2006-2011 mit-portugal education report vol_ii

2006-2011

VOLUME 2

A network of

advanced studies involving

Portuguese Universities and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bioengineering Systems

Sustainable Energy Systems

Transportation Systems

Engineering Design and

Advanced Manufacturing

20

06

-20

11

VO

LU

ME

2

A network of advancedstudies involvingPortuguese Universitiesand the MassachusettsInstitute of TechnologyAdvanced Training Programs

Bioengineering Systems

Sustainable Energy Systems

Transportation Systems

Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing

Degree awarding institutions

New University of Lisbon (Faculty of Sciences and Technology)

Technical University of Lisbon (IST and ISEG)

University of Coimbra (Faculty of Sciences and Technology and Faculty of Economy

University of Lisbon (Faculty of Sciences)

University of Minho (School of Engineering)

University of Porto (Faculty of Engineering)

September, 2011

A PROGRAM SPONSORED BY THE PORTUGUESE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION AND A PROGRAM OFINDUSTRIAL AFFILIATES

MIT PORTUGAL 2006-2011

VOLUME 2

2

A unique post-graduate education network of intense and wide ranging collaborationbetween Portuguese Universities, research institutions, companies, and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been funded by the PortugueseScience Foundation (FCT) for the period 2006-2011. The network offers Portugal atruly international education program serving as a model for the intersection ofengineering education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

A total of 6 Portuguese universities, 28 Portuguese research centers and nationallaboratories, together with 25 MIT departments, and all 5 Schools within MIT areinvolved in this ongoing partnership. Seven Doctoral, Master’s of BusinessEngineering and Master’s of Science programs have been created in the areas ofBioengineering, Sustainable Energy and Transportation Systems, and EngineeringDesign and Advanced Manufacturing. These programs host currently 350 PhD and64 Master’s students, from over 28 countries. And there are already 119 Master’sgraduates and 3 PhD graduates. Program applicants include graduates from someof the leading schools in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Both the number and qualityof the applicants has increased each year.

This advanced studies network is dedicated to achieving a major goal: to create anew generation of leaders with unique knowledge and a global perspective, who canassume key positions in industry and research in order to make a critical contributionto Portugal’s future economic growth and reach into international markets. Thisapproach was developed by bringing together a dynamic consortium of universitiesacross Portugal (Fig. 1), with the best of MIT educational and research expertise,creating high quality teaching and research.

The program has developed national degrees where leading engineering schoolsworking with schools of economics offer shared globally competitive world classacademic programs.

Students frequently rotate between Portuguese universities for different parts of theircurriculum and receive joint degrees awarded in association by all the Portugueseparticipating universities.

The Bioengineering Systems (BIO) PhD program provides teaching and training atthe intersection between engineering, life sciences, and innovation, and aims ateducating a new generation of leaders in bioengineering, with a strong emphasis intechnical innovation, leadership and systems thinking.

Twenty-two students of the first two classes of the program (started in 2007 and 2008)have already spent, or are currently spending extended time at MIT conducting avery important part of their research work plan jointly with Portuguese and MIT facultysupervision. The main PhD research areas are: a) Stem Cell Bioengineering andRegenerative Medicine; b) Bioprocess and Biomolecular Engineering; c) BiosystemsInnovation, Management and Policy; d) Computational Bioengineering, Genomics,Systems and Synthetic Biology; e) Biomedical Devices and Technologies: HybridHuman–Machine Systems; f) Neurosciences (Molecular to Systems Neurobiologyand Brain Diseases).

During their first year students are involved in extended innovation andentrepreneurship activities (BioTeams course), where they work in teams on buildinggo-to-market strategies for selected emerging breakthrough technologies. Thisinnovation hands-on approach course creates an entrepreneurship drive, skills and

Executive summary

MIT PORTUGAL 2006-2011 – VOLUME 2: Advanced Training Program

3

gusto in the students who have already originated two start-ups: ‘Cell2B’ (threestudents) and ‘SilicoLife’ (two students). Another student has already an internationalpatent licensed by a Portuguese biotech company.

The Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing (EDAM) area offers a PhDprogram, Leaders for Technical Industries (LTI), and a Master’s of BusinessEngineering, Technology Management Enterprise (TME), which focus on product andprocess innovation and complex decision making, taking into account economics,management and social aspects.

The programs are designed to be in close connection with technically advancedindustries. All LTI students complete an internship in an industrial environment wherethey develop business integrated research. TME students are usually professionalsfrom industry and they do their thesis research in a topic related to their professionalactivity at the company where they work.

The target industrial sectors are the automotive, aerospace and medical devicesindustries. This selection takes into account the current Portuguese industrial profile,and the industrial sectors in which a higher innovative potential is expected over thecoming years. The scope and associated proposals for the PhD program are definedand prepared in collaboration between the program’s faculty and industry leaders.As a result, all the PhD research themes are industry oriented. PhD students researchcan be grouped in three main areas: a) Engineering Design and Innovation, b)Engineering Design Management, c) Manufacturing Technologies and IndustrialManagement.

A wide range of Portuguese and international engineering and technology industrieshave received LTI students, including Rolls Royce (UK), General Motors (USA),Continental-Mabor (PT), Volkswagen-AutoEuropa (PT), Hovione (PT), TMG-Automotive (PT), Iber-Oleff (PT), and Celoplas (PT). Students are also encouragedto carry out part of their research at MIT.

The Sustainable Energy Systems (SES) area has created integrated educationalinitiatives for both a PhD and a Master’s of Business Engineering in SustainableEnergy Systems. Each program challenges students to apply a systems approachto energy research with the ultimate objective of creating and applying knowledgefor the design and implementation of sustainable energy systems.

These programs focus in core areas of energy systems within a multidisciplinaryengineering systems framework.They include engineering, economics, policy,technology, control and management solutions necessary to design and implementalternative energy strategies, utilizing energy systems analysis and design. Studentshave the opportunity to learn about the practical application of energy strategiesthrough real-world research case studies conducted in collaboration with industrypartners. Two research test beds, which integrate many of the PhD student’s researchtheses, are developed in the context of a) isolated systems: ‘Green Islands’ and b)urban systems: ‘Sustainable Urban Energy Systems.’ The Green Islands Projectfocuses on developing advanced energy systems models to maximize the integrationof renewable energies in a sustainable energy future for the Azores archipelago, andthe Sustainable Urban Energy Systems topic analyzes the many dimensions ofefficiently managing the Lisbon and Porto urban systems, from the urban metabolismto sustainable mobility. The ultimate goal of the SES programs is to train a newgeneration of professionals to play leadership roles in implementing sustainable

4

energy policies, and in developing new business opportunities in the area of cleanenergy. These projects involve companies like Electricidade de Portugal (EDP),Electricidade dos Açores (EDA), EFACEC, GALP Energia and Novabase.

The Transportation Systems area offers two degrees: PhD and MSc. The overall aimof these educational programs is the development of a cadre of transportationresearchers and professionals who are trained at the system level in the design andmanagement of a technology-intensive, intermodal transportation system.

The doctoral program in Transportation Systems (DPTS) covers all transport systemstopics, from transport policy and planning to infrastructure design and maintenance,at various spatial levels (from international to local), and for the various modes (air,rail, road, etc.). Up to now, the main focus areas have been: a) air transport systems;b) high speed rail systems; c) land-use/transport systems; d) innovative urbantransport modes/services; e) intelligent transport systems; and f) traveler informationsystems.

The Master’s in Complex Transport Infrastructure Systems (CTIS) builds on three keydomains: engineering and project management, financing and contracts, and policyand institutions. This formula grants its graduates an advantageous position whenseeking jobs in complex settings. A unique feature of the CTIS Master’s program hasbeen the industrial affiliation with com-panies that every year sponsor fivescholarships, which fully cover student’s tuition fees. The major internationalcompanies sponsoring scholarships for this program are BRISA, Mota-Engil,Siemens, Odebrecht and RAVE/REFER.

Student surveys and faculty interviews indicate that MIT Portugal is successful inattracting an excellent student cohort. MIT Portugal students are reported to show agreater degree of independence in their work, more precise goals, and often astronger commitment to achieve these goals. They also have a more significantbackground in industry, and are more prone to work in industry and becomeentrepreneurs after graduating. Faculty feels that their own teaching style hasbecome significantly more geared towards innovation and management as a resultof participating in MIT Portugal. The faculty recruits are benefiting greatly fromparticipating in this network, receiving a noticeable “boost” in their career, increasingtheir career opportunities, experiencing a rapid expansion of their professionalnetworks, and enjoying important new input into their research work.

Students describe their visit to MIT as extremely positive and highly influential, withstrong gains in new methodological approaches or areas of interest, all of whichimproves their research. Portuguese junior faculty state that visits to MIT are provinghighly influential for their teaching practice.

The conclusion from the whole student evaluation exercise (including alumni) is oneof high levels of satisfaction with the quality of the network overall, with the level ofsupervision, with the range of skills on offer, and with the general administration andstructuring of the research and learning processes.

Bioengineering SystemsConsortium

Awarding Degree

New University of Lisbon: Faculty of Science and Technology - FCTUNLTechnical University of Lisbon: Instituto Superior Técnico - ISTUniversity of Minho: School of Engineering - EEUM

PartnerUniversity of Coimbra - UCUniversity of Algarve - UAlgInstituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica - ITQBNova School of Businees & Economics - FEUNL

Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing

ConsortiumAwarding Degree

Technical University of Lisbon: Instituto Superior Técnico - ISTUniversity of Minho: School of Engineering - EEUMUniversity of Porto: Faculty of Engeneering - FEUP

Sustainable Energy SystemsConsortium

Awarding Degree

Technical University of Lisbon: Instituto Superior Técnico - IST Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão - ISEGUniversity of Lisbon: Faculty of Sciences - FCULUniversity of Coimbra: Faculty of Sciences and Technology - FCTUC Faculty of Economy – FEUCUniversity of Porto: Faculty of Engeneering - FEUP

Transportation SystemsConsortium

Awarding Degree

University of Coimbra: Faculty of Sciences and Technology - FCTUCTechnical University of Lisbon: Instituto Superior Técnico - ISTUniversity of Porto: Faculty of Engeneering - FEUP

FEUP

UM

UC

ISTFCULISEGUNL

UAlg


5

Figure 1: Consortium of universities and its respective schools involved in the network of advanced studies.

FCUL -

FCT -FCT -

FEUNL -

FEUP -

ISEG -ISEG -

ITQB -

/UNLQUÍMICA E BIOLÓGICADE TECNOLOGIA

OINSTITUT

IST -

UAlg -

UC -

UAlg -

UM -

6

Table of Contents

Executive summary ................................................................................................................. 2

1. Introduction: A network of advanced studies throughout Portuguese Universities and MIT 9

2. Educational programs in numbers ..................................................................................... 11

2.1. Doctoral programs .......................................................................................................... 11

2.1.1. Applications ................................................................................................................. 11

2.1.2. Students ...................................................................................................................... 12

2.1.3. Scholarships ............................................................................................................... 14

2.1.4. Selectivity ................................................................................................................... 15

2.2. Master’s programs ........................................................................................................ 15

2.2.1. Applications ................................................................................................................ 15

2.2.2. Students ...................................................................................................................... 17

2.2.3. Selectivity .................................................................................................................... 19

2.3. MIT Research assistants (RAs) ...................................................................................... 19

3. Doctoral programs ............................................................................................................. 20

3.1. Bioengineering Systems ................................................................................................. 20

3.1.1. Overview ..................................................................................................................... 20

3.1.2. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 23

3.1.3. New courses and faculty involved ............................................................................... 24

3.1.4. Use of open-source community-based tools for learning ........................................... 24

3.1.5. Benchmarking ............................................................................................................. 25

3.1.6. Student highlights ........................................................................................................ 26

3.1.7. Educational initiatives .................................................................................................. 27

3.1.8. PhD theses.................................................................................................................. 28

3.2. Leaders for Technical Industries ................................................................................... 71

3.2.1. Overview ..................................................................................................................... 71

3.2.2. Structure ..................................................................................................................... 74



3.2.5. Use of open-source community-based tools for learning ........................................... 76

3.2.6. Benchmarking ............................................................................................................. 76

3.2.7. Educational initiatives ................................................................................................... 80


7

3.2.8. PhD theses ................................................................................................................... 81

3.3. Sustainable Energy Systems .......................................................................................... 113

3.3.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 113

3.3.2. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 116



3.3.5. Use of open-source community-based tools for learning .......................................... 121

3.3.6. Benchmarking .............................................................................................................. 122


3.3.8. PhD theses................................................................................................................... 129

3.4. Transportation Systems .................................................................................................. 178

3.4.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 178

3.4.2. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 179



3.4.5. Benchmarking .............................................................................................................. 181

3.4.6. PhD theses .................................................................................................................. 188

4. Master’s of Science (MSc) and Master’s of Business Engineering (MBE) Programs ....... 208

4.1. Complex Infrastructure Transportation Systems MSc .................................................... 208

4.1.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 208

4.1.2. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 209



4.1.5. Sponsors ..................................................................................................................... 210

4.1.6. Benchmarking .............................................................................................................. 210


4.1.8. Alumni profile ............................................................................................................... 217

4.2. Sustainable Energy Systems .......................................................................................... 220

4.2.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 220

4.2.2. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 221


8

4.2.4. Alumni profiles ............................................................................................................. 225

4.3. Technology Management Enterprise .............................................................................. 229

4.3.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 229

4.3.2. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 231

4.3.3. Student’s highlights ..................................................................................................... 232

4.3.4. Alumni profiles ............................................................................................................. 233

5. Faculty exchange: training the trainers ....................................................................... 235

5.1. Overview ........................................................................................................................ 235

5.2. Lessons learnt by junior faculty ...................................................................................... 241

5.3. Course design and teaching training .............................................................................. 242

5.4. Project based learning .................................................................................................... 349

6. Assessment of educational programs .......................................................................... 251

6.1. Evaluating achievements ................................................................................................ 251

6.1.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 251

6.1.2. Re-designing engineering curricula and building human resources in innovation and entrepreneurship ............................................................................................... 251

6.1.3. Attracting a strong, international cohort ...................................................................... 252

6.1.4. Mobility and networking .............................................................................................. 253

6.1.5. I-teams ......................................................................................................................... 254

6.2. Student’s evaluation of educational programs ............................................................... 256

6.3. Student’s evaluation of the network ............................................................................... 258

6.3.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 258

6.3.2. Alumni survey .............................................................................................................. 258

6.3.3. Doctoral student survey .............................................................................................. 259

6.3.4. Entering student survey ............................................................................................... 259

6.3.5. Exiting student survey ................................................................................................. 260

7. Lessons learnt and perspectives for the future ............................................................ 260

APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................... 263


9

The MIT Portugal Program promotes a unique post-graduate network of intense andwide ranging collaboration between Portuguese Universities, research institutions,companies, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), funded by thePortuguese Science Foundation (FCT).

The focus areas of this network are: Bioengineering Systems, Sustainable Energyand Transportation Systems, and Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing.

This post-graduate network was developed by bringing students from all over theworld to study and conduct research in Portuguese universities. This partnership hassucceeded in enhancing the international dimension of Portugal’s higher educationsystem in these domains. The seven Doctoral, Master’s of Business Engineering andMaster’s of Science programs host currently 350 PhD and 64 master’s students, fromover 28 countries. And we have already graduated 119 students from the Master’sdegrees and 3 from the PhD degrees.

The efforts to create this educational platform are dedicated to achieving a majorgoal: to create a new generation of leaders with unique knowledge and a globalperspective, who can assume key positions in industry and research in order to makea critical contribution to Portugal’s future economic growth and reach into internationalmarkets. The educational network reflects these drives, and aims to be an openinternational platform which generates a network of multidisciplinary and internationalknowledge that focuses on people, creating value through the development anddemonstration of new ideas in Portugal, and promoting scalable living laboratoriesto develop and test emerging technologies and systems, which our partners,including Portuguese companies, may continuously develop, explore and exportworldwide.

The network has brought together a dynamic consortium of universities acrossPortugal, with the best of MIT educational and research expertise, to create highquality teaching and research. A total of 6 Portuguese universities, 28 Portugueseresearch centers and national laboratories, together with 25 MIT departments, andall 5 Schools within MIT are involved in this partnership. Altogether 71 new courseshave been developed for teaching in the various educational programs, many ofwhich introduce curricular elements novel to Portuguese and to internationalengineering education. In total, 270 faculty in Portugal and 70 faculty in MIT areinvolved in this network, which has attracted 536 postgraduate students from 28countries during its 5 years of existence.

The educational programs provide world class learning opportunities, which addresssome of today’s most pressing scientific, environmental, and socioeconomicchallenges. This new approach to post-graduate training goes well beyondconventional natural science or engineering domains. Innovative educationalapproaches in research and learning enable young participants in this network toexplore and understand the economic, social and technical issues that are intrinsic toany management roles they will undertake should they enter industry, and widen thescope of their research and education should they choose academia as their profession.

1. Introduction: A network of advanced studies throughout Portuguese Universities and MIT

10

The global marketplace in which these new leaders will operate is characterized bygrowing differences between countries and regions, with an increasing importanceof markets in newly industrializing economies, and new powers of knowledge inspecific areas. The increasing speed with which goods circulate and market forcesevolve has allowed rapid rises in prosperity, but also exposes the global economy tonew forms of vulnerability, shocks and crises. For nations to prosper in such adynamic environment, they should both continually adjust, and also committhemselves to local values and skills—that is, to People, Knowledge, Ideas andInstitutions—by connecting themselves to the network of nations and peoples that isshaping the future. This constitutes the major motivation for any internationalpartnership and is the main drive of the MIT Portugal educational network.


11

2. Educational programs in numbers

2.1. Doctoral programs

2.1.1. Applications

In its five editions the doctoral programs have attracted a total of 1583 applicants.As shown in Figure 2, this number has been progressively increasing and it reachedits peak in the 2010 edition. The number of international applicants has dramaticallyincreased since the first edition in 2007 (Fig. 3). This year (2011) 64% of theapplications came from candidates from 52 different countries other than Portugal(Fig.4).

International applications to doctoral programs

20072008200920102011

0

20

40

60

80

100

OverallTR SYSSESLTI BIO

Inte

rna

tio

na

l ap

plic

ati

on

s (%

)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400


Applications to doctoral programs

20072008200920102011

N.a

pp

lica

tio

ns

Figure 2: Number of applications to doctoralprograms over the past 5 years.

Figure 3: Proportion of international applications todoctoral programs over the past 5 years.

12

Doctoral students

200720082009201020110

20

40

60

80

100


N. s

tud

ents

Total numberof students = 350

.

2.1.2. Students

Currently the network has a total of 350 doctoral students of which 25% areinternational (Fig. 5 and 6). The international number of admitted students has beenincreasing progressively over the years and this year (2011/12) 30% of the admittedstudents are from outside Portugal. Students come from 28 different countries and 4continents (Fig. 7). The Transportation Systems PhD is the program with a higherproportion of international students (43% overall, 75% in 2011/12).

Portugal

Middle East

Europe

Asia

Africa

BIO

SES

Portugal

West Indies

North America

Middle East

Latin America

Europe

Asia

Africa

LTIPortugal

Middle East

Latin America

Europe

Asia

Africa

TR SYS

Portugal

West Indies

North America

Middle East

Latin America

Europe

Asia

Africa

Figure 4: Geographical origin of PhD candidatesin 2011 for each PhD program.

Figure 5: Number of current doctoral students peryear of admittance and program.


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This multicultural and vibrant working environment enhances professionalnetworking and collaboration, while also enriching the personal development of thePhD students.

.

International doctoral students

20072008200920102011

Inte

rna

tio

na

l stu

den

ts (

%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80


Portugal

West Indies

North America

Middle East

Latin America

Europe

Asia

Africa

Figure 6: Proportion of international doctoral

students.

Figure 7: Geographical origin of doctoral

students.

14

Individual FCT scholarships

N. F

CT

sch

ola

rsh

ips

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

TR SYS

SES

LTI

BIO 0

5

10

15

20

FCT scholarships through MIT PortugalN

. of

FC

T s

cho

lars

hip

s

2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

10

20

30

40

50

60

TR SYS

SES

LTI

BIO

18

10

14

6

131212

79 9 9 9 9 9 9888

1411

58

54

50

42

2.1.3. Scholarships

The total number of scholarships awarded directly by FCT to the top candidates ofthe doctoral programs was 204. Figure 8 shows the figures for each academic yearand per doctoral program. Other admitted students have applied, individually, to thenational FCT PhD scholarship call and a total of 34 of them have obtained fundingfor attending the MIT Portugal PhD programs during the past 5 years (Fig. 9).

Figure 8: Number of FCT scholarships awarded

through the MIT Portugal network over the past 5

years for each program.

Figure 9: Number of individual FCT scholarships

awarded for each program. These scholarships

were obtained through the FCT national PHD

scholarship’s call.


15

2.1.4. Selectivity

Students are selected through a rigorous admissions process. On average, only 32%of those who apply are admitted (Fig. 10). Many of the students come from worldleading academic institutions such as MIT, University of California Berkeley, ImperialCollege London, University of Michigan and ETH Zurich, and some also bring priorexperience in international organizations, e.g. Volvo Sweden, Pricewaterhouse - Coopers, the Office of the Prime Minister of France, and the World ResourcesInstitute.

2.2. Master’s programs

2.2.1. Applications

In its five editions the Master’s programs have attracted a total of 471 applicants, witha progressively higher number of applicants over the years (Fig. 11). The proportionof international applications for the CTIS Master’s has been significantly higher thanfor all the other Master’s programs, on average: CTIS - 74%; SES - 28%; TME - 44%(see Fig. 12) Applicants are from all continents, from 36 different countries other thanPortugal (Fig. 13).

Selectivity of doctoral programs

Acc

epte

d a

pp

lica

tio

ns

(%)

Overall

TR SYS

SES

LTI

BIO

2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Figure 10: Proportion of candidates admitted to

each doctoral program over the past 5 years.

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International applications master's programs

20072008200920102011

Inte

rna

tio

na

l ap

plic

ati

on

s (%

)

0

10

20

30

40

50

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OverallTMESESCTIS

0102030405060708090100

Applications master's programs

20072008200920102011

N. a

pp

lica

tio

ns

0

30

60

90

120

150

OverallTMESESCTIS

Figure 11: Number of applications to Master’s

programs over the past years.

Figure 12: Proportion of international applications

to Master’s programs over the past 5 years.


17

Master's students

20072008200920102011

N. M

ast

er's

stu

den

ts

0

10

20

30

40

50

OverallTMESESCTIS

2.2.2. StudentsThere are currently 64 Master’s students. In the last three years the SustainableEnergy Systems program has been admitting a significantly higher number ofstudents than its peer programs in this network (Fig. 14).

US

South America

Portugal

Middle East

Europe

Central America

Asia

Africa

CTIS

SES

South America

Portugal

Middle East

Europe

US

Australia

Asia

Africa

TME

South America

Portugal

Middle East

Europe

Asia

Africa

Figure 13: Geographical origin of the Master’s

applicants (2011).

Figure 14: Number of students participating in the

Master’s programs over the past 5 years.

18

The overall proportion of international students is 32% (Fig. 15). Since its first editionthe CTIS Master’s has got 50% or more of international students. At present 67% ofthe CTIS Master’s students are international. The equivalent figure for the SES andTME Master’s is 5% and 6%, respectively. The students come from 5 continents, from14 different countries (Fig. 16).

The 2011 admitted students come from Portuguese companies such as GalpEnergia, EDP, Ericsson, Colep and Petrotec.

International master's students

20072008200920102011

Inte

rna

tio

na

l stu

den

ts (

%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

OverallTMESESCTIS

West Indies

Portugal

North America

Middle East

Latin America

Europe

Asia

Africa

Figure 15: Proportion of international students

admitted in each Master’s program over the past

5 years.

Figure 16: Geographical origin of theMaster’s current students.


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2.2.3. SelectivityAround 55% of the candidates get admitted to the Master’s programs. The overall degreeof selectivity has progressively increased since the first year’s edition (Fig. 17).

.

2.3. MIT Research assistants (RAs)There have been 300 research assistants (RAs) working on the MIT Portugal researchprojects at MIT over the past 5 years, an average of 60 RAs per year (Fig. 18).

.

Selectivity of master's programs

Acc

epte

d c

an

did

ate

s (%

)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Overall

TME

SES

CTIS

Class year

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

MIT RAs

N. o

f R

As

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Eng Systems

Transportation

Energy

EDAM

BioEng

Year5Year4Year3Year2Year1

Figure 17: Proportion of candidates admitted to

the master’s programs over the past 5 years.

Figure 18: Number of research assistants (RAs) at

MIT over the past 5 years for each of the research

areas.

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3. Doctoral programs

3.1. Bioengineering Systems

3.1.1. Overview

The Bioengineering Systems Doctoral program was designed as an innovative jointProgram between MIT and three Portuguese Universities: Nova, the New Universityof Lisbon; the University of Minho; and the Technical University of Lisbon/IST. TheUniversity of Coimbra has later joined the Program. This program provides teachingand training at the intersection between engineering, life sciences, and innovation. Itaims at educating a new generation of leaders in bioengineering, with a strongemphasis in technical innovation, leadership and systems thinking.

The doctoral program consists of a 1st Year Advanced Studies program, followed bythree years of research. The first year is dedicated to educational courses inInnovation of Technological Systems, Bioprocess Engineering, Computational Bio-systems, Cell and Tissue Engineering, Nanobiotechnology, Neurosciences, DrugDevelopment Principles and Biomedical Devices and Technologies. These courseswere created and are taught jointly by top quality faculty in both Portugal and MITand were purposely designed to be innovative in content and in collaboration. Duringthe second semester, the students are involved in extended innovation andentrepreneurship activities (BioTeams course) and two nine-week laboratory researchrotations, where they initially consider potential bioengineering research areas fortheir PhD project.

As part of the holistic curriculum, the students travel as a group throughout thePortuguese Universities and live locally to attend the various courses. Bringing facultyand students in contact from across the country serves an integrating function,building strong interactions that lead to more productive and interactivecollaborations. Co-teaching provides students with an international view of science,engineering, and research and builds stronger collaborations that are essential forco-supervised thesis projects and collaborative research. The BioTeams projects aretaught by Portuguese faculty who were trained at MIT for two to six months througha “teach-the-teacher” model. Nine Portuguese faculty members have been at MITfor this purpose (while also developing research collaboration projects with MITFaculty).

The remaining three years of each student’s doctoral program are dedicated to thedevelopment of his/her research work plan within a personal PhD project. A majorityof the students choose research projects that are jointly proposed by MIT andPortuguese faculty, and they are hosted by MIT for twelve to eighteen months asvisiting students performing their collaborative PhD thesis research. While studentsof the class enrolled in September 2010 are still choosing their research topic, andthose of the third class (2009) are now getting their research programs going, twentytwo students of the first two classes of the program (started in 2007 and 2008) havealready spent or are currently spending extended time at MIT, and the PhD researchareas that were covered together with examples of on-going projects are mentionedbelow:


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A. Stem Cell Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine: 8 students

Regenerative Medicine aims at improving the length and quality of life by restoring,maintaining, or enhancing tissue and organ function. It merges stem cell research,biomaterials development, and tissue engineering. Some projects in this area aim todemonstrate the feasibility of using human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) as asource of skeletal muscle cells. The ex vivo expansion of these cells, followed bydifferentiation into skeletal muscle cells and their implantation in vivo, represents apromising strategy in clinical settings such as urinary incontinence treatment. Otherprojects are concerned with the process of cell development, which is tightlyregulated and integrates physical and chemical cues from the pluripotent cell to thedeveloped organism. Knowledge of these cues will allow designing RegenerativeMedicine approaches to disease. On the tissue engineering/biomaterialsdevelopment field, the main projects are focused in strategies for controlling the stemcell response to biodegradable polymers through the design of innovativemicro/nano-engineered structures and surfaces. Other projects are concerned withthe development of modular biosensing platforms (with biocompatible microbeads)to both modulate cell mechanical microenvironment and monitor extracellularproteases.

B. Bioprocess and Biomolecular Engineering: 3 students

This research area includes the development and optimization of bioreactors for theproduction of recombinant proteins by mammalian and/or stem cells, on the upstreamand downstream processes associated with large scale production of plasmidvectors using high-density cell cultures, and on the production of biofuels byfermentation processes. More specifically, the goal of one project is to rationallyengineer and test an Escherichia coli strain adapted to thrive in high density cellcultures and synthesize the large amounts of supercoiled pDNA required to push thedevelopment of pDNA biopharmaceuticals. Another project is focused on theestablishment and validation of perfusion bioreactors for cell culture, namely long-term primary culture of alginate encapsulated functional hepatocyte aggregates.

C. Biosystems Innovation, Management and Policy: 3 students

One project in this area addresses the problem of reconciling the needs of productdevelopment in tissue engineering with the practices of innovation in healthcare. It isdevoted to understanding why tissue engineering research and the breadth ofsolutions explored so far have had limited success in capturing value. It analyzesinnovation practices in tissue engineering in order to guide cell-based therapycompanies. Another project studies healthcare systems in a hospital environment. Itaddresses the current opportunities and challenges that computational tools (suchas soft computing predictive models) may have in healthcare delivery at IntensiveCare Units (ICU), to ultimately predict the outcome of patients under a criticalcondition, such as septic shock. It is using data from a large Portuguese medicalcenter (Hospital da Luz) in order to validate the analyses and research that are beingconducted at the moment.

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D. Computational Bioengineering, Genomics, Systems and Synthetic Biology: 2students

Systems and Synthetic biology are expected to bring major benefits to industrialbiotechnology especially in the development of efficient cell factories. A set ofmathematical and computational techniques are developed and applied to theproblem of designing efficient and informative experiments. In this research area,one current project aims at the optimization of industrial biotechnology processes byidentification of kinetic models representing metabolic reactions. It develops aframework for structural reduction and kinetic inference for metabolic networks, whichis a promising approach for the construction of dynamic models at the genome scale.Another project is related to the possibility of understanding and controlling stem cellbehavior, specifically the problem of generating stem cells from adult somatic cells.The mechanism and role of stochastic effects in that process is studied by buildinga model of reprogramming at the molecular level.

E. Biomedical Devices and Technologies: Hybrid Human - Machine Systems: 4 students

Hybrid Human–Machine studies are motivated by a desire to better quantify and modelhuman and human–machine performance. Biomedical devices, such as poweredankle-foot prostheses, musculoskeletal loading suits and exoskeletons, and wearablebrain sensors, hold promise for medical applications. Two main fields can be defined:one is related to the powered ankle–foot prostheses to help locomotion in patients withneuromuscular disabilities. In this research field, one of the PhD projects aims at thecreation of an active ankle–foot orthosis for which the problem of portability is no longeran issue. Another project is primarily to design and validate a medical device tosupport locomotion in individuals with neuromuscular disabilities, through the use ofFunctional Electrical Stimulation (FES), multi-body dynamics methodologies andcontrol strategies.

The other main field is concerned with wearable devices that are used to record severalphysiological signals, providing unobtrusive and continuous monitoring. The mainchallenge in these systems is to develop new recording sensors specially envisioningbioelectric activity detection. One of the PhD Projects proposes to develop an electro–optical fiber-based sensor for bioelectric acquisition specially envisioned for wearabledevices. Another one is dedicated to the detection of dysplasia, since it is essentialfor managing certain types of cancer. Development of a miniaturized spectroscopysystem that can be integrated within an endoscopic capsule is underway.

F. Neurosciences (Molecular to Systems Neurobiology and Brain Diseases): 2 students

This research area is related to research mainly in brain diseases, with a close relationto neurobiology and structural biochemistry. One of the projects intends to study thecentral hypothesis that the molecule cyclin-dependent kinase 5 is a major effector ofthe NMDA amino acid receptor. Identification of substrates and interactions shouldhelp understand the signaling network, whereby neuronal connectivity and braincircuits are regulated. Another project focus on the metabotrobic glutamate receptor-dependent long-term depression process at excitatory synapses, which is rapidlybecoming recognized as an important form of neuroplasticity in hippocampus,cerebellum, and visual cortex (neural diseases). The studies are performed on aFlailer mouse as a model.


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Coordinators of the Bioengineering Systems doctoral program

Bruce Tidor, Department of Electrical Engineering-Computer Science, MIT (PhD director)Dava Newman, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MITJoaquim Cabral, IST, Technical University of LisbonManuel Mota, School of Engineering, University of MinhoManuel Nunes da Ponte, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New University ofLisbon (PhD director)

3.1.2. Structure

The structure of the doctoral program in Bioengineering Systems is shown in the tablebelow:

Structure of the doctoral program in Bioengineering Systems

Courses ECTS Mandatory/Optional Semester

Innovation in Technological Systems 6 Mandatory 1st

Bioprocess Engineering 6 Mandatory 1st

Cell & Tissue Engineering 6 Mandatory 1st

Computational Biosystems Science & Engineering 6 Mandatory 1st

Leadership 1 Mandatory 1st

Biomedical Devices and Technologies 6 Optional 1st

Nanobiotechnology and Biomaterials 6 Optional 1st

Neuroscience: Molecular to Systems Neurobiology

and Brain Diseases 6 Optional 1st

Principles and Practice of Drug Development 6 Optional 1st

Laboratory rotation I 9 Mandatory 2nd

Laboratory rotation II 9 Mandatory 2nd

Bio-innovation teams with seminar 6 Mandatory 2nd

Each student in the first year follows six curricular courses (two weeks each,intensive). Four of these courses are mandatory, while the two remaining requirementsare electives from a selection of four courses, which may change from year to year.In addition to the curricular courses the students follow two short-term crosscuttingcourses (Leadership and Systems thinking), two laboratory placements (nine weekseach) and the Bio-innovation team’s seminar.

To complete the first year successfully, the PhD student must obtain for each coursea grade higher than 10 (in the 0-20 scale) and a yearly GPA average higher than 14(out of 20).

At the end of the first semester students may choose from a number of definedresearch projects, their particular PhD project. The selection process is conductedby the Coordination of Bioengineering in collaboration with the supervisors and thePIs involved from Portugal and MIT. If a student is not willing to choose from any of

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the projects offered, the student must first contact a PT Faculty Professor/Researcherof the research area of his/her interest, to elaborate a PhD Project to be approved bythe Coordination team by the end of the semester.

By September/October (early part of the 2nd Year of the doctoral studies) the studentmust submit a thesis research plan defined in close collaboration with his/her thesissupervisor. The research plan should provide a brief summary of the context andobjectives of the thesis, as well as of the state of the art, hypothesis, researchmethodology, strategy for the completion of the research and provisional timeschedule/tasks calendar. This plan will be considered as part of the formalacceptance process of the student’s continuation in the program.

Each qualified PhD student will be assigned a PhD Committee. This committee isresponsible for monitoring and guiding the student’s progress through his/herresearch activities. Students should meet with the PhD Committee at least once persemester. Students planning to undertake research at MIT will be required to havean MIT Faculty member on their PhD committee.

During their research work students will be involved in the Doctoral Seminar seriespresenting their on-going research work.

At the completion of year 2, PhD candidates shall produce a Thesis Progress Reportthat will be presented both to the Bioengineering Coordination and to the ThesisCommittee. If the PhD Committee determines that the student is not making enoughprogress on his/her research, this will be discussed with the student, and next stepswill be determined for further re-evaluation of the thesis working plan.

3.1.3. New courses and faculty involved

For the Bioengineering doctoral program ten new courses have been speciallydesigned. These courses are taught by fifty-three faculty members from sevendifferent Portuguese schools and associate laboratories and by fifteen facultymembers from MIT. MIT faculty ensures eighteen percent of the teaching (academicyear 2010/11).

3.1.4. Use of open-source community-based tools for learning

The students are given access to a website (usually the intranet of one of the homeinstitutions) where most of the class materials are available (syllabus, schedule,PowerPoint presentations, bibliography, home assignments, etc.). The class materialsare usually available to students three to five days before each course begins. Insome courses, where there are guest speakers, the coordinators/responsible facultysupply the class materials by email. Students use Skype and email to communicatewith each other and with faculty.


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3.1.5. Benchmarking

This section presents program information from selected Bioengineering PhD programsin the US and abroad. Bioengineering and related doctoral degree programs can befound under a number of headings, with related but varied goals: Bioengineering;Biological systems engineering; Biological chemical engineering; Biomedicalengineering; Biomedical and health systems engineering; Biotechnology; and SyntheticBiology. A wide range of programs was scanned for relevant elements. Bioengineeringand Biomedical Engineering programs, often listed in the same reviews, were found tobe most similar to the Bioengineering Systems program. However, Biomedical programsdiffered significantly from Bioengineering Systems in their emphasis on basic medicalresearch. Only one other program, a Master’s Degree offered at the University ofMelbourne, was found under the designation Bioengineering Systems.

The top twenty rankings of two lists (US News and World Report and PhDs.org), werereviewed for this document. In the review were included also top rank Universities outsideUS, e.g., University of Toronto, Imperial College, ETH, EPFL, TUDelft, among others. Mostbioengineering programs have a wide range of choice in elective courses, generallyincluded in Master’s Programs curricula, and a narrower focus in specialization. Amongstthe programs analyzed, only 3: Georgia Tech; Dresden/Max Planck; and MIT PortgualProgram, request students to meet specific core course requirements.

Several of the programs are typically longer than the Bioengineering Systems PhD, fiveto seven years, however most of them mention the Master’s Program as included in theGraduation Program. Some are four to five years, engaging various strategies towardsthis economy of time: a Predoc course; preliminary lab rotations; successful completionof a Research Aptitude Exam; and a requirement for prior completion of a Master’sdegree in bioengineering.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of bioengineering, programs generally involve severaldepartments or schools, or are administered between two universities (SanFrancisco/Berkeley, Harvard/MIT, Rice/Texas Medical Center, etc.).

Concerning extended networking between several Universities, two other programs (atMaster’s level) were detected. The first one involves a network between the Universitiesof Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. As stated in programwebpage “The program also benefits from the clinical input provided by three teachinghospitals (Leiden, Rotterdam, Amsterdam).” In the same line goes the statement ofanother network, the Erasmus Mundus Common European Masters Course inBiomedical Engineering, gathering Aachen, Dublin, Ghent, Brussels, Groningen andPrague. The program webpage states: “For a single university it is difficult to haveenough knowledge of all specializations in Biomedical Engineering to teach theirstudents on an adequate level.” Nevertheless, in none of the previous examples there iscollaboration with a University overseas. One distinctive feature of the MIT PortugalBioengineering Systems program stems from offering resources of collaboration amongstseveral Portuguese universities, exactly to meet the need for a wide variety of expertise,together with an international collaboration with MIT, including the opportunity to doresearch at MIT.

Regarding innovation and leadership, apart from the University of WashingtonDepartment of Bioengineering program, which states: “We invent, patent, license andcommercialize at a high rate,” apparently there is no other program concerned withinnovation, or at least, it is not mentioned, save for the MIT Portugal program.

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Very few universities in the United States, Europe, or Asia offer graduate degreeprograms that provide at the same time expertise in bioengineering as well as systemsunderstanding and experiences. No peer programs in bioengineering systems werefound with courses and structure comparable to this one. None has the same implicitcurriculum focus on innovation and leadership, a global view of the field, and industryinterface (though opportunities for these areas of development are available). Thestructure of the Bioengineering Systems PhD, combining the first year courses,BioTeams, and second semester laboratory placements, is a rather distinctive feature.

The MIT Portugal network was initiated in the context of several state-level and Europe-wide initiatives to link reform of university education to modernization of Europe’seconomies. Several of the features of this network are highlighted in these initiatives: theimprovement of quality in university teaching; the development of a strong knowledgeand innovation sector; the strengthening of interdisciplinary university-based research;the promotion of national and international collaboration; fostering research, industry andgovernment interfaces.

In this context of reform, the vision, scope, and successes of the post-graduate educationnetwork are striking. The results are already evident in the development of aresearch/industry/government interface. In order to build an evidence-based approachto linking university reform with economic modernization, development of benchmarksfor state-level, as well as program-level, initiatives, is worthy of consideration.Understanding this context of reform also helps to distinguish the goals and uniquefeatures of the Bioengineering Systems doctoral program from other Bioengineeringpost-graduate degree programs.

3.1.6. Student highlights

Daniela Couto, David Malta and Pedro Andrade, PhD students of the class of2007/2011, have recently launched the start-up Cell2B. In their web site, the newcompany is described as:

“Cell2B aims to establish itself has a biotechnology company dedicated to thedevelopment of a new line of healthcare therapies to prevent and treat organ rejectionin patients undergoing organ or tissue transplants. Our therapy has the potential toimpact the lives of more than 175,000 patients per year in Europe and the USA.”

Daniela Couto was awarded this year “National Women Entrepreneur Start” by thePortuguese Association of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE).

Pedro Evangelista and Paulo Maia da Silva, PhD students of the class of 2009/2013,are team members of SilicoLife, a start-up “devoted to accelerate strain andbioprocess optimization in Industrial Biotechnology by the use of proprietarycomputational and modelling tools.”

Daniela and David had extended stays at MIT during the last three years, while Pedroand Paulo have so far performed their research work mostly in Portugal. Althoughtheir PhD projects are very different, they all acquired their entrepreneurship drive,skills and gusto during their innovation-oriented hands-on approach BioTeam coursein their first year of the Bioengineering program.


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Eunice Costa enrolled in the bioengineering program in 2007. Her PhD project aimsat the development of a modular biosensing platform to both modulate cellmechanical microenvironment and monitor extracellular proteases. Eunice hastraveled frequently between Lisbon and Boston, dividing her work almost equallybetween labs at MIT and New University of Lisbon. She was recently interviewed forthe Chronicle of Higher Education. She stated that she was attracted by a programthat "helps you make contacts overseas while letting you keep a foot in your owncountry."

Cristiana Paulo, PHD student of the class of 2007/2011, developed a non-leachingantimicrobial platform for biomedical devices. Her platform has got an internationalpatent, which was licensed by Matera, a spin-off company of Biocant (Biotechnologypark located in Cantanhede, Portugal). She is motivated to “contributing for the nextgeneration of functional biomaterials that might have impact in human lives.” Herwork was recently awarded at the international conference in Nanotechnology -TNT2010.

3.1.7. Educational initiatives

Curriculum development

All the courses were designed in close cooperation between Portuguese and MITFaculty. And the courses are co-taught: most of the MIT Faculty professors were inPortugal to teach courses , while a few taught through videoconference.

Training faculty

Fifteen Portuguese faculty members stayed for long visiting periods at MIT (two tosix months) where they established research cooperation agreements; and nine ofthose, while at MIT, attended the i-Teams course in order to be able todevelop/implement the BioTeams course and also to engage/interact with the MITteaching delivery mode.

Special seminars

Each teaching course has a significant number of special seminars (on averagearound five seminars) offered by external faculty from other institutions, or byexperts/specialists from industrial affiliates or from other sources, giving our studentsa broad view of state-of-the-art in the research field, as well as a different view fromthe industrial and entrepreneurship perspective, that complements the regulareducational curriculum.

Workshops

Every year, the Leadership Development course is taught in order to develop/createthe leadership skills that this Doctoral Program would like to implement within thestudents. So far, four Leadership Development annual offerings have taken place inGerês (north of Portugal) with successful feedback from students. Four Business-Government-Academia workshops were organized as annual events that manystudents attended. The themes covered were: “Emerging Issues and Opportunitiesin Biopharmaceuticals” (INFARMED, Lisbon; June 11-12, 2007); “Biomedical Devices

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for 2020” (Braga, May 30-31, 2008); “Challenges in Cell and Gene Therapies”(Coimbra, June 1- 2, 2009); “Personalized Medicine” (Coimbra, June 18, 2010).

Students’ general data

Currently there are seventy-five doctoral students enrolled in Bioengineering Systems,of which fifty of them are already involved in the research work regarding theirindividual PhD Project. Two students have just finished their PhD and twenty otherare expected to finalize their doctoral studies in 2011, and some will present theirthesis in the final quarter of the current year. Of these students, thirteen have hadextended research experience at MIT (ranging from six to eighteen months). TheirPhD Projects include a strong and valuable cooperation between the Portuguesecollaborating institutions and MIT. Since the start of the Program and until February,we have had twenty-two visiting students at MIT in total, conducting a very importantpart of their research work plan jointly with Portuguese and MIT faculty supervisionand advising.

3.1.8. PhD theses

This section shows the profiles of several students.The home institution of each student is indicated on the first line as:IST – Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of LisbonFCTUNL – Faculty of Sciences and Technology – New University of LisbonUMinho – School of Engineering – University of Minho


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Ana Carina da Silva, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th

Estimated date of Completion: 03/2012

Title of the thesis

Acoustic Biosensors for Biomedical and Biotechnology Applications

– The quartz crystal microbalance as a platform for mammalian cell studies

Supervisors

in Portugal: Guilherme N.M. Ferreira (University of Algarve), Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST)

Main Publication

Ferreira, G.N.M., Da-Silva, A.C., Tomé, B., (2009). Acoustic wave biosensors: physical models and

biological applications of quartz crystal microbalance. Trends in Biotechnology 27 (12), 689-697.

Research progress and major scientific contributions

The study of cell adhesion to surfaces has become a scientific field with increasing importance once

cell-surface interactions are key aspects for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.

Cell-substrate interaction appears as a major concern when studying the compatibility of surfaces for

the growth of living cells.

We intend to demonstrate that the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) could be a powerful low-cost

technique for the label free and non-invasive monitoring of cell attachment and spreading in real time,

with high sensitivity and specificity. We are developing methodologies to use QCM devices to study

different aspects of cell biology. Multilayer sensor devices that include a quartz substrate, a cell–

substrate interfacial layer and a cell layer are designed. Correlating QCM’s signals variations with

cellular biological phenomena we intend to make use of the potential of this cell-based biosensor to

study how cells respond to changes in their culture conditions or to the effect of drugs. Specific sets of

parameter variations are correlated with the different cellular status, morphology and phenotype. This

study should culminate with the development of a powerful stem cell-based biosensor to monitor stem

cell differentiation.

So far, we have completely study the ability of the QCM to differentiate the adhesion behavior of

epithelial cells and fibroblasts onto the bare gold QCM surface in the presence and in the absence of

serum proteins. The sensor is able to differentiate not only different cell types but also different stages of

the cell adhesion process. The sensor also detected differences in cell behavior between serum free

and serum supplemented circumstances, showing that the presence of serum proteins influences the

biological performance of cells.

We also tested the adhesion behavior of cells onto different substrates (gelatin, fibronectin,

Poly-D-Lysine (PDL) at several concentrations) and we realized that the PDL is the one who is showing

best results.

In the near future, we are expecting to start testing how the sensor detects the modification of cell

morphology due to the addition of specific drugs. We aim also to initiate the planned stem cells studies.

Ana Lúcia Rosário, FCTUNL, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 19 months

Title of the thesis

The role of TAOK2 in brain development

Supervisors

in Portugal: Margarida Archer (ITQB - UNL)

at MIT: Li-Huei Tsai (PILM - MIT)

Main Publications

de Anda, FC and Rosario, AL et al. TAO2 Kinase is Important for Basal Dendrites Formation in the

Neocortex. Prepared for submission.

de Rosa, M. et al (2010) Crystal structure of a junction between two Z-DNA helices. PNAS 107: 20.


Austim spectrum disorder is a multifactorial heritable development disorder related with disconnectivity.

Recently, a novel recurrent microdeletion of chromosome 16p11.2 has been identified that carries

substantial susceptibility to autism. One of the genes from the affected region encodes for the protein

TAO Kinase 2 (TAO K2). How neurons develop their morphology is an important and challenging

question in neurobiology. Little is known about how neurons establish distinct dendrites architectures,

specifically if different molecular pathways define the different dendrite compartments, i.e., apical

versus basal dendrites in pyramidal neurons, and how those affect connectivity. We have discovered a

novel pathway that exclusively affects the formation of basal dendrites but not apical dendrites of

pyramidal neurons from the cortex. TAO2 Kinase (thousand-and-one-amino acid 2), an autism spectrum

disorder susceptibility protein, plays an essential role in dendrite morphogenesis. TAO2 down-regulation

specifically impairs the basal dendrite formation in vivo. Moreover, TAO2 interacts with Neuropilin 1

(Npn1), a receptor that binds Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) and previously associated with basal dendrite

morphogenesis. TAO2 over-expression rescued the deficit of dendrite formation in cortical cultured

neurons from mice that expresses a Npn1 receptor incapable of binding the secreted Sema3A

(Npn1Sema-). Additionally, TAO2 over-expression rescued the basal dendrite impairment after Npn1

down-regulation in vivo. Finally, we found that Sema3A and TAO2 modulate the formation of basal

dendrites through the activation of the c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase (JNK). At the moment, the main goal is

to determine how TAO2 transduces the activation signaling to the catalytic site through the membrane

by X-Ray Crystallography. We hope these results would enable the broadening of available drug

targets, not only towards Kinase activation or inhibition, but its regulation.

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Ana Rita Domingues, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of the thesis

2ndSKIN – A Programmable Second Skin Soft Exoskeleton

Supervisors

in Portugal: Jorge Martins (IST), Miguel Silva (IST)

at MIT: Dava Newman


The goal of this project is to create a novel biomedical device, a second skin orthotic, with embedded

sensing and actuation as well as a novel human-systems interface design. The proposed second skin

offers a radically different approach to biomedical device design and assistive rehabilitation: the use of

advanced materials and biosensors networked according to principles of distributed control. The soft

exoskeleton, worn over affected body parts of individuals who suffer from neuromotor disease, may

promote a restoration of function, by promoting exploration of self-produced limb movements during

daily activities. Through the soft exoskeleton actuators in the network, we expect to be able to assist the

body in the treatment and physical rehabilitation dropfoot gait resulting from brain injury. With this work,

it is intended to develop a method of helping millions of patients with dropfoot pathology, providing a

permanent assistance solution. In addition, this work can give more information about the mechanics of

normal and pathological human gait which is a second driving factor. Finally we expect that this work

can be a starting point to an extended work where the method developed can be applied to other

pathologies and joints of the body, which would allow anyone with a neuromuscular disorder to move

normally.

To accomplish these goals, the work will focus on four different tasks. First, a strain field analysis of the

skin around the human ankle where the function will be powered will be performed. Second, the orthotic

sensor layout will be defined. Third, the layout of the distributed actuator system will be devised, taking

into account the strain field analysis performed in task 1. The fourth task is to develop the control

system algorithm, which provides suitable actuation to achieve the desired gait.

At this point, a foot model with the lines of maximum and zero stretch was obtained. It used two different

systems: a system of video cameras that were used to acquire the positions of a set of markers placed

on the skin during the different gait phases; and a palpation tool which measured the 3D positions of

markers affixed to applications-specific tools and then the system used this information to determine the

position of these pointers within a specific measurement volume.

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André Fialho, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd

Estimated date of Completion: 2012


Title of the thesis

Systems Redesign to Improve the Survival of Shock Patients in ICUs

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Sousa (IST)

at MIT: Stan Finkelstein

Main Publication

A. S. Fialho, F. Cismondi, S. Vieira, J. Sousa, S. Reti, M. Howell, R. Welch and S. Finkelstein, “Missing

data in large intensive care units databases”. Crit Care Med. 2010; 38: A1-A285


The present work will address Shock, a common clinical issue among patients in an intensive care unit

(ICU) by determining the extent to which variations in the processes of care influence outcome. By

using a variety of advanced data mining/analytic techniques, the two main goals of this work will

include: (1) establishing a robust quantitative basis for systems-based interventions to improve

outcomes in the ICU shock patients; and (2) developing a reproducible framework for applying the data

mining strategies to other healthcare venues.

We started by carefully analyzing and pre-processing the data that was previously collected from Beth

Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which we found to contain a large number of variables sampled in

different frequencies and segments of absent values. Given that these issues can profoundly bias

studies’ results, we proposed a method to (a) align misaligned unevenly sampled data, (b) differentiate

absent values related to low sampling frequencies from those resulting of missingness mechanisms,

and (c) to classify recoverable and non-recoverable segments of missing data by using soft computing

approaches. Simultaneously, we have proposed the application of new knowledge-based methods to a

septic shock patient database. The goal was to estimate, as accurately as possible, the outcome

(survived or deceased) of these septic shock patients. Results showed that the approaches presented

outperformed any previous solutions, specifically in terms of sensitivity. In the near future we plan to use

data from a large Portuguese medical center (Hospital da Luz) to "validate" the analyses we are

conducting in the moment.

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Carlos Rodrigues, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th

Graduated: 21/09/2011

Title of the thesis

Design and operation of bioreactor systems for the expansion and controlled neural differentiation of

stem cells

Supervisors

In Portugal: Joaquim Cabral (IST), Maria M. Diogo (IST), Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST)

Main Publication

Rodrigues CAV, Diogo, MM, da Silva CL, Cabral JMS (2010), Hypoxia enhances proliferation of mouse

embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 106(2):260-270


Large scale expansion of neural stem (NS) cells capable of differentiation into neurons, astrocytes and

oligodendrocytes cells is expected to be a key step for applications such as pharmacological studies,

stem cell biology or regenerative medicine.

The first steps of this thesis consisted in the characterization and optimization of the culture of a mouse

embryonic stem cell-derived NS cell line under static conditions. Particular attention was given to the

influence of oxygen in cell proliferation. Hypoxic conditions (culture under a 2% oxygen atmosphere)

were found to lead to higher growth rates without negatively affecting cell potential.

Static culture in tissue culture flasks shows various limitations, especially in terms of scale up, and thus

effort was made to implement dynamic culture of the NS cell line used before. Initially, a screening of

different commercially available xeno-free microcarriers for cell attachment was performed, in a serum-

free culture medium. The best results were obtained with spherical crosslinked polystyrene beads

coated with an extracellular matrix protein fragment. Importantly, high cellular viability and the

expression of nestin, a marker of neural stem/progenitor cells, was retained when cells were cultured for

up to 9 days on the microcarriers, in the spinner-flask, confirming that these culture conditions, in

particular the shear stress caused by agitation, is not detrimental for the cells.

The subsequent steps were the optimization of culture parameters, such as inoculation strategy, stirring

speed, culture medium feeding (including growth factors supply) and microcarrier concentration. After 6

days, with an optimal stirring speed of 60 rpm and a 20 g/L microcarrier concentration, a 35-fold

increase in cell number was observed, with cell viability above 95%. The validation of this bioprocess for

mES cell-derived NS cell expansion was performed with the demonstration of the differentiation of the

spinner-flask expanded cells into neuronal and glial cells.

The results obtained with mouse NS cells constituted the basis for the design of a similar system for

human NS cells. This process, still under development, may find application in clinical settings, for

instance in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, if cells are cultured under xeno-free conditions

and complying with GMP regulations.

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Carlos Daniel Machado, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Novel modelling formalisms and simulation tools in computational biosystems

Supervisors

in Portugal: Eugénio Ferreira (UMinho), Isabel Rocha (UMinho)

at MIT: Bruce Tidor

Main Publication

R.S. Costa, D. Machado, I. Rocha, and E.C. Ferreira. Critical perspective on the consequences of the

limited availability of kinetic data in Metabolic Dynamic Modeling. IET Systems Biology, 2010 (accepted)

R.S. Costa, D. Machado, I. Rocha, and E.C. Ferreira. Hybrid dynamic modeling of E. coli central

metabolic network combining Michaelis-Menten and approximate kinetic equations. Bio Systems, 2010

(accepted)

R.S. Costa,D. Machado, I. Rocha, and E.C. Ferreira. Evaluating the integration of proteomic data for the

prediction of intracellular fluxes after knockout experiments. Computer Applications in Biotechnology,

2010 (accepted).


My initial research reviewed several modeling formalisms currently used in Systems Biology with the

goal of finding a suitable formalism for integration of different types of biological networks [1]. The

results have shown that Petri nets, being both graph-based and mathematically sound, with several

extensions available, are the formalism that offers more flexibility towards this end. They were later used

in the development of a framework for structural reduction and kinetic inference for metabolic networks

which is a promising approach for the construction of dynamic models at the genome scale [2].

My current work is related with the current gap between dynamic and constraint-based models of

metabolism. While the latter only account for stoichiometry, therefore scaling to the genome scale, the

former account for concentrations and kinetic parameters, which limits their application to small

networks due to limitations in available data. I have explored the influence of kinetic detail from the

dynamic formulation in the solution space of the constraint-based formulation. This understanding will

allow the estimation of the accuracy of constraint-based solutions.

[1] D. Machado, R.S. Costa, M. Rocha, I. Rocha, B. Tidor, and E.C. Ferreira. A critical review on modelling formalisms and simulation tools

in computational biosystems. Distributed Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Bioinformatics, Soft Computing, and Ambient Assisted Living,

pages 1063–1070, 2009. [2] D. Machado, R.S. Costa, M. Rocha, I. Rocha, B. Tidor, and E.C. Ferreira. Model transformation of metabolic

networks using a Petri net based framework. International Workshop on Bioprocesses and Petri Nets, 2010.

34


Cláudia Vistas, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Optical nanosensors based on amorphous silicon photodiodes for biomedical applications

Supervisors

in Portugal: Guilherme Ferreira (University of Algarve), João Pedro Conde (IST)


An integrated biochip with microfabricated hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-i-n photodiode

was developed for the optical detection of biomolecular interactions. a-Si:H films are very attractive in

photodiode manufacturing as they present high quantum efficiency, low dark current and low-

temperature (below 250 ºC) processing technology that allows the use of substrates such as glass and

polymers. An amorphous silicon-carbon (a-SiC:H) filter was integrated in the photodiode chip to

suppress the excitation light while allowing the transmission of the fluorescent light emitted by labeled

biomolecules to the a-Si:H layer. The integrated on-chip detection results in a biochip that allows highly

sensitive, rapid and real-time measurements, also leading to portability and reduced costs, which are

the major factors in encouraging the microarrays uptake in the healthcare sector.

The response of this chip was initially characterized using 600 nm CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs). The

detection limit of the device was as low as 1 fmol for the QD600 in solution. In order to apply this sensor

for biological applications different silane surface chemistries were studied and optimized for

biomolecule immobilization. Common biomolecular interactions such as anti-GST with GST were

successfully detected. We are developing a more specific application of this biosensor which is the

detection of virion infectivity factors (Vif). HIV-1 Vif increases infectivity of virus particles through

inhibition of intracellular antiviral defenses and has been pointed out as a strong candidate target for

HIV-1 treatment. Anti-HIV-1 Vif single chain fragment antibodies (scFv-4BL) were engineered, produced

and immobilized on the surface of the detector biochips. HIV-1 Vif was detected by the fluorescent

signal after being conjugated to QDs, at a surface density of 30 fmol/cm2.

An important breakthrough will involve the integration of such a-Si:H photodetector in a microfluidic

platform, in order to develop an innovative biomedical product to monitor the HIV-1 clearance in

infected patients during antiretroviral therapy.

35

Cristiana Paulo, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Antimicrobial Nanoparticles

Supervisors

in Portugal: Lino Ferreira (CNCUC), Joaquim Cabral (IST)

Main Publication

Cristiana Paulo, Maria Vidal and Lino Ferreira, Antifungal Nanoparticles and Surfaces,

Biomacromolecules, 2010, 11 (10), pp 2810–2817.


This research project is focused on developing innovative nanotechnology-based solutions to prevent

biofilm formation on biomedical devices. Biofilm-forming microorganisms have increased antimicrobial

resistance and are very difficult to eradicate. Frequently, it is necessary to remove the device to

effectively treat the infection, causing great discomfort to the patient and increasing healthcare costs.

Most of the current microbicidal technologies rely on the gradual release of compounds or modification

of surfaces with agents that unspecifically disrupt cell integrity, thus having the disadvantages of

bioactivity loss and death of non-target cells.

During the first two years of the project, we developed highly active antifungal nanoparticles by

covalently functionalizing the surface of silica nanoparticles with a conjugate formed by an antifungal

agent, amphotericin B (AmB), and a polysaccharide, Dextran. AmB is a gold standard antifungal agent

with almost no known resistant strains. When tested in suspension, the nanoparticles were proven

effective in low doses against five of the most frequent Candida species responsible for hospital-

acquired infections. We further showed that they can be reused and the antifungal activity is mediated

mainly by contact and not by leaching of the drug. Importantly, nanoparticles immobilized on a glass

surface maintained their antifungal activity and are substantially non-cytotoxic against human

mononuclear cells. The developed technology compares favorably to other technologies currently

available in the market (e.g. silver nanoparticles) in terms of antifungal efficacy.

36


Daniela Coutinho, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Micro/Nano-processing strategies as tools to clarify the surface mediated biological performance of

degradable biomaterials

Supervisors

in Portugal: Rui Reis (UMinho), Nuno Neves (UMinho), Manuela Gomes (UMinho)

at MIT: Ali Khademhosseini (Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology)

Main Publication

Coutinho DF, Shilpa S, Shin H, Oliveira JT , Gomes ME, Neves NM, Khademhosseini A and Reis RL,

2010, Modified Gellan Gum hydrogels with tunable physical and mechanical properties, Biomaterials,

31:7494- 7502.

Coutinho DF, Costa, P. F., Neves NM, Gomes ME and Reis RL, 2010, Micro and Nano Technology in

Tissue Engineering, In The Tissue Engineering Book: State of the art, Visions and Limitations, eds.

Pallua N, Springer - In Press.

Coutinho DF, Sant S, Shakiba M, Gomes ME, Neves NM, Reis RL, Khademhosseini A, Fabrication of

Hydrogel Fiber Bundles from Assembly of Polyelectrolytes, in preparation.


Biological tissues are composed of functional units, spatially organized and cooperatively orchestrated

to perform tissue functions. The milieu of the tissue microenvironment consists on the assembly of

micro- and nano-sized entities organized in three dimensional (3D) structures. However, this accurately

defined organization is specific to each tissue, resulting in dramatically inhomogeneous

microenvironments throughout the human body. Engineered biological tissues should be customizable,

thus increasing their potential clinical impact. However, most of the existing engineered systems fail to

replicate simultaneously the architecture of the tissues and the physical and chemical cues provided by

the microenvironment. Because of their unique similarity with the extracellular matrix (ECM) highly

hydrated structure, hydrogels are very useful for the local delivery of encapsulated cells, enhancing

tissue function. Hydrogels may be specifically designed to be photosensitive, enabling shaping the

hydrogel according to the specific tissue microarchitecture. The aim of this work was to develop a

hydrogel with enhanced properties and to engineer it with micro-features and biochemical cues,

relevant for tissue engineering applications. Gellan gum, a hydrogel approved by FDA for food industry,

was functionalized with double bonds, making it responsive to ultraviolet light. The physical and

mechanical properties of the developed hydrogel can be easily tuned by varying the parameters of the

cross-linking mechanisms, allowing it to be used in a variety of applications. 3D encapsulation of

fibroblast cells in the polymer networks demonstrated in vitro cytocompatibility confirmed by high cell

viability. The overall performance of the hydrogel can be fine-tuned by combining polymers with

complementary characteristics. As a proof of concept, polycation chitosan was combined with the

anionic methacrylated gellan gum. The resulting polyelectrolyte hydrogel was micro-processed into

bundles of fibers aimed at mimicking the natural architecture of collagen fibers. The biological

functionality of the matrices was further enhanced by covalently incorporating RGD motifs into the

photocrosslinkable polymer backbone. Encapsulated cells exhibited good viability and alignment. The

new functionalized hydrogel was micro-processed into a fiber bundle system that closely models both

the natural architecture and biochemical microenvironment of collagen fibers.

37

Daniela Couto, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Opportunities Arising at the Intersection of Technologies in Healthcare

Supervisors

in Portugal: Manuel Heitor (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST), Pedro Saraiva (University of Coimbra)

at MIT: Charles Cooney (MIT), Luis Perez-Breva (MIT)

Main Publication

Couto D. S., Perez-Breva L., Cooney C.L.. “Reinventing regenerative medicine by learning from past

examples”, Submitted to Nature Drug Reviews


Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine products have showed great potential and strong

financial support, but have had limited success in capturing value since the early 1990s. Despite the

uptake in tissue engineering research and the breadth of solutions explored, few advances have

progressed to clinical stage. We hypothesize that the reason for the limited success of tissue

engineering is rooted in the challenges to reconcile the needs of product development and business

strategy specific to tissue engineering with the practices of innovation in healthcare.

We propose to identify and address these challenges with the study of innovation practices in tissue

engineering, including technological development, regulatory approval process, and mechanisms of

market regulation. The study will build from previous lessons from two distinct areas: regenerative

medicine; and combination products. We approach tissue engineering simultaneously as a combination

product and a cell-based therapy.

Research completed at to this point looked into three main aspects of cell-based therapies and

combination products. Recently, we identified past attempts at capturing value by regenerative

medicine companies that illustrate the co-evolution of business strategy and technology. We developed

a new framework to guide the cell-based therapies companies in co-evolving business strategy with

technological development in a dynamic environment for financing and regulation. Finally, we also

explored the historical evolution and the dynamics of innovation in combination products from the

technological, corporate, and regulatory vantage points.

This thesis aims to bring three key contributions to the scientific literature. First, understand the co-

evolution of business strategy and technology in the strategy of regenerative medicine companies.

Second, assess and discuss the differences in the innovation process for combination products and

single products including drugs, biologics, or medical devices. Third, propose mechanisms to evolve

and accelerate the innovation practices in emergent areas of healthcare, such as tissue engineering.

38


David Malta, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

High-throughput ex vivo Engineered Combinatorial -Niches - From the Pluripotent to the Differentiated

Cell

Supervisorsin Portugal: Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST)

at MIT: Sangeeta N. Bhatia

.


Development is a tightly regulated process that integrates physical and chemical cues from the

pluripotent cell to the developed organism. These cues trigger an orchestrated cascade of molecular

and cellular events culminating in cellular and tissue organization. Understanding these mechanisms is

the basis of Regenerative Medicine. The knowledge of what determines these coordinated events will

allow designing Regenerative Medicine approaches to disease. Several studies have looked at the role

of chemical and physical cues in development and a deep understanding of this orchestration of

factors, which combines inputs from several sources into a single cellular fate, is missing. Several

technological platforms have been developed to study chemical cues (e.g. growth factors and

cytokines), but there is a general lack of knowledge and appropriate tools to study either the physical

cues (extracellular matrix (ECM)) or their combined presentation with chemical cues.

With this objective in mind we developed a combinatorial platform to study the cellular niche, by

controlling both physical and chemical cues in a high-throughput combinatorial manner. We developed

an ECM array comprising all the pair wise combinations of commercially available ECM molecules.

Using micro-printing technology we created an array of 4000 - niches in a single microscopy slide. To

achieve the level of biological complexity, we adapted the previous technology to a 96 well format

enabling the integration of the ECM array with small molecule libraries and thus achieving the

combinatorial environment that cells are exposed to.

Using the technologies described we were able to study development at different discreet points,

mapping the journey from the pluripotent to the differentiated cell states. Starting at the pluripotent cell

we identified ECM combinations that promote self-renewal of these cells, such as Collagen II when co-

presented with Nidogen-1. The pluripotent cell then undergoes a process of specification. In the liver’s

case, besides all the chemical cues already known, this work allowed clarifying the role of ECM on liver

versus pancreas specification in particular the role of fibronectin and merosin. This ECM combination

appears to promote differentiation of cells towards the liver lineage regardless of the chemical cue that

is presented. Finally, in the adult bone marrow, ECM has a critical role on mesenchymal stem cell fate.

Here we could elucidate that different ECM combination trigger different cellular fates. For instance,

elastin in combination with decorin promotes cellular adhesion whereas elastin when presented with

nidogen-2 promotes cellular proliferation.

39

Débora Ferreira, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

New Functions of the Endoscopic Capsule

Supervisors

in Portugal: Graça Minas (UMinho), José Higino Correia (UMinho)

at MIT: Michael S. Feld (deceased)

Main Publications

D. S. Ferreira, J. Mirkovic, R. F. Wolffenbuttel, J. H. Correia, and G. Minas, "Diffuse- ‐reflectance

spectroscopy for integration in endoscopic capsules to assess esophageal tissue," Journal of Optics

(2011). Submitted

D. S. Ferreira, J. H. Correia, and G. Minas, "Spectroscopy for the detection of esophageal dysplasia

using optical microsensors for integration in endoscopic capsules," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical

Engineering (2011). Submitted


Detection of dysplasia is essential for managing gastrointestinal cancer since the chances of an

effective treatment increase if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage, significantly improving the

survival rate. However, dysplastic lesions are difficult to identify by visual inspection during routine

endoscopy.

Optical techniques, such as diffuse reflectance and fluorescence spectroscopy, may overcome some

limitations of current screening methods and considerably improve the ability to detect dysplasia as

they have the potential to provide biochemical and morphological information of normal and diseased

tissue.

