FEUP Highlights 2016

HIGHLIGHTS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO 2016

ENGINEERING

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CONTENTS

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p.18 EDITORIAL

3 Ever Evolving Engineering at the U.Porto

ABOUT FEUP

4 FEUP in brief 5 U.Porto, a driving force for the Northern region, an international player 6 A comprehensive education 7 Research and Innovation for the real world 8 Alumni Commitment 9 Social Responsibility

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TO INNOVATE

10 The advantages of cork applied to the textile industry 11 FEUP leads european project in the area of design and innovation in services 12 FEUP becomes a Google Indoor Maps partner 13 FEUP launches project for the production of the New European Wind Atlas 14 SITU SCALE: the intelligent scales that help you eat healthily

TO UNDERTAKE

15 FEUP and BERD launch world prize for innovation in bridge engineering 16 Portugal and Uruguay: we have more in common than it might seem

TO ACT

20 Brussels: the place where european research is decided 23 Interview to Violeta Bulc: “With the Paris Climate Agreement, the world has a lifeline.“

TO PROMOTE

27 Digital Media: FEUP student awarded prize in Sweden 28 An Orchestra is born!

29 Cycling through Japan 30 FEUP Alumni Ambassadors: United Kingdom

ANNUAL REPORT 2015 32 2015 in review

TO COOPERATE

17 Alcohol-Free Super Bock: a successful academic-business partnership 18 Innovative soil stabilization project: an alternative to Portland cement

FEUP IN FIGURES 2015 38 Facts & figures 2015

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 Publisher Communication Division of the Faculty of Engineering - University of Porto dci@fe.up.pt Editorial board Carlos Oliveira and Raquel Pires Redaction Carlos Oliveira, Raquel Pires and Helena Peixoto noticias@fe.up.pt Design and layout César Sanches design@fe.up.pt

Photography Álvaro Martino, Anabela Trindade, Egídio Santos, Filipe Paiva, Francisco Piqueiro, Luís Ferraz, Rodolfo Rodrigues and Susana Neves

Print & Production Empresa Diário do Porto, Lda. Porto 07 - 2016

Translation Jonathan Lewis

Publication frequency Annual

Property Faculty of Engineering - University of Porto

Circulation 1500 copies

Head Office Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal Tel: +351 22 508 1400 e-mail: dci@fe.up.pt | url: www.fe.up.pt

ISSN 2182-9411 Legal deposit 360125/13

Cover photo ©Ronaldo Amboni Anita Garibaldi Bridge, at Laguna, state of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

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Ever Evolving Engineering at the U.Porto João Falcão e Cunha *

Luís Vaz de Camões, the 15th century Portuguese writer best known for the modern historical epic Lusíadas, wrote in a poem that “Time changes, and our desires change.

What we believe - even what we are - is ever changing. The world is change, which forever takes on new qualities”. He had an extraordinary international experience of life, having travelled through Africa and Asia.

Likewise, university engineering activities of education, research, and innovation are ever evolving, and one of the aims of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) is to establish partnerships with leading organizations that are shaping a better society worldwide.

Given the increasingly international context of engineering, there is a need to sustainably increase the acceptance of international languages in our community, in particular English. This also requires better consideration of multicultural issues, always balanced, of course, with the support for the Portuguese language, one of our heritages.

FEUP is involved in many international initiatives, and aims at increasing its global impact and attractiveness. Currently its community includes collaborators and students from over 70 countries, with nationals from Brazil, Iran and India being the most numerous.

Our research and innovation initiatives are involving partners from all continents, with collaboration on the more active projects coming from Europe, North America, and South America.

Aiming at increasing its impact, FEUP is strengthening internal support for preparing joint submissions to Regional, National and European research and innovation funding, mainly in the scope of the framework programmes Norte 2020, Portugal 2020 and Horizon 2020.

Regarding international education, FEUP is starting new master and doctoral programs, and has launched the “Feeling at home in Europe” (“Sinta-se em casa na Europa”, www.fe.up.pt/brasil) program for attracting more young engineering students from Brazil. These will undoubtedly enrich our multicultural community.

evolution of the world we live in, often in unexpected ways.

This activity includes joint pioneering education programs, advanced research networks, and new alumni related initiatives.

We highlight pioneering work on the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA), a 31 partner European research project that will provide a unified high resolution and freely available data-set of wind energy resources in Europe. This initiate has its experimental site at Serra do Perdigão in Vila Velha de Rodão, and is attracting further attention, in particular from a leading USA research team supported by NSF. The NEWA project will influence decisions on wind energy generation and pollution dispersion for the next 30 years.

FEUP is coordinating a new Marie Skłodowska Curie project in Service Design for Innovation (SDIN). This is a European training network for early stage researchers aiming at integrating service design and service innovation in a new multidisciplinary approach.

Being committed to innovation, FEUP has partnered with BERD.eu in establishing the WIBE Prize, the most important international award in the field of Bridge Engineering worldwide.

Speaking of awards, FEUP’s Professor Adélio Mendes was the recipient of the very prestigious University of Coimbra 2016 Award. Established in 1290, the University of Coimbra is of the oldest European universities, and enjoys very fruitful collaboration with FEUP. Networking activities are very active, and we present an interview with European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, who attended BIN@Porto 2015. This event brought over 400 participants to FEUP and UPTEC, the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto.

I would like to end this editorial by inviting you to send me a message with concrete suggestions on how FEUP can actually evolve on its pathway towards internationalization.

And I also really hope that this issue of Highlights may inspire you! *FEUP Dean

This issue of Highlights presents many examples of our international activity, which is having great impact on the positive

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Photo: Egídio Santos

EDITORIAL

ABOUT FEUP Photo: R.R.

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FEUP in brief Founded in 1926, the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP) is the largest of the 14 faculties of the University of Porto. With its origins in the Polytechnic Academy, created in 1837, FEUP is a leading institution of international repute, whose achievements in research and teaching have led to its current position at the forefront of engineering schools.

FEUP’s claim to be an International School of Engineering is not simply due to the ever-increasing number of foreign students who choose it as their destination every year, and for whom specific programmes of soft-landing and integration are developed; nor is it merely due to the many foreign researchers who enrich the scientific work of the Faculty and bring a multicultural atmosphere to the campus. Important though this international community is, the main thrust of internationalization at FEUP comes from the cooperative relations that it maintains with businesses and prestigious higher education institutions in Europe and the rest of the world, with special emphasis on the USA and Brazil. This collaboration covers aspects as diverse as the establishment of joint degrees, applied research, professional training and mobility programmes for students and staff.

FEUP has come to enlarge its basis of cooperation, also participating in major international networks and prestigious engineering associations such as CESAER - Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research. CESAER has over 50 European Institutions as members and in 2011 FEUP was selected to be one of the institutions with a seat on CESAER’S Board of Directors.

Global recognition of FEUP’s quality can also be seen in the high position it occupies in the most respected international Engineering rankings. This, along with the excellent comprehensive training it offers, provides its students with outstanding advantages in both the national and worldwide labor markets.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

For the past 179 years FEUP has played a leading institutional role in the economic development of the city, the region and the country, both in terms of the quality of its education, producing engineers of world-class standard, and the scientific and technological breakthroughs that it has made, which have contributed to global scientific development, industrial progress and people’s well-being.

A DYNAMIC ATMOSPHERE FEUP is located on the university campus in Asprela. More than a campus, Asprela is a true Innovation District which is home not only to other faculties of the University of Porto and schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, but also to private universities, a central teaching hospital, an institute of oncology and various research institutes, both foreign and domestic. It is primarily a technological location, where the strong presence of engineering technologies, health sciences and entrepreneurship lend considerable impetus to the process of innovation.

It’s also in Asprela that the University of Porto’s Science and Technology Park (UPTEC) is located. UPTEC is a structure which brings together and incubates more than a hundred fledging businesses; it was recognized in 2013 with the Regio Stars award in the category “Smart Growth”, organized by the European Commission - this was the first time a Portuguese university had received an award for regional development projects at European level.

All in all, the Asprela campus is rife with the entrepreneurial spirit and multidisciplinary research that have allowed FEUP to break new ground in which to operate and thus broaden its expertise. Today, FEUP houses the facilities of the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) and the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC).

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U.Porto, a driving force for the Northern region, an international player The University of Porto (U.Porto), in the north of Portugal, is increasingly becoming a major contributor to global networks of academic and scientific excellence, helping to promote the worldwide transfer of its research results.

As a research university, it contributes significantly to the country’s scientific output.

U.Porto is also aware of the crucial role it plays in socioeconomic development, both at regional and national level, through its interaction with society at large and the productive base in particular. It is, therefore, placing increasing emphasis on raising the value of its research activity by means of transferring knowledge and technologies to industry and creating partnerships with businesses, which have resulted in innovations with proven success in both national and international markets. In 2015, together with the University of Minho and the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, the University of Porto created UNorte.pt, the first consortium of higher education institutions in Portugal: this cooperation brings the Northern region to a strong position not only in terms of joint applications to the new EU Framework Programme 2020, but also facilitates collaboration in other fields of expertise as well as in attracting international students to the region. The international recruitment has, indeed, been given a new framework with the national approval of the statute of the international student, which make it possible to accept foreign students at graduate level in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions.

U.Porto participates in various European education programmes, which have contributed to its growing appeal.

When it comes to foreign mobility students, numbers have increased significantly, and with it the mobility partnerships with top-rated higher education institutions.

In Portugal, U.Porto is the preferred choice for those applying to enter higher education establishments, which means that every year the number of applicants is greater than the number of available places. U.Porto is a comprehensive institution, with a large number of faculties and schools providing a diverse range of knowledge, continually interacting and offering opportunities for training at all stages of life. As the university’s main aim is the all-

round education of its students, it also offers numerous extra-curricular activities in such diverse areas as sports, the arts, entrepreneurship and voluntary service.

Recognition of U.Porto as an institution of excellence is reflected in the high place that it occupies in international rankings. U.Porto is a key academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking and Ibero-American worlds and its leading international role is reinforced by the prestigious ties of cooperation that it has with countries which share linguistic or historical kinship.

THE CITY OF PORTO Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, after its capital Lisbon. Whoever visits Porto for the first time immediately feels the pulse of a city that is not just the regional capital of northern Portugal, but also the main trading centre in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally known for its Port Wine trade, the region is home to a large crosssection of Portuguese industry, in particular the sectors of timber, furniture-making, textiles, garment manufacturing, footwear, metal-working and various engineering industries. Its commercial activity is facilitated by the cargo terminal at the port of Leixões, which handles 25% of the country’s international trade, and also by Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, elected for the last 10 years by the Airports Council International (ACI) as one of the 5 best in Europe; its numerous low cost connections to European destinations have brought growing dynamism to the city.

