Sérgio Alves

PhD Student

I completed my Master’s degree in Informatics in 2017 at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and the BSc degree in Information and Communication Technologies in 2015 at the same institution. During my Master’s thesis I developed Scrapbook, a web application focused on enabling biographical and personalised reminiscence therapy for people with dementia. This project led to further research, as I became a hired researcher at LASIGE, a Computer Science research unit in Lisbon. Period in which Scrapbook grew to a cognitive stimulation platform, and as a bridge between people with dementia, psychologists and caregivers.

In 2018 I moved to Open Lab, my work has been focused in people with Parkinson’s disease. Extending the previous work of the lab, I have been designing a solution to support the self-management of the symptoms of the disease, namely with the creation of a mobile application that enables, among other things, the creation of personalized cues in a wearable device. I have also been working with people with Parkinson’s in the validation of a new accelerometer sensor.

I am currently also working in my PhD, with a focus on accessibility and UI personalization.

My main research interests are human-computer interaction, accessibility, mobile interaction, and pervasive healthcare. My goal has been to create useful and usable technologies to improve people’s quality of life.