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Student Profile: Lia Oliveira

Wednesday, 01 September 2010 09:27

This article profiles FEUP-based Leaders for Technical Industries doctoral student Lia Oliveira, who returned to Portugal in the summer of 2010 after a four-month research stay at MIT.

LiaOliveiraMITDome_forweb2

LTI doctoral student Lia Oliveira during her MIT research visit

 How did you learn about MIT Portugal and what motivated you to apply for the LTI PhD of the MIT Portugal Program?

When I finished my MSc, I was strongly motivated to go on studying, as a way to increase my knowledge and personal skills to work for technology-based companies, in the development of new products and processes. Another interesting challenge was the possibility of contributing to start a small company in Portugal, capable of producing technology-based products, with new, innovative methodologies. The LTI PhD Program represented a unique and challenging opportunity to improve the knowledge and skills previously obtained at UM (University of Minho).

I had already listened about the MIT Portugal Program, but it was a professor I had at UM (Manuel Lopes Nunes) that encouraged and helped me with this idea. He played a fundamental role in my decision to apply to the LTI Program.  

 What is your research area/ area of research interest?

My main research interests are Operations Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Network Planning and Design.

 Could you please explain to us what your research project is about and what you hope to achieve?

The main goal of this research project is to design a methodology and a set of tools for supply chain management, to help coping with more and more demanding market requirements. Higher levels of flexibility and collaboration in complex supply chain networks will allow a significant increase of competitiveness. Therefore this research aims at creating a methodology for supporting supply networks coordination activities, a collaborative platform to guarantee higher levels of visibility and information sharing among the supply network partners, and a set of tools that can help these companies to set up and operate more successful collaborative networks.

The main expected result of the research is a comprehensive framework (a methodology and a set of computer based tools) to support strategic and tactical decision making in the planning of complex supply chains. This framework will hopefully have a considerable impact in the performance of companies, especially in improving their flexibility to deal with rather dynamic, unstable business environments, and more demanding markets.  

 What is your thesis topic? Is it in the context of an MIT Portugal Program research project?

My thesis topic is “Increasing flexibility and collaboration in the automotive supply chain network”.  Yes, it is in context of the FLEXINET research project.  

Why did you choose Grupo Simoldes to develop your case study?

In fact it was not my choice… They had been contacted by one of my supervisors (Jorge Pinho de Sousa) to join the FLEXINET project. The complexity and characteristics of their operations fit extremely well in our general research objectives. We therefore expect to build our models partially inspired in their experience and will hopefully be able to validate our results with them.

Tell us a bit more about your experience at Grupo Simoldes.

After some preliminary exploratory meetings, this collaboration, in a more structured way, has just started a couple of weeks ago. The experience has been very good, and for me, to work with them, on a regular basis, has been a very enriching experience and will hopefully strongly contribute to the success of my PhD.

What are the major benefits of this project for Grupo Simoldes?

Our research is in no way constrained by the “potential” applications in the case study. But ultimately we expect that some results will be useful for them, in terms of providing methods and tools for supporting the assessment and reconfiguration of their complex supply network organization.

How you think this kind of research projects/ international partnerships can contribute and cause impact in Portugal’s economic development?

First, I think we can all benefit a lot from exchanging experiences and knowledge with other people and institutions with different cultures and organization, as this will broaden our vision, enhance our thoughts and ideas and help us to develop more efficient ways to work…

Second, as I have said before, the main expected result of our research is a comprehensive framework to support strategic and tactical decision making in the planning and management of complex supply chains. This framework will hopefully have a considerable impact in the performance of companies, especially in improving their flexibility to deal with dynamic, unstable business environments, and more demanding markets. Consequently, it will provide companies with better tools for being successful in an increasingly competitive market. In social terms, these goals may be quite relevant by providing more stable labor environments and contributing for the maintenance and creation of jobs, in rather deprived areas.

How did you come to be studying and working at MIT?

As planned I spent one semester in Cambridge as part of my PhD program. This had been considered by my supervisors as an important part of my education and training. I benefited a lot, not only from attending courses but also from the strong interaction with my colleagues and faculty members (in particular with my supervisor at MIT, Professor Richard de Neufville).

Is there anything about being at MIT that has surprised you? Did your stay there meet your expectations?

Definitively, yes. I expected to find a different culture and different ways and paces of working. But it was even better than my expectations. The MIT experience gave me a new understanding of scientific research and of a PhD thesis development, with new methodologies and working paces. This was a great opportunity for me, both in academic and personal terms. It opened my horizons concerning research methodologies and scientific work. I was also given the valuable opportunity to take some MIT classes, as a non-credit student, joining MIT students in several assignments. I was really fortunate to enroll in these courses, not only because the academic level exceeded all my expectations. This was particularly true in a scientific domain - Supply Chain Management - that is rather novel in Portugal and therefore still faces a few problems in terms of academic research background.

Another important issue was the MPP staff (Gerri Powers; Beverly; Robin Lemp) that gave me a very good and warm support whenever I needed. Frankly I didn’t expect so much…

What do you hope to do when you complete your degree?

This is a very difficult question... I’m not sure about that because, some time ago I would have answered that I would return to an industrial environment but, now I‘m finding things in the research activity that really fascinate me!

 

AirNets project highlighted in Portuguese media

Wednesday, 01 September 2010 08:37

The AirNets project was the subject of a long article in one of Portugal's leading business magazines, "Executive Digest." Written by AirNets principal investigator António Pais Antunes of the University of Coimbra, the article describes how AirNets has developed models to help fight congestion in major airports and air networks, which already are being used by Portuguese airline TAP and other major transportation companies and organizations.

