19 Dec 2019
Hiroshi Ishii, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Hiroshi Ishii is the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Laboratory. After joining the Media Lab in 1995, he founded the Tangible Media Group to make digital tangible by giving physical form to digital information and computation. Here, he pursues his visions of Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms that will transcend the Painted Bits of Graphical User Interfaces, the current dominant paradigm of Human-Computer Interaction.
He is recognized as a founder of “Tangible User Interfaces (TUI),” a new research genre based on the CHI’97 “Tangible Bits” paper presented with Brygg Ullmer in Atlanta, Georgia, which led to the spinoff ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) from 2007.
Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, Ishii led the CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work) research group at NTT Human Interface Laboratories Japan from 1988-1994, where he and his team invented the TeamWorkStation and ClearBoard. He received a B.E. degree in electronic engineering, and M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering from Hokkaido University, Japan, in 1978, 1980 and 1992, respectively. Some of his ideas have contributed to the design of the gestures interface used by Tom Cruise in Stephen Spielberg‘s “Minority Report”.
In 2019, he won SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award for his fundamental and influential research contributions to the field of human-computer interaction in the past quarter century.
Making Digital Tangible: the battle against the pixel empire
Today's mainstream Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research primarily addresses functional concerns – the needs of users, practical applications, and usability evaluation. Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms are driven by vision and carried out with an artistic approach. While today's technologies will become obsolete in one year, and today's applications will be replaced in 10 years, true visions – we believe – can last longer than 100 years.
Tangible Bits seeks to realize seamless interfaces between humans, digital information, and the physical environment by giving physical form to digital information and computation, making bits directly manipulatable and perceptible both in the foreground and background of our consciousness (peripheral awareness).Our goal is to invent new design media for artistic expression as well as for scientific analysis, taking advantage of the richness of human senses and skills we develop throughout our lifetime interacting with the physical world, as well as the computational reflection enabled by real-time sensing and digital feedback.
Radical Atoms leaps beyond Tangible Bits by assuming a hypothetical generation of materials that can change form and properties dynamically, becoming as reconfigurable as pixels on a screen. Radical Atoms is the future material that can transform its shape, conform to constraints, and inform the users of their affordances. Radical Atoms is a vision for the future of Human- Material Interaction, in which all digital information has a physical manifestation, thus enabling us to interact directly with it.
I will present the trajectory of our vision-driven design research from Tangible Bits towards Radical Atoms, illustrated through a variety of interaction design projects that have been presented and exhibited in Media Arts, Design, and Science communities. These emphasize that the design for engaging and inspiring tangible interactions requires the rigor of both scientific and artistic review, encapsulated by my motto, “Be Artistic and Analytic. Be Poetic and Pragmatic.”
18 Jul 2019
In the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the greatest technological achievement of mankind, the first manned moon landing on the 20th July 1969, DI FCT NOVA and NOVA LINCS associates to the worldwide commemorations, remembering the most amazing cyber physical system ever conceived, the Apollo Spacecraft.
It is worth recalling the very first paragraph of a
technical report, written by exceptional innovation scientists, on the Apollo LM guidance software, an effort led by
Margaret Hamilton, MIT (
Margaret Hamilton, NASA's First Software Engineer), composed by around
145000 lines of code (cf. Apple OSX 86000000 loc).
"This report describes how the Apollo lunar-descent guidance works, why it was designed this way, and, in several cases, how it might have been designed differently. The concepts described can be applied to landing on any planetary body, with or without atmosphere, should man resolve to continue this adventure. The solutions presented offer ample opportunity for checking the theory. Such checks have been made, and all algorithms are known to work as conceived,"
Science, humanism, and outstanding effectiveness, vision, and pragmatism.
The moon landing was just not possible without the man-machine combination: steering the ship from orbit to the landing site was of course impossible to do manually by a human being.
Together with lots of other engineering and science disciplines, such as electronics, physics, materials, structural, mechanical, chemistry, math, you name it, the Apollo program was a quantum leap for computer science, we are proud of.
But of course, what made the impossible possible, was the remarkable collective collaboration effort, focused on the common goal of making the dream a true reality.
The results speak for themselves, without hype. Truly inspiring!
Many fundamental concepts both in computer architecture and systems software present today in every computing device were created in the context of the Apollo program. The
software developed, published recently on The
GitHub, incorporated mechanisms for real time control, fault tolerance, event-driven interaction, multi-threading and co-routines, energy-saving (green) algorithms, that are present in most computing devices nowadays, including your mobile phone. Development methodologies and software validation methods for critical systems where invented, including the term "software engineering".
As a curiosity, we point your attention to the build date of the final version of the
lunar landing guidance software: 14 July 1969, only two days before the Apollo 11 Saturn V lift off, and 6 days before the moon landing. Just in time !!