The development of a miniaturized spectroscopy system that can be integrated within an endoscopic

capsule will have a huge clinical utility in the medical devices field, since it will add essential diagnostic

functions as a complement to current capsule imaging functions. The designed system has unique

features (small size, low-cost, low-complexity, same throughput of conventional systems), and is based

on thin-film optical filters and silicon photodiodes for the selection and detection of different spectral

bands significant for diagnosis.

In this project, a strategy for spectroscopy tissue diagnosis using a small number of --wavelengths was

developed. The feasibility to accurately quantify tissue information using only 16 wavelengths was

demonstrated using a spectroscopic esophageal data set. These results were an important step for the

development of a miniaturized spectroscopy system to be integrated in endoscopic capsules. The

designed system includes UV and white-light LEDs for illumination and 16 high-selective optical

detectors, designed for specific wavelengths. The optical detectors are based on thin-film optical filters

and silicon photodiodes. The optical filters were fabricated and its spectral performance was shown to

be sufficient to be used as a tool to aid in diagnosis.

filters and silicon photodiodes. The optical filters were fabricated and spectral performance was shown

to be sufficient to be used as a tool to aid in diagnosis.

40


Eunice Costa, FCTUNL, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Bioactive Beads for Local Modulation and Sensing of Cell Mechanical Environment in 3D Engineered

Tissues

Supervisors

in Portugal: Ana Aguiar Ricardo (FCTUNL)

at MIT: Paula T Hammond, Linda G Griffith

Main Publications

Costa, E., Coelho, M., Ilharco, L. M., Aguiar- Ricardo, A., Hammond, P. T. Tannic Acid Mediated

Suppression of PNIPAAm Microgels Thermoresponsive Behavior, Macromolecules 2010, 44, 612.

Costa, E., de Carvalho, J., Casimiro, T., Lobato da Silva, C., Cidade, M.T., Aguiar Ricardo, A. Tailoring

Thermoresponsive Microbeads in Supercritical Carbon dioxide for Biomedical Applications, in press, J

Supercrit. Fluid. 2010, DOI: 10.1016/j.supflu.2010.10.039.

Serra, M., Brito, C., Costa, E., Alves, P. Integrating human stem cell expansion and neuronal

differentiation in bioreactors. BMC Biotechnol. 2009, 9, 82.


Several human diseases, such as cancer or arthritis, are associated with deranged tissue mechanical

microenvironment associated with unregulated cell- secreted proteases function. The success of

protease- based therapies has been hindered by an ill- defined understanding of the complex regulatory

networks in which extracellular proteases are involved. The project concerns the development of a

modular biosensing platform to both modulate cell mechanical microenvironment and monitor

extracellular proteases. For that purpose biocompatible and thermoresponsive poly

(N- isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) microbeads with well- defined morphology were successfully

prepared using a green synthesis approach by polymerization in supercritical carbon dioxide. The

mechanical properties of these beads were systematically modified by using different cross- linking

species.

Furthermore NIPAAm was also copolymerized with other monomers, namely methacrylic acid (MAA), to

render both pH and temperature responsive PNIPAAm- PMAA microbeads and allow further

functionalization. A layer- by- layer polymer assembly strategy has been studied for both creating cell-

interactive surface coatings and incorporating fluorogenic substrates for proteases. The interaction of

different polymers with PNIPAAm beads has an impact on their morphology and thermoresponsive

behavior, as it was demonstrated for the complexation of tannic acid (TA). The reversible hydrogen

bonding between TA and PNIPAAm beads allowed the preparation of microgels which morphology and

temperature response depended on pH and TA content. Currently, several cell- adhesive polymer pairs

such as poly (L- lysine) and poly (glutamic acid) or poly (allylamine hydrochloride) and poly (acrylic

acid) are being successfully explored for coating PNIPAAm- PMAA microbeads and possibly create

diffusional barriers to increase protease specificity or sensitivity. The behavior of the bioactive sensing

microbeads will be examined in 3D tissue cultures under conditions that are expected to result in

diverse protease profiles, mimicking healthy and diseased tissues.

41

Fabiana Fernandes, FCTUNL, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Novel cell factories for the production of complex bioproducts: a synthetic biology approach for

improved product stoichiometries

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paula Alves (ITQB- UNL), Ana Teixeira (ITQB- UNL)

at MIT: Kristala Prather


Baculovirus- mediated expression in insect cells has been widely employed as production platform for

recombinant proteins, mainly because of the high cell densities reached in serum- free suspension

cultures and the relative short timelines required to establish a new protein production process.

However, inherent drawbacks of this system include the effort to maintain the virus stock, the lytic

infection mode of baculoviruses which can compromise the quality of the product due to cellular

proteases release, and the recognized difficulties to separate the recombinant protein from virus

proteins during the purification process. Stable expression in insect cells using recombinase- mediated

cassette exchange systems potentially represents a valuable alternative to the BEVS. This technology

enables the repeated use of pre- characterized genomic sites with good expression rates to produce

multiple recombinant proteins. Therefore, comparable development timelines can be achieved with the

advantages of a stable expression system. We will present results on the feasibility of using the FLP/FRT

site- specific recombination system in Sf9 insect cells for consistent production of recombinant proteins.

42


Federico Cismondi, IST, Argentina

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Modeling High-Dimensional Clinical Data Sets for Prediction and Intervention

Supervisors




During my PhD project I started by exploring the current opportunities and challenges that

computational tools (such as soft computing predictive models) may have in healthcare delivery at the

Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and then present an specific application of how some of these tools (e.g.,

neural networks and fuzzy systems) may allow classifications and ultimately predictions of the outcomes

of patients under a critical condition such as septic shock. I am currently working in the

prediction/classification of the usefulness of additional lab testing in ICU patients. Our team

hypothesized that it would be possible to reduce the amount of lab testing in patients for which new

tests do not add useful information to change the treatment strategy. This reduction, performed by

correctly classifying and eliminating those tests that would have no significant variations when

compared to previous results, could be both a source of a reduction in morbidity and hospitalization

costs. An ICU database collected at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, containing data of 26,665

patients, was used for modeling purposes. Proposed models will be validated with a database collected

at Hospital da Luz from Lisbon, Portugal. The major contributions of my research include:

l the reduction in patient’s morbility/mortality due to excessive lab testing,

l the redcution in hospital costs due to excessive lab testing.

43

Filipa Castro, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd


Amount of time spent at MIT: 4 to 6 months

Title of the thesis

NovaFlow – Novel applications of a state-of-the-art oscillatory flow platform: hydroxyapatite production

and its use in bone extracellular matrix growth

Supervisors

in Portugal: José Teixeira (UMinho), António Vicente (UMinho)

at MIT: Klavs F. Jensen


Properties of hydroxyapatite (HAp) Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 relevant to bone replacement application, like

bioactivity, biocompatibility and solubility, are directly influenced by particles characteristics, such as

morphology, size and purity. In this context, the present project aims at synthesizing HAp crystals with a

carefully controlled size, with a controlled and narrow size distribution and with a high purity, using a

novel meso oscillatory flow reactor (OFR) developed by CEB-UMinho.

For this purpose, the thesis was divided into two main areas of study. The first part consists in the

characterization of HAp precipitation process, in particular optimization and modelling of the process.

The study will first be conducted in a “conventional” reactor and then in the meso OFR. In addition,

crystallization at micro scale will be studied. This part of the work will be done at MIT and will focus on

continuous crystallization in microreactors using model compounds such as glycine and

acetaminophen. The second part of the thesis focuses on validation of biological processes and

products developed.

Concerning characterization of HAp precipitation process, many advances were achieved. The process

was carried out in a stirred tank 1L, mixing aqueous solutions of calcium and phosphorus with different

Ca/P molar ratios, always at a temperature of 37 º C. After process optimization, a suspension of HAp

particles was obtained at a pH close to 7 for an initial Ca/P molar ratio of the reagents equal to 1.33. The

particles formed have proved to be high crystalline and rod-shaped with dimensions of approximately

20 nm width and 100 nm in length. In addition, the population of HAp crystals obtained had the

tendency to aggregate in solution and presented a narrow number size distribution with a mean

equivalent diameter of about 128 nm.

Experiments were started in the meso OFR, being the initial results promising, in particular concerning

mixing efficiency. The objective of this part of the work is to compare HAp precipitation processes

realized in the stirred tank and in the meso OFR, namely in terms of the efficiency of the process and in

terms of the characteristics of the product obtained.

44


Filipe Grácio, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Understanding and controlling stocasticity in cellular reprogramming

Supervisors

in Portugal: Joaquim Cabral (IST)

at MIT: Bruce Tidor

Main Publication

Filipe Grácio, Joaquim Cabral, Bruce Tidor. Modeling of Stem Cell Generation Protocols: Stochasticity

deconstructed. In preparation.


In this work we analyze the debate surrounding the proposed Elite and Stochastic models of stem cell

reprogramming and look at ways to gain insight into the mechanism of the process. We build mass

action models of the core circuitry of the stem cell pluripotency: the model includes not only the

NANOG, OCT4, SOX2 network, but also important epigenetic regulatory features. We are able to show

that the network topology reported in the literature is consistent with the observed experimental

behavior of bistability and inducibility. Based on simulations of stem cell generation protocols we show

that cooperative and independent reaction mechanisms have experimental identifiable differences and

we analyze such differences and their biological explanations. We also argue that Stochastic and Elite

models of Stem Cell generation need not represent any fundamental biological difference but rather

just the amount of information we have about the distribution of cellular states before and during the

reprogramming protocols. We show that unpredictability decreases as the cell moves through the

necessary changes, and that identifiable groups of cells with elite- like behavior can come about by

stochastic process. We also show how different mechanisms and kinetic properties impact the

prospects of improving the efficiency of iPSC generation protocols.

45

Geisa Gonçalves, IST, Brazil

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Rational Engineering of E. coli strains for improved manufacturing of plasmid biopharmaceuticals

Supervisors

in Portugal: Miguel Prazeres (IST), Gabriel Monteiro (IST)

at MIT: Kristala Prather


The use of plasmid DNA (pDNA) as a biopharmaceutical has been gaining momentum over the last

years with the approval of the first DNA vaccines. The goal of my project is to rationally engineer and

test an Escherichia coli strain specifically adapted to thrive in high density cell cultures and synthesize

the large amounts of supercoiled pDNA required to push the development of pDNA

biopharmaceuticals. Most E. coli host strains used to produce pDNA were originally mutated to facilitate

cloning and production of recombinant proteins and thus may not be optimal for pDNA production. In

order to understand the role and interplay of specific sets of genes on E. coli metabolism and pDNA

synthesis it is important to analyze the knockout and over expression of key genes on wild-type E. coli

and on multi-mutated strains such as DH5. With the goal of high pDNA production in mind, we set out to

enhance the production of nucleotides by systematically mutating key genes in wild type

(MG1655endA-recA) and genetically modified (DH5) strains. Specifically, the pykF and pykA genes in

the glycolysis pathway were knocked out and the rpiA gene in the pentose phosphate pathway was

over-expressed. Twenty four strains have been already constructed using different combinations of

gene knockouts (pykF, pykA, recA, endA) and over expressed genes (rpiA). Gene knockouts were

done using the P1 transduction (C. Martin and S.-H. Yoon, 2009) and gene inactivation (S-H. Yoon and

K. Solomon, 2009) protocols. Gene over expression was done using promoter replacement protocol (S.-

H. Yoon and K. Solomon, 2009). Shake flask tests were carried out with these strains using two different

carbon sources, glycerol and glucose. Higher production of pDNA and biomass and lower acetic acid

formation were observed in glycerol medium for all tested strains. Preliminary results show that the

mutated strains such as DH5pykF-, DH5pykF-pykA- and MG1655endA-pykF-pykA-recA- produce twice

as much plasmid when compared with the wild MG1655 and DH5 in shake flask and are therefore

potentially high pDNA producers. The impact of mutations on the rpiA gene was not evaluated yet.

Large-scale tests are also necessary to confirm the data from shake flask experiments. Additionally, the

impact of the new strains on the downstream processing will be analyzed. The results obtained thus far

are encouraging and will hopefully represent an important contribution to the field of plasmid

biopharmaceuticals.

46


Isa P. Monteiro, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Development of a novel Regenerative Medicine Approach to treat Skin Defects

Supervisors

in Portugal: Alexandra P. Marques (UMinho), Rui L. Reis (UMinho)

at MIT: Robert S. Langer, Daniel S. Kohane


Skin is the largest organ in the human body; it constitutes a protective barrier from the outside

environment and prevents dehydration. Skin replacement is necessary for the treatment of burns,

venous or pressure ulcers and after amputation or excision of tumors. In the case of full- thickness skin

defects, skin regeneration using a Tissue Engineering approach suggests the need for a skin- like

construct, which aims to restore both epidermal and dermal components of the human skin.

This PhD work focuses on the combination of biocompatible natural- based polymeric scaffolds with

primary and/or stem cells in order to create in vitro three dimensional epidermal- dermal substitutes

that would be able to overcome some of the drawbacks of the skin substitutes currently used in clinical

practice.

Hyaluronan (HA) is a natural compound of the extracellular matrix that provides a permissive

environment for regeneration rather than healing through scarring and fibrosis. HA was selected to

produce porous scaffolds aimed at creating the dermal component of the skin substitutes. One of the

major problems of large area skin defects is the lack of vascularization. In an attempt to overcome this

problem, angiogenic factors were encapsulated in liposomes and microparticles, which were then

incorporated in the HA dermal scaffold. The sustained release of these factors is expected to conduct

microvasculature formation, both by the differentiation of stem cells that can also be seeded within the

porous structure and by the recruitment of endothelial progenitor cells from the neighborhood of the

damaged tissue.

The epidermal component was either created by using a HA gel or by applying the spray-assisted

layer- by- layer (LbL) technique to produce a polyelectrolyte multilayer of HA and poly- L- lysine on the top

of the HA porous scaffold (dermal component). This innovative processing methodology allowed the

creation of distinct layers with distinct physical- chemical- biological properties. The LbL technique was

also used to entrap growth factors, namely epidermal growth factor, in order to promote epidermal

regeneration and to allow for controlled and sustained release through surface erosion of the film.

Co- cultures were obtained by seeding different cells in different regions of the scaffold. Epidermal

regeneration was achieved by the differentiation of human amniotic fluid stem cells and adult bulge

stem cells (mild- telogen) into the epidermal lineage and culturing them in the epidermal component of

the scaffold. The functionality of the proposed approaches will be assessed in burn and excision mouse

and rat models.

47

Isabel Ferreira, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Bioprocess Engineering on Microbial Desulfurization: Cell Immobilization and Cell

Recycle for Desulfurization of Crude Oil

Supervisors

in Portugal: Maria Raquel de Barros (IST) Carla de Carvalho (IST)

at MIT: Daniel I. C. Wang


In 2009, the crude oil demand in the world was c.a. 84 millions of barrels per day, generating around

US$ 6 billion. During transformation and use of crude oil derivatives e.g. diesel and gasoline, aromatic

and sulfur-containing toxic compounds are formed and released. Consequently regulatory agencies

have been limiting the total amount of compounds such as sulfur. Petroleum companies are using

hydro-desulfurization, an expensive chemical process, able to transform sulfur compounds into H2S but

that is often ineffective when eliminating some complex organic compounds such as benzothiophenes.

Bio-desulfurization, BDS, offers a sustainable and less expensive biological way to eliminate sulfur

containing compounds from crude oil. In this work, BDS of dibenzothiophene (DBT), the most common

sulfur compound present in crude oil was tested with Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8 and R.

erythropolis DCL14. Experiments were performed in both aqueous, aqueous-organic and aqueous-

crude oil biphasic systems. In aqueous phase systems, the cells were able to fully metabolize 0.1 mM

DBT but higher concentrations were prevented due to DBT’S low water solubility. Hence, several n-

alkanes were tested to assess their use as DBT reservoir and toxicity upon R. erythropolis whole cells.

Hexadecane proved to be one of the best solvents: at an initial DBT concentration of 10 mM, IGTS8 and

DCL14 cells metabolized 7.9 mM and 3 mM of DBT in just 48 hours, respectively. Cell immobilization

was also tested, but the supports investigated did not significantly improve the cells’ BDS rate. Free

cells of both strains were used in order to evaluate their crude oil BDS capability. Results showed that

cells can maintain viability in direct contact with crude oil for at least 3 months and that are able to

metabolize DBT present in the oil. At this moment, experiments on cell adaptation to sulfur toxic

compounds in order to improve BDS rate are in place and a process scale up is foreseen.

The results obtained prove the feasibility of using bacterial cells to remove sulfur from crude oil. In that

way, this work has contributed for the use of a cleaner source of energy leading to a future improvement

of society's health. The outcome of my research has been presented in international congresses in the

form of both oral and poster communications.

48


Javad Hatami, IST, Iran

Starting year: 2010

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Engineering Human Stem Cells toward platelet production

Supervisors

in Portugal: Frederico Ferreira (IST), Claudia Lobato da Silva (IST)


This project aims at the development of a bioreactor able to produce platelets from umbilical cord blood

(UCB) hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSC). Platelet transfusion demand is dramatically

increasing, as these are vital to therapies such as cancer chemotherapy and heart surgery. However, in

spite of recurrent platelet shortages, up to 31% of collected platelets are currently wasted, since these

do not tolerate refrigeration and have shelf- life time span of only 5- 7 days. The ex-vivo production of

platelets from HSC would allow for just- in- time delivery strategies for platelet transfusion. The main idea

explored herein is to integrate a high yield HSC expansion stage with an efficient megakaryocyte

differentiation stage and then into blood platelets.

These two stages require very different medium conditions, cytokines/growth factors, cell- to- cell

interactions and oxygen supply. We intend to design a system that, by establishing boundaries between

stages, allows a certain degree of independent optimal conditions for each stage, achieving high yields

of platelet production.

This project aims to gain knowledge to be applied towards the development of a bioreactor system able

to produce platelets in vitro from stem cells. To reach this final goal, the following step project objectives

are defined: (i) design a expansion protocol, tailored for further differentiation of the obtained HSC

population, and a differentiation protocol for production of functional platelet at high yields; (ii) design

of a bioreactor operation able to deliver and maintain local conditions required for expansion and

differentiation stages and (iii) optimize configurations or operation sequences towards maximum

platelet yield production.

49

Joana Coelho, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of the thesis

Towards a mathematical model of risk assessment of biocide induced antibiotic resistance

Supervisors

in Portugal: Ana Teresa Freitas (IST)

abroad: Marco R. Oggioni (Universitá di Siena, Italy)


Biocides have been widely used for several decades to preserve materials including food and

cosmetics, to decontaminate surfaces, to disinfect instruments, used in fabrics and, even, in toys, for

personal hygiene, and to prevent transmission of infections. Nevertheless, when used in large volumes

or at high concentrations, biocides have toxic effects and excessive use is dangerous for the

environment, including animals and humans. Despite this widespread and ever increasing use of

biocides, most bacterial and fungal species remain susceptible. However, decreased susceptibility of

bacteria and fungi to disinfectants has been reported and occasionally linked to antibiotic resistance,

mainly in human and veterinary pathogens.

The problem of the development of resistances, together with the possibility to prevent them, has been

carefully considered by the EC in the Biocides Directive 98/8/CE, a norm which oversees a high

protection for the environment and man, and harmonizes the rules for placing on the market within the

European Union any active substances and biocidal products.

The main goal of this work is the evaluation of the risk for clinically significant increase or spread of

antibiotic resistance in food pathogens due to biocide use. A risk assessment model will be designed in

order to determine the real clinical relevance of any antibiotic/biocide co- and cross-resistance found.

The sample set, providing the necessary high numbers required for multivariate analysis, will be

obtained in the context of the European project BIOHYPO (Proposal No 227258 of the Programme “FP7

Cooperation Work Programme: Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnologies”) (Dr. Marco

Oggioni, PI). The collections selected by BIOHYPO for high throughput screening, contain thousands of

bacteria of human and of veterinary origin collected worldwide over an extended range of time and

characterized for their drug susceptibility profile.

Statistical methods were applied to identify significant associations between biocide use and antibiotic

resistance in bacteria. Machine learning methods have been conceptualized and applied to real data

from some of the more relevant pathological bacterial strains. The obtained results will be used to select

the most relevant strains for typing analysis. Further multivariate analysis is in course to be the basis of a

risk assessment model on the clinical relevance of biocide induction of antibiotic resistance for bacteria.

50


João Guerreiro, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Skeletal Muscle Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) for Therapeutic Applications

Supervisors

in Portugal: Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST)

at MIT: Daniel Griffith Anderson, Robert S. Langer

Main Publication

De Sousa FB, Guerreiro JDT, Ma M, et al. Photo- response behavior of electrospun nanofibers based on

spiropyran- cyclodextrin modified polymer. J. Mater. Chem. 2010; 20(44):9910- 9917.


Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) present high proliferation potential in vitro and are able to

differentiate into diverse lineages, while display low immunogenic and intrinsic immunomodulatory

characteristics. These properties make them the ideal target for therapeutic applications. They can be

used directly as undifferentiated cells or after differentiation into a specific lineage. One lineage of

mesenchymal origin not fully studied, but of great interest is the skeletal muscle. These cells are

responsible for the correct function of different organs. The ex-vivo expansion of MSC followed by

differentiation into skeletal muscle cells and their implantation in vivo would represent a promising

strategy in clinical settings such as urinary incontinence treatment for which the application of

myoblasts have been shown to restore the organ function, though with moderate success.

In order to explore this hypothesis with a therapeutic application as an endpoint, three different

approaches are being pursued in which MSC from both bone marrow (BM) and adipose tissue (AT) are

used:

• Gene Transfection - Both BM and AT MSC were transfected with plasmids containing

myogenic relevant genes that could putatively shift their fate into the skeletal muscle linage.

The nonviral transfection via Poly(β-amino esters) (PBAE) nanoparticles was optimized for

the cell types in study and under different serum conditions with an eGFP-codifying

plasmid. Some conditions showed a genetic profile consistent with myogenic differentiation,

though the stimuli were not sufficient to promote clear myogenic differentiation.

Microporation is currently being employed as a transfection platform as it has showed to be

able to yield higher transfection rates.

• Physical Cues – The use of nanofibers as a support for myogenic differentiation was

previously reported (Dang, 2007). Such approach led to some preliminary promising results

and is currently being further explored by combining synthetic polymers and extracellular

matrix components as a scaffold to support cell adhesion and growth/differentiation.

• Chemical Cues – Several chemical molecules reported in the literature for having a positive

impact in myogenic differentiation (both small molecules and medium cocktails) were tested

but did not show significant myogenic differentiation induction to AT or BM MSC.

51

Jorge Carvalho, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Use of Acoustic Biosensors for screening and measuring binding of biomolecules to mixed-mode

chromatography ligands

Supervisors

in Portugal: Guilherme Ferreira (University of Algarve), Joaquim Cabral (IST)


The future trends of chromatography separations are thought to deliberately explore multiple binding

mechanisms such as electrostatic, hydrophobic, van der Walls and hydrogen binding interactions.

Multi-mode chromatography has been shown to lead to significant gains both in the selectivity and

resolution of the biomolecules purification. The development of ligands capable to interact with

biomolecules simultaneously through-out different molecular mechanisms and the development of

models to understand and explain such interaction are thus research fields of increasing importance in

bioengineering.

This PhD project aims at using acoustic wave biosensors to screen the interaction of biomolecules with

immobilized ligands and to assess and model the binding mechanism. We rely on the differentiation of

signals occurring during biomolecule binding by deconvoluting the signal obtained upon measuring

acoustic wave propagation properties.

The physical characterization of biomolecular interaction is one of the most challenging objectives in life

sciences. The quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has been shown to be an efficient tool to study

possible interactions and their kinetics. Besides these features, the QCM allows the extraction of

mechanical properties of biological films. Different proteins binding to modified gold surfaces of QCM

sensors were screened through advanced impedance analysis, in order to correlate dissipation of the

acoustic wave propagation and intrinsic properties of the adsorbed film. The gold surface was modified

through self-assembled monolayers of different ligands studied through cyclic voltammetry.

The work developed has reinforced the QCM technology versatility and suitability to study, in real-time,

the molecular interaction phenomena occurring during chromatography processes. So far, normalizing

the dissipation shift to the adsorbed mass at surface it was possible to realize that surface chemistry

influences the viscoelasticity of protein adsorbed films. New insights of what happens upon the binding

of proteins to specific ligands as well the development of mathematical correlations between the

intrinsic bimolecular properties and measured signals are envisaged.

52


Maria Francisca Eiriz, FCTUNL, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Migration and differentiation of neuronal precursors in the postnatal brain: Insights from the

subventricular zone and cerebellum

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Oliveira Malva (UMinho), Liliana Bernardino (UMinho), Manuel Nunes da Ponte (FCTUNL)

abroad: Armen Saghatelyan (Université Laval, Canada)

Main publications

Eiriz M.F., Grade S., Rosa A., Xapelli S., Bernardino L., Agasse F., Malva J.O. (2010) Functional

evaluation of neural stem cell differentiation by single cell calcium imaging. Accepted review in Current

Stem Cell Research & Therapy - Special issue “Adult stem cells and tissue engineering in central

nervous system regenerative medicine”


Stem/progenitor cells have an important role for normal brain function and repair strategies after cell

damage. Neurogenesis, at specific niches, is modulated by a broad range of factors that promote cell

migration and differentiation. Among these factors, present in the Subventricular zone (SVZ), one of the

neurogenic niches in the postnatal brain, is histamine. However its role in neurogenesis is elusive.

The present study aims to disclose the role of histamine on SVZ neurogenesis. Exposure of SVZ cells to

histamine was previously seen in the group to induce an increase in the differentiation of cells

displaying a neuronal profile of [Ca2+]i responses as well as an increase in the percentage of NeuN-

neurons, as compared with the control. To improve a more efficient delivery of histamine into the

neurogenic niche, poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles were engineered for the

controlled release of histamine for several days. This way a significantly increase in the percentage of

NeuN-neurons as well as the percentage of cells displaying a neuronal profile of [Ca2+]i responses as

compared to controls was observed. Then, an ex vivo model was developed by grafting SVZ-GFP

neurospheres, previously treated with histamine microparticles, on the dentate gyrus of wild-type

organotypic hippocampal slice cultures. After 1 week of co-culturing, SVZ-GFP cells pretreated with

histamine microparticles differentiate into doublecortin-neuroblasts. Moreover, SVZ-GFP cells pretreated

with histamine microparticles and transplanted into the hippocampus in vivo, integrated into the

subgranular zone and differentiated at some extent to doublecortin-neuroblasts. Our results suggest

that histamine induces neuronal differentiation in SVZ cells, highlighting its use in brain repair strategies.

More recently a new line of experiments aimed at characterizing the role of blood vessels in the

migration of granule cells precursors in the cerebellum, a second region in postnatal neurogenesis, was

initiated. The role of Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on the massive migration of precursor

cells from the external granule cell layer of the cerebellum to the internal granule cell layer is well

established. However, recent studies have suggested that other cellular sources than neurons in the

cerebellum might be important for the proper development and maintenance of brain architecture. This

second part of the project aims to identify the major role of vasculature derived BDNF in the migration of

granule cells in the cerebellum.

53

Maria Nunes Pereira, IST/CNCUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Development of a cardiac patch for biomolecule deliver

Supervisors

in Portugal: Lino Ferreira (CNCUC)

at MIT: Jeffrey M. Karp

Main publications

Nunes-Pereira MJ, Fidalgo-Carvalho I, Karp JM, Ferreira L, “Sensing the cardiac environment: cues for

regeneration”, in preparation

Cho WK, Nunes-Pereira MJ, Lang N, Lee K, Mureli, Zumbuehl A, Sundback C, Masiakos PT, Carter D,

Borenstein J, Ferreira L, Langer R, Karp JM, “Gecko-inspired Tape-based Adhesives”, In: Novel

Biomaterials for Wound Closure and Tissue Engineering, Editors: Sujata K Bhatia. Springer 2011


Myocardial infarction, a leading cause of death in the developed world, is characterized by a decrease

in blood supply to the heart resulting in cardiac cells death and subsequent heart dilatation and

remodeling. Novel therapies –pharmacological or cellular – are being explored in order to decrease

mortality and morbidity of patients. However, to reach the clinical stage, there is the need to develop

delivery systems that can efficiently target the damaged tissue, maximizing therapeutic effect and

minimizing potential toxicity. Therefore, technologies are needed to promote the translation of novel

therapies to the commercial stage.

The goal of this project is to develop a biomedical patch able to deliver drugs with regenerative

potential to the damaged heart surface in a safe and direct manner. This patch should stretch and be

compliant with heart mechanics while remaining fully adherent to it. The current paradigm of medical

adhesive is based on glues with reactive chemistries that covalently link to tissue. However, these

promote tissue inflammation, inhibiting tissue regeneration.

Inspired by Gecko lizards, a new adhesive system has been recently described which mimics the nano-

patterns present on the Gecko feet. This adhesive can adhere to tissue using minimal chemistry and

therefore causing minimal damage to the tissue. The principle behind it is based on mechanical

interlocking and contact surface area maximization, resulting from the material topography.

Based on this concept we are now tuning this system to have specific adhesion to the heart surface. In

parallel, we have developed novel biodegradable elastomers compliant with heart dynamics and able

to be deployed on the heart surface through minimally invasive procedures. These materials will

incorporate regenerative biomacromolecules and its therapeutic effect will be explored in a myocardial

infarction animal model.

54


Mariana Fernandes, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Wearable Brain Cap

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Mendes (UMinho), J. Higino Correia (UMinho)

at MIT: Rajeev Ram

Main Publications

M. Fernandes, N. S. Dias, A. F. Silva, J. S. Nunes, S. Lanceros-Méndez, J. H. Correia and P. M. Mendes,

"Hydrogel-based photonic sensor for a biopotential wearable recording system," Biosensors and

Bioelectronics, vol. 26 (1), pp. 80-86, 2010.

M. Fernandes, J. H. Correia and P. M. Mendes, “Electro-optic acquisition system for ECG wearable

sensor applications”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, submitted.


Wearable devices are used to record several physiological signals, providing unobtrusive and

continuous monitoring. The challenge in these systems is to develop new recording sensors specially

envisioning bioelectric activity detection. The existent devices are difficult to integrate mainly due to the

amount of electrical wires and components needed. Optical techniques, based on optical fibers, can

provide easy integration into textiles and other wearable materials. Furthermore, optical sensors are

immune to electromagnetic interference, resistant to harsh environments, and electrical wire free. This

work proposes an optical fiber-based sensor for bioelectric acquisition specially envisioned for

wearable devices. The effect behind the EO acquisition of biopotentials is the EO effect, which refers to

changes in the refractive index of a material and its effect on polarized light, induced by the application

of an external electric field. The main functional stages of this sensor are: optical signal generation;

control and modulation; and detection. The system includes a Lithium Niobate Mach-Zehnder

Interferometer (MZI) Modulator as the sensing element, and a signal conversion and processing stage.

We have developed theoretical models for electro-optic acquisition of bioelectric signals, as well as

simulations using proper optical software, to fully characterize and test the proposed system.

Experiments were performed to validate the electro-optic acquisition system in terms of signal

amplification and quality, stability and frequency response. A light source with an optical power of 10μW

and with a wavelength operation of 1530-1565 nm was used. The modulated intensity is amplified and

converted to an output voltage with a transimpedance gain of 5x105 V/A, producing a voltage

amplification of 10 V/V. Results were compared with a standard bioelectric signal acquisition using an

instrumentation amplifier. It was demonstrated that the performance of the overall system was adequate

and in conformity with the simulations, showing good magnitudes, frequency response and noise and

interference reduction. In addition, bioelectric signals such as Electrocardiogram (ECG),

Electromyogram (EMG) and Electroenchephalogram (EEG) were successfully acquired. As a final

remark, the electro-optic sensor herein described allows to develop truly wearable bioelectric

monitoring solutions.

55

Michaela Simcikova, IST, Czech Republic

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Amount of time spent at MIT: Will spend 12 months

Title of the thesis

Strategies to increase DNA vaccines resistance to nucleases

Supervisors

in Portugal: Gabriel Monteito (IST), Miguel Prazeres (IST)

at MIT: Kristala Jones Prather


The use of plasmids as gene transfer vectors is a promising approach for the safe delivery of DNA in

preventive and therapeutic vaccination. The key success in launching biopharmaceuticals into market is

the development of safe therapeutic vector by cost effective manufacturing. This work addresses the

major challenges in DNA vaccines production, namely: i) biosafety; ii) high production yields of

therapeutic agent; and iii) high transfection efficiency and strong immune response. The biosafety

issues will be accomplished by developing an antibiotic-free selection marker based on naturally

occurring postsegregational killing mechanism. By rational engineering of origin of replication we aim to

achieve higher plasmid copy numbers and thus higher production rates. Novel vectors called minicircle,

which devoid the bacterial backbone will address the third challenge. The small size of the vector may

improve the dissemination of DNA and their entry into the nucleus giving higher transfection rates.

Up to date, the work has been mainly focused on design and manufacturing of minicircle vector. The

minicircle was generated in vivo from parental plasmid containing gene for ParA resolvase under tight

transcription control of PBAD/araC arabinose promoter and eukaryotic expression cassette flanked by

multimer resolution sites. The ParA resolvase catalyses intramolecular recombination between the MRS

sites after induction by L-(+)arabinose resulting in two circular DNA molecules, one containing the

eukaryotic expression cassette (minicircle) and the other the plasmid bacterial backbone. The

contaminating plasmid species were enzymatically digested and the supercoiled minicircle was purified

by hydrophobic interaction chromatography.

The most suitable growth phase of host strain Escherichia coli DH5 carrying 3pVAXGFPmini was tested

for induction of recombination as well as the time of induction. Even though 100% recombination by

ParA resolvase was observed at early exponential phase, at this point the contaminant bacterial

backbone plasmid species kept replicating during the induction phase and thus extremely increased

the percentage of impurities. The best conditions were obtained by induction with 1% L-(+) arabinose at

early stationary phase for 2 hours when the recombination efficiency reached 90%.

56


Mónica Coelho, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 month (18 months planned)

Title of the thesis

Intraoperative Programmable Stem Cell Therapy

Supervisors

in Portugal: Joaquim Cabral (IST)

at MIT: Jeffrey M. Karp


This Ph.D. project focus on the development of an autologous stem cell-based therapy that can be

rapidly translated to the clinic and fully executed within the operating room, thus significantly enhancing

current and evolving tissue regeneration therapies.

The proposed technology may be applied to other cell-based systems and it is especially useful for

patients with compromised stem cell numbers, including elderly patients and oncology patients who

have undergone radiation treatment.

Specifically, the main goal is to maximize selectively isolate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from whole

bone marrow or enzymatically pretreated lipoaspirate, followed by adhesion optimization to

microcarriers and subsequently control cell fate, namely support survival, stimulate proliferation and

differentiation (e.g. osteogenesis) of adhered cells through delivery of mitotic factors (e.g. PDGF-BB)

and differentiation factors (e.g. BMP-2 and BMP-7). This project will include both in vitro technology

development as well as testing within in vivo rodent models.

57

Nelson Monteiro, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Highly functional nanofiber-based scaffolds for tissue engineering

Supervisors

in Portugal: Nuno Neves (UMinho), Rui Reis (UMinho)

at MIT: Ali Khademhosseini


The increasing need for more efficient and less invasive treatment of damaged or diseased tissue is

stimulating development of new technology in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

By applying combinations of biomaterial scaffolds, cells and bioactive molecules, regeneration of

damaged or diseased tissue can be facilitated, leading to their functional replacement.

Nanofiber meshes have attracted tremendous interest in the research community. Owing to their very

small diameter, polymeric nanofibers exhibit unusual properties such as high specific surface area,

flexibility in surface functionalities and superior mechanical properties. In addition, electrospun non-

woven meshes can physically mimic the ECM structure of native tissues.

The ability to manipulate and control the surface properties of those polymeric nanofibers, without

altering their bulk properties, is of crucial importance in the designing of highly functional Tissue

Engineering scaffolds.

We have been working on polycaprolactone nanofiber meshes (PCL NFMs) modification and

functionalization since previous work has already shown that those substrates are adequate for bone

and cartilage applications. We aim at creating opportunities to covalently link nanoparticles at the

surface of those substrates that will direct the stem cells fate by releasing growth/differentiation factors.

The main aim is to use this combined system or biofunctional structure to treat and regenerate aged,

injured and diseased tissue after implantation in the patient.

58


Nuno Faria, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Jet Biofuel TAKE-OFF: new approaches for production of aviation fuel

Supervisors

in Portugal: Frederico Ferreira (IST), César Fonseca (LNEG)

at MIT: Bruce Tidor


Air transportation has revolutionized the way and the speed with which people meet for business or

pleasure, breaking culture barriers, fostering economic growth. The 2.2 billion people who fly annually

provide 32 million jobs and 7.5% of the world GDP. However, these benefits didn’t come without a cost.

fFuel represents 30-50% of the operating costs in aviation (1.6-2.4 bn barrels a year), and regardless of

tremendous improvements in fuel efficiency attained in the last years (currently at 3.5L/100 km per

passenger), aviation is still responsible for the emission of 677M ton of CO2 a year (2.2% of human

made CO2, in 2008). Replacement of fuel by low greenhouse gases (GHG) footprint sources of energy

is possible for power generation (wind, hydro, nuclear) and ground transportation (electrical trains and

hybrid cars). However, air travelling and jet fuel consumption is expected to increase and, without fuel

sources diversification, aviation industry profits will be increasingly affected by crude oil price

fluctuations due to inefficient budget and planning. Airlines operators are aware of this risk and are

looking for sustainable sources of jet fuel. Additionally, the jet fuel distribution market, contrary to ground

fuel, is highly concentrated, implying fast adoption curves for new products.

Jet fuel specifications are extremely stringent: fuels with low flash points (ethanol) or high freezing points

(longer carbon chain compounds) are banned for safety reasons. The main challenge to obtain liquid

biofuels for aviation is the production of molecules mixtures with a number of carbons small enough to

stay liquid in altitude (-43oC), but still containing an amount of energy high enough to power the aircraft

to fly (about 40 MJ/Kg)[2]. Molecules with 6 to 10 carbons have these properties. Biodiesel molecules

from vegetable and algae origin usually contain 16 to 20 carbons, freezing at high altitudes. Currently,

the main challenge of this work is optimizing a bioprocess which uses sustainable sources, e.g. several

wastes, as substrates for the production of biofuel for aviation or its intermediates. The strategy used in

this project will include a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches for bioprocess

design, as well as an in silico description of a synthetic pathway to support further optimization.

59

Paulo Maia da Silva, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Metabolic Control Analysis as a Framework for Strain Optimization

Supervisors

in Portugal: Isabel Rocha (UMinho), Miguel Rocha (UMinho), Eugénio Ferreira (UMinho)

Main publications

P. Maia, M.Pont, J.F.Tomb, I.Rocha, and M.Rocha. An integrated computational environment for

elementary modes analysis of biochemical networks. International Journal of Data Mining and

Bioinformatics (IJDMB), 2011 (in press)

I. Rocha, P. Maia, P. Evangelista, P. Vilaça S. Soares, J.P. Pinto, J. Nielsen, K.R. Patil, E.C. Ferreira, and

M. Rocha. OptFlux: an open-source software platform for in silico metabolic engineering (Highly-

accessed - most accessed paper in publishing month). BMC Systems Biology, 4(1):45, 2010

D.G. Peña, J.R.Mendez, P. Maia, M. Rocha, and F.F. Riverola. Aibench: a rapid application development

framework for translational research in biomedicine. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine,

98:2, 191-203, 2010


This work is contextualized inside the Computational Systems Biology arena. Although this thesis

requires a focus on dynamic models, the major contributions so far have been focused on the use of

steady-state models.

In this context, novel multi-objective methods for the optimization of microbial strains have been

developed. This work focuses on extending the current OptGene optimization framework, replacing the

previous aggregation techniques by pure multi-objective oriented optimization. This enables searching

the flux distribution space without imposing bias towards a specific objective. A paper reporting all the

major results is under preparation for submission. I am also the lead developer of the OptFlux

application (www.optflux.org), already a reference in the field of Metabolic Engineering. OptFlux

comprises several methods for simulation and optimization of organisms through the use of steady-state

models. In this context, several plug-ins for the community have also been developed and made

available for the community. Special emphasis is given to the novel filtering and sorting approaches for

the common problem of enumeration of Elementary Flux Modes (EFM) of metabolic networks, the

development of a quadratic programming approach to Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA) problems and the

implementation of a Nullspace method (using LU decomposition from Linear Algebra) for the

simplification of metabolic networks (structural simplification, replacing mathematically proportional

fluxes by a single one). All these works have been included in plug-ins and distributed in the current

release of OptFlux.

60


Paulo Melo, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of the thesis

Development of a functional electrical stimulation system prototype to aid locomotion in individuals with

motor impairments

Supervisors

in Portugal: Miguel Tavares da Silva (IST), Jorge M. Martins (IST)

at MIT: Dava J. Newman


The objective of this project is to devise and validate a medical device to support locomotion in

individuals with neuromuscular disabilities, through the use of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES),

multibody dynamics methodologies and control strategies. The device will promote locomotion and

rehabilitation of the lower limbs’ musculoskeletal apparatus, in individuals with impaired mobility

resulting from neurological conditions such as stroke or spinal cord injury. The prototype comprises a

closed loop network of sensors and actuators. Since there are no muscle stimulators in the market able

to be embedded in closed loop systems, a small portable custom muscle stimulator was built. The

device architecture includes four individualized stimulation channels (actuators) and a modular design,

which means that the amount of actuators can go from one to four, depending on user’s pathology. The

device enables complete customization of the stimulation parameters and was designed to output

symmetric biphasic electrical pulses. This type of output allows an equal charge distribution at the

user’s stimulation site, preventing skin damage over long stimulation periods. Inertial Measurement Units

(IMUs) have been integrated within the stimulation loop to provide feedback on specific joint angles.

Preliminary results show that the width of the stimulus pulse can be used as the main variable to control

the degree to which the foot dorsiflexes. Using this system, trials are to be performed so that a muscle

model is identified, accounting for the muscles’ kinematics and contraction dynamics. This information

will allow the design of the FES control architecture. The actuator will generate the required electrical

pulse sequences, according to the muscle identification algorithm and to an adaptive closed loop

control law. The final system will be used by patients on a daily basis, but will also serve as a

rehabilitation tool.

61

Pedro Evangelista, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Development of Dynamic Multi-Layered Bioprocess Models

Supervisors

in Portugal: Isabel Rocha (UMinho), Miguel Rocha (UMinho)

at MIT: Bruce Tidor


One of the main purposes of Metabolic Engineering is the quantitative prediction of cell behavior after

directed genetic modification of its individual components.

Advances in high- throughput technologies permitted uncovering new biomolecular interactions which,

in conjunction with the increase of available sequenced genomes, created a new interest in

characterizing how microorganisms behave in different environments.

The incorporation of these data sources in a bioprocess engineering modeling scenario allows tackling

the optimization of the bioprocess operating conditions and the microorganism simultaneously in order

to attain a specific goal-usually, the overproduction of a specific metabolite. Traditionally, bioprocess

optimization has been made by tuning certain bioreactor parameters and considering cells as black

boxes.

The main aim of this PhD work is to devise methods to bridge metabolic and bioprocess engineering

and to create new procedures to identify cellular metabolism targets in order to direct an organism��metabolism to the production of a desired set of metabolites with industrial interest.

So far, a computational environment in which dynamical models provide for simulation and optimization

algorithms has been developed to study the effects of enzyme under/over expression and deletion of a

few reactions (knockouts), in order to reach an optimal set of genetic modifications for an industrial

objective. The developed Evolutionary Computation algorithms were able to discover the best known

solutions described in literature for the in vivo production of succinate in the Eschericia coli. The

algorithms were also able to suggest new solutions that predict a larger yield than the previously known

ones.

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Rimenys Carvalho, IST, Brazil

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

A novel approach for the capture of monoclonal antibodies using continuous bed chromatography

Supervisors

in Portugal: Maria Aires-Barros (IST), Ana Azevedo (IST)

abroad: Steven Cramer (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)


The increasing therapeutic applications of mAbs have required an improvement of process production

in order to obtain higher productivities. Production titers higher than 10 g/L have already been

described which are demanding for broader strategies of downstream process in order to obtain an

efficient process with higher capacity. Protein A chromatography is the most established capture step

for mAbs purification, allowing for purities higher than 95 % with total recovery. However, protein A has

high being responsible for 50 % of total cost of the process. Several different affinity-based separation

methods are being studied in order to replace the protein A ligand, including the development of

synthetic and organic molecules [1]. Phenyl boronate (PB) ligands have shown to selectively bind to

cis-diol groups including those present in carbohydrates, glycoprotein, glycopeptides and other

biomolecules. Recent work has demonstrated the high affinity of PB ligands towards mAbs, as a class

of glycoprotein in [2]. Immobilizing PB in cryogels monolithic supports could provide some advantages

on mbA’s process purification diminishing process time, as higher flow rates can be used, and

eliminating the clarification step due to their large porosity (10-100 µm). In this, work different phenyl

boronic acid ligands have been immobilized on epoxy-activated cryogels in order to study the

adsorption and desorption of mAbs and of the main production impurities, such as human serum

albumin (HSA) and recombinant human insulin (rhInsulin), at two different pH values, namelt 7.5 and

8.5. To understand the influence of aniline moiety of PB in the adsorption, the same process was

performed with aniline immobilized on cryogels with and without a spacer-arm (hexanediamine). The

results have shown that at pH 8.5 using a spacer-arm the adsorption of IgG has not affected, however,

the adsorption of HSA and rhInsulin increased around 10 %. Decreasing the pH to 7.5 the opposite

charges between the ligand and the proteins led to higher adsorption of the proteins, mainly the

impurities HSA and rhInsulin since they have lower pI (4.7 and 5.4, respectively). The same behavior

was observed in the results with aniline, both with and without space-arm. Despite the high adsorption

of HSA and rhInsulin, these proteins were eluted at very low conductivity (3 mS/cm).

1. A. C. A. Roque, C. S. O. Silva, M. A. Taipa. J. Chromatogr. A, 1160, 44–5, 2007.

2. A. M. Azevedo, A. G. Gomes, L. Borlido, I. F. S. Santos, D. M. F. Prazeres and M. R. Aires-Barros. J Mol Recog, 23:

569–576, 2010.

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Roberto Gallardo, UMinho, Chile

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

New Strategies for the Production of Butanol

Supervisors

in Portugal: Lígia Rodrigues (UMinho), Madalena Alves (UMinho)


The increasing demand for the use of renewable resources as feedstock for the production of chemicals

combined with advances in biotechnology is driving a renewed interest in fermentative butanol

production. In this context, glycerol, generated as a by-product during the production of plant-oil

derived biodiesel, arises as a potential substrate candidate for butanol production. Fermentation of low-

grade glycerol to butanol has been proven, however there is still place for process optimization to

improve the production yields and to reduce the toxicity of butanol to producing organisms, which are

the main objectives of this PhD thesis. In the current work, Clostridium pasteurianum DMS 525 and

granular sludge have been assessed for butanol production in batch fermentations. Through repeated

sub-culturing at increasing crude glycerol concentrations, a fast growth and substrate consumption

have been demonstrated for both systems. The products found were butanol, ethanol, 1,3-propanediol

(1,3PDO) and acids. Nevertheless, while C. pasteurianum produces both 1,3PDO and butanol in

significant amounts, sludge mainly produces 1,3PDO with higher yields and only traces of alcohols.

Issues related with strain degeneration that have been reported for other clostridia were also found for

C. pasteurianum. Different strategies have been developed to overcome this problem. Excess of

calcium carbonate (buffer) and the cells transfer after sporulation, enabled the production of butanol

from crude glycerol up to 35 g/l. Moreover, the use of sodium butyrate (36 mM) in the medium produced

higher amounts of butanol(0,21 g/g) and lower amounts of 1,3PDO (0,17 g/g) from 25 g/l glycerol, thus

demonstrating the competitive nature of both pathways. Furthermore, the bioaugmentation potential of

C. pasteurianum has been studied in batch by co-culturing the pure strain with sludge resulting in

butanol yields similar to those obtained with C. pasteurianum alone. Experiences in continuous culture

(expanded granular sludge bed reactor) are being conducted. Further work includes increasing

glycerol concentration up to 50 g/l, an experimental design to maximize butanol yield and random

mutation. The whole genome of C. pasteurianum DSM 525 will be sequenced. Results obtained so far

provide a deeper understanding of the complex anaerobic fermentation of crude glycerol by Clostridium

sp., thus contributing to solve the low-grade glycerol surplus issue, and to develop new processes for

energy production from renewable resources which is currently a worldwide concern and a main goal in

bioengineering.

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Rúben Pereira, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Systems Support for Clinical Process change using Data Based Modeling - Engineering the Processes

of Clinical Care to Optimize Patient Outcomes

Supervisors



abroad: Michael Howell (Harvard Medical School), Shane Reti (Harvard Medical School)


Real- world databases often contain missing data and uneven spacing, and existing correction

algorithms deliver varying performance. Also, most modeling techniques are not suitable to deal with

them automatically. By studying the impact of different approaches for input of missing data by

generating data based on several methods including Expectation- Maximization (EM), mean, median,

linear- regression and Zero- Order- Hold (ZOH) we show that methods that maintain signal variation

information perform much better than others. Also, the decay observed in performance and the

respective variation is lower.

We examine different approaches to predicting septic shock in the presence of missing data. In this

work, we show that predictive performance improves by employing a minimum pre- processing

technique, the Zero- Order- Hold (ZOH) method, by applying a Fuzzy C- Means clustering technique

based on the partial distance calculation strategy (FCM- PDS) and by computing the final classification

regarding the samples from each patient. The approach developed can be used online using the ZOH

method causally. Performance improvements continue to occur where up to approximately 60% of the

data is missing when comparing with previous studies, though for higher percentage the classification

performance still is statistically improved. Moreover, the use of short time windows for predicting the

septic shock outcome delivers even higher improvement to the models. This was expected due to the

closer relation existing between the values of the features considered in the last days of stay in the

hospital and the respective outcome.

Providers of medical care traditionally have oriented their practices toward achieving the most

favorable clinical outcomes. This engineering systems approach can have a major impact in design and

control of systematic processes of care by supporting clinical decision online. By predicting the

outcome based on the present state of each patient it is possible to act preventively instead of

repairing the harm. This improves both health care costs and quality for the institution and the patient.

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Rui Tostões, FCTUNL, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1.5 months

Title of the thesis

Multicellular human hepatocyte spheroids, cultured in perfusion bioreactor, as a novel valuable tool for

long-term in vitro drug induction tests

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paula Alves (FCTUNL), Manuel Carrondo (FCTUNL)

at MIT: Professor Dic Wang

Main Publications

Perfusion of 3D encapsulated hepatocytes--a synergistic effect enhancing long-term functionality in

bioreactors. Tostões RM, Leite SB, Miranda JP, Sousa M, Wang DI, Carrondo MJ, Alves PM. Biotechnol

Bioeng. 2011 Jan;108(1):41-9.PMID: 20812261

Improving expansion of pluripotent human embryonic stem cells in perfused bioreactors through

oxygen control. Serra M, Brito C, Sousa MF, Jensen J, Tostões RM, Clemente J, Strehl R, Hyllner J,

Carrondo MJ, Alves PM. J Biotechnol. 2010 Aug 2; 148(4):208-15. Epub 2010 Jun 17.PMID: 20600380

Extending hepatocyte functionality for drug-testing applications using high-viscosity alginate-

encapsulated three-dimensional cultures in bioreactors. Miranda JP, Rodrigues A, Tostões RM, Leite S,

Zimmerman H, Carrondo MJ, Alves PM. Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 2010 Dec; 16(6):1223-32. Epub

2010 Apr 6.PMID: 20184401


Maintaining the phenotype of human hepatocytes in long term cultures is a yet unmet need. In this work,

we have assembled and validated a bioreactor perfusion system to allow long-term culture of functional

human hepatocytes. Due to its easy sampling, it is possible to follow the time course of an hepatocyte

population subject to any hepato-toxic agent and test short term drug interactions (such as CYP450

induction) in a higher throughput format by taking a larger sample and sub-culturing it in microtiter

plates.

For the last 20 years a considerable amount of literature was published suggesting that 3D primary

cultures of hepatocytes outperform 2D culture methods. However, these studies are mostly made using

rat hepatocytes and the response of the cells to typical CYP450 inducers (phase I enzymes) is only

maintained for approximately 1 week. Human hepatocytes, cultured as spheroids (<200 μm diameter) in

a fully controlled perfusion bioreactor with easy sampling (working volume 300 ml), maintained Albumin

production up to 30 days and CYP450 activity (measured by ECOD biotrans- formation and gene

expression analysis) was inducible up to 2 weeks. Cytokeratin-18, Albumin and CYP450 3A were

detected by confocal and 2-photon immunofluorescence microscopy. The data presented herein

constitutes a validation of multicellular human hepatocyte spheroids, cultured in perfusion bioreactor, as

a novel valuable tool for long-term in vitro drug induction tests; moreover, the possibility of inducing the

human hepato-cytes either in the perfusion bioreactor or by taking a sample and subculturing in 24-well

plates proves the flexibility of our system for drug testing studies.

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Sezin Aday, IST, Turkey

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 year and 2 months

Title of the thesis

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niches for Cell Expansion and Vascular Differentiation-STEMNICHE

Supervisors

in Portugal: Lino Ferreira (CNCUC), Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST)

at MIT: Robert Langer


Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from umbilical cord blood (UCB) are a rare and hetereogeneous

population of hematopoietic precursors which are important source of differentiated cells for

regenerative medicine. These cells may have potential use for the vascularization of wounds, ischemic

heart, diabetes-related vascular diseases, bone grafts and general tissue engineering applications.

One of the main limitations in using UCB-HSCs for regenerative medicine is related to the low number of

cells isolated from a typical blood sample. Therefore the development of platforms to efficiently expand

these cells is needed. Another limitation is related to the control of their in vivo vascular differentiation.

The UCB-HSCs can give rise to several cell lineages and therefore it is important to develop platforms

to induce rapidly in situ their vascular differentiation for therapeutic angiogenesis.

During this project, we aim at developing a new set of micro-technologies able to interact with UCB-

HSCs in suspension while promoting either their expansion or differentiation into vascular cells. We

developed so far part of the micro-technologies able to induce the differentiation of stem cells into

vascular cells. Presently we are characterizing their biological effect against human cells.

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Shantesh Hede, UMinho, India

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Development Of a Novel Medical Device including Social, Environmental and Economic Sustainability

Supervisors

in Portugal: Luís Rocha (UMinho), Paula Ferreira (UMinho), Manuel Nunes Lopes (UMinho)


The relentless pursuit of launching novel sophisticated products into a competitive market environment,

poses a considerable burden on the environment throughout its life-cycle, which mainly comprises of

extraction, production, distribution, utilization and disposal. However the interaction with the

environment can easily initiate a significant impact onto the socio-economic dimension. Therefore

during the evaluation of new product development endeavors it is imperative to include the criteria for

addressing socio-economic and environmental sustainability.

The investigation has led to the development of a proposed framework for New Product Development,

utilizing a Systems Engineering Approach with the aforementioned criteria of sustainability, based on

Multi-criteria Analysis.

The financialization of the global economy, has prompted organizations to conduct financial appraisal of

each of its business process decisions, including their diverse engineering activities (eg: Value

Engineering).

Therefore, the research investigation have devised two financial models for the assessment of

sustainability in New Product Development endeavors:-

• Net Present Value@Sustainability based on various Product categories with their

developmental risks and strategies for achieving sustainability.

• Profitability Index@Sustainability based on Life Cycle Assessment: A comprehensive model

that uses financial cash flows to represent the impact on the various factors (eg: fuel

consumption, ozone depletion) associated with the sustainability criteria, along with the

core milestones of the product development endeavor.

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Swarna Deepa , IST, India

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

mGluR-dependent LTD and its regulation in the Visual Cortex by Eye Opening and the of Onset Pattern

Vision

Supervisors

in Portugal: Ramiro Almeida (CNCUC), Ana Luísa Carvalho (CNCUC), Joaquim Cabral (IST)

at MIT: Martha Constantine Paton


The Flailer mouse model is a Myosin VA deficient spontaneous mouse mutant.

Flailer has gait and seizure problems using quantitative analyses of Flailer behavior. This work showed

that these mice engage in exceptionally long bouts of repetitive grooming behavior, remain isolated from

their littermates, and also appear to be asocial. The later is being carefully quantified now requiring a

new behavioral venue and many controls for the normal mouse's behavior. The behavior discovered so

far is highly reminiscent of autism spectrum disorders well- documented in people and in other

accepted mouse models. I presented my preliminary studies at the large Society of Neuroscience

Annual meeting last November.

The Flailer crosses to C57Bl mice were performed using-C57 GFP mice (Feng et al 2000). These mice

strongly express GFP driven by thy-1 promoter in layer V cortical neurons. Consequently it was possible

to study the detailed morphology of layer V pyramids in the superficial layers of the visual cortex

between Flailer and WT or heterozygous mice. I am also doing live imaging using Two Photon

microscope to study the difference between the spine morphology after and before eye opening. This

imaging technique involves performing complicated cranial window surgery on 10-day old mice pups.

Later through this window real time imaging is done. Last part of my study involves biochemical and

molecular biology techniques to analyse levels of protein expressed before and after eye opening in

Flailer.

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Tatiana Aguiar, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: BIO

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Hematopoietic Novel biotechnological applications for the riboflavin producer Ashbya gossypii

Supervisors

in Portugal: Lucília Domingues (UMinho)

abroad: Merja Penttilä (VTT)


Ashbya gossypii is a filamentous hemiascomycete of considerable importance in the biotechnology

industry due to its natural ability to overproduce riboflavin (vitamin B2). This fungus presents several

interesting unique features making it an appealing microorganism for exploring its potentialities as a cell

factory organism: it has one of the smallest eukaryotic genome known, is prone to easy genetic

manipulation and is already used in industrial large-scale processes.

The main objective of this project was to explore A. gossypii‘s potentialities as a cell factory organism

based on an integrated analysis of data from computational, proteomic and transcriptomic analyses.

Data was collected to characterize A. gossypii‘s secretome and asparagine-linked glycan profile of the

secreted proteins. Based on the results from proteomic, transcriptomic and bioinformatic analyses A.

gossypii is more similar to yeast than to other filamentous fungi in its secretion ability. However, proteins

secreted by AA. gossypii‘s reveal less extensive glycosylation than those secreted by yeast. A limitation

in the extent of glycosylation is an advantage in the production of heterologous proteins, whose

properties may be adversely affected by extensive glycosylation. From an industrial point of view,

protein production and secretion capabilities of this fungus as a host system for the production of

recombinant proteins are currently still insufficient, nevertheless, based on the results from the

integrated analysis of the collected data, rational genetic engineering strategies can be outlined to

improve this organism for other biotechnological applications, other than riboflavin production.

The availability of genome data has become an essential tool for cell and metabolic engineering of

biotechnological production organisms, but genomes contain enormous amounts of information that

needs to be deciphered. The major contribution of this work was to give a step forward in

understanding the information available in A. gossypii‘s genome and make use of it, not only to improve

this organism for other biotechnological applications, but also to help understand the information held in

the genome of other organisms.

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3.2. Leaders for Technical Industries

3.2.1. Overview

The Leaders for Technical Industries (LTI) PhD program within the Engineering Designand Advanced Manufacturing (EDAM) focus area is offered by the TechnicalUniversity of Lisbon, University of Minho and the University of Porto. This program isanchored on multidisciplinary research problems, lying within an EngineeringSystems framework. The LTI PhD research program considers that product andprocess innovation and current complex decision-making must also take into accounteconomics, management and social aspects. This perspective is clarified in the PhDProgram Structure that the students must accomplish, where the courses are groupedinto clusters, such as Design and Technology (three courses), Engineering Systems(three courses), Engineering Management (four courses), and Leadership.

As an academic program designed to be in close connection with technicallyadvanced industries, the students must complete an internship for the developmentof integrated research in an industrial environment. The target industrial sectorsselected by the program are the automotive, aerospace and medical devicesindustries. This selection takes into account the current Portuguese industrial profile,and the industrial sectors in which a higher innovative potential is expected over thecoming years.

The LTI PhD research program is dedicated to generating new scientific knowledgeand new engineering solutions to create and capture value in these industrial sectors.The scope and associated proposals for the program were defined and prepared infruitful collaboration between faculty and industry leaders. The presentation of theresearch themes is made by both research supervisors from academia, and byindustry research advisors. These presentations take place at special workshopswhere the students become familiar with the research themes, the researchsupervisors and representatives of the industrial sectors. These Workshops, togetherwith a previously prepared research proposal and subsequent discussion at thestudents’ request, enable each student to make a confident choice for their LTI PhDresearch program. As the workshop occurs during their first year of study, thestudents select their subject and prepare, at the end of first year, a thesis proposalwhich is evaluated by their doctoral committee. Each student must carry out researchat an industrial environment (up to twelve months) and at MIT (up to eighteen months).

Currently, all the PhD research themes are industry-oriented and have been definedin closed interaction with the faculty and the industries.

A wide range of Portuguese and international engineering and technology industrieshave received EDAM/LTI students. These include: Rolls Royce (UK), General Motors(USA), Continental-Mabor (PT), Volkswagen-AutoEuropa (PT), Hovione (PT), TMG-Automotive (PT), Iber-Oleff (PT), Celoplas (PT), and others. The research internshipis of vital importance for the accomplishment of the mission of the EDAM programand it can be performed also in international research laboratories such as ESA, inthe Netherlands, or GKSS, in Germany.

The collaboration with the MIT, where students are encouraged to undertake researchactivity, is a vital part of the PhD program, and several students have alreadyaccomplished part of their research at MIT. The LTI PhD research themes in which the students are currently working can be

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grouped in three main areas: a) Engineering Design and Innovation; b) EngineeringDesign Management; and c) Manufacturing Technologies and IndustrialManagement.

As a summary of the research that is being developed in the LTI PhD program, thefollowing table groups most of the theses in a research grid, under the general themeof Product Development, associating them with industrial areas.

A brief description of the subjects referred in the table, together with a brief resumeof the students work, are presented below.

Engineering Design and Innovation

Some students are generating scientific knowledge and engineering solutions withstrong potential for technological transfer to the health sector. In the Medical Devicessubject area, two students in their third year are developing the technology for smartstent-grafts, either in the design, or in the technology of the flexibility of the sensorsto be applied on the fibers. Also in this area of Medical Devices a fourth-year studentis developing a prototype for a novel remote monitoring system to be used byhospitals tracking the recovery of out-patients in their homes. A preliminary prototypehas already been installed in a hospital’s department and is being evaluated forfurther development. Several international and national publications have beencompleted.

The theme of Engineering Design and Innovation is being developed in closecollaboration with the automotive industry. For example, a fourth-year student isdesigning the application of sensor networks to the automotive interior partsachieving a smart structure with sensing capabilities, and an important Portugueseindustrial company is involved in this research project. A third-year student is workingon a Human–Machine Interface applied to sensitivity functions, and more specificallyto non-visual senses (kinesthetic, acoustic and haptic).

Engineering Design Management

Engineering Design Management is a research theme where many students areinvolved in research, and where several industries are collaborating.

Research themes carried out by LTI students

Industrial areas

Research themes Automotive Aerospace Medical Devices

Engineering Design & Innovation ++ __ +

Engineering Design Management ++ + __

Manufacturing Technologies

& Industrial Management ++ + __

- to + increasing number of students involved

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A fourth-year student is developing new concepts of Lean in the Design Managementarea, putting synergies between process standardization and innovation. Theapplication of this study to the improvement of the design process of a complexproduct such as gas turbines produced by a main European manufacturer isconsidered a main achievement of the EDAM focus area. Indeed the success of theresearch performed already has extended the research to related areas in theEngineering Design Management areas of aerospace industry. Also in the aerospacesector, and in direct collaboration with an important European Aerospace researchlaboratory, a fourth year student is developing decision making tools for theconceptual design of complex engineering systems in a concurrent environment.

In the automotive industry, a fourth-year student is investigating the implications ondesign of materials acquisition costs for a range of products in the particular contextof product development. This work will help to identify strategies for decision makingthat the companies can implement for selecting materials for new products, e.g.,“what is the right material for the right application?”

A third-year student is developing strategies for the engineering design of toolingtaking into account tooling life cycle cost. Characteristics such as tooling reliabilityand maintainability, not easily converted into costs, are directly connected with tooldesign features.

Manufacturing and Industrial Management

This research theme is being developed both with automotive and aeronauticsindustries. In the automotive industry, two third year students are developing theirresearch on the supply chain network subject. One student studies the supply chainfor the automotive industry in an international environment looking across factors(tariffs, rates, tax, legislation, government policies, etc). This information isfundamental but is dynamic and uncertain as the global economy develops. Theuncertainties associated with these factors are being studied, and models are beingbuilt in order to support strategic-tactical decision-making.

From a more restricted point of view, another third year student studies theimplementation of models to improve the flexibility of the single line for automotiveassembling as opposed to the just-in-sequence multiple models assembling. Thisstudy, which is being pursued in close connection with a major national carmanufacturer and an important playmaker in the European automotive industry, willallow business leaders to address volume and model flexibility and cost reductionopportunities to meet the challenges of the low volume niche car market.

In the aeronautic sector a fourth year student is developing research on theimplementation of new manufacturing technologies in aircraft structures, whencompared to classical joining technologies in aluminum alloys. This research is criticalfor the aluminum base aeronautics industry to compete with the non-metallic aircraftstructures being launched in the market. The research results include the analysis ofthe impact of the replacement of joining processes in the safety of critical structures,the investigation of nondestructive techniques to be used, cost and weight analyses,and a final technology assessment based on the design for manufacturing andassembly assumptions.

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Coordinators of the Leaders for Technical Industries Doctoral Program

António Torres Marques, FEUP, University of Porto Chris Magee, Engineering Systems Division, MITJoel Clark, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT (LTI director)Manuel Freitas, IST, Technical University of Lisbon (LTI director)Olga Carneiro, School of Engineering, University of Minho

3.2.2. Structure

The structure of the doctoral program of the Engineering, Design and AdvanceManufacturing area (EDAM), Leaders for Technical Industries (LTI), is described inthe next table.

LTI students attend all the courses described in the table below, mostly during theirfirst year but they also have course work during their second and third years. Thetotal of courses makes a total of 70 ECTS but at some of the participating schools(e.g. IST) only 60 ECTS are required.

LTI students are required to spend a minimum of three months and a maximum oftwelve months working on site with EDAM industrial affiliates during the secondsemester of the 2nd year and the first semester of the 3rd year. At least three monthsmust be spent at a single company; any time beyond this may be spent at additionalcompanies.

Structure of the LTI PhD program

Course ECTS Mandatory/Optional Semester

Product Development 6 Mandatory 1st of the 1st year

Technology Evaluation and Selection 6 Mandatory 1st of the first year

Integrating Technology & Management 6 Mandatory 1st of the 1st year

Companies and Technologies 4 Mandatory 1st of the 1st year

Engineering Systems Research Methods 6 Mandatory 2nd of the 1st year

Engineering and Manufacturing Systems 6 Mandatory 2nd of the first year

Management for Engineering 6 Mandatory 2nd of the first year

Innovation Management 6 Mandatory 2nd of the first year

Operations Management 6 Mandatory 1st of the 2nd year

Advanced Technologies 6 Mandatory 1st of the 2nd year

Production Management 6 Mandatory 2nd of 3rd year

Leadership 6 Mandatory 2nd of 3rd year

During the first half of January of the first year students are offered, by the Program’scommittee, a range of project topics for their PhD thesis, which are agreed by facultyand industrial affiliates. Students indicate their preferences by choosing the threetopics they are most interested in, ranking them from one to three. This choice ispassed on to the Program’s committee that will facilitate the process andcommunicates its outcome to the students by the 31st of January. The student maychoose other co-supervisors to form his/her thesis committee.

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Students are required to submit an annual report before the 30th of June each year.In the first year this report will be considered as their thesis proposal. The reportshould be distributed to the EDAM professor in charge of the LTI class and the thesiscommittee. The thesis committee members should individually provide brief writtencomments (less than one page) on the report to the student, his/her thesis supervisor,and to the EDAM professor in charge of the LTI class within one month (i.e., by July30th). Reports with negative remarks from the committee should be analyzed by thesupervisor and the EDAM professor in order to intruduce eventual correctivemeasures. Students should be informed of the results of this evaluation before the1st of September.

The first thesis committee meeting should be scheduled shortly after students receivethis feedback. This first meeting is viewed as a defense of the thesis proposal. Thethesis committee should meet with the student at least twice per year.