The full text of the article (in Portuguese) is available here: 

icon AirNets article, Executive Digest, August 2010

You may also download a recent technical presentation by the AirNets team made at the 12th World Congress on Transportation Research in Lisbon in July 2010:

icon Research In Airports and Air Transport in the MIT Portugal Program

 

FCT Announces Six Winning Projects in 2009 MPP Open Call

Tuesday, 03 August 2010 09:55

1.2M Euro total awards to support joint efforts by Portuguese, MIT researchers and industry partners

The Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) has announced the six projects that were selected to receive funding totaling 1.2M Euros in the 2009 FCT open call for research and development projects in the framework of the MIT-Portugal Program.

The areas of emphasis of the selected projects range across the Program’s four targeted application areas of Sustainable Energy and Transportation Systems, Stem Cell Engineering for Regenerative Medicine, Materials and Design-Inspired Products, and Engineering Systems Fundamentals.

The table below indicates the Portuguese and MIT principal investigators (PIs) for each awarded project, along with industry and other non-academic participating institutions:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The official announcement by FCT is also available.


 

Transportation Systems Faculty Present Research Achievements at 12th World Conference on Transport Research

Thursday, 29 July 2010 14:44

A special session highlighted the achievements of MIT-Portugal research in Transportation Systems at the 12th World Conference on Transport Research, chaired by MIT-Portugal Transportation Systems co-coordinator José Viegas in Lisbon from July 11-15, 2010.

Viegas, in presenting an overview of this research alongside MIT co-coordinator Chris Zegras, pointed to the group’s pioneering of new analytical techniques and new applications to the Portuguese transport sector, in the context of a robust trans-Atlantic collaboration built upon many long-term visits in both directions by PhD students of MIT and Portuguese institutions.

Separate presentations addressed the work of Integration projects and those in the high-speed rail and air networks arenas. These projects have attracted the support and collaboration of relevant transport operators and private companies, including RAVE, Lisbon taxi operators, and a consortium exploring Germany’s airport expansion priorities.

Click here to download the full presentations made at the MIT-Portugal session.aWCTRS

 

SOTUR Team Convenes Key Transport Stakeholders to Link Development Scenarios to Local Realities

Thursday, 29 July 2010 13:25

What does the future hold for Portugal’s cities?  Will national policies spark a renewed economy? Will population and economic growth stagnate?  And given the possible scenarios of the future, what strategies should cities adopt today?

The MIT-Portugal Program’s Strategic Options for Integrating Transportation Innovations and Urban Revitalization (SOTUR) team raised these questions on July 9th, 2010, as it convened a group of Portuguese engineers, architects, politicians, and other experts in Lisbon to continue ongoing discussions of urban and transportation planning and policy in Portugal.  In the last of three stakeholder workshops, the research team presented the results of two-plus years of work in urban systems modeling, developed under the SOTUR project, which aims to identify possibilities for leveraging the land use-transportation interactions to enhance urban revitalization in Portuguese cities.

The analysis presented built on the ideas developed during the previous SOTUR stakeholder workshops, which began early this year. The series of three workshops was designed to collaboratively develop scenarios of the future; identify possible intervention measures; and, ultimately, better link the integrated urban development-transport models developed by the SOTUR team with local reality and stakeholders.  In the first two workshops (held in Coimbra in January and Porto in March), participants helped to construct three potential future scenarios—subsequently named “New Dynamics,” “Social Crisis,” and “Technology as a Way of Development.”  The research team used these narratives of the future as the background parameters in applying integrated quantitative models, the methodology and results of which were presented last Friday.

The SOTUR team hoped that, after seeing the demonstration of modeling techniques, stakeholders would consider how the methods might benefit their organizations and, more generally, planning in the country.

Stakeholders praise candid discussions

Several stakeholders said they benefitted from the discussions of how to improve urban policy.  Among them was Margarida Saavedra, of the Empresa Pública de Urbanização de Lisboa (Public Development Company of Lisbon), who said, “I think the achievement is that we all started to think about it and to be concerned.  Maybe some of the conclusions [about potential policies] are not that suitable for Lisbon because we have a different reality.  But the fundamental thing was to meet with all the people—because they are people who you do not meet every day—and to hear what they have to say.”

Speaking on how Lisbon’s public transport company, Carris, had benefitted from the workshops, Carlos Miguel said that he had gained new ideas from the events, but that his company’s limited authority over issues other than transport continued to present a barrier to further action.  Catarina Marcelino, of the Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes Terrestres (Institute for Mobility and Land Transport), also agreed on the importance of beginning dialogue, but noted that policy makers needed to do more to find solutions for particularities of Lisbon.

The meeting also gave MIT students the opportunity to see their work in context.  Li Weifeng, Ph.D candidate in MIT’s Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, said of the workshop, “I believe the visit in Lisbon, especially the participation in the stakeholder workshop, has helped to broaden my understanding of the Portuguese's outstanding concerns.”  Others visiting from MIT included Chris Grillo, Shan Jiang, Lisa Rayle, and Yi Zhu, who joined MPP Transportation Systems student Luís Martinez, Camila Garcia, and Maria Spandou from the Instituto Superior Técnico and Nuno Pinto and Ashenafi Aregawi from the University of Coimbra.  The workshop was led by Professors António Pais Antunes (Coimbra), Rosário Macário (IST), and Chris Zegras (MIT).

After lunch, Professor Joseph Ferreira of MIT demonstrated the capabilities of the online, interactive data portal developed as part of the project.  He stressed the value of data-sharing and urged stakeholders to collaborate in data gathering.  The interest of stakeholders in this suggestion was encouraging, yet a reminder that the workshop had focused on methods—effective policy solutions still lay in the future.

According to Catarina Saavedra of EPUL, “We have a long way to go before we have results.  But we have a good start and the next step is to work together because we all have different experiences and have something to contribute.”

You may download the presentations from the SOTUR workshop.

 
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