriching. Several areas of joint work have been established, and results are expected in the near future.” For Pedro Brandão (Assistant Lecturer, Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade do Porto, 2012), “During my stay, (…) the interaction with the Sensor Andrew group led to a better understanding of the platform in its current form and originated some opportunities for collaboration. I also had the opportunity to contact with researchers in my field. Overall, the experience was very rewarding (…) and the possibility of future collaborations is definitively a positive outcome.”

Most faculty members also stress that the experience has been fulfilling, both personally and professionally. Mónica Cameirão (Postdoctoral Researcher, Madeira-ITI, 2013), for instance, stated: “Participating in the CMU Portugal Faculty Exchange Program was a very enriching experience. With my visit to CMU I wanted not only to learn content, structure and teaching methodologies of specific courses, but also to collaborate in research activities in the domain of interactive technologies for stroke rehabilitation at the Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT). Both goals have been fully accomplished and even surpassed my initial expectations. Spending four months at CMU was a very exciting experience that allowed me to grow as a researcher and as a teacher.” João Barros (Associate Professor, Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto, 2012) believes that “This was without a doubt a very productive and successful stay. Other than helping to push further research and education activities, which I will continue to carry out with colleagues and students at CMU, this stay allowed me to reflect more deeply on how to build institutions that can really make a difference, both locally and internationally.”

João Costa Seco (Assistant Professor, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2012) said that while at the Computer Science Department (CSD), João Costa Seco was able to interact with several faculty members, other visitors and post-docs in fruitful research discussions. He “attended seminars, participated in reading group sessions and observed teaching activities at different levels.” For João Costa Seco “this visit was a very fruitful and enriching experience personally and professionally, and the rich and dynamic environment at Carnegie Mellon, both in terms of teaching and research, will certainly influence my future activities.”

Ian Oakley (Assistant Professor, Madeira ITI, 2012) admitted that he “benefited substantially from the rich academic environment at Carnegie Mellon. I was invited to speak at the annual HCII town hall (…) and I believe such public presentations do much to raise the profile of the international partnerships – putting faces to names – and I hope they are enabled and encouraged in future iterations of the faculty exchange program. During my time at Carnegie Mellon, Professor Jodi Forlizzi of HCII also invited me to serve as an associate chair for ACM CHI 2013, the largest and most impactful conference in my field. This invite is at least partly attributable to the power of the relationships that can be built up through mobility initiatives like the Faculty Exchange Program. In sum, my visit to Carnegie Mellon allowed me to develop my research, refine my teaching and participate meaningfully in academic service. It was inspiring both practically and culturally and I strongly recommend the experience to other faculty members.”

April 2014

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The article was written with excerpts of the public reports submitted by each participant on the Faculty Exchange Program. The reports are available at: https://cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=2636.

CMU Portugal Presents inRes To Entrepreneurs

On April 2 and 3, 2014, the CMU Portugal Program organized three sessions to present the 2014 Edition of inRes, its Entrepreneurship-in-Residence initiative, to entrepreneurs, in the cities of Porto (UPTEC), Coimbra (IPN) and Lisbon (Taguspark Incubator), in Portugal. Applications are open until April 30, and the results will be announced on May 19, 2014.

In the different sessions, João Claro, national director of the CMU Portugal Program, started by providing an overview of the CMU Portugal Program, covering its fundamental areas: talent development, collaborative research, industry partnerships, and technological entrepreneurship. He then went on to present inRes, short for “in Residence,” a very early stage acceleration program for entrepreneurial teams working in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Portugal. “We decided to launch this initiative after looking at the entrepreneurship support landscape and realizing that in some areas there was little to no support being provided to early stage new ventures,” explained João Claro. “With inRes we want to help overcome the human and social capital gaps that early stage high-tech new ventures often have, in particular academic spin-offs led by less experienced entrepreneurs,” said João Claro, adding that “these are some of the challenges facing startups, namely in areas where Portugal does not have strong industries or markets.”

Combining existing capabilities and opportunities in the CMU Portugal Program, inRes will start with a preparation period in Portugal, to develop “the product/service and business concepts to a point that will allow the teams to take full advantage of the immersion in the U.S., as well as to help them prepare their pitches for the multiple situations of communication that they will face throughout the immersion,” said João Claro.

