CISUC Day 2026
Building Our Future Together: One Center, Many Disciplines
CISUC Day 2026 brings together the community of the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra for a full day dedicated to strengthening the Center as an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and cohesive research community. Through dialogue across fields, team-building activities, and collective reflection, the event explores how human-centered and ethical collaboration between people and AI can contribute to a safe and shared future for society.
Details
- Date: October 28, 2026
- Location: Convento de São Francisco, Coimbra
- Co-chairs: Paula Alexandra Silva · Joel Perdiz Arrais
- Registration is open until October 18, 2026, 5PM in Portugal
Program
08:45–09:00 Registration & Welcome
09:00–10:00 Opening & Town Hall
Opening (09:00–09:20) — Institutional welcome.
Speakers: Miguel Antunes — Vice-Mayor CMC; Edmundo Monteiro — Dean FCTUC; Paula Alexandra Silva & Joel Perdiz Arrais — Co-chairs, CISUC Day 2026
Town Hall (09:20–10:00, incl. 10' Q&A) — CISUC’s direction and group leaders share current direction, strategic shifts, and future goals.
Speakers: Raul Barbosa — SSE; Paulo Rupino da Cunha — IS; Nuno Lourenço — bAI; Pedro Martins — CMS; Vasco Pereira — NCS; César Teixeira — AC; Penousal Machado — CISUC Director
10:00–11:00 Excellence Research Awards
Short talks by three young PhD researchers.
Session Chair: António Dourado
Presentations: (10' talk + 5' Q&A each)
- Unveiling Group-Specific Distributed Concept Drift: A Fairness Imperative in Federated Learning — Teresa Salazar, João Gama, Helder Araújo, Pedro Henriques Abreu
- Safety Assessment of UAV Operations in U-Space: A Comprehensive Study on Key Safety Metrics — Omid Asghari, Naghmeh Ivaki, Henrique Madeira
- Optimal Scaling of Cloud Services — André Bento, Filipe Araújo, Luís Paquete, Raul Barbosa
Excellence Research Award photos (10')
11:00–11:30 Coffee Break
11:30–12:30 Interactive Poster & Demo Session
Fair-style session showcasing PhD projects and funded international, national, and internal projects in the form of posters and demos.
12:30–14:00 Lunch & Networking & Group Photo
Group photo at 13:30 at Claustros.
11:00 - 14:00 CISUC Bingo & Level-up [Parallel activity]
14:00–15:30 Keynotes Session
Two invited perspectives on collaboration between people and AI.
Session Chair: Marília Curado
Keynote 1 (14:00–14:40, incl. 10' Q&A): Humane AI Interaction — Alan Dix, Professor Emeritus, Cardiff Metropolitan University & Swansea University, UK
Keynote 2 (14:40–15:20, incl. 10' Q&A): Beyond Projects: From Purpose to Reach through Cooperation, Industry and Technology Transfer — Liliana Ferreira, Executive Director, Fraunhofer Portugal; Invited Full Professor, FEUP, PT
Joint Q&A (15:20–15:30)
15:30–15:45 Energy Reset & Community Feedback
Coffee break and community feedback activity: use your post-its!
15:45–16:45 Round Table Discussion & Feedback
Invited experts and CISUC’s direction discuss the centre’s future under the motto “Building Our Future Together: One Centre, Many Disciplines”, drawing on the community’s feedback from throughout the day.
Session Chair: Henrique Madeira
Participants: João Ramalho-Santos, Vice-Rector for Research of the University of Coimbra; Sandra Carvalho, Vice-Director for Research, Innovation, and Knowledge Transfer of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra; Paulo Novais, Coordinator of the Intelligent Systems Associate LAboratory (LASI); Vinícius Vielmo Cogo, Vice-Director of the Large-Scale Informatics Systems Laboratory (LASIGE)
16:45–17:00 Synthesis & Hand-Over to Students
Awards announcement & photos, key takeaways of the day, and handover to the students.
Speakers: Paula Alexandra Silva & Joel Perdiz Arrais
17:00–17:45 One Centre, Many Cultures Quiz (Students’ session)
A session hosted by the PhD Student Representatives, bringing together students from all CISUC groups for a multicultural quiz celebrating cultural diversity. The session will conclude with the announcement of the quiz winner and a group photo.
17:45–19:00 Sunset Party
Enjoy the sunset with live music by Quantunna, food, and drinks in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. No peer review required!
Keynote speakers
Keynote 1 - Humane AI Interaction
Alan Dix — Professor Emeritus, Cardiff Metropolitan University & Swansea University, UK
Abstract. AI dominates the news and drives social media. It has already shown its value in diverse areas including pharmaceuticals and mathematics and is still accelerating. My book on AI for human-computer interaction is only just being published and yet the developments since it was finalised have been substantial, creating further challenges for individual human–AI interaction design. However, the impact of AI extends far beyond its individual applications. It is changing the very structure of society, culture, economics and warfare as well as potential existential dangers for humankind as a whole and the global environment. We must think not only about human–AI interactions, but the way AI interacts with humanity as a whole. Some of the response to this is global and political, but as researchers we have a part to play. However, this extends beyond individual researchers or disciplines requiring rapid and integrated approaches across diverse areas of computing as well as social sciences and humanities. Only together can we enable, encourage and empower truly humane AI interaction.
Short Bio. Alan Dix is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff Metropolitan University and at Swansea University. He is known for his research and textbook in human–computer interaction but has also worked in several non-academic roles. His interests range from formal methods to design creativity, including some of the earliest papers in the HCI literature on topics such as privacy, mobile interaction, and gender and ethnic bias in machine learning, and his methods are eclectic including walking one thousand miles around Wales in 2013. He has three new books being published in autumn 2026 on topics connecting HCI, AI and statistics. Web: https://alandix.com/
Keynote 2 — Beyond Projects: From Purpose to Reach through Cooperation, Industry and Technology Transfer
Liliana Ferreira — Executive Director, Fraunhofer Portugal; Invited Full Professor, FEUP, PT
Abstract. If humans give technology its purpose, ecosystems give it reach. Yet meaningful cooperation requires more than assembling consortia and delivering projects. Between a research result and sustained impact lies a web of universities, research organizations, companies, funders, and users, often working with different incentives, languages, and timescales. Drawing on concrete examples from Fraunhofer Portugal, this talk explores how international cooperation, long-term industry relationships and effective technology transfer can turn scientific capability into lasting value, and why this is so hard to achieve in practice.
Short Bio. Liliana Ferreira is Chair of Fraunhofer Portugal and Director of its research centre for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions (AICOS). She is also an invited Full Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. Her research focuses on Natural Language Processing, Industrial Knowledge Representation, and Neuro-Symbolic AI. She holds a PhD in Informatics from the University of Aveiro and has conducted research in industry and academic organisations including Philips Research, IBM Research and Development, TU Darmstadt, the University of Tübingen and the University of Aveiro.
