Abstract

Abstract
Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) are repositories of large volumes of data, documented through standardized metadata. Data mining is one of the main techniques used to extract knowledge from large amounts of data, because of its versatility. The purpose of this article is to use clustering techniques and data mining to extract relationships and knowledge from metadata in SDI. For this reason, knowledge discovery techniques, clustering, text mining and data mining algorithms were used. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a case study was implemented to evaluate the performance of data mining techniques in this type of database. The results showed that the data mining process and clustering techniques guided to the classification proposed method for extracting relations and knowledge from a group of metadata extracted from within the database.

Abstract
The European Project Semester (EPS) is a one-semester capstone project/internship programme offered to engineering, product design and business undergraduates by 18 European engineering schools. EPS aims to prepare future engineers to think and act globally by adopting project-based learning and teamwork methodologies. The EPS@ISEP programme – the EPS programme provided by ISEP – the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto – started in 2011 and has since welcomed 3rd and 4th year mobility students during the spring semester. In particular, sustainable development is a pervasive concern within EPS projects. It was in this context that, in 2012, a team of EPS@ISEP students decided to develop a water disinfection system. While the technical goal of the project was to design and develop a fluid disinfection system for removing bacteria, viruses and seaweeds, the overall objective was far more ambitious: to help students learn, develop and adopt sustainable practices for their future professional life. The system was intended to be a simple and effective solution for water treatment and recycling. At a larger scale, the project contributes to the preservation of the planet's fresh water resources and to the improvement of the population’s health by eliminating harmful microorganisms from the water. This challenge was, by itself, motivational and exposed the team to new learning experiences. The team found several approaches for water treatment and, after a detailed analysis, decided to adopt Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation for the removal of microorganisms. This multidisciplinary real world problem drove the team during the semester. The team surveyed and compared different methods for water cleansing and recycling, chose one approach and, then, designed, built and tested the prototype. In addition, the students also addressed marketing, sustainability as well as the ethic and deontological issues regarding the proposed solution while developing cross-cultural understanding, teamwork and communication skills. The project provided an excellent opportunity to foster the concept of sustainable development amongst students.

Abstract
Cognitive robots, able to adapt their actions based on sensory information and the management of uncertainty, have begun to find their way into manufacturing settings. However, the full potential of these robots has not been fully exploited, largely due to the lack of vertical integration with existing IT infrastructures, such as the manufacturing execution system (MES), as part of a large-scale cyber-physical entity. This paper reports on considerations and findings from the research project STAMINA that is developing such a cognitive cyber-physical system and applying it to a concrete and well-known use case from the automotive industry. Our approach allows manufacturing tasks to be performed without human intervention, even if the available description of the environment-the world model-suffers from large uncertainties. Thus, the robot becomes an integral part of the MES, resulting in a highly flexible overall system.

Abstract
High failure and dropout rates are common in higher education institutions with introductory programming courses. Some researchers advocate that sometimes teachers don't use correct methods of assessment and that many students pass in programming without knowing how to program. In this paper authors describe the assessment methodology applied to a first year, first semester, Biomedical Engineering programming course (2015/2016). Students' programming skills were tested by playing a game in the first class, then they were assessed with three tests and a final exam, each with topics the authors considered fundamental for the students to master. A correlation analyses between the different types of tests and exam questions is done, to evaluate the most suitable, for assessing programming knowledge, showing that it is possible to use different question types as a pedagogical strategy, to assess student difficulty levels and programming skills, that help students acquire abstract, reasoning and algorithm thinking in an acceptable level. Also, it is shown that different forms of questions are equivalent to assess equal knowledge and that it is possible to predict the ability of a student to program at an early stage.

Abstract
A droop-Lyapunov based control technique using direct-quadrature (d-q) rotating frame dynamic model is presented in this paper for the frequency and voltage magnitude regulation of a stand-alone single-phase voltage-source inverter (SPVSI). Steady-state and dynamic performance of the controller are analyzed based on the d-q frame model and direct Lyapunov method respectively to satisfy control aims and system stability as operation criteria. To further clarify the operation area of the inverter, positive and negative maximum values for d-q components of inverter current are acquired by introducing a capability curve (CC) for entire operating condition. The performance of the proposed control technique is evaluated numerically in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. The simulation results validate the capability of the proposed control method in both steady-state and transient responses.