Author: Carla Araujo

The fifth edition of the Science in the Market, an event organized by ARDITI in collaboration with several regional entities, took place on November 22, between 6 and 10 pm, in the Farmers’ Market, Funchal.

This event’s main objective is to showcase Science, Technology, and Innovation of the Region, open to the public in general. Most of the entities require the public’s interaction and participation with them in order to try out some experiences/activities/tastings.

ITI/LARSyS participating researchers took two different demos, one related to the SMILE project, and required to fill in some questionnaires  and the other was in the scope of the INTERAQUATICA project, which had demos related to the seas.

This year, over 20 entities participated in the fair and there were about 1500 visitors during the event.

Student volunteers are also involved in this initiative to help in the event’s coordination.

The Regional Secretary of Education visited the fair and greeted each of the entities’ participants.

Program. Pictures of the event available here and also here.

Participating Entities

• AAAM – Associação de Astrónomos Amadores da Madeira
• ams – Sensores Portugal Unipessoal, Lda
• AgroSenseLab e Divisão de Inovação Agroalimentar (InovAgro) da Direção Regional de Agricultura
• AREAM – Agência Regional da Energia e Ambiente da Região Autónoma da Madeira
• CQM – Centro de Química da Madeira (Universidade da Madeira)
• DEE – Departamento de Engenharia Eletrotécnica (Universidade da Madeira)
• DM – Departamento de Matemática (Universidade da Madeira)
• DSI – Direção de Serviços de Investigação (Direção Regional de Pescas/Secretaria Regional da Agricultura e Pescas)
• DSLIA – Direção de Serviços dos Laboratórios e Investigação Agroalimentar (Direção Regional de Agricultura)
• EBSSC – Escola Básica e Secundária de Santa Cruz
• EBMF – Estação de Biologia Marinha do Funchal (Câmara Municipal do Funchal)
• ESESJC – Escola Superior de Enfermagem S. José de Cluny
• ISOplexis-CASTA – Centro de Agricultura Sustentável e Tecnologia Alimentar
• MARE – Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente
• ITI/LARSyS – Interactive Tecnhologies Institute / Laboratory of Robotics and Engineering Systems
• MBM – Museu da Baleia da Madeira
• OOM – Observatório Oceânico da Madeira
• SPUMa – Serviço de Psicologia da Universidade da Madeira
• SPAR – Sala de Projetos de Automação e Robótica (Escola Secundária Francisco Franco)
• SPEA – Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves
• Startup Madeira
• The Inventors
• UBQ II – Unidade de Bioquímica

ITI researcher José Luís Silva and his Ph.D. students José Corujeira and Rute Luz are currently involved in a Mars mission simulation with IST.

José is working as one of the principal researchers with Rodrigo Ventura who is also a principal researcher, as well as the research team coordinator.

Between October 15 and November 15 of 2020, an integrated Mars analog field mission in the Negev Desert in Israel will be conducted. The expedition will be carried out in a Martian terrestrial analog. A small field crew of highly trained analog astronauts with spacesuit simulators will conduct experiments preparing for future human and robotic Mars exploration missions.

One of this mission’s objectives is to improve the teleoperation of remote robots and evaluate the haptic teleoperation interface developed to command a rover on a realistic planetary environment.

More details about the team at http://welcome.isr.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Team-background.pdf.

More details about the mission at https://oewf.org/en/portfolio/amadee-20/.

In the media

• Published in Público, on November 13: https://www.publico.pt/2019/11/13/ciencia/noticia/investigadores-portugueses-vao-participar-missao-simulada-marte-1893543.
• Published in Funchal Notícias, on November 19: https://funchalnoticias.net/2019/11/19/investigadores-do-iti-participam-em-missao-simulada-a-marte/

The European Researchers’ Night is celebrated on the last Friday of September every year.

ITI was invited this year, on September 27, to be at La Vie Funchal Shopping Center showcasing our researchers’ work for 600 students and other visitors from 2 pm to 10 pm. This is a free event and open to the public in general.

For the second year in a row, this event is being organized by the University of Madeira, in the scope of the Macaronight project – European Researcher Night in the Macaronesia, which is being promoted by the Regional Secretary of Education, Funchal City Hall, and La Vie Funchal Shopping Center. The project aims to promote awareness to the public in general having as a theme, this year, “Discovering Science and Technology in La Vie.” Several departments of the University of Madeira will be represented, as well as, the Oceanic Observatory of Madeira, Madeira Natural History Museum, and Marine Biology Station.

The Macaronight project is funded by the Marie Curie Sklodowska action, European Commission Horizon 2020. The University of Madeira works in a partnership with the Azores, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife in order to promote science, technology, research, innovation being developed in the Macaronesia region.

Diogo Cabral and his MDMI students had the poster LightStress: Targeting Stress Reduction through Affective Objects presented at UbiComp 2019 – ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, a conference held in London, on September 11-13.

Abstract

Long-term stress is a leading cause of global health loss. Despite its clear influence on productivity, and overall social and economic development, mental health continues to be neglected in work environments. To help reduce this problem, we present LightStress, a tangible affective artifact that adapts itself to the user’s needs in order to improve their mental well-being. Our prototype is inspired by existing techniques and coping mechanisms collected during the two ethnographic studies we conducted ( a cultural probe and an online imagery research).

Valentina Nisi and Nuno Nunes recently won an H2020 project named MEMEX – MEMories and EXperiences for inclusive digital storytelling, as a partner, with a budget of about 380K€ for ITI. This project, funded by the European Commission, has an overall budget of 3,995.036,25€. The project coordinator is Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), established in Genova, Italy and it involves seven other partners from Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal.

MEMEX aims to develop new interactive technologies (in particular, augmented reality and interactive stories) combined with artificial intelligence techniques to create and disseminate stories about European migrant communities and their tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

The project will have three pilots to assess the new technologies developed by the European consortium. First, in Barcelona, where it will focus on gender matters around migrant women’s inclusion. Secondly, in Paris’ largest multicultural immigrant settlement district XIX. Finally, the third pilot will happen in Lisbon (coordinated by ITI/LARSyS) and it will approach the inclusion of second and third-generation immigrants.