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Publications

Publications by Manuel Santos Silva

2020

Engineering Education for Sustainable Development: The European Project Semester Approach

Authors
Duarte, AJ; Malheiro, B; Arno, E; Perat, I; Silva, MF; Fuentes Dura, P; Guedes, P; Ferreira, P;

Publication
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION

Abstract
Contribution: An analysis of the extent to which sustainability is present in the syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and student final reports of the three Iberian European project semester (EPS) providers, over a five-year period. Background: EPS is a one-semester capstone project framework that adopts project-based learning and multicultural, multidisciplinary teamwork. Educating engineers for sustainable development requires fostering critical and ethical thinking and a desire for equity, solidarity and preservation of natural resources, and cultural and genetic diversity. Existing engineering capstone design programs emphasize solving real world problems, hands-on training, and soft skills, but few focus on sustainability aspects of engineering design. The three Iberian EPS providers adopt project-based learning and teamwork methodologies, promoting the development of transversal skills and addressing sustainability in a multicultural and multidisciplinary background. Intended Outcomes: To show that the three Iberian EPS providers follow these recommendations and contribute to raising students' awareness of sustainable development. Application Design: The proposed sustainability learning assessment method collects evidence from syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and final reports to extract faculty and student perspectives. The sustainability-related terms collected were processed into word cloud format, allowing a simple and intuitive interpretation of students' understanding of sustainability, and in co-occurrence network format, to understand if sustainability has a pervasive or confined presence within the reports. Findings: Iberian EPS faculty and students are aware of the social, economic, and environmental impact of their projects, in terms of quality of life, social responsibility, the use of resources, and environmentally friendly technology.

2019

Learning Engineering With EPS@ISEP Developing Projects for Smart Sustainable Cities

Authors
Malheiro, B; Silva, MF; Ferreira, P; Guedes, P;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING PEDAGOGY

Abstract
This paper presents an overview on how the European Project Semester capstone programme offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (EPS@ISEP) fosters learning by challenging engineering, business and product development undergraduates to address sustainability issues afflicting cities and communities nowadays. This will be done by analysing the reports and the learning journey of three multicultural and multidisciplinary EPS@ISEP teams during the design, development and test of a smart billboard, a self-oriented solar mirror and a level monitoring system for waste oil bins. These three projects were conducted within EPS@ISEP, a project-based learning framework dedicated to the development of key engineering skills, namely multidisciplinary teamwork, intercultural communication, ethical and sustainability-oriented problem-solving. The involved students contributed, not only, to make cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, one of UNESCO's sustainable development goals, but learnt and practiced together sustainability-driven design, while searching for an innovative solution for a smart city problem. This conclusion is supported by the analysis of the content the three project reports.

2013

Magnetic wheeled climbing robot: Design and implementation

Authors
Silva, MF; Barbosa, RS; Oliveira, ALC;

Publication
Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering

Abstract
This paper presents a climbing robot, with wheeled locomotion and adhesion through permanent magnets. This machine was developed to be used in the inspection of several types of man-made ferromagnetic structures, such as towers for wind turbines, fuel storage tanks, ship hulls, etc., in order to, for instance, detect weaknesses due to corrosion. In this article are presented the main aspects taken into consideration for its design, as well as several constructive aspects, among which are detailed its mechanical and electrical construction, the implemented control architecture and the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) for its control. The distinguishing characteristic of this robot is its dynamic adjustment system of the permanent magnets to assure the machine adhesion to the surfaces when crossing slightly irregular and curved surfaces with a large radius. © 2013, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

2018

Application for automatic programming of palletizing robots

Authors
Moura, FM; Silva, MF;

Publication
2018 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS ROBOT SYSTEMS AND COMPETITIONS (ICARSC)

Abstract
Current market demands require several degrees of flexibility, speed, and repetitiveness of manufacture and logistic processes. Considering that a fourth industrial revolution is to be expected in a near future - which is highly based on smart machines, storage systems, and production facilities that cooperate to allow dynamic businesses and engineering processes - robotics presents itself as an increasingly sought-after solution, since it is often associated with such concepts. Hence, it is of no wonder that the worldwide operational stock of industrial robots has been increasing in a steady pace for the past decades and is expected to progress in such a trend. Within the several activities for robots on industrial applications, handling operations are regarded as predominant on the European market. Subsequently, palletizing applications are amongst the handling operations that have played an important role in the end stages of modern supply chains. In this context, this work aims to contextualise and develop an application for palletizing robots. This application, together with an off-line programming software (RobotStudio), allows for automatic programming of a robot's palletizing functions. Developed in the robot's native language (RAPID), the application has a basic user interface written in XML and can provide different pallet patterns. © 2018 IEEE.

2019

Waste to Fungi An EPS@ISEP 2019 Project

Authors
Winter, A; Justo, J; Silva, MF; Ferreira, P; Guedes, P; Pedro, E; Slasko, J; Battaglini, J; Faelker, M; Kivipelto, R; Duarte, AJ; Malheiro, B; Ribeiro, C;

Publication
TEEM'19: SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGICAL ECOSYSTEMS FOR ENHANCING MULTICULTURALITY

Abstract
This paper describes the journey of a multinational and multidisciplinary team enrolled in the European Project Semester (EPS) at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) during the spring semester of 2019. The team embraced the idea of repurposing coffee leftovers to cultivate oyster mushrooms and benefited from the background diversity of the team members as well as from newly acquired marketing, sustainability and design ethics skills to consolidate and strengthen the overall feasibility of the project. The project was set to design, develop and test grey oyster mushroom growth kits with an automated monitoring system, using coffee grounds as growing substrate and complying with the applicable regulations and pre-defined requirements. The ulterior aims of the project were to reconnect people with the food they eat and to disseminate sustainable food production processes, which are not only healthy but environmentally friendly. To achieve these goals, the team developed a circular economy business model where grey oyster mushroom growth kits reuse coffee grounds as growing beds and food buckets as containers. The designed growth kits include a controlled fruiting chamber with an integrated monitoring system. This allows easy domestic cultivation, monitoring through a smart phone. Moreover, the proposed solution contemplates information sharing on the mushroom cultivation process, monitoring system and recipes as well as the maintenance of a dedicated discussion forum. Tests have been conducted to test the concept, cultivation process, monitoring system and fruiting chamber from the incubation of mycelium all the way to the harvesting. Results show the feasibility of creating a business based on the devised concept. © 2019 ACM.

2019

Solar Dehydrator An EPS@ISEP 2019 Project

Authors
Szabó, D; Justo, J; Silva, MF; Ferreira, P; Guedes, P; Gillet, E; Vallés, I; Pereira, J; Keppens, M; Krommendijk, P; Duarte, AJ; Malheiro, B; Ribeiro, C;

Publication
TEEM'19: SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGICAL ECOSYSTEMS FOR ENHANCING MULTICULTURALITY

Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the development of a solar dehydrator, a project undertaken by a team of six Erasmus students from different countries during the European Project Semester at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto in the spring of 2019. The main objective of the European Project Semester is to develop teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills through team work and project-based learning. The purpose of the project was to design a sustainable solution to dehydrate and preserve food, build and test the corresponding proof-of-concept prototype, while respecting requirements such as the budget, the use of reusable materials and components or European Union directives. To achieve this goal, the team considered the technological, ethical and deontological, economic and environmental perspectives in the design of the Dryfoo prototype. This paper describes, after a short introduction, the performed research, the development and the testing of the proof-of-concept prototype, as well as the personal outcomes of this learning experience.

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