Advanced Computing Systems

About Centre

The Centre for Advanced Computing Systems (CRACS) strives for scientific excellence in the areas of programming languages, parallel and distributed computing, information mining, security and privacy, focusing on developing scalable software systems for multidisciplinary applications in Engineering, Life Sciences, Social Networks, the Internet of Things, and more. We explore deep theoretical and practical knowledge related to the design and development of programming languages and middleware for advanced computing systems - including parallel, distributed, high-performance, cloud, wireless, and IoT systems -, while mastering the concepts and methodologies that underpin trust, privacy, and security in computing systems. Our research environment brings together talented junior and senior researchers, most of whom are university lecturers. Together, they form the critical mass and scientific expertise required to fulfil our mission.

Flagship Projects

ABLe

The goal of this project was to integrate physician expertise and machine learning into graphical models to accurately estimate breast cancer risk after image-guided breast biopsy, addressing the problem of biopsy sampling error.

ADE

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Team Members

Team Leaders

Ricardo Jorge Gomes Lopes da Rocha

I'm an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto and a researcher at the CRACS & INESC TEC research unit.

I received my PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Porto in 2001 and my main research topics are the Design and Implementation of Logic Programming Systems, Tabling in Logic Programming and Parallel and Distributed Computing. Another areas of interest include Lock-Free Data Structures, Inductive Logic Programming, Probabilistic Logic Programming and Deductive Databases. I'm also one of the main developers of the Yap Prolog system with particular focus on the execution models that support tabling and parallel evaluation.

I've published more than 100 refereed papers in international journals and conferences, served more than 50 events as PC chair or PC member, served the ALP Board as executive committee member and the ALP Newsletter as area co-editor for the Implementations and Systems track, served the INForum Board as president, supervised several PhD/MSc students and had leading role in two national projects. Currently, I'm the coordinator of the CRACS center at INESC TEC.