The historic centre is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and its charm and beauty cast a special spell on the city of Porto. But no less enchanting are the modern buildings designed by acclaimed names in architecture such as Siza Vieira, Souto Moura and Rem Koolhaas. The pleasant atmosphere, excellent cuisine, and range of cultural and leisure activities at competitive prices make it one of Europe’s preferred destinations, receiving praise from such international publications as the Lonely Planet guide and the New York Times.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Photo: Egídio Santos

ABOUT FEUP

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ABOUT FEUP

A comprehensive education Studying at FEUP means joining a community of more than 7,000 promising students at the biggest faculty of the University of Porto, one of the largest universities in Portugal, with more than 30,000 students.

FEUP is proud to be the first School of Engineering with all its 1st cycle programmes in Engineering accredited by ENAEE (European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education) through the EUR-ACE Quality Label. An unprecedented level achieved for its nine Integrated Master’s degree programmes (Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Bioengineering, Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Management, Informatics Engineering and Computing, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering) and Master’s degree in Mining and Geo-Environmental Engineering. This recognition proves that the skills acquired by our students meet the needs of industry and that they can work as chartered professional engineers throughout Europe.

Following the Bologna principles, greater pedagogical emphasis is placed on “learning” than “teaching”, which allows the student to play a more active role. To enable this, FEUP provides its students with high quality facilities and equipment and services that can keep pace with recent trends and students’ requirements. These include cross-campus wireless Internet access as well as study rooms and computer labs open round the clock every day of the year.

Besides all its regular services and facilities, FEUP offers a great variety of extra-curricular activities, including theatre, music and painting, as well as a rich variety of cultural events throughout the year, among them classical music concerts, film cycles, exhibitions, seminars, literature sessions, and conferences on many different topics. A wide range of sports activities is also available for all community members.

Photo: Luís Ferraz

To prepare students for the ’real world’, they are encouraged to participate in interdisciplinary assignments, as well as to take part in research, innovation and entrepreneurship projects from the undergraduate level. In addition, counselling initiatives are organized in order to provide advice regarding business ideas or the creation of innovative technology-based companies.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

FEUP has high quality standards and therefore seeks the best candidates from Portugal and abroad to accomplish its mission of producing competitive engineering graduates for the global labour market and key change agents for industry. The high quality of the education we offer is reflected in our high postgraduate employment rate, and in the success achieved by our alumni in many highly reputable organizations around the world.

ABOUT FEUP

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FEUP’s central position on the map of Research, Development and Innovation (R&D+I) is certainly reinforced by its privileged location, the Porto Innovation District, and the international networks of which it is part. The Innovation Centre at the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (UPTEC) is located nearby. This centre is a clear example of the cooperation between the academic and business worlds: several Innovation Centres for national and international companies are established here, involved in the development of new technologies geared towards the global market.

able Energy, Smart Cities, Product and Service Design, Railways, Advanced Manufacturing, as well as Oceanic Research, Health Innovation and Ambient Assisted Living.

The establishment of partnerships with external entities enables FEUP not only to enrich its research activities by sharing ideas and experiences, but also to seek appropriate solutions to current global challenges. The Horizon 2020 Office at FEUP seeks to open new doors to our presence in European knowledge networks and to raise the chances of being awarded with European funding for R&I. It is a very important source of support to researchers, strengthened by another recently created structure: the Industry Liaison Office (LOI). The LOI promotes close cooperation between FEUP researchers and the national and international industry, thus fostering a competitive collaboration and access to external funding.

Promotion of entrepreneurship is undertaken through advanced training in innovation and technological enterprise, publicizing of incentive programmes, organization of counselling initiatives and contacts made with available companies and investors. A significant number of entrepreneurial projects, instigated by teachers, researchers and students, have given rise to start-ups and spin-offs.

Countless projects demonstrate FEUP’s capacity to bring about innovation in conjunction with the interface institutes that form a platform of support for Faculty research.

Moreover, research is also bolstered by the Centres of Competence, specializing in such diverse areas as Sustain-

FEUP encourages application of the academic knowledge it generates to solving real-world problems. Strong links to the business and industrial fabric of society enable it to do so, thus opening doors to the establishment of relationships of long-lasting confidence.

FEUP’s considerable technical-scientific potential has been applied in countless technology transfer projects. The knowledge of university teachers and researchers has also contributed to the training and consultancy services provided to the business and public sectors, as well as to the establishment of standardized procedures that guarantee the quality and safety of products and services.

The Faculty also leads the field in the Business and Innovation Network initiative - BIN@TM. This network includes partners from the University of Sheffield and University of São Paulo - and held its last meeting in Porto in 2015; the next one will take place in São Paulo in November 2016.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Photo: Anabela Trindade

Research and Innovation for the real world

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ABOUT FEUP

Photo: R.R.

Alumni Commitment

The alumni community serve as an important connection between FEUP and the world beyond its campus boundaries: our alumni represent both a valuable source of expertise as well as a bridge to hundreds of organisations and companies, many of which are strategic potential partners in the field of education and research.

As alma mater, FEUP continues to invest in alumni development offering a broad range of lifelong learning options as well as a number of relevant services, from access to our richly endowed library to the numerous conferences, concerts and other cultural and entertainment activities.

The alumni network is not only of interest for catching up with old classmates but is also useful for passing along information related to job openings or collaboration opportunities, as well as building a strong network and sharing relevant experiences.

Since the end of 2013, when the alumni network project FEUPLink was launched, more than 50 alumni in 20 countries have volunteered to work as Alumni Ambassadors in 3 main topics of strategic importance for both alumni and the entire FEUP community: Universities, Career and Events. FEUP had 19 alumni ambassadors in 2015, in countries with a relevant alumni community: Angola, Brazil, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana. Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

States of America and, last but not least, Portugal. FEUP is very glad to have an alumni community keen to be in touch with their alma mater: from the beginning the commitment shown by our alumni was very clear. They are willing to support FEUP in all our fields of activity and eagerly participate in the alumni reunions and in social, networking or volunteering activities.

According to Daniel Campos, Alumni Ambassador in Qatar: “The FEUP alumni community is growing globally and gaining relevance. In countries where the quality of Portuguese engineering is less known and where the reputation of FEUP is yet to be recognized, FEUP alumni assume a more important and critical role. Our mission is extremely challenging, but we are confident that in long term our work will raise FEUP to its deserved place on the world stage.”

The alumni community is growing day by day: more than 22 000 alumni have been identified on LinkedIn and 6000 of them have joined the FEUPLink closed group, and so they are now directly linked to FEUP. There are also proposals for the establishment of new alumni embassies in countries with a significant alumni community.

If you are a FEUP alumnus, we’d be glad if you could join the alumni community FEUPLink on LinkedIn and, who knows, become our Alumni Ambassador to help make our community even bigger - more information available on www.fe.up.pt/alumni.

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Photo: Luís Ferraz

ABOUT FEUP

Social Responsibility FEUP engages in its core functions of teaching, research, innovation and community outreach in a responsible and principled manner that promotes certain key values.

It is our belief that only conscious choices lead to bright students following bright careers. The information programme carried out with high school students and educators does much more than simply fulfil recruitment ambitions. Its main purpose is to better inform people about the different fields of engineering and to make students aware of the environmental and social impacts of the engineering profession.

At FEUP, students have the opportunity to participate in volunteer projects at national or international level, such as EpDAH - Engineering for Development and Humanitarian Assistance. Another example is GASPORTO, a nongovernmental organisation dedicated to aid and human development in Portugal and the developing world.

Headquartered at the Faculty of Engineering, GASPORTO has been undertaking very important volunteer work not only in the city of Porto, but also in Timor and Mozambique - its main goal is to instill in students an understanding of cultures and to help make the world a better place to live in. FEUP also supports institutions located in the surrounding area: IPO Porto (the Portuguese Institute of Oncology - Porto), Hospital do Joãozinho (Pediatric Hospital) and Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro (Portuguese Cancer League).

In order to ensure equal access and success for minority groups, such as people with disabilities, FEUP also has at its disposal a specialized office offering support to students with special educational needs. In addition, the “Student Support Project” has been set up with the

main aim of helping students in financial difficulties who cannot afford to pay their tuition fees, given the present economic crisis.

The existence of a Commissariat dedicated to Social Responsibility and a Commissariat of Sustainability reinforces FEUP’s commitment to this matter. Currently, corporate responsibility also extends to the promotion of sustainable development practices in the management of the campus. The report on sustainability issued every year gives a good overview of the institution’s performance in various areas of sustainability. As a public institution that practices transparent and accountable management of its resources, FEUP produces an annual financial report revealing all Faculty expenditure and revenue in detail.

Positive effects of ecological and environmental policy are likely to arise not only from energy saving gained from intelligent management of buildings, but also from increased use of non-polluting means of transport, and the recycling of waste products.

FEUP’s concerns regarding sustainable development are, moreover, not merely confined to its premises. Engineering projects geared to the outside world have a markedly ecological aspect, and the role they play in urban renewal and the construction of future cities makes FEUP a force of benign intervention in society. This same society can freely benefit from the many debates, concerts, theatrical events and film showings organized at FEUP. Music and painting courses are also available with the aim of awakening the artistic talents of our students. After all, FEUP does not just train engineers, but also educates world citizens.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

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TO INNOVATE

The advantages of cork applied to the textile industry To develop innovative, high performance products incorporating both the properties of textile substrates, comfort, texture and appearance, and the functional benefits of cork, thus promoting the concept of “eco-friendly”. this is the aim of the Cork-a-Tex project that began in january 2014 with a consortium which includes the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).

Text: Raquel Pires Photo: Álvaro Martino

Impermeability. Elasticity. Durability. These are some of the characteristics that make cork a high potential raw material for the textile industry. Recognizing the functional, aesthetic benefits of cork, and the fact that it is a sustainable resource, and then combining them with the properties of textiles, could lead to the development of unique and innovative products, which are more sustainable and use a higher percentage of national raw materials.

Since January 2014, the consortium composed of Sedacor, Penedo Textiles, CITEVE and FEUP has invested in the development of new materials and new combinations for the incorporation of cork into textiles. “There are already some products that use a combination of these materials, although none with this kind of approach”, ensures Fernando Pereira. Responsible for the project at FEUP, he admits that “the results obtained have led the consortium to start a patent registration process for this technology.”

There is a wide range of applications for such materials. The market for them is vast, ranging from home textiles and clothing to leather goods, furniture and even interior design, “which will allow companies to enter competitive markets with great growth potential,” says Fernando Pereira. At the same time, “we expect to promote and stimulate innovation and technological development in the companies involved, improving their competitiveness through the synergies created between two companies from different sectors, namely the cork industry and textiles and clothing, as well as with entities from the Scientific and Technological System (SCT): CITEVE and FEUP “.

