08-06-2011Fra den 2.-6. maj havde IVA besøg af Dr. António Lucas Soares fra University of Porto and INESC Porto. António er leder af deres kandidatuddannelse og var på IVA på et ERASMUS-besøg for at drøfte udveksling og samarbejde. I den anledning blev der også tid til et lille interview med Insight.
What are your main research areas right now?
My background is Informatics Engineering but in the last decade my research work has been focused on Information and Knowledge Management in Collaborative Networks. I have been involved in developing new concepts and architectures to support knowledge organization in networks composed of SMEs and research centers, and, in a more theoretical side, to develop models to study socio-semantic networks such as models that integrate networks of social actors and semantic networks. This enables us to study how social interaction influences and is influenced by the collective representation and organisation of knowledge. In our research group, we try to address both the complex problems posed by the enterprises and the theoretical challenges of today's information science.
What made you decide to come to RSLIS?
University of Porto has had an Erasmus agreement with RSLIS for several years. My main motivation as director of the Master in Information Science of the University of Porto (since 2 years) was to meet face-to-face the RSLIS staff and to improve our collaboration in terms of the exchange of students and teachers. This visit resulted also in the identification of promising areas of collaboration in research terms.
What were your activities while you were here?
My activities while at RSLIS were teaching and meetings for planning of future collaborative actions. I gave a class on Collaboration and Information Management and a research seminar on information management and social networks. I must say that I was wonderfully received by everyone at RSLIS – especially by Birger Larsen, Jette Hyldegård and the rector of RSLIS, Per Hasle.
What did you get out of your stay?
At the end of my visit I was very happy for having agreed that our two schools have a great potential for improving the academic collaboration, because we have quite interesting complementarities in terms of teaching and research. First of all, I hope that some Danish students find Information Science at the University of Porto an attractive option to complement their studies and to know a culture and a city that they'll surely not forget. Secondly, I expect to maintain the interest of the Portuguese students in coming to Copenhagen. The ones that have been there are good advertisers as they loved having been at RSLIS. I hope also to have at least one teacher from RSLIS to make a similar visit to Porto in the next semester.
Af Helle Saabye