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Facts & Numbers
000
Presentation

High-Assurance Software

HASLab is focused on the design and implementation of high-assurance software systems: software that is correct by design and resilient to environment faults and malicious attacks. 

To accomplish this mission, HASLab covers three main competences — Cybersecurity, Distributed Systems, and Software Engineering — complemented by other competences such as Human-Computer Interaction, Programming Languages, or the Mathematics of Computing. 

Software Engineering – methods, techniques, and tools for rigorous software development, that can be applied to the internal functionality of a component, its composition with other components, as well as the interaction with the user.

Distributed Systems – improving the reliability and scalability of software, by exploring properties inherent to the distribution and replication of computer systems.

Cybersecurity – minimize the vulnerability of software components to hostile attacks, by deploying structures and cryptographic protocols whose security properties are formally proven.

Through a multidisciplinary approach that is based on solid theoretical foundations, we aim to provide solutions — theory, methods, languages, tools — for the development of complete ICT systems that provide strong guarantees to their owners and users. Prominent application areas of HASLab research include the development of safety and security critical software systems, the operation of secure cloud infrastructures, and the privacy-preserving management and processing of big data.

Latest News
Computer Science and Engineering

INESC TEC researcher won Amazon Research Award

Alexandra Mendes, a researcher at INESC TEC, received the Amazon Research Award in automated reasoning. This is the first time this award has been granted to researchers who carry out their R&D work in Portugal.

27th June 2025

Greener high-performance computing? INESC TEC is processing solutions – and the keyword is “disaggregation”

Underused resources, wasted energy, and high operational costs. INESC TEC is leading a project that aims to propose alternatives to how computing resources are organised and managed.

05th May 2025

INESC TEC researchers strengthened the partnership with CENTRA international network

INESC TEC reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to international research collaboration by participating in the CENTRA 2025 event, a global initiative that brings together research centres, institutes, and laboratories from across the world to drive the development of transnational cyberinfrastructures. This year’s edition focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), exploring application in linguistics, cognitive psychology and advanced management of cyberinfrastructures. 

28th March 2025

Computer Science and Engineering

Advanced computing as a bridge between Portugal and Japan: INESC TEC and AIST reinforce scientific cooperation

Five years have passed since INESC TEC and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), in Japan, signed the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This scientific cooperation agreement, focused on advanced computing, led to major opportunities for mobility, joint publications and the exchange of knowledge and experiences, thus bringing the Portuguese and Japanese R&D ecosystems closer together – particularly in High-Performance Computing (HPC). Recently, the two institutes renewed the MoU and will continue to work together to boost research in advanced computing.

03rd February 2025

Computer Science and Engineering

There are bridges uniting biomedical engineering and supercomputing - INESC TEC researchers flew to Barcelona to cross them

For a week, Alicia Oliveira and Beatriz Cepa left INESC TEC's laboratories in Braga and went to Barcelona - the city that welcomed the ACM Summer School. The researchers explored some of the elemental HPC concepts and realised that - in a context dominated by computer science - their training in biomedical engineering was an asset.

31st October 2024

007

Projects

BringTrust

Strengthening CI/CD Pipeline Cybersecurity and Safeguarding the Intellectual Property

2025-2028

DisaggregatedHPC

Towards energy-efficient, software-managed resource disaggregation in HPC infrastructures

2025-2026

InfraGov

InfraGov: A Public Framework for Reliable and Secure IT Infrastructure

2025-2026

VeriFixer

VeriFixer: Automated Repair for Verification-Aware Programming Languages

2025-2026

ENSCOMP4

Ensino de Ciência da Computação nas Escolas 4

2024-2025

PFAI4_5eD

Programa de Formação Avançada Industria 4 - 5a edição

2024-2024

QuantELM

QuantELM: from Ultrafast optical processors to Quantum Extreme Learning Machines with integrated optics

2023-2024

Team
001

Laboratory

CLOUDinha

Publications

HASLab Publications

View all Publications

2025

Social Compliance with NPIs, Mobility Patterns, and Reproduction Number: Lessons from COVID-19 in Europe

