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Filipa de Sousa Rocha is a HCI researcher specializing in accessibility, inclusion, and collaborative technologies. Her current research focuses on digital education for children with blindness or visual impairments. She holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, and is currently pursuing a PhD at Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa (LASIGE and ITI/LARSyS), under the supervision of Prof. Tiago Guerreiro and Prof. Hugo Nicolau. In 2023, she was recognized for her contributions to inclusive digital literacy with several awards, including the Young Inventors Prize from the European Patent Office.
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Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Filipa Gravato de Matos de Sousa Rocha

Citation names

  • Rocha, Filipa

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
101B-98F7-02F4
ORCID iD
0000-0002-8521-7318

Email addresses

  • fgrocha@fc.ul.pt (Professional)

Websites

Knowledge fields

  • Engineering and Technology - Electrotechnical Engineering, Electronics and Informatics

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1)
Spanish; Castilian Intermediate (B1) Intermediate (B1) Elementary (A2) Intermediate (B1)
Education
Degree Classification
2025
Ongoing
 Informática (Doutoramento)
Major in Sem especialidade
Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências, Portugal
"Mixed-Visual Ability Collaboration for Children in Computational Thinking" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2024/07/09 - 2024/07/11
Concluded
 Summer School: Opportunities and Limitations of Civic Technologies (Outros)
Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2023/07/11 - 2023/07/13
Concluded
 Summer School: From User-Centred to Community-Led Design (Outros) (Outros)
Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2017/09/01 - 2020/10/01
Concluded
 Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Mestrado integrado)
Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico Campus Taguspark, Portugal
"Using Robots to Make Computational Thinking Accessible To Children With Visual Impairments" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2020
Concluded
 Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Mestrado)
Major in Sem especialização
Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico Campus Taguspark, Portugal
"Using Robots to make Computational Thinking Accessible to Children with Vision Impairments" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2014/09/09 - 2017/07/31
Concluded
 Ciências de Engenharia - Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Licenciatura)
Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico Campus Taguspark, Portugal
Affiliation

Other Careers

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2017 - Current Professor do ensino básico e secundário (Professor do ensino básico e secundário) Happy Code Portugal, Portugal
Projects

Grant

Designation Funders
2021/10/01 - 2025/09/30 Assessing and Designing Computational Thinking Training for Children with Visual Impairments
2021.06589.BD
10.54499/2021.06589.BD
Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
Outputs

