2022 Annual Conference – Speakers

Pedro Arezes

Since 2016, Pedro Arezes has been a National Director of the MIT Portugal Program. Since 2013, Pedro has been a Full Professor (Professor Catedrático) on Human Factors Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, and a visiting fellow at MIT and Harvard University, both in the USA. Since 2013, he is also an invited full Professor at the University of Porto (Engineering Faculty). In 2010/2011, he worked as an invited researcher at TU Delft (Safety Science group), in the Netherlands.

Having a background on Industrial Engineering, he holds a PhD in the same domain from the UMinho, where he also coordinates, since 2003, the Ergonomics & Human Factors research group,being also the Director of the Ergonomics Laboratory and Program Director of the PhD Program on Industrial and Systems Engineering. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, authored and edited more than 50 Books and book chapters, and authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers published in international conference proceedings. During his academic career he has been a member and/or PI of more than 30 international and national competitive funded research projects across several domains, with a special emphasis to the domains of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and of Occupational Safety and Hygiene. He has been collaborating (as a member of the editorial board, guest editor and/or reviewer) with more than 20 recognized international scientific journals.

Zita Martins

Zita Martins is an Astrobiologist, an Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST, Portugal), and a Co-Director of the MIT Portugal Program. She works in the field of Astrobiology and Cosmochemistry, and her research interests include the detection of bio-signatures in space missions, and the potential contribution of organic compounds present in meteorites and comets to the origin of life on Earth.

She has a 5-year undergraduate degree (Licenciatura) in Chemistry from IST (Portugal, 2002) and a PhD in Astrobiology from Leiden University (The Netherlands, 2007). She was an Invited Scientist at NASA Goddard (2005 and 2006), and an Invited Professor at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France) (2012). In 2009 she was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship worth 1 Million British Pounds, and she was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Imperial College London (UK) until end of 2017. Since January 2018 she is an Associate Professor at IST (Portugal).

Zita Martins has been actively involved in space research, including participation in several space missions. From 2007 to 2009 she worked on the Urey Mars Organic and Oxidant detector, which was previously listed to fly to Mars on the ExoMars mission. She is a Co-Investigator of two European Space Agency (ESA) space missions (OREOcube and EXOcube), which will be installed in the International Space Station. She is also a Member of the Portuguese Consortium of the ARIEL space mission from ESA, and a Member of the “Organic macromolecules” sub-team of the Japanese space mission Hayabusa2 from JAXA.

Douglas P. Hart

MIT professor of mechanical engineering, MIT Portugal Program co-director, Mechanical Engineering Controls, Instrumentation, and Robotics division head, Gordon Leadership and Undergraduate Professional Opportunity Program director, and co-founder of multiple venture backed companies.  Doug is a technical advisor for numerous companies and professional organizations and involved in the commercial development of technologies ranging from satellite propulsion and autonomous drones to surgical robots. Current research focus is on energy systems for ocean robotics and shipping.  B.Sc. U of I, S.M. MIT, Ph.D. Caltech.

R. John Hansman

R. John Hansman is the MIT Portugal Program Director at MIT. He’s the T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics MIT, where he is the Director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation. 

He conducts research in the application of information technology in operational aerospace systems.  Dr. Hansman holds 6 patents and has authored over 250 technical publications. He has over 6000 hours of pilot-in-command time in airplanes, helicopters, and sailplanes including meteorological, production, and engineering flight test experience. 

Professor Hansman chairs the US Federal Aviation Administration Research Engineering & Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) as well as other national and international advisory committees.

He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), is a Fellow of the AIAA and has received numerous awards including the AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Aeronautics Research, the ATCA Kriske Air Traffic Award, Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, a Laurel from Aviation Week & Space Technology, and the FAA Excellence in Aviation Award.

Elvira Fortunato

Photo credits: Portuguese Government 

Amélia Polónia

Member of the Board of Directors, Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

Brent Minchew

Brent was born and raised in Texas. After serving nearly eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and 2010. Brent received a PhD in Geophysics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2016. He was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, from 2016 to 2018. Afterward, he joined the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an assistant professor. His research focuses on glaciers and ice sheets, emphasizing the processes governing sea-level rise rates. He uses a combination of remote sensing observations, mathematical theory, and numerical models to study the physics of fast-flowing glaciers, which account for the largest uncertainties in projections of sea-level rise.

