The presentation of the book "Lectures on Intelligent Systems" by Leonardo Vanneschi, Full Professor at NOVA IMS, and Investigator Sara Silva, took place on March 2^nd, at the Noble Hall of Colégio Almada Negreiros. In addition to the authors, the session counted with Ernesto Costa, Full Professor of the Department of Computer Engineering of the University of Coimbra, and Illya Bakurov, Professor at NOVA IMS, who discussed the relevance of the subject matter of the book and highlighted the dedication of the authors throughout the project.

By the end of the event there was a coffee break where speakers and participants had the chance to share their impressions about the authors' new publication.

The session was attended by the two authors of the book, Professor Leonardo Vanneschi from NOVA IMS, and Investigator Sara Silva from LASIGE, and also by two guests - Professor Ernesto Costa, from the Department of Computer Engineering of the University of Coimbra, and Professor Illya Bakurov from NOVA IMS.

After the book presentation, participants was invited to attend a coffe break hosted by NOVA IMS.

Leonardo Vanneschi is a Full Professor at the Nova Information Management School (NOVA IMS) of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. His main research interests involve machine learning, data science, optimization, complex systems and, in particular, evolutionary computation. He currently has published more than 250 contributions, 11 of which recognized with international awards. In 2015, he received the Evo* Award for Outstanding Contributions to Evolutionary Computation in Europe. In 2020, he was included in the list of the top 2% world researchers in a study carried out by the Stanford University.

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Sara Silva is a Principal Investigator at the Computer Science and Engineering Research Centre (LASIGE) in Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. Her main research interests are machine learning and evolutionary computation, including interdisciplinary applications in the areas of remote sensing and bioinformatics. She is the author of around 100 peer-reviewed publications, having received more than 10 nominations and awards for best paper and best researcher. In 2018, she received the Evo* Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in Europe. She created the MATLAB Genetic Programming Toolbox (GPLAB).

I. Bakurov is a researcher and a lecturer at NOVA IMS. He completed his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees at NOVA IMS. During his Ph.D. he spent about two years at Università Degli Studi Milano Bicocca in a research laboratory specialized in image processing and computer vision

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Ernesto Costa is Full Professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra. He received a 3^rd Cycle Thesis in Computing Science from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) in 1981 and got a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering (area of Computing Science) from the University of Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal) in 1985. His main research interests are in the areas of Evolutionary Computation,Artificial Life, Complex Systems, Machine Learning, Cognition and Computational Biology. In particular, we work in bio-inspired artificial intelligence, developing novel algorithms and applying them to design, optimization and learning problems, and promoting the cross-fertilization of Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning.

He participated in several projects, got several best paper awards. He was the recipient of the 2009 EvoStar Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Evolutionary Computation. He organized several international scientific events and had published over 170 papers in books, journals and proceedings of conferences. Since December 2012 is a member of the General Council (Conselho Geral) of the University of Coimbra, a governing board of the university. He is scientific advisor of the company Complexica.

The book launch was held at the Noble Hall of Colégio Almada Negreiros, located in Campus de Campolide, Lisbon. 

Transports
Metro: S. Sebastião (Blue and Red Line); Praça de Espanha (Blue Line)
Carris: 701, 713, 716, 726, 742, 746, 756, 758, 770

The textbook “Lectures on Intelligent Systems” provides the reader with an essential understanding of computational methods for intelligent systems. These are defined as systems that can solve problems autonomously, in particular problems where algorithmic solutions are inconceivable for humans or not practically executable by computers. Despite the rapidly growing applications in this field, the book avoids application details, and instead it focuses on computational methods that equip the reader with the methodological tools and competencies necessary to tackle current and future complex applications.

The book consists of two parts: computational intelligence methods for optimization, and machine learning. Part I begins with the concept of optimization, and introduces local search algorithms, genetic algorithms, and particle swarm optimization. Part II begins with an introduction to machine learning and covers several methods, many of which can be used as supervised learning algorithms, such as decision tree learning, artificial neural networks, genetic programming, Bayesian learning, support vector machines, ensemble methods, plus a discussion of unsupervised learning.

This textbook is written in a self-contained style, and is suitable for undergraduate or graduate students in computer science and engineering, and for self-study by researchers and practitioners.