Abstract
Motivation plays a key role in the learning process. This paper describes an experience in the context of undergraduate teaching of Artificial Intelligence at the Computer Science Department of the Faculty of Sciences in the University of Porto. A sophisticated competition framework, which involved Prolog programmed contenders and game servers, including an appealing GUI, was developed to motivate students on the deepening of the topics covered in class. We report on the impact that such a competitive setup caused on students' commitment, which surpassed our most optimistic expectations. © 2009 Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Vilnius.

Abstract
In the scope of the discussions about microgeneration (and microgrids), the avoided electrical losses are often pointed out as an important value to be credited to those entities. Therefore, methods to assess the impact of microgeneration on losses must be developed in order to support the definition of a suitable regulatory framework for the economic integration of microgeneration on distribution networks. This paper presents an analytical method to quantify the value of avoided losses that microgeneration may produce on LV networks. Intervals of expected avoided losses are used to account for the variation of avoided losses due to the number, size and location of microgenerators, as well as for the kind of load distribution on LV networks.

Abstract
The emergence of microgeneration has recently lead to the concept of microgrid, a network of LV consumers and producers able to export electric energy in some circumstances and also to work in an isolated way in emergency situations. Research on the organization of microgrids, control devices, functionalities and other technical aspects is presently being carried out, in order to establish a consistent technical framework to support the concept. The successful development of the microgrid concept implies the definition of a suitable regulation for its integration on distribution systems. In order to define such a regulation, the identification of costs and benefits that microgrids may bring is a crucial task. Actually, this is the basis fora discussion about the way global costs could be divided among the different agents that benefit from the development of microgrids. Among other aspects, the effect of microgrids on the reliability of the distribution network has been pointed out as an important advantage, due to the ability of isolated operation in emergency situations. This paper identifies the situations where the existence of a microgrid may reduce the interruption rate and duration and thus improve the reliability indices of the distribution network. The relevant expressions necessary to quantify the reliability are presented. An illustrative example is included, where the global influence of the microgrid in the reliability is commented.

Abstract

Abstract
Text line segmentation in freestyle handwritten documents remains an open document analysis problem. Curvilinear text lines and small gaps between neighbouring text lines present a challenge to algorithms developed for machine-printed or hand-printed documents. We investigate a general-purpose, knowledge-free method for the automatic detection of text lines based on a stable path approach. Lines affected by curvature and inclination are robustly detected. The proposed methodology was tested on a modern set of handwritten images made available on the ICDAR 2009 handwriting segmentation competition, with promissing results. © 2009 IEEE.

Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is the development of an optimization model to design grounding grids in electrical substations. The design of a grounding grid in a substation is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming problem. The developed optimization model incorporates the constructive Characteristics, as well as the technical and security requirements inherent to the construction, installation and operation of these grids. The model includes variables defining the grid characteristics according to the configurations admitted by the designer, which are selected amongst a set of pie-selected grounding designs. The definition of these configurations includes the geometry of the grid, the depth at Which the conductors will be installed and the radius of the conductor. A finite number of configurations can be generated before running the optimization process by considering all the variables in accordance with the IEEE Std 80-2000. The optimization problem also includes safety constraints related with the maximum allowed touching and step voltages, which are defined according to the fibrillation discharge limits. These fibrillation discharge limits are defined by IEEE Std 80-2000 for low frequencies for high frequencies. the limits are not the same as in 50 Hz). The model also includes the equivalent impedance of the transmission line supplying the substation where it will be located the grounding grid to be designed. As a result, the problem outputs define the most adequate grounding grid among the possible pre-selected configurations. This selection is driven by the total investment and installation costs, corresponding to the objective of the optimization model. To illustrate the interest of this research, the paper includes a case study based oil a real Situation, as all example of a potential application of this approach for engineering grounding design. Finally, it should also be referred that the scope of application of this methodology is potentially very wide given that it is in accordance with the specifications defined by the IEEE Std 80-2000.