Rita M. Cardoso

Rita M. Cardoso completed in 1996 a 5-year degree in Geophysical Sciences (Meteorology and Oceanography) in FCUL’s Department of Physics. In 2005 she finished her PhD at School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds (UK). During the last decade, her research focused on regional climate modelling, climate change, extreme events and land-atmosphere-ocean interactions.

Rita has participated in several national and international projects, in which she has been involved in high resolution regional climate simulations. She is a member of EURO-CORDEX (European branch of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment) and she performed the Portuguese EURO-CORDEX simulations. She is the coordinator of the Portuguese participation in the CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study “LUCAS – Land Use and Climate Across Scales”. She is also involved in the Flagship Pilot Study: “Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean” where she has an active role in the simulation setup and analysis.

Currently, Rita is the PI of the FCT project LEADING, “Land use changes and mitigation of global warming”.

Alexandra Moutinho

Alexandra Moutinho is Assistant Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, the reference engineering, science and technology faculty in Portugal.  She is also Senior researcher at Center of Intelligent Systems, part of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Her research and development mainly focus on Robotic Systems. Her main areas of expertise are: Ground and aerial robotics development and applications; Flight control; Guidance, positioning and navigation systems; Modeling and simulation; Estimation; Mechatronics; Intelligent Data Modelling and Optimization.

Paulo Ferrão

Paulo Ferrão is a Distinguished Professor of Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon, President of IN+, Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research. He is a board member of the EUREKA Association. He has been President of the COST association from 2019 to 2021 and the President of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese National Science and Technolofgy Foundation) from 2016 to 2019, and Director of the MIT-Portugal Program from 1996 to 2016. He is a member of the Environmental Advisory Committee of Rolls-Royce.

He has been active in “Sustainable Cities”, where he co-authored a book at MIT-Press on “Sustainable Urban Metabolism”. He is a member of the European Commission Mission Board on “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities”, and he has been engaged with the U.S. National Academies as a member of the Sustainability Roundtable, the Committee on “Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government” and the committee of “Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for the United States”. He has been leading the urban project component in two ADB projects, for which the publication “Urban metabolism of six Asian Cities” emerged. His scientific career has evolved within the areas of “Laser diagnostics for turbulent combustion”, “Energy Systems” and “Industrial Ecology”. He is very active in the area of Waste management, and he was the coordinator of the National Waste Management Strategy for Portugal and of the Portuguese Municipal Waste Management Strategic Plan (PERSU 2020).

He is author and co-author of nine books and more than hundred peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals and a variety of book chapters and over hundred papers presented in conferences and invited talks in different domains.

Ana Correia de Barros

With a background in industrial design, complemented with a PhD in industrial engineering and management (UBI), Ana Correia de Barros has professional experience as designer, lecturer, and design researcher. Ana has carried out research at UNIDCOM-IADE, at the vocational rehabilitation centre CRPG, and she is currently a senior researcher and head of the Human-Centred Design department at Fraunhofer AICOS, Portugal, a research centre on digital technology. Her research revolves around assistive products and inclusive design in healthcare, both at home (e.g., coping with chronic disease) and at work (e.g., coping with mental health vis-à-vis working conditions). In these contexts, she’s particularly interested in spontaneous design, product appropriation and affective human-product relationships.

Hélder Silva

With a 5 years degree in Aerospace Engineering and a MBA in finance, Hélder Silva has been working in ESA projects since 1999. Initially in avionics systems using satellite communication and lately heading the Aerospace Systems in EDISOFT, leading several teams and projects in On Board software in several ESA space missions. Since 2006, involved in the development of a real time operating system for satellites, RTEMS by EDISOFT, it is currently being used in more than 50 space missions including Galileo FOC, smallGEO, IXV, MTG, PLATO, EUCLID, ExoMars, etc.