The Cork-a-Tex project recently won the INOVATÊXTIL 2015 award in the Products category.

DID YOU KNOW THAT...

The textile and clothing sector accounts for about 20% of employment in the Manufacturing Industry, 8% of turnover in the Manufacturing Industry, 8% of production in the Manufacturing Industry and about 10% of all Portuguese exports? This is because almost 70% of its production is aimed at the external market, which is particularly significant since this sector involves about 12,000 companies (about 6,000 single ownership), and 127,000 workers, with exports worth around 4.8 billion euros.

Source: ATP

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

TO INNOVATE

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FEUP leads european project in the area of design and innovation in services The main objective of the design and innovation of services project, recently honoured with a Marie Curie scholarship worth 2.3 million euros, is to develop an advanced training network and a set of curricular and training units which may be used by universities to improve their training and research offer in the area of design and innovation in services and form the basis for a european doctoral programme in this area.

Text: Raquel Pires Photo: R.R.

It is an ambitious project that is likely to revolutionize the service sector, especially in the areas of information and communication technologies, health and energy. The main aim of the team of researchers from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) leading the project is to establish partnerships with other universities to enable them to develop a concerted network of applied research in the area of design and innovation in services. The project has EU funding of € 2.3 million and a duration of four years.

“Services are an increasingly important component of production and employment of Western economies and innovation is a top priority of the Horizon 2020 program, because only in this way is it possible to add value, maintain and improve skilled labour in Europe,” explains Lia Patrício, project coordinator and a Professor at FEUP. “The design of services is an emerging area, which brings a design thinking approach to innovation in services, through a creative, iterative and user-centered process. However, this area is still unexploited,” she admits. This means that at an early stage much of the investment will be in analyzing the current curricula of the various doctoral programs so that this sharing of experience can help to make improvements in each program.

It is also planned to create specific courses in the area of innovation in services and service design, complemented by workshops on more specific areas. So in order to achieve all phases of the project, nine researchers will be taken on over three years, and they will do their PhD as part of this European project. This academic component will be further complemented with training and internships in a business/organizational environment. Each

researcher hired will spend at least 10 months doing research in a business environment.

In addition to the training component, the project also aims to develop methods and tools to leverage the potential of design of services in order to improve processes and foster innovation. For example: one of the goals is to improve ways of involving customers in the process of developing new services, so that these services - besides being innovative - can create value and be adopted by the customers. Essentially, the intention is that this “set of innovative services will make it possible to add value to the organizations involved, from services in the energy sector, through health, or services that effectively make use of technological developments,” specifies Lia Patrício.

In worldwide terms there is nothing of this magnitude.

Nothing that equals such a network of advanced training with theoretical assumptions, leading to the creation of an unprecedented top European doctoral program.

The prospects are great and the team is committed to achieving good results. The project has eight partners: six universities which are pioneers in the service area and two highly innovative organizations: The University of Porto (coordinator), The University of Cologne (Germany), The University of Karlstad (Sweden), The University of Lancaster (UK), The University of Linköping (Sweden), The University of Maastricht (Netherlands), EDP Commercial (Portugal) and Regional Administration of Värmland (Sweden). There are also two associated partners, including PT Inovação (Portugal) and IBM Germany, who will accompany the evolution of the project and offer research internship opportunities within the framework of this project.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

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TO INNOVATE

FEUP becomes a Google Indoor Maps partner

Text: Raquel Pires Photo: R.R.

Instead of a street map, an indoor map. Portugal recently saw the launch of Google’s Indoor Maps, a system integrated into the Google Maps App, which makes it possible to navigate within enclosed spaces. That means that it will actually be possible to get to know the inside of 49 portuguese buildings. One of them is the Engineering Faculty of the University of Porto (FEUP).

Imagine arriving at FEUP and in a matter of seconds, for example, knowing where room B118 is using your mobile phone and Google’s Indoor Maps application. Science fiction? Not at all. Since the beginning of February, Google has made it possible view detailed indoor maps and reference points that then allow users to obtain relevant information. All with just one click.

FEUP considered this opportunity to work closely with Google “beneficial for the daily users of the campus.” One example of that is “the possibility of providing information about the floor plans on mobile phones, which could be useful in finding information about where to go which complements the existing signage,” explains Diamantino Freitas, Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of FEUP. “In addition, the potential for use by people with disabilities is a complement to the institutional policy on accessibility, where specific plans have been introduced regarding the limited mobility of some individuals.”

FEUP believes in the beneficial and practical nature of this resource and is committed to working on this kind of project, “which is very painstaking and needs continuous improvement in order to keep the maps updated, thus providing

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

a good experience on the part of users “, concludes the researcher. This collaboration with Google will also allow João Moutinho, a PhD student at FEUP/INESC TEC, investigating the area of global positioning in closed spaces, to use these new tools to develop and contribute to this growing area of technology at Google, a world renowned multinational.

It must be mentioned that, when available, the indoor maps are automatically displayed on the mobile phone when a user enlarges a location on Google Maps. In addition to navigation, they also allow the identification of specific points of interest, including shops or particular sections in a shopping center, the number of each room in each building of the University, the ATMs available in a particular location, etc. Whenever a building has more than one floor, it is possible to select the floor simply by clicking on the desired floor number.

Over 3 billion square meters of indoor maps are currently available worldwide. Accessible through any cell phone (Android and iOS), Indoor Maps is currently available in over 20 countries including USA, Japan, Canada, Brazil, UK, Australia and now Portugal.

TO INNOVATE

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FEUP launches project for the production of the New European Wind Atlas As part of the celebrations of Global Wind Day, Vila Velha de Rodão was the location chosen for the presentation of WindScanner technology, and for the launch of the New European Wind Atlas project, a european project with the participation of the Faculty of Engineering of the U. Porto (FEUP) and the Institute for Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI).

Assessing the characteristics of wind for energy purposes has until now been based on procedures established by the 1989 European Wind Atlas, now obsolete due to the increased size and power of today’s wind turbines and their installation in more complex terrains than originally planned. Thus arose the need to create new methods of assessment based on global measurements and weather forecasting models.

four institutions: FEUP, INEGI, and also the National Laboratory for Energy and Geology (LNEG) and the Portuguese Institute for Ocean and Atmosphere (IPMA). Given the influence of wind regime in other areas, such as forest fires and pollutant dispersion, the importance of the project is not limited to wind energy, so currently the participation of other institutions, other initiatives and other studies in the Serra do Perdigão is being considered.

The recently approved New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) aims at creating new methodologies for the assessment and management of wind resources, as well as setting new guidelines based on the already existing 1989 version. Much of the work that is taking place in the Serra de Perdigão, in Vila Velha de Ródão, is based on WindScanner technology, a mobile European infrastructure which allows the creation of competences at a European level for the use of a laser wind-measuring system, used to measure wind conditions in areas of several square kilometers. The installation features innovative remote controlled laser devices, with measurements registered by Denmark’s Technical University.

According to José Laginha Palma, a Professor at FEUP and one of main people responsible for the project, WindScanner technology and the New European Wind Atlas “will mark the activity of the wind industry in the coming years, just as the previous 30 years were marked by the 1989 European Wind Atlas”. Participation in these projects therefore constitutes “a most important opportunity both for the scientific community and national industry.”

The NEWA project started in March 2015 and will run for a five-year period (2015-2019). Its total budget is 13.8 million euros and it involves a consortium of institutions from eight countries (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Latvia, Turkey, Belgium and Portugal). The project was set up in the Serra de Perdigão due to local orographic conditions. These are typical of wind conditions in mountainous areas and the project will be used as a basis from which future models can be developed.

Text: Raquel Pires Photo: R.R.

It should also be noted that, from the outset, the project has also attracted the attention of American groups and their participation has been prepared since 2010 with funding from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), together with the Universities of Notre Dame, Colorado Boulder, Utah, California, Riverside, Oklahoma, Cornell and other leading institutions in the study of atmospheric flows and wind energy applications. www.windscanner.eu www.neweuropeanwindatlas.eu

The process that led to the NEWA project began in 2005 and was a complex one. Portuguese participation includes

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SITU SCALE: the intelligent scales that help you eat healthily

Text: Helena Peixoto Photo: R.R.

FEUP alumnus José Farinha responded to a challenge from a journalist friend and set out to create scales that would revolutionize eating habits: with the SITU Scales you can check the nutritional information of all the food eaten daily and make better decisions.

For many people, knowing the exact number of calories, amount of sugar, protein, vitamins and minerals in food or in a whole meal, without wasting time trying to decipher labels is important: this is a dream come true with the kitchen scales SITU. For the first time, with this tool, it is possible to easily obtain information on the exact number of calories, amount of sugar, protein, vitamins and minerals in any food, based on the weight of the ingredients. How? It’s easy. You weigh an orange on the scales, the information is sent to the iPad application, you select the ingredient being weighed, and automatically all the nutritional information is revealed. From then on it is possible to record the information and through your history check the number of nutrients ingested daily, weekly or monthly from the recorded ingredients.

Apart from this, SITU is a very useful tool for those with special dietary needs, such as people with diabetes, hypertension, and even athletes who need to count and understand the calories they ingest. It helps people to control their eating habits, whatever their goals, whether it is to lose weight, gain muscle mass, improve eating habits in general, and thus contributes towards a healthier and more balanced diet. Successes? There is no better example than Michael, José’s partner, who has always battled with his weight and was used as a guinea pig to test the tool. In just over 7 months he lost over 30 kilos.

As a FEUP graduate in mining engineering, José left for London in 2007 with a job offer and attracted by the idea

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

of living in one of the greatest capital cities in Europe. However, in 2010 he abandoned engineering and dedicated himself to photography, an activity he continues in parallel with the business he created. Encouraged by his friend Michael, an American journalist specializing in technology, it was in 2012 that José embarked on developing these scales which can help us manage what we eat and to improve health and physical well-being.

There were two investment phases for the SITU project: at the beginning it was mainly self-financed and it obtained some backing from British government support schemes.

In the second phase, in order to launch initial production, produce the mold and the first 1,000 units (which are practically all sold) a crowdfunding campaign was launched, which made 50,000 euros. This money was crucial for the project to go ahead, not only because of the investment itself but also because of the excellent receptivity on the part of the market. At the moment the firm is looking for investors to develop new ideas and features.

The team’s main target markets are the USA and the United Kingdom, as they have been the main purchasers of the SITU scale and as both are markets which are well-known as Early Adopters in the area of technology and health tech.

The scales cost around 90 euros and can be bought on www.situscale.com/product. The Application is free and can be downloaded from the Apple Store.

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Text: Raquel Pires Photo: R.R.

FEUP e BERD launch world prize for innovation in bridge engineering

It is a kind of a nobel prize for bridges and was announced last July 28th, at a public joint session of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and BERD, a portuguese company specialized in equipment with prestressing systems for bridge construction.