Students are awarded an LTI PhD when they meet the following requirements:• Completion of all ten courses with a passing grade or higher (ten out of

twenty)• Completion of a minimum of three months and a maximum of twelve months

of industrial internship(s) with at least three months at one companny• Successful defense of the thesis with a pass recommendation by the

majority of the committee• Submission of a signed thesis document


Alexandre Silva, enrolled at UMinho, follows a research activity in Engineering Designand Innovation applied to automotive industry under the theme “Automotive SmartFlooring based on photonics”, and he has published three papers in internationaljournals and several presentations in international conferences. Alexandre won the8th edition of the PVC Iberian Forum Award (January 2011), and has commented onhis experience at MIT:

’The MIT experience was overall very positive and I fully accomplished my proposedtasks. While in Portugal I mainly focused my work in technical aspects, at MIT mygoal was to work on cost modeling. I had the opportunity to attend classes and workclosely with and teams with great expertise in the field of cost modeling.’

Alexandre Silva has recenly defended his PhD thesis, becaming the first PhDgraduate of the MIT Portugal network.

Inês Ribeiro, enrolled at IST, with a research activity in Engineering DesignManagement under the research theme ‘From Tooling Design to Tools Life CycleDesign: Shifting the Paradigm’, has co-authored two papers in international journals,two book chapters and nine presentations in international conferences. Inês Ribeirohas carried out part of her research at MIT and she offers the following statementabout her stay:

I was fully integrated in a research group and had to present every week the progressof my work which allowed me to develop further the knowledge I needed forproducing the model I am working on. I also had the opportunity to spend someweeks at GM (Detroit) in a short internship, which was quite hard but also a productive

75

and intensive experience. In personal terms, my stay at MIT was a culturally enrichingand unique experience. In my opinion, all MIT Portugal students should takeadvantage of the opportunity that the network gives us to go to MIT.’

Sérgio Tavares, enrolled at FEUP, has a research activity in the area of ManufacturingTechnologies and Industrial Management under the theme “Design and AdvancedManufacturing of Aircraft Structures using Friction Stir Welding”. He has publishedthree papers in international journals and several presentations in internationalconferences. Sérgio did some of his research work at MIT and he made thesecomment about his experience:

’The time spent at MIT allowed me to embrace additional research topics which werenot possible if the research was confined to one place. My experience mainlyinvolved the materials joining lab and companies with the latest advancedtechnologies for non-destructive testing. The MIT excellence, with its density ofresources and knowledge, gave me a different vision and perspective, enhancingthe research results and personal experience.’


For the EDAM educational programs (TME and LTI), twelve new courses have beenspecially designed. These courses are taught by twenty-nine faculty members fromthe three participating Portuguese schools in this area and by ten faculty membersfrom MIT. MIT faculty ensures twenty-eight percent of the teaching (academic year2010/11).


The EDAM area uses the Moodle e-learning platform where the syllabus, pre-readings, PowerPoint presentations, bibliography, and assignments for each of thecourses are made available to students. The faculty uses this platform to interact withstudents and the students interact with each other and faculty through the samesystem.

3.2.6. Benchmarking

EDAM’s degree programs (LTI and TME) are geared towards training students tobecome technical managers in engineering design and advanced manufacturingindustries. The LTI program is specifically focused on developing competencies instudents that can be used to drive research and development capabilities within atechnical firm. There are several unique elements of the programs, including:

• Diversified mix of courses in design and technology (including productdevelopment and design), engineering systems, and systems management(including innovation management and leadership)

• Thesis research with an industrial partner• An internship with an industrial partner (LTI only).

Numerous degree programs exist worldwide in the areas of engineering design,advanced manufacturing, and engineering management, but few have the same

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basic elements as the two EDAM degree programs. Thus, this benchmarking studyincludes an analysis of other programs across the world with some elements that aresimilar to TME and LTI, which are presented in the following table. Programs thatfocus purely on design, manufacturing, or engineering management were notincluded in this analysis because they do not have the desired breadth that is soughtin EDAM’s programs. Master’s and doctoral programs are combined in this evaluationbecause of the significant amount of overlap between the TME and LTI programs.

Summary of results

Key elements of ten degree programs in Europe and the US similar to EDAM’sprograms are listed in the table below, which include two main doctoral programsthat were found to be closer to LTI. There are several features that these programs have in common:

• Multidisciplinary course content including design and management topics• Extensive interaction with industrial partners• A thesis or final project that is tied to the interaction with industrial partners

The EDAM programs have several unique features:• Engineering systems and leadership courses in the curriculum• Thesis research and internship with an industrial partner in a doctoral

program• American and European faculty from four universities collaborating to

coordinate the program and teach the courses• Block schedule that enables students to work at a company while taking

courses

There are also a few areas where some of the programs have advantages over theEDAM programs:

• More partnerships (financial and academic) with large companies• More extensive selection of electives across numerous subject areas

This is because the schedule format that entails classes being taught during intensivetwo-week periods at three different universities does not facilitate a wide range ofoptions. While this format enables students to work at a company while takingcourses, it means that students are not able to take courses available outside of theEDAM program at the host universities. Thus, as long as EDAM maintains the currentclass delivery format, the courses available to students will be limited to those directlytaught as part of the EDAM degree programs (which is currently twelve courses).

77

1 http://www.brunel.ac.uk/courses/pg/research/new -routephd/desys

2 http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/graduate/innovation/3 Partnership of the University of Waterloo, University of

Toronto, McMaster University, Queen’s University, andUniversity of Western Ontario

4 http://www.admicanada.com/5 http://smte.epfl.ch/site/smte/master-mte6 http://lgo.mit.edu/7 http://sdm.mit.edu/8 http://www.segal.northwestern.edu/graduate/9 http://www.mmm.northwestern.edu/10 http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/ismm/default.html

University Name; School; & Location

Brunel University; Graduate School; West

London, UK

Dartmouth University; School of Engineering;

Hanover, NH, USA

Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute3;

Toronto, ON, Canada

Dartmouth University; School of Engineering;

Hanover, NH, USA

Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne;

College of Management of Technology;

Lausanne, Switzerland

Massachusetts Institute of Technology;

Engineering Systems Division; Cambridge, MA,

USA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology;

Engineering Systems Division; Cambridge, MA,

USA

Northwestern University; Segal Design Institute;

Evanston, Il, USA

Northwestern University; Kellogg School of

Management & McCormick School of

Engineering; Evanston, Il, USA

University of Cambridge; Institute for

Manufacturing; Cambridge, UK

Degree Name

New Route PhD – Design and

Systems Engineering1

PhD Innovation Program2

Master of Engineering in

Design and Manufacturing4

Master of Engineering

Management

Master in Management,

Technology and

Entrepreneurship5

Leaders for Global Operations6

System Design and

Management7

Master of Science in

Engineering Design and

Innovation8

MMM Program9

MPhil in Industrial Systems,

Manufacture and Management

(ISMM)10

Degree Type

PhD

PhD

MEDM

MEM

MMTE

SM & MBA

Master’s in engineering

& management

MS-EDI

MBA and MEM (Master of

Engineering Management)

MPhil

Key characteristics of doctoral and master’s programs analyzed in benchmark study

78


Curriculum

• Management and production planning

• Communication skills

• Global context

• Discipline-specific modules:

o Design research creativity and innovation

o Design management and marketing

o Branding strategy

o Design of perception enhancement systems

10 courses in typical engineering areas, supplemented with entrepreneurial studies including:

• new venture creation

• finance

• accounting

• patent law

• marketing

~10 courses delivered in a format similar to EDAM programs. Minimum five courses from a

Technology & Process Stream and a minimum of two courses from a Business and Management

stream.

~14 courses in mathematics, design, and engineering management

Students take core courses in probability, data analysis, and decision analysis and have the

option of two “orientations”: “Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship” or “Operations

Management & Systems Modeling”; electives are also available.

~20 courses, including MBA core curriculum: foundations, integration, leadership

15 courses: core courses in systems architecture, engineering, and management; foundations

courses; and elective courses

~12 courses primarily focused on design; students specialize in a “design theme”, which include

business factors or entrepreneurship.

~30 courses (quarters schedule) in business, engineering management, and electives in design

or operations.

ISMM is 39 weeks. The content is split as follows:

• Eight weeks of project work (four projects)

• Thirteen weeks of taught modules: manufacturing systems, manufacturing processes,

product design, technology management & entrepreneurship, leadership

• A two-week overseas study tour, either in mainland Europe or further afield.

• A thirteen week dissertation project working with researchers at the Institute

Internship Requirement

No

3- to 6-month internship in a

startup or ther entrepreneurial

enterprise

Potential industry project.

3 months

6 months

6.5 months

No

Yes

No

No, but lots of interaction with

companies

Thesis Requirement

Yes

Yes

An approved industry project

may replace two courses

Complete project as part of

internship

“Master Project” conducted in

industry

Yes

Yes

Thesis project

Integration Project with a team

of students

Dissertation project 13 weeks

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All-faculty events

Since the beginning of its second year, the EDAM focus area carries out an all-facultyevent that aims to discuss the program, but also to train faculty on the topics ofengineering systems.

The first all-faculty meeting took place in Lisbon on September 2008. The meetingfostered the interaction between EDAM faculty, EDAM researchers, and MIT. Theshort course had the participation of more than forty people, including EDAM facultyand EDAM researchers from the three Portuguese cooperating universities and MIT.This was the ideal place to discuss the Engineering systems components addressingboth the educational programs and on going research projects.

The second meeting was held in Porto on September 2009. The first day was devotedto a teaching workshop, with the objective of reviewing recent and/or important topicsin teaching and learning paradigms and methodologies, and of discussing how toincorporate them into the EDAM education programs. The second day was devotedto research, in order to review the content of EDAM research projects and discussways in which key characteristics of the projects could be strengthened.

The third meeting was held in Guimarães in September 2010. For the first time themeeting included the participation of the EDAM students. The first day included“Research Outcomes from Three Years of the LTI Program,” with the goal to reviewthe outcomes from three years of student research activities in the LTI program. Thesecond included faculty and Industrial Affiliates only, and consisted of an in-depthevaluation of the research presented on the previous day and a discussion ofmechanisms to improve the incorporation of topics of interest to Industrial Affiliateinto EDAM courses.

Building team events

A team-building exercise for new LTI and TME students was performed in thebeginning of the first week of courses in the academic years 2008/09 and 2009/10as a way of facilitating camaraderie among the students prior to the start of classes.Regular visits to companies

Visits to industry are performed by LTI and TME students during their first year. Someof the visited companies include: Autoeuropa, Continental Mabor, TMG, Sunviauto,CEIIA, and Salsa.

Networking activities during class periods

Networking and brainstorming activities are often organized during the lecturingperiods to stimulate the students. Examples are:

• EDAM Session at CEIIA – Thursday, 17.April.2008 (12:15 – 15:00) with the

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presence of Secretary of State Prof. Manuel Heitor• EDAM Workshop/Group dynamics Event: 18:00 – 20:00, 17th June 2009,

Praça da Oliveira, Guimarães. Informal discussion about leadership withparticipation of Partha Ghosh

• EDAM Workshop: Rethinking Product Design and Manufacturing for aChanging World 17:00-22:00, 10th March 2010, FEUP

3.2.8. PhD theses

This section shows the profiles of several students.The home institution of each student is indicated on the first line as:FEUP – Faculty of Engineering – University of PortoIST – Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of LisbonUMinho – School of Engineering – University of Minho

81

Alexandra Sepúlveda, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Technologies for flexible sensors in the design of a smart stent-graft

Supervisors

in Portugal: António Pontes (UMinho), Júlio Viana (UMinho)

at MIT: Brian Wardle


The aim of this work is to develop a new pressure sensor technology to include in a stent-graft, for the

pressure measurement within an aneurysm sac for post-EVAR surveillance. Given the characteristics of

the application, the capacitive sensor must be foldable, extremely flexible and characterized by a very

small profile. In addition, the technology should be simple and biocompatible. Silicon based

microtechnologies are widely used in implantable medical devices, but due to the application

specifications, a new fabrication process is being developed.

The proposed fabrication process uses aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to build the conductive

elements. The CNTs are embedded in a flexible substrate of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a

transparent, nontoxic and biocompatible silicone elastomer. Acrylic moulds were produced by CNC

milling for posterior fabrication of the PDMS membranes and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) was

used to grow forests or “carpets” of vertically-aligned CNTs. This method has the advantage of allowing

growth of high purity, high yield and vertically aligned morphology. Next, the CNTs were embedded into

the polymer matrix (PDMS) and the substrate was placed against the moulds, followed by the PDMS

introduction in the cavities through a hole. The last step was the cure of the elastomer.

For mechanical characterization, PDMS-CNTs specimens, moulded into rectangular shapes with

dimensions of 32x14x0.4 mm3 (LxWxH), were subject to tensile tests to obtain the elastic modulus.

Through the representative stress-strain curve, the tested membranes present an elastic modulus of

about 1.23 MPa (at the initial stage) and a large piezoresistive effect. For electrical characterization, the

conductivity was measured using a movable four-point probe in contact with a series of PDMS-CNTs

composites films. The measurements indicate an electrical conductivity of 0.35 S.m-1 with a standard

deviation of 0.37 S.m-1.

82


Alexandre Silva, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th

Graduated: 25/07/2011


Title of the thesis

Automotive Smart Flooring based on photonics

Supervisors

in Portugal: José Higino Correia (UMinho), Paulo Mateus Mendes (UMinho)

at MIT: Joel Clark, Richard Roth

Main Publications

A. Ferreira da Silva, A. Goncalves, L. de Almeida Ferreira, F. Araujo, P. Mendes, and J. Correia, "A Smart

Skin PVC Foil Based on FBG Sensors for Monitoring Strain and Temperature," IEEE Transactions on

Industrial Electronics, 2010.

A.F. Silva, A.F. Goncalves, L. A. de Almeida Ferreira, F.M. Araujo, P.M. Mendes, and J.H. Correia, "PVC

Smart Sensing Foil for Advanced Strain Measurements," IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 10, 2010, pp. 1149-

1155.

A.F. Silva, A.F. Goncalves, P.M. Mendes, and J.H. Correia, "PVC formulation study for the manufacturing

of a skin smart structure based in optical fiber elements," Polymers for Advanced Technologies [in

press]


The initial goal was to develop a novel inner car smart flooring concept, able to sense chassis

deformation when car accident or collision occurs. However, it was soon detected that smart flooring

could have a broader application field. Optical sensors have greatly evolved, offering nowadays a high

performance alternative in many different areas, for measuring strain, temperature and can be already

found in the automotive, aeronautics or biomedical field. However, the application of these monitoring

systems is not a straightforward task, especially, at the sensor application step.

A smart structure with sensing capabilities would overcome the existing installation issues of sensor

networks. Based on the significant system size and the market requirements, an industrial

manufacturing process was considered. An integrated solution with Fiber Bragg Grating sensors

embedded in PVC laminates manufactured by industrial spread-coating process was explored. The

resultant structure is a temperature and strain sensitive foil characterized in terms of surface structure,

optical response and overall performance. The industrialization problem was evaluated, not only by

developing a machine for an automated fiber insertion in the PVC laminate, but also by evaluating the

customization of the smart structure, regarding fiber layout, sensor disposition and finish styles.

Furthermore, a cost-model has been developed for the smart foil production in order to evaluate the

cost drivers and the competitive advantage against the traditional method for sensor installation.

The research work has been developed in a successful collaboration with TMG Automotive (included an

industrial internship) and Fibersensing companies. The student had also the opportunity to stay in MIT

during 4 months, developing the cost-model.

The developed work resulted in the publication of 5 articles in international journals with peer-review and

6 oral communications in international conferences.

83

Bruno Soares, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Cork composites and eco-design

Supervisors

in Portugal: Luís Reis (IST), Luís Sousa (IST), António Ferreira (FEUP)

at MIT: David Wallace


The quest to develop new materials and products that are sustainable from a “triple bottom line” view,

Environmental, Economic and Social, has been going for quite some time. One of the options designers

and engineers have at their disposal for the creation of those materials/products is the substitution of

nonrenewable resources nearing depletion for natural materials in a non-abiotic scale, i.e., to replace

materials based on dwindling resources, for materials in which the renewability is greater, and can

continue to be greater with increase in use.

This thesis is focusing on such a material, cork composites, to study if such substitutions are feasible,

with the replaceable material oil-based PVC foam. For cork composites to be considered good

candidates for substitution, they must possess similar mechanical properties, and have a smaller

impact that the PVC foam it aims to replace. Mechanical testing has been performed on cork

composites and it has shown that the cork composites have similar properties as PVC foams, in

bending and compression albeit at a higher density. Environmental analysis by means of an LCA is

starting to confirm the hypothesis that cork is a greener material than PVC foams, and an economic cost

by means of a LCC is in its starting phase.

A case study using cork as a core material for sandwich structures in a kayak is also being used. This

case study is the result of joint effort of two companies, Amorim Cork Composites and NELO (Mar

Kayaks), so that one can analyze cork as part of a finished product. A Kayak with a sandwich structure

composed of Glass fiber facings and Cork composite core in wet Layup will be compared with a kayak

with PVC foam cores, and a Polyethylene kayak made by rotomoulding, in mechanical behavior,

economic and environmental performance. Additional production techniques such as RTM are also

being studied, with specimens already produced and entering test phase, so that we can rank the Cork

composite kayak versus these alternatives.

The ultimate goal of this research is the understanding of cork composites properties, find out its

possible uses, and developing a tool to help designers and engineers to consider cork composites a

starting material at product design and development stages.

84


Carla Pepe, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 week

Title of the thesis

A Framework to Improve Complex Design Processes

Supervisors

in Portugal: Elsa Henriques (IST)

at MIT: Daniel Whitney


The complexity of designing products such as gas turbine components leads to enormous difficulties in

understanding where the main design process inefficiencies are. It is extremely difficult to decide which

improvements will have the most significant impact for a company or for a specific project. Another

common issue found in the Aerospace industry is a consequence of basing a new gas turbine design

on a previous concept; most of the time people don’t question the overall design process.

These issues, alongside a companies’ matrix organization, create difficulties in managing and improving

the design processes. In order to overcome the mentioned problems, a framework has been developed

and used in two case studies at Rolls-Royce plc.

This framework developed in this thesis aims to assess and improve in a systematic way, complex

product development processes at component or system level. The framework involves the use of Value

Stream Mapping (VSM) analysis to identify waste sources in the design process, the use of Design

Structure Matrix (DSM) to manage design iterations and interfaces complexity and Process Simulation

to deal with the stochastic behaviour, and finally estimate and assess the benefit of potential

developments.

85

Cláudia Duarte, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Single line for assembly just-in-sequence multiple models

Supervisors

in Portugal: José Valério Carvalho (Uminho), Ana Paula Põvoa (IST)

at MIT: Stanley Gershwin


The European automotive industry faces new challenges related to the growing of competitiveness. As

an important playmaker in the European automotive industry and as the second national exporter,

AutoEuropa is the major partner in this project. They need to address volume and models flexibility and

cost reduction to meet the new market challenges. Because of this, recently, AutoEuropa implemented

the concept of a single line, which is able to assemble just-in-sequence multiple models in a single line

assembly. This line produces 4 models: EOS, Scirocco and a model that they call MPV (composed by 2

models one of Seat and the other from Volkswagen). This is a challenge and this project aims to obtain

sequencing policies to ensure the delivery of the vehicles just in sequence without degrading the

efficiency of the system. In this project we intend to formulate:

• the decision problem that consists in deciding whether it is possible to find a sequence that

satisfies all capacity constraints;

• the optimization problem that involves finding a minimum cost sequence, where the cost

function evaluates constraint violations.

To achieve these goals we made a study of the existent modeling and optimization methods for car

sequencing used on different automotive industries. We made also a study and characterization of

Autoeuropa manufacturing system. Based on this study we are developing now a model for the Car

Sequencing Problem using Mixed Integer Programming and the IBM ILOG software. At this moment we

are testing the model with Autoeuropa and preparing an article for the conference IO 2011.

The Mixed Integer Programming Model for the Car Sequencing Problem that we are developing has

something new that was not used by any researcher until now and because of this cannot be revealed.

To reduce the computation times, that are usually high for big problems, in this kind of models, we are

trying to find new cuts for the model. If we achieve this goal it will be a good contribution also.

86


Cláudio Santos, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Sheet metal processing equipment and markets under uncertain future environments: a methodology to

assist technology strategy decisions

Supervisors

in Portugal: Madalena Araújo (UMinho), Nuno Correia (INEGI)

at MIT: Jeremy Gregory


This thesis proposal focuses on the topic of technology strategy formulation, with a special attention to

the development of a methodology to manage, evaluate and select technologies for the creation of new

business/markets, based on issues such as the competencies of the firm, markets and technological

evolution. The set of tools and techniques to be developed within the methodology aims at assisting the

decision making process in uncertain environments. A benchmarking study of the technologies in sheet

metal processing equipment with forecasting techniques will be carried out and matched with the

company’s technological capabilities and competencies, which will, hopefully, lead to the identification

of the most strategic technologies for future implementation.

The methodology used to develop this thesis follows a case study approach. The setting, as mentioned

before, is a Portuguese company in the machine tool building industry.

At this stage, extensive literature review has been done on the topics of strategic management of

technology, resource-based view of the firm and on decision supporting tools for technology

management. Currently, and after an internship period at the company financing the project, I’m working

on a methodology that leads to the identification of a firm’s competencies and capabilities. The same

methodology also supports the evaluation of competencies by gathering external perspectives as well.

The next stage of the thesis concerns the implementation of tools for technology forecasting and

assessment of the evolution of the industry and markets. After the collection of this information, the

development of a methodology to support the decision making process on the formulation of a

technology strategy. Decisions such as which technological competencies and capabilities to develop,

how should they be sourced (internally or externally) and which technologies should be embodied into

the design of products.

The methodology and tools to be developed within this thesis will be based on the existing related

literature. The combination of solid insights with research gaps can serve as basis for improved

methodologies. Empirical evidence extracted from the case study also will enable the possibility of

developing methodologies that are more adjusted to reality.

87

Eduarda Silva, FEUP/UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Automatic quality control system based on artificial vision: transferring human knowledge into an

automated inspection system

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Costa (FEUP), Fernando Ribeiro (UMinho)

at MIT: Qi Hommes


The research project involves the improvement of the final inspection process of tires. Considering that

tires are a safety critical item, one of the most important goals of the production process is to

consistently deliver products of high quality. In order to ensure product quality, visual inspection

operators currently do quality control of 100% of the items produced.

However a quality inspection task can be very monotonous and exhausting which can cause fatigue

and stress and lead to subjective decision processes. On the other side humans are still seen as the

most versatile/flexible element in the manufacturing system and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

Thus the challenge is to develop a system based on artificial vision able to either automatically identify

non-conformities in tires or to assist the operator in the quality control task. The focus of this research

project is to identify, test and integrate the most effective and reliable technologies to optimize the

quality control of tires. The expected outcome may include an automated inspection system

complemented by a system that still retains some human contribution but with meaningful and well-

designed tasks in order to optimize the overall human–machine system performance, leading to an

enhanced visual inspection.

The first stage of this research project included an internship in the facilities of the industrial partner. A

good understanding of the overall production process, human based visual inspection and shop floor

culture and environment were crucial to carefully understand and map the context in which the system

under development will operate.

Being at the moment in the stage of preliminary assessment of technologies, the research methodology

is now to interactively test different artificial vision systems and validate the results with the operators.

Automating (totally or partially) the inspection process requires the knowledge of the operators to be

captured into the system and this might be more effectively achieved if they are enrolled in the

development process. The purpose is to develop the new system by learning the task from human

experts.

Under the scope of this project is not only the development of the technical solution, but also the

process of transferring human functions to automatic systems that often involves deep reorganization of

the work process and a good understanding of the current human based process.

88


Eduardo Santos, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Eco-Efficient Design and Advanced Manufacturing Practices, Systems Perspectives on Materials

Technology Decision-Making (Preliminary)

Supervisor

in Portugal: Paulo Ferrão (IST)


Based on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), producers are responsible for

financing and managing their products at the end of life. In the case of waste electrical and electronic

equipments (WEEE), producers are obliged to assume the responsibility individually or collectively, by

transferring it to a WEEE management scheme.

The objective of the research is to develop a framework to enhance the role of EPR based WEEE

management schemes in promoting effective and efficient environmental performance of electrical and

electronic products. In order to do that, it was necessary to analyze the factors determining the

performance of electrical and electronic equipments over the life cycle, as well as the current

contribution of WEEE management schemes to those factors. Then the research focused on how to

improve the contributions.

The research developed up to the present involved the benchmarking of current WEEE management

schemes, the state of the art of WEEE processing, the operations and the respective technologies, the

analysis of eco-design tools and methods and the development of a method and respective tool for

optimizing industrial ecology processes in WEEE treatment.

The proposed method involves the assessment of the WEEE processing performance on three

dimensions: technical, economical and environmental. Unlike current methods, it does the calculation of

the mass balance over the entire WEEE processing chain, not just for a representative part of it, and the

calculation of the cost and revenue considering the existing processing technologies, as well as

developing and future technologies. Additionally, the proposed method includes a combination with life

cycle assessment methodology, to calculate emissions of specific substances with significant potential

environmental impacts.

This method is currently being tested and will be used to sustain the proposal of a new producer

responsibility framework to enhance product environmental performance of electrical and electronic

equipments.

At the current stage of the research work, the expected main scientific contributions include an

innovative method to optimize industrial ecology processes in WEEE treatment. A new producer

responsibility framework will also be proposed from which the future generation of WEEE management

schemes should be designed, implemented and prosper in their new role.

89

Filipe Nascimento, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Smart Seat Design

Supervisors

in Portugal: Francisco Pires (FEUP), Pedro Vilaça (IST), Marta Carvalho (IST)

at MIT: Qi Hommes


This project involves the development of a smart seat that will have the ability to react during a car

impact in order to secure its occupants. Other critical features of this car seat are related to the

development of lighter structures that comply with the current trend of weight reduction, which has been

a major concern in the automotive industry, and the improvement of comfort.

The use of simulation tools has the potential to significantly decrease costs during the product

development phase. In addition, these tools will be used to identify the best combination among all

variables in this decision process to find the best compromise solution for all known constraints.

One of the goals of the research is to develop a seat using lightweight materials in order to save weight

in the car. The simulation tools will enable us to have an overall perspective of the mechanical behavior

of the seat under different loads and in the human/seat interaction. The results of these simulations will

help in the decision-making process of product development.

Another focus of this research is the development of a methodology focused on product development

with the introduction of novel techniques. This methodology has the intent of integrating the knowledge

obtained from several sources. In particular, the drivers positioning and behavior, the results from virtual

analysis obtained from computational simulations, which will be supported by dedicated mechanical

tests. Other parameters that will be taken into account are related with an in-depth knowledge of the

company strategy and its goals. The relation between all these variables in the decision making process

will provide a more robust solution for the company.

The first steps have been made and several materials and seat designs have been identified and

studied. The first simulation model has already been achieved and the next steps will be more focused

in the development of a global simulation model for the seat design and a decision tool to support the

product development process.

90


Georgios Koronis, IST, Greece

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Green composite as structural parts in the exterior body of an electric vehicle

Supervisors

in Portugal: Arlindo Silva (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), Ana Póvoa (IST)



This research is part of the project Renewable materials in electric vehicles (ReMEV) and focuses on

certain fields regarding supply chain management and the design of the manufacturing process. The

objective of that effort is the design of an industrial system that can support the prospect substitution of

current vehicles’ exterior parts made of synthetic matrices (like polypropylene - PP) and non renewable

reinforcement (like glass fibers - GFR); with composites made of natural materials. Deliberately for this

case, the range of materials to be used has been narrowed to renewable based ones, while aiming for a

composite with the maximum possible percentage of bio-content. With determinative modifications

applied on the part; both supply chain and manufacturing process are expected to be cost effective.

At present the research progress is on the stage of the bibliographic review in the field of current

composites’ technology. Results include a preliminary selection of composites based on cost and

mechanical performances values. From the data collected from other studies and with the use of

materials selection methodologies it was indentified which set of matrix and reinforcement has the

potential to be applied in exterior structural parts of small batch sized EV.

91

Helena Fernández López, UMinho, Spain

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 month

Title of the thesis

Wireless communication sensor networks for remote health monitoring

Supervisors

in Portugal: José Higino Correia (UMinho), Ricardo Simões (UMinho and Cávado and Ave Polytechnic

Institute), José Afonso (UMinho)

at MIT: Chris Magee


This work combines medical sensors and wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies, namely the IEEE

802.15.4 and the ZigBee protocols, to design a cost-effective, easily-deployed system capable of

gathering vital signals from in-hospital patients and recovering patients at home and present them into a

nurses’ station.

The major contributions are:

• The prototyping of a novel remote monitoring system to be used in hospital environments

where, presently, patients are not continuously monitored and by recovering out-patients at

home

• The performance evaluation and commissioning of the of the prototype system on an

internment floor of a private hospital in Portugal

• The development of a ZigBee to Wi-Fi gateway which is responsible for interfacing the

ZigBee personal area network (PAN) coordinator with the Internet

• The development of wearable ECG/heart rate and axillary temperature prototype sensors,

including the hardware and the firmware.

Currently, the established goals for my work are almost achieved. A prototype system is already

installed in a hospital internment floor and is being evaluated. Five articles were presented in

international peer-reviewed conferences and one more will be submitted by Feb 11th. The thesis is

being written and, in two months, an article will be submitted for an international journal.

92


Inês Ribeiro, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

From Tooling Design to Tools Life Cycle Design: Shifting the Paradigm

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Peças (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), António Pontes (UMinho)

at MIT: Rich Roth

Main Publications

Peças P, Ribeiro I., Folgado R., Henriques E. A Life Cycle Engineering Model for Technology Selection:

a Case Study on Plastic Injection Moulds for Low Production Volumes. Journal of Cleaner Production,

Vol. 17 (9), pp. 846-856, 2009.

Peças, P., Henriques, E., Ribeiro I.. Integrated Approach to Product and Process Design Based on Life

Cycle Engineering. Handbook of Research on Trends in Product Design: Technological and

Organizational Perspectives, pp. 394-417. Business Science Reference, Hershey, NY, 2010.


The design and production of tools is a time consuming, technically difficult and expensive activity.

Moreover, tool design choices highly affect the manufacturing process in which they are used.

Sometimes the least expensive tool does not lead to the least expensive part option if other processes

in which it’s used are considered. It is then necessary to shift the paradigm from the cost of the tool as

the decision factor to the tool life cycle cost and even other aspects not included in conventional

costing. In this context, this research presents a new methodology to approach decision making in the

tooling industry. In order to develop a life cycle approach based on LCC methodology, the technological

cost models comprising the life cycle stages of a dedicated tool are combined. By this, the engineering

knowledge regarding physical, statistical or empirical relations is applied to model the processes and

through the process the resources requirements are estimated. Regarding characteristics as reliability

and maintainability, these are not easily converted into costs when it comes to a dedicated tool, as it is

also in most cases impossible to obtain statistical valid samples, due to the fact that each tool is a

complex and unique product. However, tool designers and users have an experience-based capability

to assess these aspects, although qualitatively. By using these subjective judgments, this research

intends to capture their non-structured knowledge into the cost models. Furthermore, the design

decisions are also investigated having into account not only the cost, but the different stakeholders’

preferences. In a real industrial context decisions are not based on tangible costs. Some aspects such

as reliability, maintainability and production time have more importance than the reflected in the

conventional costs. The last phase of the research aims to capture these preferences by integrating

them in the results achieved by the cost models and hence computing a comprehensive life cycle cost.

Finally, this approach was applied to industrial case studies and through internships in four different

companies (Celoplás – Grimancelos, Famolde – Marinha Grande, Fapil – Malveira, GM–Detroit) was

possible to apply the methodology. Furthermore, the stay in MIT developed my knowledge in cost

models. From these experiences several scientific publications in international journals, scientific books

and international conferences were possible.

93

Ioannis Malliaros, IST, Greece

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

HMI on Sensitivity Functions Approach: Case of Non-Visual Senses

Supervisors

in Portugal: Mihail Fontul (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), Lia Patrício (FEUP)

at MIT: Qi D. Van Eikema Hommes

abroad: Paraskevas Papanikos (University of the Aegean)


One of the development areas of In-Car Interfaces (ICI) deals with the need of using alternative

communication channels that goes beyond the visual senses. The functionality of an interface is not

limited to its utility, but has a broader scope which includes the necessity to address a desired feeling.

In fact, automotive companies look forward for something more than fulfilling the requirements. They

expect a certain “feeling” to be achieved when the final customer interacts with the device. The aim of

this research is to develop a methodology in which I’ll study the possibilities to model an expected

feeling, evoked by non-visual senses (Kinesthetic, Acoustical, Tactile).

In order to identify how the interaction among engineering parameters works and triggers a feeling, a

methodology was proposed, covering two types of measurements: laboratory environment ones and,

second, human responses capturing. The aim of this methodology is to predict the perceived “feeling”

as a result of interactions between engineering parameters, by using the data obtained from the two

measurements through a statistical analysis. Owing the fact that non-visual senses comprise three

senses, the methodology consists of three main modules, one for each sense. The plan is to develop

each module and lastly to integrate them, in order to predict the general “feeling” evoked by non-visual

senses.

The expected result will be a valid tool for the ICI manufacturing companies to achieve the expected

feeling evoked by non-visual senses as request by OEM clients.

94


Irene Carvalho, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

On A Concept Urban Car Calling for Flexibility in Car Occupancy and Lean Driving Behaviors

Supervisors

in Portugal: Arlindo Silva (IST), Ricardo Simões (UMinho), Mihail Fontul (IST),

Lia Patrício (FEUP), Paulo Peças (IST)



Currently I am preparing two papers: one with a tentative title: "Designing automo-tive mass reduction

solutions for lean driving behavior: conceiving environmentally friendly automobile engineering systems

enabled by social behaviors." In short, this paper presents the first results of ongoing research being

developed within this PhD research work related with the problem of designing feasible technological

so-lutions driven by environmental concerns and enabled by social behaviors. It intro-duces the

concept of lean driving, defined as a technological system designed to allow flexibility in a car's

occupancy aiming at significantly reducing waste in energy consumption per trip and throughout an

automobile's useful life, due to carrying unnecessary weight. A second paper will be related to the

possibility of applying natural based composite materials for lightweighting purposes in automotive

industry.

By introducing the concept of "lean driving" in cars design and manufacturing it might bring a new

strategic way of thinking how to reduce cars weights in order to minimize energy waste. Nowadays, all

technological solutions are rigidly based on a fixed car typology (2 seats, 3 seats, 4 seats, 5 seats),

which hampers occupancy efficiency, and thus, in the majority of situations, a lot of weight is being

carried, and energy is being spent, without need. With current manufacturing and disposal

technologies, it is during its useful life that a car creates the most impact on the environment, due to the

positive impact of the weight of a car and the energy spent in traveling. Hence, with this work, it is being

explored how technological solutions for lightweighting structures in vehicles can be enhanced by

social behaviors. I.e., once the automobile is built, and along its useful life, how can we have

concomitant and isoperformance solutions resulting from human behavior domain, knowing that today

the social contribution can be greatly improved as long as new car solutions exist.

95

Isa Santos, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Concept selection in the development of medical devices: the case of the smart stent-graft

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Manuel R.S. Tavares (FEUP), Luís Rocha (UMinho)

in the USA: Jeremy Gregory (MIT), Scott Gazele (Harvard)


To meet customers’ requirements, designers narrow down an array of ideas to a single one. This

process is named concept selection and it is crucial to efficiently develop novel products because, from

this point onward, the designer team is committed to a concept whose change implies delays and

additional costs. At this stage, the lack of objective data makes decisions insubstantial. However, it is

possible to reduce uncertainty assessing the products’ expected costs and benefits to select concepts.

In the medical device sector, before products are brought to market, they are subject to the scrutiny of

different agencies around the world to assess their clinical and cost-effectiveness. In this project, those

criteria have been analyzed and adapted to define a new concept selection technique. The method

under development is going to be applied to the development of a smart stent-graft, but other possible

applications are possible.

So far, the product development process was described along with the distinctive features of medical

devices. Additionally, a new concept selection technique is being delineated. To validate the new

methodology, a case study was defined: the development of a smart stent-graft. Regarding this topic,

the customers were recognized and their needs were gathered through questionnaires to both patients

and doctors.

96


Ivo Ferreira, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Conceptual design of complex engineering systems in a concurrent environment

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Gil (IST), Pedro Oliveira (UMinho)

at MIT: Olivier de Weck

Main Publications

Gil, P. J. S., Ferreira, I. M. L.. (2011 - under review). A Conceptual Concurrent Design

Methodology for Complex Engineering Systems. Journal of Mechanical Design

Ferreira, I. M. L., Gil, P. J. S. (2011 - under review). Analyzing the performance of multilayer

perceptron neural networks to support decisions during the conceptual design phase. Expert

Systems with Applications

Gil, P. J. S., Rosa, P. M. B., & Ferreira, I. M. L.. (2010). Modern approaches in the design of

complex aerospace systems. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Sciences and Applications,

2(1), 15–26.


This research focuses on the conceptual design methodologies for complex engineering systems. By

analyzing the prominent concurrent philosophy environment and its shortcomings and studying the

capabilities of currently existing technologies, an integrated design process is proposed.

The typical conceptual design process is analyzed with respect to four key areas and their impact on

the design performance: system representation, common algebras that can be used to represent the

system behavior, possible optimization methods and knowledge management incorporation. The aim is

to increase the quality of design solutions at the conceptual stage and enhance the perception of the

system by allowing simultaneous real-time perspectives of the “forest” (global system level) and the

“trees” (subsystems level).

In order to address the main issues detected, focusing at the global system level, an integrated design

process is proposed including general system description, requirements mapping, interaction, and

optimization stages. The interaction stage is implemented in a software tool providing visualization and

interactive models to enable decision support, dependencies tracking and design documentation by

using an adapted dynamic Design Structure Matrix (DSM) of the system throughout the design process.

Focusing at the subsystem level, an intuitive standalone decision support tool based on neural networks

to predict design suggestions is also detailed. The design performance gain is measured through a set

of case studies from different fields (aerospace, automotive, etc.) and with different levels of complexity.

The thesis contributes to the literature on conceptual design, concurrent engineering, design structure

matrix, and neural networks for design purposes. It proposes a rigorous means of incorporating a global

view on the system analytical performance with tacit knowledge brought by the designers. Finally,

shows the applicability of prediction tools and the impact of enhanced representation models during the

conceptual design phase.

97

José Gaspar, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Decision Making Methodology on HMI Innovative Processes

Supervisors

in Portugal: Mihail Fontul (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST)

at MIT: Qi Hommes


This research is in the HMI (Human–Machine Interfaces) and aims to integrate in a systemic way

engineering parameters, design attributes and user satisfaction issues. The research made in this area

by several research teams all over the globe are concerned to provide models which relates design

attributes and engineering parameters or design attributes and user satisfaction issues. As far as I know

this is the first attempt to provide an integrated analysis from the physical (measurable) parameters of

an HMI and its perceived properties (feelings regarding the HMI).

An advanced integrated user satisfaction model will help a manufacturing company to reduce the

product development process time. This research is done with an affiliate company, IBER OLEFF (TIER

1 or 2 on automotive industry, especially for inserts inside of a car), which is fully committed with the

project and has high expectations on the results. Even the original idea of this research was in

concordance with the company’s development plan.

The research work was organized on: 1) the study of the actual research paradigm on user satisfaction,

i.e., taxonomies, practices, methods, anomalies and examples used by the research community; 2)

improvement of the actual paradigm to solve the anomalies, and 3) articulation of the improved

paradigm. The two first research steps were almost already accomplished, and as a result, a new user

satisfaction taxonomy was created, a new DAP model that relates satisfaction dimensions (D), design

attributes (A) and engineering parameters (P) was created. The third phase is currently under

development.

This research involves an extensive survey, where 35 interviewees ranked 11 automotive radio panels

on a test bench. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected, validated and analyzed, and one

part of the DAP framework was already modeled with neural network tools. Basically, it relates the

styling design attribute (A) against its corresponding engineering parameters (P). The remaining design

attributes of operation, touch, functions, localization, concepts, sound and feeling will be modeled using

the same methodology.

98


Lia Oliveira, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Increasing flexibility and collaboration in the automotive supply chain network

Supervisors

in Portugal: Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), João Claro (FEUP)

at MIT: Richard De Neufville


Nowadays, industrial organizations set their efforts more and more on the control and reduction of costs,

not only as a way to fight the growing market competition but also to overcome the problems posed by

the current global economic and financial crisis. The automobile has been one of the most affected

sectors, facing a decrease in sales since the last quarter of 2008. The economy slowdown has

contributed to a profound restructuring of this sector. To pursue competitiveness, automotive companies

need to improve the way they operate with the market and with their own networks, to invest in

innovation, to carefully look at activities planning and at supply chain opportunities. It is fundamental to

systematically evaluate and (re-)design the production and distribution systems as well as to define

strategies to provide the desired customer service at the lowest possible cost. In this context, more

research is being dedicated to supply chain design and management, aiming at improving components

of systems already in place or at building new components of those systems.

A global supply chain involves several countries and consequently it becomes fundamental to look

across international factors, such as tariffs, exchange rates, duties, income tax legislation, national

production resources, transfer prices, government policies, trade barriers and competition. Some of

these factors increase the level of uncertainty in a supply chain but are not the exclusive factors in that

direction.

We are developing models for the automotive industry dealing with different types of uncertainty, and in

particular we want to develop a stochastic model for the global automotive supply chain network to

support strategic-tactical decision-making. Moreover we also want to cover a set of different features of

real, practical environments, namely: multi-periods planning horizons (understanding and managing the

impact of changes), multi-criteria assessment of policies (including costs and customer service level),

international parameters (as legislation) and the major concerns of companies. Here our perspective is

that of a first or second tier supplier. In this context, some strategic decisions can be episodic. For

example, a customer is opening a new plant and we need to understand how supplying this new

customer site can be better integrated, in time, in its supply chain network. The models we are

developing should help in decision-making on the operations strategy planning, and also in

understanding how the supply chain network should evolve in a long-term time horizon, in order to

optimize the profitability of operations. For such purpose, these models will require the definition of

scenarios for future evolution of supply, demand, transportation and other critical elements of the SC

network. They will also imply the definition of relevant new investment alternatives; simulating and

optimizing investment decisions in time; and sensitivity analysis to understand under which conditions

different investment alternatives may become more attractive. All these different issues are now being

researched, although not at the same stage. Critical inputs to the work are being provided by the case

study we have being defining with the valuable collaboration of the SIMOLDES Group, our industrial

partner in the project.

99

Marco Leite, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Materials selection considering technical performance, process cost and life cycle evaluation

Supervisors

in Portugal: Arlindo Silva (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST)

at MIT: Richard Roth

Main publication

M. Leite, A. Silva, E. Henriques, R. Roth, The implications of decisions on the material mix problem: the

case of small stampings in the automotive industry, submitted to ICED 2011, 15 to 18 August 2011,

Copenhagen, Denmark.

M. Leite, A. Silva, E. Henriques, Materials selection in product design and development. RPD 2008, 29

to 30 October, Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal.

M. Leite, A. Silva, E. Henriques, Material and technology issues in the early phases of product design:

an example from the automotive industry. IRF’2009, 20 to 24 July, 2009, Oporto.


A successful product development increases pressure in the manufacturing companies to outperform

competitors. These companies must be capable of developing products with more quality, lower

product cost, shorter development time and shorter development cost. One of the major activities inside

the development process is the one related to materials and manufacturing process selection. Materials

selection is complex in nature and influence and is influenced by the product development process.

Materials are responsible for products’ function, structure and in some cases interaction with the

customer/user.

Most materials and process selection methods seldom deal with this complexity. Although trying to

respond to the question: “what is the right material for the right application?” with the objective of

matching properties to required specifications, they are often simplifying issues related with a holistic

view of the product and particular context of the manufacturing organization. Consequently, matching

properties for a single product instead of a range of products and on an ideal organization instead of

the particular context of the manufacturing firm can yield a preferred material that is unlikely to be the

overall optimum choice.

This thesis investigates the implications on design of materials acquisition costs for a range of products

and with a particular context in product development materials selection decisions and seeks to identify

strategies for decision-making that the companies can implement for selecting materials for new

products. To that purpose, a framework for incorporating materials acquisition costs, for a range of

parts, in an exogenous context is proposed and demonstrated using two case studies, the first with

single product and single materials selection in an automotive manufacturer context and the second

with a range of parts and material mix decisions in a Tier 1 manufacturer context. In the first case,

materials selection is defined by a trade-off between engineering properties, economical cost and

environmental impact. In the second case, the problem is more complex and requires combinatorial

optimization techniques to select the best material mix for a large number of parts with multiple

materials available and dependent in the company procurement strength.

100

Michael Donauer, FEUP, Germany

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Optimization of test and inspection strategies in car tire manufacturing lines by the usage of

manufacturing and quality cost models

Supervisors

in Portugal: Américo Azevedo (FEUP), Paulo Peças (IST)



This PhD thesis is embedded in a research and development project in cooperation with an industrial

affiliate of the MIT Portugal Program – Continental Mabor - Industria de Pneus (S.A.) – a tire

manufacturing company. One or more internships will be done there which can be full-time or part-time

placements that last for up to 12 months. The main goal of this industry research project, with two more

PhD students engaged in, is to redefine a current inspection process. This covers redesigning,

developing and installing a working prototype that will operate in real environment and a tool /

methodology to support the decision making process, relating to test and inspection strategies. The

project is highly solution oriented and the expected results for the proposed research work will be

validated as a concept proof with real data in a real industrial context. Developing a tool / methodology

to support the decision making process is the realm of this PhD thesis and it is aimed to identify a more

general approach that is not only valid in the tire industry but also applicable to various other industries

and environments.

The objective of this PhD is to elaborate a methodology to take decisions based on costs that take into

account quality and test strategies as well as levels of performances and automation. Therefore it is

aimed to elaborate a methodology of tracking non-conformities backwards along the manufacturing

process, analyze their root causes and identify plans of actions to overcome them. Status quo and all

potential means for enhancing a process to eliminate root causes, technology implementations and

other actions shall be simulated, as well the behavior of the different states. Hereby different states can

be various performance levels, levels of automation, deviations from should be processes, fatigue of

operators and machines as well as various production quality levels. By simulating the previously

mentioned it shall be possible to create what-if scenarios and to evaluate the different alternatives that

serve as an input for cost models in order to take best management decisions.

101


Manuela Azevedo, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Reconfiguring Facilities and Logistics in Dynamic Supply Network of SMEs

Supervisors

in Portugal: Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), José Crispim (UMinho)


This research project focus on dynamic networks of companies (mainly SMEs) and aims at delivering a

conceptual framework and a set of decision support tools to help those companies analyze and assess

different policies and solutions for the configuration of facilities and logistic systems. This will be done

taking into account multiple criteria and perspectives.

Research results will be fully assessed and validated at our industrial partner, the Simoldes Plásticos

Group.

The research is progressing in two directions: a more theoretical model is being developed in parallel

with work on a complex and rich case study, designed upon the characteristics and requirements of the

company. Understanding, analyzing and structuring the real situation is a very important step towards

the definition of a more general, strategic / tactical model, capable of supporting decision-making in

various industrial sectors. This model will be designed as a multi-objective mathematical program, to be

solved to optimality in small problem instances, but requiring the recourse of heuristic techniques, in

larger, realistic cases. Therefore, an important phase of our work will consist in designing metaheuristic

approaches to efficiently handle real size problems.

In this phase of the research, we are completing a comprehensive literature survey, to characterize

more general requirements, and understanding the existing models, their advantages and limitations.

Once we have identified the gaps in these models, we will try to improve and extend them, to create a

flexible, innovative tool to help companies, or networks of companies, to reconfigure their facilities and

logistics in rather dynamic, uncertain environments.

At this moment, the development of the mathematical model is still in a very early stage, but the initial

feedback of our industrial partner is rather positive, showing that our research questions are not only

relevant in scientific terms, but they do reflect interesting, valuable practical problems.

102

Nuno Guitian Oliveira, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

LTI Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of thesis

Towards High Strength 3D Chitosan-Based Products for Biomedical Applications

Supervisors

in Portugal: Alexandra Rodrigues (IST), Luís Pinto (FCT), Luís Reis (IST), Mihail Fontul (IST)


The main objective of this project envisages studying the potentiality of shaping chitosan in high

strength 3D solid parts for medical applications.

Chitosan is derived from chitin, the second most abundant natural biopolymer commonly found in shells

of marine crustaceans and cell walls of fungi. Its potential as a biomaterial has been reported in

scientific literature for many years and has been showing to be a useful material in biomedical

applications such as artificial skin, sutures, drug delivery, tissue engineering, cell encapsulation, among

others. Recently, it has been reported that chitosan can be one promising material as a temporary

mechanical supporter for bone fracture, working as an internal fixation device (implant). Chitosan-based

implants, a natural and sustainable biopolymer, can be an appealing alternative to other advanced

polymers used in the first generations of bioresorbable (temporal) implants. However, presently, there is

not a suitable process available for shaping chitosan in high strength 3D solid parts, which limits the

potential applications of the biopolymer. There are tremendous opportunities in biomedical applications

(especially in temporal implants for human and veterinary use) if a process to produce 3D solid parts

from chitosan is developed.

Three dimensional chitosan-based products cannot be shaped using conventional plastics processing

techniques, as it is sensitive to heat and changes its chemical functionality at elevated temperature, due

to the strong intra- and intermolecular H-bonds, making chitosan’s melting temperature higher than its

decomposing temperature. Therefore, the solvent casting process, also known as in situ precipitation

method, where the polymer is dissolved in a solvent (e.g. acetic acid aqueous solution) and then

precipitated and molded in the presence of salts (e.g. sodium hydroxide) has been used. However, the

resulting rods have some limitations regarding their mechanical resistance. For instance, bending

strength and bending modulus of some of the commercially available polymer-based implants (e.g.

PGA-screws) are 130–200 MPa and 5.0–10.0 GPa, respectively. So, bending strength and bending

modulus are some of the key parameters for chitosan-based rods, which are needed to be improved to

match those commercially available devices.

The use of naturally occurring biopolymers for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, and in

tissue-engineered medical products, is increasing. Therefore, chitosan-based implants, either blended

or not with other (bio)polymers, can be an appealing alternative to others advanced polymers used as

bioresorbable (temporal) implants.

103


Pedro Marques, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of thesis

Creativity in Product Development

Supervisors

in Portugal: Arlindo Silva (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST)


The research addresses the issue of modeling of the ideation or initial phase of the design process.

Overall, design is an activity involving reasoning and creativity. The intersection of engineering design

and cognitive psychology is a branch of research that can be productively expanded, as breakthrough

developments tend to come from research at the interface of different fields of knowledge. The model

builds upon prior work at the interface of engineering design and cognitive psychology to create a

balanced model of the human mind applied to the activity of design. Three domains – inspiration,

decomposition and integration – and three spaces – problem-space, idea-space and concept-space –

are described as elements of the model. The iterative flow of the design process passes through these

domains in a semi-controlled way, through a sequence of process loops in- and between the spaces.

The most important process loops can be of a specialization or a generalization nature, capturing the

convergent and divergent thinking present in design and creative problem solving. Some creative

mechanisms from prior research are utilized in the model to embody creativity. The case of an automatic

toll collection complex system – Via Verde - was explored. To meet the requirements of the many

technologies and innovations involved in its conception and development the model is purposed in

order to explain how is possible to meet the requirements of such technical complexity, adding value to

customers, stakeholders, and the company itself which operates in a very competitive industry. A link

between creativity in companies and innovation is achieved and explained showing how the company

has been continuously improved the system. Furthermore several examples found in the development

and implementation phase of the tool collection system shows the correspondence between the

proposed model and the reality.

104

Raquel Folgado, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of thesis

Influence of Variability on Assembly Systems

Supervisors

in Portugal: Elsa Henriques (IST), Paulo Peças (IST), Guilherme Pereira (UMinho)



In the present context, where products have shorter life cycles, have more model variety and demand

uncertainty, an extended automation, even if technologically possible, might not be economically viable

and so cannot be fully achieved. As a result, the assembly systems become highly dependent on

operators for running the several assembly tasks required to the final product, introducing the natural

variability inherent to manual work.

The modelling and simulation of assembly systems have been specially focused on technological

aspects, in which operators are represented as resources performing defined tasks with variable

availability and/or variable efficiency. However, pursuing an increased flexibility and responsiveness of

humans to ensure competitiveness, several efforts have been made to model the non-deterministic

behaviour of the human element.

Several studies introduce approaches on how to deal with the randomness of task time, nonetheless

little industrial based data is available to use as an input. To characterize variability of manual work

using industrial data it is important to understand human behaviour and its performance in real and non-

controlled industrial environments.

From the obtained results up to date, it was verified that there is a large variation on the average task

time required to fulfil the assembly tasks as well as on the dispersion of that time among workers. It was

then possible to define an approach to map and classify the human performance in assembly tasks in

order to support the modelling of task time performance (among different and within each operator).

The second phase of this research is to study the effect of the different classes of manual work

performances on the assembly system global performance. It will consider different patterns of human

resources allocation and different assembly systems configurations. As an outcome, it’s expected to

understand the impact of each type of workers performance and how to make the assembly system

more robust and less sensitive to manual work variability. Having that, it’s possible to obtain guidelines

for better assembly systems design/redesigns and operating policies in order to reduce and/or take

advantage of the effects of different operators performances, on human-centred assembly systems.

This research is being conducted in close interaction with Iber-Oleff, a Portuguese company working in

the automotive sector.

105


Ricardo Torcato, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of thesis

An expert decision support system for concurrent development of RIM parts

Supervisors

in Portugal: Ricardo Santos (FEUP), Madalena Dias (FEUP)



In order to identify and organize the knowledge required for the development process of Reaction

Injection Moulding (RIM) parts and processes, two US RIM companies were visited and their experts

provided valuable information that enabled us to redefine the scope of study and the objectives of this

research. During the visits we confirmed the general lack of explicit consideration of the downstream

processes in the concept development stage.

Considering:

• The literature review on product development and tools to incorporate expert knowledge in

the part and process design, and the cost estimation techniques

• The need for a validated design that will provide insight into metrics such as development

lead time and manufacturing costs to deal with the decision makings required in early

stage design in order to reduce the subsequent redesigns and reworks.

It is our belief that the concurrent concept development is the appropriate approach.

Nevertheless, the inherent complexity and intensive knowledge requirements of this concurrent

development problem, as well as the scarcity of human experts in the field, raises the need to develop

an Expert System (ES) for the concurrent design of RIM parts (that starts with inputs of customer

requirements on product features, both functional and aesthetic, and ends with outputs that determine

part material, mould design features, mould-making processes, moulding processes, and cost

estimations of mould fabrication and moulding operation).

An ES architecture and framework, which emphasizes the concurrent concept development process of

RIM parts, was developed.

The next steps in the research will be to validate the framework by means of the prototype production

and test on a company to be selected.

Although there is previous research works in the use of ES in product development, gaps were found

concerning the lack of research in the concept development stage and lack of integration with other

methodologies. Therefore, this research contributes to the existing literature on two levels 1) by studying

the application of an ES in the conceptual stage of RIM parts development and 2) the ES’s integration

with PBCM methodology.

106

Ricardo Sá, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of thesis

Industrial Laser Cutting Machine Optimization and Redesign

Supervisor

in Portugal: Ferrie van Hattum (UMinho)


The project here presented is focused in the redesign of structural elements of an industrial laser cutting

machine.

The machining process is based in material removal and is obtained by focusing a highly intense laser

beam on the work piece. It allows for two-dimensional geometries to be produced in a high-speed,

repeatable, and reliable manner.

The project’s initial analysis will be focused on the gantry. The relevance of this part comes from the fact

that it provides support for the laser head and the optic system. The gantry moves in one axis while

allowing for the optical components to move on the orthogonal one.

Two of the most important characteristics in determining whether or not the machine corresponds to the

customer needs are precision and speed. These two characteristics are a direct result of the gantry’s

design.

If the gantry suffers a significant deformation while moving, the laser will not be focused in the desired

point. This will result in parts with variable types and degrees of defects and might generate non-

conformities.

The gantry moves at high speeds, especially when no cutting is taking place and the machine’s optical

unit is moving from one cutting site to another. Apart from the need of stability of the gantry upon the

arrival to the cutting site, the maximum speed is also limited by its weight.

The fact that the gantry’s behavior affects major aspects of the whole machine makes it an obvious

potential target for structural optimization.

These machines’ components (and the Laser Cutting Machine’s gantry in particular) are traditionally

produced in welded steel. These results in structures weighting about 300 Kg and with a high

complexity and lead time.

The inclusion of new materials and the re-design of this part must aim at achieving a solution that allows

overcoming the limitations presented by the current design.

This project also aims at addressing the process through which a new technology will be implemented

in the company’s portfolio, as well as the costs these imply, as well as changes of layout and/or supply

chain.

The work that has been performed so far, aims to understand which characteristics, in the whole

machine, are relevant to the decision process of customers and other stakeholders. A methodology to

assess this in a Business to Business environment is being developed and the result of this first stage

will be an input of most relevance for the conception and design stages of the project.

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Rui Carreira, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1,5 months

Title of the thesis

Designing the Travel Experience

Supervisors

in Portugal: Lia Patrício (FEUP), Renato Natal (FEUP)

at MIT: Chris Magee

Main publication

“Towards a holistic approach to the travel experience: a qualitative study of bus transportation”, to be

submitted to the Transportation research journal


Designing for the customer experience is increasingly important for the success of new product

development (NDP), but two challenges arise: the customer experience is determined, not only by the

product, but also by the interaction with service(s) within which it may be embedded; and the customer

experience is formed in all moments of interaction with a product or service. Specifically in public

transportation, the travel experience (TE) provided is holistic in the way that it starts before the actual

trip and doesn’t necessarily stop after arriving at the destination. The Kansei engineering method allows

for the incorporation of affective reactions and emotions in NPD, but it does not involve a structured and

holistic approach to the study of the customer experience.

This project aims at better understanding customer TEs and to develop methods for incorporating their

requirements in NPD. In order to identify customer TE requirements, qualitative and quantitative studies

were performed with bus users in two settings: tourism and inter-city. The qualitative study consisted of

observations and interviews with 25 tourists and 27 inter-city passengers that were fully transcribed and

their content analyzed. The quantitative study was based on two questionnaires that were self-

administered by 188 tourists and 1596 inter-city passengers. The data was analyzed following standard

procedures for scale development, involving exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and structural

equation modeling. The study results identified 7 dimensions of TE requirements (Individual Comfort,

Information provision, Driver's skills, Social Environment, Bus maintenance, Bus terminal, Ticketline

service). The Bus Interior Aesthetics is associated to the dimension of overall comfort, which the

passengers rated as very important and also as having a low performance in current buses. The

translation of the Interior Aesthetics-ER into bus body design parameters was done using the principles

of Kansei Engineering Methodology with the collaboration of a bus body manufacturer and MIT

researchers. Additionally, the period at the MIT was important to contact with researchers working on

NPD.

So far, with the collaboration of the transportation companies involved, it was possible to have an in-

depth understanding of the TE, based on experience- centric (i.e. tourists) and utilitarian (i.e. inter-city)

passengers’ perspective, and contribute to a more holistic incorporation of the TE in the NPD process.

Additionally, the design of new vehicles and transportation services as an integrated whole is improved

by the use of an adequate affective oriented engineering methodology to incorporate the better

understanding of the passengers’ TE requirements.

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Rui Rocha, UMinho, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Optical Microsystems

Supervisors

in Portugal: José Correia (UMinho), João Carmo (UMinho)


The clear definition of the objectives and goals of the proposed doctoral LTI thesis are still in progress.

But the PhD thesis will be carried out under the scope of the project “Development of integrated

systems for smart interiors”.

In recent years, the engineering community has been focusing on the development of a new generation

of high-performance mechanical systems that have integrated sensing, diagnostics and control

capabilities while continuing to perform their intended functions. The automotive industry particularly, is

keen on increasing the use of these integrated systems in their vehicles with the aim of saving weight,

increasing the number of functions and reducing both the component and assembly costs. This project

seeks to develop smart devices and materials for automotive interiors that incorporate sensor and

actuator capabilities for both conventional and new functions in terms of: safety, comfort, performance,

aesthetic and information processing. The focus area of this PhD thesis will be a clear characterization

of the best suitable flexible carrier materials, where the optical fibers and sensors will be embedded.

This is a very important stage in the complex system composed by the optical fiber sensors and the

laminates in which they are embedded. This includes the full mechanical and thermal characterization

of these materials, as well as their interaction with the optical fibers, when subjected to changes in the

environmental conditions. To validate these concepts, it is necessary to test and measure several

physical parameters in a car to be performed both in laboratory and real field scenarios. According to

system’s specifications for the end-users, the most suitable process of manufacturing the electronic

micro devices will be selected. To embed optical fibers with sensing capacities in carriers composed of

different materials is an objective of the utmost importance to the industry and academia.

To address the multidisciplinary topic of this project, a consortium of several partners (Universities and

Companies) which provide complementary skills in the field of research it was formed. The three major

industrial partners are well established automotive suppliers in complementary areas for automotive

interiors and there is also a company specialized in sensoring technologies.

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Samuel Moniz, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

OPPS - Optimal Production Planning and Scheduling of Multipurpose Batch Plants

Supervisors

in Portugal: Ana Barbosa Póvoa (IST), Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP)



The objectives of this research project are to develop generic planning and scheduling models of

multipurpose batch plants, and design the basis for an integrated production planning framework.

Planning and scheduling decisions need to be made in accordance with the strategic decisions of the

organizations. By understanding the different levels of planning and through the development of an

integrated planning model, this research will contribute to implement efficient decision-making

processes for the management of multipurpose batch plants. The research project will be developed

along the following macro tasks: (1) problem characterization; (2) development of planning models; (3)

development of scheduling models; (4) build up of a hierarchical tool; (5) models validation; (6) cost

benefit analysis.

The problem description based on an industrial case has already been concluded. This involved the

definition of the product recipes, equipment characteristics description and identification of the

planning and scheduling constraints. In a second phase, the problem was decomposed into three main

blocks: process synthesis, planning and scheduling. Currently, the focus is on the following tasks:

literature review, proposal of a conceptual framework, mathematical formulation, and model building

and solving with ILOG/CPLEX.

It should be noted that planning and scheduling of multipurpose batch plants leads to a drastic

increase of model complexity with the problem size, limiting the applicability of exact methods in

industrial problems. Alternative methods are being used to obtain acceptable solutions with

manageable planning and scheduling models. In this research hybrid methods will be used to design

planning and scheduling algorithms (e.g. Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) + Heuristics). One

of the most relevant formulations for planning and scheduling of multipurpose batch plans is the

Resource-Task-Network proposed by (Pantelides, 1994). This formulation is being studied to check their

applicability to the novel challenges found in the industrial case.

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111


Sara Marques, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Light-duty vehicles energy and emissions "eco-score" considering total life cycle analysis and different

end-users

Supervisors

in Portugal: Carla Silva (IST), Luís G. Reis (IST), João Luiz Afonso (UMINHO)

Main publication

Marques Sara Afonso João, Reis Luis, Silva Carla; "Scenarios for the introduction of Electrical Vehicles in

Portugal Study" to be submitted to International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems.


The development of this work aims the eco-scoring of energy and CO2 emissions of light-duty vehicles

considering several technologies (internal combustion engine vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, pure electric

vehicles, hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles) and different end users (urban, highway, mix driving

and driving frequency). A benefit analysis of a smart connection to the grid will be performed, regarding

environmental aspects and its inclusion in the eco-scoring.

An assessment of the optimization model for possible technology/end user combinations will be

conducted using heuristic methods, considering energy consumption and CO2 emissions emitted along

total life cycle.

The prototype solutions derived from the project “Assessment and development of integrated systems

for electric vehicles” (MIT-Pt/EDAM-SMS/0030/2008) will be subjected to the developed analysis and

eco-scored accordingly.

The main innovative aspect of this work is to fulfill the gap created by the actual labeling methods for

vehicles, which is not set for new vehicle technologies (e.g. electric and hybrid).

Considering the above described objectives, it was performed a state-of-the-art literature review in

order to define a start point for the study. The study of vehicles smart connection to the grid and

impacts is performed considering three domains: 1) electrical vehicle integration in fleet without

considering grid imposed charging restrictions; 2) electrical vehicles integration in fleet considering

time restricting charging imposed by grid; and 3) electrical vehicle integration in fleet considering a

smart connection to grid.

Initial approach was made considering the first domain and geographical boundaries set in Portugal.

Several scenarios for different rates of plug-in vehicles introduction in Portuguese fleet and different

energy generation sources mix percentages were studied with in order to obtain their impact in terms of

energy (MJ) and CO2 emissions (t). First approach it is now completed and a paper was presented at

the IAMF 2011 conference (entitled “Conventional, Plug-in Hybrid and Pure Electric Vehicle Fuel Life-

Cycle Comparison Considering their Connection to the Portuguese Electrical Grid and Consequent

Impact in CO2 Emissions”).

Presently, studies are being carried out in order to understand the impact considering the other two

domains also with geographical boundary set in Portugal. In the future these three domains will be

further studied with enlarged geographical boundaries. The results are to be incorporated in a

classification equation that will allow to obtain efficiency bands for light-duty vehicles.


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Senay Sadıç, FEUP, Turkey

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Event and Risk Management in Dynamic and Collaborative SME Networks

Supervisors

in Portugal: Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP) and José Crispim (UMinho)



Today’s dynamic business environments require the design of different, specific solutions in terms of

business models. Collaborative networks are often a good response to these new requirements; they

put together small, distinct, specialized companies (mainly SME’s) working together according to

predefined common goals. Accordingly, one key objective in this context is to guarantee the necessary

flexibility to satisfy business opportunities and have more bargaining power through the potential of

specialized competences and skills.

The collaborative network approach requires the deployment of a community (often called a “breeding

environment”) able to handle emerging complex business opportunities, splitting those opportunities

into feasible smaller tasks and achievable goals, and finally creating a network from a predefined

cluster of companies to perform these operations collaboratively.

The main contribution of this research project will be the design of a conceptual framework and a set of

tools to support the detailed or operational planning processes in collaborative business networks.

The current state of the art responds mostly to intra-organizational planning issues with Advanced

Planning Systems. However for inter-organizational planning situations no general solution or

methodology have been figured out yet. Information asymmetry is the main motivation for focusing on

collaborative planning approaches and for different levels of information sharing, different, innovative

models and methodologies are required. In the perfect information case, Advanced Planning Systems

would in general be able to respond to the needs of supply chain parties, but this assumption is almost

never valid.

Another innovative contribution of this work will be based on extending the current literature models,

used for the coordination of two distinct companies, to integrated network structured, multi-company

models.

In a first phase of the project we have reviewed the literature to come up with different integration

models. Our focus now is on developing optimization models that can respond to supply uncertainty in

collaborative manufacturing. We are building hopefully robust models that can respond to production

and transportation disruptions within companies. These models minimize cost and guarantee that

production and distribution deadlines are met.

The next steps of the research intend to set up a framework for developing effective and efficient

decision support tools for detailed operational planning of collaborative networks.


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Sérgio M. O. Tavares, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Design and Advanced Manufacturing of Aircraft Structures using Friction Stir Welding

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo de Castro (FEUP), Pedro Vilaça (IST)

at MIT: Thomas Eagar

Main publication

S.M.O. Tavares, et. al., ‘Friction stir welding of T-joints with dissimilar aluminium alloys: mechanical joint

characterisation’, Science and Technology of Welding & Joining, Vol. 15(4), May 2010 , pp. 312-318.

S.M.O. Tavares, and P.M.S.T. de Castro, ‘Impact of Integral Structures in the Design for Manufacture and

Assembly of Airframes’, Key Eng. Mats, 2011, Vol. 450, pp. 279-282.

P.M.G.P. Moreira, T. Santos, S.M.O. Tavares, V. Richter-Trummer, P. Vilaca, P.M.S.T. de Castro,

'Mechanical and metallurgical characterization of friction stir welding joints of AA6061-T6 with AA6082-

T6', Materials & Design, Vol. 30(1), Jan. 2009, pp. 180-187.


The design of aircraft structures depends upon multidisciplinary factors that must be analyzed

concurrently in order to achieve higher degrees of optimization and economy of production. As an

example, the introduction of advanced manufacturing processes for structural joining requires a

detailed understanding of the mechanical behavior of the joint under service conditions, whilst

simultaneously requiring analysis of the manufacturing, assembly, operation and maintenance

procedures. The case of friction stir welding (FSW) was chosen since it is the object of large interest for

structural joining by manufacturers of commercial aircraft and aerospace equipment. The development

of new designs and manufacturing concepts and the understanding of the effects of replacing previous

joining processes have been analyzed, taking into account distinct technological and economic

aspects during the product and process development, thus creating opportunities for better

acceptance. Several topics were explored as a result of the interaction with different universities,

research institutes and industrial collaborations, giving an expanded analysis of the problem.

