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António
Dias de Figueiredo is professor emeritus of the Department
of Informatics Engineering at the University of Coimbra and
researcher at the Center for Informatics and Systems at the
University of Coimbra (CISUC), where his research focuses on
the Social and Pedagogical Dimensions of Technology, History
and Philosophy of Technology and New Generation Scientific
Research Methods.
He is
professor emeritus of the Department of Computer Engineering
at the University of Coimbra and a researcher at the Center
for Informatics and Systems at the University of Coimbra
(CISUC), where his research focuses on the Social and
Pedagogical Dimensions of Technologies, the History and
Philosophy of Technologies and New Generation Scientific
Research Methods.
From 1984 to 2007, he was a Full Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, where he created the CISUC, in 1992, and, in 1994, the Department of Informatics Engineering. He co-founded in 1992 Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), a prominent industry-university interface and enterprise-incubation institute. Part of his research and diffusion of innovation takes place in collaboration with CISUC and IPN.
He was Vice-President for Western Europe of the Intergovernmental Informatics Program of UNESCO, Paris, between 1994 and 1996. He integrated for four years the NATO Special Program Panel on Advanced Educational Technology of the NATO Science Committee, Brussels. He has participated in various European projects, both as a partner and as a science advisor, and acted on various occasions as a consultant to the European Commission in matters regarding the definition of strategies for Information and Communication Technologies in Education. He has collaborated with OECD on various instances in initiatives regarding Information and Communication Technologies in Education. He was the Chairman of PROMETEUS (PROmoting Multimedia access to Education and Training in EUropean Society), a memorandum of understanding promoted by the European Commission between 2000 and 2001. In 2004, he was the chairman of the Context & Learning special interest group of the European network of excellence Kaleidoscope.
He was
the proponent, in 1985, of the MINERVA Project, the
Portuguese national computers in schools program, which he
coordinated during its pilot three years. He was the chair
of the Accreditation Committee for Informatics Engineering
of the Portuguese Engineers Association, in 1998/2001 and
2004/2007. He chaired the Evaluation Committee for
Informatics Engineering and Computer Science of the
Foundation of Portuguese Universities, and chaired R&D
panels for the evaluation of projects submitted to the
Portuguese Innovation Agency. In 2012/2013, he chaired the
IT External Assessment Committee of the Higher Education
Assessment and Accreditation Agency (A3ES).
He has been awarded a Honoris Causa by the Portuguese Open University, and the Sigillum Magnum by the University of Bologna, Italy. He also received the title of Information Society Personality of the Year 2005, awarded by APDSI, Oracle Portugal, and Sun Portugal.
He has been a speaker and has lectured extensively at national and international events. He is the author of over three hundred papers and contributed with chapters to several books published both at home and abroad. His most recent international book publications include the book "Managing Learning in Virtual Settings: the Role of Context" (2006), and the chapters "Qualitative Research and the Challenges of Complexity", in Volume 621 of the Springer Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing series (2017), "On the Historical Nature of Engineering Practice", in “Engineering Practice in a Global Context: Understanding the Technical and the Social” (2013), "The Sustainability of e-Collaboration", in "The Encyclopedia of E- Collaboration" (2008), and "Action-Research and Design in Information Systems: Two Faces of a Single Coin", in "Information Systems Action-Research: An Applied View of Emerging Concepts and Methods" (2007). He is one of the two authors of the US Patent 7319998 B2, "Method and System for Supporting Symbolic Serendipity". He is a member of the editorial and advisory boards of the "International Journal of e-Collaboration", the "Portuguese and Brazilian Journal of Management", and the journal "Educação, Formação & Tecnologias”.
He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1969, and obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, U.K., in 1976.

My main hobbies are amateur photography, motorcycle cruising and blue water sailing. I hold Yatchmaster degrees for coastal and offshore navigation, a formal guarantee to 'navigate without limits'...
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