Author: ITI Webmaster

Técnico co-organises the Sustainable Interaction Design Summer School at the Politecnico di Milano, in Italy

What does it take to imagine a world beyond plastic? This June, a team from Instituto Superior Técnico set out to answer exactly that — not from a lecture hall in Lisbon, but from the shores of Lake Como. As Part of the ITI-led Erasmus + project Sustainable Interaction Design, Prof. Valentina Nisi, Prof. Nuno Nunes, and Dr. Shuhao Ma from the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), co-organized the event, which took place at the Lecco POle of POLIMI, from June 8 to 12.

Técnico was represented by four students: Vadym Volkovinskyy, Margarida Silva, Henrique Nogueira, and Islomkhuja Murtazoev who joined four international teams, working with students from Aarhus University, the University of Lapland, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Politecnico di Milano. The teams brought together participants from different academic, cultural, and disciplinary backgrounds. Under the theme “Plastic Free,” the teams explored the environmental and social challenges of plastic consumption and waste. Through research, ideation, and prototyping, they developed sustainable, innovative design proposals from multiple perspectives.

As part of the program, Prof. Nuno Nunes, Prof. Valentina Nisi, and Dr. Shuhao Ma delivered a lecture on Social Justice and Ethics in Interaction Design. They invited students to consider how sustainable interaction design can address not only environmental impact but also justice, inclusion, responsibility, and power, reflecting ITI’s commitment to more sustainable and equitable futures.

For Técnico, the week was a chance to deepen ties with European partners and to put students face-to-face with a real-world challenge in a setting as international as it is interdisciplinary.

More information is available on the Sustainable Interaction Design website (https://www.sustainableixd.com/).

June 30, 18h00
Portugal Pavilion https://maps.app.goo.gl/KTsh95SoZ1yjPKBAA

As part of the scientific and pedagogical programme of Designing Sustainable Futures, ITI researchers will take part in a roundtable dedicated to the Interspecies Research Studio.

The Designing Sustainable Futures programme invites specialists and researchers from the University of Lisbon to explore the future of design and its intersections with art, architecture, engineering, biology, and urbanism, with a focus on the major environmental and social challenges of our time.

The Interspecies Research Studio is a collective of researchers from the Interactive Technologies Institute, Universidade de Lisboa, where art, science, technological experimentation, and critical inquiry come together. Its members work as interspecies designers, recognising the interdependencies between people, animals, technologies, and minerals, and exploring new forms of coexistence between species and territories.

Created in the context of the Interspecies exhibition, held in 2025 at MAC/CCB and curated by Mariana Pestana, the collective has been developing research projects that examine, test, and redefine methods, tools, and responsibilities within this emerging practice.

In this roundtable Beatrice Maggipinto, Bernardo Gaeiras, Carlos Pastor, Fernanda Soares da Costa, Katerina Inglezaki, and Mathilde Gouin will present the Interspecies Research Studio as a collective and discuss their projects with Frederico Duarte. Some of these projects are part of the Designing Sustainable Futures exhibition.

The work will also be presented later in 2026 at Interspecies Designers: Research in Practice, an exhibition organised at the Técnico Innovation Center in Lisbon.

The programme is open to the public and subject to venue capacity.

Registrations: dsf.exposicao@gmail.com

Organisation: ITI, Interactive Technologies Institute, Técnico ULisboa
Coordination: Frederico Duarte

[English Summary] The Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI) has launched Collaborations with Communities, an open call for community-based organisations developing projects that use digital technologies to generate positive social change. Selected projects will receive non-financial support from ITI, including scientific and technical knowledge, human resources, technological infrastructure, and access to a network of partners.
Projects may address one or more of the following areas: Social Inclusion, Sustainability, Health and Wellbeing, and Culture and Creativity. Applications are open until 19 June 2026, 17:00. The application form and submission process are available in Portuguese. For questions or support, please contact us through the form available below.

O Instituto de Tecnologias Interativas irá apoiar instituições de base comunitária no desenvolvimento de projetos que utilizem tecnologias digitais para gerar mudança social positiva. As candidaturas estão abertas até 19 de junho de 2026, às 17h00.

