Three of our LASIGE Ph.D. students, Catarina Gamboa, Hugo Simão, and Paulo Santos, are currently at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA, doing part of their Ph.D. in the School of Computer Science.
They have an incredible opportunity to connect with top-tier researchers in their areas of interest, acquire knowledge, start collaborations and broaden their research horizons at one of the best schools of Computer Science in the world.
Hugo is completing part of his FCT mixed-scholarship Ph.D. abroad in the HCI department at CMU. He is also working on the CMU-Portugal exploratory Project “Shift HRI – Exploring the Transfer of Agency to Older Adults in HRI,” with his advisor’s team Tiago Guerreiro, LASIGE integrated member, Alexandre Bernardino (IST-UL), and Jodi Forlizzi (CMU). Hugo’s interests are related to building better robot services based on people’s real values and intentions with robots. The basic question that triggered the whole project was, “why would an elder want a robot, and for what?”
Catarina and Paulo are both in the Software Engineering Dual Ph.D. Degree under the CMU|Portugal program. They are at S3D (Software and Societal Systems Department) for two years to complete the CMU degree requirements before returning to LASIGE to complete the Ph.D.
Paulo is currently working on program analysis and repair of robotic systems under the supervision of Alcides Fonseca and Sara Silva, both LASIGE integrated members, and Christopher S. Timperley (CMU).
In a time where software is everywhere, Catarina is interested in helping developers write better programs that are more reliable and have higher quality. She is working with Jonathan Aldrich (CMU) and Alcides Fonseca, LASIGE integrated member, to improve the usability of software verification techniques, specifically using liquid types.
Being at CMU is “an amazing opportunity to research a topic that I believe is extremely important while also having an international experience, in a completely new country, meeting new friends for life and finding out more about myself and my possible future path.”
They are very excited about this journey and what the path ahead has reserved for them! Reach them and ask about their experience using their emails {cgamboa, psantos, hsimao} @lasige.di.fc.ul.pt
