Knowledge Networks News New R&D Institute Created in Madeira within the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program New R&D Institute Created in Madeira within the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program
- 23/07/2009
University of Madeira, Madeira Technopole and Carnegie Mellon University sign, on July 23, 2009, a protocol for creating a new private R&D institute in the area of Information and Communication Technologies, Madeira – Interactive Technologies Institute (Madeira - ITI), in a ceremony in the presence of the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago, and the Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor. The creation of this institute had been proposed at the 5th meeting of the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program, chaired by Luis Magalhães, President of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, on the 27th and 28th of May 2009.
The Madeira – Interactive Technologies Institute results from the cooperation developed by the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal and, in particular, the success of the dual Masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction which was promoted by University of Madeira within this Program.
Two years after the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal started, the ongoing R&D and advanced training activities have proven to be fundamental to attracting new talent and build critical mass in emerging areas such as human-computer interaction. The new R&D institute is now enhancing actions launched and strengthen the institutional conditions for the international affirmation of the University of Madeira research groups in this area.
The Madeira – Interactive Technologies Institute will be the first institution created as a result of the new statutes of the University of Madeira, and it will be associated with offering three Master programs in Engineering Computing, Interaction and Entertainment, the last two offering dual degrees with Carnegie Mellon University. The institute will be housed in premises made available and adapted by the Madeira Technopole, involving about 20 professors and senior researchers and more than 80 master and doctoral students. It will also be involved in several R&D projects with companies.
The Carnegie Mellon – Portugal was initiated on the 27th of October 2007, under the action Partnerships for the Future, as part of the initiative Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future. The main areas of research and teaching are: processing and information networks, including software engineering; information networks; information security; computational treatment of language; networking and sensor technologies; public policy and telecommunications; technology innovation; mathematics.
In an unprecedented fashion in Portugal, the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal allowed to implement effective thematic networks over the past two years, involving a wide range of Portuguese institutions with the aim of promoting their internationalization, having as basis targeted advanced training projects, sustainable schemes stimulating new knowledge and the valorization of new ideas in collaboration with companies and institutions of international reference. Within these initiatives, the various graduate programs leading to dual degrees of Portuguese universities and Carnegie Mellon University are currently involving 35 doctoral students and 70 master students in Portugal.
More information: Information and Communication Technologies Institute, ICTI, http://twitter.com/cmuportugal, http://cmuportugal.blogspot.com.