O Instituto de Tecnologias Interativas (ITI) lança a Open-Call “Colaborações com Comunidades“, uma iniciativa destinada a apoiar instituições de base comunitária no desenvolvimento de projetos que recorram a tecnologias digitais para responder a desafios sociais, culturais, ambientais e de saúde.

A chamada procura projetos inovadores, com duração até 12 meses, que partam das necessidades e aspirações das comunidades e que possam dar início a relações de colaboração de longo prazo entre o ITI e organizações da sociedade civil.

As propostas deverão enquadrar-se numa ou mais das seguintes áreas temáticas: Inclusão Social, Sustentabilidade, Saúde e Bem Estar, e Cultura e Criatividade.

O apoio do ITI não será financeiro direto. A instituição irá disponibilizar conhecimento científico e técnico, recursos humanos, infraestrutura tecnológica e a sua rede de parceiros. Este apoio poderá incluir, entre outros exemplos, o desenvolvimento de aplicações, websites ou objetos interativos; formação em competências digitais; orientação na descoberta e implementação de tecnologias; avaliação de impacto; pesquisa documental; apoio na procura de financiamento adicional; e criação de ligações com parceiros académicos, industriais e institucionais.

Após a submissão, as candidaturas passarão por uma pré-seleção interna do ITI, para identificar a sua adequação às competências disponíveis. Numa segunda fase, as próprias instituições candidatas participarão num processo de revisão por pares, ordenando as propostas submetidas. O ITI espera apoiar, pelo menos, uma candidatura em cada área temática.

As candidaturas devem ser submetidas através do formulário disponível até às 17h00 de 19 de junho de 2026.

Datas chave

18 de maio de 2026
Abertura da chamada

19 de junho de 2026, 17h00
Data limite para candidaturas

24 de junho de 2026
Pré-seleção do ITI

26 de junho a 3 de julho de 2026
Revisão por pares pelas instituições candidatas

7 de julho de 2026
Notificação dos resultados

Call to action

Para submeter uma candidatura, preencha o formulário disponível aqui:
[Formulário de Candidatura]

Para questões adicionais, contacte-nos através deste formulário:
[Formulário de Contacto]

ITI/LARSyS is at CHI 2026, with an impressive presence from researchers and collaborators across the programme.
This year’s presence includes:

• 🏆 1 Best Paper
• ⭐ 1 Honorable Mention
  
• 📄 8 full papers
• 🛠️ 6 workshops and meet-ups
• 📊 5 posters and demos

🏆 The Best Paper distinction was awarded to Towards Fluent Interaction with Cyber-Physical Architecture.
⭐ An Honorable Mention was awarded to EcoAssist: Embedding Sustainability into AI-Assisted Frontend Development.

Across the programme, these contributions engage with:

• 🌱 sustainability in code
• ⚖️ workers’ rights in platform systems
• ❤️ heartbeat as a social medium
• ♿ crip futures in self-tracking
• 🤖 the body in AI
• 👵 aging with dignity
• 🧏 play across hearing ability
• 🎮 horror as reflection
• 🌍 the Mediterranean as a place to do HCI differently

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📄 Full Papers (CHI ’26)

• Towards Fluent Interaction with Cyber-Physical Architecture
  (Best Paper Award)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791787
  ITI/LARSyS author: Neeta M. Khanuja
  
• EcoAssist: Embedding Sustainability into AI-Assisted Frontend Development
  (Honourable Mention Award)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791330
  ITI/LARSyS authors: André Barrocas, Nuno Jardim Nunes, Valentina Nisi
  
• Revisiting Worker-Centered Design: Tensions, Blind Spots, and Action Spaces
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791128
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Shuhao Ma, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Jardim Nunes
  
• Social Play Between Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Hearing Peers: Learning from Children and School Ecosystems
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791520
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Jing Zhao, Hugo Nicolau
  
• The Ocular Command Center: How Eye Responses to Luminance, Color, Tunneling, and Visual Suppression Mediate Users’ Physiological States in VR
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791328
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Andreia Valente, Augusto Esteves
  
• Values Across Contexts: Understanding How Older Adults Enact What Matters Through Technology
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791780
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Valentina Nisi, Neeta M. Khanuja
  
• “More Aware and More Curious to Understand”: Emotionally Challenging Experiences in Psychological Horror Games
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790451
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Filipe Pinheiro Tomé, Ana Cristina Pires, Pedro F. Campos
  
