Making the Global Vision Real: Supporting Faculty-Led Internationalization Efforts

As colleges and universities make increasing global engagement a top institutional priority, many have struggled to manage rising levels of international activity. Council research finds that the challenge lies not in convincing faculty to expend more effort but instead in reducing the level of effort required by faculty who are already interested in promoting international activities. This study provides detailed case studies and toolkits for administrative core competencies for increased global engagement. Chapter 2 (page 39) details strategies to promote faculty-led study abroad programs, which constitute the fastest growing study abroad experience. Chapter 5 (page 111) outlines recommendations to build strategic international partnerships that engage the entire campus.

La vision estrategica en el sector publico : la experiencia de las empresas publicas brasilenas

La presente tesis aborda el tema de la Visión Estratégica en el contexto de la empresa pública brasilefía, Siendo que para facilitar el análisis, la practica estratégica es evaluada en términos de Planeamiento Empresarial, Planeamiento Estratégico o Administración Estratégica según sea el caso. EI objetivo de la investigación es análizm y determinar el grado de utilización y apoyo de la referida herramienta gerencial en la optimización de la gestión cotidiana de dichas empresas públicas. Así, son analisados el nivel de suceso, las falias, así como sus oportunidades de utilización, a la luz dei referencial teórico existente y salvando las restricciones, por cuanto la mayor parte de la literatura encontrada versa sohre la empresa privada. Los resultados de la investigación, bibliográfica, documental y de campo practicadas en empresas públicas brasilefías de grande porte, tales como Compafíía Vale do Rio Doce, Petrobrás, Embratel, Eletrobrás y BNDES, muestran los diferentes grados de aplicación de la Visión Estratégica en las mismas. Siendo que su efectiva inserción en la practica gerencial, está condicionada, entre otros factores, a que se aprenda a lidiar con la variable política, y a que se trabaje ell pro de Cultura, Estructuras Organizacionales, Sistemas de Información Gerencial, Recursos Humanos para el planeamiento. Se apreció, que en la mayoría de las empresas investigadas, la Visión Estratégica cn la Gerencia y especialmcnte en el proceso de planeamicnto es rcciente pero que viene siendo inserida en la filosoFía gerencial gradual y lentamente, ganando cada vez mayor relevancia.

Controle em tempo real de robôs através de redes IP

Com o intuito de utilizar uma rede com protocolo IP para a implementação de malhas fechadas de controle, este trabalho propõe-se a realizar um estudo da operação de um sistema de controle dinâmico distribuído, comparando-o com a operação de um sistema de controle local convencional. Em geral, a decisão de projetar uma arquitetura de controle distribuído é feita baseada na simplicidade, na redução dos custos e confiabilidade; portanto, um diferencial bastante importante é a utilização da rede IP. O objetivo de uma rede de controle não é transmitir dados digitais, mas dados analógicos amostrados. Assim, métricas usuais em redes de computadores, como quantidade de dados e taxa de transferências, tornam-se secundárias em uma rede de controle. São propostas técnicas para tratar os pacotes que sofrem atrasos e recuperar o desempenho do sistema de controle através da rede IP. A chave para este método é realizar a estimação do conteúdo dos pacotes que sofrem atrasos com base no modelo dinâmico do sistema, mantendo o sistema com um nível adequado de desempenho. O sistema considerado é o controle de um manipulador antropomórfico com dois braços e uma cabeça de visão estéreo totalizando 18 juntas. Os resultados obtidos mostram que se pode recuperar boa parte do desempenho do sistema.

Credible managerial vision

We develop a model in which managers choose whether or not to reveal their “vision” for the future of their companies. Visionary managers are valuable because they generate incentives for workers to develop profitable innovations for the firm. However, managerial vision is not necessarily credible. After workers have invested in developing ideas, there is no a priori reason for a manager to keep her earlier promises when new contingencies arise and make it profitable to change the firm’s strategic direction. We show that credible managerial vision will arise in equilibrium when managers have career concerns. In order to credibly implement their visions, managers issue public “mission statements” to motivate workers. Mission statements are not legally binding contracts and their value comes solely from their effects on managerial opportunities outside the firm. Among the new implications of the model, we show that managerial vision is more likely to be credible in industries in which managerial turnover is high and in which the managerial skill premium is high. Differently from the related literature that take managerial biases as exogenous, we show not only that biases increase workers’ incentives, but also that the need to provide incentives to workers increases managers’ incentives to become credible visionaries.

Pose estimation of a humanoid robot using images from a mobile external camera

NOGUEIRA, Marcelo B. ; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D. ; ALSINA, Pablo J. Pose Estimation of a Humanoid Robot Using Images from an Mobile Extern Camera. In: IFAC WORKSHOP ON MULTIVEHICLE SYSTEMS, 2006, Salvador, BA. Anais... Salvador: MVS 2006, 2006.

