IEETA and UA member honored with ISVR Researcher 2026 award
Bernardo Marques, researcher at the Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro (IEETA) and teacher at the University of Aveiro (UA), has received the 2026 Early Career Investigator Award. The work carried out at UA to explore the potential of Virtual and Augmented Reality in the physical and cognitive rehabilitation of stroke survivors has received yet another international recognition.
The distinction, awarded by the International Society for Virtual Rehabilitation (ISVR), recognises the contributions and impact of early-career researchers whose work focuses on the use of immersive technologies in rehabilitation scenarios.
The research focuses on the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies to support rehabilitation processes, with particular emphasis on social and personalised environments for the physical and cognitive rehabilitation of stroke survivors. The work explores how multi-user environments, multimodal interaction, and different personalisation methods can contribute to more motivating and accessible rehabilitation experiences, promoting more active participation by survivors while taking into account their abilities, needs, and progress throughout the rehabilitation process.
The development of these solutions follows an interdisciplinary approach, combining expertise from Engineering, Human-Centred Computing, and Health Sciences. This approach helps bridge technological research and the real-world needs of rehabilitation settings, from the design and development of solutions to their evaluation with stroke survivors and healthcare professionals.
This work has involved collaboration with stroke survivors, healthcare professionals, and other members of the academic community, including the Centro de Medicina de Reabilitação da Região Centro-Rovisco Pais, the Aveiro Mutual Support Group (GAM), and the School of Health Sciences of the University of Aveiro (ESSUA). The award represents international recognition of the work being carried out at UA in this field and builds on a line of research that has received further distinctions in recent years.