Limelight section, BIP of May - Jaime Cardoso (UTM)
Every month, this section will honour a collaborator for an exceptional contribution in his/her area of activity. BIP’s Editors will have the final choice. However, the cooperation of every Unit Coordinator is precious since they will be the ones suggesting which collaborator should be distinguished.
31st May 2013
Jaime Cardoso
1. What does it mean for you to be nominated for the “Limelight” section of the Bulletin of INESC TEC (BIP)?
Initially I was surprised because I always saw this distinction as a way of motivating and acknowledging the admirable work of young researchers at INESC TEC. And so I feel young again! But in fact I think that this nomination is primarily recognition of the very positive path of the young field of Information Processing and Pattern Recognition (IPPR) at the Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM), which I am representing.
2. When did you come to INESC TEC?
I’ve been working here since 1999 and so this relationship was built very naturally and gradually. My graduation project (Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering) was supervised by professors who worked at INESC Porto. Although the work has been conducted at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), I got to know INESC Porto and its activity. At that time, a research position opened at UTM (for the “digital television group”) to which I applied and was selected. I never wanted to leave after that! :)
3. Tell us a little about the experience of leading the research team "Visual Computing and Machine Intelligence"? Do you feel well in this leadership role?
At this stage in my life, the professional activity that gives me more pleasure is undoubtedly the research that I’m doing with my group as part of the VCMI. I think the path of the VCMI is somehow “mixed”, in part, with the actual path of the Information Processing and Pattern Recognition area. It has been very gratifying to follow the “growth” (and I believe I have been contributing to that growth) of various elements that have been or remain in the group. I'm far from being a born leader, as I find it difficult to manage human resources. But I’m learning and improving...
4. The research team led by Jaime is very active in health related projects. In your opinion, how important is computational intelligence in the treatment/prevention of diseases?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has undoubtedly played and will continue to play a central role in medicine. Subareas of AI that are related to my work, such as image/video analysis and machine learning, have led to significant advances in automation tasks, in extracting knowledge from databases (new promising compounds for a given task, the causal relationships between entities, etc.), in designing systems to support medical diagnosis. We mainly develop algorithms that make it possible to automatically understand the content of a given imaging examination to automate a series of decisions and/or assist diagnoses.
5. You are the author of 36 papers in international journals, and you have published a book, three book chapters and 55 papers in international conferences. After 15 years, what motivates a researcher of excellence to continue working at UTM/INESC TEC?
Starting is the difficult part, getting into the 'game'. After that, you don’t want to stop playing! Incidentally, when I'm not waiting for the result of any paper or project submission, it seems like there is something missing... When you like what you do it is easier not to settle and to continue looking for the next challenge.
6. You also work as a university professor, supervising and co-supervising two Post-Doctoral students, nine PhD students and five MSc students. How does the work you conduct at UTM/INESC TEC enrich your activity while teaching in Higher Education?
Although the numbers seem high, it is important to note that because the themes of MSc projects are related to PhD projects, PhD students collaborate actively in the supervision of these students (with a clear benefit for both), while Post-Doctoral students help mentor doctoral students as well.
I think that conducting research is crucial for us not to stagnate in education, and for us to have a solid knowledge on the subjects. The way, we will be able to update the syllabus according to the current needs and trends. I cannot see myself as a professor without research.
7. In addition to research and teaching,
you have also organised international conferences. As a researcher, what is the
importance of participating in international conferences today?
Firstly, I think we have an obligation towards the scientific community. If we
like to take part in scientific events and agree that these events are
fundamental, then we should contribute by helping organise them. Despite the
enormous workload and responsibility that comes with organising these
initiatives, we also have the advantage of increased visibility and we will be
able to promote contacts and collaborations.
8. What advice
would you give to an early career researcher?
“It is easy to give advice, but it is hard knowing how to do it”. But I can give it a try and I emphasise two aspects. Try to work less to achieve 'numbers' and focus more on the 'impact' or quality of your work. We are all evaluated for what we produce and we tend to work to maximise the evaluation metrics (instead of the quality of the work). While it is important to be pragmatic (and realising that a better assessment allows us to have a better CV, which will put us in a better position to obtain more funding for new projects and more research), we must avoid being 'dominated' by the numbers.
Furthermore, we must be aware that the time to conduct research is not rigid, not restricted a "9 to 5" schedule. We must have a flexible timetable: ideas do not know time and sometimes you need to stay a little longer to test an idea that comes without warning. How often does the solution appear when we are taking a shower or having a cup of coffee with friends (as long as we are 'receptive'). And when the deadline comes to submit the paper, you push harder...
9. Do you see yourself working in
industry?
For now I don’t feel tempted by any of the invitations or opportunities that have emerged.
10. We conclude this questionnaire by asking to comment on your nomination to the “Limelight” section made by the Unit managers of UTM?
Professor Jaime Cardoso has done an outstanding work supervising a scientific group at UTM, investigating aspects related to visual information computation, and obtaining relevant scientific results and prototypes which can be of great use. His research group has recently held it 100th meeting, which also demonstrates the commitment and perseverance of Professor Jaime Cardoso in creating a cohesive, high quality group and pursuing well-defined research goals.
I would like to start by thanking the public recognition of the work of the group and I stress the part mentioning the balance between the scientific component and the transfer of technology to industry. In our groups we have elements working on each of these aspects, both crucial as they potentiate one another. More recently (in the lifetime of the group) some of the elements have done a very important job in projects in collaboration with industry, which in a way has complemented very effectively and has made it possible to capitalise the more scientific work we have been developing since the group was created.