Uma arquitetura distribuída de hardware e software para controle de um robô móvel autônomo

BRITTO, Ricardo S.; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D.; ALSINA, Pablo J. Uma arquitetura distribuída de hardware e software para controle de um robô móvel autônomo. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE AUTOMAÇÃO INTELIGENTE,8., 2007, Florianópolis. Anais... Florianópolis: SBAI, 2007.

Localization of a mobile robot based on odometry and natural landmarks using extended kalman filter

SANTANA, André M.; SOUZA, Anderson A. S.; BRITTO, Ricardo S.; ALSINA, Pablo J.; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D. Localization of a mobile robot based on odometry and natural landmarks using extended Kalman Filter. In: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATICS IN CONTROL, AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS, 5., 2008, Funchal, Portugal. Proceedings... Funchal, Portugal: ICINCO, 2008.

TORP: The Open Robot Project A Framework for Module-Based Robots

The development of robots has shown itself as a very complex interdisciplinary research field. The predominant procedure for these developments in the last decades is based on the assumption that each robot is a fully personalized project, with the direct embedding of hardware and software technologies in robot parts with no level of abstraction. Although this methodology has brought countless benefits to the robotics research, on the other hand, it has imposed major drawbacks: (i) the difficulty to reuse hardware and software parts in new robots or new versions; (ii) the difficulty to compare performance of different robots parts; and (iii) the difficulty to adapt development needs-in hardware and software levels-to local groups expertise. Large advances might be reached, for example, if physical parts of a robot could be reused in a different robot constructed with other technologies by other researcher or group. This paper proposes a framework for robots, TORP (The Open Robot Project), that aims to put forward a standardization in all dimensions (electrical, mechanical and computational) of a robot shared development model. This architecture is based on the dissociation between the robot and its parts, and between the robot parts and their technologies. In this paper, the first specification for a TORP family and the first humanoid robot constructed following the TORP specification set are presented, as well as the advances proposed for their improvement.

The use of software Mapavox for teaching graphics and games to blind and low vision students: a development through practices

Current policies on education to visually impaired point for a growing trend of including students with special educational needs in regular schools. However, most often this inclusion is not accompanied by an appropriate professional trained or infrastructure, which has been presented as a big problem for regular school teachers who have students with visual impairments in their classroom. Based on this situation, the Group of Extension in Tactile Cartography from UNESP - University of the State of São Paulo - Campus de Rio Claro - SP - Brazil has been developing educational material of geography and cartography to blind students at a special school. Among the materials developed in this study highlight the development of graphics and board games provided with sound capabilities through MAPAVOX, software developed in partnership with UFRJ - Federal University from Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil. Through this software, sound capabilities can be inserted into built materials, giving them a multi-sensory character. In most cases the necessary conditions for building specific materials to students with visual impairments is expensive and beyond the reach of features from a regular school, so the survey sought to use easy access and low cost materials like Cork, leaf aluminum, material for fixing and others. The development of these materials was supported by preparation in laboratory and its subsequent test through practices involving blind students. The methodology used on the survey is based on qualitative research and non comparative analysis of the results. In other words, the material is built based on the special students perception and reality construction, not being mere adaptations of visual materials, but a construction focused on the reality of the visually impaired. The results proved were quite successful as the materials prepared were effective on mediating the learning process of students with disabilities. Geographical and cartographic concepts were seized by the students through the technology used, associated with the use of materials that took into account in its building process the perception of the students.

Localização e mapeamento simultâneos de ambientes planos usando visão monocular e representação híbrida do ambiente

The goal of this work is to propose a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) solution based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) in order to make possible a robot navigates along the environment using information from odometry and pre-existing lines on the floor. Initially, a segmentation step is necessary to classify parts of the image in floor or non floor . Then the image processing identifies floor lines and the parameters of these lines are mapped to world using a homography matrix. Finally, the identified lines are used in SLAM as landmarks in order to build a feature map. In parallel, using the corrected robot pose, the uncertainty about the pose and also the part non floor of the image, it is possible to build an occupancy grid map and generate a metric map with the obstacle s description. A greater autonomy for the robot is attained by using the two types of obtained map (the metric map and the features map). Thus, it is possible to run path planning tasks in parallel with localization and mapping. Practical results are presented to validate the proposal

Um sistema de visão para navegação robusta de uma plataforma robótica semi-autônoma

Large efforts have been maden by the scientific community on tasks involving locomotion of mobile robots. To execute this kind of task, we must develop to the robot the ability of navigation through the environment in a safe way, that is, without collisions with the objects. In order to perform this, it is necessary to implement strategies that makes possible to detect obstacles. In this work, we deal with this problem by proposing a system that is able to collect sensory information and to estimate the possibility for obstacles to occur in the mobile robot path. Stereo cameras positioned in parallel to each other in a structure coupled to the robot are employed as the main sensory device, making possible the generation of a disparity map. Code optimizations and a strategy for data reduction and abstraction are applied to the images, resulting in a substantial gain in the execution time. This makes possible to the high level decision processes to execute obstacle deviation in real time. This system can be employed in situations where the robot is remotely operated, as well as in situations where it depends only on itself to generate trajectories (the autonomous case)