Authors
Baccega, D; Aguilar, J; Baquero, C; Fernández Anta, A; Ramirez, JM;

Publication

Abstract
AbstractNon-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), including measures such as lockdowns, travel limitations, and social distancing mandates, play a critical role in shaping human mobility, which subsequently influences the spread of infectious diseases. Using COVID-19 as a case study, this research examines the relationship between restrictions, mobility patterns, and the disease’s effective reproduction number (Rt) across 13 European countries. Employing clustering techniques, we uncover distinct national patterns, highlighting differences in social compliance between Northern and Southern Europe. While restrictions strongly correlate with mobility reductions, the relationship between mobility and Rtis more nuanced, driven primarily by the nature of social interactions rather than mere compliance. Additionally, employing XGBoost regression models, we demonstrate that missing mobility data can be accurately inferred from restrictions, and missing infection rates can be predicted from mobility data. These findings provide valuable insights for tailoring public health strategies in future crisis and refining analytical approaches.

2025

CRDT-Based Game State Synchronization in Peer-to-Peer VR

Authors
Dantas, A; Baquero, C;

Publication
CoRR

Abstract

2025

Distributed Generalized Linear Models: A Privacy-Preserving Approach

Authors
Tinoco, D; Menezes, R; Baquero, C;

Publication
CoRR

Abstract

2025

CRDT-Based Game State Synchronization in Peer-to-Peer VR

Authors
Dantas, A; Baquero, C;

Publication
Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Principles and Practice of Consistency for Distributed Data, PaPoC 2025, World Trade Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 30 March 2025- 3 April 2025

Abstract
Virtual presence demands ultra-low latency, a factor that centralized architectures, by their nature, cannot minimize. Local peer-to-peer architectures offer a compelling alternative, but also pose unique challenges in terms of network infrastructure.This paper introduces a prototype leveraging Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) to enable real-time collaboration in a shared virtual environment. Using this prototype, we investigate latency, synchronization, and the challenges of decentralized coordination in dynamic non-Byzantine contexts.We aim to question prevailing assumptions about decentralized architectures and explore the practical potential of P2P in advancing virtual presence. This work challenges the constraints of mediated networks and highlights the potential of decentralized architectures to redefine collaboration and interaction in digital spaces. © 2025 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

2025

Understanding the adoption of modern Javascript features: An empirical study on open-source systems

Authors
Lucas, W; Nunes, R; Bonifácio, R; Carvalho, F; Lima, R; Silva, M; Torres, A; Accioly, P; Monteiro, E; Saraiva, J;

Publication
EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Abstract
JavaScript is a widely used programming language initially designed to make the Web more dynamic in the 1990s. In the last decade, though, its scope has extended far beyond the Web, finding utility in backend development, desktop applications, and even IoT devices. To circumvent the needs of modern programming, JavaScript has undergone a remarkable evolution since its inception, with the groundbreaking release of its sixth version in 2015 (ECMAScript 6 standard). While adopting modern JavaScript features promises several benefits (such as improved code comprehension and maintenance), little is known about which modern features of the language have been used in practice (or even ignored by the community). To fill this gap, in this paper, we report the results of an empirical study that aims to understand the adoption trends of modern JavaScript features, and whether or not developers conduct rejuvenation efforts to replace legacy JavaScript constructs and idioms with modern ones in legacy systems. To this end, we mined the source code history of 158 JavaScript open-source projects, identified contributions to rejuvenate legacy code, and used time series to characterize the adoption trends of modern JavaScript features. The results of our study reveal extensive use of JavaScript modern features which are present in more than 80% of the analyzed projects. Our findings also reveal that (a) the widespread adoption of modern features happened between one and two years after the release of ES6 and, (b) a consistent trend toward increasing the adoption of modern JavaScript language features in open-source projects and (c) large efforts to rejuvenate the source code of their programs.

Facts & Figures

1R&D Employees

2020

14Proceedings in indexed conferences

2020

4Papers in indexed journals

2020

Contacts