Event News

Luís Quaresma, Novabase

The second Windows on Companies session was held on December 16^th 2010 by Eng. Luís Quaresma, the Energy Executive Director of Novabase, an Industrial Affiliate of the MIT Portugal Program. The presentation started with an introduction to the company, a major player in the Portuguese IT sector with core businesses in Information Systems, Infra-Structures and Engineering Systems, and an investment of approximately 9 million Euros in R&D.

Novabase is building an international energy systems business centered in core energy solutions such as electric mobility, renewable management, smart grids and energy efficiency. The electric mobility platform (MOBI.E), in which Novabase is a technology partner, is the first country wide project of its kind and it consists in an intelligent charging network that can be used to charge electric vehicles. MOBI.E will be available throughout Portugal, accessible to all users and compatible with all electrical vehicles.

As Luís Quaresma explained there is a paradigm shift in Energy with major technology implications and Portugal is considered to be the living lab where platforms should be created and established to respond to these changes and needs. Therefore, Novabase main purpose is to create solutions to solve peoples’ problems.

The Windows on Companies series will continue in March and April, with Eng. Nuno Ribeiro da Silva from Endesa, Eng. Carlos Pimenta from CEEETA, and Eng. António Sá da Costa from APREN, constituting a joint effort to present MPP students with Industry major players in critical sectors of society.

This article has been recently published in the Advances Engineering Education, a Journal of Engineering Education Applications, and it is focused on the Product Design and Development (PDD) course, part of the graduate curriculum in the Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing (EDAM) study in the MIT Portugal Program. The research participants included about 110 students from MIT, EDAM, and two universities in Portugal, Instituto Superior Técnico—Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST) and the Universidade do Porto (FEUP). 

Professors Judy Dori (MIT) and Arlindo Silva (IST) investigated the PDD EDAM course in the context of the two other groups who studied a similar course in a different setting. Research tools included questionnaires, with questions related to students’ learning outcomes and perceptions as well as focus groups with EDAM faculty and students.

The EDAM course was assessed in terms of format of several concentrated two-week long periods compared with a regular semester based on students and faculty feedback. In a question related to the product life cycle stages the MIT and EDAM students listed on average a higher number of items than that of the IST and FEUP students, indicating a higher level of learning.

The learning approach that follows the MIT PDD course has been instrumental in successfully incorporating hands-on activities and student-faculty interactions into the EDAM program.

View full text:  Assessing International Product Design And Development Graduate Courses: The MIT Portugal Program

On Friday, November 12, the MIT Portugal Program paid a visit to the Escola Secundária Carlos Amarante, in Braga. This was done under the scope of the Ciência Viva initiative, “Professores MIT vão à Escola” - whose objective is to disseminate science in Portuguese high schools and to encourage students to pursue their studies in high tech fields in which MIT is a world leader. The series has reached thousands of students and facilitated informal and personal interactions with dozens of MIT faculty members at schools across Portugal.

The session at Escola Secundária Carlos Amarante was conducted for about 80 eleventh grade students, with presentations by Professors Bruce Tidor (MIT) and Lígia Rodrigues (University of Minho) - a graduate of the high school.  Professors Tidor and Rodriques were ably supported by  Joao Nuno Torres (Ciência Viva) and Hortense Santos (School Director) as they presented the session topic: “Modern Research in Bioengineering”.