Agent based prototype for interoperation of production planning and control and manufacturing automation

This work describes a model for distributed dynamic Production Planning and Control (PPC) agent based system, which includes interoperation with manufacturing automation. It is presented a demonstration prototype involving distributed software agents and industrial equipment integration, which implements part of the developed model functionalities. Clients can send orders, and resources may apply for those orders fulfilment. Resources with orders allocated to, start automatically the required manufacturing operations. The prototype was implemented integrating several tools, including Lab VIEW and LEGO Mindstorms components. This is useful to validate the integration, proposed by the dynamic PPC model, between production planning processes and manufacturing execution operations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Avaliação pelos pares com recurso a um grupo Web

Descreve-se, neste trabalho, uma experiência de avaliação pelos pares realizada com recurso a um grupo Web e baseada em duas fases, uma formativa e outra sumativa. Este processo de avaliação, exigiu dos alunos um comportamento mais activo, que conduziu a uma superior responsabilização e identificação com os resultados e com os objectivos de aprendizagem. Apresenta-se ainda a descrição de uma aplicação de apoio à gestão do processo e tratamento dos dados

Physical Connectivity Between the NE Atlantic Seamounts

Within the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone, the Great Meteor and Madeira-Tore complexes are highly productive areas, which are likely to be classified as marine protected areas (MPAs) due to their ecological vulnerability. This was the main focus of the BIOMETORE project and, framed on it, the aim of the present study was to investigate the physical connectivity between both seamount complexes. Using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model coupled with the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS) (a Lagrangian tool), a series of experiments was conducted in order to determine the influence of the main oceanographic phenomena governing the area in: (i) the origin of the particles that reach each complex, (ii) their capacity to capture and retain incoming particles, and (iii) the physical connectivity between them as well as the intra-connectivity within each seamount system. Due to the geographical location of both groups of seamounts, the Azores Current (AzC) and its associated eddies were identified as the main transport pathways, its influence being stronger at intermediate waters and decreasing with depth. Notwithstanding, the Great Meteor and the MadeiraTore were mainly affected by the AzC southward and eastward branches, respectively, resulting in a non-significant connectivity between the two groups. Meanwhile, the inter-connectivity between seamounts slightly varied with depth at the Great Meteor complex while increasing at Madeira-Tore. In addition, the Plateau, Irving, and Cruiser (PIC) seamounts from the Great Meteor complex and Gorringe and Coral from the Madeira-Tore complex proved to incorporate the regional connectivity routes. Although containing the three smallest seamounts, Madeira-Tore showed the higher capturing capacity per square kilometer, highlighting the influence of the "sticky water effect." In the Great Meteor complex, the "seamount effect" seems to be the main phenomenon responsible for the greater retention and self-recruitment abilities of these seamounts. The presented results provide valuable information for the design of a MPA to preserve these vulnerable habitat

Teachers' workload in a project-led engineering education approach

This paper presents a detailed list of activities, carried out by a team of teachers, while organizing and running an Interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) methodology for a full semester. The study was undertaken at the Engineering School of University of Minho, Portugal. It was based on a first year, first semester of the Integrated Master Degree in Industrial Management and Engineering (IME). The full PLE activities-related workload was accounted on a man-hour basis. Nineteen coordination activities were identified and the respective durations and frequencies were accounted. One semester of IME PLE requires a total of 569 man-hours. The project involved a much greater number of teachers and other staff when compared to a traditional semester. The most time-consuming activities were spotted and strategies and measures to deal with the resulting workload were discussed and some of them are proposed for implementation in future editions of the PLE methodology. Those proposals were considered more efficient ways to rationalize the use of teachers’ time

Projectos para a aprendizagem na Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Este artigo apresenta e relaciona os diferentes tipos de projectos desenvolvidos pelos alunos do Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial no âmbito da sua aprendizagem. Normalmente, estes projectos são desenvolvidos em contextos diferentes: i) na universidade, sob a forma de projectos interdisciplinares semestrais de grande dimensão, com base na estratégia Project Led Education (PLE), e ii) em empresa, sob a forma de projecto em empresa, para desenvolvimento da dissertação de mestrado. PLE é uma das metodologias de aprendizagem activa/cooperativa que tem vindo a ser introduzida em alguns cursos de engenharia da Universidade do Minho. O projecto em empresa recorre frequentemente a uma estratégia de investigação baseada em pesquisa-acção, onde o aluno assume um papel activo, participativo e interventivo na vida da empresa. Este artigo mostra que o PLE pode promover a iniciação à investigação aplicada, baseada na estratégia de pesquisa-acção, permitindo ao aluno desenvolver competências valorizadas pelas empresas. Nesse sentido espera-se que empresa possa beneficiar da aprendizagem do aluno, transformando-se a experiência tácita da empresa em conhecimento explícito

Management of interdisciplinary project approaches in Engineering Education: a case study

