Manuel Pita

Manuel Pita is an Assistant Professor at CICANT (University Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Portugal) and a Research Associate in the complex systems group at ISTAR-Iscte (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal).

• PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (2007, University of Edinburgh)
• Postdoctoral work: Prof. Luís Rocha (Indiana University, USA), Prof. Melanie Mitchell (Portland State University, USA)
• Principal Investigator: Project on collective states in online social conversations among Portuguese high school students

His research focuses on the interaction between individual and collective behaviors in complex networks, with applications to social challenges like hate speech, polarization, and fake news. He has published articles in Q1 journals such as Sensors, PLoS Computational Biology, and BMC Medicine, with over 130 Web of Science citations.

Manuel Pita's work spans computational modeling, artificial life, and data science, often applying cellular automata and NLP techniques to understand complex systems. His recent publications emphasize IoT applications and predictive epidemiology using machine learning approaches.

He collaborates with institutions including Indiana University, Portland State University, and Lisbon institutions like ISTAR-Iscte and CICANT.