Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of INESC in Porto
Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of INESC in Porto – Special Reports on USIG, UTM and UESP
BIP is associating to the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of INESC in the city of Porto. As such, the “Special” section will, over the next months, visit each R&D Unit and group integrating the institute. More than “looking to the past”, the intention is to allow people to know INESC Porto LA’s current moment, the year in which INESC celebrates its 25th Anniversary in Porto, as well as the new goals and challenges that the next quarter of a century will bring.
Special Report on the Information and Computer Graphics Systems Unit (USIG)
The new Information and Computer Graphics Systems Unit (USIG)
USIG was born on 1 January 2010 as a consequence of the evaluation that the Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) did on the Information and Communication Systems Unit (USIC) and, generally, on the area of Computer Systems at INESC Porto. USIG was born based on that evaluation and on those recommendations.
The creation of this new R&D Unit aims to combine the scientific competences in Computer Systems that were scattered, in order to create critical mass and to strengthen research activities. USIG includes three large areas: Computer Graphics, Information Management, and Information Systems and Software Engineering. Other than the collaborators of former USIC, USIG welcomes new elements, some from UTM [Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit] and some more recent members of INESC Porto. The Unit now integrates 14 researchers with a PhD, other than several senior researchers with a vast project experience. As highlighted by António Gaspar, co-manager of USIG – a task that he shares with Fernando Silva-, “our path is still short, just a few months old, although USIG was generated last year, in a time where we were trying to identify priority research areas”.
Highlights of USIC 2000-2009
Despite its short nine year existence, USIC can be proud of a vast list of important projects. The first name to integrate the “Hall of Fame” of the Unit’s conquests is SIMAT (Municipal Information Systems – Technical Applications in SIG Technology), particularly due to the position that INESC Porto has managed to reach, articulating companies and end-users (municipalities and municipal associations) and aiming to create a market of computer applications based on Graphic Information Systems.
Other emblematic project that António Gaspar wants to highlight is MEDSI, a system for the Integration of Geographic Information capable of supporting decision-making in crisis situations. The symbolic character of this European project is justified, not only for its specific interest, but also for the fact that it led to a strong connection with one of the partners, Telefonica I+D, but also to the development of a set of projects on e-Health: CAALYX (Complete Ambient Assisting Living Experiment) and an entire line of products that followed it, like e-CAALYX, ICT4DEPRESSION and CAALYX MV (Market Validation). SIVIDA (2006) is also an import project, this time in service providing, that “reflects the competences on Medical Informatics, the relationship with the Commission of HIV-AIDS and the contribution that we want to give to solve a problem that is so important to society, as is the HIV-AIDS”, António Gaspar explains.
SCOPe (Electronic System for the Port Community), a partnership with the Port of Leixões and with the entire port community is yet another successful case in the sense that it was just the beginning of a series of other national projects involving this sector. This project “led to other national projects such as PIPe, which also involved the ports of Lisbon and Sines”. The SCOPe project was pioneer in the use of UML (Unified Modelling Language) by the end-users, and is extensively used at a national level in the port sector.
Going back to the Public Administration area, one of the Unit’s strongest sectors, it is important to highlight e-ASLA (e-Administration for Small Local Authorities) and the Collaborative Platforms for the Elaboration of PROT (Regional Plans for Town and Country Planning). In the first case, advanced solutions based on open source software were created in order to reduce costs regarding the management of business processes in small municipalities. “e-ASLA exemplifies the role that technology can play in solving a social problem. With the creation of a collaborative platform for the elaboration and public discussion of the PROT, USIC gave an “extremely relevant contribution to improve the efficiency of the process of elaborating the PROT ". The project was incredibly successful and had an interesting social impact, having been used in the PROTs for the West and Tagus Valley, Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, Centre and North Regions of Portugal”, António Gaspar explains.
The future: USIG with eyes set on new goals
For the future, the aim is to achieve more balance, through a larger investment in the services component. “USIG will remain very active in the development of projects, seeking the existing funding opportunities, in the sense that these constitute our main financial support. However, we want our activity to be scientifically innovative and not characterised almost exclusively by development. This strategy is important if we want projects to constitute a fundamental support for scientific production, involving MSc and PhD grant holders, and from there the result will be the contribution and innovation that will be translated in quality scientific publications”, explains Fernando Silva, co-manager of the new Unit.
To help make the Unit’s science more dynamic, among other initiatives, a cycle of seminars will be implemented where collaborators or other guests will participate, aiming not only to achieve an internal acknowledgement of the ongoing activities, but also the dissemination of USIG’s work at the level of INESC Porto LA so as to promote future collaborations among Units.
