ALGORITMI Research Center

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Publications

Team-based learning to enhance student’ competencies in a fluid mechanics module

Publication . Sena-Esteves, M. Teresa; Ribeiro, Margarida; Morais, Cristina; Brás-Pereira, Isabel; Guedes, Anabela; Soares, Filomena; Leão, Celina P.

To graduate students with the necessary qualities, competencies and understanding needed in professional life, Higher Education Institutions should do more than only teach content in a traditional way. Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a small-group-based active learning-teaching strategy which supports the development of essential competencies while controlling course content. In this paper a TBL experience ap plied to the Fluid Mechanics course’ viscosity module of the second year of a chem ical engineering degree, during the 1st semester of 2021/22 academic year, is pre sented. The results were obtained based on a questionnaire answered by 57 of 65 enrolled students. The competencies acquired with TBL methodology identified by students were “Team Work”, “Autonomous work”, “Discussion” and “Communi cation”. On the other side, from the teacher’s point of view, this experience was very gratifying and is to be continued and extended to other course modules. Besides these preliminary results they already show positive tendency in TBL application to enhance engineering students’ competencies.

2023Conference object

Restricted access

Literature review of decision models for the sustainable implementation of Robotic Process Automation

Publication . Patrício, Leonel; Ávila, Paulo; Varela, Leonilde; Cruz-Cunha, Maria Manuela; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Bastos, João; Castro, Helio; Silva, José

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a rules-based system for automating business processes by software bots that mimic human interactions to relieve employees from tedious work. It was verified in the literature that there are few works related to RPA decision support models. This technology is in great growth and, therefore, it becomes important to study the evaluation of the implementation of RPA. The objective of this work is focused on a literature review for the identification and analysis of Robotic Process Automation implementation models. This work analyses some models or studies available in the literature and, in addition, analyses it from a perspective relating to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) related to environmental, social and economic effects. Regarding the results obtained, it appears that there is still a lot of room to improve research in this field, for example, with regard to the development of an evaluation model for the implementation of the RPA, taking into account the TBL of the sustainability concept.

2023Journal article

Open access

Employees balance and stability as key points in organizational performance

Publication . Neves, José; Maia, Nuno; Marreiros, Goreti; Neves, Mariana; Fernandes, Ana; Ribeiro, Jorge; Araújo, Isabel; Araújo, Nuno; Ávidos, Liliana; Ferraz, Filipa; Capita, António; Lori, Nicolás; Alves, Victor; Vicente, Henrique

System analyses deal with interrelationships between different variables that keep the system in balance. In many analysis of complex thinking, a system is viewed as a complex unit in which the ‘whole’ is not reduced to the ‘sum’ of its parts; the system becomes an ambiguous item because it consists of several entities that interact with unforeseen results or, in other words, it is situated at a transdisciplinary level, it is impossible for an area to have a complete reading of its complexity. It was also mentioned that the concept of the open system best describes complexity by stating that ‘the laws of the organization are not equilibrium, but an imbalance that is restored or compensated for by stabilized dynamics’. This idea originated from the field of thermodynamics and the second law, in which the imbalance that it maintains allows the system for an apparent balance. This fragile steady state has something of a paradox, since the structures remain the same, but their constituents are changeable. The concept of open system undoes the door to a theory of evolution that can only derive from the interactions between a system and its ecosystem. Within this systemic approach, the focus of the analysis takes into account the ambiguity, multidisciplinary and complexity associated with system adjustment, i.e. it is intended to qualify an employee job based on their experience and knowledge as a measure of their impact on the organization performance.

2022Journal article

Open access

Manufacturing system and enterprise management for Industry 4.0: Guest editorial

Publication . Putnik, Goran; Ávila, Paulo

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) represents a significant step in the processes transformation in practically every industry, where the smart concept emerges in autonomous decisions and cyber-physical systems based production systems [1]. The role played by the usually referred technological pillars of I4.0 (such as internet of things (IoT), horizontal and vertical system integration, simulation, autonomous robots, big data and analytics, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, cloud computing and cybersecurity), based on technological advancements (mainly Information and Communications Technology (ICT)), in adhering to I4.0, are well known by the industry and academia (attending the huge number of research papers available), and have being implemented with more or less success. Notwithstanding the significant expected opportunities and impact of the fourth industrial revolution identified by researchers, experts are not convinced that the changes will be as significant as forecasted [2 - 4]. According to [5], only rare and recent attempts to understand the critical success factors of I4.0 implementation in manufacturing companies can be found in literature. A few recent studies reviewed in [5], point out that some of the critical factors are related to the management for I4.0. Cumulatively, the research in the field of management for I4.0, is still scarce, compared with the research on technologies for I4.0. The title of this Special Issue “Manufacturing System and Enterprise Management for Industry 4.0” is aligned with that concern and its content should be seen as a contribution to overcome management deficit problem of I4.0 implementation success. Nowadays, the challenges are related to the way how I4.0 is implemented and managed, in order to achieve the desired outcomes, economic, environmental, and social.

2021Journal article

Open access

Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals Relationships

Publication . Fonseca, Luís; Domingues, José; Dima, Alina Mihaela

Sustainable development addresses humanity’s aspiration for a better life while observing the limitations imposed by nature. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly approved the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the aim to foster the organizational operationalization and integration of sustainability and, therefore, to address the current and forthcoming stakeholder needs and ensure a better and sustainable future for all, balancing the economic, social, and environmental development. However, it is not entirely clear which are the mutual relationships among the 17 SDGs and this study aims to tackle this research gap. The results of the correlation confirm that Poverty elimination (SDG1) and Good health and well-being (SDG3) have synergetic relationships with most of the other goals. SDG7 (Affordable and clean energy) has significant relationships with other SDGs (e.g., SDG1 (No poverty), SDG2 (Zero hunger), SDG3 (Good health and well-being), SDG8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG13 (Climate action)). However, there is a moderate negative correlation with SDG12 (Responsible consumption and production), which emphasizes the need to improve energy efficiency, increase the share of clean and renewable energies and improve sustainable consumption patterns worldwide. There is also confirmation that SDG12 (Responsible consumption and production) is the goal strongly associated with trade-offs. To sum up, this research suggests that change towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals offers many opportunities for reinforcing rather than inhibiting itself. However, some SDGs show no significant correlation with other SDGs (e.g., SDG13 (Climate action) and SDG17 (Partnerships for the goals), which highlights the need for future research.

2020-04-20Journal article

Open access