News: Success Stories

40 million dollars was the acquisition price of Nowait, the Pittsburgh restaurant waitlist startup created by CMU Portugal inRes mentor Robb Myer. Nowait was bought by Yelp, best known for its restaurant rating app.

In August 2016, the San Francisco-based company Yelp had already invested 8 million dollars in Nowait, allowing diners using Yelp’s app to see restaurant wait times and add their name to the waitlist through the Yelp app.

“We’ve had a successful partnership and we’re excited to align fully with Yelp to drive even faster adoption. Together we’ll have the leading waitlist system in the restaurant industry paired with the largest engaged consumer base,” Nowait CEO Ware Sykes said in a statement published in Business Wire.

About 4 thousand restaurants use Nowait in the United States and Canada and about 24 million mobile devices used the Yelp app during the final quarter of 2016, the company reported.

Nowait was founded seven years ago by Robb Myer, a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) graduate, and entrepreneur-in-residence of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. In the latter role, and since 2016, Robb has served both as a mentor and a workshop leader for inRes, CMU Portugal’s very early stage acceleration program.

In 2012, Nowait received the Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund Award from CMU’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, now part of the Swartz Center. This center, through the Project Olympus incubator, is the home base for the inRes teams, during their US immersion, in Pittsburgh.

Three years ago the Pittsburgh Technology Council also named Nowait “Startup of the Year” in Pittsburgh.

Back in October 2015, another inRes mentor and CMU alumnus, Craig Markovitz, sold his startup Blue Belt for 275 million dollars to the London-based medical tech company, Smith & Nephew.

March 2017

The online platform is hosting the second edition of their awards
2nd Patient Innovation Awards at Web Summit

The online platform Patient Innovation, where patients and caregivers around the world connect to share and create solutions to cope with a health-related issue, has once again distinguished the best solutions of its community. The 2nd Patient Innovation Awards took place on November 10 th , as part of Lisbon’s 2016 Web Summit.

The ceremony was presented by Manuel Heitor, Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education and featured international figures connected to the project, such as Patient Innovation’s Advisory Board that include two Nobel laureates. The founders, Pedro Oliveira and Helena Canhão, were also among the 31 Portuguese speakers of the Web Summit, presenting both at the awards ceremony and at the Patient Innovation Forum, that took place on Wednesday, November 9 th .

Seven innovative projects were distinguished after being evaluated by an international jury of experts in the fields of research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and health. The Patient Innovation awards are divided into three project categories: solutions designed by patients, by caregivers and by collaborators. Some of the winning innovations of this second edition were a system to aid blind people to be more independent; folding wheels for wheelchairs and a photo camera support that can be used by tetraplegic patients. But this year, the majority of solutions are digital technologies using smartphones and computers: a sensor that warns caretakers that a patient is wandering when they are not supposed to (such as Alzheimer patients), a sensor that detects the level of a ostomy bag, another sensor to accurately verify the location and schedule of a patient such as an autistic person, and finally, a video game that makes treatment part of a game, where motions become part of the story unfolding.

The Patient Innovation platform is an outcome of the “The Role of ‘User Innovators’ in the Development of Telecom Products and Services” project and it is currently developed by the “TEIPL: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy Lab” Entrepreneurial Research Initiative, offered by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program and funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

Related articles:

1st Patient Innovation Awards Winners Ceremony

Patient Innovation Is Be the Only Portuguese Project Taking Part of ‘Beyond the Lab’

Profiting with Purpose

CMU Portugal Program Represented at European Researchers Night 2016

The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program is pleased to announce that the Call for Proposals for the Exploratory Research Projects (ERPs), funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), is open until March 22nd, 2017. Approximately up to XX.X Million Euros are expected to be available to support the new projects starting in 2018.

This call is for funding of research and development projects applied to Exploratory Research proposals by entities of the National Scientific and Technology System (NSTS), public and private partners. The call aims at projects that, with a long-term perspective, have a potential towards developing innovative products and services, demonstrating international competitiveness and innovative capacity in science and technology, under the following themes:

1. Integrative research based in the context of the Atlantic International Research Center (AIR Center);
2. Sustainable and data driven urban systems;
3. New industrial concepts and smart factories;
4. Bio & Medical Devices;
5. Sustainable Transportation Systems.

The projects developed should contribute to the Azores International Research Center (AIR Center) scientific development and objectives, as stated in the document “Towards a Science and Technology agenda for an integrative approach to the Atlantic: Climate Change and Energy Systems, Space and Ocean Sciences, through North-South cooperation”, available at the FCT website.