With the announcement of this prize both entities want to share internationally the success of the research and development model that BERD and FEUP have been applying in recent years and to keep both institutions in contact with the vanguard of international bridge engineering, w hile at t he s ame t ime c ontributing to its improvement.

At the awards session, Pedro Pacheco, CEO of BERD, said that “Portuguese bridge engineering is in a position to take a leading role on the international map of civil engineering”, arguing that “the organization of a prize of such relevance is an enormous responsibility and a great challenge, given the objective of contributing to a leadership position for Portuguese bridge engineering”.

The Director of FEUP, João Falcão e Cunha, also emphasized the importance of the award: “This is the first prize launched at national and international level focused on innovation in bridge engineering” and should therefore from now on be considered the “Nobel Prize for bridges”, thus highlighting the innovative capacity of national and international engineers. This is an excellent opportunity “to promote internationally the excellent skills which exist in the field of bridge engineering “, said João Falcão e Cunha.

The connection between BERD - a company specialized in equipment with prestressing systems for building bridges - and FEUP for this triennial prize worth $50,000 (46,000 euros) dates back to 1994, when BERD appeared on the market as a spin-off of FEUP, following Pedro Pacheco’s doctoral thesis. At the time, the very basis supporting his thesis research was considered innovative: to apply to bridge structure concepts and principles that are commonly associated with human muscle. This was how the OPS system appeared - the Organic Prestressing System, a kind of artificial muscle used in falsework (temporary support structures), to build bridges, already patented worldwide, and the M1, which is construction equipment that only became viable with this technology. M1 is a falsework that allows the construction in situ of bridges and viaducts with spans up to 120 meters making it the largest self-launchable falsework today, which thanks to the OPS system, makes it possible to reach new limits in the construction of bridges and viaducts.

The company is based in Porto and occupies the top 3rd rank worldwide in the area of solutions for bridge engineering. It employs 40 workers and is exporting 100% of its production.

In Portugal, they were involved in the Corgo viaduct, but they have since been dedicated to the foreign market, and currently they have about 15 projects underway all over the world. www.fe.up.pt/wibe

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Photo: R.R.

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Portugal and Uruguay: we have more in common than it might seem Franco Simini*

It was thanks to the BABEL Erasmus Mundi that I was in Portugal, from 29th September to 24th October. Here I had the opportunity to learn more about the work being done by the team led by Professor Joaquim Gabriel. He is the director the Laboratory for Automation and Instrumentation in Biomedical Engineering at FEUP. The main objectives of this exchange were to strengthen the cooperation between FEUP and the University of Uruguay, both at the level of research and postgraduate courses. The initial contacts were made by Pedro Coelho, from the Cooperation Division at FEUP, who helped to make the process run more smoothly.

During my stay I was in invited to take part in undergraduate and post graduate classes as a guest lecturer. This was very interesting as it allowed me to see how well students are trained at FEUP: almost all of them expressed themselves in English with great ease, which I found impressive. This is essential nowadays, as the market in which most companies do business is a global one. I was also able to visit other institutions in the area (University of Aveiro) and I was interviewed by journalists who knew of my presence at FEUP. They were mainly interested in talking about the importance of bilateral cooperation between our two countries.

During this month I was in direct contact and worked closely with the students and teachers who usually work with Professor Joaquim Gabriel: I even participated in meetings with doctors and went to international fairs to watch the presentations of prototypes. I also had the opportunity to collaborate on research projects which were being undertaken at the laboratory and to write scientific articles, which allowed closer contact with the students.

With similar geopolitical roles – Portugal in the European Union and Uruguay in the MERCOSUR - I found other analogies typical of countries with lower salaries which are fighting to solve their problems of development; on the other hand, there are opportunities and niches with excellent results, and which are often unique cases. Even here there are similarities between the two countries, which could be exploited to the benefit of both.

It was clear to me that the way of doing research and thinking about problems is practically the same here at FEUP as among the Biomedical Engineering Group at the Faculty of Medicine and Engineering of the University of the Republic, Uruguay, to which I belong. It didn’t take us long to find points of reference and common interest in future lines of research, so much so that that we are already planning new exchanges between various members of the Portuguese and Uruguayan groups.

Other important details that will remain with me are the friendships created, the memories of enjoyable moments, and the image of a city closely interwoven with its background of the river Douro, the sea, which make Porto a truly exceptional city, an experience which transcended the academic component and became part of my experience as a human being.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

* Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Uruguay

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Alcohol-Free Super Bock: a successful academic-business partnership

Text: Helena Peixoto Photo: R.R.

In 2007 Unicer and Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto (FEUP) got together to develop a product. It exceeded all expectations and alcohol-free super bock is still a success in terms of sales at home and abroad.

A totally innovative process, a pervaporation unit constructed from scratch, and a patented idea which revolutionized the drinks market and proved that it is possible to create a 100% alcohol-free beer using a totally new process. After returning from Germany where he did his post-doc, Adélio Mendes, a teacher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at FEUP, suggested to Unicer that they should produce a new, totally alcohol-free beer using this alternative and innovative process. There was not even a supplier of the pervaporation unit necessary for the production of the aroma, so Adélio Mendes designed it himself. As Unicer believed in the importance of the link with universities, with this added benefit and differentiating factor, they accepted the challenge and work went ahead.

After three years of intense joint research work, the institutions reached a final production process which gave the new Alcohol-Free Super Bock its unique characteristics. In order to understand the innovative nature of the process it should be explained that beer is obtained through a process of fermentation of a must which is produced from malt and corn grits. During this fermentation process, the yeasts produce not only alcohol but also other substances which endow the beer with its characteristic taste and aroma. This does not, however, happen with the traditional method of producing alcohol-free beer. Here, the fermentation is interrupted at the beginning so that alcohol is not produced, preventing the production of the characteristic aromas. For the launch of the new Alcohol-Free Super Bock, the base was the famous authentic Super Bock, from which the alcohol was removed through a system of vacuum steam

distillation. Accordingly, the new Alcohol-Free Super Bock maintains its personality and aromas. This project led to the creation of know-how and industrial infrastructures suitable for this unique production process, which has been recognized as such and has been duly patented.

This is an excellent example of academic-business partnerships. Through this partnership, Unicer was able to enter the Middle Eastern and North African markets, where there are restrictions on the consumption of alcoholic drinks. This made the firm more competitive in international markets.

Maria Manuel Dantas, Quality, Development and Innovation Manager at Unicer, emphasizes the importance of this type of link: “At Unicer, we consider the link with universities to be an advantage and a differentiating factor, and there are many reasons for strengthening these links. It is at the centers of knowledge and continuous research that many organizations find a response to their challenges - solutions that are put into practice in a great variety of industries; this is where knowledge is shared; this is where companies find new talents”.

Adélio Mendes, the teacher from FEUP responsible for the launch of this beer, remembers the success generated by this partnership and believes that the future will bring positive new synergies between academia and the business world, resulting in products which will improve our quality of life: “The dream and mission of all researchers is to usefully transform the taxes we pay into more wealth and happiness!”, he says.

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TO COOPERATE

Innovative soil stabilization project: an alternative to Portland cement

Sara Rios*

Photo: R.R.

Soil stabilization is traditionally done with binders such as lime or Portland cement. However, the production of these materials leads to the generation of large amounts of carbon dioxide, estimated at approximately 1 ton CO2 for each ton of portland cement produced.

At the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) there is a project, coordinated by researchers Antonio Viana da Fonseca and Sara Rios of the Civil Engineering Construction Department, aiming to develop a new technique for soil treatment, incorporating inert waste from coal burning in thermal power stations.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Alkaline activation of fly ash, by mixing the ash with an alkaline solution, generates a cement gel that binds the soil particles, considerably improving its strength and deformability. It is an innovative solution that has been studied in other application areas such as the manufacture of concrete used in all types of civil engineering structures but which has not yet been applied to the treatment of soil, where the volumes involved are also very great. The development of this solution is the main objective of the ECOSOLO project funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the POFC - Operational Program Factors of Competitiveness, the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) within the ambit of the Incentive System for Research and Technological Development.

Briefly, alkaline activation consists of the use of ash as a source of silica and aluminum to create a highly alkaline environment, using sodium based solutions or potassium, which facilitates the precipitation of silica and alumina from ash. This is followed by a nucleation and condensation/ precipitation phase. This process produces a gel which acts as a cementitious binder of soil particles, generating considerable resistance in mechanical and chemical terms.

Materials obtained through this process are called polymers.

They are characterized by high mechanical strength, low hydraulic conductivity, thermal stability, and high hardness and calcium is practically absent. These materials have great advantages compared to Portland cement and air lime, the production of which generates large amounts of CO2 and which also requires calcareous rocks, which do not exist in all parts of the world.

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Photo: R.R.

TO COOPERATE

The great innovation that underlies alkaline activation is the possibility that through such chemical reactions the same compounds that form silicate rocks (such as granite) may be obtained. These compounds exhibit the same stability and mechanical and hydraulic behaviour that are recognized in such rocks. The need to add fly ash results from the fact that they are abundant in silica and alumina, but also from their amorphous state, which greatly facilitates their combination with the components provided by the alkaline binder. Moreover, the possibility of manufacturing geopolymers based on fly ash, replacing cement and air lime in some applications, is a way to minimize the environmental problems resulting from the production of these binders and simultaneously to use a by-product of electrical power plants.

This is the background to this project which aims to optimize soil mixtures with ash and alkaline activators (particularly sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide), for subsequent application in the field of soil stabilization for transport infrastructure platforms which traditionally use soil mixtures with Portland cement and air lime or other more intrusive and expensive solutions. For this purpose, a soil from Bogota (Colombia) was selected and brought to Portugal. An extensive experimental program was undertaken in the geotechnical laboratories of FEUP and the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (IPG) with resistance testing, deformability and erodibility. The influence of cure conditions, especially temperature and humidity were also analyzed.

A possible field application of this technique was tested by a physical 4 m x 2 m model of built at Mota-Engil facilities with three layers of 30 cm of untreated soil on which was placed a layer of 20 cm of soil treated with this technique to simulate the construction of a road platform.

In this model a number of geotechnical tests were carried out, including load plates and tests with the portable deflectometer, as well as compaction control tests with a gama-densitometer. In parallel, the durability of the technique was evaluated with full-scale fatigue tests on the new campus of the Universidade Militar Nueva Granada

in Bogota, Colombia (UMNG) in Cajicá, during which the axis of a wheel is made to pass along a section of surface specifically built with the layer of treated soil to be analyzed (see picture above). The laboratory and field results showed a significant increase in support capacity of the soil and wear, particularly at higher temperatures (above 20 ° C) and low levels of rainfall, so it may be suitable for dry and arid climates. However, research at FEUP is still looking for alternative solutions for other weather conditions.

