Research teams

Interactive Technologies Institute IST-ULisboa

The Interactive Technologies Institute, coordinator of the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project and consortium, boasts a multidisciplinary, international team of researchers and students working across a wide range of research projects. It is since December 2022 based at Hub Criativo do Beato, a research and innovation centre founded in the district where the Lisbon demonstrator pilots will be developed.

Nuno Jardim Nunes is the PI of the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project. He is a Full professor at IST and the President and founder of the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), the leading HCI and design research institute in Portugal. Nuno is the co-Director of the Carnegie Mellon International partnership and adjunct faculty at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Nuno strongly advocates the role of human-centric design in participatory culture and sustainability. His research influenced how digital technologies (including sensors, ML/AI, interactive storytelling, and mixed reality) can engage and inspire digital citizens to act sustainably and connect to nature and the broader ecosystems. Nuno organised several top conferences of the ACM SIGCHI and published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and conferences in the areas of HCI, software, energy, sustainability, design, and service science. He was PI and co-PI of several research projects totalling more than 35M€ from European to national and industry-funded. nunojnunes[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Mariana Pestana is Co-PI and Arts & Culture Coordinator on the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project. She is an architect and researcher, holding a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture (2019), an MA in Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martins, UAL supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2010) and is formed in Architecture from FAUP, University of Porto (2006). Mariana is an Invited Assistant Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and a researcher at ITI. Through cultural programmes, exhibitions, installations and publications, she explores the critical role and fictional potential of design. Co-director of the interdisciplinary studio The Decorators, Mariana was the curator and author of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial titled Empathy Revisited: designs for more than one (Onomatopee, 2021), Fiction Practice, (Onomatopee, 2020), Eco-Visionaries, (MAAT, Lisbon, Matadero, Madrid and Royal Academy, London), The Future Starts Here (V&A, 2018). She worked as a curator at the Department of Architecture, Design and Digital at the V&A Museum and lectured at Central Saint Martins Chelsea College of Arts among other universities in the UK, Netherlands and Portugal.
marianapestana[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Valentina Nisi is a tenured Associate Professor in Design Thinking at IST, U. of Lisbon (Portugal), Adjunct Faculty at the HCI Institute Carnegie Mellon University (USA) and founding researcher at the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI LARSyS). Her research encompasses Interactive Digital Storytelling, Gaming, and HCI, bringing awareness and care to pressing social and environmental issues. Spanning from Fine Arts, to Design and HCI, Valentina’s background contributes to an interdisciplinary view on sustainability and climate change issues combining a Research-through- Design approach with post-humanistic concerns. Her most recent funded research Project deal with the participation and preservation of various forms of heritage through storytelling and gaming.
valentina.nisi[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Paulo Ferrão is a Distinguished Professor of Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon, President of IN+, Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research. He is a board member of the EUREKA Association, and a former President of the COST association. He has been the President of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia from 2016 to 2019, and Director of the MIT-Portugal Program from 1996 to 2016. He is a member of the European Commission Mission Board on “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities”, and he has been engaged with the U.S. National Academies as a member of the Sustainability Roundtable, the Committee on “Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government” and the committee of “Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for the United States”. Paulo has been leading the urban project component in two ADB projects, for which the publication “Urban metabolism of six Asian Cities” emerged. He is author and co-author of nine books and more than hundred peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals and a variety of book chapters and over hundred papers presented in conferences and invited talks in different domains.
ferrao[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Tiago Domingos is an associate professor in Environment and Energy at IST, University of Lisbon, and coordinator of IST-Ambiente, the IST Interdepartmental Platform for Environmental Science and Engineering. He teaches Thermodynamics, Environmental Modelling, Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development and is the coordinator of the MSc in Environmental Engineering. He has supervised more than 20 PhD students. Tiago is a researcher and president of MARETEC – Marine, Environment and Technology Centre. His main areas of research are Ecological Economics and Ecological Modelling, for which he has published more than eighty papers in international peer-reviewed journals. He is also a founder and CEO of Terraprima, an IST spin-off, winner of the European Commission’s “A World You Like. With a Climate You Like.” competition for the best climate solution in Europe in 2013.
tdomingos[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Ricardo da Silva Vieira has a degree in environmental engineering (Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, 2002) and a PhD in Environment – Ecological Economics (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, 2014). He has worked on sustainability assessments of regions, companies, products, plans and programs, with focus on (but not exclusively) mitigation of climate change, agriculture, life cycle assessment (and greenhouse gas inventories). He was a researcher for the University of Leeds and a Footprint Officer for WWF. Ricardo co-coordinated the elaboration of the Azores Regional Climate Change Program, integrated the Portuguese climate team for UNFCCC issues during the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council. Currently, Ricardo is a member of the European Topic Centre for Sustainability Transitions and is a consultant for the Climate Ambition Accelerator from the UN Global Compact Network in Portugal. Apart from the analytical, quantitative environmental work, Ricardo also develops research with multicriteria methods, participatory and deliberative methods, mixed methods and qualitative social research.