Research results include analysis of the impact in the replacement of joining processes in safety critical

structures, mechanical characterization of the joints manufactured with FSW, analysis and modeling of

the residual stress originated by the process, examination of main flaws and non-destructive techniques

to detect them, investigation of the application of this process in fuselage assembly, cost and weight

analysis and a final technology assessment based on the design for manufacturing and assembly

assumptions. Through this research, two patents applications were submitted with new concepts for the

use of this joining process in aeronautical structures, one of them in the scope of the internship at

Airbus. The results indicate that the FSW alternative is certainly viable in terms of costs and weight

savings, and, with limits to be stated in this thesis, is also suitable as far as fatigue behavior is

concerned.

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Vasco Figueiredo Teles, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: LTI

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Technology Roadmapping: The case of PRODUTECH – the Portuguese production technologies cluster

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Claro (FEUP), José Manuel Mendonça (FEUP)

at MIT: Randolph Kirchain


A Roadmap provides a vision towards future possibilities for technology development and application.

This vision should be supported on a framework for assessing and communicating the complexities,

dynamics, and uncertainties of such development. It eases the integration of new technologies into the

companies’ business, and the creation of business opportunities which exploit emerging technologies,

following the company’s strategy and planning. It can transmit the plans for resource allocation,

sourcing and funding alternatives, as well as support risk management decisions.

The challenge of creating and sustaining the linkages between the technological resources and

business goals leads firms and consortia to develop technology roadmaps (TRMs). The importance of

those connections, and thus the need for the TRM, derives from the urge to innovate due to the hard

competition. Additionally, when sectorial consortia are formed need to develop TRMs in order to create

a common ground not only to define standards or norms, but also to move the sector as a whole

towards the development of competitive technologies, solutions or products, while considering market

needs or opportunities.

Nevertheless, despite the vision, goals, forecasts and paths that the roadmap can outline, the future is

necessarily uncertain and this uncertainty should therefore be incorporated in the roadmapping

exercise. Methods and tools as sensitivity analysis, scenario planning, flexibility and options thinking are

considered relevant to minimize and deal with uncertainty.

On the other hand, in order to keep its importance and relevance, as well as to cope with the

uncertainty and change, a TRM should be periodically updated and maintained. The TRM updating

process revises not only the key drivers that triggered the initial TRM, but also the evolution of

technologies, products, services and markets, while new elements within these categories are

identified. Additionally, the TRM update frequency should be directly proportional to the industry’s

clockspeed, as to maintain the TRM relevance and importance.

PRODUTECH, the Portuguese production technologies cluster, has been recently created and

integrates not only technology producers but also their users within diverse industrial sectors. This

factor presents the additional challenge of congregating several visions and goals into a joint TRM,

since production technologies gather a myriad of different divisions.

At the current stage, we are revising the literature mainly under the topics of TRM, uncertainty, options

thinking, scenario planning, and flexibility. Accordingly, our prospective contribution to science will

depart from today’s identified limitations and opportunities, such as the relevance of integrating the

uncertainty and updating concepts with the development of a roadmapping methodology, and aim at a

result that can become a reference not only to PRODUTECH itself and its companies, but also to other

industries worldwide.

3.3. Sustainable Energy Systems

3.3.1. Overview

The Sustainable Energy Systems PhD program (SES), promoted by a set ofUniversities in Portugal, namely the Technical University of Lisbon (Instituto SuperiorTécnico – IST and Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – ISEG), University ofCoimbra (Faculty of Sciences and Technology FCTUC and Faculty of Economy -FEUC), University of Lisbon (Faculty of Sciences - FCUL), University of Porto (Facultyof Engineering - FEUP) and with the collaboration of MIT, is a unique effort to generatenew knowledge on clean energy systems that is academically rigorous and highlyrelevant to policy makers and industry.

The program was designed around the concept of energy systems as opposed tospecific energy technologies because the real challenge behind developing anadvanced, low-carbon energy future will be integrating and adapting a range oftechnologies to a dynamic regional context. To this end, we developed educationalprograms to provide students with the tools to understand and evaluate complexenergy systems, as well as research programs to facilitate opportunities for studentsto apply these skills in a real-world context.

Three unique and essential aspects of the SES program include our multidisciplinaryapproach to energy education and research; the direct utility of our research forimproved policy and industry development; and the opportunity for applied researchon integrated energy systems. Rather than discuss each of these key programcomponents conceptually, it is more useful to view the value of each of these aspectsthrough some of the innovative research topics developed by our PhD students in acollaborative effort within their home universities, and through their extended researchstays at MIT.

A multidisciplinary approach

The SES educational program is anchored by a multidisciplinary core curriculum.Students learn to approach complex energy challenges by leveraging tools from thefields of economics, engineering, policy analysis and management, among others.While dissolving disciplinary boundaries within a single university representschallenge enough, the SES program was able to develop a coherent multidisciplinaryprogram across multiple universities in Portugal and in coordination with MIT. Thiscollaboration has created a platform for students to define unique and novel energyresearch topics, often at the nexus of two or more disciplines.

One of our third-year PhD students is working at the interface of architecture andenergy efficiency engineering. During his classroom research, he recognized thatthe architectural demand for the aesthetic at the early stage of building design wascompletely disconnected from designing building shape to maximize energyefficiency. In response, he is developing a tool for optimizing building shape tobalance architectural vision with key energy efficiency objectives.

Of course, addressing new buildings alone is not sufficient to reduce theenvironmental burden of the building stock. Other students are focusing on improvingenergy use in existing buildings by developing a multi-objective optimization tool to

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inform choices about the retrofit options. Also, linking multiple disciplines, theirmodels balance economic, environmental, and thermal comfort metrics to informretrofit design.

Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are being leveragedto enable energy efficiency monitoring and management in a promising researcheffort. The students are seeking to understand what types of information, dataprocessing and communication are necessary to make an electricity grid “smart”from the standpoint of increasing the efficiency of end-uses. Their approach includesresearch from the fields of energy demand monitoring, consumer behavior andartificial intelligence.

Policy and industry relevance

As an academic program, SES PhD addresses the fundamental requirement of anyPhD research, namely that it must generate new scientific knowledge. However, ourprogram goes a step further. We push our students to select topics that encouragethem to create knowledge that can be applied directly towards the development ofadvanced energy systems, through either policy or industry channels.

Three fourth-year PhD students are finalizing high-quality research on policy-relevanttopics. Recognizing the emergence of city leaders as key players in the energy policyarena, a student has focused her research on reviewing and consolidating metricsfor sustainability to assist policymakers at the local level. She has already appliedthese metrics to two case studies: Porto (her home research city) and the City ofBoston (during her extended research stay at MIT). Another student has approachedthe policy dilemma of balancing the liberalization of electricity markets whilesimultaneously promoting renewable electricity generation. Specifically, she isdeveloping a methodology to optimize renewable energy feed-in tariffs to minimizecarbon emissions while maximizing the influence of market forces to increase theeconomic efficiency of the system. In a third topic, a student’s research addressesthe effects of transportation policy on automobile fleet composition, and thesubsequent impacts on energy consumption, CO2 emissions and total cost. Ratherthan creating a “black box” optimization model, she has developed a simulationmodel where decision-makers are given the power to compare alternative scenariosto match their particular policy targets.

Meanwhile, a third-year PhD candidate is assessing the economic and environmentalsustainability of biofuels from vegetable oils encompassing the whole life cycle of thesystems analyzed, including policy-relevant local impacts such as deforestation,water pollution, and land use competition with food crops. The recent EU Directive2009/28/EC and EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program show the importance thatpolicymakers are attributing to this topic both in Europe and the US.

Three fourth-year students working at highly industry-relevant themes. One topic isbased on identifying a clear set of metrics for corporate sustainability. The student isworking to develop a set of key sustainability performance indicators that can beapplied widely for sustainability benchmarking and performance assessment ofcorporations. On the more technical side, two students are working collaborativelyto analyze the potential impacts of large-scale introduction of electric vehicles (EVs)on the power network. These students recognized early on their research that themajor challenge in the transition to a clean energy future is not the development of

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individual technologies (such as EVs), but the integration of new technologies intothe existing system infrastructure.

As an example of student research linking tightly with industry, a fourth-year studentis developing a patented technology to strongly reduce the cost of photovoltaics (PV),cost being the main barrier for massive penetration of PV panels into the energymarket. He is now refining his technology design in an MIT laboratory and hisinnovative design has already formed the technological core of a new startupcompany founded by Portuguese researchers.

Integrated energy systems applied research projects

In terms of applied energy research, the SES Program has developed two majorresearch projects that seek to integrate many of the individual student research topicsand apply them to a real world energy system. The Green Islands Project focuses ondeveloping a set of advanced energy systems modeling tools, including renewableresources and demand side management, that are applied to promote a sustainableenergy future of the Azores archipelago, and the Sustainable Urban Energy Systemstopic analyzes the many dimensions of the Lisbon and Porto energy systems.

A key focus of the Green Islands project is to develop an in-depth understanding ofthe dynamic energy supply and demand system on each of the nine islands. Sinceeach island represents a small, isolated energy community, small perturbations orinterruptions in either the fuel or electricity systems have a relatively greater impactthan on large networked systems in the mainland. As the Azores moves towards ahigher penetration of renewables in the electricity generation in the islands, a higherresolution monitoring and management system will need to be deployed to activelybalance increasingly complex supply and demand pressures.

On the supply side of our Green Islands Project research, a fourth-year student ischaracterizing the complex patterns and probabilities of wind power productionacross all islands and all time scales (from hourly to annual). She has developed herresearch project while studying both in Portugal and MIT, as well as in collaborationwith researchers in the Azores at the local university. Her research will produceinvaluable analysis for future development of wind resources in the Azores withspecific contributions towards scaling and siting future wind farms. Focusing on solarresources in the islands, a third-year student, whose research is partly financed bya Portuguese industrial photovoltaics company is testing a low concentrationphotovoltaic system in the Azores

Another student is focusing his research on demand-side energy analysis withspecific emphasis on developing a multi-criteria decision-making platform fortargeting end-uses best suited for efficiency interventions, and then quantifying theeffects of these policy measures in terms of energy and cost savings. His researchwill culminate in the development of an Energy Efficiency Action Plan for the Azoresregion.

The Sustainable Urban Energy Systems project operates on the thesis that theconcentration of resource and material flows through urban centers represents botha challenge and an opportunity for the advancement of sustainability. By closelyexamining and characterizing these resource flows, researchers can highlight keyentry points for efficiency measures or “closed-loop” material conservation

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interventions. With ongoing rapid urbanization occurring globally, refining theresource “metabolism” of cities will play a key role in transitioning towards asustainable future.

Using Lisbon as a case study, a fourth-year PhD candidate has focused specificallyon creating a set of standard methods for analyzing urban material flows. He isworking to re-characterize “static” standardized resource data sets into dynamicurban flows by developing a model that incorporates key additional parameters, suchas material type categorization, resource conversion factors and lifespan calculations.With eighty percent of the eleven million tons of material inputs to Lisbon categorizedas non-renewable resources, he aims to link his research directly to improvedgovernment policy as well as new space for industrial activity.

Another student is applying integrated econometric methodologies with spatialanalysis (GIS) to map the geographic distribution of material flows across the city ofLisbon. This innovative multi-method approach will allow decision-makers and urbanplanners to visualize resource flows across the cityscape in terms of total flows andby individual sectors.

A bright future

The Sustainable Energy Systems Program began with a vision of an integratededucation and research program designed to address the critical challenge oftransitioning energy systems towards sustainability. Despite the occasional difficultyof coordinating a program of such breadth and ambition, the work produced by ourstudents highlights the real success of our program in terms of developing innovativemethodologies for energy research and preparing a cohort of future professionalsthat are well positioned to design and deliver an advanced energy future in Portugaland abroad.

Coordinators of Sustainable Energy Systems

António Gomes Martins, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of CoimbraAntónio Vallera, Faculty of Sciences, University of LisbonJoão Peças Lopes, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (PhD director)David Marks, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT (PhD director)Paulo Ferrão, IST, Technical University of Lisbon

3.3.2. Structure

The Sustainable Energy Systems doctoral program is a unified program for all theinstitutions involved in the SES program with a common core curriculum and commonguidelines but with differentiated structures at a local level: FEUP (Porto),IST/ISEG/FCUL (Lisbon) and UC (Coimbra).

FEUP

The SES PhD program at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP)covers all the three areas of the SES research: Energy Planning, Sustainable BuiltEnvironment and Advanced Electric Networks. The first year is filled with courses

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Structure of the curricular part of the SES PhD program at FEUP (first year)

Course Profile ECTS Mandatory/Optional Semester

Energy, Environment and Sustainability +

thematic work A,B,C 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Energy Planning A,B 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Energy Markets and Regulation C 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Analysis and Simulation of Thermal Systems A,B 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Signals, Dynamics and Control C 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Introduction to Economics * A,C 6 Optional 1st

Economics of Natural Resources

and Environment * A,C 6 Optional 1st

Projects Evaluation and Externalities * B 6 Optional 1st

Computational Intelligence and Power Systems C 7.5 Optional 1st

Seminar A,B,C 22.5 Mandatory 2nd

Energy Efficiency A,B 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Market Simulation C 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Energy Demand Side Management A,B 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Electrical Systems with Renewables C 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Optimization and Decision Support Techniques A,C 7.5 Optional 2nd

Energy in Buildings B 7.5 Optional 2nd

Forecasting C 7.5 Optional 2nd

Methods for Optimal Power Flow C 7.5 Optional 2nd

Wind Energy C 7.5 Optional 2nd

* Modules offered by UTL/FCUL

and early preparation of the research plan, on which students work full time foranother three years. The curricular plan of the first year is organized along three basegraduation profiles:

Profile A: Energy Systems Planning Profile B: Sustainable Cities and Regions Profile C: Advanced Electric Networks

In each semester students must take three of the mandatory courses and chooseone of the optional courses presented in Table below in order to complete a total ofsixty credits.

UTL/FCULAt the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL) / Faculty of Sciences of the University ofLisbon (FCUL), students have the opportunity to build a diversified curriculum withEconomics and Policy courses at the School of Economics and Management (ISEG-Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão from UTL) and Environment, Technology,and Systems modules at the School of Engineering (IST - Instituto Superior Técnicofrom UTL), and/or the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL).

Each student in the Doctoral Program creates a unique curriculum to fulfill her/hisindividual interests. The students have two mandatory courses, Seminar I andSeminar II, and then choose from a pool of optional courses (Table below) under thesupervision of a designated faculty member, in order to complete 48 to 60 credits(ECTS).

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Structure of the Sustainable Energy Systems PhD at UTL/FCUL

Scientific area Course ECTS Mandatory/Optional Semester

Introductory courses Introduction to Economics 6 Optional 1st

Introduction to Engineering 6 Optional 1st

Economics Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment 6 Optional 1st

Econometrics 6 Optional 1st

Energy Systems Economics and Modeling 6 Optional 1st

Risk Management 6 Optional 2nd

Projects Evaluation and Externalities 6 Optional 2nd

Regulation Theory 6 Optional 2nd

Environment Energy, Environment and Sustainability 6 Optional 1st

Energy in Transportation 4,5 Optional 1st

Ecological Economics 6 Optional 2nd

Energy Systems Energy Management 4,5 Optional 1st

Energy Systems Integration 6 Optional 2nd

Optimization of Energy Systems 6 Optional 2nd

Energy Technologies Seminars I 3 Mandatory 1st

Seminars II 3 Mandatory 2nd

Energy in Buildings 6 Optional 2nd

Nuclear Energy 6 Optional 2nd

Renewable Energy Resources6 Optional 2n

UCThe students of the SES Doctoral Program at the University of Coimbra (UC) have tocomplete the two mandatory courses and they choose other courses from a pool ofoptional courses (see Table below) in order to sum up a total of sixty credits (ECTS)in their first year.The program is divided into two areas:

• Buildings and Urban Environment• Energy Systems and Policy

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Common guidelines

At the end of the first semester students should find a faculty member at theiruniversity who agrees to be their Faculty Research Supervisor. Faculty ResearchSupervisors should advise the students on their research paper. At the end of thefirst year, the Faculty Research Supervisor will be asked to write a letter ofrecommendation for the student, assessing his/her potential for carrying out a PhDthesis successfully.

At the end of the first year in the PhD program, students will be evaluated in order todecide whether they qualify to proceed to the 2nd year of the program. This decisionwill be made at their host university, taking into account a recommendation by theSES Committee (with a representative from all the Portuguese universities offeringthe SES PhD degree and a representative from MIT).

In order to continue in the PhD Program, students must meet the following criteria: • Complete enough courses in order to obtain the required number of ECTS

at their host school,• Complete the SES Doctoral Seminar,• Obtain a minimum average grade of 14 (out of a 0-20 scale) at the end of

the first year,• Provide a recommendation letter from their Faculty Research Supervisor,

Structure of the SES PhD program at the University of Coimbra (UC)

Scientific area Course ECTS Mandatory/Optional Semester

Mandatory Courses Research Design & Methods 3 Mandatory 1st

Thesis project (includes the SES doctoral seminar) 30 Mandatory 1st and 2nd

Buildings Space organization and and Urban the Environment 6 Optional 2nd

Environment Buildings and Environment 6 Optional 1st

Energy Management in Buildings 6 Optional 1st

Indoor Environmental Quality 6 Optional 1st

Seminar – Buildings and Urban Environments 3 Optional 2nd

Ventilation, HVAC, and Building Systems 6 Optional 2nd

Building Envelope - Outside Environment 6 Optional 2nd

Energy Systems Energy Economics and Markets 6 Optional 2nd

and Policy Environmental Economics 6 Optional 1st

Energy Management in Industry 6 Optional 1st

Seminar – Energy Systems 3 Optional 2nd

Renewable Energy Systems 6 Optional 1st

Transportation and Energy 3 Optional 1st

Other elective Decision Analysis 6 Optional 2nd

courses offered Industrial Ecology 6 Optional 1st

by UC Fundamentals of Operations Research 6 Optional 1st

Innovation & Entrepreneurism 3 Optional 2nd

Measurement and Data Acquisition Systems 6 Optional 2nd

Introduction to Energy Systems 6 Optional 1st

Energy Planning and Sustainable Development 3 Optional 2nd

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• Prepare a research statement of up to 4 pages with a brief summary of thestate of the art that outlines the research area of interest, hypothesis,research methodology, strategy for the completion of the research, andprovisional schedule.

Students who do not meet the minimum criteria described above will not be invited tocontinue in the PhD Program, but if they have sufficiently completed the courseworkrequirements for the first year, they will be awarded a diploma of an Advanced StudiesProgram (DEA or DFA). This will be determined by their host universities.

Each qualified PhD student will be assigned a PhD Committee. This committee isresponsible for monitoring and guiding the student’s progress through his/herresearch activities. Students should meet with the PhD Committee at least once persemester. Students who will be conducting research at MIT will be required to havean MIT Faculty member on their committee.

At the completion of year 2, PhD candidates shall produce a Thesis Assessmentpaper of about 20-30 pages reporting the state of the art, selected researchquestions, formal definition of the problem to study and modeling, hypothesisand methodologies to tackle the problem, data collected or plans for it anddefinition of study cases, tools to be used and any preliminary results. Studentswill meet with their PhD Committee to present and discuss the progress assessmentreport and receive feedback. If the PhD Committee determines that the student isnot making enough progress on his/her research, this will be discussed with thestudent and next steps will be determined.


A few students stand out from the Sustainable Energy Systems doctoral programbecause of the large number of publications in international conferences and in peer-reviewed journals and also because of the outstanding quality of their work and theinnovative contribution they brought to their field. These are:

Patrícia Baptista who developed the theme of the environmental impacts that mayresult from a large scale deployment of electric vehicles, namely the identification ofpollutants emissions applying a vehicle full life cycle analyzis. Patrícia spent sometime at MIT: here is her comment about her experience there.

‘I spent seven months developing my research work at MIT in 2009. In terms of myresearch these months were decisive to integrate my work in the existing researchand to have my co-supervisor contribution. The main positive aspects were thepossibility to attend classes at MIT, great interaction with faculty and especially withmy co-supervisor, the integration within MIT student’s community and the diversity ofactivities available on campus.’

André Pina who developed multi-scale energy models with high time resolution,regarding supply and demand dynamics for the optimization of investment in newgeneration capacity. This lead to a new application of TIMES, which allows to modelthe maximization of the penetration of renewable energies. The test bed is São Miguelisland, at Azores. André has made a short but profitable visit to MIT and he describesbelow its outcomes.

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‘The objectives of my short visit to MIT were to share my research in the modelling ofsustainable energy systems and coordinate with the local Green Islands team interms of data availability and possible research cooperation. From this trip I was ableto contextualize my thesis topic in the broader scope of the ‘Green Islands Project’and guide my research to areas where there is a lack of knowledge.’

Filipe Soares developed simulation tools capable of evaluating the impact of differentElectric Vehicle charging strategies in the operation of electrical grids. He alsodeveloped a statistical approach for assessing the impacts resulting from EVpresence in a given electricity network, taking into account the patterns of mobility ina certain geographical area. Filipe carried out part of his research work at MIT: hereis his opinion about the time he spent there.

‘The time I spent at MIT provided me the opportunity to contact professors andstudents working in the same research area as I and the possibility of havingimportant discussions with them about my thesis topic. As a result of these meetings,some partnerships were established with several MIT students for publishing articlesin international peer-reviewed journals. The valuable contact with MIT's industrialpartners that work in subjects related with my research area was also very useful,since it has deepened my knowledge about the process of transferring technologyfrom universities to industry.’

Pedro Almeida developed new control procedures to be adopted by electric vehiclebattery / grid interfaces in order to make EV participate in primary and secondaryfrequency controls. Pedro developed some of his work at MIT: here is his opinionabout this stay.

‘Being in Boston gave me the possibility of contacting people whose research areasare complementary to mine, both in the academic side and in the industrial side. Imet battery manufacturers and research groups conducting laboratorial fatigue teststo different battery technologies, which is a topic of great importance for validatingand assuring that the models I have developed for my thesis are in line with thecurrent state-of-the-art.‘


For the SES educational programs (PhD and Master’s) thirty-eight new courses havebeen specially designed. These courses are taught by fifty faculty members from thefive participating Portuguese schools in this area. The MIT faculty participates withguest speakers in doctoral seminars which take place throughout the year. In the lastacademic year (2009/10) five MIT faculty members gave eight seminars of two hourseach.


At FEUP students use the local platform called SiFEUP where the faculty posts all theinformation about the classes, including grades. Students can use this platform tocommunicate with each other and faculty.

The main platform for interaction between students and faculty for the students atIST/ISEG is the Google groups. This platform has been in operation since 2008 and

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has currently 147 members, including students and faculty. It has a forum where thecoordination posts conferences advertisements and important information about thecourses’ daily activities, but also where students talk with each other about energytopics that they are studying. The Google group is also used to store information foreach of the taught courses, in particular the syllabus, presentations, bibliography,faculty contacts. Important information like exams calendar, schedule, studies plan,course organizations and educational support documents are also stored here forstudents to have access. A new platform, using the Moodle system, has beendeveloped to be used in the next academic year because it has more capacity andfunctionalities, which are needed for a growing number of students.

Faculty is asked at the beginning of each semester to send the syllabus of the coursethat he/she will be lecturing and important readings for students to read beforehand.Each faculty is requested to send the PowerPoint presentations prior to the class.Important course information, evaluations, and other materials are always sent to theSES contact point at IST/ISEG, whom redistributes the information to all the studentsthrough the Google group or by email.

The main platform for interaction between students and faculty at the University ofCoimbra is the Nonio web-based system (https://inforestudante.uc.pt), which hasbeen developed by a university spin-off software company. The system requiresauthentication, by entering the student's e-mail login and password and it allows thestudent to:

• browse information about the courses (syllabus, objectives, etc.)• browse schedule (calendar tool)• browse information about their teachers (profile, office hours, etc.)• have access to lesson summaries• have access to class materials and notification about new materials

inserted• have access to grades and notifications about published grades• receive and send messages (e-mail)

3.3.6. Benchmarking

The Sustainable Energy Systems (SES) program is an integrated educational initiativeoffered across six schools (IST, ISEG, FCUL, FCTUC, FEUC and FEUP) in Portugaland in collaboration with MIT. The SES program offers both a Master’s of BusinessEngineering and a PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems. Both degree programs sharea one-year (150 hours) cohesive core curriculum that includes classes in thedisciplines of economics, engineering, and policy analysis as applied to energysystems. Both programs challenge students to apply a systems approach to energy researchwith the ultimate objective of creating and applying knowledge for the design andimplementation of sustainable energy systems. Participants have the opportunity tolearn about the practical application of energy strategies through real-world casestudy research conducted in collaboration with industry partners. Both PhD and DFAgraduates are able to develop the tools they will need to play leadership roles inimplementing sustainable energy policy and developing new business opportunitieson clean energy in the future.

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Benchmarking approach

Currently, there are no standard quantitative metrics available for benchmarking theSustainable Energy Systems degrees (MBE and PhD) against similar integratedenergy graduate education programs at other universities. Further, since SES is arelatively new program, it is not yet possible to accurately benchmark outputs(number of theses, mean time to graduate, published materials, citations, careerdevelopment by alumni, etc.) against other programs with multiple years of data ontheir graduates. Finally, a lack of published information about what is happening inother programs makes it difficult to apply consistent criteria for program comparisons,such numbers of candidates (applied, enrolled and graduated), dropout rate, etc.As the program evolves, the potential for benchmarking will increase as moreindicators become relevant and as we learn more about similar programs abroad.

That said, it is important that the role of benchmarking should not be overstated interms of creating a myopic focus on unidimensional indices like numbers of researchpapers or citation indexes. These types of metrics can skew evaluation effortstowards rewarding small individual accomplishments when the broader objective ofSES is to create integrated systems philosophy in energy research. Nevertheless,what follows is our attempt at an objective benchmark analysis based on the structureand course curricula offered by similar PhD and Master’s level programs.

Existing Sustainable Energy Systems programs

There are many other programs offering both Master’s and PhD degrees in energy-related research, but most of these initiatives do not include a structured educationalprogram with the highly integrated, systems approach that is central to the SESProgram. Internationally, the majority of programs being offered are Master of Science(MSc) degrees with heavy emphasis on engineering, with few universities offeringPhDs or Master’s specifically in Energy Systems.

To our best knowledge, the only Doctoral Program in Europe that resembles the SESprogram in terms of providing a multi-university, interdisciplinary approach to energysystems is the Joint Doctorate Program in Sustainable Energy Technologies andStrategies (core member universities include: Comillas Pontifical University; DelftUniversity of Technology; and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Copenhagen).Both the SETS and SES programs offer instruction in multiple disciplines, includingthe fields of economics, social sciences, environmental management, engineering,policy studies, and systems design. However, the SETS program resembles more ofa consortium of partner universities that share their existing curricula, rather than anintegrated program with a shared, custom-designed core curriculum on energysystems like that of SES program.

Other universities offering PhDs relating to Energy Systems analysis include CarnegieMellon – CMU (Engineering and Public Policy Program with a specific focus area onEnergy and Environmental Systems); the University of California at Berkeley (Energyand Resource Group); and MIT (Engineering Systems Division). In contrast to multi-university design of the SES and the SETS programs, these three programs alloperate independently in terms of curriculum design and degree requirements (ofcourse, there is collaboration between MIT and SES on research projects, but not interms of an official joint curriculum). While these three programs emphasizeintegrated systems approaches to research in energy technologies and policy

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design, only CMU has a depth of technical expertise in power grids that can compareto SES or the SETS programs.

Similar to the unique qualities of the SES PhD degree, the SES Master’s in Energy isinnovative amongst its peers (other MSc programs) in terms of its multi-universitystructure. Further, the MBE students share the same core curriculum as the SES PhDstudents, allowing for cross-collaboration across the degree programs as well asbetween the universities. As a result, the MBE students are participating at a doctorallevel of intensive instruction in the three main fields of energy study: SustainableEnergy Technologies; Energy Economics and Policy; and Smart Energy Networks.

The next table shows an effort to summarize the core characteristics of the SESprograms for the Masters of Business Engineering and PhD degrees as comparedto other energy programs (PhD and MSc levels) using the structural dimensions asdiscussed above: highest degree offered; multi-university collaboration; consistentcore curriculum; and level of competency in the fields of Sustainable EnergyTechnologies, Energy Economics and Policy, and Smart Energy Networks.

As shown in the next table, the SES program has many characteristics in commonwith other energy programs but truly stands out in terms of being a multi-universitycollaboration that offers structured core curriculum at the PhD and Master’s level witha depth of expertise in energy technologies, economics and policy, and powernetworks. While the alignment of multiple universities around a common educationand research platform is an ongoing challenge, it remains an important and uniquecharacteristic of the SES approach to energy studies and continues to hold greatpotential for future program development. Long-term relationships with faculty bothwithin and across universities should be further developed, especially pertaining tohuman resource development in Portugal, including the mentorship, developmentand retention of young faculty.

The Sustainable Energy Systems PhD and Master’s degree programs target astrategic niche in energy education and research by applying a systems approachto energy challenges. The systems approach permeates all aspects of the SESprogram from curriculum design to student topic selection to large-scale appliedresearch projects. It provides students with the confidence to perform effectiveanalysis in the context of complexity and uncertainty, which are both universalcharacteristics of real-world energy systems.

Finally, while the SES program represents real innovation in energy education andresearch, it is still a very young program relative to its competitors. As the programevolves and matures, faculty participants should seek opportunities to engage withcounterparts at other universities to share lessons learned as well as remain awareof the state-of-the-art in energy research internationally. In this way, the program canbuild its reputation in the broader research community as a leader in advancedenergy systems research.

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Structural Comparison of Energy Research Programs at Relevant Universities

Program Highest Formal Multi-University Consistent Core Sustainable Energy Energy Economics Smart Energy

Degree Offered Collaboration Curriculum Technologies and Policy Networks

Sustainable

Energy PhD Yes Yes High High High

Systems

SETS (Comillas, Delft, KTH)

Sustainable Energy Technologies PhD Yes No High High High

and Strategies

Carnegie Mellon University

Engineering and PhD No Yes Med High High

Public Policy

Univ. of California - Berkeley

Energy and Resources PhD No Yes High High Low

Group

MIT

Engineering PhD No Yes High High Med

Systems Division

EPFL

Engineering MSc No Yes Med Med Med

Systems

ETH-Zürich

Energy Science MSc No Yes High Med High

and Technology

Imperial College

Sustainable Energy Futures; MSc No Yes Med High Low

Energy and Economics

Stanford University

ManagementScience MSc No Yes High High Low

and Engineering

Aalborg

Sustainable Energy MSc No Yes Low High Low

Engineering

Note: For the subject areas, the values of “high, medium and low” reflect estimates of technical expertise in these areas

based on the listed research areas and course offerings on each university’s website.

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2007-2008

The main initiatives between Portuguese Institutions and the MIT during 2007-2008were focused in the development and implementation of both educational programsand research activities. The main accomplishments were:

• Open workshops in Lisbon (October - Program Launch; November - EnergyIndustry Workshop of 2007): introduced energy systems topics and goalsto prospective partners, including the Portuguese energy industry.

• Research workshop in Porto (October 2007): introduced energy systemstopics to the PhD students.

• Workshop in collaboration with the faculty and students took place inJanuary 2008 under the invitation of the MIT to the AGS meeting in Boston.

• Frequent visits to Lisbon and Porto in the Spring of 2008: the MIT andPortuguese faculty further refined collaborative research and educationalactivities, and reviewed and selected applicants for SES PhD, post-doctoraland faculty positions.

• Talks at participating universities: Portuguese government sponsoredworkshops (e.g. EU, OECD): and with the assistance of Ciência Viva,several visits to grade schools to talk about energy efficiency, alternativeenergy supplies, environmental challenges.

• Several additional visits to MIT by Portuguese faculty and current PhDstudents for focused discussions between research and educationalleaders regarding the details of the program, research topics, students andresources.

2008-2009

At IST/ISEG a Students Welcome Ceremony was organized on September 15th tohelp new students to familiarize with faculty, courses and program organization.

A welcome student’s ceremony took place on the 14th October in FEUP, with theparticipation of the local coordinators of the SES area, the national director of the MITPortugal network, and Prof. Jorge Vasconcelos from the company New EnergySolutions.

In 2008-2009, collaboration between universities in Sustainable Energy Systemsfocus area was centered on the organization of the 2nd PHD Program ResearchIntegration Workshop in Lisbon, in November 2008, and the Education Workshop inCoimbra in June 2009.

On February 17th 2009, the University of Coimbra hosted invited talks by Mr.Francisco La Fuente Sanchez (President of EDP Foundation) and Prof. Jorge Villar(Pontifícia Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil).

The following events were organized at the University of Coimbra:• A seminar on energy audits in buildings, with Mr. Paulo Santos (ContaWatt)

as guest speaker on March 20th 2009• Invited talks on Negotiation, by Prof. Rudolf Vetschera (Faculty of Business,

Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna) entitled, "Unfair strategies

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in the fair division of indivisible items" and "Integrating quantitative andqualitative methods in the analysis of negotiations" on the March 27th and28th 2009

• Video-conference by the Prof. Philip Andrews-Speed, expert in Chineseenergy issues, entitled "At these moments of international financial crisis,will China become the world banker for financing the global naturalresources?” on 27th April 2009

• Two sessions regarding the theme “Innovation And Entrepreneurship InCompanies” presented by Mr. José Alves (MARTIFER) and by Prof. JoséBasilio Simões (ISA) on the 15th April and 13th May 2009.

From February 2009 to July 2009, FEUP held a series of Internal Seminarpresentations. In each seminar, two students made a brief presentation of theirresearch topic and progress, followed by an open discussion fostered by faculty.

MIT faculty organized a one-week visit to MIT for the Master’s students of IST whichwas a great success amongst the students.

Several affiliated companies participated in lecturing in the SES Seminar I andSeminar II courses over the year and supported their employees to attend not onlythe MBE program but also the PhD program.

2009-2010

SES faculty and students participated in the CIÊNCIA 2009 event held in FundaçãoCalouste Gulbenkian between the 27th and the 29th of July, 2009. This is the majorevent in science and technology in Portugal with several high-level speakers andchairs.

At IST/ISEG a Students Welcome Ceremony was organized on the 23rd Septemberat IST-Tagus Park, to help new students to familiarize themselves with faculty, thecurriculum and overall program organization.

A “Teach the Teachers” faculty-training workshop on developing pedagogical skillsfor “Improving Student Learning and Knowledge Retention” was given by Janet (MITLearning Lab) at FEUP on September 25th 2009.

A welcome student’s ceremony took place at FEUP on October 7th 2009 with theparticipation of the local coordinators of the SES area, the national director of the MITPortugal network, and Mr. Pedro Sena Silva from the company Autosil.

The interaction with the other Portuguese institutions was reinforced through theorganization of the 3rd PhD Program Research Integration Workshop in Coimbra onOctober 10th, 2009. This was a highly successful opportunity for interaction betweenfaculty and students from MIT and Portugal. The one-week Sustainable Energyworkshop for the IST MBE was once again offered at MIT and again, was consideredvery successful.

On November 20th 2009, the SES Master's students participated in the 1st MITPortugal / Michael Page Career Advancement Workshop. This workshop focused oncareer development topics, including CV design, writing motivation letters for jobapplications, and interview preparation, etc.

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All the schools co-organized a workshop on the topic of modelling for energyplanning which took place in January 2010 at IST, Lisbon. The event brought peoplefrom industry (REN, CEETA-ECO) and other institutions (LNEG, DGEG, FCTUNL)together. In March 2010, the MBE students from IST visited MIT and engaged themselves inmany discussions with MIT faculty, visited local energy companies in the Boston areaand participated in several workshops of the MIT Energy Conference.

From March to June 2010, FEUP hosted a series of Internal Seminars. These focusedon student presentations and discussion in a research colloquium format.

On June 17th, 18th, 24th and 25th 2010 the SES program offered a WoC session(Window on Companies), with the objective of promoting a discussion forum wherecompanies and students would interact with industry leaders through presentationsand discussion. The final aim of these sessions was to develop a stronger bondbetween industries of the energy sector and the SES program, demonstrating to bothparties involved the added value of further interaction.

2010-2011

At IST/ISEG a Students Welcome Ceremony was organized on the September 17that ISEG, to help new students familiarize with faculty, courses and programorganization.

On September 11th, the University of Coimbra hosted the Welcome Session andInaugural Lesson for all new students of the Energy for Sustainability Initiative tointroduce them to the overall program structure and organization.

A welcome student’s ceremony took place at FEUP on the October 8th 2010 with theparticipation of the local coordinators of the SES area, the director of the school andMr. Ricardo Sá from the company Sustainable Buildings.

Following the success of previous SES orientation and integration workshops, the 4thSES PHD Program Research Integration Workshop gathered faculty and studentsfrom all universities engaged in the Sustainable Energy Systems focus area tointroduce and integrate SES educational and research initiatives.

On November 22nd, the University of Coimbra organized the initiative “Students meetcompanies” (2nd edition). This was an opportunity for students enrolled in the MScand the SES PhD programs, faculty and many industry representatives to share ideason energy research.

On November 25th, December 16th 2010, and March 17th, April 14th, 21st 2011 theSES program offered the second series of WoC (Window on Companies) seminarsto promoting interaction between students and industry leaders, namely those of thefollowing companies: Feedzi, Novabase, Endesa, CEEETA and APREN.

For the third time, the MBE students of IST had one-week intensive teaching at MIT,from 26th February to 6th March 2011.

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The 4th SES PhD Program Research Integration Workshop took place at Universityof Coimbra on March 24th, 25th 2011. The students had the opportunity to interactwith 3rd and 4th year students and faculty and discussed strategies for carrying outtheir research.

3.3.8. PhD theses

This section shows the profiles of several students.The home institution of each student is indicated on the first line as:FCTUC – Faculty of Sciences and Technoloy - University of CoimbraFCUL – Faculty of Sciences – University of LisbonFEUP – Faculty of Engineering – University of PortoIST – Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon

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Alexandre Lucas, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 year (starting in Sept 2011)

Title of the thesis

Impact of infrastructure and supply chains in Energy Use and CO2 Emissions on new light-duty vehicle

technologies - A life cycle perspective

Supervisors

in Portugal: Carla Silva (IST), Rui Costa Neto (IST)


In Portugal the transportation sector is responsible for one third of energy use and it is now accepted by

the scientific community that combustion emissions are strongly positively correlated. To achieve the

environmental goals set by the EU by the 20-20-20 agreement and Portugal’s own ambitious goals, this

sectors presents it self as an important intervention target. Various vehicle technologies are being

considered for possible solutions to mitigate environmental problems and fossil fuel dependence.

However, for one to make conscious and informed decisions, a comprehensive comparison between

the different technologies is mandatory. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a technique that allows considering

and integrating all value chain according to each technology, and to make valid comparisons. Various

studies have used this technique to assess energy use and CO2 emissions, addressing the fuel life

cycle “Well-to-Wheel” and also the vehicle’s materials “Cradle-to-Grave”, considering production,

maintenance, and dismantling. However, none has considered the required infrastructures and supply

chains in the system’s analysis.

This study will allow knowing the Energy use and CO2 emissions from construction; maintenance and

decommissioning of support infrastructures and supply chains for different vehicle technologies in

Portugal. Using Global Warming Potential 100 years (GWP100); and Cumulative Energy Demand (CED)

for CO2 eq emissions and Energy Use evaluations respectively, several pathways will be considered. For

the base scenario (Diesel and Gasoline fleet) the whole chain from extraction platform, refinery and

refuel station is considered. For the Electric Vehicle (EV), the Portuguese electric mix allocated by

contribution of conversion is considered plus the distribution system and charging points. For fuel cell

vehicle, several pathways will be considered for H2 centralized production. As reference, the main

databases taken in consideration are ECOINVENT, GREET and GEMIS using as LCA tool SIMAPRO

software.

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Amir Safaei, FCTUC, Iran

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Life cycle optimization model for integrated cogeneration and solar systems

Supervisors

in Portugal: Carlos Henggeler Antunes (FCTUC), Fausto Freire (FCTUC)

at MIT: Stephen Connors


The objective of this doctoral research is to develop a modeling framework to optimize the building

energy system performance by integrating cogeneration, solar and utility systems while considering the

life cycle environmental impacts and economical implications to meet the building energy demand.

Optimization models will be developed within a framework that uses the results of the building energy

consumption profile and life cycle assessment (LCA). Life cycle costing methodology is employed to

assess the economic implications of the energy systems, while LCA results provide the coefficients of

the optimization problem that is developed to consider both economic and environmental aspects.

In terms of hitherto achieved results, a mixed integer linear programming model has been developed to

minimize the life cycle costs of meeting the building energy demand (power, heating, cooling) via a

combination of renewable and traditional energy sources. The energy system consists of solar

photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, three technologies of combined heat and power (CHP)

generation, an absorption chiller and electric chillers to meet the cooling demand, and conventional

energy systems, national grid and boiler. The possibility of selling excess on-site produced electricity to

the grid in the context of the Portuguese legal framework as well as dynamic pricing of electricity at

peak and off-peak hours are also taken into account. Additionally, the integration of demand-side

resources into the model is also envisaged.

Taking a long time-horizon (thirty years in the present case), the model gives the optimum investment

schedule as well as the operation planning of different sources of energy, to minimize the present worth

of total costs. In addition, the model provides a good basis for energy-economic scenario analysis of

alternative renewable and non-renewable sources for the building sector.

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Ana Gonçalves, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Urban Growth Modeling: Impact on economic and Energy Consumption Growth of a Country/Region

Supervisors

in Portugal: Tiago Domingos (IST)

at MIT: John Fernandez


This research presents an innovative way to study the growth of cities. Gathering different models from

various areas of economics we aim to explain energy consumption and economic development, using a

macroeconomic perspective. Most of the existent models use microeconomics which requires a higher

level of detail in the data and a higher number of variables.

The development of this work can be separated in different stages: model urban size growth (in terms of

population); create a model of energy consumption and economic development within a city which will

depend on its size trends; and enroll case studies for Portugal and the United States.

At this point, both models for urban size growth and urban development are being developed. The

possibility of applying Zipf’s Law to the first stage was studied but, after analyzing the results for

Portugal, this option was dismissed for a dynamic growth model. For the second stage, different models

and empirical studies have been gathered into a single set of equations that describe the trends of

development in a city.

In the following months we will continue to develop the different stages of the research in parallel,

testing the models with data that has already been gathered.

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Ana Rita Neves, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Methodology for energy sustainability assessment and planning at the local level

Supervisors

in Portugal: Vítor Leal (FEUP), João Lourenço (IST)

Main Publication

Neves A.R., Leal V. 2010, “Energy sustainability indicators for local energy planning: Review of current

practices and derivation of a new framework”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 14, no.

9, pp. 2723-2735.


At a first stage, the major scientific contribution was the development of a set of energy sustainability

indicators to be employed at the local level. This involved an extensive literature review of existing sets

of sustainable development and energy indicators, the application of selection criteria, and the testing

of the indicators with the municipality of Porto, and then asking two energy agencies in Portugal as well

as the City of Boston in the United States to calculate the indicators. The methodological guide

developed for the testing stage constituted a valuable help for the local authorities once they could find

step-by-step guidance. The methodology adopted led to the identification of 18 indicators. At a time

where local authorities are recognized as being important actors for implementing sustainable energy

policies, by initiatives such as the Covenant of Mayors or the Local Government Climate Roadmap, the

indicators become an important tool to evaluate the progress towards the achievement of the goals as

well as to help local authorities in the choice of the most effective actions in the context of local energy

planning. This research work was presented in two international conferences and a paper was

published in a peer-reviewed journal (Neves, A. R. & Leal, V. 2010). At a second stage, another major

contribution of my work will be to develop a methodology for decision-aiding in local energy planning,

by making use of energy modeling and multi-criteria evaluation techniques. For this, it was crucial to

start by structuring the problem of local energy planning using a problem structuring method. The

cognitive mapping technique was adopted in interviews with the local actors for the identification of the

objectives. A literature review of objectives, attributes and measures stated in local energy action plans

and journals’ articles was also carried out. The methodology has started to be applied to a Portuguese

municipality as a case study, for which the task of energy modeling for the base year 2008 and for the

time horizon of 2020 was accomplished. The expected result of the application of the methodology will

be to provide support to decision-making in local energy planning processes, through the identification

of the set of measures that better satisfies the objectives of sustainable energy planning for a given

local context.

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Anabela Carvalho, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2rd


Title of the thesis

Thermal energy storage control for space conditioning systems based on a ground source heat pump

Supervisors

in Portugal: Aníbal de Almeida (FCTUC), Manuel Gameiro da Silva (FCTUC)


The increasing integration of renewable energy from intermittent nature has led to the need to consider

new ways of managing the grid since a lot of this type of production is out of line with periods of

increased demand. It is therefore necessary to develop solutions that allow the integration of production

with energy consumption. Hence, thermal storage with phase change material (PCM) can be one of the

potential solutions for this problem.

The main goal of this research is to analyze the feasibility of a latent heat storage (LHS) system coupled

to a ground source heat pump in an existing building in Coimbra, exploring the potential for better

management of the load profile and large-scale integration of intermittent renewable energy sources, in

order to optimize the coefficient of performance of both the LHS system and the overall installation. This

research proposal is integrated and will be carried out within the European Project from FP7 – Ground-

Med.

The work consists of several steps including: selection of PCM, modeling and design of the storage

system, definition of the algorithm control, design and installation of the control and monitoring system

associated to the interface with the electricity grid (InovGrid), experimental tests, optimizing the control

system in a dynamic electricity pricing context and evaluation of technical and economic performance.

So far, an extensive literature review was carried out about the PCMs already available and used in

thermal storage systems in buildings. Based in the comparison of PCM’s properties it was possible to

choose the PCMs more suitable for the desired range temperatures for heat storage (44 - 47ºC) and for

cold storage (6 -9ºC). The PCM will be a salt hydrated, although the latent heat of fusion per unit mass is

lower than in paraffin materials, the thermal conductivity is higher around 2 or 3 times, which is very

important for the efficiency of the storage system.

The storage system is being designed to work as a partial-storage system with the purpose of leveling

the load profile and reducing the heat pump consumption during on-peak hours, leading to lower

electricity cost. During some winter nights there is already a surplus of renewable energy, which is

projected to increase.

At the end of this work, it is expected that the combination of these technologies will result on a high

efficiency solution for the space conditioning system of the Coimbra building. Furthermore, it may have

a large application potential in Portugal, with the additional benefit of using intermittent energy, storing

this energy to be consumed when necessary, thereby contributing to a higher efficiency of the electric

system.

136

André Pina, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4rth


Title of the thesis

Supply and Demand Dynamics in Medium and Long-term Energy Systems Modeling

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Ferrão (IST), Carlos Silva (IST)


Main publications

A. Pina, C. Silva, P. Ferrão, "The impact of demand side management strategies in the penetration of

renewable electricity", submitted to the special issue ECOS2010 of Energy: the International Journal.

G. Souza, A. Pina, V. Leal, C. Silva, "The relevance of the energy resource dynamics in the mid/long-

term energy planning models", accepted for publication in the Renewable Energy Journal.

A. Pina, C. Silva, P. Ferrão, "Modeling hourly electricity dynamics for policy making in long-term

scenarios", submitted to Energy Policy.


The development of tools for the modeling of energy systems has allowed governments, energy

agencies and private investors to analyze different scenarios and make better and more informed

decisions regarding investments on renewable energies, energy efficiency plans, subsidies, and others.

However, the models that first began to appear had two very different scopes and were either prepared

for the short-term analysis of energy systems operation or the long-term analysis of investment

decisions in new generation capacity.

Currently, energy systems are undergoing a changing of paradigm with the goal of introducing large

penetrations of renewable energy sources to offset the more polluting fossil fuel based generation. The

high variability and intermittence of most renewable energy sources has led to the effort to increase the

flexibility of energy demand through responsive demand technologies and behavioral changes. In order

to define optimal timings for the introduction of large-scale renewable based generation it is necessary

to take into account the impacts of these supply and demand dynamics.

The work being developed in this PhD thesis can be divided in three main issues. First, a comparison of

high and low temporal resolution models was made to assess the importance of including electricity

supply dynamics in the optimization of energy systems. This has shown that low temporal resolution

models can lead to the overestimation of electricity generation by renewable energy sources. A hybrid

methodology that combines the strengths of both modeling approaches was then developed and

applied to the mainland Portugal case study. Second, the use of demand technologies to achieve a

better match between electricity supply and demand has been analyzed. In this area, two works have

been done to assess the introduction of electric vehicles and dynamic demand as enablers for the

introduction of renewable energy and the reduction of CO2 emissions. Finally, the hybrid methodology

developed in this work will be applied to a case study in the Green Islands Project to perform a high

temporal resolution modeling that takes into account renewable energy dynamics and demand

technologies as enablers of the transition of one island to a more sustainable energy system.

137


António Abreu, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of the thesis

Intelligent Power flow in Electrical Transmission Systems

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Freire (IST), Pedro Santos (IT)


The research work under development is based on the reduction of power losses in high-power

electrical transmission and distribution systems (electrical grid).

The work explores the application of algorithms to attain optimized efficiency resorting to new power

systems topologies. The algorithms include the modeling of the electrical grid taking into account real

parameters of the grid, often excluded in this kind of analysis. For this purpose, a mathematics model

was created and adapted to the referred application.

In order to better evaluate the system a new definition of energy efficiency was proposed. This definition

includes reactive power as the critical parameter to reduce input power flow with no load power

decrease.

The methodology was tested in loco at IST-Tagus Park campus, Porto Salvo, Portugal, between

February 18th 2010 and February 17th 2011, namely in the following networks: electric, gas, water and

AVAC systems.

The preliminary experimental results indicate that the proposed methodology is suitable to reduce

demand power and CO2 emission (typically 10%). Furthermore, the implemented actions are in full

agreement with the ECO.AP Portuguese government program (2010).

138

António Santos, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Defining new control and management solutions for security assessment and preventive control in

transmission grids with large scale integration of wind generation

Supervisor

In Portugal: João Peças Lopes (FEUP), Manuel Matos (FEUP)


The introduction of competitive supply and corresponding organizational separation of generation,

transmission, and system operation has resulted in highly stressed operating conditions. Moreover,

regarding environment policies, the generation through renewable energy sources has been increased,

which contributes to put more pressure on operating conditions and, consequently, place the systems

closer to their security limits.

These approaches, together with the favorable feed-in tariffs, have increased the appearance of new

wind farms connections to the network. Additionally, and independently of market conditions, the

outlined procedures require that all wind generation should be completely absorbed by the grid. Wind

power generation is increasing the uncertainty in system operation environment, because of its

intermittent characteristic and behavior when facing disturbances.

To operate a power system with large share of wind generation closer to the traditional security limits,

more sophisticated methods for security assessment are needed in order to take into account the

probabilistic nature of uncertain variables in the decision-making environment. This Thesis aims to

perform power system operation security analysis regarding the influence that voltage dips (originated

by short circuits) could have on wind farms and consequently could lead to an uncontrollable

cascading situation leading to widespread power outages. The work will be performed considering the

Portuguese network, which had 17% of the total electricity demand provided from wind energy in 2010.

A part of that generation comes from wind generators able to withstand voltages dips and to support

the network voltage after the detection of a fault, delivering reactive power.

The methodology used in this work is manly composed of two parts: a short circuit simulation and a risk

evaluation. Simulating disturbances will let to make a post-contingency grid snapshot regarding wind

farms point-of-connection’s voltages. Evaluating the probability of a short circuit occurrence and their

severity at wind farms point-of-connections will let system operators quantify the risk associated with

those contingencies.

The security assessment performed in this work followed by a risk assessment methodology, using

probabilistic methods, will give security indices that allow the operator to react in advance and to be

aware of wind energy inherent risks, preventing in this sense harmful situations. To enable a sustained

growth of wind power in the Portuguese electrical network, this work will be very useful to operators

when evaluating on-line network security, allowing to explorer electrical networks with large share of

wind generation, with adequate security of operation levels. Also preventive control measures will be

identified if insecure operating conditions are detected.

139


Ariovaldo de Carvalho, FCTUC, Brazil

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

An Integrated Assessment Methodology Applied to the Brazilian Bioethanol Case

Supervisors

in Portugal: Carlos Antunes (FCTUC), Fausto Freire (FCTUC), Samuel Niza (IST)



A macro Input-Output multi-objective optimization model combined with an uncertainty analysis (interval

programming) has been developed to the assessment of the interactions between the energy use, GHG

emissions, Gross Domestic Product and employment levels of the Brazilian Economic System. For that,

a framework has been constructed utilizing the Brazilian System of National Account, the Brazilian

Energy Balance and GHG emissions estimates. In addition a micro multi-objective Life Cycle-based

model has been developed to assess the interactions between resource (energy) use, GHG emissions,

employment level and cost related to the Brazilian Bioethanol system. In this step economic, resource

(energy) use, costs and employment data has been utilized from different sources linked to the Brazilian

bioethanol industry. Furthermore, both models will be integrated using hybrid models and matrix

disaggregation methods.

The main contributions from this research come primarily from the integrative characteristic of the

methodology developed, which proposes a more complete and original approach to address the supply

chain of the Brazilian bioethanol sector. The combination of Input-Output Analysis (IOA) with Life Cycle

Assessment (LCA) methods provides an expansion of the analysis, which encompasses the whole

economic system while assessing specifically the bioethanol process. This fact contributes to a broader

overview of the interactions between these systems on economic, social, energy and environmental

perspectives compared with the previous Brazilian´s bioethanol IOA and LCA studies. Additionally, the

multi-objective optimization combined with uncertainty analysis provides improvements in the previous

assessment methods, because it contributes to incorporating some flexibility in the analysis, as well as

offering a better knowledge on the trade-offs at stake between different evaluation aspects.

140

Bernardo Silva, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Control and protection procedures for ancillary services provision from offshore wind farms using multi-

terminal HVDC links

Supervisors

in Portugal: Helder Leite (FEUP)

abroad: Nicholas Jenkins (Cardiff University)


To meet the 20/20/20 goals, European countries have started exploring their onshore wind resources,

which in some cases may not be sufficient to accomplish the commitment. Some countries are thus

targeting the exploration of offshore wind resources. Therefore, there are plans to install large amounts

of deep offshore wind power plants, taking advantage of the abundant resource availability in terms of

equivalent hours at nominal power as well as average wind speed. However, one obstacle of offshore

wind farms is related to power delivering since it must rely on High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable

circuits. There is a strong commitment on gathering the cable circuits to create a meshed multi-terminal

HVDC (MT-HVDC) network with the objective of harmonizing the investment costs (€/MW) and creating

a reliable and flexible infrastructure, which is able to respond as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This PhD

topic aims at assessing the impacts on the AC protection system and AC networks operation arising

from the presence of large amounts of offshore wind farms (WF) connected to the grid through MT-

HVDC networks (steady state and dynamics). Additionally, control concepts are being developed within

the framework of this research to mitigate the integration problems and enhance the operation flexibility

of offshore WF, providing them the ability to work as a VPP. At this phase of the research, a MT-HVDC

network based on Voltage Source Converters (VSC) technology model has been implemented under

Matlab Simulink.

Results from the impact assessment studies performed so far have identified the lack of voltage control

capability (for steady state), no inertia and the lack of primary frequency control capability as potential

barriers for a massive integration of offshore WF. Several control philosophies are being tested in this

research for both steady state and dynamic operation. The steady state voltage control can be

performed by independently controlling the reactive power delivered to the AC system (reactive power

can be imposed by the Transmission System Operator - TSO via set-points), thanks to the adoption of

VSC. The power sharing between converter stations has also been accomplished, allowing TSO to

define the share of injected power on each AC node. The next steps of the research consist of

designing local controllers to allow offshore wind farms to contribute on emulating inertial response and

providing primary frequency support.

The main contributions of this work include developing local control loops in a communication-free

framework for enhancing the MT-HVDC networks responding as a bulk power plant and supplying

ancillary services for frequency and voltage support. Ultimately, these developments will contribute to

the mitigation of the existing problems and will add flexibility to the MT-HVDC, allowing further WF

penetration.

141


Cristina Camus, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Economic, Energy and Environmental impacts of plug-in vehicles in the Electric systems utilities

Supervisors

in Portugal: Tiago Farias (IST), Jorge Esteves (ISEL)


In this research, the impacts on the electric utility systems, of mass adoption of Plug-In vehicles are

studied for two different types of electric realities: a big electric system synchronized with other electric

systems within the same region (a continental land); and a small isolated system (an island). For each

case study, scenarios of EVs penetration were created to define the average daily energy needs for EVs

recharging combined with scenarios of daily recharge profiles to obtain the hourly additional power

demand and simulate the effects on power generation and electricity prices. According to the different

technologies available in the system, scenarios of electricity mix and prices were generated for the

years 2011 till 2020.

A dedicated methodology was developed with the help of two tools, electricity market simulator (EMS)

and economic, energy and environmental impacts simulator (EEEIS). The EMS gives the supply curves

per technology for the studied market and helps to define the rules to generate the supply curves for the

simulations according to expected power installed in each technology and weather conditions imposed

by the studied scenarios. Then, for each scenario of EV penetration/recharge profile and electricity

production mix, EEEIS provides the expected load profiles, daily emissions and hourly electricity spot

prices. The case studies were the Portuguese mainland as the big robust electric system where an

electricity market operates and the Azores islands (S. Miguel) the isolated system case where the

electric utility belongs to a regulated monopoly company.

Scenarios of EV penetration (energy needed) and recharge profile combined with the extreme cases of

expected electricity production lead to different wholesale prices as well as fossil fuels use and

emissions associated to charge the EVs leading to different cost of the EV energy per km. Simulations

made for 2020 in a scenario of low hydro production (a dry year with about 45% renewable in electricity

production) the price (including the wholesale plus the regulated net access plus retailer revenue) for 2

million EVs charging mainly at peak hours, could reach three to four times the price of the same 2

million EVs in an off-peak recharge. In a high hydro and other renewable production scenario combined

with low wholesale prices, an off peak recharge could reach even lower values and reductions in

primary energy consumption, fossil fuels use and CO2 emissions of 4%, 13% and 11% respectively

were expected.

142

Daniel Wiesmann, IST, Switzerland

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Econometrics in Urban Metabolism utilities

Supervisors


at MIT: John Fernández (MIT)

abroad: Inês Azevedo (Carnegie Mellon University)

Main Publications

Daniel Wiesmann, Inês Azevedo, Paulo Ferrão and John Fernandez. Residential Electricity

Consumption in Portugal: Findings from top-down and bottom-up models. Under revision in Energy

Policy.


The first study analyzes the influence of socioeconomic factors, dwelling characteristics and

urbanization on residential electricity consumption per capita in mainland Portugal for 2001 using

multivariate ordinary least squares regression analysis. The analysis is performed on two different

scales, on the individual household level and on the municipal level. In the field of residential electricity

consumption modeling this is the first study that directly compares results on both scales. The results

indicate a significant influence of the tested socioeconomic variables, dwelling characteristics and

urbanization on consumption. The consumption of electricity is found to be income inelastic with an

estimated elasticity of 0.128. This has implications for policy formulations, indicating that other factors

than just monetary constraints will have an important influence on future consumption.

The second study conducted so far is focused on providing spatial resolution to the analysis of GHG

emissions at an urban environment and characterizes land cover change induced greenhouse gas

emission in the metropolitan area of San José in Costa Rica. The land cover model is developed using

multinomial logistic regression, as well as using a Bayesian maximum likelihood classifier. Data sources

for the analysis are Land Sat images from 1989 and 2001 and relevant terrain and climate information.

In the realm of satellite image classification, multinomial logistic regression has found little application

and this study contributes to the introduction of that method into the field. Furthermore the land cover

change modeling is not often used to calculate urban GHG emissions, and has never been developed

for the study area.

In the second half of this PhD the objective consists of combining econometric modeling and spatial

information and will be applied in a spatially explicit MFA model for Lisbon using bottom-up data

sources. This is an innovative approach and will allow disaggregating flows by sector and with some

spatial resolution. In urban metabolism there are only a few studies that use advanced statistical tools

and include a spatial component into the analysis.

.

143


Diego Issicaba, FEUP, Brazil

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Control Strategies for Smart Grids under Emergency Operation using Agent-based Technology

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Peças Lopes (FEUP)


Power distribution grids are designed to provide electricity with a certain level of adequacy and security.

In order to achieve a smooth transition from actual to the smart grids, the gradual modernization of the

grid itself aiming at higher levels of reliability, the application of cooperative distributed/local control

solutions, and the integration of renewable/distributed energy resources are required.

Under this context, the goal of this Ph.D. thesis is the development of control solutions for smart grids

under emergency operation using agent-based technology. The work proposes a control architecture in

which agents are responsible for the management and control of networks blocks of the distribution

grids. Hence, blocks are abstracted as autonomous power systems, whose operation states and modes

are classified. Agents will then perceive the operation state of its assignee, as well as take (and/or

schedule) proper control actions aiming the system adequacy and security. Furthermore, agents

communicate with each order to share relevant information to the system operation. In case of a fault,

emergency and restorative agent-based control strategies are performed. The control architecture takes

into account issues related with islanded operation in distribution grids with large-scale integration of

distributed generation (DGs) and electric vehicles.

In order to evaluate the control architecture, a performance assessment approach for distribution grids

was also developed. For this accomplishment, a combined discrete-continuous event simulation model

was designed to emulate the distribution grid operation. Using the next-event time advance mechanism,

the simulation approach produces sequences of operation states in a chronological order. Over the

resultant operating cycle, distributional aspects from performance evaluation indices are assessed.

These indices comprise standard reliability indices, as well as figures of merit which aggregate

information regarding inadequate delivered voltage conditions. Furthermore, DG integration along with

islanded operation is evaluated using dynamic simulation.

Case studies were performed using modified versions of the IEEE test systems modeled in EUROSTAG

environment. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the control architecture. The importance of

considering steady-state and dynamic analysis into the performance evaluation is also highlighted,

mainly in assessing the impact of DG integration on the distribution system operation. At last, we point

out the simulation approach can be further applied to gather operation states which demand more DG

integration detailed analysis from transient perspectives.

144

Ehsan Asadi, FCTUC, Iran

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

A Retrofit decision support system for improving energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality in

buildings

Supervisors

in Portugal: Manuel Gameiro da Silva (FCTUC), Carlos Antunes (FCTUC), Luís Dias (FEUC)

at MIT: Leon Glicksman (MIT)

Main Publications

IEhsan Asadi, José J. Costa and Manuel Gameiro da Silva, "Indoor air quality audit implementation in a

hotel building in Portugal", Building and Environment (2011), doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.01.027.


This research focuses on using optimization techniques to quantitatively assess technology choices for

building retrofit strategies. The aim is to provide stakeholders sound information to support the definition

of intervention measures aimed at minimizing energy use in the building in a cost effective manner,

while satisfying the occupant/owner needs. First, the research will identify an extensive set of innovative

retrofitting actions and renewable energy solutions suitable for retrofitting existing buildings in Portugal.

This set of alternatives will then be used as an input to a multi-objective optimization model to

quantitatively compare the merits of different options. Then a set of representative buildings will be used

to exploit the decision support system in practical settings.

As a first case study a semi-detached house in Coimbra is used for the development of the decision

support system structure. Currently the system is able to assess the residential building energy

consumption according to the Portugal regulation (RCCTE) and report the best set of actions regarding

the minimum retrofit cost and maximum energy savings. More than 100 different retrofit actions are fed

to the system, and the non-dominated solution reported to the user. When the cost criterion is optimized

independently of the energy saving, choices of low cost are made, resulting however, in minimum

energy saving. On the other hand, when the energy saving criterion is optimized independently of the

cost, the actions with minimum thermal and solar transmittance (for windows) and higher thermal

resistance (for insulation) are selected. To optimize simultaneously all objective functions, the

Tchebycheff programming approach has been used. The result from the application of this approach

demonstrates the feasibility as well as the strength of applying such techniques to the problem of

energy efficiency improvements. The application of this systematic approach allows the simultaneous

consideration of all available combination of retrofit actions. It also allows for the consideration of any

logical, physical, technical or other constraints that may apply and permits the decision maker to guide

the solution according to his/her preferences.

As the second case study, a representative set of Portuguese school buildings will be used to apply this

decision support system.

The lines of research in the past have allowed addressing many problems as far as buildings

renovation is concerned. However, most of them consider that a list of predefined and pre-evaluated

alternative variants of the building is given. Although the problem faced by the decision maker is in fact

a multi-objective opti-mization problem, characterized by the existence of multiple and competing

objectives, a set of feasible and available solutions that are not predefined but are implicitly defined by

a set of parameters, and a set of con-straints that should be taken into account to reach the best

possible solution. So, this project is going to tackle the mentioned problems in academia and

consequently building retrofit industry.

145


146

Filipa Amorim, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 week

Title of the thesis

Promoting renewable electricity whilst stepping into liberalized markets. An evaluation of the FIT in

Portugal

Supervisors

in Portugal: Victor Martins (ISEG), Patrícia Silva (FEUC), Jorge Vasconcelos (IST)

at MIT: Steve Connors


The present incentive for renewable capacity is mostly determined by the level of guaranteed feed in

tariffs (FITs), what makes it mostly autonomous from total electricity demand. Higher FITs entail higher

generation levels that cover higher shares of demand. Only the remaining demand is satisfied in the

market. If the market is already small, such as in the Portuguese case, lower demand can cause

competition to decrease due to lower trading volumes.

FIT systems have been relatively successful in deploying renewable production in the current decade,

but consequently costs have been increasing in the electricity system. As renewable electricity prices

are generally higher than the reference acquisition price the supplier of last resort would be paying for

the same amount of power in the market, over costs emerge. Ambitious targets for renewable capacity

have been set by the government by 2020 and, with these, over costs are expected to continue

growing.

In an era of progress in the integration and increased competitiveness of MIBEL, a new methodology to

assess over costs, ex-post, has been proposed by calculating the sum of the differences of renewable

electricity prices and hourly electricity reference acquisition prices weighted by renewable production.

Actual extra costs of “compulsory” hourly purchases of renewable power were compared to the

alternative to acquire it in the market, bringing some flexibility into the current remuneration model, while

preserving the stability of the expected FITs to renewable investors. This flexibility is particularly

important as renewable sources vary erratically. Results from the applied methodology to 2008 and

2009 data show that FITs were set too high in the new market framework and that each consumer would

have avoided paying an additional subsidy of approx. 3.2€/MWh in 2008, and, in 2009, of approx.

7.9€/MWh, if FIT were set to provide investors the same previously expected profitability.

In face of the new technical, economic and regulatory challenges, this research will bring insight to

policy makers and to the regulator as it discusses how to efficiently accommodate growing shares of

renewable power generation and intends to present a new methodology to estimate an optimal tariff

design. This is a decision support mechanism for low carbon electricity markets that also takes part in

the medium to long-term generation capacity investments choices, therefore, meaningful to utilities

which look for the successful repayment of their investments.


147

Filipa Carlos, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Prioritizing Renewable Energy Resources based on Environmental and Energy Quality Criteria

Supervisors

in Portugal: Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes (FEUP) Maria do Rosário Partidário (IST)


The new energy paradigm calls for a higher integration of the environmental aspects in the planning

processes as it is based on concepts such as diversification, decentralisation and use of natural

renewable energy resources.

In practice, this paradigm translates into a planning process of proximity (at regional or local scale),

where the energy demand and supply are connected and have to be prepared for the best matching

according the available resources and types of consumption.

Besides the integration of the best environmental practices at regional level, the planning process for

such energy systems will also contribute to global energy and environmental goals, including the

reduction of CO2 emissions.

To ensure the integration of the best environmental practices, the planning process of energy systems

needs a facilitator that can stimulate and consolidate a strategic vision supporting the necessary shift

from current energy planning practice to future and more sustainable practices and outcomes.

The goal of the research work is to devise a framework that can help the move from energy planning

based on a list of measures and mandatory actions to a more strategic concept based on the definition

of strategic pathways that will drive more sustainable energy system at a regional level (considering the

regional development level). Therefore, the result will be a contribution for the development of a new

energy framework for the planning process of isolated energy systems integrating Strategic

Environmental Assessment (SEA) to ensure an environmental and sustainable integration in energy

planning systems.

