Learning to manage in knowledge based organizations: the role of portfolios

Paper presented at the 8th European Conference on Knowledge Management, Barcelona, 6-7 Sep. 2008 URL: http://www.academic-conferences.org/eckm/eckm2007/eckm07-home.htm

Interactive light and sound table: an EPS@ISEP project

Interactive products are appealing objects in a technology-driven society and the offer in the market is wide and varied. Most of the existing interactive products only provide either light or sound experiences. Therefore, the goal of this project was to develop a product aimed for children combining both features. This project was developed by a team of four thirdyear students with different engineering backgrounds and nationalities during the European Project Semester at ISEP (EPS@ISEP) in 2012. This paper presents the process that led to the development of an interactive sound table that combines nine identical interaction blocks, a control block and a sound block. Each interaction block works independently and is composed of four light emitting diodes (LED) and one infrared (IR) sensor. The control is performed by an Arduino microcontroller and the sound block includes a music shield and a pair of loud speakers. A number of tests were carried out to assess whether the controller, IR sensors, LED, music shield and speakers work together properly and if the ensemble was a viable interactive light and sound device for children.

The European Project Semester at ISEP: Learning to Learn Engineering

The European Project Semester at ISEP (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme addressed to engineering students from diverse scientific backgrounds and nationalities. The students, organized in multicultural teams, are challenged to solve real world multidisciplinary problems, accounting for 30 ECTU. The EPS package, although focused on project development (20 ECTU), includes a series of complementary seminars aimed at fostering soft, project-related and engineering transversal skills (10 ECTU). This paper presents the study plan, resources, operation and results of the EPS@ISEP that was created in 2011 to apply the best engineering education practices and promote the internationalization of ISEP. The results show that the EPS@ISEP students acquire during one semester the scientific, technical and soft competences necessary to propose, design and implement a solution for a multidisciplinary problem.

The European Project Semester at ISEP: the challenge of educating global engineers

Current engineering education challenges require approaches that promote scientific, technical, design and complementary skills while fostering autonomy, innovation and responsibility. The European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme (30 European Credit Transfer Units (ECTU)) for engineering students from diverse scientific backgrounds and nationalities that intends to address these goals. The students, organised in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, are challenged to solve real multidisciplinary problems during one semester. The EPS package, although on project development (20 ECTU), includes a series of complementary seminars aimed at fostering soft, project-related and engineering transversal skills (10 ECTU). Hence, the students enrolled in this programme improve their transversal skills and learn, together and with the team of supervisors, subjects distinct from their core training. This paper presents the structure, implementation and results of the EPS@ISEP that was created in 2011 to apply the best engineering practices and promote internationalisation and engineering education innovation at ISEP.

CDIO and the European Project Semester: a match for capstone projects?

The CDIO Initiative is an open innovative educational framework for engineering graduation degrees set in the context of Conceiving – Designing – Implementing – Operating real-world systems and products, which is embraced by a network of worldwide universities, the CDIO collaborators. A CDIO compliant engineering degree programme typically includes a capstone module on the final semester. Its purpose is to expose students to problems of a greater dimension and complexity than those faced throughout the degree programme as well as to put them in contact with the so-called real world, in opposition to the academic world. However, even in the CDIO context, there are barriers that separate engineering capstone students from the real world context of an engineering professional: (i) limited interaction with experts from diverse scientific areas; (ii) reduced cultural and scientific diversity within the teams; and (iii) lack of a project supportive framework to foster the complementary technical and non-technical skills required in an engineering professional. To address these shortcomings, we propose the adoption of the European Project Semester (EPS) framework, a one semester student centred international capstone programme offered by a group of European engineering schools (the EPS Providers) as part of their student exchange programme portfolio. The EPS package is organised around a central module – the EPS project – and a set of complementary supportive modules. Project proposals refer to open multidisciplinary real world problems and supervision becomes coaching. The students are organised in teams, grouping individuals from diverse academic backgrounds and nationalities, and each team is fully responsible for conducting its project. EPS complies with the CDIO directives on Design-Implement experiences and provides an integrated framework for undertaking capstone projects, which is focussed on multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork, problem-solving, communication, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical reasoning and global contextual analysis. As a result, we recommend the adoption of the EPS within CDIO capstone modules for the benefit of engineering students.