ricardosilvavieira[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Teresa Heitor is Full Professor of Architecture at IST. She obtained a first degree in Architecture (1982, Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa, PT), a Master degree in Urban Design (1984, Joint Centre for Urban Design, Oxford Brooks University, UK); a PhD in Territorial Engineering (1997, Technical University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, PT) and habilitation in Architecture (2007, University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, PT). Currently she is the chair of Architecture at IST. She has been teaching post- and undergraduate students in Architecture at IST for the past 20 years. Her current research activity aims at the understanding of contemporary socio-spatial aspects of learning in urban settings, i.e., the places where structured and unstructured modes of learning, social interactions and re-presentation of knowledge can take place. Particular attention is given to technology-enabled active learning and research environments.
teresa.heitor[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Francisco Teixeira Bastos is Assistant Professor at IST. He obtained a first degree in Architecture (1986, Faculdade de Arquitectura-Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa) and a PhD in Architecture (2013, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Pt). His scientific interests are focused on the relationship between the representation and communication of the architectural design project and the production phase of construction, giving particular attention to BIM paradigm. He is a registered Architect in Portugal with practice experience since 1986. His work on residential and educational buildings has state of the art in architectural exhibitions (IST 2014, ESRDL – Lisbon Triennale 2015, Order Architects 2016), and has been the subject of publications (Uzina 2014) and mentioned internationally (Good Practices of OECD), and finally a prize winner (Valmor 2011). He’s connecting his practice activity with investigation practice, involving his architectural work as case studies on Master and PHD Thesis and, mor recently in the I&D investigation project: CIRCULAR ECOBIM-EEA Grants 2014-2021, an Environment Program for sustainability.
francisco.bastos[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Luísa Metelo Seixas is the senior manager of the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project at ITI, where she also manages the LoGaCulture research project. A researcher, curator and author to several projects in a transdisciplinary approach crossing the Arts, History and Cultural Studies, Luísa graduated in Photography by Lisbon’s School of Fine Arts (FBAUL, 2009), holds a Master in Philosophy — Aesthetics by NOVA FCSH (2012) and is currently pursuing her PhD on Contemporary History, in the same University. Her field of study relies on the public and participatory dimensions of historical knowledge, specifically Community and Participatory heritage. Together with Inês Castaño, she has created and coordinated creative projects focusing on public and community engagement (Soya Kutu — Oficinas Criativas (São Tomé and Príncipe, 2012 and 2013, www.aguede-ale.com and Novos Mapas (Lisbon, Trienal de Arquitetura 2013).
luisa.metelo.seixas[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Frederico Duarte is the communication coordinator of the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project. He is a design critic and curator, holding a degree in communication design from FBAUL, an MA in design criticism from the School of Visual Arts in New York and a PhD in curatorial studies from Birkbeck College and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He is currently guest assistant professor at FBAUL and post-doc researcher at ITI. A contributor to several design and architecture publications, Frederico is also the co-founder of Fazer magazine.
frederico.duarte[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Cristiano Pedroso-Roussado is a post-doc researcher at ITI. A multidisciplinary researcher in the fields of life sciences and design, Cristiano’s three main professional areas are: science, creativity and management. During his research activities, Cristiano developed a MSc thesis about the neonatal pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae (iMM, Universidade de Lisboa, PT) and a PhD thesis targeting the infant mice gut microbiota in foetal alcohol syndrome disorder context (University of Brighton, UK). In the intersection of scientific research and industry, he developed work related to fermentation in a Portuguese food company, studying Komatagateibacter spp. as a workhorse for the production of compounds of interest, evaluating food quality standards to solve food contaminations and conducting new product development. He held project manager and innovation roles during the same period. In recent years he has been developing a framework to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from Nature to help solve human grand challenges, for instance, aiming a more sustainable value chain and resources use. His approach relies on values such as ethics, responsibility, and accountability, and invests in communicating widely and easily the complex scientific knowledge gathered during his practice.
cristiano.roussado[at]tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Nicholas (Nico) B. Torretta is a multimodal artist from Brazil. Nico acts on the intersections of design, music and visual arts with emphasis on decolonial and pluriversal approaches. Nico comes into arts and design from a background in street art, capoeira and Brazilian traditional music. Nicholas holds a PhD in Design from, Umeå Institute of Design (Sweden), an Masters of Arts in Design for Sustainability from Aalto University (Finland) and a Bachelor of Arts in Product Design from FAAP University (Brazil). Nicholas teaches as guest lecturer in various universities in Europe, Africa and Latin America. Nicholas also has professional luthier training from B&H School (Brazil/Japan) and builds musical instruments under the brand Maa Guitars apart from working as consultant for companies in the music industry business. In the BoSS project Nicholas is a postdoctoral researcher focused on facilitating decolonial and pluriversal approaches to the project. Besides all this, Nicholas is a professional bass player, a graffiti artist, a capoeira instructor, a father, a husband and loves coffee and chocolate.
nicholas.b.torretta@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Bernardo Gaeiras holds degrees in object design (BA) and visual arts (MA), both from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. His independent work is characterized by design thinking, with a keen exploration of technology’s role in our material culture. With extensive experience in the DIY maker movement and creative spaces, Gaeiras has played diverse roles in public policy design including founding and advising various FabLabs and Incubators (FabLab Amsterdam 2007, FabLab Lisbon 2013-2021, Mouraria Creative Hub 2016-2022). In the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project, Gaeiras is a PhD researcher focused on incorporating non-human design approaches and citizen science engagement.

