Fernando Cassola

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Verified

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• PhD in Computer Science
• Auxiliary Professor (invited) at University of Porto

Understanding ocean dynamics is a challenging and costly endeavor that requires advanced technologies and methods to collect, process and represent data. An essential aspect of a digital twin for the ocean is the capability to visualize multi-source heterogeneous data in a digital representation. We propose an agnostic technology solution that supp...

The objective of this work was to support the sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments, which face varied obstacles, including the lack of support infrastructures for active learning pedagogies. Sustainability from the perspective of the integration of these environments in educational practice entails situational awareness, worklo...

The use of virtual reality (VR) for industrial training helps minimize risks and costs by allowing more frequent and varied use of experiential learning activities, leading to active and improved learning. However, creating VR training experiences is costly and time-consuming, requiring software development experts. Additionally, current authoring...

Reducing office buildings’ energy consumption can contribute significantly towards carbon reduction commitments since it represents ∼40% of total energy consumption. Major components of this are lighting, electrical equipment, heating, and central cooling systems. Solid evidence demonstrates that individual occupants’ behaviors impact these energy...

Training in VR can reduce risks and costs while allowing frequent and diversified experiential learning activities. We present a novel VR immersive authoring tool for experiential learning courses with industrial machinery. A trainer can create a course from scratch,defining all its components (structure, models, tools, and settings).The actions wh...

The use of VR in industrial training contributes to reduce costs and risks, supporting more frequent and diversified use of experiential learning activities, an approach with proven results. In this work,we present an innovative immersive authoring tool for experiential learning in VR-based training. It enables a trainer to structure an entire VR t...

Energy efficiency in buildings can be enhanced by several actions: encouraging users to comprehend and then adopt more energy-efficient behaviors; aiding building managers in maximizing energy savings; and using automation to optimize energy consumption, generation, and storage of controllable and flexible devices without compromising comfort level...

Office buildings consume a significant amount of energy that can be reduced through behavioral change. Gamification offers the means to influence the energy consumption related to the activities of the office users. This paper presents a new mobile gamification platform to foster the adoption of energy efficient behaviors in office buildings. The g...

Building automation systems contribute to reduce electricity costs by managing distributed energy resources in an efficient way. However, a large share of consumption cannot be optimized through automation alone, since it mainly depends on human interactions. Gamification can be used as one form of changing users’ behaviours [1], but its implementa...

Building automation systems, by managing distributed energy resources, can contribute to reduce electricity costs. But there is a large range of consumption that cannot be optimized, because it depends of the human behaviours. So we propose to use gamification techniques merged with building automation solutions to enable behavioural demand respons...

The GReSBAS project (2016-2019) aims to enable the active participation of buildings in DR programs through gamified competition between building owners. In case of large buildings, gamified competition can be established within the building for its occupants, for instance having different floors of the building competing between them. This approac...

The GReSBAS project is a European project that aims to achieve a set of consumer responses through serious games between homeowners or users of a single building using the last technologies. The main objective is to make users aware of a more efficient use of electricity while maintaining the same levels of satisfaction and comfort. This can be ach...

article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) Abstract Synchronized online gymnastics may provide new possibilities for enhancing the physical and social well-being of people with restricted mobility. W...

To enhance older citizen’s practice of physical exercise, we present the architecture, development, and pilot testing of a multiuser online gymnasium based on Kinect motion capture and OpenSimulator, which aims to enable socialization and supervision of exercise practice without travel requirements. The prototype was tested simultaneously with 4 el...

The combination of the potentialities of the interactive technologies, like exergames and the emerging motion capture devices with the ability of 3D virtual worlds for socialisation and context, can produce a platform to promote the physical activity of its users, which leverages its potential. The OnlineGym is an exploratory project based on an on...

Computer-supported online 3-D virtual world environments have been waxed and waned in interest and representativeness for supporting collaborative- and simulation-based practices. In a post-modern societal framework that requires inexpensive solutions for high-risk situations, research efforts in virtual worlds have developed a basis for understand...

A sincronização online de ginástica potencia novas possibilidades para melhorar o bem-estar físico e social das pessoas com restrições de deslocação. A nossa proposta passa pela criação de uma plataforma 3D -Online Gym -que permita que os utilizadores interajam e participem em sessões online de ginástica em grupo através do Microsoft Kinect. No pre...

Computer-supported online 3-D virtual world environments have been waxed and waned in interest and representativeness for supporting collaborative- and simulation-based practices. In a post-modern societal framework that requires inexpensive solutions for high-risk situations, research efforts in virtual worlds have developed a basis for understand...

This paper presents a classification model that includes a set of pattern-based categories to examine the architectural elements and interaction capabilities of the current 3-D virtual environments’ buildings, upon the conceptual framework of building blocks. These blocks can be used to accurate a more specific answer to the technical issues, inclu...

With all the social changes brought by the technology, also in the teaching/learning processes we need to adapt the traditional curricula to a brand new generation of students, who are perfectly aware of this digital world. According to this idea and based on some research that is being made in the educational field using didactic games and 3D plat...

In this time of technology along with all the social changes brought by, also in the teaching/learning processes we can see nowadays how useful it is to break with the old school model and to adapt the traditional curricula to a brand new generation of students, who are perfectly aware of this digital world. According to this idea, some research th...