fgrocha@fc.ul.pt

Filipa Rocha

PhD Student

Filipa Rocha holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Information Systems and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Lisbon with Tiago Guerreiro and Hugo Nicolau as advisors.

Her Ph.D. is focused on improving technology accessibility for children with visual impairments. The work is mainly focused on developing coding environments that promote collaborative work between mixed-visual ability children while training computational thinking skills.

Publications

Leaving the Field: Working with Teachers to Integrate Computational Thinking in Mixed-Visual Ability Classrooms’ Activities

Filipa Rocha, Beatriz Nogueira, Isabel Neto, Tiago Guerreiro, Hugo Nicolau

ASSETS 2026 ‑ ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

Exploring Collaboration in Programming Activities with Children with Visual Impairments: a 10-Session Study in a School Setting

Filipa Rocha, David Gonçalves, Ana Cristina Pires, Hugo Nicolau, Tiago Guerreiro

CSCW 2025 ‑ ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, October, 2025

Workspace Awareness for Mixed-Visual Ability Children Collaborating in Tangible Programming Activities

Filipa Rocha, Hugo Simão, João Nogueira, Isabel Neto, Tiago Guerreiro, Hugo Nicolau

CHI 2025 ‑ ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April, 2025

Ethical Concerns when Working with Mixed-Ability Groups of Children

Ana Henriques, Patrícia Piedade, Filipa Rocha, Isabel Neto, Tiago Guerreiro, Hugo Nicolau

ASSETS 2024 ‑ 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, October, 2024

Inclusive Computational Thinking in Public Schools: A Case Study from Lisbon

Ana Pires, Filipa Rocha, Tiago Guerreiro, Hugo Nicolau

Interactions 2023 ‑ ACM Interactions Magazine, July-August, 2024

Projects

Photo taken from the Workshop with children. Two visually impaired children perform a goal-directed programming activity using a map located on the table. The activity consists of moving the robot to reach the duck. The map is made of 4 EVA foam tiles with two different colors. The child on the right is concentrated in arranging the blocks while the children at the left are touching the duck after the robot reached the duck. This child is smiling and has much of his body on the table.

Inclusive education

We aim to develop technological solutions to enable an inclusive education for children with mixed abilities. We have mainly developed enhanced tangible objects for the acquisition of abstract concepts, such as mathematics or computational thinking. Besides the benefit of decreasing cognitive load and reinforcing understanding, manipulatives also support collaboration, making children more prone to divide, explore and share supporting cooperative actions.

minimalist illustration of three children behind a table. On top of the table is the blue tree robot. The children are dressed like doctors, with a red cross on their t-shirts.

SoftEdibo

SoftEdIBO aims to pioneer new soft robots to foster inclusion in mixed-ability groups. The project will examine the impact on inclusion of shared, personal, and separate surfaces using three soft robots, Touchibo Turtle, Tree, and Swarm. Children will be playing doctors! They “diagnose” and “treat” a soft robot patient by coordinating touch zones, pressure and rhythm. The robot responds with dynamic skin behaviours as feedback.