Under this call, a maximum of 18 (eighteen) exploratory projects are expected to receive funding. The actual number of exploratory projects funded will depend on the scale and scope of the proposed Initiatives and the quality of the proposals submitted.

Applications must be submitted online, from February 1 st , 2017 until March 22 nd , 2017 at 17:00 (Lisbon time), through the FCT website following the Announcement of the Call for Proposals (add link).

Applicants should fill in the on-line FCT form according to the guidelines provided in the CMU Portugal Program: 2017 – Terms of Reference for the Call Proposals  and after also reading carefully the Proposal Submission Guide and the Announcement of the Call.

January 2017.

Patient Innovation Is the Only Portuguese Project Taking Part of ‘Beyond the Lab’
Patient Innovation, the platform created for patients and those who care about them to share and access useful solutions to cope with their diseases, is the only Portuguese project part of the European tour of the event ‘Beyond the Lab: The DIY Science Revolution’. The main goal of this event is to show innovative solutions that are created out of the laboratories and research centers.

“We believe that by sharing stories of common people, we can also inspire others to contribute for a more committed society,” stresses one of the mentors of the Patient innovation project, Pedro Oliveira.

The ‘Beyond the Lab: The DIY Science Revolution’ exhibition started in Boon at the LVR LandesMuseum (Switzerland) on July 6, where Patient Innovation will be showing seven innovative solutions. The project will travel to 29 countries and among them are: the UK (Science Museum, London, on July 7), Poland (Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw, on July 14) and Slovenia (Hiša House of Experiments, Ljubljana, on 18 July). The event will arrive to Portugal between January and March of 2017.

The Patient Innovation platform is an outcome of the “The Role of ‘User Innovators’ in the Development of Telecom Products and Services” project and it is currently developed by the “TEIPL: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy Lab” Entrepreneurial Research Initiative, offered by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program and funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

Pedro Oliveira, also the Portuguese Principal Investigator for the TEIPL project and researcher and Professor at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, was interviewed by a Portuguese radio station (Rádio Renascença) and mentioned the importance of being connected to the CMU Portugal Program.

Patient Innovation will soon be creating an accelerator to transform the ideas into products, which can reach the market. The biggest challenge for the Patient Innovation project will be bringing together and managing so many different projects (around 600) that are spread around the world.

July 2016

Calls open until December 15, January 1 and January 15 CMU Portugal Program opens calls for Ph.D. Dual Degree Fellowships
The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program (CMU Portugal), funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, has opened calls for the Ph.D. Dual Degree fellowships for the 2016/2017 academic year. The application deadlines are December 15, January 1 and January 15, depending on the research area considered. The Program’s doctoral degrees guarantee the award of two diplomas, one from the selected Portuguese university and one from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

“This is a distinctive feature of the CMU Portugal Program, but it is above all a great advantage for our students in their academic and professional careers”, emphasizes João Claro, national director of the CMU Portugal Program.

And if two diplomas are an advantage, the integration into the CMU scientific community also stands out as one of the most relevant points for Ph.D. students, in this experience in the United States, since it opens many doors for international research networks.

“I believe that the Ph.D. degree offers me a broad set of abilities that will open up a number of future opportunities, “says Rui Silva, a Ph.D. student currently in Pittsburgh. Rui Silva decided to continue on his research career to the Ph.D. degree in order to broaden his knowledge in the robotics and artificial intelligence areas, and highlights “the possibility of being able to work in two top universities, taking advantage of the benefits of each one.” His first year in the doctorate program was spent in Portugal, at Instituto Superior Técnico, and in August 2016, Rui left for CMU, where he plans to do research for the next two years.

Former CMU Portugal Program Ph.D. student Bernardo Toninho had spent two years at CMU, where “the research environment is, for many reasons, particularly conducive to producing excellent work,” he says. Manuel Loureiro, a current doctoral student, considers that “this program offers the tools to seize opportunities far beyond what I thought possible.”

The present Ph.D. fellowships call encompasses a wide range of research areas, considered relevant for the national scientific development: Computer Science, Robotics, Computer Engineering, Computer and Electrical Engineering, Language Technologies, Applied Mathematics, Technological Change and Entrepreneurship, and Engineering and Public Policy.

In addition, fellowships are awarded in conjunction with the Program’s Entrepreneurial Research Initiatives, which are research projects in which knowledge development is strategically integrated with the creation of solutions to concrete problems, with social and economic impact.

Since the start of the CMU Portugal Program, in 2006, more than 900 potential students have applied for dual degree programs, of which 120 have been selected.