Some of the work developed so far includes:

a) The development of the energy conceptual framework for the planning of sustainable

energy systems, based on a organization by energy quality (heat, driving force and

electricity specific), management of the energy demand and matching between the

demand and supply options;

b) The characterization of the energy system in a practical case;

c) Integration of the relevant environmental and sustainability strategic issues by the

application key elements of a strategic based SEA approach;

d) The identification of the potential for the energy vectors’ shift at the energy demand side

according the quality criteria (heat, driving force and electricity specific);

e) The design of scenarios for the evaluation of alternatives.

148

Filipa Reis, FCUL, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Development of Photovoltaic Systems with Concentration

Supervisors

in Portugal: Miguel Centeno Brito (FCUL), Gianfranco Sorasio (WS Energia)

Main Publications

F. Reis, M.C.Brito, V.Corregidor, J.Wemans, G.Sorasio, Modeling the performance of low concentration

photovoltaic systems, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 94 (2010) 1222–1226,

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2010.03.010


Photovoltaic (PV) is seen as a renewable energy with a huge potential to produce clean electricity

during the peak demand hours. However, its cost has been inhibiting its expansion and has led to an

increasing interest on concentration photovoltaic (CPV) systems. These systems allow a reduction of the

cell area which is replaced by cheaper optical materials such as mirrors or lenses. The concept of CPV

systems has been presented as a shortcut to place the PV technology in a competitive position as to the

conventional electricity sources. Today many CPV configurations are available in the market; yet the

question is: what is the optimal configuration to significantly reduce the PV electricity cost c€/kWh?

This work is developed within the framework of a new CPV system, which is entitled as HSUN®

technology, developed in collaboration with WS Energia. Our research focus on the development of a

CPV receiver to integrate the HSUN technology. During the development of this receiver several models

are being constructed manly addressing: the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCoE); thermal

management; and electrical performance of a CPV receiver. The main objective is to provide an optimal

solution for the HSUN receiver. Moreover, the models are intended to be used as a decision tool for

design of other CPV systems.

The work plan focus also on a complementary approach: the (C)PV potential. Three main tasks have

been developed: i) data from over 110 PV systems (both flat plate and CPV), scattered across mainland

Portugal was collected to characterize the mainland solar resource as well as improve the tool that

determines the potential of different PV technologies; ii) the extension of this study to the Azores Islands

within the MIT Portugal Program, Green Islands project, will further contribute for the mapping of the

regional PV potential; iii) solar radiation and PV systems performance monitoring at the FCUL campus is

under development.


149

Filipe Rodrigues, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Energy Box: A smart home energy storage for the intelligent management of renewable and energy

consumption in housing and small buildings services without compromising the human comfort

Supervisors

in Portugal: Carlos Cardeira (IST), J. M. Calado (ISEL)

at MIT: Leon R. Glicksman


The research has three main scopes: 1. Predict daily and hourly household energy consumption;

2. Renewal energy production required; 3. Proper storage energy technology.

To obtain a model able to predict daily household energy consumption, ANNs have been used. From

the total of 1488 data sets, 50% were used for training, while the other 50% were used for testing. To

obtain the desired model, the Levenberg-Marquardt learning algorithm was used and the best results

were obtained for a network having 20 hidden neurons, 16 neurons in the input layer and 1 neuron in the

output layer. Thus, based on the model obtained, the energy consumption forecast is quite rigorous (R2

and MSE reach values near or equal to 1) compared with consumption measured and recorded in each

household. For each network, fraction of variance (R2) and mean squared error (MSE) values were

calculated and compared, in order to assess the achieved models robustness based on different ANNs

architectures.

Research work continues to focus on improving the prediction of hourly household energy consumption.

The major scientific contributions of this work will be a model to predict daily and hourly energy

consumption for each household, as well to identify the proper smart storage energy

150

Filipe Soares, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th

Estimated date of Completion: : 09/2011

Amount of time spent at MIT: : 2 weeks

Title of the thesis

Impact of V2G Systems in Grid Operation and Expansion

Supervisors


Main Publications

J. A. Peças Lopes, F. J. Soares, P. M. Rocha Almeida, “Integration of Electric Vehicles in the Electric

Power System”, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 168–183, Jan. 2011.


This thesis aims to provide a valuable study about Electric Vehicles (EV) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)

related approaches, which intends to alert all potentially interested parties for the various problems that

will appear when EV start to be massively connected to the grid. Beyond the problems, it tries to

develop adequate grid operation strategies, in a steady-state framework, to overcome all technical

issues identified. To accomplish the referred objectives, it was first developed a conceptual framework

for EV integration into electric power systems, providing a holistic perspective of this new reality with

special attention on the electricity markets operation and on the networks technical management. This

conceptual framework was developed taking into account the specificities of all the possible EV

charging modes (dumb charging, multiple tariff policy, smart charging and V2G).

To successfully evaluate the impacts and benefits of adopting the previously mentioned EV charging

modes, a simulation platform based in a stochastic method to simulate EV movement during one typical

day, week or year and in a Monte Carlo method was developed. This computational application, allows

performing a realistic evaluation of the steady state operating conditions of the grid, as well as

identifying the network components that are subjected to more demanding conditions and that might

need to be upgraded.

In order to evaluate the simulation platform performance, several networks and EV scenarios were

tested. The power demand changes in a typical LV network with 30 conventional vehicles, 30% of them

electric, are presented in the next figure. These results are referred to three EV charging scenarios: all

EV in dumb charging mode, all EV in multiple tariff policy mode and all EV in smart charging mode. For

the scenario that considers the multiple tariff policy, the period of lower energy price is between 23h and

6h, every day of the week.


151

Gonçalo Cardoso, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Decentralized Energy Production Towards a Sustainable Built Environment

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Ferrão (IST), Ana Barbosa-Póvoa (IST)


The work developed so far has focused on understanding the potential for distributed energy

production to be used effectively to supply the energy demand in buildings, while taking advantage of

the possibilities for technology integration that may rise due to the simultaneity of different end-use

loads. This may happen, for instance, when electric and heating loads combine in such a way that co-

generation becomes attractive or even when combining different storage and production systems to

reduce power costs by lowering demand peaks.

Given that the number of possibilities for technology options is nearly countless considering what is

currently available in the market – internal combustion engines, turbines, fuel cells, solar systems,

storage systems, heat recovery system and so on, it becomes necessary to adopt an efficient strategy

when designing these local energy supply systems, which in this case is done by the use of DER-CAM,

a detailed optimization model using mixed integer linear programming to find optimal technology

portfolios in a technology neutral environment.

Data requirements for DER-CAM models include economic parameters, such as interest rates or

maximum allowed payback times, energy prices, both when purchased from utilities or in the form of

fuel, technology investment and maintenance costs, technology technical information, weather data and

hourly energy demand profiles by end-use. This allows the algorithm to find not only an optimum

installed capacity for each technology, but also the running schedule associated with it.

In order to adapt DER-CAM to the Portuguese scenario the work has been divided two-fold. Firstly, it

was necessary to adapt the algorithm in order to allow for generic fossil fuels other than natural gas, as

well as implement specific policy related measures, such as different feed-in tariff coefficients for

different technologies. All other data was then collected for a wide range of buildings, creating a

database focusing on residential buildings, office buildings, nursing homes, educational facilities and

commercial buildings, allowing different types of loads to be analyzed.

Results so far show that there is some potential for this distributed energy production, although in

Portugal loads are typically not favorable, even when high heat ratios are present. This is due mostly to

the specific relation between electric and heating loads, as simultaneity plays a crucial load in the need

for storage systems, which may render co-generation solutions economically unattractive.

When looking at potential CO2 savings, on the other hand, results indicate that there is a significant role

to be played by local energy production, not only as a result of applying renewable technologies

(photovoltaic and solar thermal), but also when recovering heat from conventional ones.

152

Gonçalo Mendes, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Integrated Community Energy Systems for Portugal: An integrated approach

Supervisors

In Portugal: Paulo Ferrão (IST)

abraod: Chris Marnay (UC Berkeley), Christos Ioakimidis (Universidad de Deusto)

Main Publications

G.Mendes, C. Ioakimidis, P. Ferrão, On the Planning and Analysis of Integrated Community Energy

Systems: A Review and Survey of Available Tools. Renew Sustain Rev (2011), doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2011.06.67

M. Stadler, C. Marnay, M. Kloess, G. Cardoso, R. Sharma, G.Mendes, A. Siddiqui, J. Lai, O. Mégel.,

Optimal Planning and Operation of Smart Grids with Electric Vehicle Interconnection, Journal of Energy

Engineering, 2011.


The introduction of localized groups of electricity sources and loads, able to operate islanded or

connected to the centralized grid, the so called microgrids, has been predicted by many past studies

which focused on solving the main technical issues that arisen with these new systems. Nowadays the

emergence of such infrastructures is certain and the adequate modeling and planning of microgrids

constitutes a new and exciting challenge. Economically and at the community level, this kind of

modeling gives us insights on the energy costs which make all the associated technologies, Distributed

Generators (DGs), Plug-in Electric vehicles (PEVs), etc. Accessible to the people and allows for

elaboration of rankings which will contribute to the development of the Best Available Technologies

(BAT). From the environmental point of view, a number of authors alerted to increasing concerns with

local, regional and global emissions increases from DGs in a future scenario of distributed energy

(Acidification, Smog formation, Global Warming etc.). In that sense, an integrated evaluation of

sustainable energy systems must consider coupled economic and environmental suitability.

A very important aspect in this research is that the modeling approach is economically done on the

customer side to make sure investments are attractive to communities, where the whole research is

centered. The objective here is to access how to evolve in the energy system without excessive

dependence on public entities or major corporations. Thus, the main contribution of this work will be a

characterization of the value of communities for attaining more flexible and efficient distributed energy

systems, in the context of Portugal. This is specifically attained by community DG, PEV or energy

efficiency investments or coordinated demand-side management measures.

The PhD thesis will be composed of two main contributions: First, the economic and environmental

potential for the introduction of ICES in the context of PT is assessed based on collected representative

data for the different regions. In these runs, with the aid of DER-CAM, a number of research questions

are answered regarding the adoption of DG, energy efficiency measures and plug-in electric vehicle

interactions. In the second part, grounded on the initial achievements, an ESCO inspired business

model is developed with the aim of introducing the ICES concept in the Portuguese market environment.

Major outputs of this work will be a tool package capable of perform fully integrated economic and

environmental analysis of microgrid systems which will support future research or economically-oriented

activity in this field. The application of this work to Portugal will serve as a base case for future

worldwide research in the field reinforcing the recognition of the country as a laboratory of energy

research.


153

Gustavo de Souza, FEUP, Brazil

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Contributions to demand energy planning by selecting the most efficient physical measures when

building an Energy Efficiency Action Plan in a multi-criteria environment

Supervisors

in Portugal: Vítor Leal (FEUP)



My work can be divided into three main stages. The first stage is the development of a methodology to

disaggregate national or regional energy systems into the most representative end-uses within

domestic, service, industry and transport sectors. The first part of the work is already done. The second

part of the work is related to find relevant criteria that represent the general interests from decision

makers when building an energy efficiency plan. At last, the work proposes a tool where the national or

regional energy system can be modeled and projected into the future, energy efficiency measures can

be applied and their outcomes can be quantified and evaluated. The tool is already under development

using MATLAB®.

The major contributions are: A method to quantify and do the breakdown of the main energy end-uses

found in the sectors of the economy. Also, using this method, a way to consider (use and quantify) a

huge amount of EE measures (physical basis) reflecting the different sectors, end-uses and carriers.

Another contribution is to evaluate alternatives to build a energy efficiency action plan (several sectors

and several energy carriers) using a MCDA approach.

154

Hana Gerbelová, IST, Czech Republic

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

LTI Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of thesis

Carbon Capture and Storage Technology Implementation into the Portuguese Energy System

Supervisors


abroad: Edward S. Rubin (EPP/CMU), Christos Ioakimidis (Universidad de Deusto)


Combustion systems at power plants, cement plants, and several other industrial processes are the

main stationary sources of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Portugal. These

installations are large point emitters and therefore are suitable candidates for the application of CO2

capture and storage (CCS). The objective of this research is to establish a framework for quantifying the

impacts of CCS technology implementation at these large point sources of CO2.

A detailed source-sink matching is crucial to understand the relationship between the emissions

sources and the storage opportunities in order to determine hypotheses for the implementation of CCS

and to assess the impact of CCS on emissions reduction. For this purpose, a map of mainland Portugal

was created by ArcGIS software showing major industrial CO2 emission grouped by clusters, showing

the emissions location and intensity, and potential storage site. This overview enables to plan further

technical, economic and environmental assessment. The Integrated Environmental Control Model

(IECM) software was performed to carry out a techno-economical analysis in study case of retrofitting

Sines power plant with a MEA-based CO2 capture unit and pipeline transportation of CO2 to the

potential geological storage site in Portugal. The results show additional energy requirement to operate

the capture unit on a base plant, which is demonstrated by the 15 percentage point reduction in net

plant efficiency. The total capital requirement would be double with the addition of the capture unit and

the cost of electricity (COE) also increases, proportionally, from $60/MWh without CCS to $119/MWh

with CCS. The profitability of CCS increases further with higher CO2 prices. For a price $60/tonne CO2,

COE from the capture-plant is slightly lower than that from the non-capture case, making CCS more

profitable.

The implementation of CCS will have an influence on national electric power production, share of

emissions reduction available from the electricity generation sector and cost of meeting emissions

targets. Therefore the TIMES model tool was used to perform the representative Portuguese electricity

system over the period 2005-2050 and examine how the current national and international policies,

environment restrictions and electricity demand would influence the future electrical energy system

choices in terms of technologies options, fuels, CO2 reductions and costs. The designed scenarios in

this case study lighted up the possibilities for CCS technology application in an economic viable

manner. The less costly technology with CCS is Integrated Gasification Combine Cycle and a crossover

carbon price, where the levelized cost is the same with or without CCS, 34 €/tonne of CO2 in 2030.

If the carbon price will be above 50€/tonne of CO2 it is economically preferable supply all fossil power

plants with CCS through 2050. No permit would have to be purchase under EU-ETS if in 2035 at least

50% of power plant will include CO2 capture unit.


155

Helena Monteiro, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of thesis

Extended Life-Cycle Assessment to Improve the Overall Performance of Residential Buildings: Energy,

Environmental, and Economic assessment towards a life-cycle enhanced house

Supervisors

in Portugal: Fausto Freire (FCTUC)


The research goal of the PhD is to develop an extended life-cycle assessment model to improve

residential buildings design towards life-cycle passive (low-carbon) houses, focusing on contributions of

passive systems, namely the building envelope. So far, a life-cycle model has been developed for a

single-family house located in Portugal and seven alternative exterior walls have been comparatively

assessed for the same house using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Three life-cycle

impact assessment (LCIA) methods (Cumulative energy demand, CML 2001, Eco-indicator’99) have

been used to determine the extent to which the results of a LCA are influenced by the method applied.

The results calculated lead to three main conclusions: i) the most significant life-cycle phase and

process depend on the operational pattern assumed – when heating and cooling loads are reduced,

the use phase impact decreases and material production becomes the most significant process; ii) the

wood wall house is the solution with the lowest impact for most categories; iii) although some

inconsistent results were obtained between LCIA methods (for toxicity categories), five impacts

categories (global warming potential, ozone layer depletion, abiotic depletion, acidification, and

eutrophication) present robust results that permit a straightforward comparison between the LCIA

methods used.

In the next months I will be expanding the model to include end-of-life scenarios and the economic

dimension. The energy saving potential of different constructive envelopes and design solutions shall

be estimated and iteratively improved (from business-as-usual to efficient and extremely efficient ones)

at MIT through energy building simulation in order to achieve a minimum consumption level (passive

house) for different Portuguese locations. A Multi Criteria Decision Analysis approach will be developed

to handle the tradeoffs between the different environmental impacts and economic costs of assessed

solutions.

The research will contribute to assess and select improvement options for residential buildings within

the Portuguese context towards a very-low-energy house concept assessing the life-cycle trade-offs

between energy consumption, environmental impact and costs, which is a main challenge of the

transition to a low-carbon, resilient and affordable building sector. The model developed shall give

insights about a range of LC preferable solutions for each climatic region, which so far have not been

done for Portugal. This research is directed to support building stakeholders (architects, building

designers) and policy makers.

156

Hrvoje Keko, FEUP, Croatia

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of thesis

Generation Coordination in Complex Systems with Stochastic Reservoirs

Supervisors

in Portugal: Vladimiro Miranda (FEUP)

at MIT: Stephen Connors (MIT)

Main Publications

J. Wang, A. Botterud, R. Bessa, H. Keko, L. Carvalho, D. Issicaba, J. Sumaili and Vladimiro Miranda,

"Wind Power Forecasting Uncertainty and Unit Commitment", Applied Energy, accepted for publication.


Contemporary electric power systems contain diverse types of generation capacities and along with

conventional sources include renewable sources (e.g. wind, biomass, solar). The power sources have

to be coordinated in advance in order to meet the demand effectively. While the conventional ones have

dispatchable prime movers, the renewable sources’ behavior is less controllable and stochastic. In the

near future, electric vehicles emergence is expected, affecting the power system operation. The

increase in demand due to EVs should be adequately modeled and integrated into the coordination as

well, along with renewables. In this context, new tools and methods for efficient operational

management and planning respecting the system constraints will be required by system operators.

The thesis deals with short term (day-ahead) generation coordination for a system including diverse

electricity generation portfolio and storages. The modeled storages include new, volatile storages

based on small individual contributions, e.g. a fleet of EV batteries with connections permitting two-way

energy exchange. This type of storage exhibits highly stochastic behavior with spatial and temporal

dependence.

The deliverable of the thesis consists of an efficient algorithm for short term (i.e. day-ahead) operational

coordination including uncertainties coming from stochastic sources and stochastic storage. In the

studies performed, the forecasting errors are confirmed not to be Gaussian, so non-parametric methods

of uncertainty modeling are preferred and used. The developed uncertainty models are based on

statistical scenarios, in order to correctly capture inter-temporal dependencies, necessary to model

systems including storage. A scenario reduction approach based on clustering of the Monte Carlo

sampling based scenarios is developed and tested, in order to tractably represent the stochastic

sources related uncertainty. A platform for consistent evaluation of the obtained stochastic optimization

results is also an integral part of the thesis, permitting the analysis of diverse operational policies.

The primary contribution of the thesis is the direct integration of the uncertainty models for stochastic

sources and stochastic storage into an algorithmic method for short term generation coordination.


157

Joana Abreu, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Uncovering the potential for demand response in the residential sector

Supervisors

in Portugal: Jorge Vasconcelos (NEWES), Francisco Câmara Pereira (FCTUC), Paulo Ferrão (IST)

at MIT: David Marks, Stephen Connors

abroad: Inês Azevedo (Carnegie Mellon)


The present research is centered on the residential consumer of electricity and is based upon

experimentation and knowledge discovery. Following experimental design methods, a smart meter

experiment involved participants from the Municipality of Oeiras (treatment and control), with the

primary objective of accessing the effects of feedback and social pressure in residential electricity

consumption in Portugal.

Secondary objectives include studying routine behaviors, and using clustering and segmentation

techniques to characterize the population involved in the experiment. The experiment is designed to

include one of the most effective drivers of behavioral change: social pressure and the need for humans

to adjust and follow the norm. Additionally, it enables an opportunity to analyze residential load profiles

and to identify those characteristics of demand that combined with the time of use and lifestyles of the

individuals may indicate the potential for demand response.

Achieving the potential of energy efficiency and conservation on the residential sector remains to be a

challenge. That is partly because society is increasingly dependent of electrical appliances and

development is associated with consumption of goods and of commodities. Infrequent billing, low

energy prices, and an increasing dependence of electricity all contribute to the current situation of

generalized lack of interest with energy consumption in everyday decisions. Adding to that fact,

decisions made in the house lack the medium to long-term foresight that implies that larger investments

in the present will pay off in energy savings in the future. Such behaviors, easier to replicate in the

home, but often not representing the way people take decisions at work, reveal hyperbolic discount

rates. In a carbon constrained future, restricted by uncertain supply security energy efficiency in the

residential sector starts to be perceived, by utilities and politicians as a supply option (megawatts). Yet

its real potential lacks to be established. The experiment has ended in September 2010, but preliminary

results are already being prepared for publishing.

158

João Lagarto, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of thesis

Electricity Market Simulation for Market Power Evaluation and Market Price Forecasting

Supervisor

in Portugal: Álvaro Martins (ISEG), Jorge de Sousa (ISEL), Paulo Ferrão (IST)


This research work proposes in one hand to evaluate the competitive behavior of supply side agents in

an electricity market and in the other hand to forecast the market clearing price.

To carry out this research a model based on conjectural variations is being developed. This model

embodies the conjectural variation parameter which represents the competitive behavior of each supply

side agent.

To evaluate the competitive behavior of supply side agents this parameter is estimated given data

concerning power plant and fuel characteristics, electricity market data and CO2 emissions prices. To

forecast market clearing prices the competitive behavior of each supply side agent is given as well as

power plant and fuel characteristics. The model also includes unit commitment, hydrothermal

coordination and market splitting mechanism for congestion management between transmission

networks.

The advantages of using conjectural variations models is the fact that these models can in one hand

filter the influence in market clearing prices of the competitive behavior of supply side agents from the

influence of other fundamentals such as demand variations, fuel prices, and hydro and other renewable

production. On the other hand, these models allow the representation of different levels of competition

ranging from perfect competition to Cournot competition and even collusive behavior.

The major contribution of this research work is to provide a new approach to study the behavior of

supply market agents in an electricity market.

The model developed was applied to evaluate the competitive behavior of the major supply side market

agents in the Iberian electricity market (IBELM). One of the analyses made was the evaluation of

changes in the competitive behavior of Spanish firms with the beginning of the IBELM. The results show

that Spanish firms changed their behavior towards more competitiveness after the beginning of the

IBELM. This higher competitiveness was also noticed from the fact that monthly average prices were

stable while fuel costs increased, which leads to the conclusion that Spanish firms had not pass-through

to consumers the increase in fuel costs.

Moreover, the results also showed that the competitive behavior of each firm is closely related with its

price-cost margin, that is, with the difference between the market price and the marginal cost of the

most expensive power plant of the each firm that has worked, and is also close related with the total

quantity produced by each firm.


159

Jorge Borges, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Designing the Travel Experience

Supervisors


abroad: Christos Ioakimidis (Universidad de Deusto)


To drive an Electric Vehicle (EV) it is necessary to have a charged battery. To assure this, an

infrastructure system is needed that is connected to the grid and that can provide parking charge (so

that EVs can charge in homes, offices, public parks, etc) and ongoing charge (so that travelers can refill

their EV power in a fast process, like a Fast charging station). But the Economics behind the EV

Infrastructure are still subject of research. The work developed has focused on the creation of a Fast

Charging Station Business Model that analyzes the economic viability of a Fast charging station over a

period of 20 years, simulating a fast charging price for drivers that optimizes the Station profits and still

be competitive when compared to fuel prices at gas stations, for the Portuguese case. Results show

that the fast charging price is almost 3 times higher than charging an EV at home during the night but is

38% cheaper than refuel a diesel ICE vehicle and 66% less expensive than refuel a gasoline ICE

vehicle. A risk analysis of the Fast Charging Station was developed that analyzes the risk for investors

using a Monte Carlo simulation that calculates the profit and rentability probability distributions. The VAR

(Value at Risk) obtained for the Fast charging Station Profit represents 2% of the investments, which

indicates a low risk project.

To study a possible interaction between the EV infrastructure and EV massification, a business analysis

and comparison was developed between two possible business models on the Electric vehicle’s

infrastructure: Pay & Charge; and Charge as Service, taking into consideration the benefits versus costs

for all stakeholders: drivers, energy suppliers, Fast charging stations and EV industry, for the

Portuguese case. The objective is to create services, combining the different components of the electric

mobility such as the EV, battery and charging infrastructure. The Pay & Charge model intends to

simulate the business as usual (BaU) scenario and in the Charge as Service model the battery and the

EV charging are combined in a service. The simulator results show that if the EV Demand increases

over 30% of that in the Pay & Charge scenario (BaU), the Charge as Service model is profitable for all

stakeholders and although the Driver would pay more at the end of the contract, he will benefit from a

lower EV initial investment, less risk regarding the battery and a possible fast charging price reduction

due to an increase on EV demand. The work developed has focused on the Economics of EV

infrastructure, allowing to understand the price to charge an EV from the drivers point of view and how

profitable can be the EV infrastructure business for investors, helping to plan a strategy for a better EV

massification.

.

160

Julija Vasiljevska, FEUP, Republic of Macedonia

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Optical Microsystems

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Peças Lopes (FEUP), Manuel A. Matos (FEUP)

Main Publications

N. D. Hatziargyriou, A. G. Anastasiadis, A. G. Tsikalakis, J. Vasiljevska, “Quantification of economic,

environmental and operational benefits due to significant penetration of Microgrids in a typical LV and

MV Greek network, European Transaction on Electric Power, vol. 21, pp. 1217-1237, March, 2011.


This thesis aims to contribute in the development of new emerging concepts within the distribution

network by proposing advanced control functionalities for management of large scale integration of

micro-generation, controllable loads and storage devices. The approach developed in this thesis is

based on a massive employment of the microgrid (MG) concept in the distribution network followed by

its extension into the multi-microgrid (MMG) concept, as a potential way to facilitate large scale

integration of micro-generation (μG).

The work focuses on development of specific control functionality (an optimization procedure) built at

Medium Voltage (MV) /High Voltage (HV) level in order to deal with time intervals of technical constraint

violations, such as excessive branch overloads and/or voltage drops due to natural load growth. Such

functionality helps manage the MV distribution network in stressed operating periods by sending

requests for controllable (non-critical) load curtailment/shifting and/or controllable (fuel-consuming) μG

dispatch and/or storage dispatch within each MG. A set of benefits, may therefore be attributed to the

DSO. Among these benefits one should stress the postponement of grid reinforcements due to

expected load growth.

Proper identification and allocation of costs and benefits among different stakeholders is a crucial

aspect towards removing potential barriers for the MG and multi MMG concepts deployment. The MMG

impact assessment is modeled as multi-attribute problem where several attributes correspond to the

relevant criteria chosen in regards to the costs and benefits attributed to the DSO for several

alternatives found credible to reflect different possible deployments of the MMG concept. DSO

preferences are captured through trade off values, where the different evaluation criteria are aggregated

in a way that helps the Decision Maker – DSO understanding the influence of each aspect in the final

evaluation, helping, in this way, in defining the best development strategy. Uncertainties are kept

through the creation of mutually exclusive scenarios that are further analyzed using the regret concept.


161

Kiti Suomalainen, IST, Finland

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Wind speed dynamics in synthetic wind speed scenarios for energy systems modeling

Supervisors

in Portugal: Paulo Ferrão (IST), Carlos Silva (IST)


Main Publications

K. Suomalainen, C. Silva, P. Ferrão, S. Connors, 2011, Synthetic wind speed scenarios including diurnal

effects: Implications for wind power dimensioning. Submitted to Energy: Special Iss. Advances in

Energy Studies in January 2011.

K. Suomalainen, C. Silva, P. Ferrão, S. Connors, 2011, A method for a including diurnal effects into

synthetic wind data for energy systems planning: Validation in the Azores islands. Submitted to

Renewable Energy in October 2010, under revision.


The research is focused on wind dynamics through a methodology has been developed to design

synthetic wind speed scenarios taking into account the resource's natural variability at hourly, daily,

seasonal and annual temporal scales. The methodology includes diurnal effects of the wind, which in

turn allows the quantification of surpluses and shortages of wind power in different wind regimes. This is

particularly important to design high penetration wind energy systems such as in islands and

constitutes the main contributions of the present research.

The current research presents a new methodology for taking into consideration the variability of a

renewable energy resource, wind, at different temporal scales (hourly, daily, seasonal, annual) in

generating scenarios for energy systems modelling, which is critical to design of high wind energy

penetration energy systems. It is argued that Markov models and auto-regressive (moving average)

models, generally used for synthetic wind speed data generation, do not contain sufficient low

frequency information related to seasonal and diurnal wind patterns, especially for small and medium

sized energy systems. Under high penetration wind scenarios, the daily pattern of the wind, as well as

its magnitude, become increasingly important to energy system modelling and design. This new

methodology is applied to various locations in the Azores, Portugal, to evaluate the impact of diurnal

effects on wind power dimensioning and to quantify surpluses and shortages during different periods of

the day. Statistical analysis indicates that there are strong seasonal differences in both the magnitude

and shape of the wind within a given day that will affect energy system design and performance. The

methodology being developed evaluates the frequency of different wind day-types, such as afternoon

winds or morning winds, along with the magnitude of wind for varying locations in the Azores with

different quality wind resources. The data used represents three location types: coastal, mid-island and

offshore locations in the Azores archipelago. Application of the new methodology indicates that the

inclusion of diurnal wind characteristics for the analysis of future energy systems provides better design

information, especially as it pertains to generation investment requirements to meet island specific

renewable penetration targets, and intra-day surpluses or shortages of wind generation in small energy

networks.

162

Lauro Ribeiro, FCTUC, Brazil

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Economical Evaluation of Emerging Biofuel Technologies: The Microalgae case study

Supervisors

in Portugal: Patrícia Silva (FCTUC)


Main Publications

Ribeiro, L. A.; Silva, P.P.V. The role of microalgae in the deployment of biofuels: contrasting renewable

energy technologies. In: International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management (IJTPM), 2011.

(Extended Abstract Accepted)


The proposed study aims to analyze the market and development of emerging biofuels technologies

with an emphasis upon cultivating microalgae and assess the economic and technological factors that

could be critical to the success of this technology.

The purpose of this study is to verify who are the key players in this emerging market, analyze the

present economical and political situation, evaluate possible opportunities and weaknesses and

forecast ways to enhance the economic viability of largescale microalgae biofuel industries and

compare this emerging technology with other technologies that can replace our oil consumption. The

study aims to make the intersection of three major areas of knowledge: the Economic Policies to handle

the deregulation of the energy industry (with analysis of the incentives, regulatory constraints and price

signals coming from the Power Exchange), with processes of technological diffusion and economical

evaluation of companies within this market.

Technological advances in cultivation and extraction of oil from microalgae are scientifically well known,

and should continue to move forward in the coming years with increasing investment in R&D in this

area. However, with the emergence of several new private companies in this sector, it is evident the

need of a study of the economics of cultivation of microalgae and the ability to produce biofuel in an

economically viable manner. This study could help, not only private algae biofuel companies so that

they could decide on what product mix to explore, but would help governments when deciding what

policies to adopt to enhance this technology.


163

Leonardo Bremermann, FEUP, Brazil

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of the thesis

Impact Evaluation of the Large Scale Integration of Electric Vehicles in the Security of Supply

Supervisors

In Portugal: Manuel Matos (FEUP), João Peças Lopes (FEUP)


The expected increase in the mobility by Electric Vehicles (EVs) will give rise to significant changes in

today’s electricity sector, creating a need for developing new tools for technical and economic

management and decision support. The impact of EVs deployment will also be assessed accepting

additional amounts of renewable energy in the power system, once the EVs will increase the load in the

valley hours or by the operational reserve that it would represents. Alternative or complementary

schemes, as those based on battery changes, also will be addressed. The monitoring of security of

supply is needed to evaluate the reserve level to avoid load curtailment and waste of energy provided

by renewable sources. A tool, based in JAVA platform, has been developed to calculate traditional

reserve indices (static and operational ones) including EV models in this assessment to aid the System

Operator (SO) in its decision making tasks. The number of EVs is a discrete random variable that is

often modeled by a Poisson distribution. It is assumed that a physical zone is divided in areas such as:

residential area, industrial area, etc. The objective of this model is catching, along of the day, the

number of EVs in each area to compute the equivalent EVs load. Each area has a typical load profile

that represents the ordinary behavior of consumers, and also it illustrates a possible EVs load profile on

the different types of Charging Points. The summation of these profiles may represent the EVs impact in

each physical area on different regions. In analogy of the generation stochastic process, the number of

EVs that arrive to charging their batteries, and the time that EVs remain charging it, are a set of random

variables that characterize the EVs behavior as a stochastic process. A second model also has to be

develo-ped. It is regarding the power availability in the batteries that could be injected in the grid. This

last model should be capable to estimate the power available, the associated costs to the

charging/discharging process taking into account the life-cycle of the batteries. The estimate should

take into account the uncertainties involved in this process. The preliminary simulations were based on

the IEEE RTS 79 HW (Reliability Test System) modified in order to include more renewable sources into

the system. The results corroborate that there is a dislocation of the peak load when the smart charging

strategy is used. Also, these preliminary results show a slight increase in the renewable source use

when there is a large deployment of EVs in the electric system.

164

Leonardo Rosado, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 1 month

Title of the thesis

Urban Metabolism: Contributions to establish standard methods to analyze Urban Material Flows

Supervisors



Main Publications

Niza, S., Rosado, L. & Ferrão, P. 2009. Urban Metabolism Methodological Advances in Urban Material

Flow Accounting Based on the Lisbon Case Study. Journal of Industrial Ecology. Volume 13, Number 3.

384-405.


Urban areas have become one of the main focal points to tackle sustainability problems. The urban

metabolism of a city depends on anthropogenic and natural physical flows of energy and materials,

what might be studied by Material Flow Analysis (MFA). The work developed makes a contribution in the

field of Urban Metabolism, by providing a standard method to measure the MFA that can be applied to

different Urban areas, namely in European Countries. By analyzing Urban areas in detail the

contributions of this research work to the MFA methodology relate to the identification of specific

characteristics of flows in the Urban context opposed to country wide economies. An important

contribution is the identification of key data sets and how to use them in order to analyze an Urban MFA

to characterize products and goods into material types, lifespan, economic activity origin and

destination, among others. It also includes establishing a link between flows and environmental impacts,

a field still being developed in the MFA theory. A first model for flows of resources in the Lisbon city was

built, and the link between MFA and environmental impacts was analyzed by accounting the household

consumption of goods and measuring its embodied energy. Some results are: Lisbon city material

inputs were 11 million tons in 2004, about 7% of Portugal material consumption; Total outputs are 2.149

million tons. More specifically, Non-renewable material resources represent almost 80% of the total

material consumption. In preparation is an MFA for the Lisbon Metropolitan area. The effort put on

developing a better methodology for Urban MFA aims at providing better answers to urban planners

and companies that deal with resource management. By providing more detailed information about

flows of resources, for example better waste or energy management policies can be applied.


165

Leonel Carvalho, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Optimization of Large Scale Power System Problems with New Tools

Supervisors

in Portugal: Vladimiro Miranda (FEUP)


Main Publications

V. Miranda, L. M. Carvalho, M. A. da Rosa, A. M. Leite da Silva, C. Singh, "Improving Power System

Reliability Calculation Efficiency With EPSO Variants," Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on, vol.24,

no.4, pp.1772-1779, Nov. 2009.




The growing complexity and the demanding targets of power systems are originating very large scale

problems whose solution becomes problematic not only because of their nature (non-linear, non-

convex, non-differentiable, discrete variables, time-dependent constraints, etc.) but mostly because of

the increasing size of the set variables. For that reason, it is imperative to develop new methodologies to

address the solution of very large scale problems, providing satisfactory solutions in the engineering

sense, i.e., acceptable, obtainable in useful time and competitive with alternative processes. Power

system reliability assessment is a topic where the models addressed are complex and, depending on

the detail of the evaluation, may require notable computational resources.

In this context, one is interested to prove Population Based Methods (PBM) as an alternative to the

state-of-the-art approach chronological Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). Attaining this objective is of

particular complexity because one has defined a non-trivial problem to apply to PBM: a chronologic

representation. PBM models have been applied with success on state space representation but there is

no work published using a chronological representation, which is interesting because it is of much

larger complexity and size. Additionally, new computational trends and the combination of PBM with

other computational intelligence algorithms can also be explored to systematically diminish the

computational effort.

Aiming at acquiring important knowledge regarding power system reliability assessment topic and at

creating a benchmark target whose performance must be overcome by the PBM model, a state-of-the-

art chronological MCS platform was developed. This tool assesses reliability considering failures of the

generating units and of the transmission network. As a side result of validation process of this tool,

studies on the impact of the stochastic behavior of renewable, intermittent and dispersed generation on

the adequacy of several configurations of IEEE RTS-79 were performed. These preliminary studies have

shown that, in order to do a fair comparison on the actual load carrying capability of different generating

technologies such as wind or thermal, a criterion based on the average maximum energy that

generating units are able to provide at in a year of operation should be used instead of a criterion based

on their generating capacity. Under the average maximum energy criterion, it is proven that the

granularity and the disperse nature of wind energy can provide the power system with an improved

adequacy than a large thermal unit.

166

Manuela Carreiras, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2009/2010

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Establishment of a methodology for decision support to regional energy planning

Supervisors

in Portugal: Luís Dias (FEUC), Carlos Henggeler Antunes (FCTUC)


The main objective of energy planning is to define a strategy to meet energy needs with reduced costs

to the economy and the environment. To achieve the results at a national level, planning must also

include plans and actions at a regional level. Energy planning has procedures for decision-making

enabling an integrated, multidisciplinary and participatory approach. However, decision-making is

nowadays a process which lacks transparency and does not always reflect the regional energy potential

and stakeholder’s opinions. The current tools for decision support used in the energy planning process

revealed being incomplete and individualized, according to the requirements of each study. There is no

standard methodology that can be applied to all planning processes that incorporate the different

dimensions of sustainability in a similar manner, as well as the participation and involvement of

stakeholders.

Most studies are carried out at national level and, often, the implementation of measures on a regional

scale is not possible. The territory’s details, the difficulty in accessing or allocating data, and the

characterization of the energy in such a small territory present a challenge working at this level. What

seems to be missing in research until now, are multi-criteria studies on regional energy systems with

multiple energy carriers. To achieve these results, it is essential to include an analysis of regional

characteristics, identifying the available energy resources, mapping the supply and demand data,

carrying out a survey of the characteristics and interests of stakeholders, analyzing possible strategies

for optimum use of energy, working the degree of uncertainty through simulations of scenarios and

iterations by assigning weights to the planning components for the creation of a preferred plan. This can

be done by using Multi-Criteria Analysis.

For this PhD research, a methodology is being developed for energy planning based on multi-criteria

analysis to support decision-makers at a regional level, by working together with the Regional Energy

and Environment Agency of Centre Region of Portugal (AREAC). The development of this methodology

is based on an "applications-driven" approach. The validation and generalization of the methodology is

made through its application to different case studies and scenarios, with emphasis in energy efficiency,

GHG emissions reduction and socio-economic aspects. Furthermore, this research also aims at

contributing to the development of decision-support tools in the energy planning process.


167

Maria Kapsalaki, FEUP, Greece

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Strategies for the design of Net Zero Energy Buildings

Supervisors

iin Portugal: Vitor Leal (FEUP)

at MIT: Leon Glicksman

Main Publications

M.Kapsalaki, V.Da Silva.Leal Recent Progress on Net Zero Energy Buildings. Submitted to Journal of

Advances in Buildings Energy Research Vol 5, 2011: ISSN: 1751-2549 E-ISSN: 1756-2201


My PhD thesis is related to residential Zero Energy Buildings in respect to climate and resource

diversity. At the moment a software tool is being developed in MATLAB that based on a given geometry

type and geographical location, determines the energy needs, flows and a life cycle economic analysis

for many envelope, energy services and local offset equipment while next steps involve the testing and

application of the software- tool and the development of an optimization algorithm. So far, the tool is able

to perform the annual final energy needs calculation which is based on the RCCTE calculation

methodology (the Portuguese regulation that measures the thermal performance of buildings). The

RCCTE method is a steady state method based on the heating degree days (HDD). The tool takes as

input parameters that characterize the building envelope, the energy services and micro-generation

equipment and the economics. More specifically as regards the building envelope the input required

includes the: useful area, shape factor, height, adjacent area, internal area, insulation levels for the roof

and the walls, inertia, infiltration, window type, shading, ventilation and orientation; regarding the

equipment providing the energy services and the micro-generation ones the input related involves the

heating system, cooling system, domestic hot water system (DHW), lighting, electric appliances, type of

photovoltaic (PV) module and wind turbine; finally the economics related input covers the costs for

insulation, windows, shades, heating cooling and DHW systems, electric appliances and micro-

generation systems. Besides the calculation of the energy needs the tool sizes the micro-generation

equipment needed to offset the consumption, as well as the heating, cooling and DHW systems and

can give an estimation of the initial cost. At the moment an optimization algorithm is under development

which will analyse all the possible combinations of the input parameters and give the optimum solution

regarding the following: lowest initial cost, lowest yearly energy bill and lowest cost in a life cycle of 10

and 20 years. The final step of the research will be to test and apply the software-tool for different

geographical locations and different types of buildings.

168

Marta Mota, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 12 days

Title of the thesis

Corporate Reporting Towards Sustainability - Towards an assessment method for comprehensive and

universal sustainability reporting

Supervisors

in Portugal: Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes (FEUP), Isabel Soares (FEP)


Measuring social corporate performance is a current challenge for companies and academia.

Monitoring the evolution of the sustainability performance of each company is still hampered by the use

of a very broad set of indicators, most of them with a qualitative character, hardly used for

benchmarking activities. In some cases, selected indicators are not quite adjusted to the company core

operations or to the specific challenges of the business sector. That raises the following questions: What

must constitute the core of the sustainability corporate reporting? What must be identified as critical to

be measured and reported in a commonly understood language? How to develop and assess a method

that allows for transparency, accountability and benchmarking?

The main contribution of this work is the identification of a relevant set of Sustainability Key Performance

Indicators (SKPI´s) for the European energy sector. It is also expected to provide better understanding

on the relation between corporate sustainability and financial markets. Electric Utilities, by their own

nature and scope, are intended to be accountable to various stakeholders, while dealing with

challenges emerging on a global scale.

The hypothesis that market tends to recognize the corporate sustainable behavior is core of this thesis.

Employees, consumers and society value a company with social and environmental concerns,

increasing its ability to survive in the long run. On the other hand, companies with no environmental or

social concerns incur in direct or indirect losses regarding reliability and image, which usually, lead to

loss of value. Presently, the valuation of a company in financial markets increasingly reflects not only

shareholders expectations, but also other stakeholder’s appreciation. Market recognition is used in this

research as a “proxy” of general stakeholders recognition. To evaluate the market recognition of

corporate sustainable behavior, we use volatility of corporate shares. It is expected that companies

having more concerns about sustainability would present lower volatility on their stock prices. The

methods used in this research include statistical techniques and econometric models to identify the

correlation between indicators and perform the analysis of volatility. Econometric models are also

applied to study the relation between SKPI from a sample of energy companies and their performance

on financial markets. The preliminary results achieved indicate a correlation between sustainability

reporting practices and the position of energy companies in the market, allowing the identification of

explanatory factors.


169

Miguel Covas, IST, FEUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Sustainable Data Centers -Holistic Strategies and Methodologies to Develop a Sustainable Data Center

Supervisors

in Portugal: Carlos Silva (IST), Luis Dias (FEUC)

Main Publications

Covas, Miguel, Silva, Carlos and Dias, Luis, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Sustainable Data

Centers. European Journal of Operational Research, 2011 (under review).

Covas, Miguel, Silva, Carlos and Dias, Luís. On locating sustainable Data Centers in Portugal: problem

structuring and GIS-based analysis, Computers, Environments and Urban Systems, 2011 (under review).


This thesis aims to develop a methodology to analyze and support the decision making for the

development of a Sustainable Data Center, by using geographic information systems and multi criteria

decision analysis (MCDA), taking into account the technical, socio, economic and environmental criteria

of the decision. With the methodology which was developed, we were able to identify the most

interesting locations to implement a Sustainable Data Center. From the 4.050 parishes in Portugal, it was

possible to identify 62 which are potentially interesting to develop an efficient Data Center (which

represents only 1,5% of the total initial set of alternatives). Geographically, these potential areas are in

north of Lisbon and near the coastline (where there is a higher number of hours with average

temperatures below 21 ºC per year). Taking into account the 62 pre-determined parishes, an MCDA was

applied for sorting the parishes to install Sustainable Data Centers, considering technical, social,

economic and environmental criteria. The required criteria are heterogeneous, imprecise and difficult to

trade-off. The evaluation was formulated as a multi-criteria sorting problem and it was analyzed using

the outranking MCDA method ELECTRE TRI through the IRIS software. This work used IRIS in an

original way by evaluating separately the different sustainability axes (economic, environmental, social

and risk), using a common qualitative scale (the sorting categories) of four levels. The results show that

there are 19 parishes out of the 62 that are non-dominated solutions, i.e., potentially very good for the

development of a Sustainable Data Center. The model developed streamlines the selection process by

reducing the search space and consequently minimizes costs and time spent in the search process.

The energy demand and the environmental impact of future Data Center development are highly

dependent on the climate of the site location. An analysis of the Portuguese reality has shown that if

existing DCs in Lisbon were built in one of the regions selected in this study (north of Portugal) then the

annual energy savings could represent over 45,8 GWh, 21.567 ton/CO2 avoided emissions and a

saving of 3,212 M€ per year.

170

Nuno Clímaco Pereira, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Energy-Efficient Retrofit of Buildings in Lisbon (study about 1960’s - 1970’s typologies)

Supervisors

in Portugal: Luísa Caldas (FA-UTL), Manuel Correia Guedes (IST)

at MIT: Leon Glicksman (MIT)


The objective of the research is to develop a methodology for a global building stock analysis in order

to, in the end, define the best available retrofit options by building type for the adopted case study of

Lisbon. The analysis began (during 2009/2010 period) by the Pombalino typology one of the more

antique and standardized typologies, built before 1919. This study represented a test bed for the case-

study typology (60-70’s), which is now under progress.

The first task towards achieving the proposed goals was the categorization of the existing building

stock, according to building type, age of construction, and typical construction methods used, based

on the information of a sample of 200 buildings. The next step was the thermal modeling using Energy

Plus (through Design Builder) simulating both a virtual and an existent building of each typology.

As a main task of the research comes the validation of these models through the results of a detailed 1

year field monitoring of 6 existing buildings (parameters: comfort, energy, occupation, air infiltration). A

step of the most importance to give an added accuracy to the reference model inputs in order to have a

solid base to work on the potential impact of energy-efficient retrofit measures. As a current task

different energy-retrofitting measures are being simulated using the models, and prioritized in terms of

return-on-investment periods. For the Pombalino test-bed study (developed during early 2010), the

retrofit measures contributed to a thermal energy reduction of 49.2%. And in the free-float mode, to a

better comfort of the occupants, equivalent to less 780 discomfort hours per year (24% less).

The final objective is to assess the potential for energy reductions at the urban level, by an optimal

package of measures chosen for the specific chosen building type (1960-70’s); and to develop a

methodology to implement the outputs of the research in large-scale rehabilitation schemes, which is

very likely to be happening in a near future, following an integrated and comprehensive analysis for the

different stake-holders.

The main contribution of this research is the methodology development for analysis of city and countries

building stock, using the more accurate figures and validating the thermal simulation models results with

monitoring data from the field. This validation will allow more accurate results and a more informed

decision-making concerning options for buildings energy retrofit.


171

Patrícia Baptista, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Evaluation of the impact of new vehicle and fuel technologies in the Portuguese road transportation

sector

Supervisors

in Portugal: Tiago Farias (IST), Carla Silva (IST)

at MIT: John Heywood (MIT)

Main Publications

Patrícia Baptista, Mário Tomás, Carla Silva. Hybrid plug-in fuel cell vehicles market penetration

scenarios. International journal of hydrogen energy - 35 (18) 2010.

Patrícia Baptista, Catarina Rolim, Carla Silva. Plug-in vehicle acceptance and probable utilization

behavior. Submitted to Transport Policy, 2010.

Patricia Baptista, João Ribau, João Bravo, Carla Silva, Paul Adcock, Ashley Kells. Fuel cell hybrid taxi

life cycle analysis, submitted to Energy Policy, 2010.


The urge for energy security of supply, air quality improvement in urban areas and CO2 emissions

reduction are pressing decision makers/manufacturers to act on the road transportation sector,

introducing more efficient vehicles and spanning the energy sources. For that reason, it is expected

that, in the near future, the transportation sector will face considerable changes.

This PhD research is focused on the Portuguese road transportation sector and aims at evaluating the

impacts of introducing new vehicle technology, energy sources and other policy and mobility options.

For that purpose a fleet model tool for Portugal, named Projections for Alternative Transportation

Technologies Software (PATTS), was developed. PATTS is capable of generating scenarios to evaluate

the impact of introducing new vehicle (conventional, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric, fuel cell and natural

gas) and fuel technologies (fossil fuels, biofuels, electricity, hydrogen, etc.) in the transportation sector,

mainly in terms of primary energy consumption, CO2 emissions and local pollutants emissions

considering a life-cycle analysis (LCA). A LCA framework means that a certain vehicle technology

powered by a specific fuel must include in its LCA not only its utilization stage (Tank-to-wheel) related to

driving the vehicle, but also the fuel production stage (Well-to-Tank) and the vehicle itself

manufacturing/maintenance/recycling (Materials Cradle-to-Grave). Additionally, the cost for the user is

also accessed in these scenarios.

More than having a tool to run different scenarios to assess the scale and timing of impact of specific

options, guiding maps were designed in order to know which options to follow to achieve specific

targets. Indicators that quantify mobility, vehicle technology and energy pathway evolution were created

and correlations between these indicators and energy consumption, CO2 emissions and cost were

obtained. These innovative correlations provides a powerful tool for both academia and decision

makers to compare policy options for the road transportation sector.

172

Pedro Almeida, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Amount of time spent at MIT: 2 weeks

Title of the thesis

Impact of Vehicle to Grid in the Power System Dynamic Behaviour

Supervisors


Main Publications

J. A. Peças Lopes, F. J. Soares, P. M. Rocha Almeida, “Integration of Electric Vehicles in the Electric

Power System”, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 168–183, Jan. 2011.


The purpose of this thesis is to identify grid operational management and control strategies that should

be available with the presence of vehicles with plug-in capabilities. There is a high potential for Electric

Vehicles (EV) to participate in several power systems services. This thesis focuses on the possible

effects and benefits of EV connections on the systems dynamic behaviour, regarding in particular the

participation in frequency control related ancillary services provision. Therefore, two research paths are

pursued: primary frequency control and secondary frequency control

In order to enable the provision of these controls a conceptual framework for EV integration into electric

power systems was developed. Within this framework a market structure was proposed, where

individual EVs are provided with market visibility by an aggregation unit, the Aggregator. For secondary

reserves provision, after market closure the Aggregator receives set-points from the Automatic

Generation Control (AGC) unit and distributes them among the EV it manages. For primary control, each

EV must react locally to frequency deviations due to the need for fast action procedures (below 15

seconds) and send to the Aggregator a record of their activity for posterior remuneration for their

service.

Using the proposed framework, two case studies were developed: one for primary frequency control in

an isolated system and other for AGC operation in an interconnected grid.

In the first case study, a sudden drop in the wind speed was simulated, which led to the reduction of the

active power production of the existing wind generators. Being a weak grid, such event leads to a large

frequency deviation. However, when EV react to frequency changes the system is able to keep

frequency closer to the reference value. The evolution of frequency was evaluated when the isolated

system is subjected to the described event, with and without EV participation in frequency control. It

was verified that EV only need to temporarily reduce their consumption value to improve the

performance of the system.

In the second case study, a two-area system was studied and a load increase in area 1 was imposed.

The evolution of frequency and the interconnection power flow were evaluated for the studied period.

When EVs participate in AGC operation, frequency and tie lines power flow are restored much quicker

and smoother way.


173

Pedro Fazenda, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd



Title of the thesis

Energy Efficiency Monitoring and Management to Promote Sustainable Behaviors

Supervisors

in Portugal: Pedro Lima (IST)

at MIT: Una-May O’ Reilly


Buildings are responsible for a considerable amount of the global energy bill. In Portugal, for example,

they use 30% of the final energy, 35% of the primary energy and 60% of the electricity. Building

resources should be carefully managed to achieve high efficiency and minimum waste, while still

promoting a comfortable environment and social satisfaction with the working and living spaces. Over

the past few years many articles have been published on the subject of Smart/Intelligent Buildings

(SBs). The definition of intelligence, as defined in the artificial intelligence community, can be viewed as

a property of a system that thinks like humans; thinks rationally; acts like humans or acts rationally,

depending on the focus of the definition and how it is measured. In SBs, the term assumes a functional

approach and is normally associated with the integration and automation of systems and functions to

operate in ways that provide a responsive, effective and supportive environment, within which

organizations can meet their performance objectives. SB can integrate the many systems that are part

of the building and will act towards minimizing energy misusage and operating costs by manipulating

available parameters, within an optimization space compliant with the comfort of the users of the

building. The SB can monitor values of energy use and other parameters associated to user comfort,

such as temperature, indoor air quality and lighting, and try to discover patterns and habits that may be

associated to energy waste. With this information, users can be informed of the actual power

consumption values, and be made more aware through feedback notification of their good behaviors,

with impacts in the promotion of sustainable habits. The focus of the PhD thesis includes aspects of

knowledge representation for the domain of intelligent energy systems, using description logics, and

machine learning with planning under uncertainty. Following the literature review, some of the work that

was executed this year included the use of a Markov Decision Processes to control the heating,

ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system in a way that adapts to the behavior of the tenants, while

maintaining operation needs to a minimum. The idea is to reduce the HVAC system operation when the

building or space is unoccupied and dynamically explore the heating and cooling set-points that satisfy

user comfort, while minimizing the needs for thermal energy. The concepts of reinforcement learning,

MDPs and Q-learning agents were studied and applied. A simple toy problem for room temperature

control was formulated and a Q-learning agent was used to solve it. Future work will include extending

the idea to the entire building while including other variables like e.g., lighting. This can include the

creation of new algorithms to accomplish the proposed objectives while dealing with the complexity of

the domain, partial observable environments and limited actuation capabilities..

174

Pedro Vicente, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Nonlinear dynamics of arrays of floating point-absorber wave energy converters with inter-body and

bottom slack-mooring connections.

Supervisors

in Portugal: António Falcão (IST)

Main Publications

Vicente, P.C., Falcão, A.F.O., Justino, P.A.P., Nonlinear dynamics of a tightly moored point-absorber

wave energy converter. Ocean Eng., 2010, under revision.


The main aim of the research work is to contribute to the major development of wave energy converters,

particularly offshore point absorbers. It focuses on the numerical and experimental modeling of arrays

of energy converters and their mooring systems.

Emphasis is given on theoretical and numerical modeling of the wave-device hydrodynamic interaction,

to the operation of the power absorption mechanism, to the hydrodynamic interference between

devices within an array and finally, to the influence of the mooring system in the devices operation,

either isolated or inserter within an array.

A numerical and experimental study of the nonlinear effects introduced by the mooring system on the

floating devices is proposed, analyzing their interference on the converters oscillating motion and on the

energy absorption process.

Different configurations for the arrays and moorings are analyzed. In particular, considerations are given

to (linear and nonlinear) modeling in the moorings by catenary cable ("slack mooring") and by cables

under tension ("tight mooring") and their specific interference with the wave energy absorption process.

Model testing is planned to be done, initially at a small scale (about 1:80) in a wave flume at IST and

afterwards, at a bigger scale of about of 1:35, in the irregular wave tank, at the Faculty of Engineering,

University of Porto.

On the wave tank, irregular waves will be generated, simulating sea states representative of the wave

climate under study (possibly the pilot area at the west coast of Portugal). Measurements will be

performed on the displacement (with an optical tracking system already existing at the wave tank), on

the mooring forces and on the power absorbed (with a simulator of the power take-off system).

Work already performed on the dynamics of arrays of floating point-absorber wave energy converters

with inter-body connections resulted in a paper published in the proceedings of the International

Conference on Ocean Energy – ICOE2010. Work on the nonlinear dynamics of a floating wave energy

converter reacting against the sea bottom through a tight mooring cable resulted in a paper published

in the proceedings of International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering –

OMAE2010 and also in one paper submitted to the Journal of Ocean Engineering which is under

revision.


175

Reza Fazeli, FEUP, Iran

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd


Amount of time spent at MIT: 6 months so far (9 months expected)

Title of the thesis

Development of a multi-criteria evaluation framework for alternative light-duty vehicle technologies

Supervisors

in Portugal: Vitor Leal (FEUP), Jorge Pinho Sousa (FEUP)

at MIT: Stephen Connors, Christopher Zegras

Main Publications

R. Fazeli, V. Leal and J.P. Sousa, A multi-criteria evaluation framework for alternative light-duty vehicles

technologies, International Journal of Multi Criteria Decision Making, Accepted (in Press), 2011.


This work could be divided into three main phases. In the first phase entitled “Flash Forward”, the effort

is dedicated to find the best alternatives for mid-term transportation planning. This phase includes

several steps:

• Identification of main alternative fuel technology combinations applicable for light-duty

vehicles (LDVs), through literature review,

• Comprehensive attributes characterization of the different alternative fuel technology

vehicles for current and for (expected) future stages,

• Development of a Multi Criteria Analysis model to evaluate the alternative fuel technology

vehicle fleet and applying a sequential Screening methodology in order to reduce a large

set of alternatives to a smaller set that most likely contains the best choice.

• Application of the methodology to three different geographical contexts (e.g. Portugal, UK

and Iran), in order to assess the most adequate technology for each context.

Currently, the first phase is finished and the results achieved from the developed model are being

analyzed. An integrated scenario analysis to evaluate the impact of several factors is being followed.

In the second phase, our approach is to focus on the transition period for adoption of favorite

alternatives resulted from first phase. System Dynamic will be applied in order to tackle the transitional

issues including consumer acceptance, and relation between infrastructure development and sustained

adoption of alternative fuel vehicles.

On final phase, the target is to try to incorporate the transitional issues into the multi-criteria decision

making procedure. The plan is to evaluate the impact of different decision maker’s attitude on the final

results and assess the resilience of the results.

176

Ricardo Abrantes, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Pre-compression Cycle application, study and sustainability analysis – Study of the pre-compression

cycle applied to internal combustion engines using oxygen and hydrogen

Supervisors

in Portugal: Manuel Carlos Gameiro (FCTUC)


The proposed work is a preliminary study of a proposed thermodynamic cycle to be applied to internal

combustion engines. This cycle uses admission technologies in order to achieve a clean, more efficient

combustion with a simpler and cheaper technology.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the performance of the technology when oxygen and hydrogen

are used. The evaluation will address sustainability issues at an ecological end economical point of

view, and a power and efficiency performance characterization will also be addressed.

Although the expected efficiency increase, the low weight and volume, zero emissions performance and

increased hydrogen lifecycle, some problems are expected and the success of the technology

depends on the performance of other systems that are not object of the study.

The study will address the transportation and power storage sectors. Benefits for both sectors are

expected by the application of the technology developed in this research work. Preliminary results

suggest real efficiencies of about 80%.


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Ricardo Bessa, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Development of methodologies for technical and economic management of aggregation agents of

electric vehicles

Supervisors

in Portugal: Manuel da Costa Matos (FEUP)

Main Publications

R.J. Bessa, M.A. Matos, “Economic and technical management of an aggregation agent for electric

vehicles: a literature survey”, European Transactions on Electrical Power, vol. 20, 2011. DOI:

10.1002/etep.565

M.A. Matos, R.J. Bessa, “Setting the operating reserve using probabilistic wind power forecasts”, IEEE

Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 26, 2011. DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2010.2065818




Different business opportunities will emerge with the proliferation of electric vehicles (EV). It is foreseen

the emerging of electricity retailers for electrical mobility, which is generally called in the literature as an

EV aggregation agent (aggregator in abbreviated form).

The aggregator serves as a middleman between the EV owners and the electrical utilities or electricity

market. In this thesis a more elaborated EV aggregation agent is explored, which by exploring the

smart-grid concept (e.g. bidirectional communication) offers more services than common load

aggregators. The aggregator controls the individual EV charging to increase its competitiveness, and

decrease the EV owners retailing price by minimizing the cost of purchased electricity. Hence, the

aggregator presents purchasing bids in the electricity market for satisfying the consumption of all EV

under contract. Moreover, it is also possible to offer ancillary services bids, such as secondary reserve.

The objective of this thesis is to develop decision-aid tools for the aggregator which characterize

uncertainties and promote optimal decisions under risk based on its attitude towards risk. Furthermore,

the impact and value of different degrees of availability of the relevant information will be studied. The

problem will be addressed taking into account economic and technical aspects in a multicriteria

formulation.

The expected outcomes and scientific contributions are a conceptualization of the aggregator role and

business model, as well as algorithms that manage the uncertainty and support the aggregator

decisions.

The progress and main achievements made until now were the following:

• elaboration of a complete overview of the economic and technical potential of electric

vehicles in the electricity market, as well details about aggregator’s business models;

• definition of an aggregation agent framework for participating in the electricity market;

• identification of the EV variables that it is necessary to forecast for this problem;

• optimization approaches, to support the aggregator participation in the day-ahead and

reserve sessions (upward and downward) of the electricity market, were developed and

tested.

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Rita Paleta, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Remote Autonomous Energy Systems Design for Developing Countries

Supervisors

In Portugal: Carlos Silva (IST)


Energy systems are a critical infrastructure, with direct impact on a country´s economic development

and social welfare. In developing countries, a lot of effort is being made on the design and

implementation of energy systems that are environmentally and economically sustainable and that can

also be a driver for economical development through innovation.

The main scientific achievement of this PhD work will be a rural electrification model which takes into

account a development evolution pathway to estimate the Remote Autonomous Energy System (RAES)

configuration progression, merging technical-economical aspects with the sustainable development

paradigm. This energy system’s design model will allow, by acknowledging some basic characteristics

of a rural village (e.g. population, geographical resources, climate data or even economical or industrial

activities’ expectations)to define a strategy in order to provide energy services to a certain village,

always respecting the sustainable development paradigm.

To achieve that, and regarding an industrial partnership with Finertec Energia SGPS SA, it will require

not only a careful case-studies’ data analyses but also a sustainable energy pathway definition, based

on internationally accepted energy and human development indicators. The final PhD phase will consist

on establishing the validation, and consolidation of the RAES implementation model.

At present, an existing solar villages project’s data was analyzed and optimized. In that way, there were

defined the base energy demand scenarios, crucial to accomplish the thesis objectives; the following

stage will consist on the indicators choice and its model incorporation.


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Rui Gomes, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Wave energy extraction from oscillating bodies: numerical modelling and experimental testing

Supervisors

in Portugal: Luís Gato (IST), António Falcão (IST)

Main Publications

R.P.F. Gomes, J.C.C. Henriques, L.M.C. Gato and A.F.O. Falcão. IPS 2-Body Wave Energy Converter:

Acceleration Tube Optimization. International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, 20(4):247–255,

2010.

M. F. P. Lopes, J. Hals, R. P. F. Gomes, T. Moan, L. M. C. Gato, A. F. de O. Falcão. Experimental and

numerical investigation of non-predictive phase control strategies for a point-absorbing wave energy

converter. Ocean Engineering, 36(5): 386-402, 2009.


This work deals with the modeling and development of wave energy converters. Three technologies are

studied throughout this work: a pitching plate, a two-body heaving device and a floating oscillating

water column. Numerical analysis and geometry optimization are carried out for each device when

subjected to a real wave climate by using a frequency domain model.

Special emphasis is made to the parameters that most influence the dynamics of each device,

particularly the power take-off system parameters. A time domain model is developed to assess the

nonlinearities present in the power take-off system. Experiments with scale models in a wave flume and

in a wave tank are presented to validate the numerical results and assess influence of the effects

ignored in the numerical models. A correlation was derived from experimental results to include viscous

effects in the numerical model.

Optimization results show that more than one geometry can maximize the average annual power

extraction. An economic criterion that includes the construction cost is used to choose the optimal

geometry. In an oscillating water column, the air chamber compressibility effect, when correctly tuned

with an optimal geometry can provide a considerable increase in the average power extraction. From

the optimization of axisymmetric offshore devices, it is verified that the annual average power increases

as the diameter and the length of the device increases. Therefore, these parameters require limitations.

Numerical results presented a good agreement with experiments.

Future work will include the study of control strategies to increase the average annual power extraction

of each device.

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Sérgio Casimiro, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Optimization of CSP + D power plants in isolated areas, and potential business models

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Farinha Mendes (LNEG)


at Universidad de Deusto: Christos Ioakimidis


The work plan is defined now, together with all the institutions that are going to be involved. Our

interests with this thesis are two. Firstly: obtain a tool that can give an idea of the feasibility of

Concentrated Solar Themal Power plants (CSP) coupled with desalination, as many of the areas in the

world where CSP has the biggest advantage are in areas where the lack of water is an important issue.

Secondly: Understand the optimum point between electricity and water production of such a power

plant in a case scenario (a Mediterranean Island for example), and if possible understand business

models that can be applied to deploy this technology in similar locations. Electricity prices are different

throughout the day, week and period of the year, and as water production can be stored with relatively

ease, it is important to study the possibility of such a production mix, and related costs to the energy

system to which they may be connected. A tool called the Solar Advisor Model (SAM) was created by

the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that is capable of analyzing the feasibility of CSP

power plants for electricity generation. We are interested on creating an add-on to their model. The aim

is that the updated version of SAM can analyze the costs of installing and running a CSP power plant

with desalination capacity in a determined location defined by the user. As the SAM is based mostly in

TRNSYS (a tool that simulates transient performance of thermal energy systems) for its technical

assessment, it is proposed to create a deck in this model to simulate the operation of the desalination

plant, so that it can work with the other blocks created in SAM for the analysis of the CSP plants for

electrical production. A second stage will consist on the update of the technical economic model of

SAM to have into account the water production of the combined plants (CSP+D). The second part of the

PhD will consist on using a case study, preferentially of an isolated energy system in a location where

water may also be scarce, to evaluate the optimum solution for the usage of such type of CSP+D power

plants, and potential business models. The results obtained from analyzing the usage of CSP plants for

electricity production in Portugal indicate that in scenarios with low CO2 prices CSP will have a low

expression in the electrical production. Only if CO2 prices reach between 40 and 50 €/tone then CSP

becomes the main option for electrical production.


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Vanessa Mateus, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Energy efficiency in cities: setting a hierarchy of measures for energy savings in the urban context

Supervisors

in Portugal: Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes (FEUP)



The goal of the thesis is to identify a small set of effective technical strategies which are able to provide

a substantial reduction of primary energy demand and carbon emissions associated to the urban

residential sector for the Oporto municipality.

It is intended to develop a holistic approach where both top-down - urban stratifications, for the

identification of neighborhood/dwelling study-areas - and bottom-up energy modeling techniques will

be employed. An optimization analysis will be performed in order to identify low-carbon pathways for

this economic sector. For the analysis it will be considered the actual conditionings of the building stock

(environmental and physical), the most relevant end-uses and drivers for residential energy demand,

and the quantification of the potential reduction of primary energy consumption and carbon emissions

that can be achieved when energy conservation strategies, both passive and active are implemented at

local level. Different energy conservation strategies can be employed at the building scale, from

bioclimatic architecture, the implementation of energy-efficient building materials and dwelling

equipments, to building-integrated renewable energy supply technologies.

Furthermore it will also be analyzed the influence of urban morphology characteristics (e.g. building

stock density and pattern) and building typologies on residential energy demand profiles.

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Vasco Granadeiro, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD program: SES

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Optimization of Building Shape and Materials for Low Energy Consumption (provisional)

Supervisors

in Portugal: José Pinto Duarte (FA-UTL), João Ramôa Correia (IST), Vítor Leal (FEUP)

at MIT: William J. Mitchell (deceased, June 2010)


Typically, architects and engineers see building design from different perspectives. To conceive a

shape for a building, an architect will mostly consider aesthetics and architectural context, and will not

be so meticulous with energy efficiency, the engineer’s only concern. If the architect and the engineer

could develop their own shapes for a certain building, the first would present a beautiful shape but

probably inefficient and the second would present a simple shape, probably a box, very efficient but not

aesthetically appealing.

The shape is the main variable to be defined in the early design stages and it is decisive for the energy

behavior of the building throughout its lifetime. In the typical work process, the architect defines the

shape, therefore his shape is the starting point. This research suggests a methodology to increase the

energy efficiency of the starting shape, changing it through optimization, but within the architect

intentions for the shape, within his flexibility for it. This way, the building shape will satisfy both the

interests of the architect and the engineer. The selected method to embody flexibility was the design of

rules to generate shapes (instead of the design of one shape), using the Shape Grammars formalism.

The variables in these rules allow the generation of a great variety of shapes, and these are the

variables to be optimized. The objective is to optimize the shape for a certain location and after optimize

the shape and the materials together, since the latter exert a large influence on the energy performance.

