The Portuguese Navy visits INESC-ID
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) today received a visit from representatives from the Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa, the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces that is charged with the military defense of Portugal), who also had the chance to take a sneak peek at the work being developed by four research units associated with the largest engineering school in Portugal: INESC-ID, INESC MN, Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica (ISR).
This visit was part of Roadshow EA-IDEIA (Estrutura de Acompanhamento da Investigação, Desenvolvimento, Experimentação e Inovação da Armada), an initiative that aims to promote cooperation between the Navy, academia and industry in order to find common areas for future collaboration. The 2023 edition is taking place in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, with the main areas of focus being robotics, signal processing and artificial intelligence — all areas of expertise of INESC-ID.
The entourage brought some of the Portuguese Navy’s biggest names to our campus; amongst them Vice-almirante Henriques Gomes (Vice-Chefe do Estado-Maior da Armada), Comodoro Domingos Vaz (Chefe da Divisão de Inovação e Transformação do Estado-Maior-General das Forças Armadas), Capitão-de-mar-e-guerra Paulo Gonçalves Simões (Chefe da Divisão de Redes e Sistemas de Informação do Estado-Maior da Armada), Capitão-de-mar-e-guerra Jorge Lourenço Gorricha (Diretor do Centro de Investigação Naval), Capitão-de-fragata João Lourenço da Piedade (Chefe da Divisão de Inovação do Estado-Maior da Armada) and Subtenente Madalena Gonçalves de Barros (Divisão de Inovação e Transformação do Estado-Maior da Armada).
After watching a presentation on IST’s inner workings, main achievements and research areas, the Navy’s representatives spoke about some of the Navy’s priority areas — which focus on diverse technologies (e.g., energy production and storage, sensors, communication), systems, and integration domains — and research interests, from facilitating access to the sea while collecting data on these large expanses, operating autonomous vehicles, or the development of sensors to detect submarines.
The Navy’s entourage then visited INESC-ID, where our President Inês Lynce highlighted the institute’s R&D+I remits and areas of expertise, many of which clearly overlap with the Navy’s R&D needs — from energy production and storage to distributed systems and cybersecurity — and visited our electronics lab, hosted by Nano-Electronic Circuits and Systems (NECS) PhD students Fabian Näf and Gonçalo Rodrigues.
Interesting collaborations might very well be on the horizon.
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.”