In 2000, Professor Ana Paiva, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), founded GAIPS. This research group, This group is affiliated with both INESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico (IST).

In that same year, 2000, we secured our first European project, the Distributed Virtual Laboratory (DIVILAB), as well as our first national project, Supporting Affective Interactions for Real-time Applications (SAFIRA). Since then, we have been involved in over 70 projects.

In 2000, the first PhD students arrived at GAIPS, with the inaugural graduate in 2005. Since then, we have proudly been responsible for the education of over 70 PhD.

Fun Fact: Some of the earliest students remain at GAIPS to this day.

Our first robot arrived in 2005, and although it is now retired, it was part of our studies for several years.

Over the years, more than 20 robots have passed through our hands, and we currently have over 15 robots in our inventory