The ‘Data Defenders’ game, developed under the Yo-media project, was presented at Aveiro TechDay by project members Ana Paços, Laura Martins, Frederico Proença, Liliana Costa, Maria Antunes, and Oksana Tymoshchuk. This game aims to promote media literacy among young people during crises, such as political, military, or health-related adversity times. The game has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both young people and their parents.
The University of Aveiro (UA) was present at the Aveiro TechWeek event, with a permanent display and highlighted at the fair, showing the best of the research produced by the UA in the area of video games.
The exhibition organized by the direction of the Master’s in Digital Game Development, in partnership with the rectory of the UA, featured a display of dozens of academic works by master’s students, the demonstration of numerous research projects of several research units and departments at the UA, as well as functional Virtual Reality prototypes that could be explored by the public present at the fair.
The TechWeek, dedicated to the theme Videogames, was held in the two pavilions of the Aveiro exhibition park, from 4th to 6th October. The Gaming TechWeek had the participation of various stakeholders in gaming culture, from streamers, players and many curious people, with several lectures and sports tournaments held.
The Master’s Degree in Digital Game Development is an advanced training offer that results from a joint venture between the Department of Communication and Art and the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and IT, with teachers and researchers from DigiMedia, IEETA and IT.
The ‘Play with Music’ game, which enables children with motor difficulties to learn and play Music using only their eyes, was showcased successfully at Aveiro TechWeek. This innovative game comprises two sections: one offering structured music lessons and another providing a more playful approach. Children interact with the game using an EyeTracker.
‘Play with Music’ was developed as part of Lucius Filho’s master’s thesis in game design, supervised by Oksana Tymoshchuk, Rita Oliveira, and Davys Moreno, in collaboration with the Aveiro Conservatory of Music.
Carla Leite, a DigiMedia PhD student, was invited to give the talk “A vida académica são dois dias, e a vida profissional são três”, at the PCI – Creative Science Park, in Ílhavo. The event is organized by the Geek Girls Portugal, and takes place on 24th October.
Free registration here.
More information on social networks here:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hFSkrXbSGW3NWB5u/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA3uno0BVA7/?igsh=aW0yanM1NzNtbncw
The Impact Plan, a tool to support the anticipation of impact of projects designed by Digimedia’s member Catarina Lelis, is one of the activities that is part of the Inner Development Goals Conference (IDG2024), made available on their Story & Collaboration Garden. This is a feature available on the conference’s website, which is taking place on 16-18 October, in Stockholm, Sweden. At the Story & Collaboration Garden, registered participants can search for projects, resources and ideas connected to the IDG framework.
The 16th International Conference on Education Technology and Computers (ICETC 2024) and The 15th International Conference on Distance Learning and Education (ICDLE 2024) took place from 18th to 21th of September, 2024 and gathered a global audience of researchers, educators, and practitioners from various sectors of education technology and computer science. The conference provided a valuable platform for sharing ideas, research insights, and best practices in the field of education technology.
Raquel Magalhães Cabral, a DigiMedia PhD student, presented the “SUNRISE App: A Tool to Validate the Characteristics of an Infocommunicational Model Capable of Potentiating Social and Emotional Education for High School Students.” Co-authored by professors and master students, prof. Dr. Oscar Mealha (from Digimedia), prof. Dr. Vania Carlos (from DEP/UA), prof. Dr. Cristina Mercader (from Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona) and the master students: Bruna Riba, João Neves and Tiago Paralta (Porto University), this research paper explored the potential of technology to enhance social and emotional education.
During the conference, Raquel Magalhães Cabral’s presentation was recognized as the best oral presentation of the session about “The Diverse Applications of Digital Tools and Platforms in Education”. It was evaluated based on criteria such as applicability, originality, significance, visual aids, English delivery, and timeliness. This recognition highlights the quality and impact of her research and her ability to effectively communicate her findings to a diverse audience.
Representing DigiMedia, the post-doctoral researcher Ana Velhinho, won a fellowship from Freepik to attend between the 2nd and 7th of September a Summer School in Málaga (Spain), dedicated to the sustainability and etics of AI in Digital Humanities, relevant to the research within the ongoing project Polariscope, a Platform for the Co-creation and Visualization of Collective Memories.