Immersion in the U.S. Will Enable a Sustained Development

inRes teams, to be announced in May 19, will benefit from a two-stage program: a preparation period in Portugal (between June and September, 2014), followed by a six-week immersion in Pittsburgh (between October and November, 2014). On December 2014, the CMU Portugal Program will hold a public session in Portugal to show the teams’ achievements. During the program, inRes teams will be mentored and advised by a core team of experts and mentors.

The mentors will play a key role in this program, providing one-on-one feedback and input. “They will help by asking the right questions,” João Claro explained. Lacking specific competences, as well as key contacts and funding, early stage technology businesses tend to develop at a slower pace. By providing mentoring and supporting teams in networking and in the development of managerial skills, inRes will help put ventures in motion, closing gaps and bringing the projects closer to their target markets and potential customers, partners and capital. “What is your path to market? And how can this initiative help you along that path?” João Claro enquired. These are some of the questions that the applicants to inRes will be faced with.

Other than João Claro, other experts involved in this initiative are Tara Branstad, director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC) at CMU, Dave Mawhinney, co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and director of the i6 Agile Innovation System, and Suzi Pegg, vice-president for global marketing at Pittsburgh Regional Alliance. Other members will soon be joining the team of specialists.

In Coimbra, Paulo Marques, CTO of Feedzai, spoke about how the CMU Portugal Program and its innovation ecosystem may be an important enabler for startups to succeed in the U.S. market, as well as the essential role that the advisory board can have on the sustained development of the company.

“Pittsburgh is an excellent host for this initiative because of the strength of its economic activity in key sectors, such as healthcare, information and communication technologies, energy and environment,” said João Claro. Moreover, CMU has a wide range of outstanding educational opportunities and on top of that “the institution is prepared to create customized training for this program. In Portugal, and even elsewhere, there is a scarcity of training on managing early stage high-tech new ventures, on topics such as recruiting and developing a team, building and managing a board, among others. We have identified topics that are relevant for early stage startups, and are working to make a consistent set of modules available for this program,” revealed João Claro.

Pushing People Out of Their Comfort Zones The initiative will be supporting two team members per project, ideally founders or leaders, combining between them as much business and technology knowledge as possible. While in Portugal, the core team will provide intensive training to better prepare the teams for the six-week immersion period in Pittsburgh. According to João Claro, “inRes will be very intense and challenging, and will require a strong commitment from the teams,” adding that “it will push them past their comfort zones, and require them to work at a steep pace, cope with high levels of uncertainty, and constantly reach out for contacts to further build and validate their business projects.” João Claro also emphasized that the “submitted projects should have an international ambition.” inRes is coordinated by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and supported by the Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas (CRUP), in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance and UTEN Portugal. Applications are open until April 30, 2014. For more information, go to www.cmuportugal.org.

In Lisbon, Tara Branstad emphasized the formal entrepreneurship education which CMU excels, which is a major asset for the chosen participants, especially because the entire CMU atmosphere is rich in events, advisors and alumni that are prone to networking. “The participants will benefit from being exposed to a highly dense environment of world-leading research groups and formal entrepreneurial education, market and industry specialists,” Tara Branstad explained. In 2013, CMU launched 36 startups. In the U.S., the inRes teams will be able to develop contacts with potential partners, experts, clients, investors and advisors, and will stay at an accelerator of relevance for their particular area. There, the teams will not only share the same space, but also their challenges, problems, approaches and solutions, with other resident startups.

In Lisbon, the session also had the contribution of two participants in the 2012 pilot edition of the Entrepreneurship in Residence initiative: Paulo Dimas, co-founder and CEO of Faces.In, and Bernardo Motta, co-founder and CCO of Observit. The two spoke candidly about their experience in Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, and how it helped them better develop their companies. “CMU allowed us to be in contact with top people,” Paulo Dimas stated, as he explained how Faces.In had to change and adjust its pitch to the U.S. market. Bernardo Motta also stressed the importance given to the motto: “be the best in one specific market.” The two entrepreneurs gave extremely positive and relevant inputs in terms of how to adapt and/or redirect a startup considering its specific context and longtime goals. With wise words and good results to show, Paulo Dimas and Bernardo Motta encouraged everyone to participate in the inRes program. For them, being part of this experience is a “privilege” and provides a vast and important network that can help early stage companies go farther and develop in a faster and more robust way.