This project is a result of the collaboration between the Universidade Militar Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia (UMNG) and FEUP, and was set up by Professors Javier Camacho-Tauta and Antonio Viana da Fonseca, who has established an exchange protocol between the universities at Rectory level that will allow mobility of students and guidelines for joint post-graduate theses, while at the same time making it possible for UMNG to be associated as a partner in the ECOSOLO project. The consortium consists of the company Mota-Engil, as promoter of the project, FEUP and the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (IPG), as co-promoters with the collaboration of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), UMNG and the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, who are all part of the Portuguese Scientific and Technological System (SCT). * Post-Doc Researcher

DID YOU KNOW THAT...?

Soil stabilization was used in the early days of engineering in the construction of road surfaces in Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman civilizations, and in the construction of the ancient Babylonian temples. It is a way to use the available on-site soil by improving its characteristics, which avoids bringing good materials from other areas at significant environmental, social and economic costs.

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Brussels: the place where european research is decided

Text: Raquel Pires Photos: R.R.

Recent years have witnessed a decrease in the participation of industries in european programs for science and innovation. The eighth Framework Programme, also known as Horizon 2020, aims at reversing this trend. But it was also created to address underinvestment in european knowledge, the scattering of resources and excessive bureaucracy. Its design makes H2020 the biggest investment program in science and innovation in the world.

But how can this funding be accessed? How should european projects be submitted? What aspects are most valued in the application process?

What is happening in the corridors of power of the european parliament that we should know about? A delegation of the Faculty of Engineering of the Univeristy of Porto (FEUP) travelled to brussels in order to gain a better understanding of the functioning of the european commission, and try to understand how an institution can legally influence the decision process regarding the allocation of european funds to research.

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FEUP delegation on a visit to the European Parliament, April 2015

Nobody knows for sure how many they are. But according to the EULobby Network (European Lobbyists Platform) numbers could be close to 25,000 professionals who exert active pressure in Brussels, the European capital of “lobbying”, surpassed only by Washington. Regulation advocates believe “lobbying” creates transparency - it reveals who influences decisions, in whose name they speak, the origins of funding and the goals and interests of who they represent.

The European Parliament is the only European institution that requires the accreditation of lobbyists and has for several years implemented a code of ethics for these public relations professionals. The European Commission decided to create a voluntary public register and to make its relations with lobbying clearer. In 2006 it launched the European Transparency Initiative, developed by the Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud, Siim Kallas. The idea is to adopt a White Paper setting out rules and, later, to harmonize the practice throughout the Member States.

In Portugal, for example, the previous PSD-PP coalition government was going to regulate lobbying but in the end, it was not voted on in Parliament.

There is a clear need for policy makers to realize the importance of regulating this activity, which has the power to influence key decisions. Most of our national laws originate in the European Union (EU), hence it is essential to be in Brussels and to get to know how it works, because EU decision-making has its own particularities and the legislative cycle is long. From the moment the Commission proposes an initiative until its approval by Parliament and Council, the process can last months or even years.

Before proposing any initiative, the Commission examines its consequences, conducts impact studies and consults different stakeholders (NGOs, local authorities, representatives of civil society and the business sector), listens to

expert opinions, receives advice from working groups and other experts. Then, the process advances, sometimes going back and forth between institutions or involving lengthy negotiations between member states and the European Parliament.

All this is particularly important when we are talking of the new framework program, H2020. This program represents a significant increase in funding for research and innovation, something like 79.4 billion euros (in previous financial framework programs the figure was around 52 million euros).

“It is the largest investment program in science and innovation in the world,” says Maria da Graça Carvalho, Member of the European Parliament and the main rapporteur of the Specific Execution Program of H2020 for the field of Research and Innovation. The investment is distributed evenly between three fundamental pillars: excellence in science, industrial leadership and societal challenges. By 2020, the main goal of European institutions is to “guide Europe to a leading position in science, while at the same time regaining industrial competitiveness, not forgetting the societal challenges which characterize a modern society,” says Maria da Graça Carvalho.

At the meeting held in Brussels in April 2015, attended by a group 22 of people connected to the Faculty of Engineering, together with Anabela Carvalho, representing national points of contact for the GPPQ, Maria da Graça Carvalho was optimistic about the future of scientific research in member countries, stating that “Europe’s problem is not the lack of quality of scientific research, but the lack of capacity to transfer it to the economy and to the market. H2020 aims to cover the often long and costly journey between fundamental research, technological development, industrial , removing barriers to innovative products and processes entering the market.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT...

In early April 2016, the H2020 Office was listed on the EU’s Transparency Register? This measure is part of the policy of voluntary public registering of lobbying, established by the European Commission in 2006 to address basic questions which include the interests that are being promoted, by whom and with what funds.

THE H2020 OFFICE AT FEUP Conscious that the new framework program would dictate the rules and the future of funding in science and science culture in the coming years, in November 2013 the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto set up a structure aimed at providing advice and internal monitoring for European projects. Led by Pedro Coelho, of FEUP’s Cooperation Division, the mission of the new office is to encourage researchers to apply for European funds. With a team of two people on a permanent basis, so far the office has been involved in supporting 205 applications, which resulted in 23 projects being accepted, with a total budget allocated to FEUP of 4.8 million euros. “When the establishment of the H2020 Office was proposed, certain targets were set, including increasing the number of FEUP applications to the European Commission’s framework program, increasing the number of projects approved and the projects coordinated by the Faculty of Engineering “, states the H2020 Office coordinator. All this was in order to “increase the budget allocated to FEUP and double the participation/representation of the Faculty of Engineering in European R&I Networks”. According to the indicators currently available, up until now the H2020 Office “is on track and almost all goals and targets have largely been met,” concludes Pedro Coelho.

One among many of the initiatives of the H2020 Office was FEUP’s institutional visit to Brussels in April 2015. The visiting committee included a representative from each department of FEUP working as a liaison between the two institutions. The main focus of this trip was to lobby constructively, in consonance with the strategic vision of the H2020 Office. The purpose of the visit was also to present FEUP’s different intervention areas to European Delegates working in the areas of Education, International Cooperation, Research and Innovation, to sensitize our teachers to the importance of knowing the European funding programs and the need for them to take a more proactive role, while at the same time encouraging FEUP’s participation in European projects.

ILO: FEUP’S NEW INDUSTRY LIAISON COMMITTEE The main purpose of the Industry Liaison Office (ILO), a structure publicly presented in December 2015, is to promote and encourage the connection between FEUP and national and international Industry, thus fostering competitive collaboration and the search for external resources. Headed by Luís Filipe Malheiros, a professor at FEUP, this Industry Liaison Committee also has Pedro Coelho as liaison agent, as well as one teacher from each FEUP department appointed by the Director of the School of Engineering. The main aim of this Industrial Liaison Committee is to strengthen links and relationships with companies and organizations, as well as to identify future opportunities for collaboration in research and innovation. “We promote and facilitate interaction with researchers from FEUP, by organizing individual meetings between companies and our researchers, as well as providing access to a wide range of information relevant to the interests and needs of companies,” adds Luís Filipe Malheiros.

“Companies that work with us have privileged access to our promotional events which offer excellent networking opportunities with the scientific community at FEUP, with other entrepreneurs and international experts, among others. Companies also have first-hand access to our scientific knowledge base”, concludes Pedro Coelho. fe.up.pt/ilo

fe.up.pt/h2020

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Photo: R.R.

TO ACT

“With the Paris Climate Agreement, the world has a lifeline.“

Interview: Raquel Pires

The European Union (EU) imports 53% of the energy it consumes. And the transport sector uses the most fossil fuels: between 1990 and 2012, carbon emissions increased by approximately 57%. This is mainly due to road transport, although the increase in their use was less evident than in other modes of transport: 64% worldwide, compared with 80% increase in aviation and 66% in maritime transport.* What measures are being adopted by the European Commission in order to change this dependence on the external market for energy? And what policies are being discussed which aim at decreasing carbon emissions?

Violeta Bulc, european commissioner for mobility and transport, visited the Faculty of Engeneering of the University of Porto (FEUP), in november, during the Bin@Porto event. The commissioner talked about guidelines being discussed in Brussels regarding decarbonisation and European policies on energy.

* This data refers to 2015 and can be found in the annual International Transport Forum report, an intergovernmental organization that brings together 57 member countries. (www.internationaltransportforum.org).

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Multimodality and interoperability are the key to the transport of the future for both passenger and freight transport.

The UN climate conference (COP21), held in Paris in December, brought together more than 150 heads of state.

The preparation of this high-level meeting obliged leaders to submit their plans for reducing carbon emissions by 2030. What is your reading on the results of this negotiation marathon, particularly those concerning transport?

The Paris Climate Agreement is the first truly global treaty on climate and also the greatest multilateral agreement of the 21st century. It is also a milestone for the European Union which played a key role in negotiating this historic agreement. The world now has a lifeline, one last chance to leave a more stable world to future generations, a healthier planet, fairer societies and more prosperous economies.

Now we have to focus on putting into practice all the strategies outlined and the fact that Europe continues to lead the transition process regarding low-carbon policies.

As for the transport sector, what I can guarantee is that we tried up until the very last minute for aviation and shipping to be part of this agreement. But when negotiations are taking place with almost 190 governments, obviously concessions have to be made, so we were not able to ensure sufficient support for the inclusion of these two sectors. However, I have high expectations regarding what was achieved in Paris.

Firstly, because of the commitment which was reached to ensure that the increase in global average temperature will remain 2°C above pre-industrial levels in all sectors of the economy, including transport. Secondly, the year 2016 represents another opportunity for a multilateral agreement with the Meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization, in the autumn in Montreal. The EU will reach agreements with other regions of the world to achieve a global reduction of carbon emissions in aviation.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Accelerating decarbonisation of the transport sector is a major EU investment to curb the effect of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. How do European policies intend to encourage and further contribute towards this process?

In order to achieve lasting and sustainable decarbonisation of the transport sector and to meet our goals regarding climate and energy, we need an intelligent combination of policies. We need to combine low carbon energy use in the transport sector while increasing energy efficiency, and we need to intelligently manage the existing demand in the field of transport. Following the COP21 results, we will prepare a communication on decarbonising transport, to be released this year, and we will follow proposals, including those that we consider fair and sustainable for road transport. We will also continue to support the use of vehicles and equipment using alternative fuels. Under the EU legislation on the development of infrastructures for alternative fuels, Member States have to submit national policy frameworks for the Commission in mid-November 2016.

