Wednesdays@DEI: Talks, 10-09-2025

Next Wednesday, the 10th of September, we will have two talks within the scope of the scouting process.

Author and Affiliation: Prof. Dr. Ezequiel Zorzal, Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)

Bio: Ezequiel Zorzal is an Associate Professor at UNIFESP, where he coordinates research in Emerging and Interactive Technologies. With over 15 years of experience in teaching, research, and development, he works in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Extended Reality (XR). He collaborates as an external researcher at INESC-ID / Instituto Superior Técnico.

Title: Immersive and intelligent technologies: applications in education and healthcare

Abstract: In this presentation, I will share my journey in the development of immersive technologies, with an emphasis on usability and applications for health and education. I will discuss how Artificial Intelligence enhances these environments and how I integrate these themes into my teaching practice. The goal is to connect my work to the areas of DEI, with a view to future collaborations.

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Author and Affiliation: Dr. Pedro Orvalho (Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford)

Bio: Pedro Orvalho is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, working with Professor Marta Kwiatkowska. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, completed under a European Doctorate Programme in collaboration with the Czech Technical University in Prague. For five years, Pedro contributed to teaching as an Invited Teaching Assistant for the Computer Science Department at IST.

His research focuses on the intersection of Automated Reasoning and Machine Learning, with a current emphasis on the robustness of Large Language Models for code understanding and applications in computer-aided education. During his MSc, he was a Research Assistant at Carnegie Mellon University and a Research Intern at OutSystems. His work has been recognised with several awards, including Vencer o Adamastor (2025), the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award (2021), and two IST Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Title: From Logic to Learning: Rethinking Programming for the AI Era
Abstract: Abstract: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly drives advances in how we write, understand, and teach code, the very foundations of programming are being redefined. In this talk, I will reflect on my past and current work, and outline my future research vision, at the intersection of Automated Reasoning and Machine Learning, two pillars of AI that, when combined, offer powerful frameworks for rethinking programming as both a technical and educational discipline. I will present approaches that leverage the precision of formal logic and the adaptability of learning-based models to enable intelligent code generation, automated program analysis, and personalized, feedback-driven programming education. By blending formal guarantees with data-driven methods, my goal is to advance not only the tools we use to program, but also how we learn and teach programming in an AI-driven world.