Filipe Cunha (LIAAD), Pedro Neto (CTM) and Filipe Ferreira (CESE)

Filipe Cunha (LIAAD)

“Filipe Cunha is completing the first year of his PhD at FCUP, with LIAAD. In early September, he won the ‘Student Best Paper Award’ at EPIA, the international conference organised each year by the Portuguese AI community – thanks to his work on extracting events using NLP techniques. This was the result of a year of hard work, dedication, learning and camaraderie by Filipe, who joined the Text2Story and StorySense projects, focusing on NLP and narrative extraction. He was also part of the LIAAD student team (with another PhD researcher) who ended in third place in the Sword Health challenge to explore LLMs in the healthcare field, in late July – which corresponded to an interesting cash prize”.

– LIAAD coordinators

You’re completing the first year of PhD at FCUP, with LIAAD. What is the main theme/area of your work, and how did this choice come about?

In recent years, we’ve witnessed a significant increase in the volume of data generated on social networks, news, files, the Internet, etc. This data is often stored as text, making it difficult for machines to process and understand it. The task of extracting events aims to gather those present in narratives, unveiling information about “what happens” in them, transforming texts into structured information.  Although there are already several event extraction systems for English, they show limited portability to other languages due to their dependence on text resources annotated in English. One of the aspects of this PhD is to address the task of extracting events in the context of the Portuguese language. This choice stems from the interest in exploring information extraction techniques from unstructured texts using neural models, a relevant area within Artificial Intelligence that is constantly evolving. 

Your work has already been acknowledged on two occasions, demonstrating its relevance; what plans do you have going forward, in terms of evolution and/or impact of the results obtained?

First, I aim to advance my current research by exploring new methods to apply this task to different text genres and languages, making it more comprehensive and applicable to a wider range of contexts. I also seek to explore new neural architectures to improve event extraction models. In this sense, I’d like to highlight Graph Neural Networks, which have shown promising results in text modelling. 

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

There are several aspects that I enjoy, and I’d like to emphasise two of them: (1) the opportunity to share ideas and knowledge with inspiring people with whom I have the privilege to work; (2) the freedom to explore new topics that fascinate me, which allows me to continue to learn new methods to address the complex challenges in Natural Language Processing (NLP). These factors provide a rewarding and enriching work experience. The continuous learning process and the ability to further explore areas of personal interest contribute significantly to my motivation and professional satisfaction. 

How do you comment on this nomination?

First, I’d like to thank the LIAAD coordinators. Then, professors Alípio Jorge and Ricardo Campos, my advisors, who were tireless during the first year of my PhD. This achievement also belongs to my incredible team since it’s a result of our famous NLP Thursdays.

This nomination also means recognition and validation of our work in the development of Natural Language Processing models focused on the Portuguese language, contributing not only to a decrease in our dependence on the English language, but also to an increase in resources that may be the basis for the development of other applications in the field of Artificial Intelligence and natural language processing.

Pedro Neto (CTM)

“Pedro has been an incredible researcher and PhD student. In addition to a remarkable academic path, Pedro has proven to have the commitment, perseverance, autonomy, creativity, dedication, and maturity necessary to successfully pursue and achieve his individual goals, as well as the collective goals of each project in which he’s involved. In addition to his research work, he’s always available to support younger students, providing an amazing and thorough scientific supervision to both master’s and graduate students. Over three years, Pedro has generated innovative and significant contributions through research results in medical imaging projects; he’s also the Principal Investigator of a Seed project, thus proving his ability to create solid and winning scientific proposals. Pedro also stands out for his scientific publications within the scope of his PhD, participating in the major conferences in the area. The concrete proof of impact and community recognition was made clear last September, when the work presented at the 23rd International Conference of the Biometrics Special Interest Group received the ‘Best Paper Award’. We’d like to congratulate Pedro for this acknowledgement and encourage him to keep up with his excellent work”.

– CTM coordinators 

You’re the PI of a Seed project; can you talk about the project and the main goals?

The XAIBIO project is an ambitious project that seeks to develop an explainability engine for facial recognition algorithms. Currently, our understanding of the elements involved in facial recognition – whether done by humans or by Artificial Intelligence algorithms – is insufficient. It’s a task highly influenced by racial or gender biases, which are complicated to detect and solve. The goal of the project is to translate the predictions of these algorithms into semantic explanations that will help us improve their understanding and mitigate these issues. 