Eduardo Pereira

Eduardo Pereira holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Minho and the Technical University of Denmark. He is Assistant Professor at the University of Minho, board member of IB-S (Institute for Bio-sustainability) and member of ISISE (Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering). He was involved as coordinator or team member in several projects related to Oceans Sustainability, including NEXT-SEA (Monitoring and Management of Coastal Ecosystems in a Scenario of Global Change – development of next generation biomimetic and bio receptive artificial reefs, self-monitoring and self-repairing systems), OMARE (spatial information systems, decision support and management of Marine Protected Areas – MPAs), EREDES (Oceans sustainability, marine litter and the use of biodegradable fishing nets) and FLOATIDE (Sustainable floating docks for offshore renewables). He is also collaborating with the GOAP (Global Oceans Accounting Platform) by ESCAP – United Nations for next generation sustainable development models for the Oceans, Oceans Accounting. As scientific coordinator of K2D – Knowledge and Data from the deep to space, he is deeply involved in the development of strategies for next generation oceans global monitoring for sustainability.

Cristina Gouveia

National Contact Point for SMEs and for Climate Action and Environment theme in Horizon Europe. She has done research on public participation, written proposals, and founded tech-based companies. An environmental engineer by conviction and training, she was lucky to have seen the birth of multimedia interfaces, the World Wide Web, and smartphones. She enjoys translating European funding instruments to plain English while trying to help those who are focused on creating new ideas and businesses.

Susana Costa

Susana Costa is the Research and Industry Liaison Coordinator at the MIT Portugal Program. Susana still collaborates with the Production and Systems Department of the University of Minho’s School of Engineering as an Invited Assistant Professor, and with the Ergonomics and Human Factors Laboratory at the Centro ALGORITMI in the University of Minho (Portugal), within the “Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM)” research line. Susana Costa holds a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Minho and a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the same teaching institution.

She is an Occupational Safety and Hygiene Specialist since 2010 and a certified internal auditor of Integrated Management Systems for Quality, Environment and Safety since 2015.

Susana previously integrated the INNOVCAR and the EasyRide projects, resulting from a partnership between the University of Minho and Bosch. She has collaborated with several institutions and companies in the scope of professional training and consulting in Human Factors and Ergonomics and Occupational Safety and Hygiene.

She integrates the International Scientific Committee of the Occupational Safety and Hygiene (SHO) Symposium since 2016, and is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Conference on Safety Management and Human factors (SMHF) since 2017, and a member of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) Technical Program Committee since 2020.

She is an author and reviewer of several articles in magazines, symposia and conferences in Occupational Safety, Hygiene and Ergonomics, and has participated in several PhD and Master’s defences as a jury member.

Ana Mena

Ana Mena is the Innovation and Education Coordinator of the MIT Portugal Program (MPP) in Portugal, since June 2021. She has a vast experience as professional at the interface of science and is passionate about exchanging knowledge with all citizens and contributing to a more advanced society.

Before coming to MPP, Ana Mena coordinated projects and teams at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) for more than 8 years, first as Head of the Science Communication and Outreach Unit and lately as Head of the Public Engagment Unit. During this period, she was responsible for the institutional communication and press office of IGC for 6 years, and coordinated several educational and science communication projects, from teachers training and tailored science activities for students, to the production of educational resources and science and art projects. She has organized more than 20 public events for different audiences and stakeholders. Her work in science communication received awards from “Casa das Ciências” (Portugal), “Ciencia en Acción” (Spain) and “Acesso Cultura” (Portugal).

Also, Ana Mena was a founding member of the IGC Ethics Committee being involved in the establishment of internal procedures of the Committee.

Ana Mena holds a 5-year undergraduate degree (Licenciatura) in Microbiology and Genetics from Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (2000), and a PhD in Biology from University NOVA Lisbon (2008).

Albano Martins

Albano Martins is a civil engineer and a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto. He is also a lecturer at the Polytechnic Institute of Maia in the Higher Technical Professional Course of Construction Works Management and Building Renovation.

His research explores the advantages of recovering empirical knowledge of bioclimatic vernacular solutions suited to urban contexts, that will lead to the creation of guidelines. He is interested in urban design, built environment, and sustainable construction.

Albano holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from University of Porto where he began to take its first steps in research and development projects. As a civil engineer, he collaborated with small and medium-sized construction companies, having also participated in the revision and updating of some technical specification manuals, both academic and professional.