The 8th Digital Art History Summer School (DAHSS 2024) occurred at the Polo de Contenidos Digitales of Fundación Telefónica. This year’s theme was “Sustainability and Politics of AI”, with sessions organized around four tracks, led by the four speakers of this edition:
The event was organized by Nuria Rodríguez-Ortega, Professor of the University of Málaga and founder of the iArtHIs_Lab research group, and Bárbara Romero Ferrón, a researcher at this lab and the CulturePlex Lab (Western University). DAHSS 2024 had 24 participants from several countries and institutions, consolidating a network of researchers to strengthen ongoing projects and foster upcoming ones.
Digimedia member Catarina Lelis was one of the University of Aveiro’s lecturers selected to represent the institution at the ECIU University Forum 2024, in Kaunas, Lithuania. Under the theme “Education for a sustainable and resilient society”, the meeting raised a few questions and proposed multiple ways to find answers. The event constituted a significant step towards shaping the future of education and innovation. It was an opportunity to create and consolidate relationships and reinforce the power of the community involved in the project.
In a global meeting where “impact” was the leading word, it made sense to share with the ECIU community The Impact Plan, introducing participants to a framework that helps individuals in better aligning their desired repertoire of skills and project ambitions (their WHYs) with the UN SDGs and the three main sustainability dimensions: environmental, economic and social. A small and promising network seems to have emerged from this meeting.
Juliana Camargo, Pedro Almeida and Jorge Abreu presented their work at the IMX’24 (ACM Interactive International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences) in Stockholm:
. Always together: combining TV notifications and voice interactions to connect older adults to other generations: access here.
. Remixing and repurposing cultural heritage archives through a collaborative and AI-generated storytelling digital platform: access here
Juliana was also awarded a travel grant from SIGMM Student Travel Awards.
Three projects won the four awards of Media Play’24: Rehamind, Twovest and et-cetera.
Media Play’24 had 13 projects in the competition, which were developed by our students, within the Multimedia area and show new apps, games, digital platforms, or UX prototypes.
The voting process was open to everyone, upon registration.
Get to know more about the winning projects below.
The Rehamind Project won the Public Award (votes from the general public: students, faculty members, researchers, etc), sponsored by DigiMedia.
Sérgio oliveira is the author of Rehamind – Virtual Reality Serious Game for stroke rehabilitation at home. Stroke is one of the main causes of death and disability worldwide, with consequences that can lead to physical and cognitive disabilities. Rehabilitation plays a central role in the lives of survivors. This work proposes the use of Virtual Reality and Serious Games as a complementary methodology for cognitive and upper limb rehabilitation of stroke survivors. By combining these tools, it is possible to create virtual environments that stimulate real-life activities, as well as immersion and interaction with virtual objects, following narratives based on everyday tasks, with which survivors can relate with.
The Twovest project won the Academia Award (votes from faculty members and researchers of STC), sponsored by DigiMedia).
Vasco Saraiva, Jónatas Roque, Gonçalo Calçada, João Paixão, Daniela Silva and Margarida Bicho are the authors of Twovest, which is an e-commerce platform for clothes’ selling that focuses on the second-hand market and guarantees its customers the authenticity and quality of all items. In addition to offering a wide variety of products and brands, you can also create customizable collections where you save the inspirations you see in our community’s look gallery. In addition, it is possible to unlock new offers and coupons by interacting in the gallery or making new purchases. At Twovest, our goal is to help brands actively contribute to sustainability. And you benefit from that.
The et.cetera project won both the Professional Award (votes from the business representatives), sponsored by AlticeLabs, and the Disruptive award (votes from faculty members, researchers, and business representatives), (sponsored by Ubiwhere).
Carolina Batista, Gabriel Ribeiro, Inês Sucena, Lara Mendes, Leonardo Coelho and Nathália Magalhães are the authors of et.cetera, which is a home management platform that allows the creation of collaborative shopping lists, using or not Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, it allows all members of the household to keep their bills up to date, thanks to the expense’s functionality, integrated with expenses associated with purchases.
DeCA, University of Aveiro
Campus Universitário de Santiago
3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
Project Ref: UID/05460/2025
Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU
More about Programa Recuperar Portugal
