Our PhD students organized an internal Doctoral Symposium, on June 2, at the Museum of Imprensa da Madeira. The M-ITI Doctoral Symposium gathered the community for seeing the PhD students presenting their research proposals, advances and preliminary results. Professor Harold Thimbleby keynoted the Symposium, giving two talks entitled: "Turning into effective HCI researchers," and "Saving lives through research in healthcare computer science and HCI." The agenda covered oral and poster presentations from 9 of the 37 registered PhD students at M-ITI, who had feedback from 4 professors and 5 Post-docs over their research proposals.
For most of the students, this was a moment for sharing their research and for knowing others' investigations. One of the students said that this event was important because “a research institute should be a community," and information about research projects should be circulate among the institute members. Another student highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of the event, referring to it as “an opportunity” that may encourage others to step outside their comfort zone in order to achieve a goal. Moreover, participants of the event said that after getting to know each other’s project, they can decide with whom they can collaborate.
Finally, organizers of the event hope that this was the first of many Doctoral Symposiums at M-ITI, which "will create synergies among our young researchers, fostering collaboration and serving as a discussion platform in the institution."
The video for each proposal and the Keynote's sessions as well as a selection of the best pictures are available in the Symposium's website.
