748 research outputs found
Interdisciplinary programs evaluation methods: a review of literature and a model proposal for intensive projects involving academia and industry
The technological evolution occurred in the last twenty years led organizations to a different global
business environment requiring them to be increasingly effective and competitive, implying changes
in the way they work. The new paradigm focuses on interdisciplinary team work and so it is required
from engineering graduates to have higher levels of transversal competences, like interpersonal
communication and team work skills as well as to be able to solve complex engineering problems, in
some situations involving areas outside engineers’ common initial training. These changes have clear
implications in engineering education and in order to improve engineering education curricula,
initiatives like multi and interdisciplinary programs have been implemented in Engineering Schools,
with aim to improve the interaction between academia and business companies with win‐win
relations. Some of these projects are intensively developed during a short period of time, at the
company’s facilities. Along with these initiatives emerges the need to evaluate them. According to
the literature, there is a lack of systematic evaluation systems of these projects, so the aim of the
paper is to suggest an approach to evaluate interdisciplinary intensive projects, focusing on the
competences required by the organizations and considering projects’ stakeholders – participants,
tutors, company representatives and educational institutions. The methodology used is based on a
literature review of topics related to Project‐Based Learning, aiming to develop a systematic
evaluation method that will involve the following dimensions: required outcomes for the
participants, competences assessment methods and benefits for stakeholders who participate.This work was partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT ‐ Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) with the following project PEST‐OE/EME/UI0252/2011
Simulation of a milk run material transportation system in the semiconductors industry
This paper deals with a project that consisted in the implementation of a Milk Run Lot Transportation System in Qimonda Porto Test Area, done by a multidisciplinary team formed by Qimonda Porto's workers, and the development of the corresponding simulation model. The first part of the study concerns an industrial engineering assessment of the test area, which identified sources of waste and improvement possibilities, and the implementation process of a Milk Run system in this area. Secondly, the results of the system implementation are discussed, and the construction of a simulation model in Arena® is presented. The purpose of the simulation exercise is to test different system configurations that may allow the improvement of the real-world system. Finally, some information about the simulation results and further steps to be taken regarding the improvement of the system is presented. The target of the project, framed in a Lean approach, was to reduce waste, namely transportation waste, thus optimizing the utilization of the test area human resources.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Integrated design of production systems in a lighting manufacturer using CAD and simulation in layout and process optimization
This paper discusses production systems design issues, applied to the production system
layout of a manufacturer of lighting fittings and components. In this paper, production systems
design software tools – Information Systems, Simulation and Computer Aided Design are
integrated, exploring ways of dealing with data diversity and assuring valid and efficient
production system layouts, taking advantage of the mentioned data integration. This integration is
implemented on Microsoft Access (databases with system knowledge repository), AutoCAD
(layout design) and WITNESS (simulation). The software package developed was called IDS
(Integrated Design of Systems). This approach can help on global system optimization that
considers all important system resources and system performance measures. Solutions are
expected to be faster to achieve and better than solutions obtained with non-integrated
approaches. IDS approach is open and accessible, thus enabling different companies to use this
advanced production systems design tool, taking advantage of simulation and CAD systems and
their integration. This application intends to validate the concept and functionalities of the
proposed tool, on a real industrial case study.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (algoritmi
Spatial variability of seed depth placement of maize under no tillage.
Among the various factors that contribute towards producing a successful maize crop, seed depth placement is a key determinant, especially in a no-tillage system. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the spatial variability of seed depth placement and crop establishment in a maize crop under no-tillage conditions, using precision farming technologies. The obtained results indicate that seed depth placement was significantly affected by soil moisture content, while a very high coefficient of variation of 39% was found for seed depth. Seeding depth had a significant impact on mean emergence time and percentage of emerged plants. Shallow average depth values and the high coefficient of variation suggest a need for improvement in controlling the seeder sowing depth
Spatial variability of seed depth placement of maize under no tillage in Alentejo, Portugal
Among the various factors that contribute towards producing a successful maize crop, seed depth placement is a key determinant, especially in a no-tillage system. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the spatial variability of seed depth placement and crop establishment in a maize crop under no-tillage conditions, using precision farming technologies. The obtained results indicate that seed depth placement was significantly affected by soil moisture content, while a very high coefficient of variation of 39% was found for seed depth. Seeding depth had a significant impact on mean emergence time and percentage of emerged plants. Shallow average depth values and the high coefficient of variation suggest a need for improvement in controlling the seeders sowing depth
Agent-based micro simulation to assess the performance of roundabouts considering different variables and performance indicators
Traffic congestion problems in intersections are usually solved by building infrastructures such as roundabouts. Several variables influence its performance, e.g. geometry, size and driving behaviour. Thus, it becomes necessary to compare these variables. This paper proposes a simulation model, developed to compare the performance of roundabouts, employing the object and agent modelling paradigms of Simio, to model the individual behaviour of vehicles. The results indicate the optimum size of roundabouts is around 40 meters of diameter and that the driving style has a greater influence on the performance of the roundabout than its unbalancing. In addition, it was found that roundabouts considering unbalancing and human behaviour decreased: The flow of vehicles in 8%, the waiting time per vehicle in 3 minutes, the queue size in 90%, the number of stops per vehicle in 88% and vehicles spent three times more fuel, than the roundabouts that did not consider these variables.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Polarization and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in quantum-ring magnetoexcitons
We study interaction and radial polarization effects on the the absorption
spectrum of neutral bound magnetoexcitons confined in quantum-ring structures.
We show that the size and orientation of the exciton's dipole moment, as well
as the interaction screening, play important roles in the Aharonov-Bohm
oscillations. In particular, the excitonic absorption peaks display A-B
oscillations both in position and amplitude for weak electron-hole interaction
and large radial polarization. The presence of impurity scattering induces
anticrossings in the exciton spectrum, leading to a modulation in the
absorption strength. These properties could be used in experimental
investigations of the effect in semiconductor quantum-ring structures.Comment: Updated version, 6 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Discrete simulation software ranking -A top list of the worldwide most popular and used tools
This paper documents a work on all-purpose discrete event simulation tools evaluation. Selected tools must be suitable for process design (e.g. manufacturing or services industries). Rather than making specific judgments of the tools, authors tried to measure the intensity of usage or presence in different sources, which they called "popularity". It was performed in several different ways, including occurrences in the WWW and scientific publications with tool name and vendor name. This work is an upgrade to the same study issued 5 years ago (2011), which in its turn was also an upgrade of 10 years ago (in 2006). It is obvious that more popularity does not assure more quality, or being better to the purpose of a simulation tool; however, a positive correlation may exist between them. The result of this work is a short list, of 19 commercial simulation tools, with probably the nowadays' most relevant ones.This work has been co-supported by SI I&DT project in joint-promotion nº 36265/2013 (HMIEXCEL) and by FCT Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - project: PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014.
REFERENCESinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Avaliação da resistência mecânica do solo na homogeneidade de profundidade na sementeira de uma cultura de milho feita sob diferentes técnicas culturais.
Com o objetivo de estudar a influência da resistência mecânica do solo na distribuição vertical de semente
obtida por semeadores numa cultura de milho, realizou-se na campanha de 2011 um estudo de campo na
região do Alentejo, sendo a operação de sementeira feita sob diferentes praticas culturais: mobilização
convencional, mobilização mínima e sementeira direta
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