19 November 2012

DUAL DEGREE PH.D. PROGRAMS: APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR THE 2013/2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

Pogram                                                                                            Application Deadline
Ph.D. in Computer Science (CS) / Robotics / Software Engineering   December 15, 2012
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)                          December 15, 2012
Ph.D. in Human Computer Interaction (HCI)                                     December 15, 2012
Ph.D. in Language Technology (LTI)                                                 Deember 15, 2012
Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy (EPP)                                    January 15, 2013
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics                                                          January 15, 2013
Ph.D. in Technological Change and Entrepreneurship (TCE)             January 15, 2013

The student receives a degree from a Portuguese University (Aveiro, Católica Portuguesa, Madeira, Minho, Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Nova de Lisboa, Porto or Técnica de Lisboa), and a degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

More information available at www.cmuportugal.org .

14 November 2012

Chairman of the CMU Portugal ERC Leads Knowledge and Innovation in the UK

Sir John O'Reilly
Professor Sir John O’Reilly, chairman of the External Review Committee of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program, was recently appointed as the new director general of Knowledge and Innovation at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in the United Kingdom. He will take up his new post in early February, 2013.
 

Conference and Research Workshop: “User Innovation - A Paradigm Shift”

Date: November 15-16 2012
Venue: Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal
Organization: Católica-Lisbon, IST/UTL, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, MIT Sloan and CMU Portugal

Scientific coordination:
    Pedro Oliveira | Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics
    Eric von Hippel | MIT Sloan School of Management
    Ruth Stock-Homburg | Technische Universitat Darmstadt
    Rui Baptista | Instituto Superior Técnico

More information available at: http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4436

23 October 2012

“Entrepreneurship and Open Innovation: Connect with Pittsburgh for a Regional Growth”

 Date: October 31, 2012
Hour: 09:45 am – 11:15 am
Organization: Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, in collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program
Venue: Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, (room 520-A, 2º floor)
Registration Form: http://tinyurl.com/czbrjyt [limited number of participants]
Agenda: http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4418
Speakers:
Suzzane PeggSuzi Pegg, Vice President, International, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA), USA
DePeart-by-Larry-Rippel
 
DeWitt Peart, Executive Vice President, Economic Development, Allegheny Conference on Community Development; President, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, an affiliate of the Allegheny Conference

Launching of the Dual Degree Program Between Porto Business School and Carnegie Mellon

Date: October 23, 2012
Hour: 15:00
Place: Porto Business School, Portugal
Registrations: Helena Pinto: hpinto@pbs.up.pt
Porto Business School and Carnegie Mellon University (USA) have developed a dual degree program which allows participants the possibility to obtain, simultaneously, a Professional MSc in Electrical & Computer Engineering awarded by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and The Magellan MBA diploma, awarded by Porto Business School. The program lasts 2 years: one year in Pittsburgh at CMU and the other in Portugal, Porto, at Porto Business School and FEUP, where the participants, besides their classes at The Magellan MBA, have to take two courses at FEUP to complete their MSc in Electrical & Computer Engineering.
Agenda available at: http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4424

25 September 2012

Bhiksha Raj Talk about Privacy-Preserving Speech and Audio Processing

 

Date: September 28th, 14h
Place: Room 020, INESC-ID
Speaker: Bhiksha Raj Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Bhiksha Raj
Bhiksha Raj is an Associate Professor in the Language Technologies Institute of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, with additional affiliations to the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Machine Learning departments. Dr. Raj obtained his Ph.D. from CMU in 2000 and was at Mistubishi Electric Research Laboratories from 2001-2008. Dr. Raj's chief research interests lie in automatic speech recognition, computer audition, machine learning and data privacy. Dr. Raj's latest research interests lie in the newly emerging field of privacy-preserving speech processing, in which his research group has made several contributions.

10 August 2012

Congratulations to Rodrigo Belo!

Rodrigo Belo
Rodrigo Belo, dual degree Ph.D. student in Technological Change and Entrepreneurship, successfully passed his Ph.D. Thesis Defense titled "Broadband in Schools: Effects on Student Performance and Spillovers for Household Internet Adoption." The defense was held yesterday, August 9, at Carnegie Mellon. Rodrigo Belo became the fifth dual degree doctorate in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program.
Advisors: Pedro Ferreira (IST/UTL) and Rahul Telang (CMU)

Rodrigo Belo's Profile: http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=2996

“These Robots Are Not Science Fiction”

Manuela Veloso May 2011
Manuela Veloso, a well-known Portuguese researcher at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), was recently interviewed by WIRED Magazine (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/worlds-most-wired-roboticist/) about her team’s challenges and wishes to build up the first robots that will “intermingle with the living, breathing masses.”