Publications

Conference paper
  1. Filipa Rocha; Hugo Simão; João Nogueira; Isabel Neto; Tiago Guerreiro; Hugo Nicolau. "Awareness in Collaborative Mixed-Visual Ability Tangible Programming Activities". 2025.
    10.1145/3706598.3713610
  2. Ana O Henriques; Patricia Piedade; Filipa Rocha; Isabel Neto; Hugo Nicolau. "Ethical Concerns when Working with Mixed-Ability Groups of Children". 2024.
    10.1145/3663548.3675648
  3. Katharina Buckmayer; Filipa Rocha; Elisa Rubegni; Reem Talhouk; Hugo Nicolau; Ana Cristina Pires. "Participatory Design with Young Children: Failures, Challenges, and Successes". 2024.
    10.1145/3628516.3661158
  4. Isabel Neto; Yuhan Hu; Filipa Correia; Filipa Rocha; Guy Hoffman; Hugo Nicolau; Ana Paiva. "Conveying Emotions through Shape-changing to Children with and without Visual Impairment". 2024.
    10.1145/3613904.3642525
  5. Isabel Neto; Yuhan Hu; Filipa Correia; Filipa Rocha; João Nogueira; Katharina Buckmayer; Guy Hoffman; Hugo Nicolau; Ana Paiva. ""I'm Not Touching You. It's The Robot!": Inclusion Through A Touch-Based Robot Among Mixed-Visual Ability Children". 2024.
    10.1145/3610977.3634992
  6. Pires, Ana C.; Abreu, Lúcia Verónica; Rocha, Filipa; Simão, Hugo; Guerreiro, João; Nicolau, Hugo; GUERREIRO, TIAGO. Corresponding author: Pires, Ana C.. "Exploring Play with an Inclusive Multisensory Environment for Children with Mixed-Visual Abilities". Paper presented in ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference, 2023.
  7. Ana Cristina Pires; Lúcia Verónica Abreu; Filipa Rocha; Hugo Simão; João Guerreiro; Hugo Nicolau; Tiago Guerreiro. "TACTOPI: Exploring Play with an Inclusive Multisensory Environment for Children with Mixed-Visual Abilities". 2023.
    10.1145/3585088.3589389
  8. Filipa Rocha; Filipa Correia; Isabel Neto; Ana Cristina Pires; João Guerreiro; Tiago Guerreiro; Hugo Nicolau. "Coding Together: On Co-located and Remote Collaboration between Children with Mixed-Visual Abilities". 2023.
    10.1145/3544548.3581261
  9. Isabel Neto; Filipa Correia; Filipa Rocha; Patricia Piedade; Ana Paiva; Hugo Nicolau. "The Robot Made Us Hear Each Other". 2023.
    10.1145/3568162.3576997
  10. Rocha, Filipa; Pires, Ana C.; GUERREIRO, TIAGO; Nicolau, Hugo. "Accembly at Home: Accessible Spatial Programming for Children with Visual Impairments and their Families". Paper presented in ACM Interaction Design and Children, 2021.
    Accepted
  11. Rocha, Filipa; Guimarães, Guilherme; Gonçalves, David; Pires, Ana Cristina; Abreu, Lúcia Verónica; Guerreiro, Tiago. "Fostering collaboration with asymmetric roles in accessible programming environments for children with mixed-visual-abilities". 2021.
    10.1145/3441852.3476553
  12. Rocha, Filipa. "Exploring Accessible Programming with Educators and Visually Impaired Children". 2020.
    10.1145/3392063.3394437
Conference poster
  1. Cardoso, Gonçalo; Rocha, Filipa; GUERREIRO, TIAGO. "LEGOWorld: Repurposing Commodity Tools & Technologies to Create an Accessible and Customizable Programming Environment". Paper presented in CHI2021, 2021.
Journal article
  1. Filipa Rocha; David Gonçalves; Ana Cristina Pires; Hugo Nicolau; Tiago Guerreiro. "Exploring Collaboration in Programming Activities with Children with Visual Impairments: a 10-Session Study in a School Setting". Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (2025): https://doi.org/10.1145/3710971.
    10.1145/3710971
Magazine article
  1. Pires, Ana C.; Rocha, Filipa; GUERREIRO, TIAGO; Hugo Nicolau. "Inclusive Computational Thinking in Public Schools: A Case Study from Lisbon", Interactions, 2024, 10.1145/3665992.
Activities

Event organisation

Event name
Type of event (Role) 		Institution / Organization
2025 - 2025 Registration Chair (2025/07/05 - 2025/07/10)
Conference (Member of the Organising Committee)
 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS), Portugal
2024/08 - 2024/10 Student Volunteer (2024/10/28 - 2024/10/30)
Conference (Other)
 International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, United States
2024/02 - 2024/02 Co-organization and facilitation for DCitizens EU Project Civic Event 2024 (2024/02/27 - 2024/02/27)
Workshop (Other)
 Laboratório de Robótica e Sistemas de Engenharia, Portugal
2023/08 - 2023/10 Student Volunteer (2023/10/23 - 2023/10/25)
Conference (Other)
 International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, United States
2022/08 - 2022/10 Student Volunteer (2022/10/23 - 2022/10/26)
Conference (Other)
 International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, United States
2021/08 - 2021/10 Student Volunteer (2021/10/18 - 2021/10/22)
Conference (Other)
 International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, United States

Committee member

Activity description
Role 		Institution / Organization
2023/11 - 2024/12 PhD Student Commission
President / Vice-president
 LASIGE Laboratório de Sistemas Informáticos de Grande Escala, Portugal

Conference scientific committee

Conference name Conference host
2024/11 - Current IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
2024/02 - Current ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)
2022/10 - Current ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)
2022/05 - Current ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)
2022/02 - Current ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC)

Course / Discipline taught

Academic session Degree Subject (Type) Institution / Organization
2022/02 - 2025/04 Human-Computer Interaction Ciências de Engenharia - Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Licenciatura) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2023/09 - 2023/11 User-Centered Design and Evaluation Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Mestrado) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/09 - 2022/11 Information Visualization Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Mestrado) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2021/09 - 2021/11 Interaction Design Studio Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Mestrado) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
Distinctions

Award

2023 Young Inventors Award
Europäisches Patentamt, Germany
2023 Born From Knowledge Ideas - Digital Transition
Agência Nacional de Inovação SA, Portugal

Other distinction

2022 Huawei Academic Excellence Award
Huawei Enterprise Technologies SL, Spain