• Design for Dis/Ability: A Crip Inquiry into Personal Energy Tracking
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790404
  ITI/LARSyS author: Pedro Sanches

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🛠️ Workshops & Meet-ups (CHI EA ’26)

• A Meet-Up done the Mediterranean way: Prospects of the Mediterranean CHI Community
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778810
  ITI/LARSyS author: Valentina Nisi
  
• CHI Stitch ’n B*tch: A Feminist HCI Meetup
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778787
  ITI/LARSyS author: Ana O. Henriques
  
• Growing Bio-HCI at CHI: Exchanging Materials, Tools, Practices, and Artifacts
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778679
  ITI/LARSyS author: Fernanda Soares da Costa
  
• Neurodiversity Meet-Up @ CHI: Building a Neuro-Affirming Community in HCI
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778796
  ITI/LARSyS author: Patrícia Piedade
  
• Where is the Body in Designing (Through) AI? Frictions and Opportunities in Integrating AI with Soma Design
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778774
  ITI/LARSyS author: Pedro Sanches
  
• Crossing the Academia–Practice Divide in Interaction Design
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778879
  ITI/LARSyS author: José Abdelnour Nocera

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📊 Posters & Demos (CHI EA ’26)

• Enhancing Social Connection in Shared Audiovisual Experiences via Collective Heartbeat Haptic Feedback
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3798307
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Andreia Valente, Juliana Marcelino, Augusto Esteves
  
• Read The Way: Designing and Developing a Mobile Application to Facilitate and Promote Literary Tourism
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3799101
  ITI/LARSyS author: Augusto Esteves
  
• Operationalizing Self-Perceptions of Aging Using Reflection Probe and SPA Design Cards with HCI Practitioners
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3799060
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Neeta M. Khanuja, Valentina Nisi
  
• Slide.Bingo: From Passive Attendance to Active Listening Through AI-Generated Bingo
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3799376
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Hugo Nicolau, Ana Cristina Pires
  
• Beyond Immediate Evaluation: A Longitudinal Study of Learning Effects in an Educational Game
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3799341
  ITI/LARSyS authors: Cristiano França, Genesis Nobrega, Beatriz Jardim Peres, Pedro F. Campos, Frederica Gonçalves

The Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI/LARSyS) is part of MOVIDA (Movement and Virtual Intelligence for the Development and Accessibility of Artists and Audiences), a new European project that started on April 1, 2026 and runs until March 31, 2029. Coordinated by Tallinn University, the project explores how Artificial Intelligence and related technologies, including Virtual and Augmented Reality and embodied AI systems, can support contemporary dance practices.

MOVIDA focuses on building capacity for artists, expanding audience engagement, and improving accessibility for people with disabilities and mental health conditions. It also addresses ethical and responsible uses of AI, including copyright, data ownership, labour, and environmental impact, through a human-centred approach.

The project brings together 11 partners across cultural organisations, academic institutions, and accessibility-focused entities in five European countries. At ITI, the project involves Filipa Correia and Nuno Correia, with Nuno Correia serving as project coordinator at Tallin University.

MOVIDA builds on previous Creative Europe projects, including MODINA (2023–2026) and Moving Digits (2018–2020), and will be developed through activities such as labs, residencies, showcases, forums, podcasts, and an online knowledge and tools hub.

Project Details

• Start date: April 1, 2026
• End date: March 31, 2029
• Grant Agreement ID: 101255836-CREA-CULT-2025-COOP-2
• Coordinator: Tallinn University

Researchers from the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI/LARSyS) presented several contributions at the 20th ACM Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI 2026), taking place in Chicago, United States.

TEI is one of the main international venues in Human–Computer Interaction dedicated to research on tangible interfaces, embodied interaction, and the integration of digital technologies with the physical world. The 2026 edition was organised under the theme “Tide + Tied”, exploring relationships between technology, environments, and embodied forms of interaction.

Researchers affiliated with ITI/LARSyS contributed to the conference with one full paper and three pictorials.