April 2014

CMU Portugal Program Fosters Cooperation Between Portugal and the U.S. in ICT

Internationalization as a result of a solid cooperation between Portuguese higher education institutions, research institutes and companies, and Carnegie Mellon University, was the main topic discussed in a session organized by the CMU Portugal Program in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Portugal, held on February 14, 2014, at Círculo Universitário do Porto, Portugal. Attended by over 25 people, including faculty, researchers, alumni, dual degree Ph.D. students, and faculty exchange members, among others, the event presented the goals and the opportunities created by the CMU Portugal Program to John Olson, the Chargé d’Affaires ad Interim of the U.S. Embassy in Portugal.

João Claro, national director of the CMU Portugal Program, briefly explained the Program’s activity in its three interconnected areas of education, research and innovation. “Our Ph.D. and professional masters programs grant dual degrees, a feature that makes them unique among the partnerships between Portugal and U.S. universities,” he stated. The most recent achievement related to the Program, in the education area, was the creation of the entirely self-sustainable M.S./MBA double degree program in business and engineering, between Porto Business School and Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. “We have also been funding highly innovative and collaborative research projects, that have built strong international relations, and have led to important outcomes such as the funding of large follow-on proposals by the European Commission, or the creation of the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute .” The CMU Portugal Program community is collaborating with more than 80 companies and, through the multiple opportunities that the Program provides, has helped to launch several startups with “a strongly international outlook.” The national director believes that “large projects such as the Entrepreneurial Research Initiatives, soon to be started, will help achieve an even closer integration of the work in these three areas.”

John Olson, who has been in Portugal for the last six months, explained that “embassies play a pivotal role in finding points of convergence between countries,” and that he is “always happy to see signs of cooperation, of which the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program is an example.” “The U.S. has something to offer in terms of entrepreneurship and the CMU Portugal Program is a great opportunity to learn,” he clarified. According to the representative of the U.S. Embassy, “having the opportunity to hear real experiences of the people involved in the Program is great and it is amazing to see how the CMU Portugal Program is teaching people how to be international players,” he concluded.

Two entrepreneurs, Paulo Marques (Feedzai, a spinoff of the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Coimbra) and Susana Sargento (Universidade de Aveiro, IT, Veniam Works), and the dual degree Ph.D. student Rui Meireles (Universidade do Porto and CMU), participated in a roundtable moderated by João Claro. The national director of the Program spoke about the recent calls for Entrepreneurial Research Initiatives (ERIs) and Early Bird Projects, and revealed that this year the CMU Portugal Program will open two new calls, as well as launch inRes , a new training and immersion program for Portuguese early stage entrepreneurial teams, in Pittsburg, in the United States.

“CMU Portugal is an Accelerator for Connections”

Paulo Marques, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Feedzai, the first startup within the CMU Portugal Program, and Susana Sargento, co-founder and vice-president of Engineering at Veniam Works, another startup launched within the Program, shared their entrepreneurial experiences with the audience, explaining how the Program helped their ventures move forward. According to Paulo Marques, “the CMU Portugal Program is an accelerator for connections and was a vital reference in our first contacts.” When questioned about the challenges of internationalizing, the CTO of Feedzai said that “many entrepreneurs think that when you create a technology, customers will come and buy it. But, it doesn’t work like that.” In fact, “more important than the product is the way you sell it, and for you to be able to sell you need to do it with local people and local knowledge. The way business is done in Europe and in the States is very different,” he stated.

But the hard work and the learning have paid off and last year Feedzai, moved its headquarters to San Mateo, California, where is commercializing its fraud prevention solution. Together with Paulo Marques, Feedzai is led by Nuno Sebastião, Chief Executive Officer, and by Pedro Bizarro, Chief Science Officer. The company currently employs more than 40 people and, according to Paulo Marques, “regularly provides internships for Ph.D. and Masters students.”