12 Jul 2019
Flávio Martins and André Mourão, researchers from
NOVA LINCS – NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics – won the second place of the competition Arquivo.pt 2019 Award with their work
Revisionista.pt — Dis·cover the news. The recently launched
Revisionista.pt is a platform for global analysis of the Portuguese press that is able to reveal changes that might have been made in news articles after the initial publication.
With this new tool, we can see the revision history of each article, from its original version to the latest version. Additionally, it is also possible to search in the edited text and analyze the statistics of the edits for the different newspapers. To achieve this goal, it leverages new natural language processing techniques and artificial intelligence algorithms to find and classify the edits automatically into different categories.
The winners of the
Arquivo.pt 2019 Award were announced by the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, on July 8, during the opening session of "Science 2019 — Encounter with Science and Technology” at the Lisbon Congress Center. The
Arquivo.pt 2019 Award aims to promote innovative works based on the historical information preserved on the Web accessible through Arquivo.pt.
Arquivo.pt preserves millions of files collected from the Web since 1996 and provides a public search service over this information.
Congratulations to Flávio Martins and André Mourão!
04 Jul 2019
Luís Moniz Pereira, NOVA LINCS Researcher, emeritus Professor at DI FCT NOVA awarded the National Science Merit Award 2019.
Luis Moniz Pereira was founding president of the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence and one of the pioneering and prominent researchers in the area in Portugal.
This award is intended to distinguish national or foreign individuals for their high professional qualities, valuable and exceptional contribution to the development of science or scientific culture in Portugal.
The award ceremony will be held at the opening session of Encontro Ciência 2019, on July 8, starting at 9.am at the Lisbon Congress Center.
25 Jun 2019
NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics gets top rating ( EXCELLENT ) by the Portuguese National Science Foundation.
“NOVA LINCS has continued its established excellence in information and computing technology. They have an excellent record of PhD graduate production, [..] creating PhD students who are well-read and interesting to talk to. Researchers in all four groups publish in prominent international venues for their respective areas. They have productive collaborations with [US] universities that are being successfully exploited by faculty and students, and good connections with the EU, the global industry, and the local community.”
06 Jun 2019
The Knowledge Academy project, led by a multidisciplinary team of professors and researchers from NOVA's Faculty of Science and Technology and coordinated by the Department of Informatics and NOVA LINCS, aims to promote and develop problem-solving, critical thinking and creative skills in children enrolled in primary education.
Proposing an innovative experimental methodology, the project will explore the development of computational thinking, without focusing on the use of technologies, exploring in its place interdisciplinary situations in the social context of primary schools. The project also has the collaboration of several schools and teachers of primary education, the CMU Portugal Program and initiatives associated with the UK CAS.
The academy will involve students at the 4th grade from six different public primary schools: Escola Básica n.º 1 Telheiras (Lisbon), Escola Básica do Murtal (Cascais), Escola Básica Monte Caparica n.º 1 (Almada), Escola Básica Teixeira de Pascoais (Lisboa), Escola Básica Quinta da Cabouca (Seixal), e Escola Básica do Agrupamento de Escolas Daniel Sampaio (Almada).
The project was selected under the 2nd call for Gulbenkian Knowledge Academies projects, in a very competitive process to which 403 applications were submitted and only 35 were selected, 3 of these from higher education institutions.
The Gulbenkian Knowledge Academies initiative, launched in 2018, aims to promote social and emotional skills in children and young people to help them face the challenges of a rapidly changing future.
With the selection of these 35 academies in 2019, the National Network of Gulbenkian Knowledge Academies will have 67 Academies throughout Portugal.
Related news (in Portuguese)
Há 35 novas Academias Gulbenkian do Conhecimento | FCG 31.05.2019
03 Jun 2019
For the inaugural NOVA LINCS Influential Seminar Series we had the honor to receive Chieko Asakawa, for the talk “AI for Accessibility”, that took place at FCT NOVA on 29 May.
Chieko Asakawa is a blind Japanese computer scientist, known for her work at IBM Research – Tokyo in accessibility. A Netscape browser plug-in which she developed, the IBM Home Page Reader, became the most widely used web-to-speech system available. She is the recipient of numerous industry and government awards.
In her talk Chieko Asakawa analyzed how technologies have helped create independence and opportunities for people with disabilities to actively participate in society, not only on the perspective of a researcher but also as a technology user.
For example, voice-based Web access allowed the blind to obtain virtually unlimited amount of information by themselves and smartphones have defined completely new ways of engaging with day-to-day activities.
Throughout the talk, she highlighted how AI can help improve the quality of lives for people with visual impairments, showing some videos of her most recent research work on advancing cognitive assistant based on AI techniques.
