Tiago Faustino Andrade

Project based learning activities in engineering education

In the present work, the author reports examples of his involvement in different teaching/learning methodologies during his five years of the Integrated Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto. The aim is to explain how useful those experiences have been, allowing him to explore many techno-scientific activities within his engineering education while student as well as other transferable skills and later, up to the present, as a professional in academic environment. The author wishes to underline the excellent opportunity he had to practice reflection processes as an essential methodology of his engineering education.

Easy creation and deployment of Javascript remote labs with EjsS and Moodle

This work presents a method to quickly develop remote labs interfaces and embed them in a learning management system like Moodle. The proposed solution requires the use of Easy Javascript Simulations for the development of the interfaces and the EJSApp Moodle plugin to upload them in the learning management system. At the end, an already existing remote experience, originally intended only for testing an electronic solution, was revitalized with a new interface and features.

Simple and achievable educational projects by interconnecting different integrated circuits

This paper aims to illustrate the relevance and interest in using and teaching microcontrollers to the automation field students in a Mechanical Engineering Master Degree. It also describes examples of hands-on activity based in real world and carried out in the classroom in connection with the digital control of electronic systems, devices and processes. The microcontrollers are programmable integrated circuits incorporating a processor, memories and input/output peripherals. Through their use it is possible to design professional and educational systems with a small number of components, as in the case of the provided examples in the present work.

Virtual instrumentation for a new health care device

Nowadays, the assessment of body composition by estimating the percentage of body fat has a great impact in many fields such as nutrition, health, sports, chronic diseases and others. The main purpose for this work is to demonstrate the development of a Virtual Instrument that permits more effective assessment of body fat, automatic data processing, recording results and storage in a database, with high potential to conduct new studies.

VENTI: Experimental controller for inline duct fan

This demo exemplifies the use of a special built controller for an inline duct fan. This controller uses the temperature and humidity data, from the interior and exterior environment to implement programmable control strategies based on differential vapor pressure. The controller is able to operate the fan with variable velocity. The data from the sensors and the implemented control action are stored in a database so that it can be remotely accessed through the internet. This controller is an experimental platform to support current studies on demand-controlled ventilation and on control strategies with impact on indoor air quality and comfort.

Triceps skinfold time response and compressibility

Background: The transition from high school to college is a critical period for weight gain that corresponds to a decline in healthy behaviors. Thus, understanding the characteristics of college freshmen is needed for designing interventions to target this population. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between anthropometric measures, physical activity (PA), and eating habits in college students. Methods: Participants (N=53) were full time, first semester, female college students between the ages of 18 and 22 years old, who lived on campus and were enrolled in an obesity intervention program. At baseline, participants completed anthropometric measures (body mass index (BMI), 3-site skinfold assessment (triceps, suprailiac, and thigh), and waist circumference) and questionnaires related to their PA and eating habits. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients (r) were computed among the following variables: BMI, skinfold sum (mm), waist circumference (cm), PA (METminutes/week), and the healthy eating habits scale of a health behavior survey. Results: BMI, skinfold sum, and waist circumference were all highly correlated to each other (r≥ .8, po .001), however, none of these measures were significantly correlated to PA or the healthy eating habits scale. Furthermore, PA and the healthy eating habits scale were not significantly correlated to each other. Conclusions: Desirable anthropometric measures in female college freshmen were no more associated with healthy behaviors than in same aged peers with undesirable measures. Health behavior interventions in college students should target individuals among the entire spectrum of body composition, and not just those classified as “at risk” based on their anthropometric measures. Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.

Adding sensorial capabilities to the augmented chemical reactions application

This work intends to describe and demonstrate a haptic prototype specifically developed to work with the software application Augmented Chemical Reactions. The main goal of the application and the additional sensorial device is to improve the user immersion in chemistry learning by offering 3D molecules visualization, on a monitor, by using augmented reality technology. The application allows students to manipulate the molecules using patterns for the interface instead of the common mouse and keyboard interface.

Online material testing tutorial: Contribution for knowledge integration

This work reports on a tutorial which complements an online experiment for training purposes in mechanical material properties characterization, bridging the gap between experimental activity and theoretical concepts.

Demonstration of online experimentation using wireless sensor and actuator networks

The Information and Communication Technologies play increasingly a fundamental role to support online experimentation. In particular, Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSAN) are simultaneously a matter of interest for several engineering courses and a way to enable remote access to laboratory experiments and real systems. This work aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of WSAN, in particular using low cost implementations, for remote interaction with laboratorial systems in an online experimentation context.