With Susana Sargento, on the other hand, the entrepreneurial experience was fully international from the very beginning, since the startup’s headquarters are in the U.S., with offices in Porto and Aveiro. Veniam Works is a spin-off of the Instituto de Telecomunicações and the Universities of Aveiro and Porto, and is led by a multidisciplinary team, with two Portuguese co-founders (Susana Sargento and João Barros, past national director of the CMU Portugal Program), and two American co-founders (Robin Chase and Roy Russel). The Program was “extremely important because it gave us the opportunity to work with an international team in the scope of the DRIVE-IN project, as well as to be co-advisors of international students. So the CMU Portugal credentials and recognition were extremely important,” she admitted.

“At CMU, a ‘good enough’ mindset is not enough!”

Rui Meireles, a dual degree Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto (FEUP) and Carnegie Mellon University, took the floor to tell his experience in the Program. “I discovered the Program by accident when I was looking for Ph.D. programs. And I always thought that a good school like CMU would be unapproachable, but the CMU Portugal Program made it approachable,” Rui Meireles said. The Program was also interesting for the student because he “was not willing to stay four to five full years in the U.S., and so the Program was the perfect choice,” he added.

In the student’s opinion, there are some differences between education in Portugal and in the United States. “In Portugal we often have a ‘good enough’ mindset, but at CMU you are always expected to do your best, and that mindset is simply not enough,” he explained, adding that while working as a Teaching Assistant he was “amazed at the amount of work that an undergraduate student would have to do, so it is very demanding.” According to Rui Meireles, his experience in the Program “was great. The prestige and the credibility also translates into your research and the name ‘CMU’ carries a different weight. Hopefully Universidade do Porto will too in the future.”

Teaching People to be International Players

“ Seven years have passed since the creation of the partnership, and we are now at a more mature stage, but we have not lost sight of our essence,” said João Claro, adding that the mission of “making Portugal more competitive is still of the utmost relevance.”

The importance of the collaboration between Portugal and the United States through the international experiences provided by the Program was also one of the topics addressed during the session by João Claro, who stated that “everything we do, we do with the flavor of international collaboration,” and that “CMU is a world leader who we can learn from; but at the same time, there are valuable capabilities and opportunities which are unique to Portugal, and make us equals in this partnership,” he explained.

João Claro concluded the session by stating that one of the main goals of the partnership between Portugal and Carnegie Mellon University is to prepare people to for an international environment, something that has been in increasing demand with globalization. “This is exactly what the dual degree graduate programs do, for instance,” he concluded.

April 2014

Session to Inspire CMU Portugal Prospective Students at IST

On September 27, 2013, the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade de Lisboa (IST/UL), the Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica (ISR), and the CMU Portugal Program held an event at IST/UL to present a new initiative with Google Glass, a keynote talk on Autonomous Robots by Manuela Veloso, faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), as well as demos of projects and technologies related to the Program’s activities. One of the aims of this event was to provide an opportunity for prospective students to get to know the Program better, and to stimulate them to participate in the Call for Applications for Doctoral Program Scholarships, which will open on October 15, 2013.

The president of IST/UL, Arlindo Oliveira, opened the session and welcomed the audience, wearing the new Google Glass. This smart glasses unit was awarded to Ricardo Cabral, a dual degree doctoral student of IST/UL and CMU, to be tested and to support the development of new applications. The president of IST/UL took a picture of the audience using the Google Glass, and then shared it on the Internet.

The session continued with a presentation by the national director of the CMU Portugal Program. João Claro described the strategic lines, goals and achievements of the partnership, focusing on the multiple opportunities offered by the Program to dual degree students, namely the fact that the students benefit from a truly international education experience, and conclude their studies with a diploma from a Portuguese university and a diploma from CMU. Another important idea left by João Claro was the fact that “students are exposed to an extremely rich research environment, in which they have the opportunity to carry out world-class research, as well as to do internships in top companies.”

