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Presentation

Advanced Computing Systems

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.

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Featured Projects

HOSKY

Hardening Operation Security of CSIRT based on predictive maintenance

2025-2026

TSP2Net

Time Series Privacy-Preserving: New Approaches via Complex Networks

2025-2026

BolsasFCT_Gestao

Funding FCT PhD Grants - Management

2025-9999

FGPEPlusPlus

FGPE++ Gamified Programming Learning at Scale

2023-2025

BLOCKCHAINPT

BLOCKCHAIN.PT - AGENDA “DESCENTRALIZAR PORTUGAL COM BLOCKCHAIN”

2023-2026

ATE

Alliance for Energy Transition

2023-2026

PRIVATEER

Privacy-first Security Enablers for 6G Networks

2023-2025

THEIA

Automated Perception Driving

2022-2023

AI4DM

AI predictive modeling Services

2021-2022

FGPEPlus

Learning tools interoperability for gamified programming education

2021-2023

JuezLTI

Automatic assessment of computing exercises using LTI standard

2021-2023

PANDORA

Cyber Defence Platform for Real-time Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Information Sharing

2020-2022

Cortaderia

Desenvolvimento de Software para Monitorização da Espécie Invasora Cortaderia selloana

2020-2020

T4CDTKC

Training 4 Cotec, Digital Transformation Knowledge Challenge - Elaboração de Programa de Formação “CONHECER E COMPREENDER O DESAFIO DAS TECNOLOGIAS DE TRANSFORMAÇÃO DIGITAL”

2019-2021

Authenticus19_20

Consultoria Tecnológica em Sistemas CRIS e Cálculo de APC

2019-2020

Angerona

Privacy preserving IOT middleware

2018-2019

FGPE

Framework for Gamified Programming Education

2018-2021

AuthenticusNF

Desenvolvimento de Indicadores de Produção Científica Baseados no Authenticus

2018-2018

PGODISSEIA

Serviço de instalação e configuração de uma plataforma de autenticação, implementação de solução de gestão centralizada de certificados digitais, auditoria de segurança (pen-testing) e análise de impacto de privacidade dos tratamentos de dados pessoais das plataformas de integração e autenticação

2018-2020

CRADLE

Deep learning in cancer drug discovery: a pipeline for the generation of new therapies

2018-2021

Authenticus2019

Apoio Técnico ao CINTESIS para extração de indicadores de produção científica baseados no Authenticus

2018-2018

ELVEN

Elven - Expressive Logics for VErifying the Net

2016-2019

Digi-NewB

Non-invasive monitoring of perinatal health through multiparametric digital representation of clinically relevant functions for improving clinical intervention in neonatal units (Digi-NewB)

2016-2020

FOUREYES

TEC4Growth - RL FourEyes - Intelligence, Interaction, Immersion and Innovation for media industries

2015-2019

NanoStima-RL5

NanoSTIMA - Advanced Methodologies for Computer-Aided Detection and Diagnosis

2015-2019

NanoStima-RL3

NanoSTIMA - Health data infrastructure

2015-2019

NanoStima-RL4

NanoSTIMA - Health Data Analysis & Decision

2015-2019

SMILES

SMILES - Smart, Mobile, Intelligent and Large scale Sensing and analytics

2015-2019

FOTOCATGRAF

Graphene-based semiconductor photocatalysis for a safe and sustainable water supply: an advanced technology for emerging pollutants removal

2015-2018

REMINDS

Relevance Mining and Detection System (REMINDS)

2015-2017

PANF

Methods to retrieve and communicate data from Sifarma

2015-2016

SEA

SEA-Sistema de ensino autoadaptativo

2015-2015

MGI

Contrato de Aquisição de serviços de produção e desenvolvimento de módulo para gestão de iterações para integrar no sistema de informação da UP (SIGARRA)

2015-2015

Hyrax

Crowd-Sourcing Mobile Devices to Develop Edge Clouds

2014-2018

DAT

Curation and intelligent data analysis

2014-2015

ABLe

Advice-Based Learning for Health Care

2013-2015

Authenticus

Authenticus - System to Identify and Validate Portuguese Scientific Publications

2013-2016

SIBILA

Towards Smart Interacting Blocks that Improve Learned Advice

2013-2015

ADE

Adverse Drug Effects Detection

2012-2015

e-Policy

Engineering for the Policy-making Life Cycle (ePolicy)

2011-2014

Leap

Logic environments with Advanced Paralelism

2011-2014

MACAW

Macroprogramming for Wireless Sensor Networks

2011-2014

Breadcrumbs

Social network based on personal libraries of news fragments

2010-2012

Ofelia

Open Federated Environments Leveraging Identity and Authorization

2010-2013

Horus

Horn Representations of Uncertain Systems

2010-2013

DIGISCOPE

DIGItally enhanced stethosCOPE for clinical usage

2010-2013

Palco3.0

Intelligent Web system to support the management of a social network on music

2008-2011

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Publications

CRACS Publications

View all Publications

2026

Enhancing IoMT Security by Using Benford's Law and Distance Functions

Authors
Fernandes, P; Ciardhuáin, SO; Antunes, M;

Publication
PATTERN RECOGNITION AND IMAGE ANALYSIS, IBPRIA 2025, PT I

Abstract
The increasing connectivity of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices has accentuated their susceptibility to cyberattacks. The sensitive data they handle makes them prime targets for information theft and extortion, while outdated and insecure communication protocols further elevate security risks. This paper presents a lightweight and innovative approach that combines Benford's law with statistical distance functions to detect attacks in IoMT devices. The methodology uses Benford's law to analyze digit frequency and classify IoMT devices traffic as benign or malicious, regardless of attack type. It employs distance-based statistical functions like Jensen-Shannon divergence, KullbackLeibler divergence, Pearson correlation, and the Kolmogorov test to detect anomalies. Experimental validation was conducted on the CIC-IoMT-2024 benchmark dataset, comprising 45 features and multiple attack types. The best performance was achieved with the Kolmogorov test (alpha = 0.01), particularly in DoS ICMP attacks, yielding a precision of.99.24%, a recall of.98.73%, an F1 score of.98.97%, and an accuracy of.97.81%. Jensen-Shannon divergence also performed robustly in detecting SYN-based attacks, demonstrating strong detection with minimal computational cost. These findings confirm that Benford's law, when combined with well-chosen statistical distances, offers a viable and efficient alternative to machine learning models for anomaly detection in constrained environments like IoMT.

