IEEE Portugal - Meet our Fellows - Prof. João Barros

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IEEE Portugal - Meet our Fellows

Speaker: Prof. João Barros

Talk: “The Next Frontier of Intelligent Transportation Systems: What Africa Can Teach the World”

Date: June 3, 18:00, online: https://meet.google.com/ikj-aujx-pxx

ENG:

IEEE Portugal invites the community to participate in the "Meet our Fellows" series of events, a unique opportunity to meet IEEE Fellows in Portugal. In this series of bimonthly lectures, each Fellow will have the opportunity to share their vision of the world, based on their contributions to science and the advancement of knowledge, in areas such as electronics, telecommunications, energy, automation, artificial intelligence, among others. These events aim to foster the dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge, promote innovation, and inspire future generations of engineers.

PT:

O IEEE Portugal convida a comunidade a participar na série de eventos "Meet our Fellows", uma oportunidade única para conhecer os IEEE Fellows em Portugal. Nesta série de talks bimestrais, cada Fellow terá a oportunidade de partilhar a sua visão sobre o mundo, com base nas suas contribuições para a ciência e para o avanço do conhecimento, em áreas como eletrónica, telecomunicações, energia, automação, inteligência artificial, entre outras. Estes eventos visam fomentar a disseminação do conhecimento científico e tecnológico, promover a inovação e inspirar as futuras gerações de engenheiros.

 


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  • Starts 20 May 2026 11:00 PM UTC
  • Ends 02 June 2026 11:00 PM UTC
  • No Admission Charge

  Speakers

João Barros of Agência para a Investigação e Inovação (AI2)

Topic:

"The Next Frontier of Intelligent Transportation Systems: What Africa Can Teach the World"

Africa is urbanizing at an unprecedented pace. By 2050, more than a billion Africans are expected to live in cities, placing enormous pressure on transportation systems that were often not designed for current levels of growth. Yet many of the assumptions embedded in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) developed in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia do not translate well to African contexts, where mobility patterns are more informal, multimodal, and highly dynamic.
 
In cities such as Kigali, transportation ecosystems include formal public transit, informal minibuses, ride-hailing platforms, motorcycles, pedestrians, and rapidly evolving logistics networks operating side by side. Data is often fragmented, infrastructure sensing is limited, and urban planners frequently lack real-time visibility into how people and goods actually move through cities.
 
This talk explores how emerging technologies—including edge AI, computer vision, connected vehicle platforms, IoT sensing, and digital twins—can help build a new generation of mobility intelligence systems designed specifically for fast-growing African cities. Drawing from recent research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University Africa and collaborations across Rwanda’s mobility ecosystem, João Barros will present practical approaches to collecting and analyzing transportation data using low-cost sensors, connected vehicles, smartphones, and urban infrastructure.
 
The talk will examine real-world challenges such as traffic congestion, road safety, parking optimization, public transit visibility, and the unique role of motorcycle taxis in cities like Kigali. It will also discuss how AI-driven transportation systems can support more sustainable urban planning while avoiding the trap of importing solutions designed for vastly different environments.
 
Ultimately, Africa offers a unique opportunity: rather than replicating legacy transportation systems, rapidly growing cities may be able to leapfrog directly toward smarter, more adaptive, and more inclusive mobility infrastructures. The future of intelligent transportation may not be invented only in Silicon Valley, Munich, or Shenzhen—it may also emerge from Kigali, Nairobi, Lagos, and beyond.

Biography:

João Barros is President of the Executive Board of Agência para a Investigação e Inovação (AI2), Portugal’s national agency for research and innovation. He is also Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Porto (on leave) and previously served as Associate Director and Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Africa.

An IEEE Fellow, he previously conducted research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, Technical University of Munich, and the University of Porto. He later founded Veniam, a pioneer in connected vehicle networks acquired by Nexar. His work has produced over 180 scientific publications, 20+ patents, and multiple international awards, including the IEEE Communications Society Young Researcher Award and the IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award.