Full Paper:
Title: Supporting entrainment using latent space mappings and generative sound feedback during dyadic movement exercises
Authors: William Primett and Nuno N. Correia
https://doi.org/10.1145/3731459.3773328

Pictorials:

Title: Staying with the Underwater Trouble: Exploring the Hydrocommons through Freediving
Authors: Beatrice Maggipinto, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Jardim Nunes and Jessica Hammer
https://doi.org/10.1145/3731459.3774478

Title: Sketching More-than-human Times: Rethinking Temporal Representations through Embodied, Entangled, and Deep Time
Authors: Valentina Nisi, Marta Ferreira and Larissa Pschetz
https://doi.org/10.1145/3731459.3774481

Title: In-Situ Seeding: Entangling Place & Technology through Sensory Data Dialogues
Authors: Courtney N. Reed, Marta Ferreira, Mónica Mendes, Pedro Galvão-Ferreira, Mathilde Gouin, Fiona Bell and collaborators
https://doi.org/10.1145/3731459.3774489

ITI is also represented in the long-term organisation of the conference series. Augusto Esteves (ITI/LARSyS) serves on the TEI Steering Committee and will chair the next edition of the conference, ACM TEI 2027, which will take place in Lisbon.

More information about the conference programme can be found on the official TEI website:
https://tei.acm.org/2026/

Décio Damasceno Mendonça Alves, researcher at the Interactive Technologies Institute, has received the 5th edition of the +Valor Madeira Award, presented by the Assembleia Legislativa da Região Autónoma da Madeira.

The award recognized his doctoral thesis, “Previsão a muito curto prazo da velocidade e direção do vento para as operações de tráfego aéreo no Aeroporto da Madeira” (“Very Short-Range Forecasting of Wind Speed and Direction for Air Traffic Operations at Madeira Airport”). The research develops methods for short-term forecasting of wind conditions to support air traffic operations at the Madeira Airport. Given the demanding meteorological conditions that frequently affect the airport, the work contributes to improving operational safety and efficiency in air traffic management, strengthening a critical infrastructure for regional mobility and economic activity.

The doctoral research was conducted under the supervision of Morgado Dias, with co-supervision from Fábio Mendonça and Sheikh Mostafa, all researchers at the Interactive Technologies Institute. 

The +Valor Madeira Award recognises academic research with clear societal relevance. In this edition, the jury evaluated a record number of 53 submissions, and the winning prize includes a €5,000 monetary award.

This work illustrates the strategic relevance of scientific research for regional infrastructures. The Madeira Airport plays a central role in the region’s mobility, tourism, economy, and territorial cohesion. By addressing the complex meteorological conditions that affect its operation, the research contributes to strengthening operational safety and improving the efficiency of air traffic management. It demonstrates how scientific research can generate direct societal impact and support responses to concrete public challenges.

Images: Assembleia Legislativa da Região Autónoma da Madeira.

The book Interspecies, edited by Mariana Pestana, documents the research and co-curatorial process developed for the exhibition at Centro de Arquitetura MAC/CCB, and was co-published with Bartlebooth. Conceived both as an exhibition and as a research device, the project was collaboratively shaped by researchers from the Interactive Technologies Institute, including Anna Bertmark, Bernardo Gaeiras, Carlos Pastor, Fernanda Costa, Katerina Inglezaki, Mariana Simões, Mathilde Gouin, and Valentina Demarchi. Together, the team examined interspecies practices in architecture and design through a sustained curatorial inquiry.

Grounded in feminist and posthumanist frameworks, the publication advances the hypothesis of a “New Romanticism” as a critical orientation that recognises interdependence between humans, animals, technologies, minerals, atmospheres, and planetary systems. Interspecies relations were enacted not only as thematic content but through curatorial methodology, spatial configuration, and audience engagement. Exhibition design functioned as a mode of research.

The volume brings together projects and texts by the curatorial research team alongside invited contributors Coletivo FIELD, Coletivo Frame, KWY.studio, Studio Ossidiana, and SUPERFLEX, whose works extend the interspecies inquiry across architectural, artistic, and material practices.