Furthermore, we will continue to work on creating measures to promote standardization in the labeling of fuels, in guidelines for the price of fuel and also in supporting business models that may help develop infrastructures for alternative fuels. We will be vigilant and support cities: decarbonisation, as President Juncker emphasized, is definitely to take place in cities. We are also reviewing research on transport to ensure that we are developing technologies and systems that will dramatically transform the area of transport and reduce CO2 emissions, while enhancing the sector’s competitiveness.

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An increase is expected on CO2 emissions in the aviation sector in the future. You recently presented a sustained strategy for decarbonisation also in this area. Can you explain in more detail what this plan entails?

Aviation accounts for about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but unlike with other sectors, emissions are expected to increase dramatically. Some experts predict an increase of around 290% by 2050 if nothing is done. Europe played a pioneering role in line with our emission reduction target of 40% by 2030. First, European aviation is included in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which is the cornerstone of our climate policy. We can still do more and that is precisely the ambition of the new Aviation Strategy. As an example, we need to address the fragmentation of European airspace, which adds millions of tons of CO2 per year. We will also invest close to 500 million euros per year in “SESAR�, a project that modernizes and updates air traffic management technologies. It is a system that saves on fuel and can reduce up to 50 million tons of CO2 emissions.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Photo: Filipe Paiva

Violeta Bulc is European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport. Appointed to the post in November 2014, for her term in Brussels she set as a priority the promotion of digitization and innovation in the transport sector. With a vast academic experience, Violeta Bulc became well known in her home country, Slovenia, as an enterprising woman with links to business: in the corporate sphere, she held various positions in the telecommunications industry, including Telekom Slovenia and Telemach, two of the main Slovene operators. She owns and is CEO of Viacom, a company related to innovative and sustainable business. Immediately prior to her appointment to the European Commission, Violeta Bulc was Deputy Prime Minister of Slovenia, with ministerial responsibilities in Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

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OPORTO ON THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH MAP

WHAT IS BIN?

From November 2nd to 4th, the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (UPTEC) got together more than 500 researchers, industrial partners and people linked to technological investment, in a program that presented the city of Porto as a reference partner on the international map for innovation. The 2015 BIN@Porto edition focused on current issues such as health technologies, renewable energy, smart cities, construction technology, automotive innovation, the railway industry, innovation and design, logistics and mobility, advanced manufacturing, new materials and oceans.

The BIN@TM - Business and Innovation Network - is an international network for sharing good practices and opportunities in innovation. Founded in 2010, it is based on an agreement between the Universities of Porto, Sheffield and São Paulo. Its principles are also endorsed by other academic, industrial, economic development and technological investment partners.

The program included a series of open sessions, thematic actions, workshops, a technologies exhibition and other events, open to all and free. The next meeting of the BIN network is scheduled for 7th, 8th and 9th November, in São Paulo, Brazil.

The network’s purpose is the creation of reliable connections and the promotion of free access to participation: by promoting cooperation in applied research, open innovation and internationalization of technology-based companies, the BIN@ network plays a facilitating role in linking its members’ innovation ecosystems. businessandinnovation.net

Photo: R.R.

However, aviation is essentially an international industry, which makes it difficult to negotiate and decide globally on this scale. I had the opportunity to present this strategy, at the Meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which took place in the Autumn in Montreal. The EU advocates an ambitious global mechanism for reducing emissions. We also support the development of first standards in aviation industry. We are working very closely with ICAO. The aim of the EU, reiterated in our Aviation Strategy, is clear: we want to achieve neutral carbon growth in the aviation sector from 2020.

One of the biggest concerns in Europe regarding the transport sector is the fact that there is no single digital market: intermodality and interoperability do not yet exist. What does the EU intend to do on this matter?

Multimodality and interoperability are the key to the transport of the future for both passenger and freight transport. We are working to develop a transport system which is fully integrated in a logistics network based on full cooperation between public authorities and operators by the intensive use of smart technologies, allowing for real constraints and obstacles to be overcome. A good example of this is what is taking place regarding tolls on European roads. We cannot have toll recovery systems which are incompatible with each other and represent an obstacle to the free movement of people and goods, with

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

additional costs for carriers and citizens. Today, a truck with a route from Lisbon to Bratislava, passing through Lyon, Milan, Munich and Vienna needs at least five different contracts with toll operators and five on-board units. This leads to significant costs for operators in terms of buying or renting on-board units, warehouses and administrative burdens. That’s why this year we are thinking of promoting interoperability between toll systems to allow road users to travel throughout Europe without worrying about the bureaucracy of billing methods and without having to install specific equipment for each one of them. As for the multimodal transport, we have established the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum which aims at supporting the development of digital tools in transport from a multimodal perspective. The Forum brings together Member States and key stakeholders in transport and logistics in order to identify areas in which common action in the EU is needed, to provide recommendations and solutions and work on the implementation of these recommendations and solutions, where appropriate.

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Text: Raquel Pires Photo: NativeIn

Digital Media: FEUP student awarded prize in Sweden A project developed by Horácio Tomé Marques, a student of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) on the Doctoral Program in Digital Media, UT Austin Portugal was one of the prize winners of this year’s edition of MusicBricks Incubation Awards, awarded last May in Sweden during the Music Tech Fest Scandinavia 2015.

The project FindingSomethingSoundingBonding, created and produced by Horácio Tomé Marques, Francisco Marques Teixeira and Fanny Fazakas (Hungary) in the Hackathon - one of the events at the Scandinavian festival - earned a Blue Vinyl Award for having created and developed this project within 24 hours, complying with a set of parameters associated with the MusicBricks structure.

The jury were enchanted by the audiovisual performative piece for two actors, whose narrative is conceptually anchored in an inter-relational event between two human beings (a kind of game based on provocation/perception, with gestures, corporal expression, reception/perception/ brain reaction, iteration as main ingredients). In terms of processes and technology, Horácio Tomé Marques’ project is based on gestures/movements and electric potentials of the brain, where one of the participants uses various sensors of gestures/movements R-IoT (IRCAM) and the other uses a brain- computer interface (Emotiv).

himself and by another FEUP student (Hugo Cardoso). It is published and available on the Emotiv website portal.

Horácio Tomé Marques is a PhD student at FEUP and his doctoral research, Music, Reason and/or Emotion, is materialized in a multidisciplinary project that proposes representations - e.g. visual, sound, multi-sensory narratives - of the brain’s electrical phenomena, in real-time, through the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI). “It implements innovative approaches of representation of action/perception/reaction processes, especially the proportional ratio between reason and emotion in the context of performing arts, especially music. It is an art project-research but is strongly based on frameworks of theoretical reference and experience in the areas of neurosciences, neurotechnology and computer science,” he concludes.

ABOUT MUSICBRICKS These interfaces (BCI - Brain Computer Interface) make it possible to capture the brain’s electrical phenomena and through the use of specialized software turn them into digital data. These can in turn be used to denote phenomena such as emotions, or to control events and mechanisms. They are an emerging technology in games where they are used as game controllers because they make it possible to play with impulses generated in the brain instead of joysticks. In this project Horácio also used the HoMy_EmoRAW application (a toolbox that facilitates access to raw EEG data), created by

The MusicBricks incubation prizes are incentives to promote on-going research and development. They take the shape of grants of 3,000 Euros that reward well-grounded innovative projects that denote a history of research and have a clear potential for future developments and may have real impact in the fields of arts, science and technology. musictechfest.net/musicbricks

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An Orchestra is born!

Orquestra Clássica da FEUP, (the FEUP Classical Orchestra of FEUP) is the most recent initiative of FEUP’s Cultural Commission. The Orchestra gave its first performance on 19th December, under the conductor José Eduardo Gomes. This shows once again that there is much more to FEUP than just calculus and equations.

The 45 members, or so, of this new orchestra include an assortment of students, teachers, collaborators, researchers and fellows. They are all driven by the same passion for music, the universal language. It all began with the launch of the project “Music workshop”, which was more focused on Jazz. There followed another initiative, Musicians at FEUP, where a lot of talent was discovered within the FEUP community. It was realized there was something else missing: a space for classical music. There were many applicants for this project and, so the plan to create a Classical Orchestra within FEUP was launched.

The first auditions were held on 30th October. They were a real success! There was so much interest that it quickly became necessary to book another date for auditions. All 45 people who applied were accepted. Weekly rehearsals were organized to prepare the historic moment in cultural events in Portugal: a concert given by a classical orchestra entirely made up of members of the academic community, mostly from FEUP. The musical director of the orchestra is José Eduardo Gomes, a musician and instrumentalist who has won many prizes in both national and international competitions.

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Text: Helena Peixoto Photo: Susana Neves

He is a founding member of the Vintage Quartet and was Chief Conductor of the choir of the Coro do Círculo Portuense de Ópera for the 2013/2014 season. He has concerts booked with the best known national and international orchestras, a variety of internships and masterclasses, as well as some performances abroad.

Some training in music and some instrumental practice is necessary in order to participate in this project. You also have to attend the weekly rehearsals, which take place on Wednesdays from 21.00 to 23.00. If you would like to join the orchestra, you don’t have to wait for the next audition, just contact the Cultural Commission (ccultur@fe.up.pt), and they will take it from there.

There is no doubt that this is a very special project, which promotes and encourages musical training and development among those who have other professions and occupations but nurture a great passion for music, and who want to dedicate some of their time to it.

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Cycling through Japan They had been planning a long trip for many years. While they were students at FEUP, Ivo Timóteo, now a doctoral student at Cambridge University, UK, and Guilherme Soares, now a software engineer living in Porto, both 25, often discussed the idea. Their possible routes included the usual trips to European capitals, and they even considered a journey by Jeep down the west coast of the USA. But once they had got the money together, their choice went to the Land of the Rising Sun, a country which holds a fascination for both of them. The idea of travelling through the country by bike seemed to be “a fantastic choice for a trip whose main objectives were to experience as much as possible of the culture and society”, said Ivo Timóteo.

They left on 15th August. Their meeting point was Frankfurt airport. The adventure was beginning to take shape. It was the season for rains and typhoon and Ivo and Guilherme knew that they might be unable to continue their journey because of reasons over which neither of them had any control. There was only one condition when planning the trip, which began to look more like an expedition and was given the name 3K: they had to cycle over the four islands which make up Japan, the northern and southern limits they established being Cape Soya and Cape Sata. Over 3,000 kilometers, at an average of 120 kilometers a day.

“What surprised me most was the extraordinary hospitality outside the big cities. They were really interested in our story and they made a real effort to find out more, even though we didn’t have enough Japanese to explain it”, said Ivo. Every day they offered us accommodation, tea, fruit!”, he added. Guilherme agreed. “The Japanese personify friendliness! At the end of a conversation they would often offer us fruit, tea, juices, or vitamins to give us energy for the journey. Amazing! We have many stories to tell and people interested in this type of adventure will soon be able to read them.

Text: Raquel Pires Photo: R.R.

