Cognitive and Media Systems Group

The goal of CMS is to provide context for specialized team research on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Information Visualization, Computational Creativity, Ambient Intelligence, and ICT for Education, stimulating theoretical and empirical study, the design and development of models and tools, and the use of research results in innovative applications with high social and scientific relevance.

The group was founded in 2007, when the former Computer Science (CS), Artificial Intelligence (AILab), and Simulation and Information Technologies in Education and Training (SITET) Groups decided to merge, aiming to deepen synergies and gain critical mass.

The group’s activities are structured in four main research streams, organized into four cooperative Laboratories:

The Ambient Intelligence Lab (AmILab) focuses on understanding and predicting relevant dynamics in the urban areas for urban planning and design. The group specializes on the integration and analysis of crowd-sourced, social media and open data, as well as stakeholder database, through AI techniques.

The Artificial Intelligence and Computational Creativity (AICCo) Lab main competences are in cognitive modelling, computational models of creativity, concept invention, knowledge retrieval, natural language processing and evolutionary computation. Our main intervention areas are in the proposal and assessment of computational models of cognitive phenomena (emotions, creativity, selective attention, aesthetic evaluation), evolutionary machine learning, and solutions for semantic retrieval in digital media (image, sound).

The Educational Technology (ET) Lab aims to study, design, develop and evaluate strategies and computer-based tools to enhance learning, with a special focus in educational simulation, computer science education research and distance education. Two lab members are actively involved in the University Distance Learning Project, which includes also research activities.

The Computational Design and Visualization (CDV) is a multidisciplinary research Lab that focuses on Information Visualization, Sonification, Computational Design and New Media Art, and whose work is characterized by the application of AI and Nature inspired techniques to these domains.

The group currently involves more than 50 collaborators, among PhDs (16), post-graduation students and researchers, in multiple research projects of national and international level.

 
Group contacts:
Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra
Polo II, Pinhal de Marrocos, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal
Phone: +351.239.790.000   Fax: +351.239.701.266

Group Coordinator:
Fernando Penousal Machado (machado -at- dei -dot- uc -dot- pt)