| News Student Profile: Jorge Lopes, PhD in Transportation Systems |
| Monday, 30 January 2012 |  Jorge Lopes is the first PhD student under the MIT Portugal Program to graduate in Transportation Systems. Jorge, who started is PhD in 2008, has developed research integrated into the City Motion project promoted by MIT Portugal. The work presented on the thesis entitled “Traffic Prediction for Unplanned Events on Motorways” offers a service platform capable of generating traffic forecasts for short-term traffic conditions (unplanned events or incidents) on highways. This study was complemented by real case-studies that proved the performance of the proposed solution with real traffic and actual incidents from A5 - Estoril Coast Highway. Jorge PhD was supervised by João Bento (IST) and Moshe Ben-Akiva (MIT) and was developed in partnership with BRISA, Jorge’s employer company and partner of the project City Motion, aiming to improve the performance and service reliability of transport highways.
1) Where are you from? Proença-a-Nova, Portugal 2) How did you learn about the MIT Portugal Program and what motivated you to apply for a PhD in Transportation Systems? Since I join Brisa, in 2001, I’ve been involved in a couple of R&D projects, investigating and developing solutions to thoroughly apply Intelligent Transport Systems concepts. As part of this networking research, there was a collaboration between Brisa and the ITS research group of MIT. Besides my strong interest in this research topic I was strongly convinced by the positive contribution of my background knowledge and professional experience for the success of such collaboration program and therefore the positive contribution for the ITS field and for the development of my own competences 3) What was your research project about and what do you hope to achieve? My research project aims to improve the operational performance and reliability of motorway transportation systems, by applying proactive management strategies based on dynamic traffic and demand management. To this end I propose a model-based approach to predict traffic and demand under the influence of unexpected events or incidents. The final goal is to anticipate network conditions in order to address congestion both influencing the car usage and improving the efficiency on congested facilities 4) What are the major benefits of this project on peoples’ lives? The actual model framework developed throughout this research has revealed promising results. Effective benefits on peoples’ lives can be found in applications to improve road safety by informing en-route drivers to adjust route choice and prevent shockwave crashes. Can also be used to improve mobility and route guidance by providing timely information on expected travel conditions to travelers prior their trip or while en-route. 5) How do you see this area evolving in the future? In the sustainable mobility era it is necessary to count on transportation businesses to contribute to the economic development, environmental protection, social equity and human welfare. To this end, transportation systems have to mitigate its own negative effects as exhibited by congestion, accidents, emissions and resources consumption. 6) How do you think this kind of research project/ international partnership can positively contribute for Portugal’s economic development? Over the past 20 years, Portugal has invested increasingly in modern motorway systems, mostly to encourage industrial development, trade and social cohesion. This open research project can contribute positively to improve the quality, efficiency and sustainability of transportation systems and infrastructures. Leading companies and R&D groups can also take advantage of national developments and experiments to create new business opportunities in international markets. 7) How was your experience at MIT? It was mostly an experience with MIT, since I haven’t had a long stay at MIT but about a dozen short visits in the last four years. On the other hand, my research topic was fully integrated with the past and current research program of MIT ITS Lab, namely with the DynaMIT simulation platform, which was a great opportunity to get involved with past researchers and to contribute to the future. |
| Announcing the 2012 MIT Energy Conference |
| Tuesday, 24 January 2012 | Every year, thought-leaders in energy descend on MIT for one primary reason: to formulate powerful, productive ideas in the face of a rapidly changing industry. On March 16th and 17th this year's MIT Energy Conference will explore the challenge, and promise, of Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times. From the failure at Fukishima to the fall of Solyndra, the past year has been witness to several destabilizing events across the known energy landscape. However, despite the ambient sense of uncertainty around the globe, a different spirit animates MIT, where the pace of research discovery carries on, students and faculty of wide-ranging discipline interact, and critical new concepts, collaborations, and ventures emerge year after year. We invite you to visit our newly redesigned website, where you explore the topics we have chosen for this year's panels and workshops, and find continual updates on keynotes, speakers, and more on offer at the 2012 Conference. Lastly, mark your calenders! Early bird tickets for the 2012 MIT Energy Conference will go on sale January 30, 2012 at 1PM EST and are available via a registration link on our website. We are looking forward to seeing you at this year's event! 
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Design CONTEST for the MIT Portugal Energy Club |
| Tuesday, 24 January 2012 | The MIT Portugal Energy Club is a recently-created student led multidisciplinary forum that seeks to advance knowledge, promote the debate, and develop synergies within industry, academia and the civil society. The MIT Portugal Energy Club is looking for an inspiring official brand design representing the values and vision of the club: the union of different players on the energy sector to promote discussion and knowledge transfer. It is all about sharing and debating energy starting from the campus to a national scale. This contest challenges you to create an original official brand design package, including an iconic logo, color scheme, tagline, etc, however we will leave it to you how you will mature your ideas and concept. Put your creativity into practice until February 5th! The winning brand package will be used in the 2012 Energy Club official image and all the associated endeavors: website, events, competitions, endorsements! We will acknowledge your work by letting the World know about it! For more information on how to participate, go to the MIT Portugal Energy Club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MIT.Portugal.Energy.Club 
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Public sessions on "Biomedical Devices and Technologies" |
| Monday, 23 January 2012 | From 30th of Janury untill 10th of February, Instituto Superior Técnico will host the course "Biomedical Devices and Technologies". This is an elective course that unfolds under the key area of Bioengineering Systems of the MIT-Portugal Program (MPP) and will bring together experts from Academia, Medicine and Industry with the objective of providing an integrated and comprehensive perspective of the addressed topics. Session are open to the public upon prior registration at the website http://biomechatronics.ist.utl.pt/eventscourses/mit201112/ : - Human Movement Simulation and Analysis - M. T. Silva, IST, MIT
- The Impact of a Bioengineer in the Orthopaedic Field - Manuel Cassiano Neves, CUF Descobertas
- Conservative Hip Surgery: Present and Future Challenges - Paulo Rego, HL
- Computational Modelling of Orthopaedic Devices - P. Fernandes, IST
- Prosthetic Devices for the Lower and Upper Limbs: Present and Future - R. Marcelino, Otto Bock
- Tissue Characterization by Image Analysis for Diagnostic Purposes -J. Sanches, IST
- Neuroimaging: from methods to applications - P. Figueiredo, IST
- Human Factors of Biomedical Devices - L. Young, MIT
- Powered Leg Prostheses and Orthoses - M. Williams, MIT; H. Herr, MIT
- Hybrid Human - D. Newman, MIT
- Towards more natural Human-Robot Interaction - E. Bicho, UMinho
- Microsystems Technologies for Implantable Devices - L. Rocha, UMinho
The course is organized by Miguel Silva (IST), Jorge Martins (IST) and Dava Newman (MIT) |
WS Energia is the most recent MIT Portugal Research Affiliate |
| Tuesday, 17 January 2012 |  WS Energia is the most recent MIT Portugal Research Affiliate. This agreement will bring unique benefits concerning the promotion and reinforcement of its scientific and technological capacity.
Included in this initiative Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and WS Energia, signed a memorandum of understanding for the creation and sponsor of “WS Energia Invited Chair” in Energy. This initiative aims to create a worldwide R&D structure to develop management and energy production innovations accessible for any end-user worldwide. These agreements are important contributions for the joint investment in new national R&D structures that attract international talents and reinforce the capacity of leading institutions in the academic and entrepreneur field to introduce innovations in the global market. |
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