Some of the most remarkable moments were “the night we spent in a psychiatric hospital, the private ceremony in an esoteric Buddhist monastery, our visit to the house of a sushi chef, and our private lessons in speaking Japanese Yakuza style”. The most incredible experience of all was waking up in a park in Kumamoto and being invited by a group of “young” 80-year-olds to take part in taiso radi - a Japanese national radio program which broadcasts morning exercises, at around 6.30 a.m. “It was the best possible beginning to the day on which we were going to cycle 184 kilometers”, said Guilherme.

Now they are determined to recount their adventure in more detail on the site set up for the project, and also to plan their next destination. One thing is already certain, however, they’ll be traveling by bike!

DID YOU KNOW THAT… Since the Japan 3K project bears the stamp of the Cambridge University Expeditions Society, Ivo and Guilherme have launched a campaign to raise funds for Oxfam through their site. The site is still in operation so you still have time to contribute to this cause at japan3k.com/charity

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Text: Helena Peixoto Photo: R.R.

FEUP Alumni Ambassadors: United Kingdom With his questioning mind and his thirst for knowledge, Paulo was always interested to discover how the things around him worked. Proof of this were his childhood games which hinted at his flair for engineering: he was delighted at the excuse to unscrew a toy car when the batteries ran out or when simple plastic tubes were soon transformed into water circuits. At secondary school the way he solved chemistry, physics and maths exercises confirmed his vocation: he really did want to become a Chemical Engineer. He chose the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), not only because it was near his home (Leça da Palmeira) but also because it was known to be one of the best schools of engineering in Portugal, and in Europe. He worked while he was studying for his degree: first at Labcork – Laboratório Central do Grupo Amorim (the central laboratory for the Amorim cork group) and later at Fluidinova - Engenharia de Fluidos, S.A, a FEUP spin-off of which he is also founding partner. Later he did a post-graduate course in Entrepreneurship at Porto Business School (PBS).

In 2010, when he was about to finish his doctorate in the same area, Paulo felt the need to test his knowledge

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

IDENTITY CARD Name: Paulo Gomes Age: 33 FEUP Embassy: United Kingdom Career: Born in Leça da Palmeira, Paulo has now lived in the UK for about 5 years, two of which were spent in Cambridge, the rest in London. Most of his academic career was spent at FEUP, where he graduated and did his Doctorate in Chemical Engineering. While studying for his Doctorate, he taught Industrial Computer Science. Following this, he left for the UK to work for the BHR Group.

Currently he is working for BP, at their Upstream Technology Center.

in an industrial context. Portugal was still feeling the effects of the economic crisis of 2008 so he set sail for the United Kingdom to work for the BHR Group. Although this change of country was made easier because of friends living in Cambridge (one friend in particular, who became

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The new year saw the opening of eight new embassies around the world: Denmark, Spain, France, Ghana, Peru, Qatar, The Czech Republic and The United States are all countries which for the first time this year will see specific events organized by the FEUP Alumni Ambassadors. These new embassies are added to the existing 11 (Germany, Angola, Belgium, Holland, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and Brazil), which continue from the previous year, totaling 19.

his girlfriend and later his wife), Paulo still faced challenges. For example, the language barrier was not due to grammar but to the very different accents he came across, and there was bureaucracy to deal with. Another difficulty was dealing with expectations: he tried to visit Portugal every two or three months, but for his family and friends, it was never enough and his diary soon filled up. There was always a feeling of sadness when the time came to return: “I think all emigrants agree that it would be good to have a ‘pause’ button to press every time we go away and we would press ‘play’ every time we came back home. Sadly, it’s not like that. Nephews continue to grow, our parents continue to miss us, friends continue with their lives, the city continues to change...That is the worst reality to face”, confesses Paulo, the FEUP Alumni Ambassador.

Paulo works at present for BP as a Drilling Modelling/ Applications Engineer, where his responsibilities include developing numerical methods and simulation models to predict the behavior of fluids used in drilling and consolidation operations in oil and natural gas wellheads. He accompanies the implementation of these numerical tools and provides support in various exploration areas, which allows him to travel to places as far apart and different as the Wyoming desert, USA, the North Sea oil rigs, Azerbaijan, the Gulf of Mexico, Angola...

The idea of applying to be an FEUP Alumni Ambassador arose in the wake of support given by FEUP to the organization of the first event in the United Kingdom, in October, 2013. This was when the Alumni network was getting off the ground and expectations were high as to the outcome. The experience of this work was “very enriching”. Paulo believed that by becoming an ambassador, not only was he giving something back to the institution where he had received his training, but also that there would be the social reward of getting to know people, sharing challenges and solutions, and helping to integrate those newly arrived in London in the community and with the locals. He insists that the work was made easier by the fact that he was just one member of a fantastic team with two other UK FEUP Alumni Ambassadors - Marisa Fernandes and Fábio Reis, each with their

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The Alumni Ambassadors Program is an opportunity for alumni to contribute to disseminating the name of FEUP as an excellent school of engineering, by promoting it with their national and international contacts. It also corresponds to one more way to demonstrate their pride in their alma mater and an excellent opportunity to broaden their network of contacts in their country of residence. fe.up.pt/link

own individual and complementary competences - and thanks to the continued support from the FEUP Alumni Office, which helped in the process of deciding strategy which was always defined with this community of former FEUP students in mind.

For his mandate as FEUP Alumni Ambassador in the UK, Paulo’s main goal was to consolidate numbers: to help to create a solidly based community with periodical events and regular participants and this was a resounding success. The Christmas lunch and get together started in 2014 with 20 participants - in 2014, 50 people attended the event; and the Alumni Career Conferences: My Story event, where the UK alumni share their different professional stories, helping members of the community with tips for those recently arrived in the UK, generating a sense of sharing and creating bonds within the group. Another big line of action is to help students and professionals who are thinking of moving to the UK and to facilitate business contacts between companies and universities.” It is very rewarding to foster the seeds of a network which will lead to a natural evolution within the community”, he says. The future is also going to bring surprises: the network will be a bridge for Portuguese firms wishing to do business in the UK, and events will be organized with a social component.

Paulo mentions the importance of the FEUP Alumni embassies all over the world that can help to create a network of contacts for cooperation, channels for communication and sharing, spreading the good name of Portuguese engineering professionals. The FEUP Alumni community includes members at different stages of their careers: recent graduates/PhDs; young professionals who see FEUP as a lever which helped them to reach their personal and professional objectives and who want to give something back; and also the more senior members who advise the younger members and who are responsible for recruiting new engineers for the companies they work for, “Regardless of the stage we are at, we all have something in common: we are all [from] FEUP, and that will never change.”

FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

2015 ANNUAL REPORT

Photo: Rodolfo Rodrigues Photo: Filipe Paiva

Photo: R.R.

13 The aim of FEUP Day is to strengthen the DNA of the Faculty of Engineering, to recognize and value the professional and personal success of students, teachers, researchers and technicians who constitute the FEUP Community.

Held annually, this year the ceremony was attended by Felix Ribeiro, an economist and one of the leading strategists in the field of Portuguese economic policy. It was also an opportunity to honor companies with close ties to the Faculty whose cooperation has been decisive in achieving research projects and establishing industrial partnerships.

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The Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP) was one of the first places in Portugal to adopt Google’s “Indoor Maps”, a new feature that allows users to access detailed indoor maps, which identify points of interest.

This opportunity to work closely with Google was considered to be very useful for the people who use the campus daily, and an important tool for people with disabilities.

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João Costa is a Master’s student in Computer Science and Computing Engineering at FEUP and his work for his master’s thesis was awarded a prize at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods (ICPRAM). The prize was awarded in the category Best Student Paper Award, in the area of Theory and Methods.

The project is entitled oAdaBoost - An AdaBoost Variant for Ordinal Classification and it addresses the potential of combining methods for ordinal data classification. These methods may have various real-life applications where human evaluation plays an important role.

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23 Low production cost, great energy efficiency, and with a lifespan of 25 years. These are the main characteristics of the new perovskite solar cells (PSC), which won FEUP a business deal worth 5 million euros. The sale of the intellectual property of the project, between FEUP and EFFACEC and the sustainable energy company Dyesol, could revolutionize the market for new energies. The idea came from Adélio Mendes, a Full Professor at FEUP, who in collaboration with Alberto Barbosa, (EFACEC) and with the contribution of the Agency for Innovation (QREN), CUF-QI, CIN and EDP, launched two projects in consortium - Solarsel and WinDSC - within the ambit of which, the sealing technology was developed.

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The main objective of the academic project RITA.RED. SHOES was to challenge FEUP’s Master’s students in Industrial and Product Design to create shoes for people with cerebral palsy, thus contributing to their mobility and quality of life. The idea was to design a product with practical applicability which could be marketed by a Portuguese footwear company. In order for the product satisfy the needs and expectations of potential users as closely as possible, there was interaction between students and people with cerebral palsy, who gave their feedback to the ideas and prototypes.

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FEUP hosted the 9th edition of the Debates and Initiatives cycle at FEUP, with the theme New Paradigms.

This was a two-day meeting which provided moments of reflection and dialogue on possible educational models and opportunities for the creation of a network of agents of change in education in Portugal. Sampaio da Novoa, Honorary Rector of the University of Lisbon and former candidate for President of the Republic, attended the event.

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FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

The aim of this three-day event, filled with 60 activities for students, teachers and psychologists from secondary schools, was to divulge the different types of engineering taught at FEUP. About 1,200 students enrolled in Profession Week: Engineer, and their curiosity took them to the laboratories and main areas of the faculty. All the activities organized focused on the importance of engineering in our daily lives, and on enlightening the visitors about what it means to be an Engineer. Emphasis was placed on the role of Engineering in protecting the planet, improving the world for mankind and for the society of the future, in making business competitive and in building a better world.

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The 1st Alumni meeting for former students of FEUP living in Belgium took place in Brussels on 29th April. Organized

by Rui Pires, FEUP Alumni Ambassador in Belgium, the meeting was held on the same day that a delegation from FEUP visited the European Commission. This was a relaxed social event, attended by both alumni and members of FEUP, and it contributed to consolidate relations and networking among participants.

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Cláudio Fonte is a FEUP alumnus and was considered the young researcher of the year in the category of Mixing by the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). It is the first time a Portuguese researcher has received this award from that prestigious international organization, whose members include 100,000 chemical engineers from all over Europe. The Federation awards an annual prize to researchers who have published groundbreaking research work in virtually all areas of chemical engineering. Cláudio Fonte’s work focused on a computational and experimental study of the mixing process using confined opposing jets.

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ENGENHARIA FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 51 FACULDADE 2016 FACULTY DE ENGENHARIA OF ENGINEERING DA UNIVERSIDADE - UNIVERSITY OF DOPORTO PORTO

Photo: R.R.

