Eduardo Marques

PhD Student, Digital Media

Eduardo Marques holds a Bsc. in Engineering of Electronics and Telecommunications from the University of Aveiro, and a Post-graduation in Computer Graphics and Virtual Environments received at the University of Minho. At the same time, he developed his artistic skills through several courses based on traditional oil-acrilic painting, and drawing.

Professionally, he made part of the Iberian team that realized and produced the first 3D digital feature film in Portugal, and the first fulldome short movie. After that, he founded his own R&D company focused on the creation of digital solutions based on interdisciplinary research deep connected to computer games and digital arts. Along that period, he occupied two major roles: Art Director and Computer Graphics Developer. At the end of that exciting experience, he became part of the R&D department of Edigma.com,  owner of Displax. He participated in the development of a newly and innovative projective capacitive multitouch device, and was responsible for some computer vision research and solutions.

Briefly, his academic research and professional experience embrace interdisciplinary knowledge: from physical simulation environment, through 3D animation and game development, to analysis of human body gesture in space, to interactive technologies and natural user interfaces.

His PhD research treats awareness and management of three-dimensional physical space as key factors for enabling ambient intelligence environments, specially when supporting human activity. The emergent paradigm of Cross-reality is interpreted as an extension of human perception and interaction within this type of environments. A camera-based network is used to capture and analyze physical space to acquire important context-sensitive information capable of handling dynamic unconstrained changes into the analysis of human activity.

Eduardo José Marques Pereira
Phone: +351 914317679

Ana Cabral Martins

PhD student, Digital Media

Master in Communication Sciences, Specialization in Cinema and
Television (M. A.)
Undergraduate in Communication Sciences, Specialization in Cinema and Television

Ana Cabral Martins has undergone her academic path in Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Ana’s undergraduate and master degrees in Communication Sciences were made with the intent of specializing in Film Studies. Her thesis project, “Overlap and the Cinematographic Experience,” marked the starting point of her exploration of the paradigm shift that is remaking the entire motion picture industry, from the way films are produced and shot, to the way they are distributed, exhibited and consumed.

For her PhD thesis, Ana’s interests are to continue researching digital cinema, going further into the questions that emerged from her Master. Her project is to explore the eventual possibilities of interactivity within the immersive aesthetic of the film industry.

Ana has also been involved in different film projects, in different stages of production, in two different production companies, Filmes do Tejo and Ambar Filmes, where she worked as a secretary of production, script girl and editing assistant. She has also held an internship at ANIM – National Archive of Moving Images, an institution for the archive and preservation of film, where she worked as an identifier and cataloger of filmic material.

Ana has also directed, produced and edited an 8 minute short film, as part of her thesis project, named The Wait.

Nuno Duarte Martins

PhD student, Digital Media

Nuno Duarte Martins has a degree in Communication Design (2003) and a Master in Media Art (2007), by the Fine Arts Faculty of Porto University.  At present, he is taking his PhD in Digital Media at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, having been given a scholarship PhD by the UT Austin-Portugal, the Foundation for Science and Technology in 2009.

Currently he is teaching in the Degree Course in Graphic Design at the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), since 2008.  As a Designer, he acts mainly in the areas of Graphic Design and Web Design, highlighting the projects developed for companies/Institutions such as the Oceanário de Lisboa, o Instituto Português de Meteorologia, Saludães, Porto Digital, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Byblos Bookstores, Majora, Universidade do Porto, Universidade do Minho, RAR Group, Interforma, among others.

Some of his work is featured in several Communication Design publications, published in Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, China and United Kingdom.

He was awarded several times, especially the first prizes Competition Mascot of the Oceanário de Lisboa and mascot of  the Pavilhão da Água do Porto, Porto Digital logo Competition and "Papies 2006” Competition, with the site of Ambar.

Personal site

Mónica Mendes

PhD student, Digital Media

Assistant at the Multimedia Arts degree of the University of Lisbon [FBA/UL]

Mónica Mendes has a Masters in Multimedia Educational Communication, degree in Communication Design. She is a member of the CIEAM Research Center on Interactive Environments, and an altLab member on experimentation in alternative media. Additionally, she developed projects as a free-lancer, as a designer at Atelier B2, and as an interface design consultant.

PhD Abstract: RTiVISS – Real-Time Video Interactive Systems for Sustainability – proposes innovative ways of conceiving both digital media arts and cutting edge environmentally sustainable practices through critical research and experimental approaches. Multiplatform devices will provide access to real-time networked video for users to "adopt" selected forests. The interactive system feeds a broad community sharing “the emotion of real-time” and the challenge of uncertainty, remotely monitoring natural environments for forests protection and aesthetic exploration. Assuming this surveillance metaphor, can we design a project that is both artistic and functional?

Homepage: www.monicamendes.info

Sofia Catarina Mota

PhD student, Digital Media

Diogo Neves

PhD Student, Advanced Computing

Main Research Interests

• Parallel and Distributed Systems Programming
• Multicore and High Performance Computing Platforms
• Software Engineering, namely Analysis, Design and Patterns
• Algorithm and Graph Theory
• BioInformatics

PhD Thesis

• Separation of Concerns in Advanced Computing

Levon Nurbekyan

PhD Student, Mathematics

Levon is a first-year PhD student in mathematics at UT Austin | Portugal program. Nurbekyan has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from the Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia. Levon’s specialization was Complex Analysis. His bachelor’s thesis was on approximation in the complex domain and the master’s thesis was on analytic continuation of the analytic element.

