Joana Paulo Pardal

My expertise is on talking intelligent machines and robotics but my curiosity extends beyond these topics.
I've been sharing my passion for coding by teaching people of all ages (from Kindergarten to University, but also adults and elderly) since I was a teenager.

I have a Licenciatura (5-years degree, 2001) and a Master degree (2004) in Computer Science Engineering both from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.

I also completed a Post-Graduation in Mathematics, Literature, and Culture for Education from Univ. Lusíada (2016).

In 2021, I've earned a Master in Informatics Teaching from Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa, where, in 2024, I've started a PhD in Education in the area of ICT, Information and Communication Technology.
I'm exploring the relationship between reading and writing code when learning to program, especially in the Primary level.

In the first decade of the millennium, I was a Lecturer at Técnico and taught the practical classes of several courses in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Programming Technologies and Methodologies.
I've also taught Software Engineering coaching tens of teams and hundreds of students using Scrum Project Management (based on EduScrum).
During that time, I was also a Junior Researcher at the Spoken Language Systems Laboratory, L2F INESC-ID.
My research was focused on design, use (and reuse) of ontologies; spoken dialogue systems; written natural language processing; and optimisation of algorithms.
I've participated in several national and international projects, and authored over 20 international publications.

In 2013, I joined the Link Consulting Project Support Office to lead the introduction of Agile Methodologies to the company. My major goal was to increase the motivation and commitment of the teams.

In 2015, I co-founded ITup, a startup focused on retooling engineers and mathematicians into highly qualified OutSystems' professionals. I was part of the Training Office.

In 2016, I joined the APECEF team to support the editorial process of 100+ textbooks used by thousands of students from the (now 4) schools managed by the association and some friend schools (now 3).
I also orchestrated the move to cloud-based collaboration tools.

In September 2016, I was invited to lead the introduction of Computational Thinking through Robotics, Physical Computing, Multimedia, and Programming to all students from kindergarten to high school, including Professional.