After pursuing research on automated planning algorithms for her Ph.D. thesis in Computer Science at CMU, Manuela Veloso became interested in actual intelligent robots, capable of the complete autonomy cycle: detect the state of the world, generate a plan to achieve goals, and actually execute planned actions - just like humans do.

Manuela Veloso within the CMU Portugal Program
In the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, Manuela Veloso has several roles: she is the Principal Investigator on a research project, serves as an advisor within the Program, and receives faculty exchange members at CMU. As a Principal Investigator at Carnegie Mellon of the MAIS+S project, she works in conjunction with the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST/UTL) with the research institutes: INESC ID and ISR, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Portuguese company Observit. The project addresses the problem of planning in decentralized multi-agent systems in the context of intelligent surveillance networks. Susana Brandão is the dual degree doctoral student in Electrical and Computer Engineering whom is advised by Veloso and João Paulo Costeira, a professor from the IST/UTL. Recently Manuela Veloso received at CMU Rodrigo Ventura an Assistant Professor at the IST/UTL.

24 July 2012

António Casimiro Says: “To Ensure a Trustworthy Network Operation will be Crucial for Telecom Operators”

António Casimiro FCUL
The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, through the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), funds 25 research projects in the Information and Communication Technologies areas. One of the projects approved for funding is TRONE - Trustworthy and Resilient Operations in a Network Environment, which goal is to enhance network quality of service and protection, operational efficiency and agility. During the first year of this project the research team published one paper in a journal and four papers in International Conferences and Workshops.

António Casimiro, principal investigator of the project at the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL), in Portugal, explains that “the initial work in the project was directed towards the analysis of the possible use cases and the selection of one that would be appropriate to anchor the expected project results and, at the same time, relevant for Portugal Telecom,” the project industrial partner. Therefore “in the deliverable we analyze the main threats to the cloud infrastructure components and identify the possible controls that may be in place to prevent or minimize potential threats.” The research team did also a risk analysis for the considered use case, classifying the threats as more or less severe according to the probability of vulnerability exploitation. “The scenario provides a base for forthcoming work,” says Casimiro adding that “in particular it will serve to guide the definition of concrete proof-of-concept prototypes to show the benefits and impact of TRONE solutions.

19 July 2012

Robert Unitech said: "The Business Angels Invest in People, More Often than they Invest in Technology"

“Startup funding: Streamlining venture capitalists and business angels” was the theme for the 2nd UTEN Workshop 2012 that was held in collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program. This two-day workshop targeted at Technology Transfer Officers (TTO’s) and Start-Up Companies aimed to increase the awareness and knowledge about the key aspects to successfully get venture funding in the US. A renowned expert from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Robert Unetich, was in Portugal to present his views on how to approach Venture Capital (VC). Robert M. Unetich is an active member of several Pittsburgh based venture capital firms, including Pittsburgh Equity Partners, and he is an active angel investor.
Read the article in Portugal at TEK.SAPO (July 11, 2012).

Cars Can Communicate With Each Other as They Go

A team of researchers from the Instituto de Telecomunicações of the Universidade de Aveiro lead by Susana Sargento is carrying out a prototype that enables cars to talk with each other. This prototype is developed in the scope of the DRIVE-IN project, which involves the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto (FCUP), Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), Universidade de Aveiro (UA), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the public institution IMTT, and companies like NDrive, Geolink, and RadiTaxis. It is supported by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Francisco Veloso said: “We Want to Educate Agents of Change”

Francisco Veloso img
Francisco Veloso is the new Dean of the Catolica-Lisbon School of Business & Economics. Veloso is one of the scientific directors of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and a member of the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Veloso was recently interviewed by a Portuguese journalist from the economic newspaper Diário Económico (pdf) about his strategy for the Catolica-Lisbon School of Business & Economics, his overview of the Portuguese academia and also about Portugal’s economy. Bellow we give you an idea about the key messages left by Francisco Veloso in this interview.

Eric Nyberg Seminar about Deeper QA: CMU, Watson, and the Open Advancement of Question Answering

July 19th, 2012Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa more

06 July 2012

Carnegie Mellon: A High Tech University

Extended article published by the Portuguese weekly magazine Visão on Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the "High Tech University". Cars moving without a driver, computers capable of identifying objects. The Portuguese students and faculty who study at Carnegie Mellon come back to Portugal with futuristic ideas. Statements by José M.F. Moura, director of the CMU Portugal at CMU, by Pedro Ferreira, Portuguese research assistant professor of Economics of Information Networks and Public Policy at CMU, and three dual degree students enrolled in the program: Ricardo Cabral, Susana Brandão, and Luís Marujo.Read the Portuguese article at Visão (July 05, 2012).