An existing set of design rules (called a grammar) was selected as a case study to develop the

methodology – the grammar of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Houses – and programmed into Matlab,

involving up to 60 variables. Matlab was linked to Energy Plus to automatically run an energy simulation

to any generated shape to know its energy consumption (e.g. for the Lisbon climate). Next step is

choosing an optimization algorithm to optimize the variables, being the energy consumption the

objective function. Literature points to evolutionary algorithms as the best options, such as genetic

algorithms or particle swarm optimization algorithms. After, materials, which are now constants, are

going to be variables to optimize along with shape. Once the selection of materials enters the problem,

makes sense to look at energy consumption from a life cycle perspective, which will be a new objective

function.


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3.4. Transportation Systems

3.4.1. Overview

The Doctoral Program in Transport Systems (DPTS) is a joint degree offered by theUniversity of Coimbra, the University of Porto, and the Technical University of Lisbon.The schools directly involved in the program are FCTUC, FEUP, and IST , respectively,that is, the engineering schools of the three universities.

The DPTS was offered for the first time in the academic year of 2010-2011, to replacethe separate doctoral programs in transport previously offered by the threeuniversities, after being approved by the recently established Agency for theAccreditation and Assessment of Higher Education (A3ES). It is, to the best of ourknowledge, the first doctoral program ever approved by this agency, with the decisionbeing justified as follows: “It's a well-organized program, engages the three topPortuguese institutions in the area of transport systems, most of the more qualifiedprofessors and researchers, has the support of important research centers,establishes a healthy integration of facilities of the three schools, has clear, wellidentified, and objectives and fulfills an area which is short of 3rd degree technicalstaff that can't be easily obtained in other countries”.

The goal of the DPTS is to prepare students to become leading actors in the transportworld by:

• Providing a solid scientific education covering both the methodologicalapproaches and institutional factors required to understand thetransportation enterprise as an intermodal integrated system;

• Conducting cutting-edge research for the development of a world-classtransportation system for passengers and freight in Portugal; and

• Working with industrial, government, and laboratory collaborators toprovide added value to the program through research collaboration andteaching involvement.

Areas

The DPTS covers all transport systems topics, from transport policy and planning toinfrastructure design and maintenance, at the various spatial levels (from internationalto local), and for the various modes (air, rail, road, etc.).Up to now, the main focus areas have been:

• Air transport systems;• High speed rail systems;• Land-use/transport systems;• Innovative urban transport modes/services;• Intelligent transport systems; and• Traveler information systems.

Of the sixty-eight students currently involved in the DPTS (or separate predecessorprograms in the three participating schools), thirty-three have an FCT-MIT Portugalscholarship, nineteen of whom have already presented their “Thesis Project”successfully, and seven have already spent a significant amount of time at MIT.

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The theses of these seven students illustrate the wide variety of subjects andapproaches currently being pursued within the DPTS.

Two of the theses address air transport topics: congestion at airports and equity inair transport. One fits into the AirNets project, whose objective is to develop analyticaltools to assist aviation authorities and air carriers to cope better with airportcongestion, one of the major problems faced by the air transport industry. The otherone deals with an important issue raised by the liberalization of air transport, becausethis leads air carriers to abandon non-profitable routes.

The area of high-speed rail is also represented with two theses. One of them is beingcarried out within the framework of the HSR-Life project. Specifically, it aims atassessing the feasibility of combining passenger and freight service in a HSR line,using Lisbon-Madrid as a case study. Within the other thesis, which is part of theHSR-Risk project, a methodology for line planning capable of coping withgeotechnical, seismic and hydrological risks are being developed.

Intelligent transport systems is the research area of one of the theses. Its mainobjective is to assess the safety benefits of Variable Speed Limits (VSL) in urbanmotorways and, based on the results obtained, provide recommendations on thebest strategies for their application.

The remaining two theses can be seen as a contribution to the overall goal of theDPTS of training researchers and professionals capable of addressing transportproblems – particularly in urban/metropolitan areas – from a system-level perspective.One of the theses, included in the SOTUR project, is analyzing how institutionaldesign and decision-making mechanisms affect the overall performance of atransport system. The other thesis looks at the implications of an ageing society withrespect to travel demand, thus providing important information to take into accountwhen designing transport services for the future.

Coordinators of Transportation Systems

António Pais Antunes, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Univ. of Coimbra (PhDdirector)Chris Zegras, Urban Studies & Planning, MITLuís Picado Santos, IST, Technical University of LisbonJorge Pinho de Sousa, Faculty of Engineering, University of PortoJosé Viegas, IST, Technical University of LisbonRichard Neufville, Engineering Systems Division, MIT (PhD director)

3.4.2. Structure

The DPTS has a total (expected) duration of three years. In the 1st year, studentsmake a doctoral program of 60 ECTS. This program comprises two mandatory (“M”)curricular courses – “Research Methodologies” (6 ECTS) and “Thesis Project inTransport Systems” (30 ECTS) – and four optional (“O”) curricular courses. At leasttwo of the optional courses must be chosen among the ones listed in the next table.The remaining ones can be chosen among any other doctoral courses offered by theparticipating schools or by any school with which they have doctoral collaborationagreements. The 2nd and 3rd years of the DPTS are dedicated to the preparation ofa doctoral thesis of 120 ECTS. The curricular units listed in the following table are


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typically taught by faculty of two participating schools. Lectures are given in theschool where the professor usually teaches, and broadcast to the other schools byvideoconference.

The activity of a student of the DPTS takes place as follows. When the student isadmitted, the director of the program in the respective host school, having heard theinterests of the student, designates a tutor amongst the faculty involved in the DPTSor any other faculty member of the school approved by the Scientific Committee. Thetutor helps the student to design her/his course plan and to become acquainted withall the research areas ongoing in the participating schools, other Portuguese schools,and in the international scene. This aims at helping the student to identify until Mayof the 1st year a suitable research area and a supervisor (or supervisors) for her/hisfuture doctoral thesis, according to her/his research interests. The course plan andthe supervisor of each student have to be approved by the Scientific Committee. Withthe support of her/his supervisor(s), the student must submit a thesis projectspecifying a research topic and a work plan by the end of the 1st year. The studentmust make a presentation and discuss the thesis project before a jury designatedby the Scientific Council of the host school. Once the thesis project is approved, thestudent can start the preparation of the doctoral thesis. An Accompanying Committeeincluding the supervisor(s), one element of the Scientific Committee, and onerepresentative of a participating school, other than the host school, will meet at leastonce a year to assess the progress accomplished by the student.


Road Traffic Management 6 Optional 1st

Research Methodologies 6 Mandatory 1st

Transport Demand Modelling 6 Optional 1st

Transport Infrastructure and Operations Optimization 6 Optional 1st

Risk and Decision-Making 6 Optional 1st

Highway and Airport Infrastructure Engineering 6 Optional 2nd

Business Models and Contracts 6 Optional 2nd

Transport Policies and Institutions 6 Optional 2nd

Railway infrastructure design and maintenance 6 Optional 2nd

Simulation of Land-Use/Transport Systems Simulation 6 Optional 2nd

Thesis Project 30 Mandatory Annual

Structure of the doctoral program in Transportation Systems


For the Doctoral Program in Transportation Systems six new courses have beenspecially designed. The courses are taught by twenty-one faculty members from thePortuguese participant schools. MIT faculty participation is currently being definedas the new structure of this program was only put in place this academic year(2010/11).

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The transportation systems coordination is creating this year (2011) a platform onMoodle.

3.4.5. Benchmarking

In this section, we give information on the nine doctoral programs in transport againstwhich we chose to benchmark the doctoral program in Transportation Systems. Theseare top-quality programs offered by well-known research universities. We include fiveprograms from four European countries, two of which of a size similar to Portugal(The Netherlands and Denmark), and four from North America.

Polytechnic University of Catalonia - Programa de Doctorado Ingeniería e

Infraestructuras del Transporte

Location: Departamento de Infrastructura del Transporte y del Territorio,Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, and Departamento de Organización deEmpresas.

Structure• Teaching stage: 60 ECTS included in one or several Master courses,

preferably those associated with the doctoral program.• Research stage: Defense of a thesis proposal, and preparation and

defense of doctoral thesis. Teaching stage should be finished before theresearch stage is initiated.

Areas• Planning and design of transport infrastructure networks• Mathematical analysis and numeric modeling of transport systems and

their territorial impacts• Organization and operations of transport and logistics systems• Analysis of the connections between spatial development and transport

networks• Economics, financing, and assessment of transport infrastructure

construction and exploitation.

Admission requirements: Diploma in Engineering – mainly Civil (“Caminos”) andIndustrial – or similar (Architecture, Economics, etc.).

PhD in Transport – Imperial College

Location: Centre for Transport Studies, Department of Civil and EnvironmentalEngineering

Areas• Travel behavior and transport modeling• Transport technology and telematics• Transport operations• Transport and environment• Transport policy and regulation• Railway operations and management• Geomatics• Port operations and logistics


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• Air transport operations and planning• Freight transport and logistics• Safety

Admission requirements: Applicants for a research degree (MPhil/PhD) should haveor expect to obtain a first or upper second-class honors degree or equivalent, in arelevant quantitative discipline (e.g., Engineering, the Physical Sciences,Environmental Science, athematics/Statistics, Computing, Economics). A Master'sdegree (not necessarily in transport) may be advantageous, but is not essential.

PhD in Transport – University of Leeds

Location: Institute for Transport Studies, Faculty of

Areas• Transport and energy• Understanding travel behavior/choices• Freight: Mode choice in freight transport• Air/high speed rail• Transport policy and the low carbon society• Modeling network interactions• Transport and environment• Human factors and highly automated driving• Impairment and driving performance

These two milestones are of particular importance:• Assessment of the first year: Students seeking a PhD are initially registered

with 'provisional' status. At the end of the first year progress is reviewedand the registration status changed, subject to a successful upgrade. Thisupgrade is an assessment of performance, and takes the form of a writtenreport and oral presentation to a panel. The primary aim of this and otherprocesses is to help keep the student on-track for successful completion.

• Feedback at the end of the second year: Towards the end of the secondyear students submit a paper about their progress, which is consideredby both supervisors and their Postgraduate Tutor. This includes anupdated plan to detail the student's path to submission, for approval priorto registering for year three.

Admission requirements: Applicants for a research degree should have or expect toobtain a first or upper second-class honors degree or equivalent, preferably in aquantitative discipline. A Master’s degree (not necessarily in transport) may beadvantageous, but is not essential. Candidates should have a clearly specified andachievable research goal.

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Note: different timescales / milestones apply to MPhil and part-time PhDs.

Month Tasks Outputs

1-3 Induction Personal Training PlanDiscuss and agree the Training PlanInitial training course – ‘Starting your PhD’Core reading

4-6 Literature reviewDefine objectives Short literature review Prepare for mock upgrade Mock upgrade noteAttend UTSG conferenceCompete mock upgrade

7-9 Develop methodologyPrepare upgrade report Draft upgrade report

9/10 Upgrade examination PhD upgrade report12 Deadline for upgrade Revised Plan

Year 2

13-15 Core research

16-18 Core research Conference paperPrepare conference paper (e.g. UTSG)

19-21 Core research and draft chapters

22-24 Submit end of Year 2 paper and Plan Year 2 paper and Plan

Year 3

25-27 Apply Plan – develop journal paper(e.g. convert conference paper)

28-30 Complete core research Conference/journal paper

31-33 Submission of chapters to supervisors

34-36 Review draft thesis PhD thesisWrite-up and submit thesis

Structure

Timeline and milestones of a PhD in Transport at the University of Leeds


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1-3 Induction Personal Training PlanDiscuss and agree the Training PlanInitial training course – ‘Starting your PhD’Core reading

22-24 Submit end of Year 2 paper and Plan Year 2 paper and Plan

25-27 Apply Plan – develop journal paper(e.g. convert conference paper)

28-30 Complete core research Conference/journal paper

31-33 Submission of chapters to supervisors

34-36 Review draft thesis PhD thesisWrite-up and submit thesis

PhD in Transport – Delft University of Technology, Erasmus University Rotterdam,

Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Twente, and University of Groningen

Location: TRAIL Netherlands Research School on Transport, Infrastructure andLogistics (“TRAIL is a collaborative initiative of five Dutch universities, and has beenaccredited as research school since 1997”).

Structure

The activity of a student is established according to personalized PhD agreementsspecifying an education and training plan, a research plan, a publication plan, andan agreement on support and supervision.

The education and training plan includes general introduction courses on theinterdisciplinary TRAIL fields of interest, courses to overcome possible initialdeficiencies in knowledge or skills of PhD candidates, and in-depth courses on skillsand scientific topics in the specific scientific area to which the PhD programcontributes

The PhD agreement is made up within the first half year of the TRAIL membership ofa new PhD by the student together with his supervisor and promoter and approvedby the scientific director of TRAIL. The arrangements are monitored on annual basisand can be revised if necessary. The arrangements and procedure can be tuned tothe criteria of and be included in the regular, (annual) personnel evaluations asperformed by the participating faculties in TRAIL.

The whole of the PhD agreement and the course program are based upon therequired final attainment level of students and are tuned to strengthen the careerperspectives of alumni.

Areas• Mobility• Transport• Logistics• Traffic• Infrastructure• Transport systems

PhD Studies in Transport – Technical University of Denmark

Location: Department of Transports of TUD

Structure• 1st semester: 30 ECTS of courses (at least 20 made from dedicated PhD

courses)• 2nd to 6th semester: PhD research, complemented with teaching (3

months), project work on a relevant field (6 months), and visit to foreignuniversity.

• The student is expected to publish “3-5 international papers (preferably in journals)during the study”.

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Areas• Traffic safety• Decision modeling• Transport economics • Transport models (ModelCenter)• Traffic modeling• Logistics and intelligent transport systems

Admission requirements: Master’s degree completed with B (ECTS scale), 76(percent), or 8.4 (Danish 7-step scale).

Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Transportation – MIT

Location: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (administration)

Structure• The program requires the completion of at least 150 units of a program of

study by the student, the successful completion of a General Examination,which consists of both written and oral components, and the submissionand defense of an acceptable dissertation.

• The program of study consists of:• The doctoral core program: at least six subjects totaling at least 66 units

that represent the student’s area of specialization. The six subjects mustinclude at least two “methodological” subjects and two “transportation”subjects. The core defines the student’s area of in-depth knowledge.

• The remainder: a set of subjects in transportation and related fields. As partof the remainder, a breadth area consisting of three subjects (at least 27units) defining a knowledge base in a field distinct from the student’s coreprogram, but complementary to that focus. The relevance of this breadtharea to the student’s transportation interests must be explained as part ofthe student’s program proposal. The remainder of the program may includeup to 45 units of graduate level subjects taken elsewhere.

• The General Examination is expected to be taken no later than the fourthsemester of graduate study. The written exam is administered first, followedin about two weeks by the oral exam. The written exam is a take home,open book examination. It consists of four separate questions administeredover four consecutive days. On Day One all students will be given acommon question covering core subjects. On Days Two, Three and Four,students can choose two out of three questions from the following areas:Transportation Demand and Economics; Transportation Supply andOperations; and Transportation Planning and Policy. The oral exam consistsof the presentation and discussion of a research paper (possibly based onstudent’s master’s thesis) of up to seven pages submitted prior to thebeginning of the written exam. Although questions usually focus on thestudent’s oral presentation, specific questions related to the student’sdoctoral core program and the student’s response on the written exam maybe asked.

Admission requirements: Students currently registered in an MIT master’s degreeprogram, as well as students with or working toward a research-based mastersdegrees (i.e., with a research thesis) from other schools.


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PhD Program in Transportation Engineering – University of Maryland

Location: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (administration)

Areas• Transportation planning and policy• Traffic operations and control• Travel demand analysis• Transportation operations research• Public transportation systems• Air transportation systems• Freight transportation and logistics

Structure• Completion of eight courses beyond the student’s MS program requirements.

These courses must be determined by the student in consultation with andsubject to the approval of the student’s supervisor.

• Successful completion of a PhD Qualifying Examination. This exam isadministered in three parts: (1) a one-day written examination coveringtransportation systems engineering fundamentals and methodological basics;(2) a two-day written examination covering the student’s areas of specializationin Transportation; and (3) an oral examination.

• Successful defence of a research proposal. After the qualifying exam ispassed, the student will form a PhD dissertation committee in consultationwith his/her research supervisor. This committee must consist of a minimumof 5 graduate faculty members, including at least one “external” member whowill serve as the Dean’s Representative. The “external” member must be fromthe University of Maryland at College Park but not from the EngineeringSchool. A dissertation research proposal must be prepared, presented to,and approved by this committee.

Admission requirements: Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 3.5 to apply to theDoctoral Program and a GRE with scores of at least 650 in the quantitative andanalytical parts. Applicants with lower GPA's and/or GRE may be considered andaccepted in a provisional basis if other indicators of ability are exceptional (letters ofrecommendation, prior experience ...).

PhD Program in Transportation Technology and Policy – University of California Davis

Location: Institute of Transportation Studies

Areas• Technology track: systems-level planning, analysis, management, and

design of advanced transportation technologies (especially vehiclepropulsion and “intelligent transportation systems”).

• Policy track: public policy and planning issues related to transportation,especially the social and environmental impacts.

Structure• The PhD degree will require completion of course requirements and a

dissertation. The normative time for a PhD is 4 years.• Students must complete 54 total units (including units completed toward a

relevant MS) from 7 core courses, as well as at least three additionaltechnology or policy courses in the chosen track and one additional course

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in the alternate track. At least 2/3 of all credits must be at the graduate level.The core courses are in the following areas: Transportation Technology,Transportation Policy, Transportation Systems, Research Design,Economics, and Transportation Models and Quantitative Methods (2).

• First-year students must make the Transportation Orientation seminar andthe Leadership, Professionalism, and Ethics seminar.

• Students must make the ITS seminar every quarter for 2 years and somenumber of research units every quarter for the entire program.

• Students must pass the PhD Qualifying Examination.

Admission requirements: Students normally will have earned a minimum grade pointaverage of 3.5 and must also submit GRE scores and three letters ofrecommendation. International students are expected to achieve a minimum scoreof 550 on the paper-based and 80 on the iBT Test of English as a Foreign Language(TOEFL).

PhD Program in Transport and Logistics – University of British Columbia

Location: Centre for Transportation Studies, Sauder School of Business

Areas: the program is a cross field within Business Administration, or (and)interdisciplinary across the University. Although the program is designed to meet theneeds of individual students, there are two main streams: one focusing on transporteconomics and policy analysis, and another focusing on logistics and supply chainmanagement.

StructureA typical schedule for a PhD student in the program might be:

• Year 1 Fall - Research Methods and two or three electives• Year 1 Winter - advanced topics in transportation and two or three electives• Year 1 Summer - Summer research paper• Year 2 Fall - Teaching Methods and two or three elective courses• Year 2 Winter - three or four elective courses• Year 2 Summer - Comprehensive exam• Years 3 and 4 - Preparation of presentation of thesis proposal and

preparation and defense of thesis.

A list of about 20 elective courses is available for both the Transport Economics andPolicy Analysis Stream and the Logistics and the Supply Chain Management Stream.Admission requirements: “Students applying for our PhD program are expected tohave a good master's level training in quantitative methods. Those who do not havesuch a training are encouraged to apply to our Masters of Science (MSc) program inTransportation and Logistics before going on to a PhD. Students who qualify for anadmission into the PhD program but do not have adequate backgrounds in someareas may be required to take some prerequisite courses”.


193

Conclusion

Over the 4-5 years of the post-graduate education network, it was possible to set upa Doctoral Program in Transport Systems (DPTS) offered jointly by the threePortuguese engineering schools with the strongest transport research groups. Theprogram is attracting on average 15 students per year, an amount that we believe isconsistent with the available supervision capabilities and the country’s R&D needs.

The comparison of the program with world-leading doctoral programs in transportreveals similarities and differences. With respect to structure, the most different areperhaps the programs offered by the English schools (Imperial College and Universityof Leeds), especially because they do not involve a (significant) teaching component.The most similar are probably the programs offered in the smaller European countries– TRAIL in the Netherlands and the Technical University of Denmark – as they bothinvolve a teaching component in the 1st year followed by a research component. Inthe case of TRAIL, not only is the program offered by a consortium of schools(including the Delft University of Technology and the Erasmus University Rotterdam),but also the size of the teaching component is exactly the same as in the DPTS (60ECTS). In the North American universities (MIT, University of Maryland, University ofCalifornia Davis, and University of British Columbia), the programs are more complex,because of a longer teaching period and the existence of a general examination. Asregards the focus areas, the DPTS is certainly close to programs clearly based onengineering schools – such as the programs of the Polytechnic University ofCatalonia, the Imperial College, the MIT, and the University of Maryland – but, in sofar as we could understand, differences to the other pro-grams are small. Also, nosignificant differences were noticed in relation to admission requirements – a Master’sdegree (with a good mark) is in principle necessary, but the principle is not strictlyapplied.

The first steps towards a competitive doctoral program in transport systems basedin Portugal were made, but there is still plenty of ground to cover before the ambitiousgoal it pursues can be fully met. In particular, it is necessary to make a thoroughassessment of the program after the completion of the current edition – in closecollaboration with MIT. The improvements this assessment will allow to make will becrucial to enhance the probability of success of the program.

3.4.6. PhD theses

This section shows the profiles of several students.The home institution of each student is indicated on the first line as:IST – Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of LisbonFCTUC – Faculty of Sciences and Technoloy - University of CoimbraFEUP – Faculty of Engineering – University of Porto


195

Abdur Boy Berawi, FEUP, Indonesia

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Development of Railway Track Degradation Model for Maintenance Optimization on HSR

Supervisors

In Portugal: Raimundo Delgado (FEUP), Rui Calçada (FEUP)

Main publication

Berawi, A.R., Delgado, R., Calçada, R., Vale, C. (2010). Evaluating Track Geometrical Quality through

Different Methodologies. International Journal of Technology, Vol. 1, ISSN:2086-9614, pp.38-47.


In recent years, studies on track degradation in the field of railway have attracted a great deal of

attention. Intensive research activities have been carried out by many organizations with aims to secure

a high level of safety and reliability of infrastructure system. Since failure will contribute to the significant

economic losses, many railway infrastructure managers (IM’s) spend a substantial proportion of budget

on the Maintenance and Renewal (M&R), which makes up a considerable part of total railway operating

cost and accounts for up to 70% from total life cycle cost (LCC) of track infrastructure. With this huge

amount of financial expenditure, undoubtedly, a small reduction on the maintenance cost would bring a

significant impact, particularly on the overall LCC.

In order to accomplish this objective, understanding the track degradation process and its impact on

the safety of train operations are highly important. Recognizing any changes on the track condition from

time to time and consequences of maintenance on the track performance will enable us to estimate the

residual lifetime of the asset. The accurate life cycles, including any maintenance activities need to be

performed during functional life thus can be drawn and by doing so, the railway company may reduce

the operational and maintenance expenditures in a systematic way without endangering the traffic

safety.

In this work we sought to develop a new approach that can predict a change of track quality by

investigating the transition process through stochastic deterioration and intervention model analyses.

The method then will be optimized with respect to parameters of interest (e.g. allowable tolerance value

and track layout influence) to obtain the optimum maintenance schedule for the actual railway network

system. The model is supposed to be able to capture the progression and dynamic nature of

degradation process which can minimize the long-term mean life cycle costs. Currently, we have

identified different techniques of track quality assessment used around the world. Based on the review,

the most appropriate techniques have been selected and putted into practice in the quality

measurements of the railway. With this approach, we are able to predict the likely rate of track

degradation within the period of investigation by using simple linear regression.

196

Alda Metrass Mendes, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Air transportation design for effective and efficient service to small remote communities:

Policy options under regulatory reforms

Supervisors

in Portugal: Álvaro Costa (FEUP)

at MIT: Richard de Neufville

Main Publication

Metrass-Mendes, A., de Neufville, R. (2011), Air transportation policy for small communities: lessons

from the U.S. experience (submitted for publication)


The last decades have witnessed a global trend toward airline deregulation, with significant impacts on

national provisions for air service of smaller communities. One of the consequences of liberalization is

that the carriers are no longer constrained to serve routes, and may thus neglect service to less

profitable destinations with lower density traffic. Deregulation can therefore have detrimental effects on

small remote centers.

Though many governments agree on the obligation of preventing discontinuity of service to these

communities, there is no common accord on how national air transportation policies should be

designed to support this objective. While some nations have opted for full deregulation and to sustain

the service through subsidies paid to carriers competing for contracts, others chose to maintain the

status quo and others to carry on lighter forms of regulation in hybrid forms. Different national contexts

also result in that a solution that is appropriate for one country may not be the most successful for

another.

The working hypothesis is that the analysis of multiple worldwide experiments with air service of small

remote communities will allow the identification of best practices. The main argument is that the policy

design that works better in each case can be acknowledged, and thus provide a good starting point for

further policy formulation and recommendations.

The research for the world best practices in policy design is developed from the evaluation of mature

experiences of the U.S.A. government, Canada and the Northern Territories, and Australia, and the

assessment of progress toward deregulation in countries like Portugal, Spain, and Brazil, according to

two criteria: effectiveness and efficiency. The study will make recommendations for the design of air

transportation policies for countries where deregulation and the provision of small communities are

under discussion, derived from the reference cases.


197

Ana Costa, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Risk Assessment and Management for High-Speed Rail Systems based on Scenario Descriptions under

Uncertainty

Supervisors

in Portugal: Maria Conceição Cunha (FCTUC), Paulo Coelho (FCTUC)

at MIT: Herbert Einstein


Planning of High-Speed Railways (HSR) must consider multiple and uncertain future conditions,

including natural phenomena such as flooding, earthquakes, etc. Various alternatives can be adopted

for corridors and technical solutions, which may yield considerably different overall performance. A

survey was firstly conducted among experts from industry and academia to identify and characterize

risk factors for high-speed rail lines in different ground conditions. The results reveal the need to

address the problem and reflect both industry and academia’s concerns regarding the issue. Useful

answers were obtained for the quantification of the risks involved. A major achievement was the

development of a framework of analysis, which represents a significant advance with respect to current

approaches to the problem. A computational tool was subsequently coded to allow dealing with all the

information needed. This user-friendly tool was developed in C# language linked to a powerful

database, the Microsoft SQL Server 2008. It allows the consideration of search space properties

through descriptive property layers, the HSR design specifications and costs, an optimization model

and the implementation of the Simulated Annealing Algorithm (SAA) to solve the model. Applications to

case studies of increasing complexity and magnitude have been performed in order to estimate the

SAA parameter combination yielding the best results and to highlight the influence of problem specifics

in the process. Results are currently being analyzed for the completion of a paper to be submitted to an

international journal in the field of operations research. These applications of the tool and model report

to a scenario of normal operational conditions. Future developments will include scenarios of extreme

conditions and application of the tool to a real HSR case study. Connectivity with Geographic

Information Systems is possible if the data is available in a proper format. On completion of the

research, decision aid tools based on robust optimization techniques will be available considering

scenarios with an importance degree to be specified by the decision maker. These will enable the

consideration of geotechnical, seismic and hydrological risks for HSR in order to achieve solutions that

performs well for the different scenarios considered, even if they do not represent the best solution for a

particular scenario within the infrastructure’s lifetime.

198

Ashenafi Weldemichael, FCTUC, Ethiopia

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Optimization based approach for land-use/transportation policy making

Supervisors

in Portugal: António Pais Antunes (FCTUC)

at MIT: Christopher Zegras


Urban areas are socio-economic centers. They accommodate majority of the world population and

greatly contribute to national economies. At the same time there have been concerns on how these

urban areas are evolving and their contribution to environmental and living qualities. These areas are

faced with challeng-es of high energy consumption, urban sprawl, reduced life qualities and pollution.

In response to these challenges, policy options have been developed in line with strategic goals like

sustainability. The chal-lenge still remains in the ability of testing the effectiveness of these policy

options. This research address-es a question of whether measuring effectiveness of policy options can

be facilitated by linking an optimi-zation framework to land-use/transportation interaction model and

whether optimal strategies can be pro-posed by combining explicit land-use, transportation, pricing and

regulatory policies at different ranges. To answer these questions, the dissertation first develops a

strategic, optimization-based tool that gener-ates optimal strategies and then it tests the performance of

these optimal strategies using UrbanSim—a detailed, comprehensive land-use/transportation model.

This optimization based modeling methodology has number of advantages. It is quick and effective

because it focuses on iterative procedure of searching an optimal strategy rather than one by one

strategy testing; and it is innovative because it might result in new policy combinations. The land-

use/transportation interaction model is a strategic model that considers groups of households and firms

as decision making entities. The optimization framework has efficiency, equity, living-quality and

robustness as objectives within the environmental, institutional, social, and budget constraints. The tool

will be tested on a Portuguese city. If successfully completed, the tool is expected to take a

considerable part in the decision making process of the urban area and it will add to the knowledge of

optimization-based approaches for land-use/transportation systems. As a prescriptive model, the tool

provides set of optimal land-use/transportation strategies taking into consideration the responses of

urban agents.

Using similar concepts, a small scale model is developed and tested on a hypothetical urban area. It

targets at providing a policy option, whether to allow expansion, considering accessibility, density and

cost. Initial results show that such an approach can provide guidance for decision makers. It can

facilitate the process of choosing appropriate policy and can help in understanding responses of urban

agents.


199

Carlos Azevedo, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Safety criteria for the management of variable speed limits

Supervisors

in Portugal: João Cardoso (LNEC), José Viegas (IST)

at MIT: Moshe Ben-Akiva


The main objectives of this research thesis are: the integration of safety assessment models in the state-

of-the art traffic micro-simulation tools by developing accident prediction models for the urban motorway

environment; the identification of the safety benefits of Variable Speed Limits systems (VSL) in urban

motorways and recommend best strategies for its application; and the study of the ITS effects on driver

behaviour to identify which of the related changes may influence road safety.

Regarding the thesis tasks, the student has: undertaken a comprehensive review of existing APMs,

driver behaviour models and application of VSL signs for network efficiency; collected part of the data

needed for the case study; designed and calibrated a Portuguese urban motorway pilot site in the

micro-simulation application MITSIMLab (developed at MIT); worked with the ITSLab (MIT) on the new

developments of MITSIM driver behaviour models and core-structure; started a sensitivity analysis on

the existing driver behaviour model parameters; and started the design of the APM that will be

integrated with MITSIMLab.

Besides the continuation of the case study simulation and the design of the APM, further tasks to be

undertaken by the student are: modelling of the VSL system, definition of its control strategies and

evaluation of their effectiveness in reducing accident risk; and conclusions and recommendations of

best strategies in the application of VSL systems in Portuguese urban motorway sites.

200

Carlos Marques, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Emerging Energy and Technology Patterns in Transportation Systems and the Kondratieff Waves Theory

Supervisors

in Portugal: Rosário Macário (IST)

at MIT: Amedeo Odoni


The general objective of the proposed PhD research is supported on the analysis of the state-of-the-art

on economic long waves, also known as Kondratieff’s waves. This should allow setting up a macro-

behaviour dynamic model that is able to merge the fundamental energy, environmental, economic,

social, technological and political trends, helping to unveil the most likely “futures” for transportation in

the horizon 2030. The research hypothesis proposed is that the Long Waves theory associated to

system dynamics’ modelling constitute a relevant economic predictive approach to frame and point out

the pathways for the next energy and technological paradigm shift in the economy and transportation

in particular, which seems bound to occur somewhere during the first half of the XXI century. The key

objectives for the research work are therefore:

- To establish a sound knowledge base on the impact of the economic “Long Waves” on

technology and energy patterns in transportation

- To design a macro-behaviour system dynamic’s model that is able to simulate impacts of

fundamental energy, environmental, economic, social, technological and political trends

with a likely influence on transportation

- To setup likely “futures” for transportation across the first half of the XXI century derived

from emerging economic , technological and business patterns, linking to major trends &

drivers in this sector

This should allow overlaying the predictive context associated to the theory on Kondratieff Long Waves

to the likely occurrence of breakthrough developments in a variety of fields highly relevant for

transportation such as, engine technology, energy sources, information technology (including ITS),

materials’ engineering, bio-engineering, societal organization and new governance models across

regions and countries. The work devised in this research plan is expected to help building sound

informed scenarios on what can societies and economies expect for the years ahead, what are the

options, the risks, and above all, how could the transportation system and stakeholders in general

prepare and adapt for what is likely to be a global “creative destruction” period.

Research progress so far includes the delivery and acceptance of the thesis Research Plan during the

first semester of 2010. Current activities remain focused on the state-of-the-art review that precedes the

development of a model envisaging to establish a relationship between long wave economic cycles and

technological disruptive advancements in areas relevant for transportation.


201

Diana Carvalho, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 4th


Title of the thesis

Fighting Parasite Circulation through Online Parking Space Reservations

Supervisors

in Portugal: João de Abreu e Silva (IST)


Cruising for Parking and the consequent circulation under low speed, derived from the uncertainty

about the existence and location of a parking spot (parasite circulation), are problems that, although

located, can cause major damage in terms of time spent by drivers, fuel consumption, emission of

pollutants and cause of accidents. Also, they represent a major loss of efficiency of the private car.

In this dissertation, we study a system of online parking space reservations on the street, in urban

areas, with the objective of reducing parasite circulation and its environmental impacts and congestion.

We want to improve the efficiency of the private car by eliminating the uncertainty factors (via a

reservation) that lead to parasite circulation and its negative consequences. It has been demonstrated

that even a small reduction in parking search times would bring important benefits to the environment.

This approach is an alternative to increasing the offer of parking spaces or their prices solely, and

correspondent disadvantages.

The conception of this Online Reservations System, besides its framing within Intelligent Transportation

Systems principles, was made with consideration to Policy aspects, namely the pursuits of

Sustainability, Equity and Acceptability, besides Efficiency, that materialized into targeting discretionary

travel, designing restrictions of use (of frequency and duration) and eligibility criteria for selected

spaces and the introducing of an added revenue from the service, to justify and mitigate the potentially

lowered turnover of these parking spaces.

The work developed includes a bibliographical review of relevant themes for this System, such as

Parking Planning and Management, Role in Modal Choice and Economic Development and

Effectiveness of Parking Policies, as well as the analysis of existing Parking Reservation Systems. We

were then able to evolve into local measurements of Cruising for Parking in Lisbon, which resulted in

peaks of 24% share of traffic cruising for parking and daily averages of 10% share, in an avenue very

well served by transit, with off-street parking available nearby. These results supported the need to

tackle parasite circulation and the validity of testing such a parking reservations system. Full creative

System design has also been carried, with attention to enforcement mechanisms, promotion of Modal

Transfer, user education and strategies to mitigate difficulties of implementation.

Currently, a study of demand for such a System is being carried within the SCUSSE project, and the

conceived system will be simulated in Transims to assess potential gains in Transportation System

performance, and to determine the best percentage of spaces to be allocated from regular to pre-

reserved use. System implementation and maintenance costs will also be analyzed, in order to find

adequate prices that will respect demand and provide the desired profitability to be applied in

improvements to the remaining Mobility System.

202

Diana Leal, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Goods Traffic on High Speed Railway Line LisbonMadrid

Supervisor

in Portugal: Luís Picado Santos (IST)


High Speed Rail (HSR) investments have been a subject of great interest for the Europe Union. Given

that these require large public investment, once decided, it is important to think about how to use the

system in the most efficient way. The motivation for the study leads to interest in the MIT of Multi-

Attribute Tradespace Exploration (MATE) method and its applicability in the development process for

several types of products and situations. The method has been show to enable better concept decision

making in space system applications, however it has never been applied to the analysis of a

transportation problem as in this implementation of a HSR project. The MATE method was selected with

the purpose of analyzing the trade-off between a certain number of criteria and to be able to understand

the possible range of solutions and apply this methodology to deal with complex transportation

problems as is the HSR line project. The main objective is to use MATE applied on the future Lisbon-

Madrid HSR line. This methodology addresses the feasibility of the introduction of freight on the

operation of the line admitting that the rolling stock will be of the same type of the passenger’s rolling

stock and that freight will use the open slots beyond passengers’ service. This procedure integrates

technical data from rail operators and also data provided by stakeholders with a strong interest in the

evaluation of different strategic scenarios and helping in the decision making process about decisions

on HSR line. Until now the work done was mainly related with data acquisition and data analysis from

interviews done to the most important stakeholders involved. The strategic scenarios are being set-up in

order to define the most appropriate framework regarding passengers and cargo decisions. It is

expected that within the next months it will be possible to have an application of MATE treating the

described HSR case and by this way making the validation of a powerful tool for the study of complex

transportation problems that was not yet accomplished in this scientific field. The research is now part

of the EXPRESS research project set up under the MIT PORTUGAL. The project mainly seeks the

establishment of the overall socio-economic impact of that rail line.


203

Filmon Habtemichael, FCTUC, Eritrea

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Improved Active Traffic Management System for Motorway Efficiency

Supervisor

in Portugal: Luís Picado Santos (IST)


The thesis is part of a project all about actively managing motorway space and more specifi-cally the

lanes of motorways in real-time conditions. The concept is that, the infrastructure will be treated as a

mega-sensor (intelligent infrastructure) and relating it with in-vehicle sensing systems (intelligent

vehicle) for better road traffic management schemes. It aims at harmonizing or regulating speed

difference between vehicles within the same lane and across adjacent lanes as well (leading and

following vehicles in the same lane and vehicles to the right and left lanes, if any) by use of dynamic

traffic management strategies. In doing so, the driver’s (and his vehicle) state and level of competence

to drive at a prescribed speed will also be accessed for increased safety, better throughputs of

available motorway space and probable reduction in emission, which secures sustainability of

motorways. The intention the research to identify all the pros and cons of such improved active traffic

management system of motorways with respect to socio-economic and legal terms, and to address the

feasible business model for its implementation. Microscopic modeling of a typical Portu-guese

motorway in a Portuguese driving environment will be simulated and analyzed.

The objectives of the project are twofold: (1) To pave a way for introducing Active Traffic Management of

motorways (like use of variable speed limit, hard-shoulder running and adaptive merge control) onto

selected Portuguese urban motorways under Portuguese driving environment and circumstances. (2)

Improving active traffic management of motorways by considering the driver’s level of competence and

accordingly setting compensatory and constraining measures to restricting the driving freedom of

drivers.

204

Francisco Furtado, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Railway Scheduling and Capacity Analysis on Mixed Traffic Corridors (provisional title)

Supervisor

in Portugal: José Viegas (IST)


In Europe several proposals have been made to develop rail freight corridors, since for the moment a

network exclusively dedicated to freight is to cost prohibitive, these corridors will (for the moment) have

to be implemented in lines were there are passenger services. In the USA case the situation is a mirror

image, most of the planned high speed passenger services will be implemented in lines were at present

there are freight services (that will be maintained). Although with different goals, both this challenges

address a similar problem, how to organize traffic in the most efficient manner and what infrastructure

investment will be necessary to accommodate this new train services. The overall objective of the thesis

is to contribute for the best possible answer to these challenges.

The major progresses up to now were:

Literature review on the overall railway planning process with particular focus on the timetabling and

allocation of train’s problem; discussion on the techniques used to solve these problems, especial focus

on Agent Based (AB) approaches; comparison of strengths, weaknesses and complementarities

between AB and optimization techniques; review of methods used to evaluate capacity on railway

corridors and networks; state of the art of software tools in use by the industry for railway management;

state of the world regarding the railway freight market, worldwide in Europe and Portugal; discussion on

several European Union (EU) funded research projects whose objective is to foster the market share of

the freight sector, as well as EU regulations that share the same goals and have a direct impact on

infrastructure investments and on traffic management; similar discussion for the USA case; and

development of an AB methodology for analysis of timetables and congestion in saturated railway

corridors with mixed traffic (were several passenger and freight services coexist).

The key scientific contributions of this thesis will be:

To enhance the combination of agent based methodologies and optimization, towards the development

of a tool that allows a more efficient use of the railway infrastructure and capital available for its

improvement. To achieve this automatic scheduling and rescheduling of trains will be made.

Besides the operational constrains that railway traffic has to comply with, the traffic management will be

organized according to the economic and social value of each train/service operating on the railway

network, as well as on the strategic goals the decision makers have set for the rail network and on each

of the train services specific requirements.


205

Gonçalo Caiado, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd


Title of the thesis

Modelling the Vulnerability of Complex Transport Network Systems: An Application to Seismic Risk in

Urban Environment

Supervisors

in Portugal: Rosário Macário (IST), Carlos Oliveira (IST)

at MIT: Joseph Sussman


Past experience shows that strong earthquakes cause a tremendous impact in terms of both material

damages and human losses. While the majority of these losses occur during - or shortly after - the

quake, it is recognized that a significant proportion of human losses also take place in the following

hours or days. Those post collapse losses can happen either by lack of intervention capacity or by the

inability to reach critical locations. The latter will be the focus of our work.

In parallel, urban planning practices at local level rarely take into consideration concerns related with

blockage scenarios in case of earthquake. As a result, potentially dangerous situations which could

otherwise be avoided are not addressed in the planning process. In fact, when planning or managing

urban road networks, seismic risk concerns have typically been tackled exclusively through a structural

link-by-link approach.

In this context, the research hypothesis of the current work is that the impacts on the performance of

road transport infra-structures for emergency response functions can be minimized when facing a major

earthquake, namely by the introduction of measures, not only in terms of infra-structural reinforcement

but also in terms of network connectivity and activities location. Thus, this thesis aims at presenting an

innovative methodology focusing on strengthening urban road network resiliency in seismic scenarios

based on three main dimensions: i) network connectivity; ii) land use, and; iii) demand pattern.

Potential applications of this work include urban planning micro and macro scale solutions to be

included in specific instruments (including, among others, urban planning instruments and policies;

urban master plans; renewal policies; emergency plans and protection of critical mobility assets

programs).

The specific results obtained so far include: i) the literature review; ii) the development of a framework

for assessing urban road network vulnerability; iii) the construction of a GIS (Geographic Information

System) project for the model validation (Lisbon city case study), and; iv) the building of a programming

tool (in VBA) to identify possible road network blockage scenarios.

206

Gonçalo Santos, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Car-sharing: an integrated system adapted to user’s needs

Supervisor



Today’s society expresses an intense concern about energy and pollution problems. Oil is becoming

scarcer and the level of pollutants in the atmosphere is increasing. This is leading to an energy

revolution framed by the words sustainable, clean and efficient. Inevitably, transportation systems will

need to change in order to face the new challenges ahead. To promote a sustainable urban mobility,

there is a need to change the way people see their private vehicles. The car needs to be seen as

another alternative of the system and not the main and only option. To promote a change on this type of

behavior, local authorities need to promote car-sharing as a public service to serve the need for cars in

urban areas.

Car-sharing is an on-demand service, based on a membership program that gives people the option to

use a car for short periods of time (less than a day), when they want, to go wherever they intend to,

without the need to own one. It preserves the access to the car main features, at the same time that

allows important savings on private and public resources (time and money; space and environment).

The most adopted car-sharing system is based on round trip movements. Round trip car-sharing

systems can be easily controlled because each car is linked to a particular station, but in many cases it

would still imply large periods of idleness of the car resulting in the need of having to have a much

larger vehicle fleet.

In order to bring car-sharing to the next level, there is a need to break with the traditional ways of car-

sharing and adapt it to users, taking advantage of the available technology. A modern car-sharing

system needs to have a large fleet to provide a decent availability per square meter, must allow

simultaneously round trip and one way movements with no limitations concerning the delivery time

(flexible return times and stations), and allow members to park vehicles at available parking spaces on

streets.

The research for this thesis addresses the design of a car-sharing system with one-way movements

based on survey data; the development of a model to forecast the optimum geographical position of

vehicles based on current vehicle data and demand historical data; and simulate a one way car-sharing

system in the metropolitan area of Lisbon taking in consideration the future technologies like electric

vehicles and the electric vehicle charging grid. At this time, we finished the tests to the web survey

(included in SCUSSE project) that will be available online in a few days.


207

João Pita, FCTUC, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Optimization of Air Traffic Network Design under Congestion

Supervisors

in Portugal: António Pais Antunes (FCTUC)

at MIT: Amedeo Odoni, Cynthia Barnhart

Main Publication

Pita, J., Barnhart, C., Antunes, A. "Optimization model for integrated schedule design and fleet

assignment models under congestion", submitted to Transportation Science.


Air traffic flows have increased considerably over the years, as the world economy became more

globalized and tourism became one the main industries on the planet. One of the main implications of

the air traffic increase is congestion at airports, which has tremendous impact on airlines and

passengers. As different agents in the air transportation system, airlines and civil aviation authorities

that protect the public interest have distinct goals. To cope with these problems two optimization models

were developed aiming to assist both airlines and civil aviation authorities.

To assist airlines an integrated schedule design and fleet assignment model has been developed which

takes aircraft and passenger delay costs explicitly into account. The objective is to maximize the

expected profits of an airline that faces a given itinerary-based demand and operates in congested,

slot-constrained airports. Both airline competition and airline cooperation are dealt with in the model in a

simplified manner. The model was applied to a case study involving the main network of TAP Portugal

(31 airports and 100 daily flights legs). The results suggest that profits can increase, while diminishing

the total number of flights and increasing slightly the passengers’ average connecting time. The

computation effort involved in the application of the model is sufficiently small to allow its real-time

utilization in IATA scheduling conferences.

Currently, a second optimization model is being developed to be applied to a busy, congested, and

slot-constrained air transportation network with the objective of analyzing the impact of alternative slot

allocation policies, including their effect on expected delay time at airports. First, we study the existing

situation in terms of total costs of the system, passenger demand per flight-leg, slot distribution, and

expected delay time and cost. Then we apply a cost minimization optimization model to evaluate

possible improvements in the system by reducing or reorganizing the number of slots to reduce

expected delay. This analysis takes into account the current market power of each airline, and the

passenger demand per flight-leg. An application using data from the 34 busiest airports in Europe will

be performed soon.

208

Maria Spandou, IST, Greece

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd


Amount of time spent at MIT: 5 months (out of 12)

Title of the thesis

Institutional Design as Performance Factor in Urban Mobility Systems

Supervisors

in Portugal: Rosário Macário (IST)

at MIT: Joseph Sussman


The main objectives of my PhD dissertation are the following: (i) obtain a sound knowledge base on the

relation between institutional design theory and performance management, (ii) understand and assess

the decision-making mechanisms in the transport policy, planning and operations level, as well as the

interrelations and interactions among stakeholders, and the vertical consistency between levels of

decision and (iii) identify and assess the influence and impact of institutional design parameters of

Urban Mobility Systems on the individual and overall system performance. Methodologically, the main

directions of my research can be summarized as comparative quantitative and qualitative analysis

(multi-methodological approach), from a theoretical and empirical perspective.

Because of the great number of fields and disciplines involved in the problem that I am researching on,

a large-scale literature review with references to transportation, institutional analysis, management,

economics, public policy, political science, industrial organization, etc is considered essential and has

been the main work progress so far. Of course this is an ongoing process. The opportunity of having

access to the libraries’ material and other databases at the MIT, as well as personal communications

with MIT academics in various of these fields, have been very beneficial for this phase of my

dissertation. Under the guidance of my supervisors I attended lectures that could assist my research

and improve my knowledge and abilities in certain areas, such as Contract and Organizational

Economics, System Dynamics, Negotiations, Presentation skills, Publications etc. Furthermore, my

participation throughout the fall semester in the High Speed Rail/Regions and Managing Metropolitan

Mobility Group meetings has also given me opportunities for discussion and exchange of ideas.

My contribution so far is the development of a comprehensive and interdisciplinary framework that

would allow for systematic and well-grounded analysis of the research problem I am tackling, which in a

future phase, complemented by the appropriate modeling and other scientific tools and data, would

assist stakeholders that need to address organizational, financial/funding and performance issues, in

order to achieve better efficiency, effectiveness and sustainable development of the Urban Mobility

System.


209

Merkebe Demissie, FCTUC, Ethiopia

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

Estimation and prediction of road traffic status with information from different sources

Supervisors

in Portugal: Pedro Bizarro (FCTUC), Gonçalo Correia (FCTUC)


Previous studies have identified different ways of measuring traffic status and mobility trends of urban

road network. The studies have been forced by the fact that knowing mobility trends and status of traffic

in urban road network is considered to be very essential to design congestion mitigation strategies from

strategic up to operational level. However, due to expensive installation and maintenance cost, primary

data collection methods either human observation or different forms of remote sensing (embedded

magnetic loop detectors, automatic video feed-based counts, etc) haven’t been extended to the entire

transportation network.

Road network data collection coverage has significant role on the success of any Intelligent Transport

Systems (ITS) applications. Fail to collect information from the entire road network leads different traffic

management sectors to relay on the information from part of the network, and in some places the usual

practice is to offer advisory only on the location where data collection facilities exist and replacing

historical average data to compensate for unavailable data.

This thesis proposes a solution of using additional source of information where there is limited road

network sensor coverage to estimate and predict road traffic status. It considers information and data

from facilities that are not primarily dedicated for traffic data collection purpose. GPS equipped regular

buses and taxies will be used as moving sensor that detects traffic information directly from the traffic

stream. On the other hand, information from cellular network is going to be used to capture the pattern

of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The thesis further focuses on developing a framework to estimate

and predict road traffic status on road segments where there are no dedicated data collection facilities.

Potential contributions of this thesis work include: engaging already existing facilities for traffic data

collection purpose, which reduces installation and maintenance costs. Employment of information from

multi-sources that will improve the quality of estimated traffic parameters to gauge traffic in urban areas,

which was previously estimated solely from the information by fixed sensors. Employment of moving

sensors (probe vehicles) will avoid the problem of point detection and gives wider network coverage.

210

MohammadHajizamani, IST, Iran

Starting year: 2009

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 2nd


Title of the thesis

An Intelligent Complex System for Supporting Drivers Based on Car, Environment and Driving

Conditions

Supervisors

in Portugal: Silvia Shrubsall (IST), José Viegas (IST)


The thesis will contribute to design a complex system to support and guide the drivers to avoid errors

and finally reduce the number and severity of accidents and causalities. Later it can be used in

assessing new road safety measures and also driver behavior modeling. The results from simulation

modeling will be used to increase authorities and public acceptance for applying new safety measures.

Thesis research lines plus potential literature review resources have been defined. An initial software

modeling has been developed in Agent-Based Modeling platform which is a simulation model including

a mix of safe drivers, i.e. drivers who adequately adjust their driving style to the driving conditions, and

hazardous drivers, i.e. drivers who have poor sightseeing, tiredness and speeding predisposition and

therefore increase the probability of accidents, and the proportions may be controlled by the user, with

variable consequences on the rate of accidents. In another step of the model, a Transition was

designed to convert (a controllable proportion of) Hazardous Drivers to Safer Drivers, by making the

vehicle limit the drivers’ degrees of driving freedom. For example, it can automatically limit the maximum

speed allowed or prevent the engine to start if the driver’s blood alcohol level is more than allowed

quantity. This Model can assess the safety measures effect on reducing the number of accidents and

fatalities. Results from this model led to two papers in the international conferences.


211

Rafaela Arriaga, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Transport Needs For an Ageing Society: long terms drivers and generational effect

Supervisors


at MIT: M Ben-Akiva


Over the next 40 years the number of persons over 65 years-old will dramatically increase across

Europe and form a new and different generations of older citizens in regard to their health, their wealth,

their lifestyles and their travel needs. This thesis compares three generations of ageing persons and

aims at understanding the transport needs incorporating the cohort effect. Drawing on the theories of

cohorts, planned behaviour, life course perspective and utility theory, this study investigates empirically

the existing generation differences in travel among three living generations. Primary data shall be

obtained from a lifetime-retrospective survey and used to estimate the demand models.

The models that explain 65+ mobility severely understate the mobility prediction without the cohort

effect. Mobility needs of the next cohorts cannot be predicted with current models. “There is

widespread recognition that the emerging cohorts will be different from today’s older drivers, in regard

to their individual health, their expectations as they age and especially, their travel demands. However

cohort studies, arguably the most effective means of identifying and responding to emerging

differences, are relatively rare and currently at least, make few appearances in the research literature.

This is considered to be a serious limitation in our capacity to respond proactively to the challenges and

benefits of an ageing society” (Charlton 2006) This study can. Therefore, contribute to both filling the

above gap and enlighten the forecast matter using primary data.

At the Official Seminar of PhD Research Proposal, CAT (Nov 22nd, 2010), the project was on target with

the plan, however two main issues were outstanding: a DCM course and the programming of the

retrospective survey to php. Both issues are being solved with the kind help of my two supervisors.

212

Rui Gomes, FEUP, Portugal

Starting year: 2008

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 3rd



Title of the thesis

Dynamic Vehicle Routing for Demand Responsive Transportation

Supervisors

in Portugal: Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), Teresa Galvão Dias (FEUP)

at MIT: Cynthia Barnhart


Providing quality public transportation is extremely expensive when demand is low, variable and

unpredictable, as it is the case of disperse rural areas or some periods of the day in urban areas (e.g.

during the night). Buses circulating with very low occupancy rates mean high costs for the service

providers, often leading to low frequencies and, as a consequence, low perceived quality and

degradation of the image of public transportation. Demand Responsive Transportation (DRT) services

address this problem with routes and frequencies that may vary according to the actual observed

demand. The problems of designing and operating DRT services are closely related to the Vehicle

Routing Problem (VRP), and in particular to the Dial-A-Ride (DARP) models. Given the complexity of

these problems, optimal solutions can take an enormous amount of time to be found, ruling out their

usefulness in the context at hand. Also, in a multiple criteria decision analysis the “optimal” solution is in

general meaningless because it is impossible to satisfy all (usually contradictory) objectives

simultaneously.

In this work we present an innovative approach for Demand Responsive Transportation, based on a

Dynamic Vehicle Routing model. Besides being a multi-objective problem, DRT systems are also

strongly dynamic, requiring the (re-) design of solutions in real-time. In this context we aim at developing

a general modeling framework for planning and managing transportation services of this type, handling

trip requests specified by customers, and using a fleet of homogeneous vehicles normally based on a

single depot. Customers can also specify a time window for departure as well as a desired arrival time.

A further subsidiary aim of this research is to develop a tool for providing a set of efficient solutions

hopefully close to the Pareto front, by using efficient, customizable multi-objective algorithmic

approaches to deal with the combinatorial nature of the problem and with the multiple perspectives of

its different stakeholders. The goal is not only to minimize the operating costs but also to maximize the

quality of the service, expressed by indicators such as the average passenger waiting time and the on-

board time. We have designed a parallel heuristic approach that constructs a feasible route through a

reactive greedy random approach, followed by a local improvement phase. Preliminary computational

results on randomly generated instances look very promising, both in terms of cost savings and in terms

of computational efficiency. This algorithm is currently being embedded in a Decision Support System

that will be used in testing and assessing the approach.


213

Name: Rui Santos, IST, Portugal

Starting year: 2007

PhD Program: DPTS

Year of PhD: 4th



Title of the thesis

Track Maintenance Works Prediction and Scheduling Models

Supervisor

in Portugal: Paulo Teixeira (IST)


In the railway sector, the development of effective technological solutions depends on achieving optimal

infrastructure design, and less expensive solutions, from a life cycle perspective. This perspective

includes finding a cost efficient way on how to perform maintenance throughout the whole life cycle,

especially in respect to the usage of heavy maintenance resources for track maintenance. Indeed, the

railway track subsystem accounts for half of the maintenance costs in the overall railway system for high

speed lines.

This thesis addresses the problem of maintenance planning by introducing a logistical approach. Our

approach proposes the integration of 3 main optimization researching areas to provide an optimal

solution to the problem described earlier. Firstly, we consider a scheduling optimization problem, i.e. a

maintenance plan is elaborated where interventions in track sections are scheduled in space

contiguity, as well as different tasks for the same time period; secondly by considering facility location in

a one dimension problem, i.e. where optimal maintenance yards and sideways are located in order to

reduce logistical costs (machinery and crews) to follow a required plan in a multi-period perspective;

and thirdly by considering a routing problem, i.e. where machinery and crews journeys are defined for

each time period taking into account the multi-period dependence.

Thus, in the field of track maintenance planning, this thesis aims at filling an existing gap in literature

regarding logistic approaches for the operation of track maintenance machines, clustering of activities

in a spatial dimension and integration of a locating/scheduling/routing approach for multi-period and

multi-stage problems with evolutionary demands.

In a nutshell, the main objectives of this thesis are the following: (i) development of a model for the

location of track maintenance yards and required sideways along the railway track, (ii) determination of

the adequate number of intervention machines, (iii) elaboration of an optimized, short-medium term,

track maintenance operational plan, including crew assignment to different machines with different

possession times, (iv) evaluation of the impact of that time in track maintenance costs and (v) analysis

of the differences between various preventive maintenance policies.

Thus far, the main contributions of the thesis involve the development of enumerative and heuristic

algorithms on spatial clustering for efficient determination of the number and location of maintenance

yards and assigned machines. Algorithms were elaborated by maintaining original time schedules for

maintenance activities and with the optimization of interventions’ schedules. Further research includes

the bi-objective optimized solution (operational cost and track quality) for maintenance planning with

detailed assessment of permanent machine’s capacity, on a multi-machine analysis. Finally, real data

from a railway infrastructure owner that will serve as a benchmarking for our model will be incorporated.

214

4. Master’s of Science (MSc) and Master’s of Business Engineering (MBE)Programs

4.1. Complex Infrastructure Transportation Systems MSc

4.1.1. Overview

The CTIS Master’s program is a unique program worldwide, which brings togetherthe three core domains for the complex transport infrastructure systems: Finance andContracts; Engineering and Project Management; and Policy and Institutions.

One of the main objectives of this program, which is taught at Instituto SuperiorTécnico (Technical University of Lisbon) in association with the Faculty of Engineer-ing of the University of Porto and the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Uni-versity of Coimbra, by faculty from these three Portuguese schools and from MIT, isto attract young talented and ambitious students from all over the world, preparingthem for key positions in the development of complex transportation projects.

This Master’s program was conceived bearing in mind candidates with high levels ofmotivation, coming from the field of engineering, economics and management withsome years of professional experience and good graduation grades, or with noexperience but with very high grades. The goal is to have a class with a high di-versity of academic and professional journeys.

The curricular plan of this program is composed of ten courses (five each semes-ter), complemented by a series of seminars by international leaders connected tolarge scale projects or policy changes. At the end of the second semester CTIS stu-dents participate in a study tour visiting some significant project sites and relatedinstitutions in Europe.

Since 2007 this Master’s program has graduated seventeen students, eight studentsare currently finishing the dissertation in June, 11 more students finished thecurricular plan and will start working on the thesis, and nine new students are startingthe new academic year (2011/12). So we expect early next year to achieve a numberof thirty-five graduated students.

A unique feature of the CTIS Master’s Program is the industrial affiliation of com-panies that every year sponsor scholarships, which fully cover student’s tuition fees.Each year we have five sponsored scholarships of €15,000 each. Currently, ourindustrial affiliates are BRISA, Mota-Engil, Siemens, Odebrecht and RAVE/REFER. Hamed Pouryousef, from Iran, a former CTIS student (2008/09) and currently a PhDstudent at Michigan Tech, is one of the students that has benefited from these cor-porate scholarships and he recognizes how important the CTIS program was for hisacademic life:

“The CTIS program was a step of my academic life which I will never forget. Thisintensive program helped me to improve my transportation knowledge in broad termsand especially throughout direct contact with some prestigious professors from bothMIT and Portuguese universities such as IST, Porto and Coimbra on different areasof the transportation field. And the quality of the academic program and the veryfriendly environment of the CTIS program encourage alumni to keep in contact withthe program after graduation. I’m proud to be one of the members of this family andhope to hear of more and more progress on this program soon.”


215

David Carvalho (2008/09 class) states that “…the CTIS was the highlight of myacademic experience. The whole program is focused on increasing the flexibility andpolyvalence of each student, and is adaptable to each student’s background,opening new doors for the state of the art knowledge in this field. The program hashelped me to adapt to different settings and different kinds of projects andunderstand and speak the several languages of the industry of the transportationsector. This is crucial because it allows you to differentiate, integrate and valueyourself within your working group and in your relationship with clients. The CTIS isan excellente add-on to your base education; it really makes you stand out in thecrowd.”

Also, one of our institutional partners, REFER, recognizes that “the public transportsector is assuming an increasing role in the global economy and a demandingchallenge for many kinds of professionals and politicians. The Complex TransportInfrastructure Systems (CTIS) program is a valid answer to this challenge, preparingprofessionals with a transversal and global approach, going from conception toproject management and finance.”

All these statements underline the importance of the program for the enhancementof specialized knowledge on the treatment of complex transport developments.

Coordinators of Transportation Systems

António Pais Antunes, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Univ. of Coimbra Chris Zegras, Urban Studies & Planning, MITJorge Salles Gomes, BRISA (CTIS director)Jorge Pinho de Sousa, Faculty os Engineering, University of PortoJosé Viegas, IST, Technical University of LisbonLuís Picado Santos, IST, Technical University of Lisbon (CTIS director)Richard Neufville, Engineering Systems Division, MIT

4.1.2. Structure

The students of the Master’s of Science in Complex Transportation Systems need tocomplete 60 ECTS units that correspond to all the courses of the curricular planpresented in the table below. Those who obtain a classification equal or above 14(on a 0-20 scale) on the curricular part can progress directly to the thesis and choosea supervisor with the support of the director of the program.

216

Structure of the Master’s program in Complex Transportation Systems (CTIS)

Course ECTS Mandatory/optional Semester

Risk and Decision Making 6 Mandatory 1st

Information and Communication Technology 6 Mandatory 1st

Transportation Systems Analysis 6 Mandatory 1st

Transport Economics and Project Evaluation 6 Mandatory 1st

Transport Planning and Performance Assessment 6 Mandatory 1st

Transport Policy and Institutions 6 Mandatory 2nd

Transport Technology and Operations Management 6 Mandatory 2nd

Project Management and Large Scale Integration 4.5 Mandatory 2nd

Business Models and Contracts 6 Mandatory 2nd

Structured Financing of Transport Projects 6 Mandatory 2nd

Thesis project 1.5 Mandatory 2nd

Thesis 30 Mandatory 3rd

Students will have to submit their thesis by the 31st of October of the following yearafter their admittance in the program, but they can apply for a seven-month extension.


For the CTIS Master’s Program ten new courses have been specially designed. Thesecourses are taught by eighteen faculty members from the Portuguese schools, plussome other guest speakers from the corporate sector, and by six faculty membersfrom MIT. MIT faculty ensures sixteen percent of the teaching (academic year2010/11).


The CTIS program uses the Stellar server, which is the MIT course management tool,where the syllabus, pre-readings, PowerPoint presentations, bibliography, andassignments for each of the courses are made available to students. The faculty usesthis platform to interact with students and the students interact with each other andfaculty through the same system.

4.1.5. Sponsors

There are 5 major international companies sponsoring scholarships for studentsattending the CTIS MSc program: BRISA, Mota-Engil, Siemens, Odebrecht andRAVE/REFER.

4.1.6. Benchmarking

In this section we present the benchmark of our Master’s program in ComplexInfrastructure Systems (CTIS) with a wide range of offers across Europe (see Tablebelow).

Because of the multiple agents and perspectives involved in Transport Systems, itquickly becomes evident that there are in fact several “families” of Masters programswith a relevant Transport component. The CTIS Masters does not fit exactly in any ofthese families as it was designed from its inception to cover the multiple perspectivesneeded for its alumni to be relevant players in the overall management of complexprojects.


217

The main facts obtained from the benchmarking table are as follows:

1. A total of 28 Masters programs from prestigious universities, withsignificant Transport component has been surveyed, in 8 Europeancountries. The countries with a higher number of programs offered are: UK(15), Netherlands (3) and Switzerland (3);

2. These programs can be grouped in 5 thematic areas, also with differentnumbers of offers: the most represented thematic area is TransportPlanning and Modellig (13), followed by Transport Economics, Businessand Management (5), and by Logistics and Supply Management (4);

3. There are offers with a duration of 2 semesters (18 programs, all themesexcept Transport Policy), and 4 semesters (11 programs, all areas exceptTransport Economics, Business and Management);

4. Regarding the fees students pay per year, the quartiles are as follows: firstat 10,000, second at 13,000, third at 16,720, fourth at 27,500;

5. The average fee/year per Thematic group is: Logistics and Supply ChainManagement with €12,785; Transport Economics, Business andManagement with €15,460; Transport Policy with €11,250; TransportPlanning and Modelling with €12,860; Transport Technologies with€10,280. In all thematic areas there is strong variation, particularly becausethere are a few offers with very low tuition fees;

6. A total of five programs have tuition fees below or around €1000, all inSwitzerland, Germany, and France. No information was available for oneprogram in Sweden (KTH) but we know that until recently it had almost notuition fee.

DenmarkFranceSwedenUnited KingdomBelgiumThe NetherlandsUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomGermanyThe NetherlandsGermanyThe NetherlandsSwedenSwitzerlandUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomSwitzerlandSwitzerlandUnited Kingdom

DTU Technical University of DenmarkUniversité Lille - Sciences et TechnologiesUniv.Gothenburg - School of Business, Economics and LawUniversity of WestminsterUniversiteit Antwerpen - ITMMA VU Univ. Amst. - Faculty of Economics and Business Adm. University of Leeds - Faculty of EnviromentNewcastle UniversityImperial College LondonUniversitat Duisburg EssenTU Delft - University of Tecnology, Policy and ManagementTUM - Technische Universitat MunchenTU Delft - University of Tecnology, Policy and ManagementKTH StockholmETH ZurichUniversity of Leeds - Faculty of EnviromentUniversity of Leeds - Faculty of EnviromentUniversity of Leeds - Faculty of EnviromentUniversity of SouthamptonNewcastle UniversityUniversity of WestminsterEdinburgh Napier UniversityImperial College LondonImperial College LondonImperial College LondonETH ZurichEPF LausanneNewcastle University

LSCM - Logistics and Supply Chain Management




TEBM - Transport Economics, Business and Management





TP - Transport Policy

TP - Transport Policy

TPM - Transport Planning and Modelling













TTI - Transport Technologies - Infrastructures




MSc Transports and LogisticsManagement Logistics and Transport EngineeringMSc Logistics and Transportation ManagementMSc Logistics and Supply Chain ManagementMSc Transport and Maritime ManagementMSc Spatial, Transport & Environmental EconomicsMA Transport EconomicsMScTransport and Business ManagementMSc Tranport - Extension Modules in Business ManagementMSc Public Transport Management MSc Engineering and Policy AnalysisMSc Transportation SystemsMSc Transport, Infrastructure and LogisticsMSc Transport SystemsMSc Spatial Development and Infrastructure SystemsMSc Transport Planning and EngineeringMSc Transport Planning MSc Transport Planning and the EnvironmentMSc Transportation Planning and EngineeringMSc Transportation Planning and PolicyMSc Transport Planning and ManagementMSc Transport Planning and EngineeringMSc Tranport - Extension Modules in Sustainable DevelopmentMSc Tranport (elective stream)MSc Tranport (elective stream)MSc Civil Engineering - Trsnport SystemsMSc Civil Engineering - Transportation and MobilityMSc Transport Engineering and Operations

4242222224444442224222222442

1206012060606060

100+6060120120120120120120606060120

100+606060606060120120

100+60

13500450

2719210000120001200014200163642275010000125001184

12500no info

10341671816718167183873

1636412205114792275022750227501034963

16364

Country University Theme Degree Duration (semesters)

CreditsTuition Fee /year (Euro)

[non EU student]

BENCHMARK OF THE MASTERS IN COMPLEX TRANSPORT INFRATSRUCTURE SYSTEMS AT IST (MIT-PORTUGAL PROGRAM) WITH OTHER EUROPEAN MASTERS COURSES WITH A STRONG TRANSPORT COMPONENTFEBRUARY 2011 - Overview Table

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From these facts, and comparing with the CTIS situation, we can obtain the mainconclusions of the benchmark:

1. Regarding contents, the CTIS continues to have (as it had when it started)a unique formula covering the "virtuous triangle" of Engineering and ProjectManagement / Finance and Contracts / Policy and Institutions, which webelieve gives its graduates an advantageous position to get jobs incomplex settings;

2. This uniqueness could be taken as a weak point, but the overall reactionof candidates as well as of corporate sponsors, is very much in its favor.It is believed this should be pointed out even stronger in subsequentdissemination of the program;

3. On the duration, CTIS is the only program which is three semesters long.Two-thirds of all the programs we analysed are two semesters long whileone-third of them are four semesters long. However, it must be pointed outthat the Portuguese legislation does not allow awarding a Master’s degreein only two semesters;

4. Regarding tuition fees, if we consider the programs with at least the levelsof the non-integrated Master's at IST (2500 €/year), the cost of the CTISplaces is at the 25th percentile, i.e., three-quarters of the competingprograms are more expensive.


May 08 – Students attend some workshops on Job Placement organized by thecompany Hire & Trust (Dr Fraga Nuno).

