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.