Employees as User Innovators

After analyzing 759 innovation proposals submitted by employees of a large international Information and Communication Technology (ICT) firm to a corporate idea management system over a two years period, three researchers concluded that “employees innovate in various ways, including modifying internal processes, creating new products and services, or significantly changing the way the firm delivers an existing service.” (Extract of the paper “Employees as User Innovators: An Empirical Investigation of an Idea Management System,” June 2012)

The paper titled “Employees as User Innovators: An Empirical Investigation of an Idea Management System,” was written by the dual degree doctoral student in Technological Change and Entrepreneurship Leid Zejnilovic at Carnegie Mellon University; Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics; Instituto Superior Técnica of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, with his two advisors Pedro Oliveira, Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, and Francisco M. Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University. This paper was written in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
Leid ZejnilovicWe spoke with Leid Zejnilovic, the first co-author of the paper, about the importance of these findings.

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4236 .

03 July 2012

IBM Scientific Award 2011 Distinguishes Doctorate of the CMU Portugal

André Martins, doctorate of the dual degree doctoral program in Language Technologies (LTI) by the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST/UTL) and CMU, won the IBM Scientific Award 2011 for his paper "Turbo Parsers: Dependency Parsing by Approximate Variational Inference." This work was written by André Martins, with his four advisors Pedro M.Q. Aguiar and Mário Figueiredo, from Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal), Noah A. Smith and Eric Xing from Carnegie Mellon University.

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4228 .




28 June 2012

“Today it is Fundamental to Experience Mobility and to Work in Network”


José Machado da Silva
These words were uttered by José Machado da Silva, associate professor of the Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto (FEUP) and senior researcher at INESC TEC. Machado da Silva was at Carnegie Mellon University from February 12 to May 12, 2012, as a faculty exchange member, in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program.

During this visit, Machado da Silva had the opportunity to carry out teaching and research activities, in both cases “addressing the domain of design and testing of analog and mixed-signal microelectronic circuits,” he said. Machado da Silva was hosted by Shawn Blanton, professor at the Center for Silicon Systems Implementation, department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

26 June 2012

2nd Lisbon Machine Learning School

Date: July 19-25, 2012
Place: Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa
Sponsors: Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Instituto de Telecomunicações, INESC ID, Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, Google, Sapo.pt, Priberam, Flashgroup
 
More information available at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4192 .

National Director Successfully Completes the "Agregação"


João Barros, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto and national director of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, was unanimously approved in his Habilitation ("Provas Públicas de Agregacao") that were held on June 18 and 19, 2012 at the Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto (FEUP).

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4218 .

Sérgio Pequito Receives ECE Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award at CMU

Sérgio Pequito is a Portuguese student that is carrying out his dual degree Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Carnegie Mellon University, in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program. On May 20, 2012, Pequito received the Carnegie Mellon University’s ECE Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. On April 5, 2012, he received an Honorable Mention (2nd place) of the 2012 CMU Graduate Student Teaching Award competition, funded by the Eberly center, graduate student association and the Provost.

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4166 .



15 June 2012

1st Ph.D. Students Conference in Electrical and Computer Engineering (StudECE)

1st Ph.D. Students Conference in Electrical and Computer Engineering (StudECE)
Date: June 28 and 29, 2012
Place: Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP)
Agenda: http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~StudECE2012/
Registration: http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~StudECE2012/
The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program is one of the sponsors



12 June 2012

André Martins Gets a Dual Degree Ph.D. and is Hired by Priberam

On May 11, 2012, André Torres Martins became the first dual degree student to finish a Ph.D. in Language Technology (LT), at Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST/UTL) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He became the fourth student to accomplish this goal in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Alexandre Mateus (Engineering and Public Policy) was the first one, then Rita Ferreira (Applied Mathematic) followed, and at the end of 2011 Ana Venâncio (Technological Change and Entrepreneurship) finished her Ph.D. All of them finished their Ph.D.’s in different programs.

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4150 .



