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 my BSc degree in Information and Communication Technologies in 2015 at the same institution. During my Master’s, I developed Scrapbook, a web application that enables biographical and personalised reminiscence therapy for people with dementia. This project led to further research, as I became a hired researcher at LASIGE. A period in which Scrapbook grew into a cognitive stimulation platform and a bridge between people with dementia, psychologists and caregivers.

In 2018 I moved to Open Lab, Newcastle University. Extending the previous work of the lab, we designed a solution to support the self-management of the symptoms of the Parkinson’s disease, namely with the creation of a mobile application that enables, among other things, the creation of personalized cues in a wearable device.

I am currently working in my PhD at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, with a focus on personalization of user interfaces. I have been studying the factors preventing greater adoption of third-party personalization mechanisms and exploring different personalization solutions.

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