April 7-11, 2025
Porto, Portugal

VISUAL INTELLIGENCE, MEANINGFUL PATTERNS

ABOUT

The INvicta school of VIsion, Computational intelligence, and patTern Analysis - INVICTA - is a school of artificial intelligence, computer vision and pattern analysis organised by the Visual Computing and Machine Intelligence - VCMI - group of the Centre for Telecommunications and Multimedia - CTM - of the INESC TEC.

INVICTA will guide you through an unforgettable journey into the development of intelligent systems, where innovation meets tradition in the captivating city of Porto.


What is our mission?

INVICTA aims to become an European reference in state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, computer vision and pattern analysis topics by promoting knowledge and sharing of experiences while building a global community from Porto, Portugal to the World.


What can you expect?

  • Interactive lectures
  • Hands-on workshops
  • Debates

All led by distinguished experts and practitioners from academia and industry.


This is the perfect experience whether you're a budding enthusiast eager to grasp the fundamentals or a seasoned professional aiming to refine your expertise. This school promises to equip you with the skills and insights needed to thrive in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence technologies.


Applications

How can I apply?


Applications are now open! Don't miss this opportunity!

You can apply using the following form: INVICTA School 2025 | Application Form.

Applications are accepted on "a rolling basis". If your application is accepted, you will be contacted and have the opportunity to register for INVICTA School 2025.


Registrations

I'm in! How do I register?

If your application has been accepted, we'll contact you with instructions.
Keep in mind the following information on fees and deadlines:


Registration Phase Start Deadline Registration Fee
Early-bird Registrations January 6, 2025* February 9, 2025* €650
Regular Registrations February 10, 2025* March 5, 2025* €700
Late Registrations March 6, 2025* March 24, 2025* €750

* All deadlines are 23:59 WEST (UTC+1)


What does the registration include?

  • All lectures
  • Hands-on sessions
  • Round-table
  • AI talks
  • Coffee breaks
  • Social programme and other events

How can I get a VISA to attend INVICTA?

If you need a visa to travel to Portugal, you need to send us the following information:

  • Your full name
  • Your e-mail address
  • Address to which you would like the acceptance letter to be sent
  • Your passport information: number, issue date and place, and expiration date

Send this info to invicta@inesctec.pt with the subject line "Visa letter request". Visas will only be issued after the payment of registration fees is confirmed.


Sessions

Speaker 1

Wilson Silva

Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

Wilson Silva is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Information and Computing Sciences and Biology at Utrecht University, as well as a Guest AI Researcher in the Department of Radiology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. His research focuses on trustworthy artificial intelligence for life sciences, with particular emphasis on explainable AI, privacy-preserving machine learning, and enhancing generalizability in cancer research.
Before moving to the Netherlands, Wilson completed his PhD at the University of Porto/INESC TEC, where he conducted research within the Visual Computing and Machine Intelligence group under the guidance of Prof. Jaime Cardoso. During his PhD, he also spent time as a visiting researcher in Prof. Mauricio Reyes’ lab at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Wilson holds a master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto.


Explainable AI in Healthcare: Fundamentals, Challenges, and the Road to Trustworthy AI

TBA

Speaker 2

Yongshuo Zong

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

Yongshuo Zong is a final-year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh where he works with Prof. Timothy Hospedales. His research focus on multimodal learning, especially large vision-language models, with an emphasis on areas such as safety, robustness, in-context learning, and multi-image understanding. He also works in the area of AI for healthcare where he develops MEDFAIR, one of the most popular benchmarks for medical imaging fairness.


Towards stronger and safer vision-language models

Large language models (LLMs) have become integral to daily life, powering numerous applications. Building on the foundation of LLMs, large vision-language models (VLMs) have been developed to seamlessly integrate visual and textual data, enabling advanced multimodal interactions with humans. In this talk, I will first provide an overview of the background of large language models and multimodal learning. I will then introduce key research challenges in advancing LLMs and VLMs, focusing on topics such as in-context learning, multi-image understanding, and long-context processing. Finally, I will discuss the challenges of deploying large vision-language models safely, discussing potential alignment strategies to ensure reliability and ethical use. This talk aims to give the audience an overview of the foundations, advancements, and current challenges in vision-language models, highlighting the latest research driving this field forward.

Stay tuned for more information about the remaining sessions!


Schedule

TBA


Venue

Porto is Portugal's second-largest city, European Best Destination in 2012, 2014 and 2017. Known as "The Invicta" - the epithet granted by Queen D. Maria II (daughter of D. Pedro IV) to the city because during the 19th-century Portuguese civil war, Porto withstood a siege of over a year.


Porto is full of contrasts within a small area and offers a diversity of styles and ambiences. In this city of great wine and rich history, you will enjoy the famous baroque-style monuments and the worldwide famous Port Wine cellars. With the World Heritage Douro Riverside in the background, the narrow and sinuous cobbled streets of this old and charming city contrast with the growing innovation, cutting-edge technology, and start-ups that have made Porto their home.


INVICTA School 2024 will take place at Porto Innovation Hub facilities. Located at Largo do Dr. Tito Fontes close to the Trindade Station in the city centre. Porto Innovation Hub is an initiative of the Municipality of Porto which aims to be a platform for the reinforcement of the city’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. This is a project coordinated by Porto Digital Association, a private non-profit association owned by Porto City Council, the University of Porto and Metro of Porto.


Hotels

Hotel Ipanema Park

Hotel HF Ipanema Park

4 Km's from the Venue

10% Discount available here

Hotel Ipanema Porto

Hotel HF Ipanema Porto

2.3 Km's from the Venue

10% Discount available here

Hotel Fenix Porto

Hotel HF Fénix Porto

2.4 Km's from the Venue

10% Discount available here

Hotel Tuela Porto

Hotel HF Tuela Porto

2.5 Km's from the Venue

10% Discount available here

Team

Organizer

Ana F. Sequeira

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Ana F. Nogueira

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Daniela Santos

INESC TEC

Organizer

Felipe Coutinho

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Francisco Silva

INESC TEC & FCUP

Organizer

Helena Montenegro

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Inês Domingues

ISEC & CI-IPOP

Organizer

Joana Sousa

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

João Nunes

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Luís Fernandes

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Margarida Gouveia

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Pedro Sousa

INESC TEC

Organizer

Rafael Mamede

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Vitória Cruz

INESC TEC


Advisory Team

Organizer

Hélder P. Oliveira

INESC TEC & FCUP

Organizer

Jaime S. Cardoso

FEUP & INESC TEC

Organizer

Kelwin Fernandes

NILG.AI

Organizer

Luís Teixeira

FEUP & INESC TEC

Organizer

Tiago Gonçalves

INESC TEC & FEUP

Organizer

Ricardo Cruz

INESC TEC & FEUP

Partners




Accommodations Partners



Venue Partners



Institutional Partners