Maria Teresa Restivo

Publications (82) View all

• Article: Measuring relative acceleration: a relative angular acceleration prototype transducer

  Maria Teresa Restivo, Fernando Gomes de Almeida, Diamantino Freitas
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  ABSTRACT: The present paper describes a novel prototype transducer for the measurement of relative angular acceleration. This transducer, of contactless type, is based on eddy current induction within a conductor slab moving in the presence of permanent magnets and its contactless working principle is readily applicable to the measurement of linear or angular relative acceleration. The precision mechanics and the sensing element design of a prototype for an angular version of the transducer were based on FEM studies. The experimental results of the prototype performance are also presented.
  Measurement Science and Technology 01/2013; 24(2). · 1.49 Impact Factor
• Article: Online Experimentation @ REV2012

  MAria Teresa Restivo, Alberto Cardoso
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  ABSTRACT: In conferences, a participant is supposed to present his/her work to the audience in around 15-20 minutes. When the topics are in the experimental field multimedia components like pictures, video clips or animations are recommended to give to the experimental issues as much realism as possible. In topics like online engineering it is mandatory to have real resource demonstrations. A new model for specific conferences like those on online engineering topics has been implemented. Participants are invited to get together and try to demonstrate their online resources.
  International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE) 01/2013; 9(Special Issue):4-6.
• Article: Mentoring Activities in a Summer School

  José Couto Marques, Maria Teresa Restivo, Maria de Fátima Chouzal
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  ABSTRACT: Universidade Júnior is a very large educational program for the promotion of knowledge among preuniversity children and teenagers launched in 2005 by U.Porto. This extremely popular initiative is currently attracting around 5000 students per year for a variety of learning activities and small research projects offered by the 14 Faculties of U.Porto during July and September. Besides providing a foretaste of university life and vocational orientation, they also give the youngsters a strong incentive to continue their studies into higher education and a knowledge- based career. A key element to the success of this process is the mentoring activity that is developed at two levels: between faculty and the junior tutors and between these and the young students.
  01/2013; 3(Special Issue):16-21.
• Article: Promoting Remote and Virtual Labs in Portugal

  Maria Teresa Restivo, Alberto Cardoso
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  ABSTRACT: Experimental activities are essential and contribute definitely to prepare future engineers for solving practical problems and for consolidating theoretical understanding and volatile knowledge based on abstract concepts. They are also fundamental for training engineers and engineering scientists. And finally experimental activities need rigor and procedure methodology in order to be correctly used in validation of new theoretical results or predictions. Remote and virtual experiments, online labs, enlarge the world capabilities in experimental activities and contribute for collaborative work using emergent technologies, bringing together engineers, researchers and professionals from different areas. During last decade much interest has been generated around remote and virtual labs allowing students, technicians and engineers to interact with remote and virtual experiments in higher education, in lifelong professional development, in industrial training, in industrial activities or even in making available very sophisticated equipment or new resources for “digital divide”. In an epoch of a strong students’ mobility the European economic slowdown context will bring negative consequences. Remote and virtual experiments will be an interesting help to improve collaborative intercultural students activities. The European populations ageing continue to age to unprecedented levels. Later retirement brings new requirements in lifelong learning in order to upto- date professionals. pt.lab2go, the Portuguese version of lab2go Web platform, is a consortium recently created for fostering the Portuguese potential in online labs.
  01/2013; 3(Special Issue):11-15.
• Article: A review of virtual reality and haptics for product assembly (part 1): rigid parts

  PingJun Xia, António M. Lopes, Maria Teresa Restivo
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  ABSTRACT: Purpose – Virtual reality (VR) for product assembly has been studied for more than 20 years but its practical application in industry is still very much in its infancy. Haptics is a new and important interaction method for VR and a strong and growing research area, however, it still remains a virtually unknown concept for industrial application. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a comprehensive survey of VR and haptics for product assembly, from rigid parts to soft cables. Findings – Some new ideas and research progresses in recent years are especially investigated. First the concepts and classifications of virtual assembly are introduced and the different virtual environment systems for product assembly are discussed. Then the major research groups, typical systems and major research issues are explored in detail, treating rigid parts and soft cables separately. Lastly, the barriers preventing successful application of virtual assembly are discussed and future research directions are also summarized. Originality/value – The paper provides an overview and analysis of VR and haptics for product assembly, including both rigid parts and soft cables.
  Assembly Automation 01/2013; 33(1):68-77. · 0.58 Impact Factor