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Presentation

Human-Centered Computing and Information Science

HumanISE is an interdisciplinary centre focused on research at the forefront of human-centred computing (HCC) with broad and deep expertise in computer science (CS) and information science (IS).

At HumanISE, engineers, scientists and designers focus on research and development of software systems, methods, and tools, capable of leveraging human abilities and practices within their communities and environments, involving high technical and managerial complexity, due to large scale, high heterogeneity, high uncertainty, high integrity, strict compliance to standards and legal frameworks, or domain-specific organisational issues.

Our mission is to pursue high-quality research, innovation, consultancy, and technology transfer, impactful, in close cooperation with academic and industrial partners. We focus on five main research areas - Computer-Human Interaction, Computer Graphics and Interactive Digital Media, Information Management and Information Systems, Software Engineering, and Large Scale and Special Purpose Computing Systems, Languages and Tools - and four innovation areas - Personalised Health Research, Earth, Ocean and Space Science, Geospatial Information Systems Engineering, and Information Systems and Applied Computing.

Furthermore, at HumanISE, we are also strongly committed to training young researchers and professionals, with a significant track record in the supervision of master and PhD students.

Presently, our researchers originate from the University of Porto (UP), Polytechnic of Porto (IPP), University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Universidade Aberta (UAb) and University of Minho (UM).

Latest News
Robotics

Portugal at the forefront with new technology for measuring radon gas and improving global climate projections

For the next four years, INESC TEC will lead an international consortium with a budget of €2.6M, aimed at using advanced techniques to measure environmental radioactivity. According to estimates, by 2028, new technological solutions will be available that can improve both climate research - particularly in estimating greenhouse gas emissions - and radiological protection for the population and the environment.

02nd October 2024

INESC TEC seeks to help companies embrace digital transformation at lower costs

Digital transition, innovation, business empowerment, financing, disruptive technologies; and a certainty: 2024 will be a year of opportunities for companies that are willing to take risks. Close to 100 participants gathered at Palácio do Freixo to get to know ATTRACT project, coordinated by INESC TEC. 

08th February 2024

INESC TEC researchers strive to improve realism and multisensory experiences in virtual environment training

The scientific work "Studying the Influence of Multisensory Stimuli on a Firefighting Training Virtual Environment" won the 13th edition of the Professor José Luís Encarnação award. It is the sixth time that a group of INESC TEC researchers won this annual award.

17th January 2024

INESC TEC technology to protect olive groves and potentially other crops

The InOlive project reached the end; the olive groves' smart monitoring solutions developed within the scope of the initiative are currently being used. INESC TEC has created a smart trap, a technology that could be optimised to other crops.  

10th October 2023

INESC TEC attended seminar dedicated to the Forest Bioeconomy

Promoting the debate and reflection on advanced technologies, emerging markets, and national and European policies that contribute to the valorisation and efficient and sustainable use of forest resources; this was the theme of the seminar organised by FORESTIS – Associação Florestal de Portugal, which brought together stakeholders from Portugal and Spain, with INESC TEC participation.

28th July 2023

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Featured Projects

AMIDA

Aquisição de um serviço de desenvolvimento de arquitetura do sistema AMIDA

2024-2024

PFAI4_5eD

Programa de Formação Avançada Industria 4 - 5a edição

2024-2024

Team
003

Laboratories

Information Systems Laboratory

Laboratory of Software Engineering

Laboratory of Computer Graphics and Virtual Environments

Publications

HumanISE Publications

View all Publications

2025

Alloy Repair Hint Generation Based on Historical Data

Authors
Barros, A; Neto, H; Cunha, A; Macedo, N; Paiva, ACR;

Publication
FORMAL METHODS, PT II, FM 2024

Abstract
Platforms to support novices learning to program are often accompanied by automated next-step hints that guide them towards correct solutions. Many of those approaches are data-driven, building on historical data to generate higher quality hints. Formal specifications are increasingly relevant in software engineering activities, but very little support exists to help novices while learning. Alloy is a formal specification language often used in courses on formal software development methods, and a platform-Alloy4Fun-has been proposed to support autonomous learning. While non-data-driven specification repair techniques have been proposed for Alloy that could be leveraged to generate next-step hints, no data-driven hint generation approach has been proposed so far. This paper presents the first data-driven hint generation technique for Alloy and its implementation as an extension to Alloy4Fun, being based on the data collected by that platform. This historical data is processed into graphs that capture past students' progress while solving specification challenges. Hint generation can be customized with policies that take into consideration diverse factors, such as the popularity of paths in those graphs successfully traversed by previous students. Our evaluation shows that the performance of this new technique is competitive with non-data-driven repair techniques. To assess the quality of the hints, and help select the most appropriate hint generation policy, we conducted a survey with experienced Alloy instructors.

2025

Testing infrastructures to support mobile application testing: A systematic mapping study

Authors
Kuroishi, PH; Paiva, ACR; Maldonado, JC; Vincenzi, AMR;

Publication
INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY

Abstract
Context: Testing activities are essential for the quality assurance of mobile applications under development. Despite its importance, some studies show that testing is not widely applied in mobile applications. Some characteristics of mobile devices and a varied market of mobile devices with different operating system versions lead to a highly fragmented mobile ecosystem. Thus, researchers put some effort into proposing different solutions to optimize mobile application testing. Objective: The main goal of this paper is to provide a categorization and classification of existing testing infrastructures to support mobile application testing. Methods: To this aim, the study provides a Systematic Mapping Study of 27 existing primary studies. Results: We present a new classification and categorization of existing types of testing infrastructure, the types of supported devices and operating systems, whether the testing infrastructure is available for usage or experimentation, and supported testing types and applications. Conclusion: Our findings show a need for mobile testing infrastructures that support multiple phases of the testing process. Moreover, we showed a need for testing infrastructure for context-aware applications and support for both emulators and real devices. Finally, we pinpoint the need to make the research available to the community whenever possible.

2024

Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, VISIGRAPP 2024, Volume 4: VISAPP, Rome, Italy, February 27-29, 2024

Authors
Radeva, P; Furnari, A; Bouatouch, K; de Sousa, AA;

Publication
VISIGRAPP (4): VISAPP

Abstract

2024

Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, VISIGRAPP 2024, Volume 3: VISAPP, Rome, Italy, February 27-29, 2024

Authors
Radeva, P; Furnari, A; Bouatouch, K; de Sousa, AA;

Publication
VISIGRAPP (3): VISAPP

Abstract

2024

Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, VISIGRAPP 2024, Volume 2: VISAPP, Rome, Italy, February 27-29, 2024

Authors
Radeva, P; Furnari, A; Bouatouch, K; de Sousa, AA;

Publication
VISIGRAPP (2): VISAPP

Abstract