research

research statement and members of the lab or group

Research Statement

My research focuses on robust, interpretable, and trustworthy machine learning, particularly under real-world constraints such as distribution shift, class imbalance, weak supervision, and privacy requirements.

I have developed a sustained research agenda at the intersection of:

  • robust learning
  • uncertainty awareness
  • explainability

with applications in medical decision support, biometrics, and safety-critical vision systems.

For over two decades, my goal has been to build machine learning systems that can reason from visual data in a robust, interpretable, and verifiable manner.
My work spans:

  • methodological advances
  • system-level integration
  • deployment-oriented research

with the aim of ensuring reliability, transparency, and accountability beyond controlled benchmark conditions.


Research Group

πŸ‘‰ Visual Computing and Machine Intelligence (VCMI)

2024 β€” Leadership transitioned to Ana Filipa Sequeira
~2022 β€” VCMI and IPPR merged into a unified research structure within CTM
~2016 β€” Leadership transitioned to Helder Oliveira
2012 β€” Creation of the IPPR Area (Information Processing and Pattern Recognition), with VCMI as its main research group
2011 β€” Formal establishment of VCMI
The group name was formalised, along with the creation of its proposal, website, and mailing list

PhD Students

  1. 2022– JoΓ£o Diogo Fernandes Freitas Nunes β€” FEUP (supervisor)
  2. 2022– Bruno Fonseca β€” FEUP (supervisor)
  3. 2022– Beatriz Vieira β€” IST (cosupervisor)

  4. 2023– Hossein Zolfagharnasab β€” FEUP (supervisor)
  5. 2023– Arefeh Mazarei β€” FEUP (supervisor)

  6. 2024– Felipe Coutinho β€” FEUP (supervisor)
  7. 2024– Wenwu Ma β€” FEUP (supervisor)
  8. 2024– Chao Liu β€” FEUP (cosupervisor)
  9. 2024– Pedro Lima β€” FEUP (cosupervisor)
  10. 2024– Safa Vakili β€” FEUP (cosupervisor)

  11. 2025– Mariana Doria Prata Lima β€” LNCC (cosupervisor)
  12. 2025– Maria Salvador β€” FEUP (cosupervisor)
  13. 2025– Joaquim Fonseca β€” FEUP (cosupervisor)
  14. 2025– Juan Yuri DΓ­az SΓ‘nchez β€” Vigo (cosupervisor)
  15. 2025– Luis Silva β€” FEUP (cosupervisor)

  16. 2026– Lucas Moreira β€” FEUP (supervisor)
  17. 2026– Bryan Ebiyau β€” FEUP/CMU (supervisor)
  18. 2026– Bryan Bosho β€” FEUP/CMU (supervisor)