Your work has already been recognised by the scientific community, e.g., the ‘Best Paper Award’ at BIOSIG; how does this translate into motivation and how does it influence your professional goals?

Throughout this journey, I have been fortunate to work with exceptional people, both in the VCMI – a group composed of truly amazing people -, and in international collaboration endeavours. This fact – combined with some ambitious personal and professional goals – allowed me to improve as a researcher and gain recognition among the community. This acknowledgment is quite rewarding, particularly since it’s directly associated with my work and ambitions. In this sense, the greatest aspect of this award is the motivation to win another one next year.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

My work as a researcher requires constant learning, adaptation, and resilience. This requirement is, in my opinion, addictive. I’d also like to highlight the opportunity to work within the community and to meet people who can provide a wide range of information I’d otherwise miss in other contexts. I also enjoy mentoring students, since it allows me to explore other ideas and learn thanks to the amazing solutions they present.  

How do you comment on this nomination?

I would like to thank the Centre coordinators, not only for this nomination, but the way they described my work and path thus far. It is very important to feel appreciated, not only by the community, but also by those who follow my work every day. My presence in the community is facilitated by the investment made by them, which allows me to travel and attend important events. Finally, much of the work done was only possible with the help, support, and brilliant ideas of my colleagues at VCMI.

Filipe Ferreira (CESE)

“This nomination stems from Filipe’s professionalism, motivation, quality and coordination competencies, in the wide range of activities he performs at CESE. His work translated into the INNOAQUA project and the successful and impactful completion of the SAP4.0 project – Advanced Production Systems. In recent years, Filipe has been developing a line of research in methodologies for digital transformation, supporting Portuguese companies in this crucial process to improve the competitiveness of our business fabric. At the same time, he coordinates the CESE Technology Adoption & Management team that develops research projects and provides services related to Technology Management in Industry. All this high-quality work has been instrumental in strengthening the CESE. The CESE coordinators would like to thank Filipe for all his contributions, which are of enormous importance for the Centre’s national and international position”.

– CESE coordinators

You contributed to successful application to the INNOAQUA project; what is the main objective of this project, and what results do you hope to achieve?

The European project “Innovative approaches for an integrated use of algae in sustainable aquaculture practices and high-value food applications” (INNOAQUA) aims to pave the way for the sustainable and diversified land-based aquaculture industry in the EU. It focuses on the demonstration and integration of innovative algae-based foods and solutions, incorporating concepts of ecology, circularity, and digitalisation. It is a multidisciplinary project involving a consortium of renowned research centres, associations, and companies with a significant industrial status. Concerning INESC TEC, TEC4SEA is joined by other two centres: CAP, focusing on the development of innovative sensors in aquatic environments, and CESE, promoting the development of digital solutions for data collection, storage, and processing to generate insights aimed at improving efficiency, sustainability, and resilience of processes.

What are the main challenges as the coordinator of the Technology Adoption & Management group?

The Technology Adoption & Management team is also multidisciplinary, covering various activities and TRLs within the scope of CESE’s activities, including:

• Contributing to excellence in research in the field of technology adoption and management in the industry;
• Communicating research results to the community and society;
• Leveraging R&D results to create and deliver added value to companies and society through the development of training programmes and advanced consulting services to support companies in technology adoption strategies.

Coordinating all these activities is a major challenge that can only be addressed through teamwork and synergies between research and innovation projects.

Do you believe that national companies are on the right track regarding digital transformation adoption?

This is a topic discussed in recent projects, notably in the SAP4.0 – Advanced Production Systems project. The maturity level of companies depends on various factors, like the economic group they belong to and the companies’ dimension. We know that more technologically advanced sectors (e.g., automotive, manufacturing of machinery and tools for industry) have a more advanced level of maturity compared to companies in more traditional sectors. It is also clear that smaller companies struggle more with embracing digitalisation. However, in recent years, we have met several business owners willing to digitalise their processes and make them more efficient, while improving customer experience. INESC TEC has also contributed to assisting companies in their digital transition; we are currently promoting advanced consulting services projects related to business digitalisation.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

The daily challenges, both in terms of scientific research and the needs of companies and society. Helping and improving the lives of companies and people through the development of innovative methodologies and tools is truly rewarding.

How do you comment on this nomination?

I am grateful for this nomination, and I would like to emphasise that all the work done is the result not only of one person, but of an entire multidisciplinary team. Motivated by the institution’s mission, this team works every day to achieve success.