Now he has changed his specialization from Complex Analysis to PDEs.

Av. Risco Pais

1049-001 Lisboa

Portugal

Phone: +351 911760153

levonnurbekian@yahoo.com

Afonso O’Neill

PhD Student

Has been researching collective intelligence tools for decision making support. Namely, he has been applying prediction market platforms to public policy decision making.
He would like to extend his research to other collective intelligence / collaborative tools, including creating add-ons to the existing prediction market platform (preferably based on mobile devices) as a means to better support decision making by aggregating dispersed information in useful ways.

Filipe Pais

PhD student, Digital Media

After finishing a degree on Sound and Image at ESAD.cr, Filipe worked as a multimedia designer at Ydreams and as assistant teacher at ESAD.cr and he's been developing new media projects since 2004. Following the knowledge produced by practical and theoretical research during the last years, his aim as a student on the Digital Media program, is to investigate interactive contemporary art forms mediated by technological systems. Through the understanding of the artist-artwork-spectator interconnection and the recognition of experience as the “raison d'être” of this triangle, his interdisciplinary investigation aims to develop an effective immaterial interaction model based on immersive qualities.

Homepage: http://www.la-neige-en-ete.net/filipe/

Paulo Rosa

PhD student, Digital Media

Paulo Rosa has a degree in Environmental Engineering and an MSc in the field of e-Participation both from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology - New University of Lisbon (Portugal). Before starting his PhD, he worked for 3 years at the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), European Commission - Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC). His work was focused on the research and development of innovative information and communication technologies; on the design and implementation of virtual citizen participatory methods; and on the development of online interactive applications to extended governance initiatives in areas of risk governance and sustainability.

His PhD will be focused on the research and development of new interactive surfaces based on subtracts such as paper, plastic, glass or textiles.

Homepage: http://paulorosa.no.sapo.pt

Reus Salini

PhD Student, Advanced Computing

Research Interests

• Application of neural networks in asphalt pavement modeling and behavior prediction.

Hugo Santos

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Mathematics

Holding a PhD in Civil Engineering in the field of Applied and Computational Mechanics from the Instituto Superior Técnico, Santos has been involved mainly with the development of mathematical models for the analysis of nonlinear structural engineering problems. Pursuing a Post-Doc in Mathematics reflects his keen desire to bring mathematical methods into the field of Mechanics.

Rossana Santos

PhD student, Digital Media

Rossana Santos graduated in Applied Mathematics and Computation in 2002 from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. Received her MSc degree in Computer Science in 2007 from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Started the PhD Programme in Computer Science/Informatics in 2008 from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is a lecturer since 2003 atDepartamento de Sistemas e Informática, Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal.

Her current research interests include augmented reality, video processing, mobile computing and human-computer interaction.

Departamento de Informática

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Quinta da Torre

2829-516 Caparica

Portugal

Edgar Sousa

PhD Student, Advanced Computing

For the past few years, I've been working on high-performance computing using aspect-oriented programming (AOP) to develop tools for (semi-)automatic parallelization of legacy scientific codes.

LinkedIn: http://pt.linkedin.com/in/edgarsousa

Edgar Teixeira

PhD student, Digital Media

Rafayel Teymurazyan

PhD Student, Mathematics

It has been a year and a half since Rafayel started studying free boundary problems, in particular obstacle problems, regularity and stability of the solution. During this time with his supervisor Prof. José Francisco Rodrigues, he has worked on obstacle type problems in Orlicz-Sobolev spaces.

Complexo Interdisciplinar

CMAF, Faculdade de Ciências

Universidade de Lisboa

Av. Prof. Gama Pinto 2,

1649-003, Lisboa, Portugal

Sala B3-15

Phone: +351 217 904 700 ext. 34315

Paulo Nuno Vicente

PhD Student, Digital Media

Paulo Nuno Vicente works as a journalist in Antena 1, the Portuguese public service radio. As a reporter he has produced several special reports, mainly in Guinea-Bissau, S. Tomé and Príncipe, Ceuta and Melilla, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and West Bank, Chad and Central African Republic.

He is graduated in Journalism (University of Coimbra), has an Advanced Formation on Journalism and Religion (Portuguese Catholic University) and a degree on Arab Language and Islamic Culture (University of Lisbon). He is now a PhD fellow in Online Journalism at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences – New University of Lisbon, in the scope of the UT Austin-Portugal Program.

He is studying new non-fiction narrative formats and the transformations on Foreign Reporting/International Journalism in the Age of Digital Networks.

 http://digital-storytelling.net/

http://pnvicente.com

+351 962056247

Tiago Videira

PhD Student, Digital Media

One branch of the traditional Portuguese Fado, the Fado Castiço, is a genre that has been typified over the years. One of my goals would be to re-transcribe these original fados as ambient instrumental arrangements and then assemble them forming a database. Then, create a system that successfully generates new ambient instrumental Fado music, based on the database content. The generative/algoritmic process also aims to be interactive, that means, responsive to user constraints, concerning musical and aesthetical parameters, such as tempo, rhythm, or general mood of the Fado.