Special Report on the Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM)
25 Years of INESC in the city of Porto
In the year that we celebrate the 25th anniversary of INESC in the city of Porto, BIP wants to know the balance that the INESC Porto’s Unit managers make of the Unit's progress, in this case the managers of UTM, José Ruela and Augustin Olivier. To José Ruela, “INESC Porto has been presenting itself as a lively institution, capable of preserving and valorising the founding principles, and of changing and adapting so as to respond to its challenges”. The "unique cultural identity”, based on “diversity” and on “institutional solidarity”, as well as a clear model of organisation and management, constitute its main strengths, the Unit manager defends.
INESC Porto’s autonomy, after 1998, constituted an important advance for the institution. Preserving the principles under which it was founded, “and not reducing itself to a mere affirmation of regional character, INESC Porto did not stop from taking advantage of the own features of the environment it is part of”, José Ruela states. On the other hand, the model of INESC Porto LA (Associated Laboratory) had been explored to a larger extent and “has already demonstrated its virtues in the sense that it constitutes a new factor of attraction for research groups with which it is possible to establish interesting synergies”, the also university professor adds.
Project SIFO: the starting point
UTM, formally created in 1996, started in 1985 with the beginning of a mobilizing project, SIFO (Network of Optical Fibre Integrated Systems), simultaneously with the establishment of the pole of INESC in the city of Porto (INESC Norte). Most work areas in SIFO led afterwards to the establishment of autonomous research groups which would integrate UTM: Integrated Communication Networks, Advanced Services in Integrated Networks, Audio and Video Coding, Communication Systems and Microelectronics. Thus, SIFO constituted a school for the first generation of researchers of INESC in Porto. Based on that experience, the conditions were created for the beginning of the European project “adventure”.
The competences that were created and strengthened in the meantime made it possible to conclude R&D contracts with NEC Japan, between 1996 and 1998, and with BBC R&D, from 1999 to 2002. At a national level, the Unit was always “active in projects financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and by the Agência de Inovação – AdI [Innovation Agency], as well as in multiple contracts with PT Inovação, in the context of European projects or those integrated in the Innovation Plans of the PT group”. More recently, “UTM has been registering a significant participation in QREN [National Strategic Reference Framework] projects, coinciding with a predictably less favourable cycle in European programmes”, José Ruela states.
UTM: a Unit capable of renewing itself
UTM is a Unit capable of constantly changing and adapting. The current organisation in four areas is the result of a maturing process that took into account the combination of scientific competences, the definition of its great areas of intervention and the need to manage resources (associated to the execution of projects). Maintaining the initial spirit of SIFO, UTM is still a training place for MSc and PhD students, as well as for students who are starting their professional careers. Over the last years, several companies were created through the initiative of researchers integrating the Unit’s teams. Such examples are MOG Solutions, NONIUS Software, Xarevision and NextToYou.
Over the last year, the Unit participated in a set of successful projects. In terms of market applicability, three are worth highlighting: Mobiles (Sustained Electric Mobility), which started last year, and two others that started recently: Robvigil (Surveillance Robot) and LUL (Living Usability Lab For Next Generation Networks). These contracts make it possible to increase the resources dedicated to this area of research, thus consolidating INESC Porto as a scientific reference in the domains of tracking and recognition based on video and image analysis. The importance of these projects is also based on the fact that they aggregate competences from other Units and contribute to the consolidation of UTM’s strategy.
An optimistic future
José Ruela sees the future of the Unit “with optimism and confidence”. For the Unit manager “UTM’s great strength is in its people, in their dedication, sense of responsibility, and ability to take initiative and to innovate". Only this way it is possible to overcome difficulties and to respond to countless challenges, of very different natures. On the other hand, “the Unit is giving proof of its tremendous vitality with the recent launch of a large number of projects and with the establishment of new partnerships with national companies, which opens new perspectives that could not be explored in the past”. UTM’s scientific base is solid, and it is continuously strengthened and updated, namely within ongoing PhD programmes.
For the upcoming years, the intention is to strengthen the Unit’s capacity to play an important role in the market. According to Augustin Olivier, there are "work groups with interesting projects that could easily be implemented in the market with products and solutions that constitute significant assets, as is the case of RobVigil”.