The NOVA LINCS Influential Seminar Series aims to bring to FCT NOVA community some of the most influential researchers in the area of Computer Science.
04 Apr 2019
At the FCT NOVA in house OutSystems / NOVA LINCS Collaborative Research Lab, showing low code software development breakthroughs to the Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte and Prime Minister of Portugal António Costa.
Many congratulations to OutSystems, we are proud to collaborate with such outstanding driver for Portuguese and European technological innovation with a global footprint.
28 Feb 2019
The NOVA LINCS / OutSystems Collaborative Research Laboratory, launched on February 26 at FCT NOVA's Department of Informatics (DI) facilities, opens a new phase in the 10-year partnership for research, training and innovation among these institutions.
The event was attended by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, who underlined the success of this collaborative research initiative, and Paulo Rosado, CEO of OutSystems, who highlighted the unique success of this partnership with FCT NOVA to the future IT systems building.
"The Laboratory, fully equipped by OutSystems, will allow researchers and students of the DI / NOVA LINCS (Integrated Master in Computer Science, PhD Program in Computer Science) to develop projects related to OutSystems' programming technologies and systems, in collaboration with OutSystems R&D team experts, NOVA LINCS researchers and students," said Luis Caires, President of the Department of Informatics and Director of NOVA LINCS.
"Over the ten years of the partnership, OutSystems and the Informatics Department have deepened an atmosphere of remarkable alignment of innovation activities, fundamental research and advanced training, which strengthens all partners around issues of high technological potential," said João Costa Seco, researcher at NOVA LINCS.
Also present at the session were the Rector of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, João SàÁgua, the FCT NOVA Dean, Virgílio Machado, teachers, students, researchers and staff from DI / NOVA LINCS and OutSystems.
Media
Outsystems e FCT NOVA reforçam parceria para investigação e desenvolvimento de projectos em TI | PC Guia
OutSystems e FCT NOVA reforçam parceria em I&D | Business.It
OutSystems e Universidade Nova reforçam parceria em I&D | Jornal Económico
OutSystems e FCT NOVA reforçam parceria para investigação e desenvolvimento de projetos em TI | Wintech
OutSystems e FCT NOVA formam parceria | Destak
OutSystems e FCT NOVA inauguram laboratório universitário para desenvolvimento de projetos em Low-Code | Wintech
OutSystems e FCT Nova inauguram laboratório universitário | Executive Digest
OutSystems e FCT Nova inauguram laboratório universitário | Fórum Estudante
OutSystems e FCT NOVA inauguram laboratório para desenvolvimento de projetos low-code | Líder
OutSystems e FCT Nova inauguram laboratório universitário | IT Insight
18 Feb 2019
The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, visited on February 1st Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) on an official visit under the initiative Global Science and Technology Partnerships Portugal (GoPortugal).
The Minister was accompanied by a delegation of representatives of several entities of the research and innovation system, including the President of the Foundation for Science and Technology, Directors of the CMU Portugal Program, coordinators of research centers and representatives of Portuguese companies.
Luis Caires, President of the
Department of Informatics and Director of the NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics (
NOVA LINCS), was part of the delegation of the Minister official visit, which marked the beginning of Phase III of the CMU Portugal Program.
The
CMU Portugal Program is an international partnership involving several Portuguese universities and Carnegie Mellon, aiming to place Portugal at the forefront of innovation in key areas of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
This program with Carnegie Mellon is one of three partnerships with US universities (CMU, MIT and UT Austin) that are part of the Global Science and Technology Partnerships Portugal (GoPortugal).
The GoPortugal initiative, running until 2030, aims to stimulate scientific and business development, promote the affirmation of Portugal in the world through scientific and economic valorization, and attract national and international funding in several areas of knowledge through transatlantic partnerships.
Media
Portugal fortifica parceria com universidades norte-americanas | Jornal Económico | 08.02.2019
Portuguese delegation led by Minister Manuel Heitor was at Carnegie Mellon to strengthen the CMU Portugal partnership | CMU Portugal | 08.02.2019
Comitiva portuguesa vai a Pittsburgh de olhos postos em 2030 | Dinheiro Vivo | 01.02.2019
23 Jan 2019
The Department of Informatics (DI) and NOVA LINCS received the visit of Mladen Sarcevic, the Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia on 14 January.
The Minister, accompanied by a delegation that included three Secretaries of State, the Director of the Innovation Fund, the representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Serbia and the Ambassador of Serbia in Portugal, visited the NOVA LINCS’s SmartLab.
The SmartLab is an experimental programming laboratory for the development of cyber-physical systems models for sustainability.
The Minister and the delegation also visited the Departments of Materials and Chemistry of FCT NOVA.
