João Madeiras Pereira, Técnico professor (Department of Computer Science and Engineering -DEI) and INESC-ID researcher, was recently named senior member of one of the world’s largest computing society – the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Nominees must have accrued at least 5 years of Professional ACM membership in the last 10 years and must have demonstrated performance through technical leadership, and technical or professional contributions.
“I am very proud to be named senior member of such a prestigious association as ACM, which attests my professional and scientific work”, says the Técnico professor.
According to professor João Madeiras Pereira, this nomination “was certainly influenced by my contributions in the field of Serious Games. The focus of these digital games on purposes other than entertainment, have the ability to become a fertile field of activity”. According to the INESC-ID researcher, this area is growing “in a safe way, and represents a new and important opportunity for those who develop games and technology suppliers, as well as for the development of interactive tools”.
The Técnico professor carried out Research and Development (R&D) activities in this area for six years (2009-2014) and has been involved in two European projects: TARGET and GALA. “TARGET project was developed under the 6th Framework Programme. I was the Principal Investigator and we developed a TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) platform that allowed knowledge workers, in business organisations, to acquire and develop skills in the individual and social dimensions through the use of a Serious Game”, he recalls. “This project involved a financial investment of around 850 thousand euros”, he stresses. “GALA project focused on the implementation of a network of excellence in Serious Games to enhance its use in education and training activities and respond to the needs of the main SG stakeholders in Europe”, adds the INESC-ID researcher.
Professor João Madeiras Pereira’s main research interest is the refined Graphics Visualization in several R&D subtopics, “namely, interactive and real-time graphic systems, high performance global illumination algorithms and Virtual Reality”, he explains. “In fact, a substantial part of my research work focused on interactive graphic systems and corresponding real-time rendering techniques, from their application in digital games and simulators to Virtual Reality applications, through the interactive visualization of volumes of massive data on large-scale displays”, he adds.
Professor João Madeiras Pereira has been conducting research at INESC since 1984. “Currently, I am the scientific coordinator of the Graphics and Interaction group (GI) at INESC-ID”, he shares. The Técnico professor has also been involved in national and international scientific projects as Principal Investigator, and has always maintained a visible international research activity “duly proven through the numerous publications in scientific journals and conferences”.
Founded in 1947, ACM is an important and prestigious organisation that brings together computing educators, researchers, and professionals, and promotes computer research and innovation through its journals, magazines, high quality scientific events and conferences. “I am a member of ACM SIGGRAPH, which annually organises the world’s largest conference on computer graphics – classified as A * in the CORE ranking – and publishes the TOG journal (ACM Transactions on Graphics) whose impact factor over 4 years is about 8.7”, says the Técnico professor. “Getting a research work published in one of these sites is a kind of ‘holy grail’ for any researcher in this field”, says professor João Madeiras Pereira.
