Francisco Bernardo is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Digital Musical Instrument Design at the Augmented Instruments Lab within the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. His research focuses on advancing digital musical instruments with critical design, entanglement theories, and machine learning for embedded and hybrid analog-digital music systems.

Previously, Francisco was a Research Fellow at the Multi-Sensory-Devices Lab at University College London (UCL), where he worked on computational design and optimization of acoustic metamaterials and ultrasonic phased arrays to develop next-generation mid-air haptic interfaces. Prior to that, he contributed to the Experimental Music Technologies Lab at University of Sussex, where he developed web-based live coding environments like Sema and the sema-engine, integrating music and machine learning in novel and accessible ways.

Francisco holds a PhD in Computer Science from Goldsmiths, University of London, where he conducted longitudinal research in the EU-funded project RAPID-MIX, on human-centred design of interactive machine learning tools for rapid prototyping music technology for audio software developers and creative coding communities. His academic journey includes an M.A. in Management in the Creative Industries from Portuguese Catholic University, and a Licenciatura in Computer Science and Systems Engineering, alongside an MSc in Mobile Systems, both from the University of Minho.

With over 10 years of experience in applied research and development, he worked on large-scale, publicly funded projects (EU H2020, AHRC/UKRI, ERC, ERDF) and have collaborated with industry leaders such as Meta Reality Labs, Sony R&D, and Google ATAP, as well as various creative startups and scale-ups. Before transitioning into academia, he spent 7 years as a software architect and engineer in the industry, developing digital signage and business intelligence solutions.

Francisco is also a multi-instrumentalist, an improviser, and a performer. He is trained in classical guitar, piano, and choral singing. He is experienced in live coding and electronics, audio production and audiovisual tools. He has collaborated in different musical collectives (e.g., ‘sema’ trio, :papercutz, Facts of Life). He performs as a solo artist in experimental audiovisual media as MNISTREL.

— BSc Computer Science and Systems Engineering and MSc Mobile Systems, University of Minho
— M.A. Management in the Creative Industries, Catholic University of Portugal
— Ph.D. Computer Science, Goldsmiths University of London
— Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), Multi-Sensory Devices Lab and University of Sussex, Experimental Music Technology Lab