Jorge Ferraz de Abreu

Integrated Member

Biography

Jorge Abreu began his career while still in the final stage of his degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering when he was invited to participate in the European FiRST- R2014 project to coordinate the installation of a passive optical network to support TV and data services (still in use at the University of Aveiro). During this period, he completed his Master’s degree in the same field and in 1996 was invited to teach at the Department of Communication and Arts. Passionate about the intersection of HCI and iTV, he obtained his PhD in “Design of services and interfaces for interactive TV” (in 2007) and his aggregation title with a specialisation in UX evaluation (in 2017).

Always motivated to enhance the Viewer’s Experience and contribute to reshaping the TV ecosystem, he founded the Social iVX group in 2007 (now part of DigiMedia – http://socialivx.web.ua.pt/). Over the years, he has successfully engaged 100+ researchers and postgraduate students in this dynamic and multidisciplinary field based on HCI and UX. To achieve this, he has collaborated and has been PI on many projects helping to secure a global funding of around 41M€ (4,3M€ for the University).

Jorge Abreu played a key role in the creation of the DigiMedia Research Unit (he was vice- coordinator in 2018-20) and the PhD program in New Media (being its vice-director since 2021 and director since 2024). He is the national coordinator of RedAUTI/CYTED (Thematic Network on Applications and Usability of Interactive Digital TV), which brings together more than 200 researchers from 32 universities and industry.

He was elected member of the University’s Scientific Council (in 2022) and was appointed Director of the Master in Multimedia Communication (2011-14), Vice-Director of the PhD program in Information and Communication on Digital Platforms (from 2014), and scientific coordinator of Alticelabs@UA (an academy-business fusion laboratory). He is also a reviewer for several international journals and scientific events.

Research Projects

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