IX International conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual instrumentation REV 2012

THE ninth edition of the International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV) [1] was held at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto, Bilbao (Spain), from the 4th to the 6th of July, 2012. A world-class research community in the subject of remote and virtual laboratories joined the event.

Virtual globes as a platform for developing spatial literacy

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies

Reshaping higher education systems in the MENA region: the contribution of remote and virtual labs

Learning is not only happening in school or university; it is also an important aspect of the daily life that allows students to remain in their biological and physical environment helping to reshape it, by applying what they have learnt. Today, the higher education sector is a part of important strategies used by countries in order to foster their development. Despite its geographical location, i.e. its closeness to Europe and Asia, the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region still needs an integrated strategy for the advancement, reform, and update of its higher educational landscape. Although some solutions have been experimented in the region in the field of higher education, they have not been able to raise the quality of education to the level comparable that observed in developed countries. In other words, many MENA higher education systems are facing problems, for which solution ought to be sought. We analyse the situation of higher education systems in the MENA countries and the factors that affect the delay in achieving the level of education existing in other world regions, e.g. Europe, especially in the higher education sector. During the discussion, the impact of new technology-enhanced tools, such as remote laboratories, in the process of development and consolidation of MENA universities, is particularly stressed.

Modified particle swarm optimization for day-ahead distributed energy resources scheduling including vehicle-to-grid

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica – Sistemas Eléctricos de Energia

Towards high-available and energy-efficient virtual computing environments in the cloud

Empowered by virtualisation technology, cloud infrastructures enable the construction of flexi- ble and elastic computing environments, providing an opportunity for energy and resource cost optimisation while enhancing system availability and achieving high performance. A crucial re- quirement for effective consolidation is the ability to efficiently utilise system resources for high- availability computing and energy-efficiency optimisation to reduce operational costs and carbon footprints in the environment. Additionally, failures in highly networked computing systems can negatively impact system performance substantially, prohibiting the system from achieving its initial objectives. In this paper, we propose algorithms to dynamically construct and readjust vir- tual clusters to enable the execution of users’ jobs. Allied with an energy optimising mechanism to detect and mitigate energy inefficiencies, our decision-making algorithms leverage virtuali- sation tools to provide proactive fault-tolerance and energy-efficiency to virtual clusters. We conducted simulations by injecting random synthetic jobs and jobs using the latest version of the Google cloud tracelogs. The results indicate that our strategy improves the work per Joule ratio by approximately 12.9% and the working efficiency by almost 15.9% compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms.

O estudo do marketing digital versus marketing tradicional e a percepção das suas campanhas por parte dos consumidores no mercado virtual e tradicional

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação

Innovation through virtual communities of practice: motivations and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

This paper appears in International Journal of Projectics. Vol 4(1), pp. 39-49

Otimização energética em redes óticas de próxima geração Flex-grid vs Fixed-grid

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Eletrónica e Telecomunicações

Lugar, Espaço e Geografia - Do Real ao Virtual na Sociedade do Conhecimento

As alterações sociais, culturais, tecnológicas ou puramente virtuais a que se assiste são indiscutíveis e, porventura, irreversíveis. O ritmo da evolução tecnológica não permite pausas. A crescente densidade das redes e a velocidade dos fluxos de informação fazem aumentar a complexidade da análise, contrastando com uma diminuição dos tempos de resposta. Observa-se uma dinâmica cada vez mais acentuada no processo de transição entre a informação e o conhecimento, acelerando os inputs que influenciam ou dominam as práticas sociais, políticas e simbólicas da vida. Este artigo analisa conceitos como “informação” e “conhecimento” e outros, mais geográficos, como “lugar” e “espaço”; e de que forma pode a sua dinâmica influenciar o território, que deixa de ser (apenas) real para passar a ser, também, virtual. A Sociedade do Conhecimento surge a partir da Sociedade da Informação, num contexto evolucional da cadeia de valor “dado-informação-conhecimento-sabedoria” e onde o elevado potencial tecnológico extravasa as noções tradicionais da Geografia. Para ajudar a compreender as mutações observadas no território, explicando as suas causas e consequências surge a Geografia da Sociedade do Conhecimento, um ramo da Geografia vocacionado para a análise do desenvolvimento sócio-económico da sociedade moderna.

