André Martins wins the best paper award at the Annual Conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics

André Martins, Ph.D. student of Carnegie MellonPortugal Program and employee in Priberam, won the best paper award (ex aequo with another 2 papers) at the Annual Conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Paper “Concise Integer Linear Programming Formulations for Dependency Parsing” - http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P09/P09-1039.pdf

Read the article at http://www.cienciahoje.pt/index.php?oid=34197&op=all

Denzil Ferreira wins first prize in an international competition

Denzil Ferreira developed the “Twitware” (http://www.betavine.net/bvportal/application/Twitware/index.html), an application for mobile phones with Internet access which won a first prize in an international competition sponsored by Vodafone:”‘Summer of Widgets”. Ferreira holds a Masters degree in Computer Engineering, Dep. of Mathematics and Engineering, Universidade da Madeira, and he is now in Pittsburgh, where he will start a Masters study in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), within the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Partnership.

Read the news at http://www.dnoticias.pt/Default.aspx?file_id=dn04010201140809&id_user

Don’t Miss: Carnegie Mellon Orientation Week 2009

In the weeks prior to the first day of class on August 24, incoming ICTI students can expect a variety of activities designed to acquaint them with their departments, Carnegie Mellon’s Campus, and the Pittsburgh area.
In addition to the Graduate Student Services Office’s university-wide graduate student orientation, from August 12 to 13, the Office of International Education (OIE) will host an International Graduate Student orientation on August 11. This orientation will include a mandatory visa check-in and introduction to campus resources.
New students are also invited to the ICTI orientation on August 14 to become more familiar with the Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership. Students will learn about the various ICTI programs and have a chance to meet each other and the ICTI@CMU staff and Executive Team.
Information on individual department orientations, scheduled for the week of August 17, can be found on department websites. Other resources are the Carnegie Mellon Graduate Education website, http://www.cmu.edu/graduate/index.html , and the Student Affairs website, www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu .

New Interactive Techologies Institute Kick off in Madeira

The University of Carnegie Mellon, the University of Madeira and the Madeira Tecnopolo signed, on July 23, a protocol establishing the Madeira - Interactive Technologies Institute (Madeira - ITI), the first institute of innovation in the archipelago, devoted to the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The ceremony was attended by more than 70 people, including the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Mariano Gago, the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, the vice president of the Regional Government of Madeira, João Cunha e Silva, vice president and Provost of Carnegie Mellon University, Mark Kamlet, rector of the University of Madeira, Castanheira da Costa, director of the Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership at Carnegie Mellon, Fonseca de Moura, and Nuno Nunes one of the scientific directors of the Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership and the initiator of Madeira—ITI.

This Institute will operate as a separate department, with the primary objective of maintaining relationships and projects for sustainable and long-term cooperation with other institutions of Carnegie Mellon University. The Institute follows the success achieved in the dual Professional Master's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), under the Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership.

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“Madeira—ITI focuses on HCI, Entertainment and Services”, says Nuno Nunes.
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Two years after the beginning of the partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Madeira, the professional Master program proved to be essential to attract talent and build critical mass in interdisciplinary areas such as HCI.
"This is a project of strategic leadership, resulting in a high-level partnership. An example to be followed by other Portuguese universities", noted the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education. The view was shared by Provost of Carnegie Mellon University who compared the situation of both universities (Carnegie Mellon and Madeira): "We are small universities with big ambitions, that choose areas where we can make a difference, in regions known as centers of know-ledge and which can be engines of the economy." About the Institute, Mark Kamlet emphasized: “this is a very natural step in what has been the partnership”. Castanheira da Costa stressed that this initiative demonstrates that "we are able to innovate." Fonseca de Moura was very pleased to see in only two years such initiatives: an Institute, real projects, recruitment of researchers of international renown, and the attraction of students around the world." Nuno Nunes explained that the aim is "to attract the best students of the World."

Foto 1. (left to right) Mark Kamlet, Provost Carnegie Mellon University, Castanheira da Costa, Rector Universidade da Madeira, and Raul Caires, president of Madeira Tecnolopolo.

Video of the Madeira-ITI quick off ceremony is available at http://www.uma.pt/portal/video/.

Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute: Conducts research and provides graduate training

The Executive Vice President and Provost of Carnegie Mellon University, Mark Kamlet, will be in Madeira on July 23 to sign a protocol with the University of Madeira to establish the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (MADEIRA-ITI). This initiative is the result of the successful dual degree professional master’s program in human computer interaction under the Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership.

The Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (MADEIRA-ITI) will be an innovation institute as defined by the statutes of the University of Madeira and established as an associated independent non-profit R&D organization whose founding members are the University of Madeira, Madeira Tecnopolo SA, and Carnegie Mellon University. The goals will be to conduct research and provide graduate training in the domain of human-computer interaction, contributing to the development of the field. MADEIRA-ITI also aims to support collaborations with other research and higher education institutions and companies, including consulting services.

“Promote Madeira as a Living Lab for open innovation of companies.”

MADEIRA-ITI builds on the vision of the Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership to consolidate a strategic plan that:
1. Enables the University of Madeira to create the first innovation institute in the strategic area of information and communication technologies by pursuing a distinctive theme around interactive technologies – including Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and its industrial applications;
2. Creates the conditions to take the current Masters in HCI program into a sustainable model that leverages the quality standards of Carnegie Mellon professional graduate education, providing the program with the necessary agile administrative support while maintaining the fundamental relationship with high-quality research and industry involvement;
3. Promotes the regional government’s goal of changing the economic development model of Madeira, leveraging the attraction of talent and industry involvement in key distinctive areas like HCI, thus generating critical mass to attract industry and develop new innovative services in Madeira;
4. Enables the development of new professional programs required to bring Madeira into the international landscape of interactive technologies while reassuring the quality standards of the small-class model of the MHCI. Areas of particular relevance currently being pursued are entertainment (with synergies for tourism) and service design (with synergies with the international business center);
5. Incorporates a new thematic area of Human-Computer Interaction in the network of Associated Laboratories accredited by FCT, thus contributing to the consolidation of critical mass at the national level in particular for emerging and non-traditional interdisciplinary areas in Portugal, like HCI, and promote Madeira as a Living Lab for open innovation of companies in Europe and elsewhere.

The ceremony will be held on July 23 at 20 p.m. at the University of Madeira. Present at the ceremony will be José Manuel Nunes Castanheira da Costa, Rector of the University of Madeira, Mark Kamlet, Provost of Carnegie Mellon University, José Fonseca de Moura, Director of ICTI@Carnegie Mellon, and Carnegie MellonPortugal Partnership, Nuno Nunes, Scientific Director of ICTI@Portugal, and members of national and regional government.