ALGORITMI Research Center

José Manuel Machado
ALGORITMI Center, University of Minho 

ALGORITMI, Escola de Engenharia, has I&D activities in Information and Communication Technologies and Eletronics (TICE), distributed by six main research areas: (1) Computation Cience and Technology; (2) Information systems and Technology; (3) Communications by computer and diffused media; (4) Industrial Electronics; (5) Engineering and Industrial Management; (6) Systems Engineering and Operational Research.

Most of ALGORITMI's doctoral researchers are also teachers from four departments of the School of Engineering, namely: Industrial Electronics (DEI), Information Systems (DSI), Production and Systems (DPS) and Informatics (DI). In addition, master's and doctoral projects guided by these professors are developed at ALGORITMI. It is important to underline that UMinho was the first Portuguese academic institution to teach Computer Science in Portugal, with the creation of the first degrees of Bachelor (in 1976), Master (in 1984) and Doctorate (in 1986) in Informatics. One of the 9 doctoral programs in which ALGORITMI is involved is the first doctoral partnership in Portugal between a research center and a company (Bosch).

ALGORITMI is currently structured in 6 groups and several R&D laboratories of special interest. This structure allows ALGORITMI to take a holistic approach to the complex task of advancing scientific knowledge in the field of TICE. ALGORITMI focuses its activity on projects that exploit a strong connection with the community, namely industry and public administration. The University of Minho is located in an industrialized region with an important expression in the textile and footwear industry, and an emerging field in TICE service companies, driven by the era of e-phenomena.

The automotive sector has also recently captured an important share of the regional market. Another external factor that influences our target of application is the growth of cities in the region, which introduces several requirements for the cooperation of researchers, namely in the field of logistics, communication, e-government, health and resource management. The ALGORITMI Center identified five main strategic objectives as a framework for its strategic program: (1) the Innovative Researcher without limits; (2) Building Interdisciplinarity; (3) Improve international influence; (4) Take advantage of knowledge transfer; and, (5) Laying the Foundation for Quality Improvement.