Development of Biomimetic Robots in the EPS Engineering Programme Capstone Project

This paper proposes the development of biologically inspired robots as the capstone project of the European Project Semester (EPS) framework. EPS is a one semester student centred international programme offered by a group of European engineering schools (EPS Providers) as part of their student exchange programme portfolio. EPS is organized around a central module (the EPS project) and a set of complementary supportive modules. Project proposals refer to open multidisciplinary real world problems. Its purpose is to expose students to problems of a greater dimension and complexity than those faced throughout the degree programme as well as to put them in contact with the socalled real world, in opposition to the academic world. Students are organized in teams, grouping individuals from diverse academic backgrounds and nationalities, and each team is fully responsible for conducting its project. EPS provides an integrated framework for undertaking capstone projects, which is focused on multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork, communication, problem-solving, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical reasoning and global contextual analysis. The design and development of biologically inspired robots allows the students to fulfil the previously described requirements and objectives and, as a result, we recommend the adoption of these projects within the EPS project capstone module for the benefit of engineering students.

Development of Biomimetic Robots in the EPS Engineering Programme Capstone Project

This paper presents the development of a fish-like robot called Bro-Fish. Bro-Fish aims to be an educational toy dedicated to teaching mechanics, programming and the physics of floating objects to youngsters. The underlying intention is to awaken the interest of children for technology, especially biomimetic (biologically inspired) approaches, in order to promote sustainability and raise the level of ecological awareness. The main focus of this project was to create a robot with carangiform locomotion and controllable swimming, providing the opportunity to customize parts and experiment with the physics of floating objects. Therefore, the locomotion principles of fishes and mechanisms developed in related projects were analysed. Inspired by this background knowledge, a prototype was designed and implemented. The main achievement is the new tail mechanism that propels the robot. The tail resembles the undulation motion of fish bodies and is actuated in an innovative way, triggered by an elegant movement of a rotating helicoidal. First experimental tests revealed the potential of the proposed methodology to effectively generate forward propulsion.

ePortfolios in translators’ training and assessment

Translator’s training and assessment has used more and more tools and innovative strategies over the years. The goals and results to achieve haven’t changed much, however: translation quality. In order to accomplish it, the translator and all the tasks and processes he develops appear as crucial, being pre-translation and post-translation processes equally important as the translation itself, namely as far as autonomy, reflexive and critical skills are concerned. Finally, the need and relevance of collaborative tasks and networks amongst virtual translation communities, led us to the decision of implementing ePortfolios as a tool to develop the requested skills and extend the use of Internet in translation. In this paper we describe a case-study of a pilot experiment on the using of e-portfolios as a translation training tool and discuss their role in the definition of a clear set of objectives and phases for the completion of each task, by helping students in the management of the projects deadlines, improving their knowledge on the construction and management of translation resources and deepening their awareness about the concepts related to the development of eportfolios.

"Poster yourself": a construção colaborativa e multimédia do conhecimento no Ensino Precoce de Inglês

Mestrado em Ensino Precoce do Inglês

A quest for the right word enhancing reflexivity and technology in terminology training

INTED2010, the 4th International Technology, Education and Development Conference was held in Valencia (Spain), on March 8, 9 and 10, 2010.

ESEIG Mobile: an m-learning approach in a superior school

In recent years, mobile learning has emerged as an educational approach to decrease the limitation of learning location and adapt the teaching-learning process to all type of students. However, the large number and variety of Web-enabled devices poses challenges for Web content creators who want to automatic get the delivery context and adapt the content to mobile devices. This paper studies several approaches to adapt the learning content to mobile phones. It presents an architecture for deliver uniform m-Learning content to students in a higher School. The system development is organized in two phases: firstly enabling the educational content to mobile devices and then adapting it to all the heterogeneous mobile platforms. With this approach, Web authors will not need to create specialized pages for each kind of device, since the content is automatically transformed to adapt to any mobile device capabilities from WAP to XHTML MP-compliant devices.

Melhoria do processo produtivo na Simoldes aços, SA

O trabalho presente nesta dissertação incidiu sobre a aplicação das metodologias Lean no âmbito do processo produtivo de uma empresa metalomecânica de moldes – SIMOLDES AÇOS, SA. No atual enquadramento, com os mercados nacionais e internacionais debaixo de feroz competição, as empresas são obrigadas a estudar métodos e técnicas que permitam eliminar desperdícios, reduzir custos e tempos de produção, ao mesmo tempo que são exigidos maiores níveis de qualidade dos produtos fabricados com vista ao aumento da competitividade. No decorrer do trabalho desta dissertação de mestrado foi realizada uma análise abrangente do estado atual do sector de atividade do processo produtivo na empresa SIMOLDES AÇOS SA, o que permitiu identificar as áreas e os pontos a intervir e desenhar as soluções de melhoria na atividade do processo produtivo. Na fase concludente do trabalho foram implementadas algumas dessas propostas de melhoria, ao passo que outras ficaram programadas para futura implementação. Na base do trabalho desenvolvido esteve a metodologia Lean, que apresenta um papel relevante na implementação de uma abordagem integrada da função do processo produtivo na aquisição dos objetivos da produção. O presente projeto baseou a sua estratégia de implementação na aplicação da ferramenta do 5S. Esta ferramenta visa a redução de desperdícios, da melhoria do desempenho dos processos e da plena integração de todos os colaboradores no processo de fabrico. Com a implementação das melhorias propostas, foram observadas melhorias significativas no fluxo das atividades do processo produtivo.

