João Tasso de Figueiredo Borges de Sousa is an Associate Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Porto, and the Director of the Laboratório de Sistemas e Tecnologias Subaquáticas – LSTS (Underwater Systems and Technologies laboratory). He received MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Porto.

The LSTS specializes in the design, construction, and deployment of networked vehicle systems and develops the open-source LSTS software for networked vehicle systems (https://www.lsts.pt/toolchain) in use in over 20 countries The toolchain is also used in commercial applications under a licensing agreement.

His research interests are in networked multi-domain unmanned vehicles, design of unmanned maritime vehicles, cyber-physical systems, control and dynamic optimization, and applications in the ocean sciences, security, and defense. He has held visiting positions at UC Berkeley, Lund University, University of Hawaii, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

He was one of the coordinators of the committee in charge of developing the Portuguese Strategic Agenda for the Sea (2018) and a member of the panel, appointed by the Portuguese government, to write the report “A strategy for the ocean” (2003).

He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Ocean Engineering since 2017. He has been an associate Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference, since 2016, Associate Editor IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2015-2017, and Associate Editor, International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, 2015-2018.

He was a co-chair of the IEEE/MTS Oceans 2021 San Diego Porto Conference. the chair of the 2018 IEEE OES AUV Symposium and of the 2013 IFAC Navigation, Guidance and Control Workshop, the chair of the International Program Committee of the IFAC Workshop Navigation, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles, Girona, 2015, and the chair of the International Conference Oceans: challenges and opportunities, Porto, 2013.