Manuel Pita is an Assistant Professor in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Complex Systems at CICANT (ULHT, Portugal) and Associate Researcher in the Complex Systems group at ISTAR (ISCTE-IUL, Portugal). His research is on the interplay between individual and collective behaviours in complex networks (or how do individuals and collectives shape each other). He obtained a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK) in 2007 and pursued postdoctoral training with Prof. Luís Rocha (Indiana University, USA) and Prof. Melanie Mitchell (Portland State University, USA). He is the principal investigator in a project that studies the driver factors  of collective states in the online social conversations of young secondary school students in Portugal. This knowledge is to be used to support the public administration in the design of ethical educational interventions to improve critical thinking, reflexive behaviours and foster plurality - thus counteracting phenomena such as hate speech, polarisation, and dissemination of fake news.