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About

About

Benedita Malheiro holds a five-year degree in Electrical Engineering, and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computers Engineering, all from the University of Porto. She is a Coordinator Professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, and director of the European Project Semester. She is specialized in engineering education and, as a senior researcher of the Centre of Robotics and Autonomous Systems of INESC TEC, in solving distributed, dynamic, and decentralized problems with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed computing. She is a member of AAAI, ACM, APPIA (Portuguese Association for AI) and OE, the Portuguese Engineers Association.

Interest
Topics
Details

Details

  • Name

    Benedita Malheiro
  • Role

    Senior Researcher
  • Since

    01st January 2013
Publications

2026

Mapping Ethics in EPS@ISEP Robotics Projects

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

Publication
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Abstract
The European Project Semester (EPS), offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), is a capstone programme designed for undergraduate students in engineering, product design, and business. EPS@ISEP fosters project-based learning, promotes multicultural and interdisciplinary teamwork, and ethics- and sustainability-driven design. This study applies Natural Language Processing techniques, specifically text mining, to analyse project papers produced by EPS@ISEP teams. The proposed method aims to identify evidence of ethical concerns within EPS@ISEP projects. An innovative keyword mapping approach is introduced that first defines and refines a list of ethics-related keywords through prompt engineering. This enriched list of keywords is then used to systematically map the content of project papers. The findings indicate that the EPS@ISEP robotics project papers analysed demonstrate awareness of ethical considerations and actively incorporate them into design processes. The method presented is adaptable to various application areas, such as monitoring compliance with responsible innovation or sustainability policies. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

2025

Towards adaptive and transparent tourism recommendations: A survey

Authors
Leal, F; Veloso, B; Malheiro, B; Burguillo, JC;

Publication
EXPERT SYSTEMS

Abstract
Crowdsourced data streams are popular and extremely valuable in several domains, namely in tourism. Tourism crowdsourcing platforms rely on past tourist and business inputs to provide tailored recommendations to current users in real time. The continuous, open, dynamic and non-curated nature of the crowd-originated data demands specific stream mining techniques to support online profiling, recommendation, change detection and adaptation, explanation and evaluation. The sought techniques must, not only, continuously improve and adapt profiles and models; but must also be transparent, overcome biases, prioritize preferences, master huge data volumes and all in real time. This article surveys the state-of-art of adaptive and explainable stream recommendation, extends the taxonomy of explainable recommendations from the offline to the stream-based scenario, and identifies future research opportunities.

2025

Engineering a Sustainable Future with EPS@ISEP

Authors
Malheiro, B; Guedes, P;

Publication
World Sustainability Series

Abstract
The challenge of engineering education is to transform engineering students into agents of innovation and well-being. In addition to solid scientific and technical knowledge, critical thinking, problem-solving and interpersonal competencies, it implies the ability to design and implement solutions supported by ethical and sustainability principles. With this goal in mind, the European Project Semester (EPS) provides a student-centred project-based learning framework. It is offered by a group of European higher education institutions, including the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), the engineering school of the Polytechnic of Porto. Students work in teams of four to six, from different fields of study and nationalities, to design solutions to problems that affect individuals, society or the planet, taking into account the state of the art, the market and the ethical and sustainability implications of their decisions. These solutions are then implemented in a proof-of-concept prototype. Most of the projects address problems in education, the environment, food production and smart cities and have a strong educational, ethical and sustainability drive, encouraging students to develop sustainability competencies. This work analyses team papers of illustrative EPS@ISEP projects searching for evidences of the development of sustainability competencies. The proposed method maps keywords related to the sixteen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to the contents of team papers by applying natural language processing and reusing the list of SDG keywords proposed by Auckland University. The results confirm EPS@ISEP fosters sustainability competencies in engineering undergraduates. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

2025

Smart Pill Dispenser for Children - An EPS@ISEP 2024 Project

Authors
Ehrenhofer, L; Borowski, L; Oliveira, N; Steyaert, S; Kronshagen, T; Clauwaert, T; Duarte, AJ; Malheiro, B; Ribeiro, C; Justo, J; Silva, MF; Ferreira, P; Guedes, P;

Publication
FUTUREPROOFING ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY, ICL2024, VOL 3

Abstract
People around the globe struggle with health issues requiring regular medication. Children, in particular, suffer more and more from chronic illnesses. In 2024, a team of six EPS@ISEP students chose to design a solution for this problem, followed by the assembly and testing of the corresponding proof-of-concept prototype. The aim was to design a solution for children to take the right medication, at the right time and in the right dose, in a pleasant and engaging way, based on technical, ethical, sustainability and market analyses. Focusing on children between the ages of 8 and 12, the team decided to incorporate a motivational system based on rewards to ensure that they take their medication correctly. The outcome is billy, a pill dispenser controlled via an app which allows carers to plan doses and release rewards, and children to autonomously take their medication. The system dispenses up to 21 doses of medication to the child through fingerprint authentication, and photographs the child taking the medication to reassure carers.

2025

Breeding Endangered Beetles - An EPS@ISEP 2024 Project

Authors
Florus, C; Lattunen, J; Knäuper, J; Jugiel, K; Silva, M; Dekkers, T; Duarte, A; Malheiro, B; Ribeiro, C; Justo, J; Silva, MF; Ferreira, P; Guedes, P;

Publication
FUTUREPROOFING ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY, ICL2024, VOL 3

Abstract
Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use are key threats affecting beetle populations. This paper describes Scarabreed, a project that contributes to mitigate the beetle decline crisis. It was carried out by a team of six European students from different engineering fields and nationalities within the European Project Semester (EPS) at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), a project-based and teamwork learning framework. The designed solution - the Beetle Breeder Version 2 (BBV2) - consists of a smart modular vivarium created especially for beetle breeding. It monitors and controls relevant habitat parameters and offers two user-friendly interfaces (on-device and a Web application). The innovative modular structure of the vivarium allows easy scaling, customisation, and transportation. As a whole, the project offers significant environmental benefits: (i) facilitates the captive breeding of endangered beetle species, promoting population restoration efforts; (ii) fosters, as an educational tool, youth and general public awareness about the crucial role beetles play in ecosystems; and (iii) adopts eco-efficient and responsible business practices by following ethics and sustainability driven design and marketing.

Supervised
thesis

2023

Simulação de Cenários de Produção de Cilindros para Rotogravura

Author
NUNO BATISTA MARAVILHAS

Institution
IPP-ISEP

2023

Modelação, Controlo e Simulação de uma Estação Marítima Autónoma

Author
JOSÉ PEDRO DE FIGUEIREDO TAVARES

Institution
IPP-ISEP

2022

APIbuster Testing Framework

Author
PEDRO FERREIRA DE SOUSA

Institution
IPP-ISEP

2021

Controlo de Aerogeradores para Proteção da Avifauna

Author
JOÃO RICARDO RIBEIRO MACIO

Institution
IPP-ISEP

2021

CloudAnchor Smart Contracts

Author
EDUARDO HENRIQUE CARPINTEIRO VASCO

Institution
IPP-ISEP