Jun 08 – Session of presentation of the 2007/08 students to the partner companies.

Nov. 2008 – Workshop de Team Building e Leadership at Nov 7- 8 with companyAction Coach.

Feb 2010 – Melanie Parker from the Global Education and Career DevelopmentCenter of MIT organized two sessions with CTIS Students and one session with thepartner companies about Job Placement.

Feb 2011 – Melanie Parker from the Global Education and Career DevelopmentCenter of MIT organized two sessions with CTIS Students and one session with thepartner companies about Job Placement.

A set of organized talks by guest speakers from the industry sector was organizedfor the CTIS students over the years, and which are described in the following threetables.


219

Talks in transportation systems for the academic year 2007/08 Date Name Company Theme

15-02-2008 Jan Blomme Port of Antwerp Dr. Jan Blomme, gave a lecture about the business model followed by this

port, and the kind of agreements the institution establishes with port operators

and with the multiple suppliers

13-03-2008 Vístulo de Abreu President and the Government agency in charge of the preparation and management of the

and Luís Machado Vice-President of GATTEL PPP contract for the Vasco da Gama bridge in Lisbon

17-03-2008 Harry Dimitriou Omega Centre The Omega Centre is the Centre for Mega Projects in Transport and

Development, at University College London

07-04-2008 Gunnar Johansson Industry Consultant Dr. Gunnar Johansson Industry Consultant at IBM Sweden, technical

at IBM Sweden responsible for the Stockholm Reduce Road Traffic solution.

10-04-2008 João Portela BRISA

18-04-2008 António Luzia Transdev The new light rail projects in which Transdev is participating in Europe

and João Paulo Araújo

21-04-2008 Herbert Seelmann Siemens

Ricardo Nunes

Talks in the transportation systems area during 2010

Date Speaker Companny Theme

16-03-2010 Eng. Carlos Mota Santos Mota-Engil Business Models for Public-Private Partnership in Road Concession

29-03-2010 Eng. Jorge Sales Gomes BRISA The model of entrepreneurial innovation in BRISA

12-04-2010 Prof. Jonas Eliasson Centre for Transport The urban charging scheme in Stockholm: main steps and lessons of this Studies Stockholm experience

19-04-2010 Eng Carlos Fernandes REFER/RAVE The Portuguese project on High Speed Rail: key characteristics and businessmodel

23-04-2010 Dr. Thomas Linder Road administration Realization of a bypass within the German federal highway networkof Bavaria

Talks in the transportation systems during 2009

Date Speaker Companny Theme

16-12-2009

11-03-2009

19-03-2009

27-03-2009

03-04-2009

15-04-2009

21-05-2009

Stefan van der Speck

Pierre Genton

Daniel Cadet

Tiago Rodrigues

Francisco Ferreira

Werner Rothengatter

João Portela

Delft University

Internacional Arbitrator in

the construction industry

Alstom

REFER/RAVE

DGINFSO - European Com.

University of Karlsruhe

BRISA

Public Design: Public Space, Public Domain. Activity Patterns in Public Space

International Arbitration in conflits of Mega Projects

ALSTOM Innovation Culture - Bringing Technology Further

Busines Models for high-speed rail infrastructures in Portugal

Information and Communication Technologies for Transport

Stuttgart 21 & some stories from the book "Megaprojects and Risk"

220

Study Tour 2008

In 2008, the first ever group of Complex Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CTIS)students participated in the first annual “CTIS Technical Tour,” accompanied by Prof.José Viegas. Students visited nine different agencies and cutting edge projects inFrance, England, Switzerland and Germany. This technical tour was designed to givestudents a firsthand look at the types of projects and opportunities available forgraduates of the program, as well as to familiarize them with some basic technologiesand concepts in a real world setting.

In France, students had three tour stops:• TGV EST (Paris - http://lgv-est.com/). Students experienced a High Speed

Rail link that significantly reduces travel times between Paris and the Eastof France. Students have been made privy to information includingcontractual agreements, financial documents and various regulatorydocuments that are key to understanding this innovative and complexproject.

• Tramway at Boulevard des Maréchaux (Paris - http://www.ratp.com/). CTISstudents visited the RATP, the state enterprise responsible for theimplementation of this transportation system. Representatives of RATPdescribed the major principals of this urban project, including financing,public participation, and the different phases of construction.

• VéliB (Paris - http://www.velib.paris.fr/). The one-way bicycle rental schemein Paris became an innovative solution to stimulate the use of bikes as aregular means of public transport. CTIS students visited the departmentresponsible for the VéliB project, where they received a detailedexplanation of the business model as well as of the various stages ofimplementation of this project.

London• Congestion Charge (London - http://www.tfl.gov.uk/home.aspx). The

London congestion charge is a fee paid by car drivers entering the centralarea of London designated as the Congestion Charge Zone. VisitingTransport for London, the authority that manages London’s transportsystems, students learned how the congestion charge was established,how it works, payment methods, how revenue is spent and the technicalsupport required the keep the system working.

• Crosslink (London - http://www.crossrail.co.uk/). Crosslink is a new railwayproject for London and South-East England that will deliver an accessible,affordable, high-frequency railway service across the capital from 2017.Students were informed about the operating and financing challengespresented by this project.

• High Speed Railway Extension from Waterloo to St Pancras (London). TheSt Pancras Station was renovated and expanded and is now the newterminal for Eurostar trains to continental Europe, and thus the newinternational station in London. Students received explanations about thiscontroversial change, and the reasons that led to it, as well as about thefinancing scheme and the operating concepts.


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BellizonaGotthard Base Tunnel (Switzerland - http://www.alptransit.ch/pages/e/)This is set to become the world's longest rail tunnel, creating a rail link for future travelthrough the Alps. Students visited the Alptransit Gothard, the company behind thisnew transalpine rail route, where they could get explanations of all the stages of theprocess of building a 57 km tunnel, and they had the chance to visit the works anda section of the tunnel.

Stuttgart• Stuttgart 21 (Germany - http://www.das-neue-herzeuropas .de/default. as -

px) . CTIS’ students were introduced to the “Stuttgart 21”, the project thatwill transform Stuttgart's nineteenth century main railway station into amodern transit-hub.

• Stuttgart Airport expansion (Germany - http://www.flughafen-stuttgart. -de/sys/index.php) CTIS students saw the project of expansion of theStuttgart airport, the only major airport in the country with one runway. Thesolution of building a second runway is being studied and a decisionshould be announced soon. All details related with this complex projectwere explained during a lecture held at the airport, by the Chairman andthe Technical Manager of the Airport company.

Study Tour 2009

In May 2009, the Complex Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CTIS) studentsparticipated in the second annual “CTIS Technical Tour,” led by Prof. Jorge Pinho deSousa, accompanied by Ms. Teresa Afonso. The students visited and learned abouta number of transportation facilities, including ports, airports, logistics facilities,tramways, high speed rail systems, and one-way bicycle rental schemes in variousEuropean countries. The sites visited were as follows:

Barcelona Port and Logistics Platform (Spain)Students learned about the ZAL facilities, big logistics platform of the Barcelona Port,and saw a presentation regarding the expansion of this port. This visit outlined theeconomical importance of intermodality in the operations and of the business modelof the platform.

Port of Antwerp and railway station (Belgium)The visit to the Port of Antwerp started with a presentation by Mr. Jan Blomme at PortCentre Lillo. Then the students had a guided visit of the Port. They learned about thephysical distribution of mineral water and general cargo. They also visited thechemical cluster, the container handling, and the lockage. Students then visited theCentral Railway Station to learn about its expansion. The station is an incredibleadaptation of a magnificent old building with modern facilities and quality of service.

RFF and TGV EST (Paris) In a visit to RFF, the French Railway infrastructure manager, students have been madeprivy to information including contractual agreements, financial documents andvarious regulatory documents that are key to understanding this innovative andcomplex project. In the evening, in their way to Sttugart, students experienced a HighSpeed Rail link that significantly reduces travel times between Paris and the East ofFrance.

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RATP (Paris) CTIS students visited RATP, the state enterprise responsible for transportation in theParis metropolitan area. Representatives of RATP presented the main strategicprinciples of the company, emphasizing the role of mobility, and describing someconcrete projects such as the Tramway at Boulevard des Maréchaux. Issues suchas the major principals of this urban project, including financing, public participation,and the different phases of construction, have been deeply discussed.

VéliB (Paris)The one-way bicycle rental scheme in Paris became an innovative solution tostimulate the use of bikes as a regular means of public transport. CTIS studentsvisited the department responsible for the VéliB project, where they received adetailed explanation of the business model as well as of the various stages ofimplementation of this project. The system, based on more than 20 000 bicycles andhundreds of docking stations, has a significant impact concerning the populationmobility and in ecological terms.

Stuttgart 21 (Germany)CTIS students were introduced to the “Stuttgart 21”, the project that will transformStuttgart's nineteenth century main railway station into a modern transit-hub. Thenear-invisibility in the city center of an extensive light rail system will be made possibleby a tunnel construction program with the relocation of heavy rail tracks. Moreover"Stuttgart 21 will yield the opportunity for restructuring and accelerating services thatwill be felt across the country and on Europe's high-speed rail network."

Frankfurt Airport (Germany)CTIS students had a guided visit of Frankfurt airport by bus with very detailedexplanations regarding the expansion of this airport. During this bus trip in the airport,students visited the Terminals, the logistic center, and other infrastructures. After thisguided visit, they saw a 3D presentation at Fraport facilities related to the expansionof the airport.

Study Tour 2009/10

October 2009Visit to the construction of the final section of CRIL / IC17, Buraca - Pontinha, Portugal

May 2010The students visited a project in Germany and Spain:

MunichA9 – students visited the proposed demolition and reconstruction of a section of themotorway viaduct, built in the 70s. The project is interesting because of thecomplexity of construction and number of transport that pass by. The tram andsubway lines, local streets, as well as various communications hinder theimplementation of this project.

Traffic control center of the highway in southern Bavaria - students saw theimplementation of many traffic control concepts they learned in class and wereimpressed with the level of automation in the center.

Munich Airport - students got to know the classification system of baggage and otherplaces of the airport


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MadridAtocha Railway Station - students became aware of the expansion project to increasecapacity of high speed trains.Traffic Control Center for High-Speed Rail Network – students visited the control roomand Central Planning and Operations, where he got to know the network and plansfor the future, including high-speed line Madrid-Lisboa.

ZaragozaStudents visited a logistics platform, which is in the local charge transfer, and a centerfor innovation in logistics.

4.1.8. Alumni profile

This section presents the profiles of three of the alumni of the CTIS Master’s program.

Name: David CostaProgram: CTISGraduating year: 2009

Previous professional situation

Working in a Transport-Planning related Consultancy called Engimind, where Iparticipated in road traffic demand studies as a junior consultant

Post-graduation professional situation

Consultancy called VTM, where I participated in Public Transport NetworkOptimization and Demand Studies in the role of analyst. I left this position to join thePortuguese Airport Authority - ANA Aeroportos, where I’ve been working on AirportGround Access Planning, namely curbside accessibility and parking design andmanagement.

Learning outcomes

The main learning outcomes of the CTIS were the ability to handle and translate muchof the com-plexity that ocmes with deeper involvement in transportation projects andlearn about state-of-the-art methodologies and solutions that many pofessionals onlycome into contact with after several years on the job. There was a third major benefitfrom haiving attended this program: the opportunity to be influenced by some of thebest professors in the world.

Competitive advantage

It definitely helped me stand out in the crowd. The program gives us a huge amountof cutting edge information and tools with which to innovate and efficiently createsolutions. Moreover it gives us useful training in tools from different trades, such asEconomy, Policy, Engineering and Technology with which we mold our solutions in toconsensus-building projects, without losing coherency or accuracy. If we bind thesetools with self-marketing skills and intelligent timing, we rapidly create opportunitiesto climb the corporate ladder.

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Name: Hamed PouryousefProgram: CTISGraduating year: 2010


- B.S in Railroad Transportation Eng., Iran University of Science & Technology, (2002);- Working for engineering consultant and Iran Ministry of Transportation (2001- 2008).


PhD Student (Research Assistant) in Michigan Tech. University-CEE Dept- RailTransportation program, 2010-now

Learning outcomes

- Getting involved with an international academic program (MIT Portugal);- Learning more about financial and economical aspects of transportation;- Understanding more about all transportation modes and their respective spe -

cifications (Highway, Rail, Air, Marine).


- Great experience and interactions with other international students and facultiesfrom around the world;

- Very interesting and helpful study tour including different transportationinfrastructure projects;

- Participation of faculties and researchers from MIT through both academic coursesand research topics.


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Name: Mauro PenedaProgram: CTISGraduating year: 2010


Had just completed an MSc in Civil Engineering at IST.


Six-month research scholarship at IST (AIRDEV project) while developing the CTISthesis, followed by another six-month research scholarship after finishing the course(HERMES project). I am currently an Analyst at VTM Consultants, working mainly onairport performance and public transport network analysis. I have been here for threemonths.

Learning outcomes

Generally speaking, the whole program provided fundamental analytical skills that Inow have to use every day and will always be relevant in the future. Moreover, thereare other, more specific skills that are now useful in my career, such as simulationusing Ms Excel (besides the very broad skill set in this software that every CTISstudent will have to develop), systems’ analysis and understanding, a significantknowledge base in transport operations, the background on transport economicsand project finance, politics and institutional behavior, stakeholder interactions, justto name a few. Overall, I believe the broad range of knowledge that is transmitted inthe program is fundamental to keep our horizons equally broad, and mostly all skillsacquired will (or may) prove important for us some when in the future, astransportation experts.


I am sure that I wouldn’t be at VTM consultants right now if I hadn’t got the CTISdegree. I am the 3rd CTIS student admitted in this company in 2 years, and myemployer was very clear in stating the fact that the degree was a significant differencebetween me and the remaining candidates.

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4.2. Sustainable Energy Systems

4.2.1. Overview

Since 2007, the Business Engineering Master’s in Sustainable Energy Systems (SES)has graduated 87 students over the course of four editions. The students that seekthis program usually fit in one of these profiles:

• Professionals working in energy companies (examples from GALP, EDP,EFACEC, PARTEX) and supported by the companies that look for deeperknowledge on systems integration and energy policy;

• Professionals working in companies whose core business has not beenenergy but provide ser-vices for energy companies (infrastructures,consulting, IT). From this group, some are supported directly by thecompany, others are not but are trying to integrate or develop new businessareas within the company;

• Professionals working in companies which have nothing to do with energymanagement, but who want to make a career change.

Most of the students with non-engineering background belong to the first two groups.Most of the students from the third group have an engineering background fromenvironmental engineering.

The students graduating from the first group usually remain at the same company.Students graduating from the second group usually have evolved within the company.Examples of success from this group include a senior manager from the Energy &Utilities Industry business area from NOVABASE that is currently responsible for theSmart Grids project which includes building partnerships, buying companies /operations and also innovation. Another former student, who was the manager of theinstallations group from João Jacinto Tomé – a company that builds and managesinfrastructures - is now the head of the innovation department and is developing anew business area on energy services. Many graduates from the third group werealready able to the make career changes they were planning beforehand. Some ofthe successful cases from this group include two alumni that have become seniormanagers at regional energy and environment companies (ARENA in Azores andOESTE Sustentável in west region of Portugal) and a third one became the head ofthe technical department of APREN – Portuguese Renewable Energy Association.

In general, the non-engineering students indicate that an important outcome of theprogram lies in the development of a clear understanding of the energy market inPortugal (main actors, value chain, drivers), as well as the knowledge of who is whoin the industry sector. The engineering students indicate that the main outcomes arenot only the management tools they learn in project evaluation or risk management,but also the deeper technical knowledge on subjects such as energy in transports,project evaluation and business planning, or energy management in buildings.Graduates also indicate that attending this program has enabled them to be awareand explore at a deeper level their own skills to deal with complexity, innovation,negotiation and strategy. They very much value the experience to work withcolleagues from all over the world, which they report has increased their willingnessto engage in international projects, and to deal with many different but correlatedperspectives and different contexts, which all together allows them to reachintegrated results.


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In summary, the main advantages of the program are the opportunity to develop anentrepreneurship spirit and a professional and an academic network, all of whichcreate new job opportunities for the SES students.

The success of the program and its cross-cutting curricula in engineering andmanagement sciences is recognized either by the companies sponsoring theiremployees or the new employers of the SES graduates.

João Nuno Mendes, Director of Innovation of GALP Energia who has sponsoredalready three of his employees to attend the SES MBE says:

“The SES program was very successful in providing technological expertise insustainable energy systems to our collaborators with a background in managementand social sciences.”

António Sá da Costa, President of APREN (Portuguese Renewable EnergyAssociation), who hired two of our graduates expresses his opinion about the SESMBE:

“My experience with the SES graduates is extremely positive. This program offers avery important systems perspective on energy problems. … the program provides aset of tools and training in management sciences for people with an engineeringbackground, which are very important to deal with the diversity of problems that theenergy sector faces today.”

Coordinators of Sustainable Energy Systems

António Gomes Martins, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of CoimbraAntónio Vallera, Faculty of Sciences, University of LisbonAntónio Vidigal, EDP (MBE director)Carlos Silva IST, Technical University of Lisbon (MBE director)David Marks, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT (MBE director)João Peças Lopes, FEUP, University of Porto

4.2.2. Structure

The Business Engineering Master’s in Sustainable Energy Systems is a one-yearprogram offered at the Technical University of Lisbon (IST/ISEG) and the Universityof Porto (FEUP) with a common core curriculum and common guidelines but withsome local differences in terms of curricular structure.

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FEUP The Business Engineering Master’s at FEUP is a one-year program addressingmultidisciplinary core areas in energy systems. It offers three base graduationprofiles, which share a considerable number of courses:

Profile A: Energy Systems Planning Profile B: Sustainable Cities and Regions Profile C: Advanced Electric Networks

In each semester students must choose three of the mandatory courses and one ofthe optional courses in a way to sum up a total of 60 credits (ECTS). Most coursesare shared with the PhD Program. The courses are organized in four main graduationprofiles, as detailed in table below:

Structure of the SES business engineering master’s program at FEUP

Course Profile ECTS Mandatory/Optional Semester

Energy, Environment and Sustainability + thematic work A,B,C 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Energy Planning A,B 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Energy Markets and Regulation C 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Analysis and Simulation of Thermal Systems A,B 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Signals, Dynamics and Control C 7.5 Mandatory 1st

Introduction to Economics * A,C 6 Optional 1st

Economics of Natural Resources and Environment * A,C 6 Optional 1st

Projects Evaluation and Externalities * B 6 Optional 1st

Computational Intelligence and Power Systems C 7.5 Optional 1st

Seminar A,B,C 22.5 Mandatory 2nd

Energy Efficiency A,B 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Market Simulation C 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Energy Demand Side Management A,B 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Electrical Systems with Renewables C 7.5 Mandatory 2nd

Optimization and Decision Support Techniques A,C 7.5 Optional 2nd

Energy in Buildings B 7.5 Optional 2nd

Forecasting C 7.5 Optional 2nd

Methods for Optimal Power Flow C 7.5 Optional 2nd

Wind Energy C 7.5 Optional 2nd

* Modules offered by UTL/FCUL


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IST/ISEG The Business Engineering Master’s at IST/ISEG is a one-year (280-hour) programaddressing multidisciplinary core areas in energy systems, including:

• Economics, management science and policy• Environmental analysis and assessment• Energy systems• Energy technologies

Each student can create a unique curriculum to fulfill her/his individual interests.Guided by a faculty member, the student is allowed to choose from a pool of optionalcourses in order to complete 48 to 60 ECTS units, including the two mandatorycourses (please see table below).

Structure of the SES Business Engineering Master’s Program at IST/ISEG

Scientifc area Course ECTS Mandatory/Option Semester

Introductory courses

Introduction to Economics 6 Optional 1st

Introduction to Engineering 6 Optional 1st

Economics

Economics of Natural Resources Environment 6 Optional 1st

Econometrics 6 Optional 1st

Energy Systems Economics and Modeling 6 Optional 1st

Risk Management 6 Optional 2nd

Projects Evaluation and Externalities 6 Optional 2nd

Regulation Theory 6 Optional 2nd

Environment

Energy, Environment and Sustainability 6 Optional 1st

Energy in Transportation 4,5 Optional 1st

Ecological Economics 6 Optional 2nd

Energy Systems

Energy Management 4,5 Optional 1st

Energy Systems Integration 6 Optional 2nd

Optimization of Energy Systems 6 Optional 2nd

Energy Technologies

Seminars I 3 Mandatory 1st

Seminars II 3 Mandatory 2nd

Energy in Buildings 6 Optional 2nd

Nuclear Energy 6 Optional 2nd

Renewable Energy Resources 6 Optional 2nd

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Here are the comments of two alumni of the Master’s of Business Engineering inSustainable Energy Systems who benefited directly from attending this program witha very positive impact in their career development.

Isabel Abreu was a student of the 2008/09 edition of the SES MBE program and shechanged her professional career after graduating from this program. Here are hercomments about this change.

‘If it wasn´t for my experience at the Master’s of Business Engineering in SustainableEnergy Systems I would not be now the head of the technical department of thePortuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN). Of course one of the mainreasons why I got the job was my pro-active attitude, which didn´t come from theprogram, but that alone would not have been enough. The program provided me theknowledge in energy matters and the driver to contact my current boss, andafterwards to get in touch with APREN. This program was perfect for the careerchange I was looking for.’

Maria Carvalho was a student of the 2008/09 edition of the SES MBE program andshe changed her professional career after graduating from this program. Here areher comments about the positive effect that attending this program had in herprofessional life.

‘Above all the SES degree developed my entrepreneurship spirit, which I think, isbeing everyday day more appreciated in the job market in Portugal. In addition, thenetworking with the MIT community and companies associated with it gave me aspecial position into getting a new job in the energy context. In May 2010 I becamethe CEO of the Regional Energy and Environment Agency for the West Region ofPortugal – Oeste Sustentável. This is a freshly started Agency, nearly one-year old.My job has been to build a new team for the Agency, to develop its brand, conceivenew projects and activities along with building a close relation with all its associates.As a CEO my main responsibilities include coordination of all activities/projects andresources, developing the Strategy and Annual Activities Plan, Budget Controllingand Communication with European Commission. Along with this new position, I amnow experienced in developing business plans for energy projects, which is a newmajor asset in my professional life.

The Sustainable Energy Systems MBE degree improved my motivation and drive tolearn as much as possible all the time and to use all of my abilities to succeed intackling complex projects. From the experience of working with colleagues from allover the world, I developed a great willingness to engage in major internationalprojects, to deal with different perspectives, different contexts and to be able to reachintegrated results. I am now more passionate for complexity, innovation, negotiationand strategy.’


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4.2.4. Alumni profiles

This section presents the profile of some of the alumni of the Master’s of BusinessEngineering in Sustainable Energy Systems (SES).

Name: Isabel Cancela de AbreuProgram: SESYear of graduation: 2009


Account and Project Manager at YDreams: responsible for projects using interactivetechnologies to communicate educational content.


Head of Technical Department at APREN – Portuguese Renewable EnergyAssociation.Main responsibilities: collection and treatment of national and international energydata; coordination of APREN studies; legislation overview; follow up of internaltechnical matters of APREN«s associates; support to the board and advisory panelof the Association; management of events; in charge of European projects;preparation of communication strategy; represent APREN at national and internationalevents; negotiate protocols with other energy entities.

Learning outcomes

Basic energy concepts, update on energy “hot issues,” overview of national andinternational current energy context, technology information, entrepreneurship, andaccess to energy experts, economic and financial basic concepts.


If it wasn't for the SES MBE I would not be working at APREN. Of course one of themain reasons why I got the job was my pro-active attitude, which didn«t come fromthe program, but that alone would not have been enough. The SES MBE providedme the knowledge on energy matters and the driver to contact my current boss, andafterwards to get in touch with APREN. This program was perfect for the careerchange I was looking for.

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Name: Maria Susana CarvalhoProgram: SESYear of graduation: 2009


Since 2007, I have been working at Ferconsult, S.A.: a company dedicated toconsultancy, studies and project conception in transportation engineering, where Ihave been working as a Project Director and Business Developer. My mainresponsibilities include supporting the development of the Strategy and ActivitiesPlan of the Company, coordinating the development and follow-up of proposals,budgets and contracts, project managing, team management and communication.


Besides improving my skills at Ferconsult, S.A. in May 2010 I engaged my self in anew challenge starting to work as a CEO at the Regional Energy and EnvironmentAgency for the West Region of Portugal – Oeste Sustent‡vel. This is a freshly startedAgency with almost one-year lifetime. My job was to build a new team for the Agency,to develop its brand, conceive new projects and activities along with building a closerelation with all its associates. As CEO my main responsibilities include coordinationof all activities/projects and resources, developing the Strategy and Annual activitiesPlan, Budget controlling and Communication with European Commission.

Learning outcomes

Some of the most effective and practical knowledge I acquired is related with energyefficient transportation, project evaluation and business plans, energy policy, energymanagement in buildings and industrial sectors, energy efficiency in households anddevelopment renewable energy projects. The SES MBE degree improved mymotivation and driven force to learn as much as I can and to use all of my abilities toobtain success in complex projects. From the experience of working with colleaguesfrom all over the world, I developed a great willingness to engage in internationalmajor projects, to deal with different perspectives, different contexts and to be ableto reach integrated results. I am now more passionate for complexity, innovation,negotiation and strategy.


Above all the SES degree developed my entrepreneurship spirit, which I think, isbeing everyday day more appreciated in the job market in Portugal. In addition, thenetworking with the MIT community and Companies associated with it gave me aspecial position into getting a new job in the Energy context. Along with this newposition, I am now experienced in developing business plans for energy projects,which is a new major asset in my professional life.


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Name: Nelson TeodoroProgram: SESYear of graduation: 2010


Novabase | Senior Manager | Member of the Energy & Utilities, Engagement Managerfor EDP, EDA and Galp.


Novabase | Senior Manager | Member of the Energy & Utilities Industry, responsiblefor the Smart Grids offer, meaning building partnerships, buying companies /operations and also creating innovation inside Novabase.

Learning outcomes

It was very important, since I’m not an engineer, to have a clear overview of theenergy market (main actors, value chain, drivers, etc.) but also to know who is whoin the industry.


Attending the SES MBE was important for my career because I have got a very goodnetwork of professional contacts.

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Name: Nuno AfonsoProgram: SESYear of graduation: 2009


Before taking the SES Program, I was a project manager in the ElectricalInfrastructures area at João Jacinto Tomé company. I was responsible for Projectmanagement in the electric sector.


Nowadays I’m a business unit manager in the electric infrastructures area and alsoleading a Depart-ment of Innovation and Development in the energy area for thesame company. This department is mainly focused on Renewable EnergyTechnologies and Energy Management and we’re focused on new business areasand models for the energy sector. I’m responsible for business and projectdevelopment and management in these fields

Learning outcomes

The SES program was very important for my career development because it allowedme to widen my knowledge on energy policies and technologies, sustainability,energy management, project evaluation and the Portuguese energy sector.

Name: Nuno Ferreira DominguesProgram: SESYear of graduation: 2009


Senior Project Manager


Coordinator of Green Islands Project on behalf of the Government of Azores/President of the Regional Agency for Energy and Environment of Azores / RegionalDirector for Air and Sea Transportation of Azores

Learning outcomes

Energy and renewable energies technologies


Training in energy and renewable energies technologies, combined with the trackrecord in project management and in international markets gave me a very goodportfolio in f engineering which was a key factor to start managing the Green IslandsProject on behalf of the Government of Azores.


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4.3. Technology Management Enterprise

4.3.1. Overview

The Business Engineering Master’s in Technology Management Enterprise (TME) isa joint degree offered by the Technical University of Lisbon, University of Minho andthe University of Porto and leads to a 3rd Cycle Bologna Diploma.

TME is a fifteen month modular intensive program that trains technical managers forproduct development and production systems. Students learn management skillsincluding human resources competences for bridging complex technical andmanagement issues under a demanding production environment. Theinterdisciplinary engineering and management-based curriculum culminates in athesis targeting an industrially oriented topic.

TME targets technical staff of Portuguese and European companies (with engineeringeducation) aiming at developing a career in technical or production management,with two to three years of practical experience. The TME MBE program is designedto allow the student to attend an academic program while continuing his/herprofessional activity.

TME graduates will be capable of leading multidisciplinary teams in productdevelopment and industrial operations and of addressing multiple challenges inengineering design and manufacturing, including:

• Innovative product development,• Advanced processing / production solutions,• Optimization of production processes under an integrated perspective of

the overall product cycle.

Courses are concentrated in six full time blocks of two weeks each, with one and halfmonth of interval between two consecutive blocks. This formula allows students tokeep their current professional activity, while advancing and maturing their skills withthe TME curriculum and innovation environment. The academic schedule format isextremely popular with students because the two week periods engender intensework environments and interpersonal relationships among the cohort of students.

There has been a serious effort to couple the educational program with researchactivities at Portuguese and other European Industrial Affiliates. TME includes, forinstance, a thesis that is related to the students’ work at a Portuguese company.

We have also implemented new and novel education delivery mechanisms and theevaluation of those mechanisms. These include the rotation of faculty and studentsto the three Portuguese universities in this scientific domain along with closeparticipation of MIT faculty and the delivery of course content in an intensive two-week modular format. MIT and Portuguese faculty have collaborated to evaluate theeffectiveness of the EDAM teaching format in comparison with a more traditionallength format and have found that the EDAM format has a positive impact on thestudents.

The TME curriculum was re-structured after two editions based on feedback fromstudents and faculty. The new curriculum has more of an emphasis on engineeringsystems and more tightly integrates TME and LTI (Leaders for Technical IndustriesPhD) students. At present TME and LTI lecturing schedules are coincident, enabling

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a more challenging and richer environment for learning and networking, with studentsof different backgrounds and professional experiences.

We also have invited students from other scientific domains to participate in EDAM´scourse on Leadership. Furthermore, faculty from the EDAM and Bioengineering Systemsareas collaborated on the development of the Innovation Management Course, and EDAMfaculty have taught a Bioengineering Systems course.

What is learnt in the courses and along the program is also important for student´sprofessional careers, as it has been highlighted by the participants.

The impact of the TME is clear from this comment made by Pedro Portela, a studentfrom the first edition in 2007/08:

‘ … I believe the Engineering Design and Manufacturing Systems course togetherwith the course on Innovation Management taught by Luis Perez-Breva were theperfect closing for the program. Only now have I clearly seen the «big picture» andwhat was intended with the whole program. Engineering Systems is starting to makesense for me and I´m starting to find it a fascinating topic. The complexity of aleadership role and making good decisions is becoming clearer now; indeed,Portugal desperately needs this kind of leaders. In fact, I am so overwhelmed by thisnew perspective that I am already considering a career change; during the programI learnt also a lot about myself. My ability to work under tight timings, to work in team,I learnt that I love doing presentations and gained a lot of confidence doing them, Ilearnt that sometimes you just have to do the job you are assigned to and put all yourenergies into it… whether you like it or not.’

More recently, Jorge Ribeiro, 2009/10 TME also expressed his positive impressionon the program:

‘I value the choice of the TME, mainly for assuring a close link with Industry within amulticultural and multidisciplinary environment, crucial nowadays. The approach ofthe TME, highlighting the Engineering Systems and the Product Development hasalso proved very enlightening.’

João Ricardo Gonçalves, Development Engineer from Celoplás, and TME student in2007/08 has said what follows about the TME Master’s:

From my previous TME experience I can highlight, in particular, the Product Designand Development course, as well as the industrial and pragmatic approachthroughout the program, and which I think are some of its greatest assets. In fact,this is the most distinctive feature of the TME program when compared with moretraditional academic advanced graduations in Portugal. The interconnection ofacademia and industry has been central to my involvement in the TME.’

The commitment of Industrial Affiliates to the future of the program is evidenced bythe comments of António Cardoso Pinto, the CEO of Adira, a manufacturingequipment production company:

‘TME is a good program that complements very well the technical expertise of ourpeople. This is an evaluation based on our experience of two TME stuents in twodifferent years. I expect to continue to benefit from this program and to send one newcandidate each year.’


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Another distinctive example is the one provided by João Cortez, the CEO of Celoplás:‘Apart from the different know-how and several other gains (which will be assessedand reflected within short and medium terms), I emphasize the change in attitude,the pro-activity enhancement, such as working throughout weekends. The investmentin TME is thus undeniably positive and rewarding.’

Coordinators of the Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing

António Torres Marques, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (TME director) Chris Magee, Engineering Systems Division, MITJoel Clark, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT (TME director)Manuel Freitas, IST, Technical University of Lisbon Olga Carneiro, School of Engineering, University of Minho

4.3.2. Structure

The structure of the Master’s of Business Technological Management Enterprise(TME), is described in the table below:

TME students are required to take a total of 90 ECTS: 60 ECTS from the curricularcomponent (all 10 courses are mandatory) and the remaining 30 ECTS from theResearch Project.

TME students must write a Research Project that describes original work conductedover the course of the Master’s of Business Engineering program project or a derivedcompany-related activity, but either way the topic and content should be under theumbrella of the TME program theme and consistent with the scope of the EDAM focusarea. The development of the thesis will most likely be supervised by an EDAMProfessor but not necessarily; and the student may have a supervisor from MIT too. The TME student is expected to write a Research Project proposal of approximatelytwo to three pages outlining the research objectives, plan, and timeline. It should be

Structure of the TME Master’s of Business Engineering


Product Development 6 Mandatory 1st

Technology Evaluation and Selection 6 Mandatory 1st

Integrating Technology & Management 6 Mandatory 1st

Operations Management 6 Mandatory 1st

Advanced Technologies 6 Mandatory 1st

Engineering and Manufacturing Systems 6 Mandatory 2nd

Management for Engineering 6 Mandatory 2nd

Innovation Management 6 Mandatory 2nd

Production Management 6 Mandatory 2nd

Leadership 6 Mandatory 2nd

Research Project 30 Mandatory

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jointly signed by the student and the Research project supervisor and should besubmitted to the TME committee for review by July 31st. The TME committee willprovide feedback on the proposal by August 31st.

The Research Project supervisor(s) and the students shall meet at regular intervalsthroughout the fall: e.g., with monthly meetings to report progress.

The Research Project should be submitted to the TME committee by December 31st

and the results will be presented to the sponsoring company by January 31st in thepresence of the thesis supervisor.

4.3.3. Student’s highlights

Here we offer the comments of two alumni of the Master’s of Business Engineering inTechnology Management Enterprise who benefited greatly from attending thisprogram and had a very positive impact in their careers.

Vítor Martins, from the 2008/09 TME sustains the following about his participation:‘Before joining TME, I worked as senior engineer, responsible for the launch of theVW Scirocco in the Pilot Plant at the company Volkswagen Autoeuropa in Palmela,Portugal. In the middle of the academic year I was transferred to the Final AcceptanceQuality area Quality: I participated in a program "Checking Process Team" with theDirector General of Production. Moreover I was engaged in the coordination of a teamfor the planning and launching of a new project, enterprise application for qualitycontrol and intermediate points in the final check of your car and the repairs. In fact,being part of the TME was important for my professional life and it translated on amore efficient practice. The plant organization benefited directly from the work donetogether in the final thesis "Transportation Synergy”, which will save 25% of thetransportation costs and logistics. This was also a launching opportunity for a newway of "thinking" and transporting materials to and for the Volkswagen AutoeuropaPortuguese and other exporting companies. Even though I haven´t directlyprogressed in my job position, I feel available and better prepared to take on newprofessional challenges within the Volkswagen Autoeuropa and outside the factory,in other factories of the Group.’

Elizabete Pinho, from TMG Automotive, and a TME student from 2008/09 edition, alsohighlighted some points about TME: ‘When I joined the TME, I was responsible for Product Development at TPE group ofTMG Automotive. Today I am TMG Automotive Technical Director. From myparticipation in the 2008/09 TME I most value the global perspective on the productdevelopment and the awareness of the importance of the several stages of project´sdevelopment, as well as the importance of deadlines. I also learned more about theneed to coordinate teamwork and to integrate different points of view in order toaccomplish a given deadline.’


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4.3.4. Alumni profiles

This section presents the profile of some of the alumni of the Master’s of BusinessEngineering TME.

Name: Elizabete PinhoProgram: TME Technology Management and EnterpriseYear of graduation: 2010

Previous Professional Situation

Responsible for Product Development at TPE group in TMG Automotive

Post-graduation Professional Situation

TMG Automotive Technical Director

Learning Outcomes

- Global Perspective on the product development and the importance of a project'sseveral stages of development

- The importance of deadlines- The need to coordinate teamwork and to integrate different points of view in order

to accomplish a given deadline.

Name: João Ricardo GonçalvesProgram: TME Technology Management and EnterpriseYear of graduation: 2009


Celoplás Development Engineer

Post-graduation Professional Situation

Celoplás Development Engineer

Learning Outcomes

From my TME experience I can highlight, in particular, the Product Design andDevelopment course, as well as the industrial and pragmatic approach, common toall EDAM, which I believe is one of ts greatest advantages.In fact, this is the most distinctive eature of the TME program when compared to moretraditional academic post-graduations. The interconnection of academia and industryhas been central to my involvement in the TME.

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Competitive Advantage

The interconnection of academia and industry has been central to my involvement inthe TME and a key factor to progress professionally and to address daily industrialchallenges with a more comprehensive scope.

Name: Vítor MartinsProgram: TME Technology Management and EnterpriseYear of graduation: 2009


Before joing TME, I worked as a senior engineer, responsible for launching the VWScirocco in the Pilot Plant at the company Volkswagen Autoeuropa in Palmela,Portugal.At mid-TME I was transferred to the Final Acceptance Quality area Quality: Iparticipated in a program "Checking Process Team" with the Director General ofProduction. Moreover I was engaged in the coordination of a team for the planningand launching of a new project, enterprise application for quality control andintermediate points in the final check of your car and the repairs.

Post-Graduation Professional Situation

Senior engineer at Volkswagen Autoeuropa

Learning Outcomes

From my participation in the TME, I underline the fact that I developed a broader andmore comprehensive vision of the international market and Portuguese companies.I also stress the importance of being in touch with research, know-how and methodsused in the four universities involved in the program. I also value the know-how Igained in fields such as programs to aid decisionmaking, construction of businesscases and an overall more comprehensive and strategic vision of business planning.

Competitive Advantage

In fact, being part of the TME was important for my professional life and it translatedon a more efficient practice. The plant organization benefited directly from the workdone together in the final thesis "Transportation Synergy”, which will save 25% of thetransportation costs and logistics. This was also a launching opportunity for a newway of "thinking" and transporting materials to and from the Volkswagen AutoeuropaPortuguese and other exporting companies. Even though I haven«t directlyprogressed in my job position, I feel available and better prepared to take on newprofessional challenges within the Volkswagen Autoeuropa and outside the factory,in other factories of the Group.


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5. Faculty exchange: training the trainers

5.1. Overview

A very positive feature, and notable success, of the MIT Portugal network is the facultyexchange program. This program allows Portuguese faculty to spend a significantamount of time at MIT as Faculty Fellows in order to work closely with their MITcolleagues, make or expand valuable professional networks (both academic andresearch), develop specific skills that are essential for them to teach new coursesand modules that were developed collaboratively with MIT within the MIT Portugalpartnership, and to absorb the culture of MIT’s rich academic and researchenvironment. In particular, Portuguese junior faculty visits to MIT have been highlyinfluential in their impact on teaching practice, by permitting these faculty membersto audit MIT classes and thus to gain a comparative perspective on how their subjectsare taught and contextualized at MIT, and to acquire the competences to teach MITcourses at home.

To date, seventy-one new courses have been developed for teaching in MIT Portugaldegree programs in Portugal, many of which introduce curricular elements that arenovel to Portuguese engineering education. For example, an Engineering SystemsResearch Methods course, taught to PhD students in the EDAM degrees, wasdesigned to lay a foundation for empirical research in the social sciences andengineering systems, introducing basic assumptions and underlying logics. Studentsbecome acquainted with a variety of approaches to research design, evaluate theproducts of empirical research, practice several common techniques, and developtheir own research project. Faculty exchanges that permit Portuguese faculty tospend time at MIT working on these sorts of specific, challenging issues togetherwith their MIT colleagues are critically important in building the human capacity andconnections needed to make the program a success and have the expected impact.Two good examples of this type of exchange were Professors João Sousa and JoãoClaro, who came to MIT during sabbatical stays specifically to be exposed toengineering systems approaches and practices.

Another excellent example of successful faculty exchange is the eleven Portuguesefaculty that have visited MIT to take part in the MIT Entrepreneurship Center’s Innova-tion Teams (i-Teams) course, in which students develop commercialization strategiesfor cutting-edge technologies, and to bring lessons learned back home to their re-spective Portuguese universities. The i-Teams approach is a cornerstone of the cur-riculum developed by the Bioengineering PhD program. For example, Luísa FerreiraLopes, Assistant Professor in FCTUNL, where she is the Chair of the Economics ofInnovation post-graduate course, was a participant during the current Fall ’09academic term. Describing her experience at MIT, she said, “what is most strikingabout the i-Teams course compared to courses in Portugal is that the students leadthe work, not the teacher. It is the students that are empowered to move their projectsforward, with the support of the teacher – but without hand-holding.” More details onthis particular exchange in the context of the bioengineering doctoral program aregiven in section 5.3.

Through the MIT Portugal network, a new cadre of talented junior faculty has beenhired and trained in MIT teaching pedagogy. The table below lists the Portuguesefaculty members that have spent significant time at MIT, with some basic facts abouttheir stay.

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Name

Aguiar-Ricardo,

Ana Isabel

Almeida,

Luís Pereira de

Alves,

Paula

Bernardo,

Carlos A. A.

Carvalho,

Patrícia

Claro,

João

da Silva,

Cláudia Lobato

Devezas,

Tessaleno

Duarte,

José

Ferreira, Frederico

Freire,

Fausto

Ioakimidis,

Christos

Lages,

Luis Filipe

Lages,

Luis Filipe

Lages,

Carmen

Llussá, Fernanda

Lopes,

Luísa

University

New University of

Lisbon

University of

Coimbra

New University of

Lisbon

University of

Minho

Technical

University of

Lisbon

University of Porto

Technical

University of

Lisbon

Univeristy of

Beira Interior

Technical

University of

Lisbon

New University of

Lisbon

University of

Coimbra

Technical

University of

Lisbon

New University of

Lisbon

New University of

Lisbon

ISCTE

New University of

Lisbon

New University of

Lisbon

Start

06/15/2007

11/01/2010

07/01/2009

04/26/2009

09/01/2008

08/25/2008

Fall 2008

08/01/2010

09/01/2009

09/07/2009

06/15/2010

04/15/2010

03/05/2007

01/17/2010

01/17/2010

01/29/2009

09/01/2009

End

12/10/2007

11/30/2010

09/01/2009

06/15/2009

08/30/2009

12/19/2008

07/31/2011

06/01/2009

12/05/2009

07/15/2010

02/15/2011

05/31/2007

07/31/2010

06/01/2010

05/15/2009

12/20/2009

Researcher Dates of Visit

MIT PORTUGAL Faculty Fellows


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Person

Paula Hammond

Stan Finkelstein

Danny Wang

Joel Clark

Subra Suresh

Richard

DeNeufville

Dava Newman

Chris Magee

William Mitchell

Charles Cooney,

Dava Newman

David Marks,

Joel Clark,

R Kirchain

David Marks,

Ernie Moniz

Dava Newman

Charlie Cooney

Charles Cooney,

Dava Newman

Dava Newman

Charles Cooney,

Dava Newman

Focus Area

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

EDAM

Bioengineering

Engineering

Systems

Bioengineering

EDAM

Energy

Bioengineering

Energy

Energy

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

Subject of Research/visit

Sabbatical: chem engineering

Drug delivery course - Machado Joseph disease

iTeams/Danny Wang research lab

Sabbatical: EDAM research interactions

Cell and molecular mechanics in human diseases

Building relationships with ESD faculty,furthering his understanding of EngSys for

transfer to PT university context

Stem cell research

Technical forecasting and materials evolution

Design Lab

iTeams

Call projects collaboration and development: Industrial Ecology and Life Cycle Assessment of Energy systems

MITEI post-doc; iTeams

iTeams

Sloan Lisbon MBA program

iTeams

iTeams

iTeams

MIT Host

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Name

Mota,

Manuel

Mota,

Maria

Pereira, Francisco

da Câmara

Prazeres, Miguel

Rodrigues, Lígia

Rocha, Luís

Rocha, Isabel

Silva, Carlos

Saraiva, Pedro

Sousa, João

Simões, Ricardo

Silva, Arlindo

Teixeira, Ana

Viegas, José

University

University of

Minho

Instituto de

Medicina Molecular

University of

Coimbra

Technical

University of

Lisbon

University of

Minho

University of

Minho

University of

Minho

Technical

University of

Lisbon

University of

Coimbra

Technical

University of

Lisbon

University of

Minho

Technical

University of

Lisbon

New University of

Lisbon

Technical

University of

Lisbon

Start

03/01/2011

06/23/2010

03/10/2009

03/01/2007

Spring 2008

03/08/2009

03/01/2007

10/06/2008

03/01/2007

09/01/2008

03/01/2007

05/11/2009

09/01/2009

09/20/2010

End

07/01/2011

09/15/2010

02/12/2010

04/30/2007

06/20/2009

04/30/2007

10/31/2008

06/10/2007

06/31/2009

04/30/2007

09/01/2009

12/20/2009

11/06/2010

Researcher Dates of Visit

MIT PORTUGAL Faculty Fellows


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Person

Bruce Tidor,

Kris Prather

Sangeeta Bhatia

Chris Zegras

Dava Newman

Kris Prather

Chris Magee

Bruce Tidor

David Marks

Dava Newman

Daniel Roos,

Richard Larson

Chris Magee

Chris Magee

Kris Prather

Chris Zegras

Focus Area

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

Transportation

Bioengineering

Bioengineering

EDAM

Bioengineering

Engineering Systems

Bioengineering

Engineering Systems

EDAM

EDAM

Bioengineering

Transportation

Subject of Research/visit

Sabbatical - research interactions with Prather/Tidor

Malaria research

AIDA (Senseable City Lab), ITeam (Intregrated Transports and Engrgy Activity-basedModel) and Citymotion

iTeams

iTeams

Collaborative research and EDAM course development

iTeams

Collaborative research and EngSys and Energy networking

ITeams

Building relationships with ESD faculty,furthering his understanding of EngSys fortransfer to PT university context



iTeams

Sabbatical - research interactions with multiple Transportation faculty

MIT Host

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A good example is Ligia Rodrigues, Assistant Professor, University of Minho,Bioengineering program. Prof. Rodrigues applied in 2007 when MIT Portugal openedfaculty positions. These positions are different in that they explicitly include acommitment to spend half their time doing research and half their time teaching.According to Prof. Rodrigues, “We also have different aims and challenges – otherfaculty keep doing their research. But for us, it is developing new relationships withMIT and for me, it is developing a new area of study in Portugal. These responsibilitiesare good practice for the future. For example, we had the Bioweek [conference] inMinho recently and my colleagues helped a lot in running the conference. The waythe program is organized and taught is quite different from other doctoral programswe have [in Portugal]. I got to experience the MIT way of teaching courses first handbecause I took the I-Teams [a School of Engineering innovation course] and othercourses, and I had the opportunity to see some of the MIT faculty teach classes. Inthis Bioengineering program of MIT Portugal the teaching is the same format as whatis being done at MIT”. The lessons learnt by Prof. Ligia Rodrigues in this facultyexchange program are detailed in the next section.


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5.2. Lessons learnt by junior faculty: Ligia Rogrigues, Assistant Professor,University of Minho, Bioengineering Program

Being a student at MIT under the scope of the “training the trainers” philosophy wasa unique experience. The purpose of my short-term visit to MIT (Spring 2008) was toengage in the Innovation-teams and other innovation and entrepreneurship relatedcourses (Disruptive Technologies, New Enterprises, several Sloan-MIT MBA classeson Innovation and start-up management) as a student, but also to act as a TeachingAssistant in the i-Teams course. As a student, I attended several events, talks,classes, meetings and lab guided tours. On the other hand, as a Teaching AssistantI participated in the organization of the invited lectures, special events and in theevaluation process.

The MIT environment has several special features; the huge diversity of emergingresearch areas available that inspire an extremely competitive environment; thecollaboration atmosphere which encourages the establishment of networks betweenmultidisciplinary people; the close collaboration with industry, alumni and society ingeneral; and the highly motivated people, among other features, which make thelearning process at MIT so exclusive.

The learning process is project-oriented and privileges the hands-on and learn-by-doing approaches. Also, through assignments and events, the students areconstantly encouraged to leave their comfort zone and develop their network skills.Course syllabuses are carefully prepared to include seminars by guests from industryand experts, unusual class formats where students are confronted with differentrealities (e.g. outdoor activity, games, debates, brainstorming, case studies, daily lifeexperiences), and several assignments to challenge students to think-out-of-the-boxand to guide them through the learning process. Independent or team worksupported by coaching sessions is also considered.

Moreover, students are encouraged to prepare themselves in advance for the classesthrough readings and assignments. Indeed, the evaluation process is somewhatdifferent including peer-review, projects reports and presentations and assignmentsdeveloped during the semester. Only in few cases, formal exams are envisaged.Another important feature is the focus on issues such as innovation, leadership, go-to-market strategies and ethics, which although not being sometimes the core of thecourses are the baseline in all of them.

An example of the courses that I attended at MIT, in which most of these educationalpractices were implemented, was the Innovation-teams (i-Teams) course. The i-Teamscourse is a very effective tour-guide through the innovation ecosystem, a perfect tourinside the MIT environment with some exposure to the outside supportive biotechnologyworld, among other fields. The events the students are invited to through the course(Deshpande Center Volunteer Party, MidTerm Presentations and IdeaStream) have a greatimpact and value as they expose them to the innovation environment around the Bostonarea. Classes like i-Teams, where students from very different backgrounds andexperiences are grouped to work over a technology that might be on a completelydifferent area from their expertise’s, promotes networking and the development of a newmindset to overcome the challenges. Being forced to grapple with difficult issues on behalfof their PI (the owner of the technology that they are working with) by themselves helpsthe students to understand the process in a way that being told about it would not. i-Teamsalso provide a guided-tour to various important elements of innovation through the talks,exercises, and trips students took in class. What is learnt in the class will stay with thestudents long after they may have forgotten the details of a particular case’s holding.

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As a junior faculty the lessons learnt at MIT had a remarkable impact in my teachingand research career. After my visit, I became more aware of topics related withinnovation, leadership, entrepreneurship and creativity, which I included in myclasses to motivate and inspire students.

The practices that I have learnt have been implemented in the Bioinnovation-teamsand Leadership development course at the MIT Portugal network – Bioengineeringprogram. Also, I have been involved in the design and lecturing of a new course“Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics” which istaught in the Master’ program in Bioinformatics at the University of Minho.

I introduced significant changes in my classes to other master’s and doctoralprograms too, such as including seminars by experts and industries; new teachingtools (more visual and interactive); project-oriented classes with case studies,debates, brainstorming; challenges that force students to leave their comfort zoneand interact with the outside environment developing their network skills; visits andoutdoor activities.

I made profound changes in my class planning, privileging longer practical periods(hands-on approach) and shorter presentations; including time for the students todevelop their personal or team projects, and for coaching them. I also prepared newclass materials, including readings (so that the students can prepare themselves inadvance) and assignments (that are useful for evaluation purposes and also forstudents guidance).

Finally, I introduced major changes in the evaluation process in these classes; Imaintained the formal exams, but included as well other parameters that I learnt tobe important such as the peer-review.

5.3. Course design and teaching training

Scope and goals

The PhD in Bioengineering was from the very first moment designed to besignificantly focused in innovation. The educational strategy adopted was to exposethe PhD students from the beginning of their studies to the challenge of takingtechnologies from the laboratory to the market. In order to achieve this goal, studentsshould not only be provided with the adequate tools, but also coached towards thedevelopment of a new mental framework.

At MIT, Cambridge, these objectives are achieved in specific courses, such as theInnovation Teams (i-Teams) and within a very rich innovation ecosystem. Translatingsuch unique characteristics to the Portuguese education system requiredconsiderable efforts and thoughtful reflection. From this exercise, two educationalcourses±“Introduction to Technical Innovation” and “Bio-Innovation teams”—havebeen designed and included in the curricula of the first year of the doctoral programof Bioengineering. These courses are complementary on their learning outcomesand methodologies.

The effective adaptation of the methodologies and syllabus from MIT to thePortuguese program required the training of Portuguese faculty. Therefore, facultyhave been exposed to the MIT environment and its educational approaches and hasworked together with MIT faculty on the design and implementation of these courses.


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Since 2007, nine faculty elements (listed below) spent a semester at MIT as visitingscholars. At MIT, they had the opportunity to enrol as students in the i-Teams course,a program offered by the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation and theEntrepreneurship Center. In this course the Portuguese scholars worked with MITstudents and researchers on the development of market-oriented strategies forinnovative technologies.

Faculty who participated in this exchange program are

1. Isabel Rocha – IBB – Dep. Engenharia Biológica – University of Minho(UMinho) (Spring 2007)

2. Pedro Saraiva – University of Coimbra (UC) (Spring 2007)3. Duarte Miguel Prazeres – Dep. Bioengineering – Instituto Superior

Técnico (IST) (Spring 2007)4. Luis Lages – FE – Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL) (Spring 2007)5. Lígia Rodrigues – IBB – Dep. Engenharia Biológica – University of

Minho (UMinho) (Spring 2008)6. Fernanda Llussá – FCT – New University of Lisbon (UNL) (Spring 2009)7. Frederico Ferreira – IBB – Dep. Bioengineering – Instituto Superior

Técnico (IST)(Fall 2009)8. Luísa Lopes – FCT – New University of Lisbon (UNL) (Fall 2009)9. Ana Teixeira –ITQB/IBET - New University of Lisbon (UNL) (Fall 2009)

Participating in the Innovation Teams (i-Teams)

The primary objective of the visits to MIT was the participation in the Innovation Teams(i-Teams) program offered by the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation andthe Entrepreneurship Center at MIT. This allowed the faculty to “learn by doing” andgain insights on topics such as “go-to-market” strategies for innovative technologies.

The faculty members enrolled in the i-Teams course as any other MIT studentintegrating a team to whom a project had been assigned. In this “hands-on” course,a set of technologies developed at MIT are assessed on the basis of their potentialfor market applications and from which several strategies/recommendations can bedrawn. Besides the coaching provided by the MIT faculty, the students also havesupport from the researchers, inventors of the technology, and from a businesscatalyst. During the semester the students have to accomplish a set of assignmentsthat guides them through the innovation process.

Key insights: (i) understanding the technical details is important to evaluate the needand potential impact of the technology; (ii) direct contact with experts and potentialcustomers is the more efficient and fastest route to gather information and evaluatethe market potential of the technology; (iii) it is possible to handle uncertainty andmake structured quality decisions with few information; (iv) crossing information fromdifferent sources allows the validation or elimination of options, and (v) differentprojects require different approaches and frameworks.

The four Portuguese faculty members who attended the i-Teams course during thespring of 2007 designed and implemented the MIT Portugal innovation courses forthe doctoral program of Bioengineering Systems together with MIT staff. In thesubsequent years, five additional faculty staff also visited MIT, receiving additionaltraining in order to strengthen the innovation track of the Portuguese program.

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Exposure to the MIT Innovation/Entrepreneur Ecosystem

The educational component in innovation at MIT is actually a component of a broadersystem, often referred to as the MIT Innovation/Entrepreneur Ecosystem. This systemprovides an organizational culture, a mental framework and a network that potentiatesa dynamic and close relationship between technological discovery and its translationinto economical and social value.

Besides attending classes in several innovation courses at MIT, the Portuguesevisiting scholars participated in several meetings and seminars, including (i) the MITPortugal Program Bioengineering faculty meetings, (ii) the MIT Portugal Programvisitor lunch seminars and (iii) the MIT Engineering Systems Division faculty lunchseminars.

In order to get insights on the technology transfer process and the industrial MITrelationships, the Portuguese faculty scholars participated in severalmeetings/events:

• MIT Technical License Office (TLO): responsible for licensing MIT technology.Meetings with: Lita Nelsen (Director), Aaron D. Schwartz (TechnologyLicensing Officer), and Ana Lopes (Technology Licensing Associate). Thesemeetings covered the TLO vision and mission, license revenue creation anddistribution, and tackling conflict of interests.

• MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP): responsible to facilitatecorporate/industrial relationships. Meeting with Senior Industrial LiaisonOfficers, Anthony Knopp and Randall Wright. Attending workshops, such asthe Regional Competitiveness Workshop. Getting in touch with the ILP tounderstand the expectations and incentives for the US MIT industrial affiliates.

• Global Start-up Workshop: an event organized across the world by MITstudents, promoting entrepreneurism vision (Marcus Dahlem).

• Entrepreneurship centre: get a perspective of the teaching activities of thiscentre through the analysis of course syllabuses and meeting with the facultyresponsible for those courses.

• Deshpande Centre for Technological Innovation: the participation on the i-Teams, attending the “Annual Open House reception”, and meetings withCharles Cooney and Luis Pérez-Breva enabled a good insight on the role ofthis centre and also guidance to the faculty scholar visitors on networking,providing contacts with scientists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

• Additional units/initiatives available as key ingredients of the MIT innovationecosystem were the 100K competition, the Venture Mentoring Service andseveral students clubs, such as the MIT innovation club.

• Specific meetings (e.g. James Utterback and Daniel Roos) provided differentviews on MIT history and mission, highlighting the MIT origin as a land-grantuniversity which aimed to aid “the advancement, development and practicalapplication of science in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures, andcommerce.”

Key insights: (i) the TLO is organized by scientific areas, with respective officersassigned to them, whereas legal support is outsourced to external law firms; (ii) theso-called MIT entrepreneur ecosystem is not planned, being highly decentralizedand permitting freedom of action (within few, simple and clear guidelines); (iii) thesuccess of MIT seems connected to its historical mission of practical application, thelearning by doing approach and a virtuous cycle of successful achievements andreputation; (iv) faculty staff are expected to work one day of the week in/with industry,


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strengthening their external connections; (v) academic calendars are short, providingextra-curricular time for students and staff, and; (vi) students activities withheadquarters on the campus are extensive, with professional administrative support.

Example of the MIT technology transfer and Industrial relationship: the Brontes/3MThe case of Brontes Technology was selected as an example of a start-up enterprise.At its inception, the MIT-born Brontes Technology received a grant from theDeshpande Centre. The company grew and fostered until it was sold to 3M, an MITindustrial affiliate. A direct perspective given by the people involved was possiblethrough specific meetings:

• Douglas Hart, founder and PI of the technology. The different steps of thecompany creation from technology development to the identification of themarket opportunity, licensing the technology and raising capital, werediscussed. Also, the role of the PhD students and the different steps of thedeal were described.

• Micah Rosenbloom, Sloan student that joined Brontes Technology at itsfoundation. Currently, he is working with 3M, as part of the BrontesTechnology team that was integrated in 3M after the deal. Micahparticipated in the plenary session of Idea Spring 2010, the kickoff eventfor the BioTeams (MIT Portugal network) in Portugal (video conference).

Key interesting aspects for the success of Brontes Technology were: (i) the selectionand evaluation of market potential for a new 3D imaging technology; (ii) thesuccessful use of the Innovation Grant from MIT's Deshpande Center; (iii) theinteraction with the TLO to license the technology; (iv) the challenge of raising venturecapital funding; and (v) the final deal in which Brontes technology was sold for $95Mto 3M.

Course design and teaching skills

In addition to their participation in the design, coordination, lecturing and tutoring ofthe “Introduction to Technical Innovation” and “Bio-Innovation teams” courses, someof the Portuguese faculty visiting scholars promoted the development of additionalelective courses within their affiliate Portuguese institutions. The experience gainedat MIT and at the MIT Portugal network by being involved in the innovation coursesduring the last years, contributed to the development of these new initiatives. A fewexamples are described below:

a) Bioengineering and Market, course designed and lectured at InstitutoSuperior Técnico (IST) by Miguel Prazeres, offered to students in the Master’sin Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology.

b) Entrepreneurship in Bioengineering, course being designed and proposedat Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) by Frederico Ferreira and Miguel Prazeres,to be offered to students in the doctoral program in Biomedical Engineeringand Biotechnology, as well as in the euSYSBIO — Erasmus Mundus MastersCourse on Systems Biology.

c) Green Technologies and Strategic Management, course designed andlectured at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) by Frederico Ferreira and CarlosBaleizão, offered to the Master’s in Biological Engineering, ChemicalEngineering and Biotechnology.

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d) Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology and Bioinformaticscourse designed and lectured by Isabel Rocha and Lígia Rodrigues forthe Master’s Program in Bioinformatics at the University of do Minho.

e) Leadership Development course designed and implemented by IsabelRocha and Lígia Rodrigues for the Bioengineering PhD program in thecontext of the MIT Portugal network at the University of Minho.

f) Innovation Management course designed and lectured by Luis FilipeLages for the Master’s Programs in Management, Finance and Economicsat the New University of Lisbon (UNL).

g) Go-to-Market course designed and lectured by Luis Filipe Lages for NovaForum at New University of Lisbon (UNL).

h) Technology-Market Transfer course designed and lectured by Luis FilipeLages and Luisa Agante for final year students of the Master’s Programsin Management, Finance and Economics at the New University of Lisbon(UNL).

i) Economics and Entrepreneurship C, a new master’s course designed andtaught by Fernanda Llussá to Civil Engineers at the Faculty of Science andTechnology of the New University of Lisbon (FCTUNL).

j) Entrepreneurship - Turning Ideas Into Assets, a master’s course designedby Susana Barreiros (Vice-Dean, FCTUNL), has counted with contributionsof Fernanda Llussá (FCTUNL).

k) Meet MIT workshop, designed by Fernanda Llussá (FCTUNL), MarcusDahlem (MIT), Isa P. Monteiro (MIT Portugal student), and Susana Barreiros(Vice-Dean, FCTUNL) - this was an intensive program that broughttogether, in an informal context, students from FCTUNL and students andalumni from MIT, who shared relevant experiences in entrepreneurship,innovation and technological development in an informal context. Someof the students present went on to create the Nova entrepreneurship club,ENOVA.

l) Master’s Theses: Ana Sofia Esteves and Francisco Venes, both studentsat FCTUNL, co-advised by Fernanda Llussá, are developing a researchline focused on technical innovations and the challenge of takingtechnologies from the laboratory to the market.

On the design of these courses several points of view and methodologies that areusual at MIT, were taken into consideration: (i) focus on hands-on approach, (ii) theneed for offering multiple and diverse learning opportunities, (iii) the importance ofincreasing attention span through puzzling challenges, (iv) allowing students to selectdiverse frameworks to tackle different problems, (v) discussion of case studies, (vi)the primary importance given to evaluation events as a tool to increase learningawareness, with less stress on its traditional rolei.e. as assessment (taken to theextreme, in this strategy, evaluation deliverables can be asked before the respectivecourse content is actually delivered). Examples and adequacy have been discussed.


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Visiting scholar statements

“My visit to MIT in the Spring of 2007 marked a turning point in my teaching career.Not only did I make significant changes to my lecturing, introducing new teachingmethodologies, but I also designed a new course focused on innovation inbioengineering which has been highly successful among students”.

DMF Prazeres

“My time at MIT back in 2007 gave me a unique opportunity to contact with state-of-the art educational methodologies and leading faculty in a unique, challenging andexciting environment. My involvement in the organization of the BioTeams project alsogave me the opportunity to design and implement de novo educational programs. Ithink that helped me greatly in implementing another educational program, theMaster’s Program in Bioinformatics in the University of Minho. Also, many of the thingsI learnt and experienced about technology transfer and innovation back in 2007 atMIT have been very useful in my entrepreneurship activities, namely in launching anew spinoff in 2010 (SilicoLife) and in leading the Portuguese Association ofBioindustries (APBio) since 2009.”

I Rocha

“A terrific experience in i-Teams, working on a drug delivery project. Working with myteam has pushed me to learn about the complex and costly process of bringing adrug or a medical device to market, gaining FDA approval, and other challenges. Ilike the way that MIT professors get our attention with many pertinent questions thatwe have to consider when evaluating the best strategy to turn an idea into acommercially viable product.”

A Teixeira

”Having a PhD in Innovation Economics, the experience at MIT (Fall 2009) gave methe opportunity to further develop my expertise in this area in two different directions.First, in teaching, by learning a totally different way of lecturing and by extensivelydiscussing in detail all the MIT offer in this area (32 courses) with MIT faculty.Secondly, it allowed me to research on how the MIT innovation ecosystem works andhow it was created by accessing important written sources and by extensively talkingwith a very large number of relevant people. As a consequence of this experience Idesigned and taught three new Master’s and PhD courses at Nova University:Innovation Economics, Economics and Entrepreneurship and Economics andManagement of Innovation. I also contributed to the design and teaching of a newEntrepreneurship course for seven PhD programs. Furthermore, I prepared aproposal, to the Head of FCTUNL, suggesting developing the school’s supportsystem for activities in this area. Overall, it was an invaluable experience thatremarkably enlarged my knowledge and skills.”

L Lopes

“My visit to MIT in the Fall of 2009 was a great experience! When one wants to start-up a business idea, it is always a challenge to handle uncertainty and be able tomake structured, good quality decisions with little information. This is only possible

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when you interact closely with the real world of technology companies and peoplewho work in this field. In that sense, the MIT ecosystem and network offers us valuableresources, allowing contacting diverse people – ranging from venture capitalists,FDA experts, technological licensing officers, entrepreneurs, members of largercompanies – and just as important, scientists with excellent ideas and work. All ofthis in a very casual way, which is great.”

F Ferreira

“One of the purposes of my visit to MIT (Spring 2008) was to participate in i-Teams,both as a student and as a teaching assistant, in order to provide differentperspectives to curriculum development of the BioTeams course, an adapted versionof i-Teams carried oheld in Portugal in the Bioengineering doctoral program. I hadthe opportunity to participate in multiple activities, network with key people and getthe sense of the pretty unique and special MIT innovation ecosystem. Definitely thisexperience changed my perspectives on education and research approaches.”

L Rodrigues

“My experience as a visiting scholar at MIT in the Spring of 2009 was invaluable asa way to develop my research and teaching agenda in entrepreneurship. I have beenable to teach at Master’s and PhD courses in innovation and entrepreneurship atUniversidade Nova de Lisboa and within the MIT Portugal network, where Icoordinated practical sessions in the Innovation in Bioengineering course. My MITexperience was key to the creation of two new Master’s level courses, one oneconomics and entrepreneurship, targeted at engineers, and a second targeted atjournalists interested in new media and technology. My research agenda in gender,finance, and entrepreneurship was much encouraged by exposure to new ideas atMIT, where I had the opportunity to present research seminars. Several students havegone on to developing new businesses, one of which was distinguished with asecond place in the Richard Branson innovation prize, received financial supportfrom EDP, and is well under way to become a successful start-up. In summary, theexcellence of teaching and research at MIT have since guided and inspired mypersonal standards.”

F Llussá

“My visit to MIT, in the Spring of 2007, had a tremendous impact in my personal life,my research and my teaching career. At the personal level, after my visit I becamemuch more interested in the topics of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Interms of research, I have published several papers that look to the bridge betweentechnology and the market. In terms of teaching, in addition to the coordination ofthe Innovation course in the Bioengineering program, I have developed 3 newcourses for my university. After four years, I start seeing the long-term effects of theseinitiatives. Several start-ups were launched by previous students, some of them wererecipients of Entrepreneurship awards (e.g. Nova Idea Competition, EDP-RichardBranson 50K award), and just very recently I found out that one of these start-ups isalready going to Silicon Valley. “

L Lages


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5.4. Project based learning

The context

Academic engineering in Portugal has relied on industry and government agenciesto deal with Engineering Systems issues. However these issues have become muchmore complex over time—modern developed societies live supported in a complex,interconnected set of overlapping systems—and it is also now recognized thattraditional engineering, involving the design of technical products or systems thatsatisfy well-defined specifications, should also benefit from an Engineering Systemsway of thinking.

A main barrier to the development of the Engineering Systems approach in Portugalis associated with the existing engineering educational programs, which are focusedon teaching disciplinary knowledge and methods for solving well-defined problems.The traditional educational programs have not addressed conveniently the requiredcompetences to deal with multi- and inter-disciplinary knowledge approaches.Economics are sometimes considered alongside technology, however social,organizational, cultural and ethical issues are normally neglected.