2026

An Optimized Multi-class Classification for Industrial Control Systems

Authors
Palma, A; Antunes, M; Alves, A;

Publication
PATTERN RECOGNITION AND IMAGE ANALYSIS, IBPRIA 2025, PT I

Abstract
Ensuring the security of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) is increasingly critical due to increasing connectivity and cyber threats. Traditional security measures often fail to detect evolving attacks, necessitating more effective solutions. This paper evaluates machine learning (ML) methods for ICS cybersecurity, using the ICS-Flow dataset and Optuna for hyperparameter tuning. The selected models, namely Random Forest (RF), AdaBoost, XGBoost, Deep Neural Networks, Artificial Neural Networks, ExtraTrees (ET), and Logistic Regression, are assessed using macro-averaged F1-score to handle class imbalance. Experimental results demonstrate that ensemble-based methods (RF, XGBoost, and ET) offer the highest overall detection performance, particularly in identifying commonly occurring attack types. However, minority classes, such as IP-Scan, remain difficult to detect accurately, indicating that hyperparameter tuning alone is insufficient to fully deal with imbalanced ICS data. These findings highlight the importance of complementary measures, such as focused feature selection, to enhance classification capabilities and protect industrial networks against a wider array of threats.

2025

Blockchain-Assisted Device as a Service (DaaS)

Authors
Tavares, MC; Mendonca, RP; Meneses, D; Santos, A; Pinto, A;

Publication
BLOCKCHAIN AND APPLICATIONS, 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS

Abstract
The paradigm of Device as a Service (DaaS) is one where devices are used as part of a service, with the user having no ownership over them. A centralised, web-based approach can be envisioned to support such a business model, but such lacks transparency, availability, and global scalability. A blockchain-based solution is proposed to support such a business model. The concept of a blockchain-assisted DaaS is novel and, by using smart contracts to support key interactions between relevant entities, marks a shift in device ownership, management, and revenue generation.

2025

A blockchain architecture with smart contracts for an additive symbiotic network - a case study

Authors
Ferreira, IA; Palazzo, G; Pinto, A; Pinto, P; Sousa, P; Godina, R; Carvalho, H;

Publication
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Abstract
Adopting innovative technologies such as blockchain and additive manufacturing can help organisations promote the development of additive symbiotic networks, thus pursuing higher sustainable goals and implementing circular economy strategies. These symbiotic networks correspond to industrial symbiosis networks in which wastes and by-products from other industries are incorporated into additive manufacturing processes. The adoption of blockchain technology in such a context is still in a nascent stage. Using the case study method, this research demonstrates the adoption of blockchain technology in an additive symbiotic network of a real-life context. The requirements to use a blockchain network are identified, and an architecture based on smart contracts is proposed as an enabler of the additive symbiotic network under study. The proposed solution uses the Hyperledger Fabric Attribute-Based Access Control as the distributed ledger technology. Even though this solution is still in the proof-of-concept stage, the results show that adopting it would allow the elimination of intermediary entities, keep available tracking records of the resources exchanged, and improve trust among the symbiotic stakeholders (that do not have any trust or cooperation mechanisms established before the symbiotic relationship). This study highlights that the complexity associated with introducing a novel technology and the technology's immaturity compared to other data storage technologies are some of the main challenges related to using blockchain technology in additive symbiotic networks.

2025

Emotional Sequencing as a Marker of Manipulation in Social Media Disinformation

Authors
Vieira, RS; Figueira, A;

Publication
FUTURE INTERNET

Abstract
The proliferation of disinformation on social media platforms poses a significant challenge to the reliability of online information ecosystems and the protection of public discourse. This study investigates the role of emotional sequences in detecting intentionally misleading messages disseminated on social networks. To this end, we apply a methodological pipeline that combines semantic segmentation, automatic emotion recognition, and sequential pattern mining. Emotional sequences are extracted at the subsentence level, preserving each message's temporal order of emotional cues. Comparative analyses reveal that disinformation messages exhibit a higher prevalence of negative emotions, particularly fear, anger, and sadness, interspersed with neutral segments. Moreover, false messages frequently employ complex emotional progressions-alternating between high-intensity negative emotions and emotionally neutral passages-designed to capture attention and maximize engagement. In contrast, messages from reliable sources tend to follow simpler, more linear emotional trajectories, with a greater prevalence of positive emotions such as joy. Our dataset encompasses multiple categories of disinformation, enabling a fine-grained analysis of how emotional sequencing varies across different types of misleading content. Furthermore, we validate our approach by comparing it against a publicly available disinformation dataset, demonstrating the generalizability of our findings. The results highlight the importance of analyzing temporal emotional patterns to distinguish disinformation from verified content, reinforcing the value of integrating emotional sequences into machine learning pipelines to enhance disinformation detection. This work contributes to the growing body of research emphasizing the relationship between emotional manipulation and the virality of misleading content online.