Referring to the results of the Program, João Claro stressed that more than forty-nine researchers from Portuguese universities have already benefited from its Faculty Exchange Program. According to João Claro this is a very important instrument, that can be “fundamental to empower faculty members in Portugal,” and contribute this way to the Program’s mission of establishing Portugal at the forefront of science and innovation in key focused areas of Information and Communication Technologies.

The national director also highlighted some aspects of the impact of the Program’s research projects, as well as its emphasis on collaboration, specifically the strong collaboration between Portuguese universities and research institutions, companies and CMU. “To enable critical mass in Portugal, institutions need to cooperate with each other,” João Claro stated after showing some figures about the scale of the Program’s activities: more than 200 alumni, 300 dual degree students, and more than 300 researchers have been involved.

Autonomous Robots by Manuela Veloso

Manuela Veloso, a well-known Portuguese faculty member at CMU, gave the audience an inspiring keynote talk about her research on “Autonomous Robots in Human Environments” at the Robotics Institute. She captivated the audience with a statement in the first person about the past 15 years of her research work, and her team’s challenges and dreams.

This Portuguese researcher started her career back in the mid-90s with robots that played soccer. “For three or four years, I had no results to show, but I didn’t give up,” she stressed. Her determination took her to success, and today she is internationally recognized for her extraordinary work with robots. Recently, Manuela Veloso started to work on service robots that interact with humans. During her talk, Manuela Veloso spoke about CoBots (collaborative robots), which are able to perform different tasks, although not in a totally autonomous way. “The big secret is to develop robots that are able to ask for help,” revealed the researcher. At the Gates Building, at CMU, it is usual to see CoBots in the corridors, performing different tasks, and also asking humans for help when, for instance, they need to use an elevator.

Regarding the future of her research, Manuela Veloso intends to provide CoBots with the ability to actively learn semantic labels for locations in an environment, perform natural language-based interaction with humans, autonomously monitor execution, and learn by example from human demonstration and human correction.

Google Glass@IST Project

The session continued with the presentation of “Google Glass@IST: A Collaborative Project to Develop Applications,” given by João Paulo Costeira, from ISR and IST/UL, and coordinator of the dual degree doctoral program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at IST/UL, and by Ricardo Cabral, a dual degree doctoral student who was at the time at CMU. João Paulo Costeira started his intervention by presenting the dual degree doctoral programs available at IST/UL in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program, and by outlining the different research fields, from Electrical and Computer Engineering to Language Technologies, from Robotics to Biomedicine, and from Engineering and Public Policy to Technological Change and Entrepreneurship. João Paulo Costeira also emphasized the opportunities that the Program can provide to the students.

From the other side of the Atlantic, through videoconference, Ricardo Cabral spoke about the achievement of having received one of the very few Google Glass units available currently, and the potential applications that can be created for this device. In part, this opportunity was made possible by Ricardo Cabral’s internship at Google in the previous year. João Paulo Costeira was very proud of this achievement, and feels that all the community should be able to contribute to develop new applications for Google Glass. “The goal is to create a common software repository over time (…) so that any person can easily use it to test ideas,” explained João Paulo Costeira.

The incubator “Startup Lisboa”, which provides facilities, consulting and support to entrepreneurial initiatives, was presented by Ana Santiago, Public Relations and Communications “The synergies and the networking provided by Startup Lisboa are a distinctive factor,” she highlighted.

Another dual degree doctoral student invited to speak on this session was José Jerónimo Rodrigues, who is in his final year of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. Program, at IST/UL and CMU. Jerónimo Rodrigues, also a researcher at ISR, spoke about his overwhelming experience as a doctoral student, his research work with companies and internship opportunities.

João Claro closed the session congratulating all the members of the CMU Portugal Program that were present on the event, for their outstanding work and dedication, and challenging the prospective students: “As you can see, our students live a life full of science fiction, humor, mystery, action and adventure… and in the little remaining free time they still get to receive the best education in the world in ICT, push the frontier of knowledge, and work with top global companies, all while contributing to our mission of placing Portugal in a leadership position in this area.” The event ended with an open session of demonstrations and presentations by students and companies.

October 2013