27-10-2016
Easily create "apps" for a smartphone without using complex programming languages and play an interactive game to help children in speech therapy, were the activities offered by NOVA LINCS’ researchers João Costa Seco and Sofia Cavaco, to the visitors of National Science Museum, in Lisbon, during the European Researchers' Night.
Sofia Cavaco leads the research project "BioVisualSpeech" with the objective to develop a platform for speech therapy sessions for children, using human-computer interaction and machine learning techniques. The use of computer games motivate and keep children engaged in the exercises so that the therapy sessions could be more successful. This platform also provides to speech therapists a decision support system to monitor the progress of children and plan future therapy sessions. During Researchers' Night children and grownups were able to play one of these interactive games in which a blue bird, the game character, is controlled by the child's voice.
João Costa Seco main research focus is the design and implementation of interactive and intelligent programming environments that allow the development of ready to use software tools, without the so-called bugs. At the National Science Museum visitors were able to try a software tool designed for non-specialists to easily create their own "Apps".
The participation of NOVA LINCS at European Researchers' Night brings Computer Science closer to the general public and increases awareness and understanding of the importance and impact of computer science research on the improvement of people's life quality and development of society in general.
The European Researchers' Night is an initiative of the European Commission that takes place every year all over European cities the last Friday of September. This year, the event took place on Friday 30 September.
Media (in Portuguese):
“Entram aqui princesas, saem cientistas” | Expresso
Entrevista em direto a Sofia Cavaco | Antena1
“Noite dos Investigadores” aproxima cientistas da população | SIC Notícias