“Vencer o Adamastor” awarded to Gonçalo Correia
The inaugural Vencer o Adamastor Prize, worth €20,000, has been awarded to the machine learning researcher Gonçalo Correia.
A senior researcher at Priberam Labs and Instituto de Telecomunicações — where he is working on the development of neural network models — and an Instituto Superior Técnico PhD graduate, Correia was awarded the Prize for his work on simplifying machine learning models used for automatic translation.
Correia’s research project “Modelos compactos e transparentes de redes neuronais baseados em representações esparsas” (“Compact and transparent neural network models based on sparse representations”) proposes to “change a common perspective in the area of machine learning and artificial intelligence: models that use neural networks cannot be interpretable, that is, capable of explaining their decisions; nor compact, that is, able to represent what they learned in a summarized way.” In this project Correia is allowing the neural network model to “learn its own sparsity, thus being able to learn that it is possible to override components of your decision, in order to make the model’s interpretability simpler.”
Set up to recognize a researcher who demonstrates not only a clear ability to produce high quality scientific work, a vision for future scientific and technological developments in their respective area of research, but the potential to make a significant contribution to the future scientific development of the country, Vencer o Adamastor — roughly translating to “Beating Adamastor”, a reference to the mythical stone giant who guarded maritime passage through the Cape of Good Hope and is featured in Luis de Camões’ Os Lusíadas — was established by INESC and the Portuguese newspaper Público. The prize winner was selected by a jury chaired by founder and ex-President of INESC, and Instituto Superior Técnico Emeritus Professor, José Tribolet.
More details on the Vencer o Adamastor Prize are available here and a feature on Correia by Público, one of the prize’s founders, can be viewed here. The award ceremony is scheduled for 01 February, 3pm, at Instituto Superior Técnico.
Upcoming Events
NII International Internship Programme Presentation and Q&A by Emmanuel Planas
On April 30, Emmanuel Planas, the acting director of the Global Liaison Office (GLO) and responsible for the internationalisation program at the National Institute of Informatics (NII) in Tokyo, Japan, will give a presentation to introduce the NII and its internship program to INESC-ID students and IST’s Master’s in Computer Science students.
Date & Time: April 30, 14h00
Where: Sala Polivalente, Técnico – Taguspark
“The NII International Internship Program is an exchange activity with students from institutions with which NII has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement. This incentive program aims at giving interns the opportunity for professional and personal development by engaging in research activities under the guidance and supervision of NII researchers.
The NII Internship Program is open to Research Master’s and PhD students who are currently enrolled at one of the partner institutions that have signed an MOU agreement with NII.”
Educational Workshop on Responsible AI for Peace and Security (UNODA)
On June 6 and 7, The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) are offering a selected group of technical students the opportunity to join a 2-day educational workshop on Responsible AI for peace and security.
The third workshop in the series will be held in Porto Salvo, Portugal, in collaboration with GAIPS, INESC-ID, and Instituto Superior Técnico. The workshop is open to students affiliated with universities in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa, Oceania, and Asia.
Date & Time: June 6 a 7
Where: IST – Tagus Park, Porto Salvo
Registration deadline: April 8
Summary: “As with the impacts of Artificial intelligence (AI) on people’s day-to-day lives, the impacts for international peace and security include wide-ranging and significant opportunities and challenges. AI can help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but its dual-use nature means that peaceful applications can also be misused for harmful purposes such as political disinformation, cyberattacks, terrorism, or military operations. Meanwhile, those researching and developing AI in the civilian sector remain too often unaware of the risks that the misuse of civilian AI technology may pose to international peace and security and unsure about the role they can play in addressing them. Against this background, UNODA and SIPRI launched, in 2023, a three-year educational initiative on Promoting Responsible Innovation in AI for Peace and Security. The initiative, which is supported by the Council of the European Union, aims to support greater engagement of the civilian AI community in mitigating the unintended consequences of civilian AI research and innovation for peace and security. As part of that initiative, SIPRI and UNODA are organising a series of capacity building workshops for STEM students (at PhD and Master levels). These workshops aim to provide the opportunity for up-and-coming AI practitioners to work together and with experts to learn about a) how peaceful AI research and innovation may generate risks for international peace and security; b) how they could help prevent or mitigate those risks through responsible research and innovation; c) how they could support the promotion of responsible AI for peace and security.”