Carlos Pastor Garcia is an architect and researcher interested in stories and fables that generate attachment and ownership to territories and landscapes. Carlos is founder of the collective la cuarta piel, an interdisciplinary practice that translates the extractivist processes that sustain human life in cities through public programs, research projects and installations. An intermediation exercise that facilitates communication between knowledge, species and territories

Fernanda Costa holds an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins (UAL). Her interest lies in how to generate value from waste, through critical lenses. With a background in packaging design, her curiosity about the paradoxical ephemerality of packaging in contrast to its enduring environmental footprint inspired a journey towards circularity and an extensive exploration of alternative materials. At the London-based SME Loowatt, she co-designed sanitary packaging for waterless toilets, for resource recovery; and also supported research bioplastics projects with SWU and UCL universities in the UK. Fernanda currently consults for the award-winning Notpla, a start-up that makes plastic-free seaweed-derived packaging. In the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project, she aims to explore the untapped potential of sea-derived waste materials and capture the narratives of people and places behind their origin for transmedia outputs. Compiling their stories and legacy through digital documentation, Fernanda aims to generate wider consumer and citizen engagement of environmental impacts affecting coastal communities. Using design research methodologies, she will act as a network-shaper, bringing together stakeholders in a co-creation process to identify opportunities for the ethical exploration of such materials, and investigate how the process of making artefacts that are connected to digital storytelling, can communicate value and provenance.

Katerina Iglezaki is an architect and urbanist working at the intersection of landscape ecology and urban design. Her research investigates agroecology as a holistic and integrated approach that aims at applying both ecological and social concepts to the design and management of sustainable food systems and problematizes on the upscaling of Nature-Based Solutions as an important foundation for new models of economic growth that can achieve an optimization between economy and environment and help build future resilience. She holds an MSc degree in Urbanism from TU Delft and Architectural Engineering from DUTH, University of Thrace. In the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project, Katerina is a PhD researcher whose project aims at repositioning the future of the Tagus territory in Lisbon, as a political project that reconceptualizes human and non-human agents of socio-technical ecological systems towards a new paradigm shift beyond the current exploitative model of growth.

Mariana Simões started her experience as an architect in London where she worked for four years following the completion of her degree in Architecture from FAUP – University of Porto. When returning to Portugal she was able to collaborate with different architecture studios, having also concluded by this point a master in Contemporary History – Cities and Heritage from ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon. She is interested in a transdisciplinary approach towards design that considers the articulation between craft processes, science and contemporary technologies. As a PhD candidate in Digital Media at IST and while joining ITI as a researcher within the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project, she will explore digital storytelling as a tool for researching and recording existing and new narratives, having the sea as the object of the study – while a potential and diverse source for materials which can be articulated with artistic, design or construction activities and lead to the investigation of alternative, local and sustainable prototypes.

Valentina Demarchi is a ‘meridian thinker’ and coastal communities enthusiast from Apulia, Southern Italy. She has a background in Industrial and Product-Service System Design (BSc and MSc at PoliMi) and is very familiar with Interdisciplinary Innovation (Double Degree at Alta Scuola Politecnica, XV cycle). Strongly oriented towards Social Innovation and Cultural Democracy, she has worked as strategic designer and project manager for cultural and educational non-profit organisations. As part of the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails research team, Valentina is framing and investigating “hands-on ocean literacy” practices – what she calls “ocean tinkering” – through the implementation of new services and spaces aimed at quickening social imagination and providing sea-driven support to the Twin – Green & Digital – Transition.