João Barroso, INESC TEC researcher, is the new rector of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD)

João Barroso, who until now was a researcher at INESC TEC, has been elected rector of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD).

The full professor was nominated on 29 June by the University General Council, following a public hearing held in the UTAD Aula Magna. The date for taking office is not yet known.

According to João Barroso, one of the immediate priorities will be the preparation of a strategic plan within the first three months of his mandate.

“UTAD is now beginning a new cycle. I want a more demanding university, more international, and more capable of delivery, where excellence in teaching, research, innovation, and the improvement of people go hand in hand. I believe in close, transparent and mobilising leadership, capable of uniting the academic community around a common project and of establishing UTAD as a university of national and international reference, without ever losing the strong connection to the territory and society,” said the new rector of UTAD.

João Manuel Pereira Barroso is a full professor at the School of Science and Technology of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). He graduated in Electrical Engineering from UTAD in 1992. He obtained a master’s degree in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of Aveiro in 1996, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UTAD in 2002. He completed the Habilitation (Agregação) in Engineering Sciences, in the field of Electrical Engineering – also at UTAD, in 2008.

Among the management roles he has already held at this university, notable positions include pro-rector for Innovation and Information Management between July 2010 and July 2013, pro-rector for Innovation and Technology Transfer between May 2017 and July 2020, and vice-rector for Innovation, Technology Transfer and the Digital University between May 2021 and September 2023.

He is a coordinating researcher at the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC), and his scientific activities are mainly focused on Human–Computer Interaction and Computer Vision.

He is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific publications, including book chapters, journal pieces and papers in scientific conference proceedings. He has supervised around 60 postgraduate works, corresponding to 40 master’s and 20 PhD theses. Over the last 10 years, he has been part of research and management teams in more than 50 scientific and technological development projects.

It’s worth mentioning that UTAD is one of the institutions associated with INESC TEC and a workplace for many of the Institute’s researchers, where there are research infrastructures such as the MASSIVE Virtual Reality Laboratory – a shared infrastructure between INESC TEC and UTAD.