Publication details
224 pages
120 × 200 mm
Hardcover with blind embossing
Offset print 4/4
Bilingual edition Spanish and English
ISBN (ES) 978-84-129322-6-3 / 978-972-8944-61-2
ISBN (EN) 978-84-129322-5-6 / 978-972-8944-60-5

The publication is available via Bartlebooth:
https://bartlebooth.org/Interespecies

Biotopia is now open to the public at the Museu de História Natural do Funchal, where it will remain on view over the coming months. The exhibition was developed within the European research project LoGaCulture – Locative Games for Cultural Heritage, coordinated at the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI).

LoGaCulture brings together leading researchers in digital locative games and cultural heritage to develop new design guidance, ethical frameworks, and reusable technologies for cultural institutions. Through multiple international case studies, the project investigates how interactive narratives, augmented reality, soundscapes, and transmedia formats can reshape visitors’ experiences of heritage sites. The aim is to enable cultural institutions to integrate locative and game-based experiences into their core heritage practices.

Biotopia constitutes one of these applied research case studies. The exhibition proposes an immersive, transmedia experience through which visitors encounter Madeira’s natural heritage using interactive technologies.

As explained by Valentina Nisi, researcher at ITI and member of the LoGaCulture project, Biotopia unfolds as a story distributed across multiple media formats. One component presents an interactive digital narrative inside a scenographic environment inspired by the island’s landscapes. Another introduces a wearable sleeve, developed by PhD researcher Mathilde Gouin, that can be tested in the museum garden. Connected to a GPS database, the device replicates the feeling of being touched by some of the island’s endemic and invasive species when entering an area where they have been located in the past. Once in the area, a speaker allowing the wearer to play the species’ call also activates, adding a more situated and multisensory dimension to ecological engagement.

The exhibition also integrates AI-supported dialogue systems that allow visitors to converse with species such as the monk seal and the Zino’s petrel. Through these interactions, audiences can ask questions and receive responses generated with the support of artificial intelligence, exploring new forms of engagement with biodiversity.

A further element is a board game, also playable online, based on a map of Madeira. By visiting locations and drawing prompts associated with specific sites, participants collaboratively construct narrative fragments that relate to the island’s ecological and cultural contexts.

Ricardo Araújo, Director of the Natural History Museum of Funchal, emphasized that the technological prototypes developed within the project offer accessible ways for younger generations to engage with scientific knowledge about Madeira’s characteristic species and natural heritage.

An RTP Madeira news segment covering the opening of Biotopia is available below.

A new publication in Trends in Biotechnology presents recent work from Luis Quijano, Cristiano Pedroso-Roussado (ITI-LARSyS), and Enza Migliore.

In “Broadening art–science collaboration in biotechnology: integrating design,” the authors advocate for the evolution of transdisciplinary research by integrating design as a generative partner within the laboratory. This paradigm shift is of critical interest to biotechnologists, design practitioners, and researchers seeking to move beyond traditional silos toward a model of collective innovation.

The study highlights the emergence of biodesign as a transformative practice utilizing biological organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, to develop novel materials like bacterial cellulose-based textiles and mycelium-based composites. Through high-impact case studies including the Bio-Tile project’s living architectural membranes, the BactoHealing project’s bacterial material repair, and one of the Bauhaus of the Seas residencies focusing on regenerative oyster shell tiles, the authors demonstrate how “material tinkering” enables early-stage hypothesis testing and the inclusion of more-than-human frameworks.

Supported by the Fulbright Future Scholarship, the Australian Government Research Training (RTP) Scholarship, the Horizon Europe Bauhaus of the Seas project, and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the work argues that establishing shared lab spaces and joint mentorship is essential to transform biotechnology into a mature research paradigm capable of addressing 21st-century environmental challenges.

Article:
Broadening art–science collaboration in biotechnology: integrating design
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2025.12.014
Free access (50 days): https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1mV1Jc9XEr9Gl

Authors:
Luis Quijano (joint co-first author)
Cristiano Pedroso-Roussado (ITI-LARSyS) (joint co-first author)
Enza Migliore

Image: ‘Bio-tile: Biodesign and Microbial Life in Architectural Practice’ (Enza Migliore and Ran Che).
Top left panel: Prototype of the 3D-printed porous ceramic bio-tile structure. Bottom left panel: Design sketch showing potential integration, surface growth, and application within a microclimate-regulating wall system. Right panel: Moss successfully integrated into the tile, illustrating living and material fusion with design. Image reproduced with permission from the Materialities lab (2025).