Photo: Egídio Santos

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How long does it take to acclimatize an individual to a more hostile climate without compromising their physical performance? Are our military using the most suitable equipment for these war scenarios? This was the focus of study of a University of Porto research team associated with the Porto Biomechanics Laboratory (LABIOMEP), in collaboration with the School of Army Sergeants. The tests were run with the military carrying all their individual equipment inside an environmental chamber, which replicated weather conditions in countries such as Afghanistan, with temperatures of around 40 degrees.

One of the main conclusions of this study was that transporting weapons and combat equipment in these conditions has a negative impact on the physical performance of the military.

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FEUP hosted the first Portuguese Doctoral Meeting in the area of Engineering. This was a pioneering event in Portugal and it brought together students from all areas and schools of Engineering, promoting networking and interdisciplinarity among participants, and closer contact between Industry and the teaching of Engineering. The meeting also provided an opportunity to draw attention to the high level of research undertaken by doctoral students at FEUP, which is often carried out in partnership with industry and business.

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The academic community and the population of Porto now have a new green space in Asprela.

Inaugurated by the Rector of the University of Porto, the new Parque da Quinta de Lamas has three hectares of garden and sports facilities and is located between the faculties of Engineering and Economics. This 1.1-million-euro investment of is one of the best examples of the contribution made by the University of Porto to local development.

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Photo: Egídio Santos

03 This was the first time that a meeting was held specifically designed for all the Faculty of Engineering’s employees. It took place on the Faculty’s lawns, on a late sunny afternoon and provided a relaxing opportunity to network and share ideas, complete with ice cream, caipirinhas and “Bolas da Praia”! An aspect of solidarity was also given to the Summer Sunset by the FEUP Social Responsibility Commission, who contributed to the project with “Um Lugar pró Joãozinho” (“A Place for Little Johnny”), aimed at seeking support for construction of the children’s hospital at St. John’s Hospital in Porto.

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Autonomous unmanned vehicles developed by FEUP took part in exercises with the navies of the US, Norway, Sweden and Qatar. REP Atlantic15 is an international exercise in which FEUP participates. The main objectives were to develop planning capabilities and surface and air control of underwater vehicle systems operations, through interoperated communication networks. This is also a way to promote the technical and operational image of Portugal in the field of autonomous vehicles with some of the international maritime powers.

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Eight people connected with the University of Porto were awarded the Porto City Council (CMP) Gold Medal of Merit. Adélio Mendes stands out from among these personalities. He is a Professor and researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at FEUP, and he is noted for his development of innovative technologies for electricity production, some of them patented worldwide.

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Photo: Miguel Nogueira/Câmara Municipal do Porto

ANNUAL REPORT 2015

09 To mark the end of yet another academic year, FEUP’s Cultural Commission presented the play Ela sabia de mais (She Knew too much). Directed by Ricardo Alves (Director of the Palmilha Dentada theatre company) the play brought together on stage several members of the FEUP community and this year saw the participation of FEUP’s Classical Orchestra.

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Miguel Teixeira, 31, is an ex FEUP student and author of the best thesis in Europe in the field of Product Design and Engineering, according to the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). This biennial prize aims to distinguish the thesis which reveals the best contributions to research and/or practice in Product Design and Engineering.

Miguel Teixeira’s thesis in Chemical and Biological Engineering at FEUP presents the development of new experimental data, theoretical models, and innovative methodologies and tools to quantify and predict the perception of odors.

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EBEC (European BEST Engineering Competition) is one of the most important competitions in European Engineering, and this year it took place in Portugal for the first time. FEUP was filled with 120 students from all corners of Europe in the Team- Design test, which consisted of the development of a real and functional “surprise” prototype using low-cost materials. In the Case Study part of the competition, participants take on the role of CEO and seek to solve real case studies, using management principles, among other things.

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FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

António Castro, a researcher at FEUP, won the 20132014 prize for best thesis in the area of Artificial Intelligence, which is awarded by the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence (APPIA). In his project, the researcher proposes a multi agent system for solving unexpected problems in air transport, which could increase customer satisfaction by 58%. The main objective was to apply Artificial Intelligence techniques to various types of transport (air, rail, road, and maritime) and to areas such as production control in a factory in order to solve unexpected problems in the operational control centers.

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The Commemoration Ceremony for New Masters takes place every year. The aim of the event is to honor these students and it is very much a family occasion. Special attention is given to students whose academic merit is outstanding. The latter receive Merit Awards, offered by companies and other partners of FEUP. The guest speaker this year was Ângelo Ramalho, chairman of Alstom Portugal and an ex FEUP student.

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FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

02 03 04 Health technologies, renewable energies, smart cities, building technology, innovation in the automobile industry, the rail industry, design innovation and service design, logistics and mobility, advanced manufacturing, new materials, and the oceans.

These were the themes of BIN@Porto 2015, a multidisciplinary program organized by FEUP and

by Porto University’s Science and Technology Park (UPTEC). It ran from 2nd to 4th November and provided the opportunity for 300 researchers, industrialists and young entrepreneurs to find international partners, to discuss new projects and prepare applications for funding.

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Four final-year Integrated Master’s students in Electrical and Computer Engineering from FEUP won the third place in the national final of the Global Management Challenge (GMC), the biggest strategy and management competition in the world, which involves the search for the best management decisions. Luis Valente (Team Leader), André Costa, João Barbosa and Rafael Pisco were the only team of higher education students who managed a place on the podium and were in direct competition with company executives from companies such as EDP, Portugal Telecom, REFER, and CGD.

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Photo: Filipe Paiva

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Photo: R.R.

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Photo: Filipe Paiva

ANNUAL REPORT 2015

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17 18 19 It is called Career Fair and was attended by 60 companies interested in recruiting students in the area of Engineering. It is part of FEUP CAREER PATH - a program of Development of Skills, Recruiting, and Career Management and it main aim was to promote contact between national and foreign companies and students and alumni who are looking for employment. Apart from the main national partners, the Career Fair was attended by nine foreign companies looking for Portuguese talent.

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2015 marked 100 years since the foundation of the Technical Faculty, an institution that preceded FEUP. To celebrate this date, FEUP launched a program of activities for the academic year 2015/2016, the highlight of which was the opening of an exhibition in the Library, which made it possible to follow the life of the Technical Faculty through documents and other artefacts, organized according to themes such as historical and technological context and the evolution of the theoretical, practical and experimental aspects of the teaching of engineering at the Technical Faculty.

The exhibition also included a timeline in digital format that presents and explains the historical background and events that make it possible to understand and contextualize the actions, growth and evolution of the Technical Faculty.

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João Vieira da Silva, a FEUP student and a researcher at INESC TEC won the 2015 REN Prize, an award which goes to the best Master’s theses in the last year by Portuguese students in the field of energy systems.

His work Definition of Maintenance Policies in Power Systems was undertaken as part of his Integrated Master’s Dissertation in Electric and Computer Engineering (MIEEC) and earned him a prize worth 12,500 euros. Created in 1995, the REN prize rewards the best Master’s theses in the area of energy systems, undertaken at Portuguese higher education institutions, within the various branches of Engineering.

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FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2016 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

FEUP IN FIGURES 2015 EDUCATION

STUDY PROGRAMMES

STUDENTS ADMITTED ENROLLED GRADUATING

3

Undergraduate Programmes

Undergraduate and Integrated Master programmes

9

Integrated Masters

12

2ND CYCLE

1ST CYCLE

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Master Programmes

5670

891

Master programmes

236

440

134

PhD programmes

194

729

113

1787

6839

1119

Total

22

3RD CYCLE

1357

PhD Programmes

NON-DEGREE PROGRAMMES

3 Specialisations and Advanced Studies

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

EMPLOYMENT RATE on graduation

up to 3 months

36%

up to 6 months

67%

79%

389

316

353

Mobility students OUTGOING

Mobility students* INCOMING

Degree students*

* International students represent 8,3% of the students enrolled Studied sample: 882 master graduates in engineering in 2013/2014 Response Rate: 76.08%

QUALITY INTERNATIONAL RANKINGS RANK

QS-WUR BY SUBJECT

PORTUGAL

EUROPE

WORLD

Chemical Engineering

1

24-38

101-150

Civil Engineering

1

15-33

51-100

Electrical and Computer Eng.

1

50-64

151-200

PORTUGAL

EUROPE

WORLD

PORTUGAL

EUROPE

WORLD

1

55

168

2-3

36-55

151-200

2

36

157

CWTS Leiden - Eng. * 2

31

142

NTU BY SUBJECT

URAP - Eng.

1

16

78

Civil Engineering

2

14

59

Best Global - Eng

2

21

88

Chemical Engineering

1

15

76

Mechanical Engineering

2

25

80

QS - Eng. ARWU - Eng. NTU - Eng.

* Ranking using the indicator P - number of publications

R&D AND INNOVATION

R&D STRUCTURES WITH PARTICIPATION OF FEUP ACADEMIC STAFF

R&D units hosted at FEUP

COOPERATION

Cooperation agreements with companies

7 14 86%

R&D units whose host institution is external to FEUP FEUP academic staff participating in R&D Structures rated Excellent or Very Good, or Associated Laboratories

112 353

Cooperation agreements with international universities

116/31 12/105 42 21

Patent applications filed/cumulative total

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Invention disclosures/cumulative total Tech transfer deals - cumulative total

698

Scientific publications indexed to the ISI Web of Science It represents 17.4% of the publications of University of Porto (3966 publications), which corresponds to more than 23.6% of the Portuguese publications (provisional figures)

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

RESOURCES HUMAN RESOURCES

60.5 % 39.5 %

396

Teaching and research staff (FTE*)

92% Holding a PhD

315

Researchers (FTE*)

*Full-time equivalent

340

90%

**

Technical and administrative staff (FTE)

Holding a PhD

**About 34% belong to the new shared services of U.Porto (SPUP).

FINANCES

23,204 30,216 53,420

State Budget (43.4%) Own income (56.6%) Total income (thousand €)

16,246 8,747 3,650 1,573

R&D projects Tuition fees Sales and services Other

7, 8 & 9 November 2016 SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil The USP Innovation Agency (AUSPIN), endorsed by Research Pro Rectory from Sao Paulo University, is organizing the 7th international BIN@TM event that will be held at the city of Sao Paulo, in Brazil.

The programme will include open session with keynote speakers, thematic Action Tanks, Focus Sessions, Busines Showcase and much more.

BIN@TM is an international network of academic and industry partners engaged and supporting the creation of a sustainable forum for sharing good practice and opportunities in Innovation.

We connect partners from across disciplines and industrial sectors and create opportunities for collaboration. We develop partnerships that deliver value and impact.

CONNECT | SHARE | GROW www.businessandinnovation.net

inovacao.usp.br/bin2016

Organised by:

Partners: