New collaboration started between Imperial and Portugal on Data Science research

Professors Yike Guo (left) and Rui Oliveira (right) after signing the agreement

The Data Science Institute has initiated a collaboration with the Portuguese research institute INESC on Artificial Intelligence and its applications.

On 26 April a delegation of twelve scientists from the Portuguese research institute INESC TEC flew to London to attend a workshop on "AI and its applications" co-organized and hosted by the Data Science Institute. 

During the 3 sessions of the day, researchers from both institutions had a chance to present their work, answer questions about the biggest challenges in the sector and discuss potential collaborations. 

The main areas where the participants of the workshop decided to focus their efforts are in medical imaging, infrastructure maintenance, social media analytics and data privacy. 

Diagnostic tools are becoming more sophisticated and reliable. "A successful combination of engineering and clinical knowledge will be key to make treatments more targeted and specific" says Wenjia Bai, Lecturer at the DSI "and Imperial College has the right expertise to develop research in this area". 

Another important area of research is in urban management. Laetitia Mottet, Research Associate in Earth Science and Engineering, highlighted how a better understanding of fluid dynamics can help design more sustainable buildings while Rita Ribeiro presented an experimental trial run in collaboration with the Metro of Porto to improve infrastructure monitoring and maintenance.

Hamed Haddadi, Senior Lecturer at the Dyson School of Engineering, presented his research on privacy-preserving analytics at the edge while his Portuguese counterpart Bernardo Portela explored cyber-security issues.

Stefan Leutenegger, Senior Lecturer in Computing, spoke about research in robotics for spacial representation and Thomas Heinis,also from Computing, presented the opportunities for data storage in synthetic DNA. Paula Viana and Pedro Ribeiro spoke about how to extract data from complex networks and make it more accessible.

The participants discussed about social media analytics, the dynamics of fake news spreading and Ovidiu Serban, DSI Research Associate, presented a demo in the Data Observatory about how social media monitoring can be used to monitor diseases outbreaks and plan interventions. 

This workshop represents the first in a series of events aimed at strengthening the relations between Imperial College researchers and their Portuguese colleagues. This relationship will expand further to the Asian region of the Greater Bay Area thanks to links of both institutes with local universities.