Intelligent Systems group (IS) covers several technologies like: Ambient Intelligence, Computational Intelligence, Decision Support Systems, Fractional Calculus, Knowledge-Based Systems, Machine Learning, and Virtual Worlds.
Ambient Intelligent (AmI) deals with a new world where computing devices are spread everywhere, allowing the human being to interact in physical world environments in an intelligent and unobtrusive way. These environments should be aware of the needs of people, customizing requirements and forecasting behaviors. AmI has been identified as one of the priority research areas in Europe on the last years.
Computational Intelligence (CI) corresponds to a set of techniques that combining basic elements of learning, adaptation, and evolution is able to build intelligent systems. CI involves many different techniques like Genetic Algorithms, Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, Neural Networks, Swarm Intelligence, Ant Colonies, Fuzzy Systems, Chaos Theory, Fractals, Artificial Immune systems, Wavelets, and more recently Fractional Calculus.
The use of Fractional Calculus (FC) in the modeling of complex nonlinear system is emerging as a new promising area. FC is still in a fundamental research phase.
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are interactive, flexible and adaptable systems, especially developed to support non-structured problem solving in order to improve decision making capabilities. Since 1993, GECAD researchers have a long experience on the development of DSS.
Knowledge-based Systems (KBS) correspond to an area where there is an explicit separation between Knowledge and Inference. Expert Systems, Data Mining, Intelligent Tutors are examples of KBS. Knowledge plays an important role in KBS. Nowadays, Ontologies are receiving attention, namely due to the importance of concepts and their relation for the Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Semantic Web, and Knowledge Management.
Machine Learning (ML) techniques envisage obtaining automatically, or semi-automatically, knowledge from data. Neural Networks, Decision Trees, Case-based Reasoning are just some of the used techniques. Data Mining joins AI based ML with Statistics based techniques (e.g. K-means) to allow a powerful set of tools to be used in the Knowledge Discovery effort in Information Systems.
A virtual world is a genre of online community that often takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment, through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects.
This group envisages being an international reference in the area of Intelligent Systems. GECAD is the Portuguese R&D group with more papers in the prestigious IEEE Intelligent Systems magazine (last known ISI impact factor: 2.278 in 2008). GECAD researchers had papers published in IEEE Intelligent Systems magazine in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010 and papers are already accepted for 2011. Two special issues of this magazine have been coordinated by GECAD researchers (2008 and 2011). Publication of papers in good scientific journals and conferences, edition of special issues, organization of events are also envisaged. Following the GECAD culture, research projects are an important goal to be considered by the group. The creation of spin-offs is also desired.