Search

Wiki articles are created and maintained by a crowd of editors, producing a continuous stream of reviews. Reviews can take the form of additions, reverts, or both. This crowdsourcing model is exposed to manipulation since neither reviews nor editors are automatically screened and purged. To protect articles against vandalism or damage, the stream of reviews can be mined to classify reviews and profile editors in real-time. The goal of this work is to anticipate and explain which reviews to revert. This way, editors are informed why their edits will be reverted. The proposed method employs stream-based processing, updating the profiling and classification models on each incoming event. The profiling uses side and content-based features employing Natural Language Processing, and editor profiles are incrementally updated based on their reviews. Since the proposed method relies on self-explainable classification algorithms, it is possible to understand why a review has been classified as a revert or a non-revert. In addition, this work contributes an algorithm for generating synthetic data for class balancing, making the final classification fairer. The proposed online method was tested with a real data set from Wikivoyage, which was balanced through the aforementioned synthetic data generation. The results attained near-90% values for all evaluation metrics (accuracy, precision, recall, and ${F}$ -measure).

Abstract As a recommendation technique based on historical user information, collaborative filtering typically predicts the classification of items using a single criterion for a given user. However, many application domains can benefit from the analysis of multiple criteria, e.g. tourists usually rate attractions (hotels, attractions, restaurants, etc.) using multiple criteria. In this paper, we argue that the personalised combination of multi-criteria data together with the creation and application of trust models should not only refine the tourist profile, but also improve the quality of the collaborative recommendations. The main contributions of this work are: (1) a novel profiling approach which takes advantage of the multi-criteria crowdsourced data and builds pairwise trust models and (2) the k-NN prediction of user ratings using trust-based neighbour selection. Significant experimental work has been performed using crowdsourced datasets from the Expedia and TripAdvisor platforms.

Autonomous land yachts can play a major role in the context of environmental monitoring, namely, in open, flat, windy regions, such as iced planes or sandy shorelines. This work addresses the design, modeling, and simulation of a land yacht probe equipped with a rigid free-rotating wing sail and tail flap. The wing was designed with a symmetrical airfoil and dimensions to provide the necessary thrust to displace the vehicle. Specifically, it proposes a novel design and simulation method for free rotating wing sail autonomous land yachts. The simulation relies on the Gazebo simulator together with the Robotic Operating System (ROS) middleware. It uses a modified Gazebo aerodynamics plugin to generate the lift and drag forces and the yawing moment, two newly created plugins, one to act as a wind sensor and the other to set the wing flap angular position, and the 3D model of the land yacht created with Fusion 360. The wing sail aligns automatically to the wind direction and can be set to any given angle of attack, stabilizing after a few seconds. Finally, the obtained polar diagram characterizes the expected sailing performance of the land yacht. The described method can be adopted to evaluate different wing sail configurations, as well as control techniques, for autonomous land yachts.

The goal of this project, one of the proposals of the EPS@ISEP Spring 2014, was to develop an Aquaponics System. Over recent years Aquaponics systems have received increased attention since they contribute to reduce the strain on resources within 1st and 3rd world countries. Aquaponics is the combination of Hydroponics and Aquaculture and mimics a natural environment in order to successfully apply and enhance the understanding of natural cycles within an indoor process. Using this knowledge of natural cycles, it was possible to create a system with capabilities similar to that of a natural environment with the support of electronics, enhancing the overall efficiency of the system. The multinational team involved in the development of this system was composed of five students from five countries and fields of study. This paper describes their solution, involving the overall design, the technology involved and the benefits it can bring to the current market. The team was able to design and render the Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings of the prototype, assemble all components, successfully test the electronics and comply with the budget. Furthermore, the designed solution was supported by a product sustainability study and included a specific marketing plan. Last but not least, the students involved in this project obtained new multidisciplinary knowledge and improved their sustainable development, social compromise, team work and cross-cultural communication skills.

Excessive fossil fuel consumption is driving the search for alternative energy production solutions and, in particular, for sustainable sources of energy such as microalgae, from which biodiesel, among other useful compounds, can be obtained. After producing the microalgae, they must be harvested and dried. Existing drying solutions consume too much energy and are, therefore, expensive and unsustainable. The goal of this EPS@ISEP Spring 2013 project was to develop a solar microalgae dryer for the microalgae laboratory of ISEP. A multinational team of five students from distinct fields of study was responsible for designing and building the solar microalgae dryer prototype. The prototype includes a control system to ensure that the microalgae are not destroyed during the drying process. The solar microalgae dryer works as a distiller, extracting the excess water from the microalgae suspension. This paper details the design steps, the building technologies, the ethical and sustainable concerns and compares the prototype with existing solutions. The proposed sustainable microalgae drying process is competitive as far as energy usage is concerned. Finally, the project contributed to increase the team’s sustainable development awareness, active learning and motivation.

Engineering education addresses the development of professional competencies in undergraduates. In this context, the core set of professional competencies includes critical thinking and problem solving, effective communication, collaboration and team building, and creativity and innovation—also known as the four Cs—as well as socio-professional ethics and sustainable development—referred in this paper as the two Ss. While the four Cs were identified by the associates of the American Management Association based on the needs of the society, professional associations, and businesses; this paper proposes the two S extension to ensure that future engineers contribute to the well-being of individuals and the preservation of life on Earth. It proposes a tangible framework—the 4C2S—and an application method to analyse the contributions made by engineering capstone programmes to the development of these core competencies in future engineering professionals. The method is applied to an engineering capstone programme—the European Project Semester (EPS) offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP)—and a specific project case—EPS@ISEP Pet Tracker project developed in 2013, constituting, in addition, a road map for the application of the 4C2S framework to engineering capstone programmes. The results show that EPS@ISEP complies with the 4C2S framework.