The search for interdisciplinary knowledge at a PhD level has long been identifiedas mandatory for today’s technological and innovation leaders. This is one of thegoals of the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and the multiplegraduate level programs under the Engineering Systems Division (ESD) at MIT. Thegraduate programs of ESD focus, among other things on the interdisciplinaryknowledge needed to tackle complex engineering problems. Countless meetings ofproductive discussion with MIT colleagues and friends have helped in improving ourperspective of engineering systems and our willingness to embrace the need toconvey a holistic view of engineering to our students.

Inspired in the MIT practices in this field, the EDAM area has made a considerableeffort to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge and competencies acquired in differentcourses, based on the joint and simultaneous development of projects for the solutionof complex engineering problems. In the first semester the students have to take twofundamental courses: Product Design and Development (PDD) and TechnologyEvaluation and Selection (TES). The former is based on similar courses being taughtat MIT and at the three Portuguese universities. The latter is based on similar coursesat MIT, but with no counterpart within the Portuguese universities PhD programs. Thiscourse is based on three major topics: engineering economics, materials andprocess selection methods, and process-based cost modeling, with some marginalcoverage on multi-attribute utility analysis and environmental impact issues.

Taking advantage of the courses being taught simultaneously to all the LTI and TMEstudents, this project builds on knowledge coming from both courses to design anddevelop a product that has to be competitive in the market. Because these twocourses are taught at the same time, this offers the opportunity to complement bothcourses in terms of breadth of learning, without losing the necessary depth of a PhDlevel course. By using a common project, the student will experience the usualbreadth of a product development course, from product planning to production ramp-up, and the depth of the technology evaluation course, with its process-based costmodels. During the semester, the students are expected to turn in several homeworkassignments meant to keep them on track with their project work. Each of the

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homework assignments has feedback from faculty, some from PDD and some fromTES faculty. Even though the in-class time is very short, compared to an averagesemester, students are always accompanied by faculty feedback on their work. Inthe end, a final presentation and report, with a mandatory working prototype for eachproject, are the expected outcomes.

The innovation of this common project is enhanced by the fact that it was first triedby both the Portuguese and the US faculty team within EDAM, as it is virtuallyimpossible to implement the concept at MIT, due to their modular approach to thecourses taken by the students. As such, it served as a test bed for both Portugueseand MIT faculty as an innovative approach to project-based learning andinterdisciplinary knowledge transfer. The feedback constantly given to the studentsduring these projects by eight professors (six Portuguese and two from MIT) hasbeen a challenging endeavor to both students and professors, but one that we arecommitted to foster.

The products coming from these projects are meant to be simple, so that the focusof learning is on the PDD and TES processes and tools, and not on overcomplicatedtechnicalities from excessively complex products. With a simple product, the studentscan go through all the PD process phases, learning by doing. The mix of studentsfrom LTI and TME also increases the learning experience and value of this project.

Students report that this integrated approach to the project is extremely helpful inbridging the knowledge acquired in both courses with a hands-on approach. Thework in teams, although not always easy from an organizational perspective, is areality in companies all over the world and globalization of the business environmentadds to that.

For the future, continuous improvement on this interdisciplinary model of educationwill be sought, leaking down to 2nd and 1st cycle of studies in Portuguese universities.The experience of the Portuguese faculty involved in both PDD and TES will beparamount in the implementation of this interdisciplinary systems perspective in thedevelopment of future curricula in their Portuguese home institutions.

The faculty members involved in this initiative

Product Design and Development (PDD) 1. Arlindo Silva (Head faculty) – IST, Dept. Mechanical Engineering2. Qi Hommes – MIT, Eng. Systems Division3. António Araújo – FEUP, EDAM Professor, Dept. Mechanical Engineering

and Industrial Management4. Gustavo Dias – UM, Dept. Polymer Engineering

Technology Evaluation and Selection (TES)5. Mihail Fontul (Head faculty) – IST, EDAM Professor, Dept. Mechanical

Engineering6. Randolph Kirchain – MIT, Eng. Systems Division and Materials Science

Dept.7. Jorge Lino – FEUP, Dept. Mechanical Engineering and Industrial

Management8. Julio Viana – UM, Dept. Polymer Engineering

A paper on the differences in engineering teaching and PhD research between theLTI program and the more traditional Portuguese PhD programs was written andpresented in June 2009 at the 2nd International Symposium on Engineering, held at


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MIT, by Arlindo Silva, Elsa Henriques, Mihail Fontul and Luís Faria, all involved in theLTI program:

Silva, A., Henriques, E., Fontul, M., and Faria, L. On Some Innovative Aspects of theEDAM MIT-Portugal Program 2nd International Symposium on Engineering Systems,MIT, Cambridge, MA, June 15-17, 2009.

The impact of the innovative educational methodology has been further analyzed byArlindo Silva in collaboration with Prof. Judy Dori (Technion, visiting scholar at MIT)who is a specialist in Engineering Teaching. The work, which combined Judy’sknowledge in Engineering Teaching and Arlindo Silva’s expertise in productdevelopment, was published in the Advances in Engineering Education Journal in2010:

Dori, Y. J., Silva, A., Assessing International Product Design & Development GraduateCourses: The MIT-Portugal as a Case in Point. Advances in Engineering Education,2:2, Summer (2010). Available from http://advances.asee.org/vol02/issue02/02.cfm

Furthermore, Prof. Dori delivered two seminars at the Universities of Minho and Portoin November 2008 on her previous research on the Technology Enabled ActiveLearning (TEAL) Studio Physics program at MIT, and on her work with the EDAMprograms study case. These seminars led to independent links between thesePortuguese institutions' internal teaching steering groups and the MIT Teaching andLearning Lab. As a consequence, a delegation from the University of Porto attendeda week of seminars on Better Teaching at MIT delivered by the Teaching and LearningLab, and these seminars were also videotaped for ongoing teaching developmentat the University of Minho.

6. Assessment of educational programs

6.1. Evaluating achievements

6.1.1. Overview

This section presents the findings of continuing program assessment which has beenaccompanying the MIT Portugal educational network since 2008. The section drawslargely from research carried out in the context of a thesis project in MIT Technology& Policy Program (Pfotenhauer 2010)11 . The main sources are: comparative studentsurvey that covers educational practices, student research, networking, industrylinkages, and program administration; (faculty surveys both inside and outside MITPortugal; a series of interviews with visiting students at MIT; and a variety of statisticsobtained from the coordination office.

6.1.2. Re-designing engineering curricula and building human resources ininnovation and entrepreneurship

MIT Portugal network’s education under the trans-disciplinary Engineering Systemsbanner is strongly geared towards innovation, entrepreneurship, and industrylinkages.

The network has succeeded in attracting a very specific student cohort to itsgraduate programs. Students have a background in industry work (both R&D and

11 - Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M. Integrative universitycollaborations as an innovation strategy for catching-up countries:A case study of the MIT-Portugal Program. Cambridge, MA: MITThesis, 2010.

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other) as well as other private sector work, amounting to seventy-eight percent forMIT Portugal as opposed to fifty-three percent for other students.

Doctoral students are more prone to work in industry than their peers, and also towork as entrepreneurs. The students indicate a particularly high interest in workingfor their MIT Portugal industry research partner, which reflects the strategy of thenetwork to involve industry affiliates in student research and education. The MITPortugal educational network has strongly promoted the non-academic job marketto its students, and has broadly raised entrepreneurial spirit. Faculty emphasize thatthe network has fostered a more application-oriented approach towards teachingengineering materials, and that the network has benefited greatly from the highlydiverse student body.

“MIT Portugal definitely contributes to acquiring these skills. [..] To my bestknowledge, there is no existing PhD program in Portugal that has innovation in thecurriculum, because other programs are focused on pure science. [..] All the studentsgive terrific feedback. It is really interesting for them to explore that different area.”

Students consistently rank their program higher with respect to key aspects inindustry linkages. For example, the network focuses on entrepreneurship with astronger concentration in economics and business principles. Students alsoappreciate the usefulness of their research to industry.

Faculty respondents confirm that their own teaching style has become significantlymore geared towards innovation and management as a result of participating in MITPortugal:

“I am also in a learning process in the MIT Portugal network, in this new engineeringapproach of bringing together economic aspects, management, etc.”

Over the course of the network’s existence, twenty-three new professorships werecreated for junior faculty to support the program’s teaching and research goals. Theresearch indicates that these faculty recruits are benefiting greatly from the network,receiving a noticeable “boost” in career opportunities, a rapid expansion of theirprofessional networks, and important new input into their research work.

6.1.3. Attracting a strong, international cohort

MIT Portugal is successful in attracting an excellent student cohort. Students of thenetwork are reported to show a greater degree of independence with their work, moreprecise achievement goals, and often a stronger commitment to achieve these goals.Students also enter their graduate studies with much higher expectations towardstheir program and put greater emphasis on the quality of education, the link betweenresearch and industry, internationalization of the program, the English language, andthe employment prospects.

MIT Portugal has implemented a proactive international student recruitment policypaired with a competitive admission process. This high degree of internationalizationis of great importance.

The international character of the network is supported by various mobility schemes.Students describe their MIT visit as extremely positive and highly influential, withstrong gains in new methodological approaches or areas of interest. Visiting students


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report that their work has improved as a result of being at MIT. Several students havesubmitted articles or papers with MIT faculty/students as co-authors.

Portuguese junior faculty state that visits to MIT have been highly influential for theirteaching practice. It has become a central part of the mobility scheme that thesejunior faculty audit MIT classes in order to gain a comparative perspective on howtheir subjects are taught and contextualized at MIT, or to acquire the competencesto teach MIT courses at home.

The MIT Portugal student cohort differs with several other respects. Students display adifferent age structure than their peers. PhD students in MIT Portugal are on average1.1 years younger than their counterparts. In contrast, MIT Portugal Master’s studentsare on average 3.3 years older than students in comparable programs. Students alsodiffer with respect to their individual work experience. While for PhD students thelevels of work experience are roughly comparable to others, 70% of MIT PortugalMaster’s students have 5 or more years of prior work experience, as opposed to 33%for their peers. Furthermore, the network student cohort shows a significantly morebalanced gender structure in its PhD programs. In comparison to a female fractionof 25.81% in other engineering programs, MIT Portugal raised the fraction to 45.95%.

6.1.4. Mobility and networking

An important aspect of the networking strategy is to introduce mobility. Students in theBIO PhD program, for example, study at various universities in Lisbon, Minho andCoimbra, and conclude with lab rotations all over country. The focus on mobility isfacilitated by a modular term structure based on fast-rotating cycles of 2-week intensivecourses. Furthermore, degrees are, for the first time in Portugal, jointly awarded inassociation by participating Portuguese universities. This mobility provides studentsaccess to the best faculty in the country and helps them to develop ties within thenational research environment. Students have remarked on their mobility periods ashighly enriching in experience and perspective, also contributing to a strong “cohortfactor” and positive peer effects. This cross-curricular arrangement has no precedencein Portugal.

The high degree of student networking is correlated with a rise in studentcommunication and connectivity. The assessment shows further that a larger fractionof MIT Portugal students is connected to other Portuguese research groups, both interms of awareness and actual contact. The percentage of other students not knowingor being in contact with any other groups is 51% and 63%, respectively, as opposedto 40% and 36% for MIT Portugal students. In particular for actual contacts the MITPortugal cohort supersedes its peers by a factor of 1.75.

Networking is also constitutive on the faculty level. Faculty respondents perceive theincreased networking and cooperation as one of the most tangible and desirableprogram outcomes:

“Without MIT and outside the network, [interaction and networking] is very small. Thisis a practice that MIT Portugal started – it is an achievement of the network. Before, thelevel of relation between the Portuguese universities was very scarce.”

“Portugal never had a program for cooperation inside Portugal: I mean a real program.It’s senseless to cooperate inside the country at this moment, where there is no fundingand bureaucracy is too high.”

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MIT Portugal faculty, who continue to teach at other classes in their home institutions,have remarked on how the MIT Portugal network has positively affected their overallteaching quality. They also report that they have been actively approached by theircolleagues to discuss the contents they teach and methods they use.

The educational network has served as a blueprint for the design of new programsat Portuguese universities (e.g. at Universidade Nova de Lisboa). This active copyingis partly due to the involvement of MIT Portugal faculty in the course formationprocess.

Research and networking has also helped launching a number of initiatives thatwiden the network, including “Stemcellnet,” the “Sustainable Cities Forum,” or“ISCTE-MIT Portugal IEI.”

Finally, MIT Portugal has stimulated one instance of an excellence cluster in Portugal– in sustainable energy systems (SES) at the University of Coimbra. One facultyrecalls:

“We did not realize that there was a group of people here in the university, a criticalmass, to develop educational programs and research in the energy area. [But] weare about 26 faculty members and 4 R&D institutes who have joined efforts, and MITwas the motivation for this – the wish to be part of the network. [..] To monitor ouractivities in the energy area in Coimbra, we have set up a council of [..] about 20company representatives who meet with us and the students once or twice a year.We tell them what we are doing, and they tell us what they think about what we aredoing, and what they would like us to do more. This is nothing that was suggested orimposed by MIT. But it is something that indirectly, like many things, relates to thisMIT Portugal network.”

The network has also facilitated the formation of novel administrative capacities. Thecomplexity of the program has led to a demand to enhance professional supportstructures for education and research at Portuguese universities, ranging from visaissues and scholarship timing for international students, to inter-lab mobility andmoney-follows-researcher situations, to video-lecturing, teacher training and support,and the facilitation of industry-linkages.

6.1.5. i-Teams

The i-Teams, a major entrepreneurship educational piece at MIT was adapted to workin the Portuguese universities as a two-stage approach:

• Innovation Leadership course: a two-week action-based introductorycourse on innovation early on in the program empowers students with acan-do attitude and basic skill-set to engage in a hypothesis-drivenexploration of technology impact. The course was designed as a “crashcourse” to MIT’s approach and attitude about innovation. Content on basicbusiness skills, interaction in academia, market exploration, innovationmanagement, or IP, was used as adequate given student backgrounds.The course succeeded in opening student’s eyes to the steps in theprocess of innovation: bridge from research to society; connect realproblems; and communicate innovations to a broader audience.


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• BioTeams: a semester long course in which teams of students explore thego-to-market feasibility of current Portuguese technologies. The courseimplements i-Teams concepts in a unique set-up. Students are in differentPortuguese locations based on their ongoing research projects, they meetthree times in the same location that coincide with events, and havementoring, milestones, and lectures throughout the semester.

Bioengineering and EDAM implemented variants of the innovation leadership course.Additionally, content was designed for a pre-module to introduce students to the fullinnovation program and the value of IP and, in connection with IP, the danger andinadequacy of plagiarism. Over 400 students, faculty, guest lecturers, and audienceguests, have participated in BioTeams and EDAM’s innovation classes to date.

BioTeams host the community in three events: to select technologies for the course,get feedback in the mid-terms and showcase the final results.

Innovation in bioengineering has had immediate impact on how students approachand understand technological innovation. As an example, Cell2B is a recentlyincorporated and funded biotech startup based on Portuguese technology,developed by students from the first cohort of the program in parallel with their PhDstudies, and they have participated in the inaugural Venture Competition ISCTE-IULMIT Portugal (IEI), which is an initiative aiming at fostering the creation of newtechnology-based ventures or strengthening recently incorporated companies. TheVenture Competition’s mission is to facilitate and encourage a model ofentrepreneurial value creation and the means by which these can be transferred fromthe Portuguese University scientific as well as technologists and industrialists intothe global market.

• Visitors at MIT: pedagogy behind the technology innovation courses wasshared with over eleven Portuguese faculty hosted in i-Teams at MIT. Manyjoined the BioTeams team (nine), some developed new courses borrowingfrom the pedagogy of i-Teams.

• Research: numerous research projects including one PhD project ininnovation in bioengineering addressed the topic of innovation under theresearch framework.

• Innovation events: 6 yearly innovation events were organized, 3 forBioTeams and 3 for the IEI.

The following table provides an overview of the main activities and findings takenduring the i-teams activity in Portugal.

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6.2. Student’s evaluation of educational programs

Student evaluation is carried out in each program and for each course individually,through online anonymous questionnaires. Students are invited by email to answerto the questionnaire, on a volunteer basis. The main topics evaluated are the overallquality of the program and for each course, the quality of teaching of each course(by lecturer), the contribution of the course for the student’s generic and specific skillsand assessment of student’s learning. In the Sustainable Energy Systems (SES) and

Innovation Activities Description Key Learning

Bioengineering

Innovation course

Designed of a “innovation leadership” action-based2-week course. Students are expected to appreciatehow to use existing and new skills, network, andintellectual property; to build innovations out oftechnology research and engage effectively with theecosystem to test their hypotheses of impact.

The learning goal is to empower students toapproach innovation with a can-do attitude with aquick overview of business basics, interaction withacademia, and interaction with the market aspertinent for the development of technologyinnovations, and referred to Portuguese reality.

Adapted from i-Teams at MIT: student teams use asemester to explore go-to-market strategies forcurrent Portuguese technologies, and work with thePI, a volunteer from the community, and coachingfrom faculty. Faculty and industry professionalsidentify candidate technologies. Students form teamsaround these technologies based on commoninterest. Lectures alternate with team time throughoutan entire semester. Deliverables are designed asmilestones to advance in the project.

This is a variant of the innovation module ofbioengineering. In the first week, students receivetheoretical content on innovation management. In thesecond week (normally a few months later) studentsengage in teams in an action-driven exercise to finda path to commercialization for a Portuguesetechnology. Students are given an extra month tofinish the project before turning in a brief report.EDAM has a semi-professional curriculum withprofessional master and PhD students.

Technologies used in the innovation module of EDAMwere sourced from the different TTOs in coordinationthrough UTEN. Representatives from TTOs presentedthe technologies to students to guide team formation.Resources from these offices were made available tostudents to analyze the IP and as a repository of theongoing efforts to license or commercialize thetechnologies.

• Critical to awaken in the students the entrepreneurial andcan-do spirit that is a given at MIT. Helps students replacecritique by action.

• Help strengthen bonds in a cohort of students andconnect with previous cohorts

• Can be used as an introduction to technology innovation inall areas with students of different backgrounds.

• Mechanisms to coordinate students that are not co-located, with “distributed” lectures and faculty.

• Due to already distributed nature, course can be scaledup to a larger number of students, for instance fromdifferent concentration areas.

• Exposure to brief innovation leadership course is criticalfor students to engage effectively in distributed course

• The mix of professional and full-time students is positivefor the program, with the emphasis on time managementto have the most efficient contribution from theprofessionals.

• Rescheduling the module could probably increase thestudents’ attention as well as the project quality.

• The connection with UTEN is desirable but requiresadditional effort to seek the engagement of PIs as aresource for the students.

• UTEN is mainly focused on commercialization(license/startup) rather than assessing “what to do with thetechnologies” through hypothesis driven exploration of themarket.

BioTeams

InnovationManagement 2-week course

Connection withUTEN and TTOs

EDAM

Innovation team activities and findings from MIT Portugal


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Engineering Design Manufacturing (EDAM) areas both the PhD and the Master’sprograms are evaluated as one, as the students from each degree attend the classesas one group. The Transportation PhD program is implementing a student’s evaluationprogram this academic year. A summary of the evaluation of the educationalprograms by the students over the years is presented in figures 19 and 20. On ascale of 1 to 7, students scored 5.2 for the overall program and 5.4 for the teachingquality. The Bioengineering program is the one receiving the highest scores.

Global evaluation of the program

OverallSESLTIBIO

Neutral

2007 2008 20090

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Quality of teaching

OverallSESLTIBIO

Neutral

2007 2008 20090

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Figure 19: Global evaluation by students of all the

evaluated educational programs

(1 - poor, 4 - neutral, 7 - excellent).

Figure 20: Teaching evaluation by students for all

the doctoral programs that were evaluated by

students (1 - poor, 4 - neutral, 7 - excellent).

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6.3. Student’s evaluation of the network

6.3.1. Overview

This section reviews the evidence from the suite of 2010/2011 evaluation surveys tostudents and alumni of the MIT Portugal network. This suite of surveys contained thefollowing questionnaires:

• Alumni: Sustainable Energy Systems Master’s (6 respondents); ComplexTransportation Infrastructure Systems Master’s CTIS (5 respondents) (atotal of 11 out of 56 invited alumni);

• Doctoral students (2nd, 3rd and 4th years): Biongineering BIO (44);Leaders for Technical Industries LTI (35); Sustainable Energy SystemsSES (62); Transportation Systems TR SYS (22) (a total of 163 respondentsout of 203 invited students);

• Entering students (students who were admitted in the Program in 2010):Biongineering BIO (17); Leaders for Technical Industries LTI (11);Sustainable Energy Systems PhD SES (21); Transportation Systems TRSYS PhD (8); Complex Transportation Infrastructure Systems CTISMaster’s (10); Sustainable Energy Systems Master’s (8); (a total of 75respondents out of 112 invited students);

• Exiting graduate students (students who will finish their degree very soonor have finished it recently): Sustainable Energy Systems Master’s (14);Technology Management Enterprise Master’s (8);

Complex Transportation Infrastructure Systems CTIS Master’s (13) (a total of 35 outof 59 invited students).

Altogether, some over 66% of eligible students completed a very comprehensiveevaluation questionnaire.

6.3.2. Alumni survey

The responses of the alumni about the MIT Portugal network are based on a lownumber of respondents (11):

• Over 70% rated the level of their supervision, the intellectual and overallquality of the network, and the quality of the research, as either very goodor excellent;

• Over 70% regarded their working relations with faculty and fellow studentsas either very good or excellent;

• Over 60% believed they felt competent to develop a career in business andto undertake innovative initiatives in complex technology projects andmanagement;

• Between 50% and 60% felt that they were now in a position to evaluatetechnological innovation, to create a business plan, to recruit the rightpeople for industry, and to evaluate the economic case for new technology,as well as to present research findings in a major international conference;

• 5 of 7 respondents who are now employed stated that they had entered ajob directly related to their academic experience in the MIT Portugalnetwork;

• 10 of the 11 respondents were rather or very satisfied with their career asa result of participating in the MIT Portugal network;


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• 73% would recommend the university they attended to others, and 45%would recommend their educational program to a student in another fieldof study.

6.3.3. Doctoral student survey

The doctoral students were very supportive of the MIT Portugal network as a whole:

• Over 80% strongly agreed or agreed that the quality of their supervision,access to their supervisors, and their faith in the support of their supervisorin advancing their career was of the best;

• The overall satisfaction with all aspects of supervision was over 67%;• Over two thirds met their supervisor either every week or every fortnight;• Between 50 and 60% rated the intellectual quality of the faculty of the and

their fellow graduates as either excellent or very good;

Comparison of supervision between collaborating Portugal universities and MIT

• Around 30% of the doctoral students who responded to the surveyexperienced supervision from MIT. 54% and 28% strongly agreed andagreed, respectively, that their supervisor in Portugal performed their rolevery well overall. 47% and 27% strongly agreed and agreed, respectively,that their MIT supervisor performed their role very well overall;

• 48% in this survey with supervision in Portugal strongly agreed that theirsupervisor promoted their professional development, while thecorresponding figure for MIT supervisors is 41%;

• 38% of supervisors in Portugal were rated very helpful in supportingresearch and writing scientific papers, while the MIT supervisors were ratedby 42% of students as being very helpful in these regards;

• 45% of students in Portugal saw their supervisor once per week, while 26%of those supervised at MIT saw their supervisor once per week. The figuresfor meetings with supervisors every two weeks are 16% and 14%,respectively.

6.3.4. Entering student survey

• Over 80% of the entering students looked for the intellectual and researchexcellence of their faculties/potential supervisors as the main reason forjoining their educational program;

• Over 80% also regarded the link with MIT, its international links generally,and its broad interest in interdisciplinarity as key factors in selecting theprogram;

• Over half felt that the MIT Portugal network was understood and wellregarded by faculty and students on their campuses.

• Between 70 and 90% expect their experience in their program to beextremely helpful in improving their creative, literary and research skills,along with interdisciplinarity, and ability to communicate with policy leadersand opinion formers.

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6.3.5. Exiting student survey

• Between 70 and 80% of the exiting students felt that they were treated withrespect by faculty, got on well with their fellow students, recognized thatthe program supported their personal and professional goals;

• Over 70% believed that the network was respected by faculty, 60% notedthat the network was well advertised on their campuses, but less that 20%felt they were well integrated on their campuses with other students;

• Over 80% claimed that their experience with the network helped them tounderstand more about how business and industry works, to improve theirability to work outside academia, to upgrade their understanding ofeconomic and business principles, and to understand better the role ofinnovation and technology transfer;

• Of the SES graduates, 4 were in jobs directly related to their educationalexperience in the Program while 8 were in jobs not directly related, in CTISthe numbers were 4 in direct job links with 2 negotiating over jobs withdirect links, and in TME 3 were in direct job links, and 4 in jobs not directlyconnected to their educational research. Between 75 and 85% said thattheir experience with the MIT Portugal network was instrumental in givingthem the capability for employment because of the intellectual and trainingrigour they experienced.

7. Lessons learnt and perspectives for the future

The MIT Portugal network has got multiple objectives for both MIT and the PortugueseUniversities and Companies. In Portugal primary concerns included human resourcedevelopment, educational reform, focusing on high priority research areas inknowledge based industries, fostering university/industry relations, creating an eco-system to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. The Portuguese network is thelargest international program MIT had undertaken in Europe and the first programinvolving partnerships with many universities in the host country. All other MITinternational partnerships involved only one or two universities in the partner country.

MIT Portugal network was designed to be a long-term partnership. This recognizedthat it would take at least a decade for the full impact of these programs on economicand societal development to be realized. It is beneficial to now examine what are theprimary lessons learnt from, and how might those lessons improve future internationalcollaborations.

1. Effective world class PhD programs can be created at the national level: For thefirst time, national PhD programs were created in Portugal in each of the four focusareas. Rectors and faculty from three or more universities agree to cooperate inthe development and delivery of these novel doctoral programs. The jointuniversity doctoral programs can realize foundational curriculum across the entirenetwork in the next five years. Suggested curriculum courses include Innovationof Technological Systems, Systems Thinking and Methodology, and LeadershipDevelopment, which can be offered to all MIT Portugal doctoral students.

2. Institutionalize and disseminate the educational programs and innovationsthroughout the Portuguese university system: It is very difficult to implementfundamental change in any educational system and Portugal is no exception. Anessential component of the next five years should be the creation of a newGraduate Studies Institute that will be the institutional home of the network. It willbe virtual in that it will not have any physical infrastructure, and it will work with allthe participating universities to assist in developing and institutionalizing best


267

practices among educational programs as well as to facilitate faculty mentoringand review committees, and provide support and communications for the majorResearch Programs.

3. Portuguese faculty benefit from spending one or more semesters at MIT: AllPortuguese faculty who had the opportunity to spend time at MIT emphasizedthe value of the experience. They were able to observe first-hand the MIT culturein education, research and technology transfer. All Portuguese faculty involvedin the teaching program should be required to spend at least one semester atMIT as a faculty fellow. This will facilitate the transfer of teaching responsibilities,and leverages the teach-the-teacher model, which has been found to be verysuccessful. Funding must be provided in the Portuguese budget to support thesevisits and to provide for substitute teaching in Portugal while the faculty memberis at MIT.

4. MIT Portugal students had the opportunity to spend significant time at MITworking on their doctoral research.The student research experience at MIT is verysuccessful: over seventy-five Portuguese students had the opportunity to spendtime at MIT working on their research. Visits last from several months to two years.There were some initial difficulties in implementing the program, but based onstudent feedback necessary improvements were made to insure that studentshad proper supervision and interaction with MIT students and faculty. Theprogram is now operating very effectively and should be continued in the future.The visiting MIT Portugal student experience is a critical and unique aspect toassure the highest level of research accomplishments and should be continuedand adequately funded.

5. International students will select international PhD programs: an objective of thePhD programs is to attract the best and the brightest not only from Portugal butfrom all over the world. That objective was largely achieved since the numberand quality of international students has increased each year. Students areapplying from the best universities in the world, but increased quality andexcellence in student applicants is an ongoing effort to be recognized as aleading European Program.

6. Master’s Programs help create effective linkages to industry: these programs areeffective in several ways. Company employees enroll in the programs and thenreturn to their companies. Students without company sponsorship experience aninternship at a company and then are hired by the company (e.g., Rolls Royce).An important improvement occurred during the first phase of the MIT Portugalnetwork when each master’s program was required to appoint an industry co-director. This provides an important mechanism for industry to play an active rolein curriculum development and other important decisions relating to the program.

7. Support for Portuguese post-docs is essential: the goal is to attract world-classresearchers to Portugal. In the first five years we lost some of our most promisingyoung Portuguese researchers because there were no long-term faculty careeropportunities. These promising researchers should have the opportunity to obtainpermanent faculty appointments in Portuguese universities.

8. Cross cutting educational courses are very effective: cross cutting courses inLeadership and Innovation were taught in several educational programs and werevery well received. Other cross-cutting foundational courses could be introducedto enhance network cohesiveness and establish quality control in the curriculum.


269

Table I - Total amount of students from Portugal participating in MIT Portugal visiting MIT since the beginning of theProgram until the end of January 2011.Source of information for the PhD programs: students; Executive Master’s; local program’s coordination.

BIO EDAM SES TR SYS Total

PhD programs N. of students who have been to MIT 29 15 20 22 86

N. of months they spent there 438 58 121 157 774

N. of other students who will visit MIT in the near future 9 11 14 11 45

N. of months students intend to spend at MIT in the near future 186 40 83 121 430

Executive Master’s programs N. of students visiting MIT (two weeks stay) 57 57

N. of students who will visit MIT in the near future (two weeks stay) 19 19

Table II: Amount of students from Portugal participating in MIT Portugal visiting MIT as foreseen in the MIT PortugalProgram contract

BIO EDAM SES TR SYS Eng Syst Total

Year 1 6 4 3 3 1 17

Annual average from year 2 to year 5 8 -10 6 8 6 3 31 - 33

Total for the 5 year 30 - 46 28 35 27 13 141 - 149

(adapted from Table VII.2 of the agreement).

APPENDICES

270

Table III - List of the students of the Bioengineering PhD program: 4th (entering in 2007) and 3rd (entering in 2008) years.

Name Country of origin Institution PhD year Supervisor(s)

Maria Sofia de Orey Portugal IST 4 Miguel Silva (IST), Jorge Martins (IST), Dava Newman (MIT), Hugh Herr (MIT)

David Malta Portugal IST 4 Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST), Sangeeta N. Bhatia (MIT)

Carlos Rodriguez Portugal IST 4 Joaquim Cabral (IST), Maria Margarida Diogo (IST), Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST)

Ana Lúcia do Rosário Portugal FCTUNL 4 Margarida Archer (ITQB - UNL), Li-Huei Tsai (PILM - MIT)

João Guerreiro Portugal IST 4 Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST), Daniel Anderson (MIT), Robert Langer (MIT)

Daniela Coutinho Portugal UMinho 4 Rui Reis (UMinho), Nuno Neves (UMinho), Manuela Gomes (UMinho), Ali Khademhosseini

(Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology)

Eunice Costa Portugal FCTUNL 4 Ana Aguiar Ricardo (FCTUNL) , Paula T.Hammond (MIT), Linda G Griffith (MIT)

Agnieszka Jóskowiak Poland IST 4 João Pedro Conde (IST), Duarte Miguel Prazeres (IST), Marko Topi‐ (University of Ljubljana)

Rui Tostões Portugal FCTUNL 4 Paula Alves (FCTUNL), Manuel Carrondo (FCTUNL), DIC Wang (MIT)

Carlos Machado Portugal UMinho 4 Eugénio Ferreira (UMinho), Isabel Rocha (UMinho), Bruce Tidor (MIT)

Isabel Ferreira Portugal IST 4 Maria Aires de Barros (IST), Carla Rocha de Carvalho (IST), Daniel Wang (MIT)

Cristiana Paulo Portugal IST 4 Lino Ferreira (CNCUC), Joaquim Cabral (IST)

Cláudia Vistas Portugal IST 4 Guilherme Ferreira (IST), João Conde (IST)

Ana Carina Silva Portugal IST 4 Guilherme Ferreira (IST), Cláudia Lobato da Silva (IST)

Débora Ferreira Portugal UMinho 4 Graça Minas (UMinho), José Higino Correia (UMinho), Michael S. Feld (MIT, deceased)

Daniela Couto Portugal IST 4 Manuel Heitor (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST), Pedro Saraiva (FCTUC), Charles Cooney (MIT), Luis

Perez-Breva (MIT)

Mariana Fernandes Portugal UMinho 4 Paulo Mendes (UMinho), J. Higino Correia (UMinho), Rajeev Ram (MIT)

Isa Monteiro Portugal UMinho 4 Alexandra Marques (UMinho), Rui L. Reis (Uminho), Robert S. Langer (MIT), Daniel S.

Kohane (MIT)

Ana Fernandes Portugal IST 4 Joaquim Cabral (IST), Cláudia Lobato Silva (IST), Margarida Diogo (IST)

Pedro Andrade Portugal IST 4 Gabriel Monteiro (IST), Frederico Ferreira (IST)

Tatiana Aguiar Portugal UMinho 4 Lucília Domingues (UMinho), Merja Penttilä ( VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland)

André Fialho Portugal IST 3 João Miguel da Costa Sousa (IST), Stan Finkelstein (MIT)

António Vicente Portugal FCTUNL 3 Rodrigo Martins (FCTUNL), Hugo Águas (FCTUNL), Manuel Nunes da Ponte (FCTUNL)

Fabiana Fernandes Portugal FCTUNL 3 Paula Alves (FCTUNL), Ana Teixeira (FCTUNL), Kristala P. Jones (MIT)

Federico Cismondi Argentina IST 3 Joao Miguel da Costa Sousa (IST), Stan Finkelstein (MIT)

Filipa Castro Portugal UMinho 3 José Teixeira (UMinho), António Vicente (UMinho)

Filipe Grácio Portugal IST 3 Joaquim Cabral (IST), Bruce Tidor (MIT)

Geisa Gonçalves Brazil IST 3 Miguel Prazeres (IST), Gabriel Monteiro (IST), Kristala Prather (MIT)

João Filipe Arrais Portugal IST 3 João Nuno Moreira (CNCUC), Helena Cabral-Marques (FFUL), Robert Langer (MIT), Omid

Farokhzad (Harvard Medical School)

Jorge Carvalho Portugal IST 3 Guilherme Ferreira (IST), Joaquim Cabral (IST)

Maria Francisca Eiriz Portugal FCTUNL 3 João Malva (FMUC), Liliana Bernardino (CNCUC), Manuel Nunes da Ponte (FCTUNL), Armen

Saghatelyan (Centre de Reserche Robert-Giffard, Université Laval, Canada)

Maria José Pereira Portugal IST 3 Lino da Silva Ferreira (CNCUC), Jeffrey M. Karp (Harvard Medical School)

Paulo Melo Portugal IST 3 Miguel Tavares da Silva (IST), Jorge Martins (IST), Dava Newman (MIT)

Roberto Gallardo Marusich Chile UMinho 3 Ligia Rodrigues (UMinho), Madalena Alves (UMinho)

Sara Matias Portugal FCTUNL 3 Zachary Mainen (IGC), Manuel Nunes da Ponte (FCTUNL)

Sezin Aday Turkey IST 3 Lino Ferreira (CNCUC), Claudia Lobato Da Silva (IST), Robert Langer (MIT)

Silvia Mihaila Romania UMinho 3 Manuela Gomes(UMinho), Alexandra Marques (UMinho), Ali Khademhosseini (MIT)

Swarnadeepa Pandian India IST 3 Ramiro Almeida (CNCUC), Ana Luísa Carvalho (CNCUC), Martha Constantine Paton

(MIT), Joaquim Cabral (IST)


271

Table IV - List of the students of the Bioengineering PhD program: 2nd (entering in 2009) and 1st (entering in 2010) years.

Name Country of origin Institution PhD year Supervisor(s)

Joana Coelho Portugal IST 2 Ana Teresa Freitas (IST)

Ana Domingues Portugal IST 2 Jorge Martins (IST), Miguel Tavares da Silva (IST)

Shantesh Hede India UMinho 2 Paula Verandas (UM), Luís Rocha (UMinho), Manuel Lopes Nunes (UMinho)

Mónica Coelho Portugal IST 2 Joaquim Cabral (IST),

Jeffrey M. Karp (Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School)

Nuno Faria Portugal IST 2 Frederico Ferreira (IST), César Fonseca (LNEG), Bruce Tidor (MIT)

Rúben Pereira Portugal IST 2 João Miguel da Costa Sousa (IST), Stan Finkelstein (MIT), Michael D. Howell

(Harvard Medical School), Shane Reti (Harvard Medical School)

Rimenys Carvalho Brazil IST 2 Maria Aires-Barros (IST), Ana Margarida Pires de Azevedo (IST), Steven

Cramer (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Michaela Simcikova Czech Republic IST 2 Gabriel Monteiro (IST), Miguel Duarte Prazeres (IST), Kristala Jones Prather (MIT)

Pedro Evangelista Portugal UMinho 2 Isabel Rocha (UMinho), Miguel Rocha (UMinho), Bruce Tidor (MIT)

Íris Batalha Portugal FCTUNL 2 Ana Cecília Afonso Roque (FCTUNL), Olga Iranzo Casanova (FCTUNL),

Christopher Robin Lowe (University of Cambridge)

Carlos Boto Portugal FCTUNL/ CNC-UC 2 Lino Silva Ferreira (CNCUC), Tariq Enver (UCL), Rajeev Gupta (UCL)

Paulo da Silva Portugal UMinho 2 Isabel Rocha (UMinho), Miguel Rocha (UMinho), Eugénio Ferreira (UMinho)

Javad Hatami Iran IST 2 Frederico Ferreira (IST), Cláudia Lobato Silva (IST)

Nelson Monteiro Cape Verde UMinho 2 Nuno Neves (UMinho), Rui Reis (UMinho), Ali Khademhosseini (MIT)

Ivana Kostic Serbia FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Ilaria Stefani Italy FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Veronica C. Carvajal Colombia FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Tiago Reis Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Joana Rodrigues Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Rui Pereira Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Susana Palma Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Joaquim Barbosa Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Ana Sofia Machado Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

José Pedro Faria Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Patrícia Pereira Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Gabriel Mendes Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Sara Oliveira Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Ana Rita Rodrigues Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Sofia Rebelo Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Ana Lima Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Marta Cerejo Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Carla Moura Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

Inês Isidro Portugal FCTUNL 1 Not defined

272

Table V - List of the students of the PhD program Leaders for Technical Industries (LTI): 4th (entering in 2007) and 3rd

(entering in 2008) years.

Name Country of Origin Institution PhD Year Supervisor(s)

Carla Pepe Portugal IST 4 Elsa Henriques(IST), Daniel Whitney (MIT)

Eduardo Santos Portugal IST 4 Paulo Ferrão (IST)

Marco Leite Portugal IST 4 Arlindo Silva (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), Richard Roth (MIT)

Rui Carreira Portugal FEUP 4 Lia Patrício (FEUP), Renato Natal (FEUP), Chris Magee (MIT)

Sérgio Tavares Portugal FEUP 4 Paulo de Castro (FEUP), Pedro Vilaça (IST), Thomas Eagar (MIT)

Ivo Ferreira Portugal IST 4 Paulo Gil (IST), Pedro Oliveira (UMinho), Olivier de Weck (MIT)

Pedro Marques Portugal IST 4 Arlindo Silva (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST)

Alexandre Silva Portugal UMinho 4 José Higino Correia (UMinho), Paulo Mateus Mendes (UMinho),

Joel Clark (MIT), Richard Roth (MIT)

Helena Fernandez Portugal UMinho 4 José Higino Correia (UMinho), Ricardo Simões (UMinho, Cávado and

Ave Polytechnic Institute), José Afonso (UMinho), Chris Magee (MIT)

Alexandra Sepúlveda Portugal UMinho 3 António Pontes (UMinho), Júlio Viana (UMinho), Brian Wardle (MIT)

Bruno Soares Portugal IST 3 Luís Reis (UMinho), Luís Sousa (UMinho), António Ferreira

(UMinho), David R. Wallace (MIT)

Cláudia Duarte Portugal UMinho 3 José Valério Carvalho (Uminho), Ana Paula Povoa (IST), Stanley

Gershwin (MIT)

Inês Ribeiro Portugal IST 3 Paulo Peças (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), António Pontes (UMinho),

Richard Roth (MIT)

Malliaros Ioannis Greece IST 3 Mihail Fontul (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), Lia Patricio (IST), Qi D.

Van Eikema Hommes (MIT)

Isa Santos Portugal FEUP 3 João Manuel Tavares (FEUP), Luís Rocha (UMinho), Jeremy

Gregory (MIT), Scott Gazele (Harvard)

João Ferreira Portugal UMinho 3 João Afonso (Uminho), Alberto Silva (IST)

João Simões Pedro Portugal IST 3 Luís Sousa (IST), Luís Reis (UMinho), Jorge Martins (UMinho)

José Gaspar Portugal IST 3 Mihail Fontul (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST)

Lia Oliveira Portugal FEUP 3 Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), João Claro (FEUP), Richard de

Neufville (MIT)

Luis Reis Portugal UMinho 3 Not defined

Maria Victoria Fernandez Ecuador FEUP 3 Marcelo Moura (FEUP), Thomas Eager (MIT)

Nino Pereira Portugal UMinho 3 Fernando Ribeiro (UMinho), Fernando Alves (FEUP), Daniel Whitney

(MIT)

Nuno Loureiro Portugal FEUP 3 José Esteves (FEUP), Júlio Viana (FEUP), Frank R. Field III (MIT)

Raquel Folgado Portugal IST 3 Elsa Henriques (IST), Paulo Peças (IST), Stan Gershwin (MIT)

Ricardo Almeida Portugal FEUP 3 Américo Azevedo (FEUP), José Crespo Carvalho (ISCTE), David

Simchi-Levi (MIT)

Ricardo Torcato Portugal FEUP 3 Ricardo Santos (FEUP), Madalena Dias (FEUP), Richard Roth (MIT)


273

Table VI - List of the students of the PhD program Leaders for Technical Industries (LTI): 2th (entering in 2009) and 1rd

(entering in 2010) years.

Name Country of Origin Institution PhD Year Supervisor(s)

Michael Donaeur Germany IST 2 Américo Azevedo (FEUP), Paulo Peças (IST), Richard Roth (MIT)

Irene Carvalho Portugal IST 2 Arlindo Silva (IST), Ricardo Simões (IPCA, U. Minho)

Ana Eduarda Sá Silva Portugal FEUP 2 Paulo Costa (FEUP), Fernando Ribeiro (UMinho), Qi Hommes (MIT)

Maria Manuela Azevedo Portugal FEUP 2 Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), José Crispim (UMinho)

Senay Sadic Turkey IST 2 Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), José Crispim (FEUP), Stanley Gershwin (MIT)

Nuno Guitian Oliveira Portugal IST 2 Alexandra Rodrigues (IST), Luis Pinto (FCT), Luis Reis (IST), Mihail Fontul (IST)

Filipe Nascimento Portugal FEUP 2 Francisco Pires (FEUP), Pedro Vilaça (IST), Marta Carvalho (IST), Qi Hommes (MIT)

Rui Rocha Portugal UMinho 2 José Higino Correia (UMinho), João do Carmo (UMinho)

Anton Sabaleuski Belarus FEUP 2 Francisco Pires (FEUP), Pedro Camanho (FEUP), Frank III Field (MIT)

Cláudio Santos Portugal UMinho 2 Madalena Araújo (UMninho), Nuno Correia (INEGI), Jeremy Gregory (MIT)

Samuel Moniz Portugal FEUP 2 Ana Paula Póvoa (FEUP), Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), Stanley Gershwin (MIT)

Georgios Koronis Greece IST 2 Arlindo Silva (IST), Elsa Henriques (IST), Ana Póvoa (IST), Daniel Whitney (MIT)

Vasco Teles Portugal FEUP 2 João Claro (FEUP), José Manuel Mendonça (FEUP)

Sara Marques Portugal IST 2 Carla Silva (IST), Luís Reis (IST), João Luiz Afonso (UMinho)

Ricardo Sá Portugal UMinho 2 Ferrie van Hattum (UMinho)

Nelson Oliveira Portugal UMinho 2 António Pontes (UMinho)

João Fernandes Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Jorge Ribeiro Portugal FEUP 1 Not defined

Jean-Loup Loyer France IST 1 Not defined

Seyyed Sabet Iran Uminho 1 Not defined

Jorge Almeida Portugal FEUP 1 Not defined

Ricardo Sá Portugal Uminho 1 Not defined

Bruno Goncalves Portugal Uminho 1 Not defined

André Camboa Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Gabriela Vasconcelos Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Deborah Andrade Italy IST 1 Not defined

Alvaro Soto Mexico IST 1 Not defined

Luis Simões Portugal FEUP 1 Not defined

Ricardo Greenfield Portugal IST 1 Not defined

274

Table VII - List of the students of the Sustainable Energy Systems PhD program: 4th (entering in 2007) year.

Name Country of Origin Institution PhD year Supervisor(s)

Joana Abreu Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Jorge Vasconcelos (NEWES), Francisco Câmara Pereira (FCTUC), Paulo

Ferrão (IST), David Marks (MIT), Stephen Connors (MIT), Inês Azevedo (CMU)

Ana Filipa Amorim Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Victor Martins (ISEG), Patrícia Silva (FEUC), Jorge Vasconcelos (IST), Steve

Connors (MIT)

Patrícia Baptista Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Tiago Farias (IST), Carla Silva (IST), John Heywood (MIT)

Jorge Borges Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Christos Ioakimidis (Unidersidad de Deusto), Steve Connors (MIT)

Cristina Camus Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Tiago Farias (IST), Jorge Esteves (ISEL)

Gonçalo Cardoso Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Paulo Ferrão (IST), Ana Póvoa (IST)

Nuno Climaco Pereira Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Luísa Caldas (FA-UTL), Manuel Correia Guedes (IST), Leon Glicksman (MIT)

Miguel Covas Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Carlos Silva (IST), Luís Dias (FEUC)

Rui Gomes Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Luís Gato (IST), António Falcão (IST)

Ana Gonçalves Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Tiago Domingos (IST), John Fernandez (MIT)

João Lagarto Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Álvaro Martins (ISEG), Jorge de Sousa (ISEL), Paulo Ferrão (IST)

Ricardo Manso Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Paulo Ferrão (IST), Helge Brattebø (NTNU)

Alexandra Marques Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Tiago Domingos (IST), João Rodrigues (IST)

Sandrina Pereira Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Graça Carvalho (IST), Luís Alves (IST)

André Pina Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Paulo Ferrão (IST), Carlos Silva (IST), Stephen Connors (MIT)

Filipe Rodrigues Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Carlos Cardeira (IST), João Calado (ISL), Leon Glisckman (MIT)

Leonardo Rosado Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Paulo Ferrão (IST), John Fernandez (MIT)

Raquel da Silva Portugal IST/ISEG 4 Luis Alves (IST), Graça Carvalho (IST)

Kiti Suomalainen Finland IST/ISEG 4 Paulo Ferrão (IST), Carlos Silva (IST) Stephen Connors (MIT)

André Augusto Portugal FCUL 4 João Serra (FCUL), Tonio Buonassisi (MIT)

Pedro Fonte Portugal FEUP 4 Cláudio Monteiro (FEUP)

Ana Rita Neves Portugal FEUP 4 Vítor Leal (FEUP), João Lourenço (IST)

Antero Silva Portugal FEUP 4 João Peças Lopes (FEUP)

Filipa Carlos Portugal FEUP 4 Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes (FEUP), Maria do Rosário Partidário (FEUP)

Filipe Soares Portugal FEUP 4 João Peças Lopes (FEUP)

Gustavo Souza Portugal FEUP 4 Vítor Leal (FEUP), Stephen Connors (MIT)

Julija-Vasiljevska Macedonia FEUP 4 João Peças Lopes (FEUP), Manuel Matos (FEUP)

Manuel Rocha Portugal FEUP 4 João Paulo Tomé Saraiva (FEUP)

Maria Kapsalaki Greece FEUP 4 Vítor Leal (FEUP), Leon Glicksman (MIT)

Marta Mota Portugal FEUP 4 Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes (FEUP), Isabel Soares (FEP)

Pedro Almeida Portugal FEUP 4 João Peças Lopes (FEUP)

Pedro Silva Portugal FEUP 4 Vítor Leal (FEUP), Marilyne Anderson (MIT)


275

Table VIII - List of the students of the Sustainable Energy Systems PhD program: 3rd (entering in 2008) year.


Amir Safaei Iran FCTUC 3 Fausto Freire (FCTUC), Carlos Henggeler Antunes (FCTUC)

Ariovaldo de Carvalho Portugal FCTUC 3 Fausto Freire (FCTUC), Carlos Henggeler Antunes (FCTUC)

Ehsan Asadi Iran FCTUC 3 Manuel Gameiro da Silva (FCTUC), Carlos Henggeler Antunes (FCTUC), Luís

Dias FEUC), Leon Glicksman (MIT)

Érica Castanheira Portugal FCTUC 3 Fausto Freire (FCTUC)

Nelson Brito Portugal FCTUC 3 Manuel Gameiro (FCTUC), José António Bandeirinha (UC)

Pedro Gonçalves Portugal FCTUC 3 Manuel C. Gameiro da Silva (FCTUC), Adélio Gaspar (FCTUC)

António Santos Portugal FEUP 3 João Peças Lopes (FEUP), Manuel Matos (FEUP)

David Rua Portugal FEUP 3 João Peças Lopes (FEUP), José António Fernandes (FEUP)

Diego Issicaba Brazil FEUP 3 João Peças Lopes (FEUP)

Hrvoje Keko Croatia FEUP 3 Vladimiro Miranda (FEUP), Stephen Connors (MIT)

Leonel Carvalho Portugal FEUP 3 Vladimiro Miranda (FEUP), Stephen Connors (MIT)

Reza Fazeli Iran FEUP 3 Vitor Leal (FEUP), Jorge Pinho Sousa (FEUP), Stephen Connors (MIT),

Christopher Zegras (MIT)

Pedro Fonte Portugal FEUP 3 Claudio Monteiro (FEUP)

Filipa Reis Portugal FCUL 3 Miguel Brito (FCUL), Gianfranco Sorasio (MIT)

Rui Bernardo Portuguese IST/ISEG 3 Luís Ferreira (IST)

Sérgio Casimiro Portuguese IST/ISEG 3 Christos Ioakimidis (Universidad de Deusto), João Mendes (LNEG)

Hana Gerbelová Czech IST/ISEG 3 Paulo Ferrão (IST), Christos Ioakimidis Universidad de Deusto), Edward S.

Rubin (EPP/CMU)

Vasco Granadeiro Portuguese IST/ISEG 3 José Duarte (FA-UTL), João Correia (IST), Vítor Leal (FEUP), William J.

Mitchell (MIT, deceased, June 2010)

Gonçalo Mendes Portuguese IST/ISEG 3 Christos Ioakimidis (Universidad de Deusto), Stephen Connors (MIT), Chris

Marnay (LBNL UCB)

Nuno Santos Portuguese IST/ISEG 3 Carlos Silva (IST)

Filipe Sim-Sim Portuguese IST/ISEG 3 Christos Ioakimidis (Universidad de Deusto), Carlos Henggeler Antunes

(FCTUC), Richard Larson (MIT)

Daniel Wiesmann Swiss IST/ISEG 3 Paulo Ferrão (IST), John Fernández (MIT)

276

Table IX - List of the students of the Sustainable Energy Systems PhD program: 2nd (entering in 2009) year.


Helena Monteiro Portugal FCTUC 2 Fausto Freire (FCTUC)

Sophie Ndiaye Zhadeev Senegal FCTUC 2 Carlos Henggeler Antunes (FCTUC), Humberto Jorge (FCTUC), James Kirtley

(MIT)

João Santos Portugal FCTUC 2 Aníbal Almeida (FCTUC)

Manuela Carreiras Portugal FCTUC 2 Luis Dias (FEUC), Carlos Hengeller Antunes (FCTUC)

Hermano Bernardo Portugal FCTUC 2 Not defined

Eugénio Rodrigues Portugal FCTUC 2 Adélio Gaspar (FCTUC), Joannes Hensen (MIT)

Ricardo Abrantes Portugal FCTUC 2 Manuel Gameiro da Silva (FCTUC)

Nilton Oliveira France FCTUC 2 Divo Quintela (FCTUC), Adélio Gaspar (FCTUC)

Lauro André Ribeiro Brazil FCTUC 2 Patrícia da Silva (FCTUC)

Donald Scott Canada FCTUC 2 Pedro Saraiva (FCTUC), Marco Reis (FCTUC)

Diana Neves Portugal FCUL 2 António Vallera (FCUL), Carlos Silva (IST)

Bernardo Silva Brazil FEUP 2 Helder Leite (FEUP), Nicholas Jenkins (Cardiff University)

Leonardo Bremerman Brazil FEUP 2 Manuel Matos (FEUP), João Peças Lopes (FEUP)

Luís Freitas Venezuela FEUP 2 Maria Ponce de Leão (FEUP), Helder Leite (FEUP)

Ricardo Bessa Portugal FEUP 2 Manuel Matos (FEUP)

Vanessa Mateus Portugal FEUP 2 Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes (FEUP), John Fernandez (MIT)

Alexandre Lucas Portugal IST/ISEG 2 Carla Silva (IST), Rui Costa Neto (IST)

António Abreu Portugal IST/ISEG 2 João Freire (IST), Pedro Santos (IT)

Luis Augusto Portugal IST/ISEG 2 Not defined

Mathieu Richard Canada IST/ISEG 2 Not defined

Onésimo Silva Portugal IST/ISEG 2 Carlos Silva (IST)

Pedro Vicente Portugal IST/ISEG 2 António Falcão (IST)

Pedro Fazenda Portugal IST/ISEG 2 Pedro Lima (IST), Una-May O’ Reilly (MIT)

Rita Paleta Portugal IST/ISEG 2 Carlos Silva (IST)

Vasco Portugal Rato Portugal IST/ISEG 2 Manuel Guedes (IST)

Anabela Carvalho Portugal FCTUC 2 Aníbal de Almeida (FCTUC), Manuel Carlos Gameiro (FCTUC)


277

Table X - List of the students of the Sustainable Energy Systems PhD program: 1st

(entering in 2010) year.


Rita Garcia Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Marta Lopes Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Nuno Cavaleiro Melo Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Claudio Vergara Chile FEUP 1 Not defined

Pedro Nunes Portugal FCUL 1 Not defined

Filipe Serra Portugal FCUL 1 Not defined

Hugo Campaniço Portugal FCUL 1 Not defined

Ruben Ramalho Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Atefeh Shahabadi Ireland UC 1 Not defined

Luis Castanheira Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Antonio Lorena Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Michal Monit Poland IST 1 Not defined

Zeus Zamora Guevara Mexico FCUL 1 Not defined

Gonçalo Pereira Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Tiago Duarte Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Omid Khodavirdi Iran UC 1 Not defined

Matthew Jenner Great Britain FCUL 1 Not defined

Donghoon Yoo South Korea UC 1 Not defined

Fernando Rodrigues Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Ahmad Karnama Iran FEUP 1 Not defined

Catarina Rolim Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Mariana Pereira Portugal FEUP 1 Not defined

Ricardo Ressurreição Portugal FCUL 1 Not defined

Ana Soares Portugal UC 1 Not defined

João Ferreira Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Andreia Carreiro Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Rui Costa Vasco Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Nuno Soares Portugal UC 1 Not defined

Pranjal Joshi India UC 1 Not defined

Alex Raventos Spain IST 1 Not defined

Maria Carvalho Portugal IST 1 Not defined

João Francisco Barreiros Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Miguel Heleno Portugal FEUP 1 Not defined

278

Table XI - List of the students of the Transportation Systems PhD program.

Name Country of Origin Institution PhD year Supervisor (s)

Alda Mendes Portugal FEUP 4 Álvaro Costa (FEUP), Richard de Neufville (MIT)

Rui Santos Portugal IST 4 Paulo Teixeira (IST)

Diana Carvalho Portugal IST 4 João de Abreu e Silva (IST)

Rafaela Arriaga Portugal IST 4 José Viegas (IST), Moshe Ben-Akiva (MIT)

Ana Costa Portugal FCTUC 3 Maria Conceição Cunha (FCTUC), Paulo Coelho (FCTUC), Herbert Einstein

(MIT)

Carlos Azevedo Portugal IST 3 João Cardoso (LNEC), José Viegas (IST), Moshe Ben-Akiva (MIT)

Ana Galelo Portugal IST 3 Rosário Macário (IST), Christopher Zegras (MIT)

Diana Leal Portugal FCTUC 3 Luís de Picado Santos (IST)

Gonçalo Caiado Portugal IST 3 Rosário Macário (IST), Carlos Oliveira (IST), Joseph Sussman (MIT)

João Pita Portugal FCTUC 3 António Pais Antunes (FCTUC), Amedeo Odoni (MIT), Cynthia Barnhart (MIT)

Jorge Lopes Portugal IST 3 João Bento (BRISA), Moshe Ben-Akiva (MIT)

Maria Spandou Greece IST 3 Rosário Macário (IST), Joseph Sussman (MIT)

Tiago Fernandes Portugal FCTUC 3 Francisco Câmara Pereira (FCTUC)

Rui Gomes Portugal FEUP 3 Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), Teresa Galvão Dias (FEUP), Cynthia Barnhart

(MIT)

Abdur Berawi Indonesia FEUP 3 Raimundo Delgado (FEUP), Rui Calçada (FEUP)

Francisco Furtado Portugal IST 2 José Viegas (IST)

António Andrade Portugal IST 2 Paulo Fonseca Teixeira (IST)

Carlos Marques Portugal IST 2 Rosário Macário (IST), Amedeo Odoni (MIT)

Gonçalo Santos Portugal IST 2 José Viegas (IST)

Ashenafi Weldemichael Ethiopia UC 2 António Pais Antunes (FCTUC), Christopher Zegras (MIT)

João Almeida Portugal IST 2 Rosário Macário (IST)

Afshan Aman PaKistan FEUP 2 Álvaro Costa (FEUP), Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP)

Frederico Morgado Portugal IST 2 Rosário Macário (IST), Amedeo Odoni (MIT)

Merkebe G. Demissie Ethiopia UC 2 Pedro Bizarro (FCTUC),Gonçalo Correia (FCTUC)

Mohammad M. Hajizamani Iran IST 2 Silvia Shrubsall (IST), José Viegas (IST)

Filmon Habtemichael Eritrea UC 2 Luís de Picado Santos (IST)

Edgar Jimenez perez Colombia 1 Not defined

Heather Jones US 1 Not defined

Cláudia Luís Menino Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Farzam Salimi Iran FEUP 1 Not defined

Xiao Chen China 1 Not defined

Tomás Eiró Portugal IST 1 Not defined

Guineng Chen China IST 1 Not defined

Diana Jorge Portugal 1 Not defined

Luís Caetano Portugal UC 1 Not defined


279

Table XIII - List of the students of the SustainableEnergy Systems MBE program.

Name Country of Origin Institution

Francisco J. Almeida Portugal FEUP

Cristina Andrade Portugal FEUP

Joao Nunes Portugal FEUP

Marta Cristina Epifanio Portugal IST

Joao Pedro Pereira Portugal IST

Amelia Areias Portugal IST

Duarte Santos Pereira Portugal IST

Goncalo Garcia Portugal IST

Antonio Farrajota Neves da Silva Portugal IST

Joana Simoes Portugal IST

Jose Luis Moreno Portugal IST

Marisa Abadeco Portugal IST

Hugo Esteves Portugal IST

Antonio Pires Portugal IST

Afonso Paixao Portugal IST

Joao Paulo Plancha da Silva Portugal IST

Luis Guerreiro Portugal IST

Jose Pedro Cavaco Portugal IST

Pedro Rodrigues Portugal IST

Margarida Silva Portugal IST

Jamie Chivers UK IST

Table XII - List of the students of the ComplexInfrastructure Transportation Systems MSc.program (entering in 2008/2010).

Name Country of Origin Institution

Tyler Stinson USA IST

Aleksandr Prodan Ukraine IST

António Domingues Portugal IST

Dongchen Dai China IST

Edgar Jimenez Perez Colombia IST

Hossein Bazrafshan Iran IST

João Lages Portugal IST

Jorge Espinoza Bolivia IST

Sai Suresh Nagaralu India IST

Ryan Allard Trinidad & Tobago IST

André Alho Portugal IST

Amin Acabarali Portugal IST

John Pritchard USA IST

Sofia Kalakou Greece IST

Teklezghi Ristu Eritrea IST

German Freiberg Brasil IST

João Sousa Portugal IST

André Franco Pena Portugal IST

Yosief Ghebrehiwot Eritrea IST

Tamás Matrái Hungary IST

280

Table XIV - Teaching Faculty of theBioengineering Systems area.

Name Institution

Ana Ricardo FCTUNL

Ali Khademhosseini MIT

Anthony Sinskey MIT

António Vicente UMinho

Arlindo Oliveira IST

Arsénio Fialho IST

Bruce Tidor MIT

Carlos Duarte CNCUC

Cecilia Roque FCTUNL

Charles Cooney MIT

Clara Reis IGC/ITQBUNL

Claudia Silva IST

Claudio Soares ITQBUNL

Daniel IC Wang MIT

Dava Newman MIT

Elly Nedivi MIT

Estela Bicho UMinho

Eugenio Ferreira UMinho

Fernanda Llussá FCTUNL

GK Raju MIT

Guilherme Ferreira IBB

Hugh Herr MIT

Isabel Rocha UMinho

Joao Conde IST

João Crespo FCTUNL

Joao Malva CNCUC

Joao Mano UMinho

Joao Nuno Moreira CNCUC

Joaquim Cabral IST

Jorge Martins IST

José Menezes IST

José Teixeira UMinho

K.Dane Wittrup MIT

Larry Young MIT

Ligia Rodrigues UMinho

Lino Ferreira CNCUC

Luis Almeida CNCUC

Luis Fonseca IST

Luis Lages UNL

Luis Rocha UMinho

Luísa Vasconcelos ITQBUNL

Manuel Mota UMinho

Name Institution

Manuela Fonseca IST

Manuela Gomes UMinho

Maria Reis FCTUNL

Mario Grãos CNCUC

Marta Moita IGC/ITQBUNL

Miguel Castelo Branco CNCUC

Miguel Prazeres IST

Miguel Prazeres IST

Miguel Rocha UMinho

Miguel Silva IST

Miguel Teixeira IST

Nuno Neves UMinho

Nuno Sousa UMinho

P.Flores UMinho

Paula Agostinho CNCUC

Paula Alves ITQBUNL

Paula Hammond MIT

Pedro Saraiva UC

Robert Langer MIT

Rodrigo Cunha CNCUC

Rui Oliveira FCTUNL

Rui Reis UMinho

Sergio Santos CNCUC

Stan Finkelstein MIT

Thomas Allen MIT

Zach Mainen IGC/ITQBUNL


281

Table XV - Teaching Faculty of the EngineeringDesign and Advanced Manufacturing(EDAM) area.

Name Institution

A. Paisana UMinho

Alcibiades Guedes FEUP

Américo Azevedo FEUP

Ana Povoa IST

Anne McCants MIT

António Araujo FEUP

António Ribeiro IST

Arlindo Silva IST

Bernardo A. Lobo FEUP

Carlos Freitas IST

Dan Whitney MIT

Eduardo Beira UMinho

Elsa Henriques IST

F. Jorge Alves FEUP

Francisco Pires FEUP

Frank Field MIT

Gustavo Dias UMinho

J. Mendonça FEUP

Jean-Pol Piquard FEUP

Jermery Gregory MIT

Joel Clark MIT

Jorge Pinho de Sousa FEUP

Júlio Viana UMinho

L. Perez Brava MIT

Lia Patrício FEUP

Luis Faria IST

Luis Rocha UMinho

M Sameiro Carvalho UMinho

Madalena Araújo UMinho

Mihail Fontul IST

Partha Gosh MIT

Paulo Peças IST

Qi Hommes MIT

Randy Kirchain MIT

Ricardo Simões UMinho

Rui. M. Baptista IST

Stanley Gershwin MIT

Valério Carvalho UMinho

282

Table XVI - Teaching Faculty of the Sustainable EnergySystems area.

Name Institution

Adélio Gaspar UC

Almerindo Ferreira UC

Alvaro Gomes UC

Ana Maria Camanho FEUP

Aníbal Traça de Almeida UC

António Martins FEUP

Carlos Henggeler Antunes UC

Carlos Pereira da Silva ISEG

Carlos Silva IST

Claúdio Monteiro FEUP

Divo Quintela UC

Eduardo Barata UC

Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes FEUP

Fausto Freire UC

Filomena Garcia ISEG

Harvey Michaels MIT

Humberto Jorge UC

Ignacio Perez Riaga MIT

Isabel Mendes ISEG

Isabel Proença ISEG

Isabel Proença FEUP

Isabel Torres UC

João Coutinho Rodrigues UC

João Peças Lopes FEUP

João Tomé Saraiva FEUP

John Fernandez MIT

José Bandeirinha UC

José Baranda Ribeiro UC

José Costa UC

José Luis Alexandre FEUP

Luís Adriano Oliveira UC

Luis Cruz UC

Luis Dias UC

Manuel Gameiro da Silva UC

Manuel Matos FEUP

Marco Reis UC

Maria Helena Vasconcelos FEUP

Miguel Águas IST

Muradali Ibrahimo ISEG

Nicola Deblasio MIT

Nuno Simões UC

Pacheco Coelho ISEG

Name Institution

Patrícia Silva UC

Paulo Ferrão IST

Pedro Saraiva UC

Raimundo Silva UC

Rita Sousa FEUP

Steve Connors MIT

Tiago Domingos IST

Tiago Farias IST

Vitor Leal FEUP

Vladimiro Miranda FEUP


283

Table XVII - Teaching Faculty of the TransportationSystems area.

Name Institution

António Couto FEUP

Adelino Ferreira FCTUC

Alexander Chlan IST

Alexandre Gonçalves IST

Álvaro Costa FEUP

Álvaro Seco FCTUC

Américo Pires da Costa FEUP

Ana Bastos Silva FCTUC

Anabela Ribeiro FCTUC

António Pais Antunes FCTUC

Bruno Santos FCTUC

Carlos Henggeler Antunes FCTUC

Carlos Rodrigues FEUP

Edgar Blanco MIT

Filipe Moura IST

Gonçalo Correia FCTUC

João Abreu IST

João Claro FEUP

João Coutinho FCTUC

João Duque (ISEG) ISEG

John Akula MIT

Jorge Freire Sousa FEUP

Jorge Pinho de Sousa FEUP

José Antunes Ferreira IST

José Neves IST

José Viegas IST

Joseph Sussman MIT

Judith Layzer MIT

Luís de Picado Santos IST

Manuel Gameiro FCTUC

Maria Teresa Dias FEUP

Moshe Ben-Akiva MIT

Paulo Teixeira IST

Pedro Bizarro FCTUC

Richard de Neufville MIT

Rosário Macário IST

Rui Marques IST

Rui Oliveira IST

Teresa Gamito FCTUC


285

Executive Program Management

Program Directors

Paulo Ferrão, IST, Technical University of LisbonDaniel Roos, Engineering Systems Division, MIT

Scientific Coordination

1. Stem Cell Engineering for Regenerative Medicine

Dava Newman, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MITJoaquim Sampaio Cabral, IST, Technical University of Lisbon

2. Sustainable Energy and Transportation Systems

Chris Zegras, Urban Studies & Planning, MIT (co-director)John Fernandez, Department of Architecture, MIT (director)José Viegas, IST, Technical University of Lisbon (co-director)Paulo Ferrão, IST, Technical University of Lisbon (director)

3. Materials and Design Inspired Products

Chris Magee, Engineering Systems Division, MITOlga Carneiro, School of Engineering, University of Minho

4. Engineering Systems Fundamentals

Dan Roos, Engineering Systems Division, MITJoão Sousa, IST, Technical University of Lisbon

Doctoral Program Coordination

1. Bio-engineering Systems

Bruce Tidor, Department of Electrical Engineering-Computer Science, MITManuel Nunes da Ponte, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New University ofLisbon

2. Sustainable Energy Systems

David Marks, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MITJoão Peças Lopes, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto

3. Transportation Systems

António Pais Antunes, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Univ. of CoimbraRichard De Neufville, Engineering Systems Division, MIT

4. Leaders for Technical Industries

Joel Clark, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MITManuel Freitas, IST, Technical University of Lisbon

Master Programs Coordination

1. Sustainable Energy Systems

António Vidigal, EDPCarlos Santos Silva, IST, Technical University of LisbonDavid Marks, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT

2. Complex Transport and Infrastructure Systems

Jorge Salles Gomes, Brisa S.A.Luis Picado Santos, IST, Technical University of Lisbon

3. Technology Management Enterprise

António Torres Marques, Faculty of Engineering, University of PortoJoel Clark, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT

286

2006-2011 mit-portugal education report vol_ii

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