IEM@ProjectNetworking: bringing first year students closer to professional practice

First year Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) students have difficulties in establishing a clear picture of their future job as industrial engineers. Moreover, these students usually show a lack of proactivity and entrepreneurship attitude, as well as other transversal competences. To promote these competences among students, a team of teachers created a challenge for them which consisted in identifying and contacting two companies and interviewing one of their IEM professionals. This challenge was named IEM@ProjectNetworking. The main objectives of the IEM@ProjectNetworking were, amongst others, to bring students closer to their future professional practice. This paper aims to describe and evaluate the first edition of this challenge that took place in the first semester of the first year, during the 2012/2013 academic year. The evaluation was based on student’s perceptions collected from individual reflections about the experience and data from a workshop held at the end of the semester. The main findings are also presented based on the more than 100 interviews made by the students in 78 companies visited

Projects with the industry for the development of professional competences in industrial engineering and management

Training engineering students has been evolving towards the development of professional competences, both technical and transversal. These competences will enable new engineers to apply learning resources in professional contexts with greater efficacy. Thus, these engineers will be closer to the needs of industry. A learning methodology that has been used in these contexts is Project Based Learning (PBL). This paper presents a learning process based on PBL concepts, in which five teams of 5 to 7 students of Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Minho, Portugal, developed projects in interaction with companies during a semester. This project is supported by 5 courses of the 7th semester: Organization of Production Systems, Information Systems for Production, Integrated Production Management, Ergonomic Study of Workplaces and Simulation. The objective of the students’ project is to make the analysis and present proposals for improvement of a part of the production system of a company. With the support of teachers, students should manage the interaction with an industrial company under the established partnership and present suggestions for improvements to their production system, considering contributions from the 5 courses of the semester. The aim of this paper is to describe the operational model of this PBL process, evaluate the results in terms of students’ learning and in terms of the perception of industry, and finally make proposals for improving the model. The evaluation of learning outcomes is based on the analysis of students’ project results, a questionnaire and a closing workshop of the project with students. The evaluation of the perception of industry partners is achieved using informal interviews with company representatives. The evaluation process shows that, from the participants’ perceptions, students have developed the competences that are expected and, in general, the teams are motivated by the outcome of their projects. They referred that there should exist better mechanisms of differentiation of individual classifications within the team. From the point of view of industry, the results are considered good, but there is a tendency to propose a greater focus on the objectives and results of the project. Considering these results, a change to the model is proposed, in order to increase the direction of the project. The proposal organizes the project into two very distinct phases: (1) analysis and diagnosis phase; (2) improvement phase. This change would explore the contents and competences expected of all courses during the analysis and diagnosis phase, and in second phase, the project would focus on developing specific solutions for the enterprise

Making PBL teams more effective with Scrum

Scrum is a project management methodology very popular in the software industry with good results in terms of team work effectiveness. Scrum is based on important team work values such as commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect and can be described in three different dimensions: Scrum team; Scrum Events; and Scrum artefacts. This paper aims to analyse the implementation of scrum approach in a project based learning context in higher education. The scrum approach was applied in the fourth year of the Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) degree program, where teams of students developed a PBL project in an industrial context during the first semester. The research methodology focused on a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to the Scrum Team (scrum master, product owner and the student team). Scrum Events were analysed through direct observation and Scrum Artefacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment) were analysed based on a document analysis. The results of this study contribute to understand the effectiveness of the application of Scrum to complex PBL learning environments. The results presented in the study provided important inputs to improve the way PBL student teams manage themselves as well as their projects.This work has been partially supported by projects COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, from Portugal

A first year and first semester project-led Engineering Education approach

This paper describes the organization model of a Project-Led Education (PLE) process carried out in the Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) programme at the University of Minho. It intends to analyse the PLE approach in the first year and first semester, according to the perceptions of the coordination team involved in the 2008/09 PLE edition. The emerging data from a group discussion with all coordination team members revealed a set of dimensions which allow a better understanding of the way the process is organized and how it could be improved. The constraints found were mainly three: first, teachers feel that in this process they have much more work than in traditional methodologies; second, some aspects of lack of suitable interdisciplinarity between subjects were identified; and finally some doubts in regard to learning outcomes were raised and some suggestions of individual activities were proposed. Therefore, a set of improvement changes will be presented in order to overcome some of the difficulties identified by faculty staff. These changes will be taken in account in the design of the next PLE edition (2009/10)