17 May 2012

TOMORROW, May 18th, 2012, the dual degree master students in Human Computer Interaction and in Entertainment Technology will present demos of their projects: Interactive Yoga Studio; Interactive art installation - "Mozart Sonata K.279; interactive table; and much more! Good luck for all! If you want to know more about these projects, please visit http://www.m-iti.org/node/894

09 May 2012

Workshop: “Startup funding: Streamlining venture capitalists and business angels"

Dates: May 21st and 22nd, 2012
Venue: Seminar Room of the Rectory of the Universidade do Algarve (Faro)

“Startup funding: Streamlining venture capitalists and business angels” is the theme for the 2nd UTEN Workshop 2012 that will run in collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program. This two-day workshop targeted at Technology Transfer Officers (TTO’s) and Start-Up Companies aims to increase the awareness and knowledge about the key aspects to successfully get venture funding in the US.


More information available at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4146&terms=Streamlining

André Martins Ph.D. Defense on on "Advances in Structured Prediction for Natural Language Processing"

Date: Friday, May 11th, 2012
Hour: 9 a.m. at CMU // 2 p.m. at IST/UTL (videoconference room)
Place: CMU - room GHC 6501 // IST/UTL - CMU Portugal Videoconference room at V0.15

Student: André Filipe Torres Martins, dual degree Ph.D. Student in Language Technology
Advisors: Mário Figueiredo (IST/UTL), Noah Smith (CMU), Pedro Aguiar (IST/UTL), Eric Xing (CMU)

Schools: Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST/UTL) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

More information available at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4144

24 January 2012

Vital Responder Project at Porto Canal



This project is carried out in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

PIs: João Paulo Cunha (IEETA/UA), Prya Narasimhan (CMU)
Dual Degree Ph.D. Student: Ye Can (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Teams: IT, UP, IEETA/UA, Carnegie Mellon, Firefighters from Vila Nova de Gaia and from Amarante
Companies: Biodevices, McLaren, Petratex

The goal of the Vital Responder research project is to explore the synergies between innovative wearable technologies, scattered sensor networks, intelligent building technology and precise localization services to provide secure, reliable and effective first-response systems in critical emergency scenarios.

More information available at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=1556

20 January 2012

“We are impressed especially by the way the program has secured strong engagement from industry in Portugal.”

More than 100 people attended the External Review Meetings of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program this year. The event was held in Lisbon, at Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau, between January 9 and 10, 2012. Sir John O’Oreilly, Vice-Chancellor of the Cranfield University, United Kingdom, the chairman of the External Review Committee (ERC), expressed that the Committee “have been impressed with the way this partnership program has developed,” adding that “the quality of researchers and students attracted to the programme is very high.”

Every year the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program is evaluated by the External Review Committee whose role is to analyze a report by the Directors, hold several meetings with researchers, students, alumni and entrepreneurs, and report on the progress of the partnership towards achieving its goals in terms of cutting edge research, advanced training, internationalization and collaboration among the various players, in particular Portuguese universities, Carnegie Mellon, and industry in Portugal.

The External Review Committee is formed by Sir John O'Reilly, Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University United Kingdom, Chairman, Luigia Aiello, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, and Tariq Durrani, University of Strathclyde Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. During two days, the Committee saw presentations on research highlights of projects with companies and end users, spoke with more than 70 faculty, students and alumni, and had the opportunity to listen to entrepreneurs that are engaged in the Program. (agenda available here)

The Chairman of the External Review Committee considers that “the program has broken new ground in terms of international interactions and engagement. The 'architecture' established for the program allowed sufficient scope for adjustment and improvement, and this has been exercised beneficially.” Sir John O’Reilly believes that “there have been gains in terms of standard and standing of research and educational programs but a very major benefit is the level of industrial engagement the partnership has stimulated and enabled.”

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4094.

Master Student wins Best Poster and Demo Awards at Videojogos 2011 Conference

António Gomes, a dual degree Professional Master student of Entertainment Technology (MET), wrote the proposals for the Demo and Poster Awards competitions at the Videojogos 2011 Conference held in Porto, Portugal, and won both prizes.

Read the full article at http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=4018.

17 January 2012

Carnegie Mellon Portugal Faculty Exchange Program: SPRING and FALL ADMISSIONS 2012

The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program supports faculty exchange programs, in which academics from Portuguese universities can spend at least one term working in research and education at Carnegie Mellon to experience the culture of a top United States university. Carnegie Mellon professors are also given the opportunity to spend time in Portugal to engage in teaching and research activities with local institutions of higher education and research labs.

The goal of the faculty exchange program is to accelerate the adoption of best practices through cultural immersion giving the opportunity to adopt, adapt, propagate, and consolidate the best practices of top universities.

We are accepting applications for extended stays at Carnegie Mellon University with ending dates before December 31, 2012.

More information is available here:
http://www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=1970