Also in progress, the calls for the Undergraduate Internship Program and the Faculty Exchange Program, which will allow Portuguese students, researchers and faculty to do research at CMU in Pittsburgh or in Silicon Valley, in the United States. These two initiatives will allow participants to experience best practices in research and teaching worldwide in the area of Information and Communication Technologies. The application phase for these two programs is open until November 30.

November 2016

The collaboration between Venian and StarHub had already setup a test bed in Singapore
Veniam Signs Agreement with StarHub to Connect Vehicles in Singapore
Veniam, a startup created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program (CMU Portugal), has signed its first agreement with Singaporean telecommunications company StarHub, aiming to turn thousands of vehicles into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots and to connect millions of internet users in the Asian country.

The collaboration between Veniam and StarHub started on June 2016 and involved piloting Singapore’s first mesh network of connected vehicles on the shuttle buses that circulate in the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The long-term agreement foresees close co-operation and joint go-to- market activities between Veniam and StarHub, with the goal of deploying Veniam’s solutions at city scale, while leveraging StarHub’s 4G LTE and fiber infrastructure. The aim for Veniam is to connect thousands of buses, taxis, and autonomous vehicles to operate as a vehicle mesh network, thereby expanding wireless coverage, collecting terabytes of valuable data, and ultimately contributing towards the ambitious goals of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative.

“The convergence of transportation systems with advanced communications and data analytics is revolutionizing public transit and urban mobility worldwide. We feel very privileged to partner with StarHub in bringing the benefits of this revolution to millions of people in Singapore,” said João Barros, CEO of Veniam.

Veniam is a spin-off company of the Instituto de Telecomunicações and the Universities of Aveiro and Porto, created by João Barros, faculty of the University of Porto and former CMU Portugal Program Director and Susana Sargento, faculty of the University of Aveiro, who is also a CMU Portugal Principal Investigator and recently won the European Union Prize for Women Innovators 2016.

November 2016

Related articles:

Veniam wins the TU-Automotive Award for Best Auto Mobility Product/Service in 2016

Veniam named one of the most innovative companies in America by‪ ‎CNBC at #28

Veniam Launches Its Mesh Network of Connected Vehicles in Singapore

Fernando De la Torre’s FacioMetrics developed facial analysis software for mobile applications
Facebook Acquires CMU spin-off FacioMetrics

Facebook has acquired the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) spin-off FacioMetrics, a face recognition technology provider. Founded and lead by CMU’s Robotics Institute research and CMU Portugal Principal Investigator (PI), Fernando De la Torre, FacioMetrics positions itself as a response to the increasing interest and demand for facial image analysis.

The spin-off produces developer tools for understanding facial behaviour and demographic from videos, detection, and even enabling face swapping. It created an app called IntraFace that could detect seven different emotions in people’s faces, but it has been removed from the app stores.

It is speculated that the acquisition is part of a strategy for Facebook to compete with Snapchat, the ephemeral multimedia mobile application, by strengthening its photo and video capabilities. Additionally, the purchase of FacioMetrics comes weeks after Facebook demonstrated, at this year’s Wall Street Journal tech live conference (WSJD), a new app which would let you transfer the style of an artist, such as Rembrandt, onto your image using Convolutional Neural Network and computer vision.

“How people share and communicate is changing and things like masks and other effects allow people to express themselves in fun and creative ways,” remarked a Facebook spokesperson in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome the FacioMetrics team who will help bring more fun effects to photos and videos and build even more engaging sharing experiences on Facebook.”

Fernando De la Torre’s commented on Facebook’s acquisition at FacioMetrics webpage: “We started FacioMetrics to respond to the increasing interest and demand for facial image analysis – with all kinds of applications including augmented/virtual reality, animation, audience reaction measurement, and others. We began our research at Carnegie Mellon University developing state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning algorithms for facial image analysis. Over time, we have successfully developed and integrated this cutting-edge technology into battery-friendly and efficient mobile applications, and also created new applications of this technology”.

The CMU Portugal Program PI also added that the team is “thrilled” about “taking a big step forward by joining the team at Facebook”, and will be able to “advance work at an incredible scale, reaching people from across the globe”. The team also thanked CMU and their clients “for their trust and support” and highlighted that they “couldn’t have made it this far without them.”