Final year Lean projects: advantages for companies, students and academia

The Integrated Master Degree on Industrial Engineering and Management, from the Department of Production and Systems of University of Minho – Portugal, requires the development of an individual final project which is almost exclusively developed in an industrial context. The degree is awarded upon the successful development of an individual masters’ thesis which directly derives from one such project. The process is triggered by companies which make a general proposal based on specific industrial challenges. The proposal might simply identify the theme and require one or more students to collaborate with them. Many of these projects involve the Lean Production paradigm, which to be successfully implemented, needs a change of culture inside the company that is often promoted by the students themselves. From this partnership there are advantages for both sides: companies, students and academia. Some advantages for students are the opportunity to work in an industrial environment with different professionals, gain some experience, enrich the curriculum, apply and explore the knowledge acquired in the university, transform theories into practice, and develop/apply transversal competences, such as those of teamwork, project management, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication skills, etc. Additionally, students develop awareness for the importance of their professional life, entrepreneurial attitude, and initiative spirit, among others. Beyond the project achievements, such as monetary gains stemmed from shop floor improvements, companies renew their staff, bring new ideas and knowledge, reinforce the links with the university, conduct low cost R&D, uncover new challenges, etc. University and supervisors (academia) gain recognition, practical experience, gain access to case studies and practical examples for classes, and so on. This paper aims to discuss the gains achieved by companies, students and academia, resulting from these industrial projects, and also some drawbacks. These drawbacks are bypassed when healthy partnerships are established, so the paper concludes with some guidelines to achieve this. The methodology applied in this paper uses document analysis for data collection. With respect to data analysis it uses content analysis. The main source of information is a set of master thesis concluded between 2011 and 2013 (inclusive), supervised by some of the authors of this paper

The importance of neighborhood ecological assets in community dwelling old people aging outcomes: A study in Northern Portugal

Human development is a bidirectional, person-context relational process, but scarce evidence is available about the relation between the individual variability across the life-span and the neighborhood ecological assets. Therefore, it is important that research focus not only on personal characteristics but on ecological assets as well. This way this study aims to analyze the association between neighborhood ecological assets categorized into four dimensions: human, physical or institutional, social or collective activity, accessibility, and the individual functioning. A 3% sample of residents aged 65 years and older in two downtown and three uptown parishes stratified by age and sex was interviewed at home using a protocol that included the Portuguese version of the Barthel Index in basic activities of daily living (BADL), the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 items (GDS) for evaluating functionality, cognitive performance, and depression. The 162 participants were aged on average 75 years (sd = 7.0), 54% were women and 90% had less than 7 years of education. The majority of participants were independent in BADL (M = 90; sd = 17.7) and moderately dependent in IADL (M = 13, sd = 6.0), 20% showed cognitive impairment and a mean score of 8 (sd = 2.1) in GDS-15. After controlling for the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, functionality, and cognitive performance decreases in persons with worst outdoor mobility. On the other hand depressive symptoms are less common as the number of recreation opportunities, namely associative groups (cultural, educative, professional), increases. These results suggest that aging policies and practices must be ecologically embedded.E51F-89A1-B769 | Carla FariaN/

Laser Doppler Measurements of Twin Impinging Jets Aligned with a Crossflow

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the complex flow beneath two impinging jets aligned with a low-velocity crossflow which is relevant for the future F-35 VSTOL configuration, and provides a quantitative picture of the main features of interest for impingement type of flows. The experiments were carried out for a Reynolds number based on the jet exit conditions of Rej = 4.3 104, an impingement height of 20.1 jet diameters and for a velocity ratio between the jet exit and the crossflow VR = Vj/Uo of 22.5. The rear jet is located at S = 6 D downstream of the first jet. The results show a large penetration of the first (upstream) jet that is deflected by the crossflow and impinges on the ground, giving rise to a ground vortex due to the collision of the radial wall and the crossflow that wraps around the impinging point like a scarf. The rear jet (located downstream) it is not so affected by the crossflow in terms of deflection, but due to the downstream wall jet that flows radially from the impinging point of the first jet it does not reach the ground. The results indicate a new flow pattern not yet reported so far, that for a VSTOL aircraft operating in ground vicinity with front wind or small forward movement may result in enhanced under pressures in the aft part of the aircraft causing a suction down force and a change of the pitching moment towards the ground.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fatores críticos num processo de Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos : perceções de estudantes de 1º ano de Engenharia

This paper presents the students’ perceptions about the interdisciplinary project implemented in the first year of the Integrated Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at the University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal. This project was supported by four curricular units (UCs): General Chemistry (GC); Calculus (C); Introduction to Industrial Engineering (IIE) and Computer Programming 1 (PC1). In order to collect data on the perceptions of students regarding their participation and motivation on 2011/2012 edition, a questionnaire with 46 closed items and 3 open questions was developed and applied to 35 students and the results discussed on a final workshop. Based on the results of the research, the final workshop shows that the students recognize the benefits of Project Based Learning (PBL) as a learning methodology, its contribution and motivation to development of competences and skills for future career and the importance of teamwork. However, the findings showed that the roles of teachers and tutors must be reviewed as well as the grade’s weight of project related with UCs. Furthermore, students also pointed out some additional constraints during the project, namely: time required for the project; the integration of UCs’ contents in the project and the effort put in the project and its impact in final grades

