Abstract
Every year thousands of students apply for access to higher education in Portuguese universities. These students are allocated according to their application, secondary school grades and their preference to distinct establishment-course pairs. Despite official statistics provided by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES), it is not always possible to have the relevant indicators for universities make a good decision concerning courses and vacancies to offer. This study evaluates the factors that influence students in their choice of a pair establishment-course as well as understand the different variables that are related to the same attribution of influence. The study is observational and empirical using questionnaires, with the appropriate statistical analysis. The results showed a relation in greater number among the studied factors and gender. In conclusion the prestige of the institution, employment and intellectual development are the factors most valued by students. © 2014 AISTI.

Abstract
Internet of Things (IoT) is seen as the future of Internet. We will step out from typical current communication paradigm, to a much wider spectrum, where normal "things" will talk to each other, independent of human interaction. Emphasizing its importance in health industry, it can save lives and improve the ageing and disabled population's quality of living. It is not just things connected to the Internet - it is intelligent systems that we will be able to build on top of IoT that will introduce us to a better quality of life. However, IoT is facing a major problem: fragmentation and interoperability problems. If we want things to communicate with each other, intelligently and autonomously, then the new future Internet must be structured to allow such thing. The industry must adopt current standards and provide interoperability among other systems and developers must be aware of this issue too. Every new device should be IoT proof for future integration in IoT. In this article, there is a focus on these health-related use cases where they are detailed and explained how IoT could be deployed to aid in specific cases. The second part of the article takes the current IoT problem and tackles its issues, presenting a communication paradigm and proposes a new IoT system's architecture.

Abstract
The access to instruments that allow higher autonomy to people is increasing and the scientific community is giving special attention on designing and developing such systems. Intelligent Wheelchairs (IW) are an example of how the knowledge on robotics and artificial intelligence may be applied to this field. IWs can have different interfaces and multimodal interfaces enabling several inputs such as head movements, joystick, facial expressions and voice commands. This paper describes the foundations for creating a simple procedure for extracting user profiles, which can be used to adequately select the best IW command mode for each user. The methodology consists on an interactive wizard composed by a flexible set of simple tasks presented to the user, and a method for extracting and analyzing the user's execution of those tasks. The results showed that it is possible to extract simple user profiles, using the proposed method. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.

Abstract
This paper briefly presents the research performed in the context of FC Portugal project concerning coordination methodologies applied to robotic soccer. FC Portugal's research has been integrated in several teams that have participated with considerable success in distinct RoboCup leagues and competitions. The paper includes a brief description of the main RoboCup competitions in which FC Portugal (and associated teams) has participated with focus in the simulation leagues and related challenges. It also presents a complete state of the art concerning coordination methodologies applied to robotic soccer followed by FC Portugal main contributions on this area. The team contributions include methodologies for strategic reasoning, coaching, strategic positioning, dynamic role exchange and flexible setplay definition and execution. These methodologies compose a complete coordination framework that enable a robotic team to play soccer or execute similar tasks. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.

Abstract
Nowadays more than 700 million persons around the world have some kind of disability or handicap. During the last decades the elderly population in most of the European countries and across all the most civilized countries is also growing at an increasing pace. This phenomenon is receiving increasing attention from the scientific community, during the last years, and several solutions are being proposed in order to allow a more independent life to the people belonging to those groups. In this context Intelligent Wheelchairs (IW) are instruments that are a natural development of the scientific work that has been conducted to improve the traditional Wheelchair characteristics using health informatics, assistive robotics and human computer interface technologies. Some of the most important features of the IW are their navigation capabilities and automatic adaptation of their interface to the user. This paper presents the evolution and state of art concerning IWs prototypes and simulators and intelligent human-computer interfaces in the context of this devices. Our study enabled us to conclude that although several Intelligent Wheelchair prototypes are being developed in a large number of research projects, around the world, the adaptation of their user interface to the patient is an often neglected research topic. Thus, projects aiming at developing new concepts of Intelligent Wheelchairs are needed mainly using multimodal interfaces and wheelchair interfaces adapted to the user characteristics.

Abstract
Wheelchairs are important locomotion devices for handicapped and senior people. With the increase in the number of senior citizens and the increment of people bearing physical deficiencies, there is a growing demand for safer and more comfortable wheelchairs. So the new Intelligent Wheelchair (IW) concept was introduced. Like many other robotic systems, the main capabilities of an intelligent wheelchair should be: autonomous navigation with safety, flexibility and capability of avoiding obstacles; intelligent interface with the user; communication with other devices. In order to achieve these capabilities a good testbed is needed on which trials and users' training may be safely conducted. This paper presents an extensible virtual environment simulator of an intelligent wheelchair to fulfill that purpose. The simulator combines the main features of robotic simulators with those built for training and evaluation of prospective wheelchair users. Experiments with the real prototype allowed having results and information to model the virtual intelligent wheelchair. Several experiments with real users of electric wheelchairs (suffering from cerebral palsy) and potential users of an intelligent wheelchair were performed. The System Usability Score allowed having the perception of the users in terms of the usability of the IW in the virtual environment. The mean score was 72 indicating a satisfactory level of the usability. It was possible to conclude with the experiments that the virtual intelligent wheelchair and environment are usable instruments to test and train potential users.