* Please note that the programme is still subject to minor updates/adjustments

22 OCTOBER

Venue: FEUP | Grand Auditorium

Rui Artur Bártolo Calçada is a Full Professor (2014-) of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and the Dean of FEUP (2022-2026). He has been President, since its foundation (2021-), of the Scientific and Strategic Council of CCF-Centro de Competências Ferroviário, FEUP representative on the Academia Permanent Advisory Group of ERRAC – European Rail Research Advisory Council and the FEUP representative on EURNEX – the EUropean rail Research Network of Excellence.  He has been involved in the supervision of 24 PhD thesis and was the Director of the doctoral program iRail-Innovation in Railway Systems and Technologies, a partnership between the University of Porto, the University of Minho, and the University of São Paulo in Brazil. His main fields of interest are advanced models for analysis of the train-infrastructure dynamic interaction; dynamic effects on bridges and transition zones; fatigue assessment of railway bridges; track-structure interaction; condition monitoring systems (wayside and on-board); advanced algorithms for condition assessment of the railway infrastructure. 

Dr Isabel Ramos has an MSc in Bioengineering from the University of Porto and a PhD in Cardiovascular Imaging from King’s College London. Currently she is part of the London Digital Innovation Hub for Novo Nordisk where she works as an Open Innovation Consultant driving strategic Fast Track Innovation programs across 14 European countries. Previously, as Innovation Manager for Digital Health at Siemens Healthineers, she managed AI-related product development projects and collaborated closely with key universities and hospitals in London. She also worked in tech transfer offices, first at Imperial Innovations and then at The Francis Crick Institute, where she facilitated the commercialization of research discoveries through industry collaborations and IP protection. Passionate about digital health innovation she is dedicated to modernising healthcare by collaborating with dynamic and forward-thinking teams.

Carlos Oliveira is the Director of Communication and Cooperation at FEUP – Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto. He is also active as a community manager at Porto Innovation District, and as an invited Professor of the U.Porto multimedia master’s degree. Carlos has graduated from electrical engineering and has a Master’s Degree in telecommunications, both from FEUP. He has also been a researcher at INESC Porto and an entrepreneur in the multimedia sector.

Tricia Martínez is the Managing Director of the Techstars AI. Tricia is an experienced serial entrepreneur, executive, and activist passionate about driving large-scale impact through technology and innovation. Tricia has earned titles including top 20 founders of color by Conscious Company Magazine, Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year by USHCC, a top 100 FinTech Leader, among others. Tricia is also an alumna of the London Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars participating in the 2016 program with her blockchain-enabled financial services platform, Wala.

Clara Gonçalves is currently Co-founder of a Scientific Machine Learning startup, Inductiva Research Labs assuming the position of Chief Operating Officer. In last 14 years, she worked as Finance and Foresight Group Leader at the Fraunhofer Institute in Portugal, she was also Head of Innovation and Technology Transfer at the Innovation Center of the School of Medicine of the University of Minho and Executive Director of UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto, implementing an effective model of knowledge and technology transfer between academia and companies, supporting more than 500 technology-based start-ups and spin-offs and attracting around 30 Innovation Centers from national and international companies to the University of Porto ecosystem.

Samer leads Concept Lab from discovery and problem definition, through solution selection and partner due diligence, to implementing and commercializing the results into viable and scalable solutions. Samer previously spent five years financially engaging the world’s unbanked as cofounder and Chief Operations Officer at Wala, where his team addressed issues that prevent the world’s underserved from accessing basic financial services, utilizing the most innovative tools available in the market, including Dala, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency designed and launched by the Wala team. Prior to that, he co-founded Unbranded Designs, a crowd-sourced furniture design company and built the world’s first online furniture design community and, with that community, brought an innovative design approach to some of the world’s most prestigious organizations. He began his career at ZS Associates as a business operations consultant, working in a number of data-heavy roles and cofounding the process improvement practice. Samer holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and is a Tauber Institute for Global Operations Fellow.

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Jodi Forlizzi is the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the School of Computer Science. Jodi has advocated for design research in all forms, mentoring peers, colleagues, and students in its structure and execution, and today it is an important part of the HCI community. Jodi studies the ethical impacts of human interaction with AI systems in front-line service industries including healthcare and hospitality. She also develops methods and tools to ensure that product developers can mitigate ethical harms and bias during product development. Jodi is an ACM SIGCHI Fellow and recently received its Lifetime Research Award. She recently testified to the US Senate in one an AI Innovation Briefing and collaborates closely with the AFL-CIO Tech Institute.

Pedro Coelho has a background in Business Economics and had a long experience working as a business and financial consultant for several organizations, including ANJE and SPI. Since 2005 working at FEUP, he is currently the Head of Research & Innovation Support Unit (INOV) and the coordinator of the Business & Innovation Network (BIN@TM) since it was created in 2010. He is co-founder and executive member of FEUP’s Industry Liaison Office. In 2021, Pedro Coelho received  the excellence award for partnership, attributed by Universitatea ”Valahia” din Targoviste (RO) as a testament to the long-term cooperation that BIN@ network has had with the university.

Dr.hc.Violeta Bulc, is the founder and curator of the Ecocivilisation movement. In less than four years, the movement under her leadership has grown into a global community that is already present in 46 countries and connects more than 2,500 active people in various fields that influence the co-creation of our common future and the present. Her career consists of different layers, which include the mandate of the European Commissioner for Transport, the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Cohesion and Development, a 14-year career as an entrepreneur, a 5-year career as a director in the field of telecommunications and a few years of an engineer's career with extensive experience in the field of computing and informatics at home and abroad. She is the recipient of various national awards and prizes in the field of innovation and development of strategic business projects, publicist, author of the business bestseller Rhythms of Business Evolution and co-author of chapters in various books and professional publications. Her wide experience was richly supplemented by the Shaman Academy and the Academy of Martial Arts. She is an active member of many international professional and supervisory boards at the international, European and national level. She describes herself as a traveler through space and time, on the wings of curiosity and love.

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Lučka Bogataj is professor emeritus at the University of Ljubljana. Her areas of research include biometeorology, climate change impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Her expertise as a climate scientist is internationally recognized and she was, as a member of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2002 – 2016) the joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She was also a member of the Steering Committee for the Global Climate Observation System at World Meteorological Organisation In 2016 she became a member of the UNESCO Expert Group on the Declaration on Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change. She was listed among Women Who Inspire Europe in 2012 by the European Institute for Gender Equality. She has shared her expertise at many national and international conferences and in various media.