The visit connected Professor John’s Fulbright Specialist stay in Portugal with the UT Austin Portugal Program’s research mobility activities and ongoing collaborations between researchers in Porto and Austin.
Professor Lizy John, from The University of Texas at Austin, recently visited INESC TEC during her stay in Portugal under a Fulbright Specialist Award, with the first project taking place at the University of Porto.
During her visit, Professor John delivered lectures at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and met with several INESC TEC research coordinators and researchers at the invitation of Professor Gabriel David, Vice-President of INESC TEC. The UT Austin Portugal Program was also represented at the meeting, reinforcing the Program’s role in strengthening research exchange and institutional collaboration between Portugal and UT Austin.
The visit also connected directly with the Program’s mobility activities. Professor John is currently hosting Afonso Lourenço, a Ph.D. student selected under the 2025 edition of the UT Austin Portugal Program’s Short-Term Research Internships at UT Austin. Afonso’s work on energy-efficient real-time machine learning aligns closely with Professor John’s research on algorithm-hardware co-design, creating a strong basis for scientific dialogue and mentorship during his research stay at UT Austin.
While in Porto, Professor John also had the opportunity to meet with Afonso’s advisor, Professor Emeritus João Gama, senior researcher at INESC TEC’s Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support, as well as with Mushahid Hussain, a scholar from last year’s UT Austin Portugal mobility cohort, and his advisor Ana Aguiar, from FEUP.
By bringing together UT Austin faculty, Portuguese researchers, Ph.D. students, and former Program scholars, the visit illustrates how international mobility can generate value beyond the research stay itself. It creates opportunities for knowledge exchange, strengthens academic and institutional links, and helps build continuity between individual mobility experiences and broader collaborative networks.
Through initiatives such as the Short-Term Research Internships at UT Austin, the UT Austin Portugal Program continues to contribute in advanced research training, international collaboration, and the development of scientific connections between Portugal and The University of Texas at Austin.