Perspectives on syngas fermentation

Book of Abstracts of CEB Annual Meeting 2017The replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy sources is, nowadays, a worldwide priority. Gasification processes and further bioconversion of syngas appears to be a promising alternative compared to the existing chemical techniques, since this process convert renewable sources into alternative fuels and commodity chemicals, such as CH4, fatty acids, alcohols, etc., additionally contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases [1]. Nearly any form of organic matter can be transformed through gasification, into syngas, mainly composed of CO, H2 and CO2. The biological conversion of syngas offers several advantages over catalytic processes, specifically the greater resistance to catalyst poisoning and the higher specificity for the substrates [2]. Syngas- and CO-fermenting microorganisms use the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway to produce several multi-carbon compounds such as short- and medium-fatty acids and alcohols. Even though many studies were performed in the last few years, fermentation of syngas still involves practical challenges due to limitations of the process. The major bottleneck of syngas fermentation that blocks the commercialization of this technology is gas-to-liquid mass transfer limitations, since it reduces the microorganisms access to the substrate and consequently reduces the productivity rates. It is of utmost importance the development of alternatives that promote the enhancement of mass transfer, the improvement on the productivity rates from syngas fermentation and the deep study of the biocatalysts involved in syngas bioconversion pathways. Biological syngas conversion has been a research topic at the BRIDGE group since 2009, by studying both technological and microbiological aspects of the process. Previous work developed in our group focused on the use of anaerobic complex microbial communities to obtain enriched cultures and/or pure cultures that could convert syngas or CO into mainly acetate, CH4 and H2. Regarding to the technological aspects of syngas bioconversion process, a multi-orifice baffled bioreactor was used to study the effect of using different reactors designs to improve the gas-liquid mass transfer. Moreover, recent studies conducted at BRIDGE group with collaboration of BIOSYSTEMS group showed that the use of increased pressure (up to 5 bar) to increase gas-liquid mass transfer, leads to different metabolic routes on microorganisms. These results represent a step forward to direct the biochemical pathways of microbial community towards the specific products from syngas. As future perspectives, we aimed to continue a research line on syngas fermentation, by studying different operational approaches for this process and focusing on the production of butanol, 2,3-butanediol and propionate.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A educação de pares em contexto prisional: representações de reclusos acerca do seu potencial de capacitação e empoderamento

A educação de pares é uma metodologia relevante na intervenção no contexto prisional. O objectivo do presente estudo é analisar as representações sobre as implicações desta metodologia na promoção do desenvolvimento pessoal e social de reclusos. Nesse sentido foram realizados 6 focus groups com 25 reclusos que beneficiaram da formação de educadores de pares implementada no âmbito do projecto Inclus@ no Estabelecimento Prisional da Guarda. Na análise emergiram 4 categorias: valorização do sentido de competência pessoal; reforço de competências sociais; aumento da capacidade de participação no espaço público e empoderamento do indivíduo. Os resultados serão discutidos problematizando o papel que a educação de pares pode ter no contexto prisional.Peer education is a relevant methodology for intervention in the prison context. The goal of this study is to analyse the representations about the implications of this methodology in the promotion of the personal and social development of prisoners. In this sense, 6 focus groups were carried out with 25 inmates who benefited from the training of peer educators implemented by project Inclus@ in the Prison of Guarda. 4 categories emerged in the analysis: valorisation of the sense of personal competence; strengthening of social skills; increase of the ability to participate in the public space and empowerment of the individual. The results will be discussed analysing the role that peer education can play in the prison context.L’éducation par les pairs est une méthodologie pertinente dans l’intervention pénitentiaire. L’objectif de cette étude est d’analyser les représentations sur les implications de cette méthodologie dans la promotion du développement personnel et social des détenus. En ce sens, 6 focus groups ont été réalisés avec 25 détenus qui ont bénéficié de la formation de pairs éducateurs mise en place dans le cadre du projet Inclus@ dans l’établissement pénitentiaire de Guarda. 4 catégories ont émergé de l’analyse : la valorisation du sens de la compétence personnelle ; le renforcement des compétences sociales; l’augmentation de la capacité de participation dans l’espace public et l’autonomisation de l’individu. Les résultats seront discutés avec la problématisation du rôle que l’éducation par les pairs peut avoir dans le contexte de la prison