Metodologia BIM aplicada à conceção e produção de uma estrutura metálica

Este relatório apresenta o estágio curricular relativo ao curso de mestrado em engenharia civil na área de especialização de estruturas. O estágio decorreu no grupo O Feliz, S.A, uma metalomecânica sedeada em Braga. No âmbito do estágio, foi efetuada uma pesquisa e de seguida um projeto real aplicando a metodologia Building Information Modeling. Inicialmente, será feita uma apresentação da empresa e definidos os objetivos propostos para o estágio. Seguidamente, será apresentada toda a pesquisa realizada sobre o BIM para poder, seguidamente, realizar um projeto real utilizando esta metodologia, proposta pela empresa. Posteriormente é apresentado o projeto realizado com a metodologia BIM e todo o seu processo até chegar à sua construção. Por último, são apresentadas algumas das obras que estavam em curso durante a realização do presente trabalho e que houve a oportunidade de acompanhar, refletindo a experiência adquirida na área, durante o desenvolvimento do estágio.

Perspetivas interdisciplinares na planificação didática de Línguas e Culturas Estrangeiras

O presente Relatório Final de Estágio concretiza-se num trabalho de reflexão crítica sobre as práticas realizadas como professora estagiária de Inglês e de Espanhol no âmbito das Unidades Curriculares de Prática Educativa I, II e III, do Curso de Mestrado em Ensino de Inglês e Francês ou Espanhol, da Escola Superior de Educação, do Instituto Politécnico do Porto. A problemática que se apresenta decorre da perspetiva de que o ensino e aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira baseados na articulação entre disciplinas do currículo contribui para uma aprendizagem holística, desenvolvendo competências que permitem um entendimento geral e global dos fenómenos humanos proporcionando aos alunos a compreensão do saber escolar como um todo articulável, contribuindo para uma leitura lógica e completa da realidade. A sua concretização na sala de aula impõe que o professor planifique atividades e opte por estratégias de ensino e de aprendizagem diversificadas, onde convergem finalidades, conceitos e metodologias de diversas disciplinas do currículo. Assim, este trabalho descreve a planificação de práticas de ensino e aprendizagem de Inglês e Espanhol em articulação com os conteúdos e os objetivos da disciplina de Estudo do Meio no Primeiro Ciclo. A planificação de práticas de Inglês no Segundo Ciclo foi realizada em articulação com a disciplina de História e Geografia de Portugal, com base na metodologia de projeto. As opções adotadas na planificação didática são consideradas estratégicas para uma aprendizagem significativa. Palavras-chave: perspetiva interdisciplinar do ensino; planificação didática de línguas estrangeiras; compreensão integrada do saber escolar; aprendizagem por projeto

Avaliação institucional e melhoria: o trajeto do plano de melhoria de um agrupamento de escolas

No decurso deste projeto, procurou-se através do desenvolvimento de um processo de investigação-ação, efetuar mudanças em dois níveis, tendo sido o primeiro em prol da minoração de debilidades na aprendizagem previamente diagnosticadas num Agrupamento de Escolas, e o segundo visando uma transformação de hábitos enraizados, inerentes à cultura organizacional da comunidade escolar que compõe este Agrupamento. Desta forma, pretendeu-se a compreensão de determinadas situações que se constituíam, na aceção do investigador, como problemáticas sob determinados aspetos e suscetíveis de mudança, exigindo uma resposta prática. Face a isto, procurou-se construir um projeto realista porém ambicioso, assente em lógicas e teorias validadas e enquadrado nas especificidades de um Agrupamento de Escolas. Ao longo do trajeto, recorreu-se a uma série de procedimentos, designadamente de investigação, planeamento, ação, negociação, mudança, monitorização, análise e reformulação. Espera-se e deseja-se que os procedimentos levados a termo surtam os efeitos para os quais foram delineados e que perdurem, particularmente, na cultura organizacional que integra o Agrupamento, embora ciente que as mudanças efetivas nem sempre se produzem em espaços temporais definidos à partida.