Geografia Virtual – A Representação do(s) Lugar(es) Físico(s) no Espaço da Internet

A Geografia tem a ver com o lugar, com a localização, com a sociedade, com o ambiente, com o espaço e com a região. Uma vez que no ciberespaço algumas destas variáveis são difíceis de definir, o campo de pesquisa da geografia virtual terá que ser aprofundado,. Este novo domínio da análise geográfica apresenta-se como uma forma de percepcionar a representação do(s) espaço(s) físico(s) no espaço virtual da Internet. Este artigo pretende mostrar um exemplo de um ‘interface’ de cartografia digital, disponível on-line, que pelas suas características inovadoras representa ‘o estado da arte’ na análise dos espaços reais ou geográficos, no espaço virtual da Internet. A sua escolha prende-se com o facto desta ferramenta utilizar conceitos e fundamentos da Geografia, aos quais foram aplicadas as modernas tecnologias de programação para ambientes da www, como as linguagens VRML, XML, Java e Flash.

Simulation of rectifier voltage malfunction on OWECS, four-level converter, HVDC light link: Smart grid context tool

This paper presents a model for the simulation of an offshore wind system having a rectifier input voltage malfunction at one phase. The offshore wind system model comprises a variable-speed wind turbine supported on a floating platform, equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous generator using full-power four-level neutral point clamped converter. The link from the offshore floating platform to the onshore electrical grid is done through a light high voltage direct current submarine cable. The drive train is modeled by a three-mass model. Considerations about the smart grid context are offered for the use of the model in such a context. The rectifier voltage malfunction domino effect is presented as a case study to show capabilities of the model. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cenografia virtual em televisão: relatório de estágio

Relatório de Estágio submetido à Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Teatro - especialização em Design de Cena.

Modified Particle Swarm Optimization Applied to Integrated Demand Response and DG Resources Scheduling

The elastic behavior of the demand consumption jointly used with other available resources such as distributed generation (DG) can play a crucial role for the success of smart grids. The intensive use of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and the technical and contractual constraints result in large-scale non linear optimization problems that require computational intelligence methods to be solved. This paper proposes a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based methodology to support the minimization of the operation costs of a virtual power player that manages the resources in a distribution network and the network itself. Resources include the DER available in the considered time period and the energy that can be bought from external energy suppliers. Network constraints are considered. The proposed approach uses Gaussian mutation of the strategic parameters and contextual self-parameterization of the maximum and minimum particle velocities. The case study considers a real 937 bus distribution network, with 20310 consumers and 548 distributed generators. The obtained solutions are compared with a deterministic approach and with PSO without mutation and Evolutionary PSO, both using self-parameterization.

Evaluation of the Electric Vehicle Impact in the Power Demand Curve in a Smart Grid Environment

Smart grids with an intensive penetration of distributed energy resources will play an important role in future power system scenarios. The intermittent nature of renewable energy sources brings new challenges, requiring an efficient management of those sources. Additional storage resources can be beneficially used to address this problem; the massive use of electric vehicles, particularly of vehicle-to-grid (usually referred as gridable vehicles or V2G), becomes a very relevant issue. This paper addresses the impact of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in system operation costs and in power demand curve for a distribution network with large penetration of Distributed Generation (DG) units. An efficient management methodology for EVs charging and discharging is proposed, considering a multi-objective optimization problem. The main goals of the proposed methodology are: to minimize the system operation costs and to minimize the difference between the minimum and maximum system demand (leveling the power demand curve). The proposed methodology perform the day-ahead scheduling of distributed energy resources in a distribution network with high penetration of DG and a large number of electric vehicles. It is used a 32-bus distribution network in the case study section considering different scenarios of EVs penetration to analyze their impact in the network and in the other energy resources management.

Dynamic load management in a smart home to participate in demand response events

In future power systems, in the smart grid and microgrids operation paradigms, consumers can be seen as an energy resource with decentralized and autonomous decisions in the energy management. It is expected that each consumer will manage not only the loads, but also small generation units, heating systems, storage systems, and electric vehicles. Each consumer can participate in different demand response events promoted by system operators or aggregation entities. This paper proposes an innovative method to manage the appliances on a house during a demand response event. The main contribution of this work is to include time constraints in resources management, and the context evaluation in order to ensure the required comfort levels. The dynamic resources management methodology allows a better resources’ management in a demand response event, mainly the ones of long duration, by changing the priorities of loads during the event. A case study with two scenarios is presented considering a demand response with 30 min duration, and another with 240 min (4 h). In both simulations, the demand response event proposes the power consumption reduction during the event. A total of 18 loads are used, including real and virtual ones, controlled by the presented house management system.