Abstract

Abstract
Autonomous Vehicles are a topic of important research, also being visually appealing to the public and attractive to educators and researchers. The autonomous driving competition in the Portuguese Robotics Open tries to take advantage of this context but concerns arise from lack of participators. Participants mention the complexity of issues related to the challenge, the space occupied for the track and the budget needed for participation. This paper takes advantage of a realistic simulator under Gazebo/ROS, studies a new track design and proposes a change in the track. The analysis presented tries to ascertain if the new design facilitates the learning process that is intended for participants while keeping visual appeal for both the general public and the participants. The proposed setup for the rules and simulator is expected to address the mentioned concerns. The rule's modification and simulator are evaluated and tested, hinting that expected learning outcomes are encouraged and the track occupied area is reduced. Learning includes mobile robotics (discrete event system and continuous control), real time artificial image vision systems (2D at image recognition and processing of real world imagery seen in 3D perspective), general real world robotics such as mechanics, control, programming, batteries, systems thinking as well as transversal skills such as team cooperation, soft skills, etc. Shown results hint that the new track and realistic simulation are promising to foster learning and hopefully attract more competing teams.

Abstract
This paper presents a new technique for providing the analysis and comparison of wiretap codes in the small blocklength regime over the binary erasure wiretap channel. A major result is the development of Monte Carlo strategies for quantifying a code's equivocation, which mirrors techniques used to analyze forward error correcting codes. For this paper, we limit our analysis to coset-based wiretap codes, and give preferred strategies for calculating and/or estimating the equivocation in order of preference. We also make several comparisons of different code families. Our results indicate that there are security advantages to using algebraic codes for applications that require small to medium blocklengths. © 2017 IEEE.

Abstract
The collection and analysis of data are continuously growing due to the pervasiveness of computing devices. The analysis of such information is fostering businesses and contributing beneficially to the society in many different fields. However, this storage and flow of possibly sensitive data poses serious privacy concerns. Methods that allow the knowledge extraction from data, while preserving privacy, are known as privacy-preserving data mining (PPDM) techniques. This paper surveys the most relevant PPDM techniques from the literature and the metrics used to evaluate such techniques and presents typical applications of PPDM methods in relevant fields. Furthermore, the current challenges and open issues in PPDM are discussed. © 2017 IEEE.

Abstract
This paper presents a new technique for providing the analysis and comparison of wiretap codes in the small blocklength regime over the binary erasure wiretap channel. A major result is the development of Monte Carlo strategies for quantifying a code's equivocation, which mirrors techniques used to analyze forward error correcting codes. For this paper, we limit our analysis to coset-based wiretap codes, and give preferred strategies for calculating and/or estimating the equivocation in order of preference. We also make several comparisons of different code families. Our results indicate that there are security advantages to using algebraic codes for applications that require small to medium blocklengths.

Abstract
The exploration of the physical layer characteristics of the wireless channel is currently the object of intensive research in order to develop advanced secrecy schemes that can protect information against eavesdropping attacks. Following this line of work, in this manuscript we consider a massive MIMO system and jointly design the channel precoder and security scheme. By doing that we ensure that the precoding operation does not reduce the degree of secrecy provided by the security scheme. The fundamental working principle of the proposed technique is to apply selective random rotations in the transmitted signal at the antenna level in order to achieve a compromise between legitimate and eavesdropper channel capacities. These rotations use the phase of the reciprocal wireless channel as a common random source between the transmitter and the intended receiver. To assess the security performance, the proposed joint scheme is compared with a recently proposed approach for massive MIMO systems. The results show that, with the proposed joint design, the number of antenna elements does not influence the eavesdropper channel capacity, which is proved to be equal to zero, in contrast to previous approaches.