Special LIAAD INESC Porto LA

The BIP is associated with the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of INESC Porto in the city of Porto. As such, over the following months the “Special” section will visit each R&D Unit and group within the institute. Not just “looking to the past”, the idea is to allow people to get to know INESC Porto LA as it celebrates its 25th Anniversary in Porto, as well as getting to know the new goals and challenges that the next quarter of a century will bring.

The first step: the creation of synergies

In November we ended the “Special” report section with The Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support (LIAAD). This INESC Porto Group – Associated Laboratory was born in May 2007 when the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) approved the proposal to create a R&D unit from another existing one (NIAAD group from LIACC). The Group was initially formed in 1988.

In 2007 the idea of creating a completely new Associated Laboratory or joining with an already existing one was discussed. According to Pavel Brazdil, the man in charge, the Group has always been aware of the works of INESC Porto both through project evaluation sessions, organised by the FCT and through sessions organised by the Reitoria of the University of Porto. As both institutions share a lot of common ground in their areas of research, LIAAD decided to go ahead with the second proposal. That is how the link between LIAAD and INESC Porto LA came to be. With LIAAD onboard INESC Porto LA broadened not only its range of competencies, but also its ability to take on larger and more demanding projects. 

LIAAD´s fame crosses borders

LIAAD’s activities are mainly in the area of decision support systems with particular emphasis on data mining, predictions, adaptive modeling and optimisation, with applications in marketing, finance, scheduling, health, information extraction from texts and many other areas. The Group is currently made up of 55 members, 23 of which have Doctorate degrees and many LIAAD researchers have over 20 years of experience in R&D. This has really contributed to the standard of research coming from the Group.

LIAAD’s fame crosses borders. LIAAD is in contact with around 30 different universities all over the world; it has a high influx of foreign visitors each year and participates in editorial committees for scientific journals etc. Pavel Brazdil, on par with this, belongs to the elite group ECCAI Fellows (ECCAI - European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence). Furthermore, his work with João Gama and Luís Torgo, along with that of postgraduate students has received many awards for articles and/or presentations in congresses. This has greatly boosted the international profiles of both the Group and INESC Porto LA. 

Outstanding Projects

Two recent technological developments are changing our conduct in the world we live in. Materials are appearing that are equipped with computing capabilities, objects with sensors are no longer static and inanimate objects have become adaptable and reactive. On the other hand, the communication networks boom has increased the sharing of information and made it possible to carry out self-organisation. In the light of these developments the "Knowledge Discovery from Ubiquitous Data Streams" project aims to study, develop and analyse learning models and algorithms in real time that are capable of functioning in sensors and exchanging information with other sensors that is relevant to decision making.

In turn, the MORWAQ project aims to develop tools that can be used in water quality maintenance in Porto’s metropolitan water supply network. These tools would monitor the different parameters of water quality along various points in the network with the aim of signaling abnormalities. Other models are also being developed that can predict future values for these parameters throughout the network.

Project Palco 3.0 is a Co-promotion R&TD project led by the company Palco Principal Lda., partnered with INESC Porto (through the USIG and UTM groups and LIAAD and CRACS of INESC Porto-Associated Laboratory) and the University of Porto’s Faculties of Engineering, Science and Economy. The project aims to develop the base platform for an existing musical content portal (http://palcoprincipal.com/) by promoting and maximising automation and innovation in various processes such as content identification, automatic classification, selective research, organisation, sharing, recommending and intelligent treatment of all types of data (music, preferences, texts, photos, posts, among others).   

A promising future

When questioned about the future of LIAAD Pavel Brazdil points out that it is important to keep working towards the strategic objectives, aiming for the target area of decision support and exploring various routes such as data mining or modeling and optimisation. The sharing of knowhow and solutions with special emphasis on real life applications is essential. It is also equally important to maintain the lead in the research areas where the Group has already received international recognition and to continue moving this research forward in all areas.  The collaborative pursuit of other areas of scientific research will help to promote interdisciplinary research and increase the likelihood of finding new objectives and more innovative solutions. Pavel Brazdil sees this link with INESC Porto as vital to encouraging the Group’s scientific excellence in research.  

Crying over the Memory

This algorithm is driving me crazy!                   It’s a bit wiry around here!

Next year nobody will stand in our way!