November 2016

Related articles:

Fernando De la Torre: “As Educators We Teach Dual Degree Students What Top Research is About”

Fernando De la Torre Gives a Seminar on Component Analysis for Human Sensing

VR2Market: Towards a Mobile Wearable Health Surveillance Monitoring Product for First Response and other Hazardous Professions

VR2Market is one of the CMU Portugal Program’s Entrepreneurial Research Initiatives, that aims to be the consolidation of an already long and successful line of R&D. Their mission is to foster the possibility of bringing to the international market results from over five years of joint research on wearable vital signs and ambient parameter sensing. João Paulo Cunha and Fernando De la Torre are the PIs in Portugal and at CMU, respectively. VR2Market is carried out in the auspices of the CMU Portugal Program, funded by FCT, and involves several institutions, namely: Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência; Instituto de Telecomunicações; University of Aveiro; CMU; Biodevices; Hospital de Gaia, Petratex; and Future Cities – University of Porto.

Veniam is a spin-off company of the Instituto de Telecomunicações and the Universities of Aveiro and Porto Veniam Launches Its Mesh Network of Connected Vehicles in Singapore

Veniam, a startup created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program (CMU Portugal), has launched its first mesh network of connected vehicles in Singapore, in partnership with Singaporean telecommunications company StarHub and the National University of Singapore.

This is a year-long trial to connect vehicles to one another wirelessly through a mesh network, which extends the Wi-Fi coverage on campus outdoors and on roads. The network is anchored on the university’s shuttle bus fleet in a campus wide network.

The network created by Veniam works like a mesh, in that each point (or object) doesn’t need to connect to a single and stationery internet access point, but it can connect to other points in the network and piggyback off it to gain Internet access. In case that doesn’t work, each of the buses can become a Wi-Fi hot spot on their own, through 4G technology.

“The vehicles, beyond providing coverage, also act as mobile sensors to collect data as they move around,” said João Barros, Veniam’s CEO and CMU Portugal’s former National Director. “You can also map information in real-time, like people flow, where they’re coming from and going to.”

Veniam is a spin-off company of the Instituto de Telecomunicações and the Universities of Aveiro and Porto, created by João Barros, faculty of the University of Porto, and Susana Sargento, faculty of the University of Aveiro, who is also a CMU Portugal Program Principal Investigator and recently won the European Union Prize for Women Innovators 2016.

September 2016

Related articles:

Veniam wins the TU-Automotive Award for Best Auto Mobility Product/Service in 2016

Veniam named one of the most innovative companies in America by‪ ‎CNBC at #28

CMU Portugal Program PI Susana Sargento is the European Union 2016 Woman Innovator

The first startup created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program Feedzai Awards Best Technology Graduate Students
The first startup created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program, Feedzai, has distinguished two graduate students with the “Feedzai Award for Academic Excellence and Grit”. Fernando Mendes, Informatics Engineering Master student, and Catarina Maçãs, Information Sciences and Technology Doctoral student were the first students awarded by the Portuguese company.

According to Paulo Marques, Feedzai co-founder and CTO, the awarded students were carefully selected: “We value not only academic excellence, but people who give real contributions and can serve as role models. This distinction is intended to encompass all of the technological academic education spectrum and include both men and women, whose relevance in the industry has increased significantly”. The selection was made by a committee of faculty members of the Information Technology departments of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, University of Minho, University of Coimbra and Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa.

This award is looking for the best graduate IT students in the country, that may well have a bright future in the industry. But the company is also looking to “find the best and most talented professionals who have the ability to work with the latest big data technology and artificial intelligence”, according to Feedzai CEO, Nuno Sebastião. Feedzai currently has 50 open vacancies, mostly for the Portuguese offices, but the company is also recruiting for France, Germany and the UK.

Feedzai is a company founded in Coimbra by Paulo Marques, Nuno Sebastião and Pedro Bizarro and was the first startup created within the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program.

Specialized in science date, Feedzai offers security solutions for banking and e-commerce. Their product is a software that reduces the inherent risks of online shopping and banking transactions, using real-time machine-learning to analyse data, to detect and prevent fraud in electronic transactions.

Today, it is supported by large international investors, who provided the company with more than 17 million dollars in May 2015. With an annual growth of around 300% since 2013, Feedzai has earned $20 million (approximately 17.8 million euros) last year. For this year, the company’s growth is expected to exceed 200%, as released in a statement. Their current headquarters are in Silicon Valley, but they still maintain offices in Coimbra, Porto, Lisbon London and New York.

October 2016

Related articles:

Feedzai – Portuguese super start-up that grew 300% this year and opened an office in New York(2016)

Feedzai Achieves Profitability with Application Focus (2013)

First Start-up Launched Within the Partnership (2011)