Special Report on the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit (UESP)
An "exceptionally positive" balance
Once again, the team of BIP wanted to know the balance that the Unit managers of UESP make of the 25 years of INESC in Porto. The managers, Luís Carneiro and Jorge Pinho de Sousa, categorically agree that the "balance is exceptionally positive", stating that “the results are visible, not only at the level of scientific activity, but also regarding the people that were trained during this period of time, the projects that were developed with the industry or even the products that were put on the market with the collaboration of INESC Porto”.
UESP has been growing in a sustained way throughout the years. The Unit is currently involved in seven European projects (and several others will be launched soon), as well as in a high number of national projects, R&D and consulting contracts for companies. “We strongly believe that the industry plays a fundamental role in the sustainability of the current social model in Portugal and in the rest of Europe, and thus it is necessary to react to the competitive pressures with organisational processes, manufacturing systems and products that are more and more innovative”. In this context, “institutions such as INESC Porto may give an important contribution to the fulfilment of this challenge, supporting industrial companies in terms of management models, manufacturing and information systems", Luís Carneiro considers. Innovative business management and decision-support systems should help "us get a better perception on the market and guarantee its sustainability in largely competitive environments”, UESP’s manager adds. Luís Carneiro also considers that UESP’s growth, especially over the last two years, is the result of the "intensification of the contact with companies" and of the "development of a set of partnerships at a European level, including the participation in the European platform Manufuture, where INESC Porto’s Board of Directors has been participating quite actively.”
Logic Store, X-CITTIC and Scheduler: three landmarks in the Unit’s evolution
The Unit managers highlight some of the Unit’s most important landmarks for their importance in launching new R&D activities, : Logic Store, X-CITTIC and, more recently, the Scheduler. Logic Store, developed in collaboration with LIREL (consumer goods company) and with the Portuguese Footwear Centre, aimed at creating a seam line automation system for the footwear industry. This project succeeded immensely in the market, as a result of the commercialization of a few dozens of those systems in Portugal and abroad. This was “an incredibly important partnership with this industry in the sense that it was the starting point for one of the activities that is one of UESP’s strongest areas to this day – internal logistics”, Luís Carneiro states.
Another important landmark was the X-CITTIC. This European project, which started in 1996 and is entitled “Planning and Control System for the Semiconductor Supply Chains”, was the first work on the management of supply chains and business networks. The project was led by the Imperial College in London, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. “With X-CITTIC, we crossed the company’s border and we began understanding how an industrial company can articulate more effectively with its business partners throughout the supply chain”, Luís Carneiro explains. This project was the starting point for several other projects in the area of supply chain management and, afterwards, in e-business and collaborative networks in companies, with application in several sectors. Finally, UESP’s coordination also wants to mention a more recent project, this time on operation scheduling in industrial environments, in the context of which a software (“Scheduler”) was developed and commercialized by SoftI9 in Portugal, and by i68 in Spain. Both Luís Carneiro and Jorge Pinho de Sousa have no doubt that this partnership brought excellent results, not only for research, but also in terms of market. The project has already been applied in dozens of companies in the Iberian Peninsula, and was put on the market through a network that includes partnerships in Germany and in Austria.
A “confident and optimistic” future
For the future, UESP wants to keep growing in R&D and in consulting services and both Unit managers say they are “confident and optimistic”. In fact, "we are a group of people who believe that Portugal and Europe only have a future if they invest in the production of high added value goods and services and in their commercialization in external markets. This is surely the only way to compensate for our imports ", Luís Carneiro states. The strategic investment in research is, now, a determining factor for the Unit’s future. Throughout the years, UESP created a body of knowledge and scientific competences in several areas, such as Operational Research, Decision-support Systems, Metaheuristics and Multicriteria Analysis, Operation Management, Cutting and Packaging Problems, Collaborative Networks and the Management of Information and Knowledge. These solid competences, acknowledged by the participation in international meetings and in the publication of articles in scientific journals, are fundamental elements for R&D projects that integrate a strong component of know-how in information technologies and systems, thus resulting in innovative products and services with a greater impact on the companies’ performances.
On the other hand, the investment in European projects is fundamental in the sense that it enables more ambitious research and, on the other hand, the establishment of partnerships with the best R&D institutions in Europe. On the other hand, UESP’s ability to provide quality consulting services, of transferring knowledge and the developed tools, not only in European research projects, but also in national projects (as those supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT), is equally important. With the predictable reduction of structural funds, the Unit will have to compete for R&D support funds and continue to provide quality consulting services to the industry so as to guarantee its stability and quality of work.