Beatriz Biguino

Beatriz Biguino has a degree in Meteorology, Oceanography and Geophysics and a Master degree in Marine Sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) (18/20). She is a research fellow at MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (FCUL) since 2019, having integrated multidisciplinary projects in the area of environmental quality. Between 2020 and 2021 she was a research fellow at the Hydrographic Institute (Lisbon), in a partnership with MARE. Currently she is taking a PhD in Marine Sciences (FCUL) with a scholarship awarded by the MIT Portugal Program (2021 MPP2030-FCT). She has four articles published in specialty journals, presented extended abstracts and a poster at conferences, and made as well three oral presentations. Areas of interest include coastal and estuarine oceanography and their monitoring with satellite remote sensing.

Matilde Marques

Currently enrolled in a Ph.D program in Biotechnology and Biosciences, Matilde Marques is working on increasing octocorals resilience towards climate change scenarios. Valuing applicability, during her academic life she has always chosen topics that mirror her values. In her master thesis, Matilde investigated the bioactivity of chemical extracts from marine bacterial symbionts of soft corals and sponges against human lung and breast cancer cells. During her bachelor, she has worked in the area of phytoremediation, assessing the impact of environmental stresses on the fatty acid profile and genetic expression of the brown mustard (Brassica juncea). Fascinated by the myriad facets of Biology, during her undergraduate studies, Matilde also completed an internship in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and HIV Epidemiology (Lisbon, PT) and attended workshops related with Forensic Entomology and Biological and Forensic Anthropology.

Samuel Moniz

Samuel Moniz is Professor in Industrial Engineering and Management. He specializes in solving real-world optimization problems. He has been involved in solving complex problems through the application of advanced modeling approaches and data science techniques, with applications in the process and manufacturing industries.

Cristiana Paulo

Cristiana Paulo studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra before embarking on the adventure of the first edition of the MIT Portugal Program. Having worked previously with bacteria and yeasts, she was invited to develop her Ph.D. project in antimicrobial nanoparticles and coatings. She witnessed the budding of a startup company, which she joined later for over ten years. The experience allowed her to learn new skills necessary to optimize production, scale up and obtain authorizations to put a biocidal product on the market. Cristiana is always happy to try something new, sometimes to the dismay of her children when it comes to cooking.

Mariana Vieira da Silva

Photo Credits: Portuguese Government 

António M. Cunha

Isabel Furtado

Ana Camanho

Ana Camanho is Vice-Rector for Digital Transformation and Information Management of the University of Porto. She graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), received a Ph.D. in Industrial and Business Studies from Warwick Business School, United Kingdom, and a habilitation in Industrial Engineering and Management by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. The main research interests of Ana Camanho are Operations Research and Data Science, with an emphasis on developing models for assessing efficiency and productivity change using frontier techniques. Ana Camanho was Pro-Director of FEUP, Director of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management of FEUP, and a member of the Pedagogical Council of FEUP. She is the coordinator of the Data Science area of the MIT-Portugal Program. Ana Camanho was Vice-President of the Portuguese Operational Research Society (APDIO) and Deputy Director of the Doctoral Program in Industrial Engineering and Management of FEUP. She is the author of more than 80 papers in international journals, mainly in the area of Management Science. Ana Camanho is Associate Editor of the Journal of Productivity Analysis and RAIRO-Operations Research. She has been involved in research projects in the following areas: education, health, banking, artisanal fisheries, transportation, corporate social responsibility, retail, construction industry, mining industry, quality of life and sustainable development of countries and cities, regulation of electricity distribution, and benchmarking in the water sector.

Rui Magalhães

University degree in Polymer Engineering from the University of Minho (Portugal) and holds a PhD in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the University of Warwick (United Kingdom). In 1996 he was a Research Fellow at the Advanced Technology Center of the Warwick Manufacturing Group (UK), working on the development of materials and processing technologies for the automotive sector.

Author of several patents in the field of polymer processing technologies, articles in international journals and conferences. Was appointed Managing-Director of the Centre for Innovation in Polymer Engineering (Portugal) for 14 years (2002-2016), developing a wide range of projects between academia and industry.

In 2019 joined CEiiA – Centre for Engineering and Product Development as senior technology manager for the Valorization Unit and since 2020 is Head of Engineering and Development of the Ocean and Space Unit at CEiiA.