This paper describes project management processes of coordination teams, in the implementation of interdisciplinary project approaches in Engineering Education. These interdisciplinary projects are based on the Project-Led Education (PLE) concept and are being implemented since 2004/2005 in the Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) master degree course (1st and 2nd cycle of Engineering Education) at University of Minho. Usually, these approaches involve a coordination team of 10 to 15 members with different roles: teachers, tutors and education researchers. This team is responsible for preparing the project for the semester and forming the students’ teams. The coordination of these two types of teams is centred on a project manager that is responsible for, and supports, all the work developed during the semester, e.g., prepare the initial presentation of the project to the students, prepare the web site that supports the work, establish the communication between students and the rest of the team, prepare the students’ guide, and so on. Managing these projects is an intense task that demands a lot of time and different competencies. In this work it is presented a project management framework based on project management knowledge areas, to aid coordination teams to achieve better results

Distributed production planning and control agent based system

A model of an Agent based Production Planning and Control (PPC) system able to be dynamically adaptable to local and distributed utilization of production resources and materials is presented. The PPC system is based on the selection of resources to deal with one order of different quantities of one product each time. In this way it is build one scheduling solution for that particular order. The production resources are selected and scheduled using a multiagent system supported by an implementation of the Smith Contract Net, using Java Spaces technology. The multiagent system is based on three main agents: Client, Resource and Manager. These agents negotiate the final product, and the correspondent components, requested by the client. An order for each product (component) triggers a process of dynamic design of a production system to fulfill that particular order. This system exists till the end of the order

An overview of assessment of competences based on publications in journals

Competences assessment transcends disciplinary areas and its research has increased worldwide. However, research in competence assessment in the engineering universe is something relatively new, concerning other disciplinary areas such as medicine and education. Understanding the state of art in areas where studies on competence assessment are more developed is an important step for transferring that knowledge to Engineering. This article aims to analyze the competences assessment state of art and to understand the actors involved in assessment methods (who is the assessor and who is being assessed), when and how the assessment process occurs, in medicine context, education, and engineering areas. The chosen approach was to carry out a literature review study based on a search using the Elsevier Scopus indexing service, in the timeframe 2000 to 2019. Using the search-terms "competences evaluation", "competencies evaluation", "competencies assessment" or "competences assessment", applied to title, abstract and keywords, was possible to identify 1,984 periodical documents, which 1,563 documents were of interest to the study, and related to Medicine, Education or Engineering areas. As a selection factor, the ten (10) most cited articles in each area were analyzed. Based on the study, the authors concluded the methods of assessing competences in medicine and education field may be used to support the Engineering area to develop reliable and valid methods for assessing competences. Besides, it was possible to identify that engineering competence assessment methods presented a focused computers simulators use. However, for medicine and education, the methods focus was evidenced in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), based on scenarios.This work has been supported by FCT –Fundação para aCiência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020

Axisymmetric polydimethysiloxane microchannels for in vitro hemodynamic studies

The current microdevices used for biomedical research are often manufactured using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Although it is possible to fabricate precise and reproducible rectangular microchannels using soft lithography techniques, this kind of geometry may not reflect the actual physiology of the microcirculation. Here, we present a simple method to fabricate circular polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) microchannels aiming to mimic an in vivo microvascular environment and suitable for state-of-the-art microscale flow visualization techniques, such as confocal µPIV/PTV. By using a confocal µPTV system individual red blood cells (RBCs) were successfully tracked trough a 75 µm circular PDMS microchannel. The results show that RBC lateral dispersion increases with the volume fraction of RBCs in the solution, i.e. with the hematocrit

Five years of project-based learning training experiences in higher education institutions in Brazil

Implementing Project Based Learning (PBL) is a challenging enterprise both for students and for teachers. PBL demands a changing process in which teaching is about being able to work with other teachers in an environment open to uncertainty, with creativity, improved communication and engagement. Considering the need to support teachers to implement PBL, a group of researchers delivered 19 workshops since 2010 in 16 Higher Education Institutions in Brazil. These workshops were delivered using a PBL approach and most of them had 20 hours of training. This study aims identifying the impact of these workshops and discuss the contribution of staff development strategies to improve engineering teaching practice. The methodological approach carried out for this study was based on an online questionnaire exploring the participants’ perceptions about their experience in the workshop and the impact on their teaching practice using active learning strategies (difficulties, motivations, etc.). The questionnaire was sent to 367 participants’ active email addresses. The findings, from the 67 answers received, point out that 95% of respondents said that the workshops have had an impact on their teaching practice, and in general, they are applying what they have learned in the workshops. The participants’ motivation came from the interest in learning new teaching strategies, sharing experiences, improving student learning, innovating and even just out of curiosity. Concerning to teachers’ training, more than 75% of the respondents’ claimed they have felt the need of pedagogical training at the beginning of their career, and more than 70% stated that they keep on participating in events to improve their professional practice as engineering teachers. It is important to point out all respondents consider important or very important the existence of a professional teachers’ development program in their institutions, and the pedagogical training was highlighted as the most needed, followed by the formation of practice communities and research groups. Based on the participants perceptions it was possible to present a short list of general recommendations for the development of engineering teachers training opportunities.The authors thank the teachers that kindly participated in this research. This work has been partially supported by projects COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, from Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio