FromACADEMY | Participants

ESGI – Academy & Industry Workshops FromACADEMY – preESGI 2020

Venue: Edifício A, Piso 0, Auditório A, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL)

On January 22, 2020 | 16:00 to 18:30

The Workshop FromACADEMY – preESGI 2020 is the first of a series of events within the next Portuguese ESGI 161 that will take place at ISEL, Lisbon, on January 22, 2020.

In this event we will present the plans for the ESGI 161 that will occur at ISEL-IPL from July 6th to July 10th 2020 and the Workshops FromACADEMY and FromINDUSTRY – preESGI events that will occur to ensure that ESGI 161 fulfils its goals. Our aim for the whole ESGI programme is to promote a dynamic exchange between Academy and Industry, by sharing some of the previous experiences of the past ESGI and by challenging companies to think about different problems where Mathematics can play a key role.

Representatives of all companies, researchers, professors and students are welcome to attend this event.

Programme:

16:00 – 18:30 | Presentations

– Sandra Aleixo | Chair of ESGI 2020, ISEL-IPL

– Manuel Cruz | President of the Portuguese Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation (PT-MATHS-IN), ISEP-IPP

– Adérito Araújo | President of the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry (ECMI) | FCTUC

– Cristina Lopes | ISCAP-IPP

– Ana Borges | ESTG-IPP

– Eliana Costa e Silva | ESTG-IPP

– Ricardo Enguiça | ISEL – IPL

Speakers:

Sandra Maria da Silva Figueiredo Aleixo gets BSc Degree (1992) and Master Degree (1995) in Statistics and Operational Research from the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, and a PhD in science of Statistics and Operational Research, specializing in probability and statistics, the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon (2008). Since 2011, is Coordinator Professor of the Mathematics Department of Higher Institute of Engineering of Lisbon (ISEL), and is the coordinator of the section of Probability, Statistics and Operational Research and was the president of Mathematics Department (between May 2014 and May 2018). She is also member of the Supervisory Council, member of the Pedagogical Council and member of the Technical-Scientific Council of ISEL (since May 2014). She also coordinates her degree in Applied Mathematics for Technology and Business, a course she created during her department chair. Sandra teaches in ISEL since September 1998, having taught previously at other universities in Lisbon (1995-1998). She has worked in Totta & Açores Bank in 1992 and was superior technique in the routing direction of CTT from 1994 to 1996. She is a member of the Portuguese Statistical Society. It’s official reviewer of “AMS – Americal Mathematical Society” since January 2014. It is integrated member of the research center “Statistics and Applications Center of the University of Lisbon” (CEAUL). She has made scientific publications and communications at conferences under the themes of interest in her research area, namely in data modeling, probabilistic models, dynamic systems, population growth models, Allee effect and synchronization, and correlation coefficients.

Title:

LMATE – A Mathematics Degree for Industry

Abstract:

The preESGI 2020 FromACADEMY Workshop begins a set of preparatory events for the Portuguese European Study Group with Industry (ESGI 161). Here we present the fundamental guidelines and goals for this event. Some examples of previous ESGI works are introduced to Industry. At the Mathematics Department of ISEL, a degree was created, motivated by this synergy between Academy and Industry, which will be briefly presented.

Manuel Cruz is Professor at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, director of the Laboratory of Mathematical Engineering (LEMA), president of the Portuguese Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation (PT-MATHS-IN) and the Council member at the European Service Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation (EU-MATHS-IN). He received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 2011 from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. He holds a Masters in Applied Statistics and Modeling from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and a degree in Mathematics from the Faculty of Sciences of the same University. He does research in different areas such as Applied Statistics, Numerical Linear Algebra and Optimization, often applied to problems from the industry.

Title:

PT-MATHS-IN – The Portuguese Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation.

Abstract:

Mathematical applications to solve industrial problems are often unknown to the general public. Industrial Mathematics, an area that deals with this type of challenges, has undergone several developments in recent years. The creation of EU-MATHS-IN, the European Service Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation, as well as the proliferation of national networks in the European area are two examples of this evolution. In this talk there will be made a short overview about PT-MATHS-IN goals and its recent activities.

Adérito Araújo is an Associate Professor at the University of Coimbra and member of the Numerical Analysis and Optimization group of the Centre of Mathematics of the University of Coimbra. His research interests include the development of mathematical and numerical models for biomedical applications, in particular, for image processing and light propagation in human retina. In the last years, he maintain active collaboration with engineers, doctors, physicists and chemists in several interdisciplinary projects. He is the actual President of ECMI (European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry) and member of the board of ICIAM (The International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).

Title:

Innovative and collaborative industrial mathematics in Europe

Abstract:

Mathematics underpins all of modern science and technology. However, advances in mathematical research are not always applied to maximum advantage in industry. In recent years, ECMI (European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry) and EU-MATHS-IN (European Service Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation) have been involved in numerous studies and forums that have been carried out at the international level demonstrating that Modelling, Simulation and Optimisation are tools for research and innovation, and are keys for achieving a competitive edge and a catalyst for innovation processes in companies.

This contribution of mathematics is far from having reached its peak and it is expected that the new paradigms related to the 4th industrial revolution will continue to bring new and challenging opportunities. In this presentation we will emphasise the unique strength of mathematics as a technology transfer tool and discuss the European strategy for the coming years. In particular we focus on the role of the European Study Groups with Industry (ESGI) in that strategy.

The success of the Study Groups’ unique format, which uses problems presented by industry as a basis for mathematical research, is demonstrated by the extent to which it has been copied around the world and is now extending into other areas where mathematics may be applied. In this talk, we will also give an overview of the study groups held in Europe towards building efficient interactions between industry and academic mathematicians.

Ricardo Enguiça has been teaching in ISEL since 2003, through a wide spectrum of Maths subjects. He finished his PhD thesis in 2010, supervised by Prof. Luis Sanchez from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, on the subject of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems. He still works on those areas, publishing regularly and participating on international meetings.

He is a member of the Coordination of the Applied Maths Course in ISEL, being an active collaborator in the interaction with some Companies, namely by supervising some students’ internships.

This connection with the real-life applications has developed his interest in mathematical modeling, programming and machine learning, and in that direction he also participated in the last European Study Groups with Industry in Portugal, and is co-organising the next one, to be held in ISEL.

Title:

Automatic generation of optimized conformal cooling channels

Abstract:

Moldetipo Group is an engineering and production molding company, located in Marinha Grande, Portugal. In the injection molding process, the cooling channel performance is one of the most crucial factors, because it has significant effect on both production rate and the quality of the plastic. In order to reduce the cycle time and control the uniform distribution of temperature, it is necessary to create conformal cooling channels, which conform to the shape of the mould cavity and core.

The objective is to develop a mathematical model for the automatic generation of conformal cooling channels, according to the part profile, to ensure a faster cooling and a uniform heat extraction through it. The channels’ generation should consider certain parameters, such as diameter, offset (distance to the surface), distance between the channels, among others.

In our approach we first decompose the mould into distinct parts, in particular by setting the notion of tower. While for narrow towers there is no space for a spiral design and then we use a different strategy which we call zigzagging, and in the remaining cases we automatically generate cooling channels in spiral shapes. The design of those smooth spiral curves is guided by the iso-contours of a boundary-distance map (BDM).

The development of an algorithm for automatic generation of the cooling channels represents a big contribution to the typical methodology used by mould designers, since it decreases the time needed to create new conformal cooling channels. Several tests on the efficiency of cooling can be made by simply adapting the parameters. Once the theoretical cooling performance of the channels is satisfactory, the mould can be sent to production using additive manufacturing.

As a summary of the conclusions, we propose that this problem should be split into two main steps. A first one considering the decomposition of the working domain into several simpler regions and a second part where the channels are designed independently on each of these regions. The design will also comprehend two approaches: when the region is a tower with a small length in on one principal direction we have to cover it using zigzags and, otherwise, we can use the boundary-distance map of the region to generate a spiral for the conformal cooling of the surface.

As a recommendation, despite the fact that we think that an implementation of this methodology will not leave us very far from an ideal configuration of the channels, there will be some cases where this initial design might be more complicated than the necessary, and on these situations, the automatic generation should allow the designer to make some changes afterwards.

Eliana Costa e Silva holds a PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering – Robotics, MSc in Mathematics and Applications to Mechanics, postgraduate in Statistics and a degree in Mathematics, from University of Minho. She is currently a lecturer at Polytechnic of Porto (P.PORTO), a full member of the Center for Innovation and Research in Business Sciences and Information Systems (CIICESI) – School of Management and Technology (ESTG) P.PORTO. She has extensive experience in mathematical and statistical modeling, data analysis and working in the resolution of real problems proposed by companies in particular within the scope of the European Study Groups with Industry (ESGI) in which she participates since 2012. She was a member of the work teams of industrial challenges proposed by companies, such as: “Prediction model to textile parameter”, Continental; “LNG import forecasts in Spain”, by Reganosa; “Identification of energy supply units”, EDP; “Picking optimization”, SONAE MC; “Optimal scheduling of the engine repair process”, TAP Maintenance and Engineering. She was a member of the organizing committee of the 119th ESGI that took place in Oporto in June 2016 and scientific coordinator in II Iberian Modeling Week. She is a member of PT-MATHS-IN: Portuguese Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation (http://www.spm.pt/pt-maths-in/esgi-portugal) and member of the editorial team of BOLETIM APDIO. Since November 2017, she is a member of the creation committee of the Industry Business School- ESTG, since October 2018 she is a member of the Coordination Committee of the Degree in Industrial Management and Logistics, and since May 2019 she is director of the Department of Natural and Exact Sciences at ESTG|P.PORTO.

Title:

Water tariﬀ structure based on consumption proﬁle in a context of Climate Changes

Abstract:

Infraquinta – Empresa de infraestruturas da Quinta do Lago, EM, is the company whose mission is to promote the quality and good management of the urban area and public infrastructures of Quinta do Lago. The company aims at performing all maintenance and adaptation of the infrastructures in order to allow a sustainable exploration and management of the entire infrastructures network; ensure compliance with the internal rules and regulations of Quinta do Lago and C.M. Loulé, in order to maintain the urban quality of the area; and ensure a healthy institutional relationship with owners, residents, users and various private and public bodies. A large number of consumers present water consumption over 25 m³per month which may be explained by the large areas of gardens and swimming pools of the houses in Quinta do Lago. The answer the speciﬁc clients’ proﬁle of its clients the company has recently made available the option of a 2nd water meter, exclusively dedicated to irrigation purposes, which is billed with a higher ﬁxed tariﬀ (3rd level), but is free of paying variable tariﬀ for wastewater and solid urban waste. The company’s challenge consisted on, considering the costs and ﬁnancial structure of Infraquinta and consumption uncertainty, determining which is the desirable balance between ﬁxed and variable revenues. To answer this challenge the study group developed an optimization model to ﬁnd the prices for the tariﬀs that minimize the maximum price increase, while satisfying ERSAR’s recommendations and to obtain ﬁnancial sustainability. The model was tested for diﬀerent scenarios characterized by sales decrease, due to climate changes and changes in consumer’s behavior. We found that a general decrease in sales will have a large impact on total revenues, forcing a signiﬁcant increase in prices. On the other hand, an increase in the number of irrigation meters will not have a large eﬀect in revenue, therefore not leading to a large increase in prices. The heterogeneity of the domestic customers should be taken into account in the model. Other studies found in literature indicate a dependence on periodically uninhabited dwellings, which might be the case in this touristic region. Information at a customer’s level would make possible customer’s segmentation, which will permit to understand what kind of customers have larger impact on sales. Also, given the large component of uncertainty, stochastic optimization methods could also be used to deal with the unpredictability of customer behavior and meteorological conditions. Finally, the study group also suggests that future studies include proﬁts and losses management in the long run, given that forecasting climate change is made in the long run, hence their eﬀects on the equilibrium of revenues in long-term should be studied.

Ana Isabel Coelho Borges was born in Porto, Portugal, and went to University of Minho to obtain her PhD in Science, specialty in Mathematics, in 2015, with a thesis entitled Joint Modelling of Longitudinal and Survival Data on Breast Cancer, having been awarded the prize of the Portuguese Statistical Society in 2015, for a work developed within the scope of the PhD. She went to Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto to obtain her master’s degree in Mathematics Teaching in 2008 and to Portucalense Infante D. Henrique University, in Porto, to obtain her degree in Mathematics in 2006.

She has experience in mathematical and statistical modelling, data analysis and development of computational solutions to problems proposed by companies, obtained through the participation on European Study Groups with Industry.

She has interest in mathematical and statistical challenges, in diverse fields such as Medicine, Biology and Finances. She is currently, and since 2009, a full time lecturer at Polytechnic of Porto (P.PORTO) and an integrated member of the Center for Innovation and Research in Business Sciences and Information Systems (CIICESI) – School of Management and Technology (ESTG) P.PORTO.

She is member of the coordination committee of Industry Business School, since 2017.

Title: Modelling the Contribution of Companies to Social Security based on Gross Added Value

Abstract:

The challenge proposed at the 155 th European Study Group with Industry, presented by POC¸O – Equipamentos Industriais, consisted in the development of a mathematical model which allowed to calculate, in a transparent and clear way, the variable amount of fees that each company has to pay to the Portuguese Social Security (SS) in order to take into account its contribution to the added value of the diﬀerent products produced.

The proponent requested that the model shouldn’t change the global contribution amount to the Social Security system, currently 23.75{381bc1e2d5852f9061625607ba14e1442309d38331c8c236d0997e767b5a18ed}×Global Salaries for the general companies. It should distinguish Companies that add value to the produced goods and contribute to improve the competitiveness and productivity, not only of the Portuguese Companies, but also of Portugal.

Overall, the main purpose of the challenge was to obtain approximately the same sum of wages with a breakdown of the contribution of each company in a fairer way, taking into account the added value of the company to the Portuguese economy. Thus, encouraging ﬁrms to add value to products or services, contributing more to GDP and hence to economic growth.

A mathematical model was built under the Modeling, Simulation and Optimization (MSO) paradigm. The model is able to be parametrized against a diﬀerent number of echelons concerning decreased/increased Social Security contribution of each Portuguese ﬁrm. Although the initial request was to be prepared for 3 or 5 echelons, the model can be generalized to any odd number. The only constraint, is that the echelons should be symmetric with respect to the regular contribution, including a neutral echelon where there is no bonus nor penalization associated. For its implementation, the team considered the empirical cumulative distribution function of the Social Security contributions with respect to four diﬀerent indexes. The proposed indexes were tested with a sample (N = 3 ∗ 10⁵) of Portuguese companies, whose ﬁnancial information on year 2017 was retrieved from the SABI database. Several comparisons concerning diﬀerent Key Performance Indexes (KPI’s) were performed.

Regarding the model created and the results of the simulation, the challenge main questions were addressed. We recommend the use of the obtained model in the subsequent year (credit tax) to avoid unnecessary forecast and/or prediction errors. The model is though and developed in a way that may be applied to any indexes, beside the ones proposed on this report, being ready to simulate and compare diﬀerent scenarios and parameterizations. Furthermore, it is our understanding that diﬀerent parameterizations of this MSO model may be seen as a very helpful tool to support several political informed decisions.

Isabel Cristina Lopes was born in Porto, Portugal, and went to University of Porto to obtain her licentiate’s degree in Mathematics in 2000, and her master’s degree in Mathematics – Foundations and Applications in 2004. She went to University of Minho to obtain her PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2011, with a thesis on Operations Research and Optimization entitled Pattern sequencing models in cutting stock problems. In 2014 she obtained a post-graduation in Statistics at University of Minho.

Her current research subjects are industrial scheduling problems, sectorization problems, vehicle routing, stock management, cutting and packing problems, with integer programming methods, and also statistical data analysis, panel data models, time series and forecasting.

She has a position at the Polytechnic of Porto since 2000, lecturing Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research, having achieved the category of Adjunct Professor in April 2011. She is a member of LEMA-Mathematical Engineering Lab, where she does research and works as consultant for industry problems. Since 2016 she is also a member of the Centre for Organisational and Social Studies of P. Porto (CEOS.PP).

She is in the board of APDIO, the Portuguese Association of Operations Research, since 2016, currently as treasurer.

She has participated in the European Study Groups with Industry since 2012, where she worked in industry problems related to scheduling tasks, packing parcels and routing vehicles.

Title: Scheduling the Repairment of Aircrafts’ Engines

Abstract:

In this talk, we address a real world scheduling problem concerning the repair process of aircraft engines by TAP – Maintenance & Engineering (TAP-ME), which is the maintenance, repair and overhaul unit of TAP Air Portugal, Portugal’s leading airline.

In May 2012, TAP-ME participated in the 86^th European Study Group with Industry to consult with academics to find ways to optimize and reduce their engines repair turn around time. The company’s Engine Shop Production Planning Department aimed to have a mathematical model for the engines repair process that would determine the optimal sequencing of tasks within the workstations, in order to minimize total weighted tardiness, while assigning relative priorities to different clients.

We developed a mixed integer programming model for the specific issues of the TAP engine repair process, based on the flexible job shop scheduling, allowing the repair operations of the engines to be executed on the same workstation by any processor of a given set, with the objective of minimizing the total weighted tardiness.

Computational experiment on a real instance provided by TAP-ME from a regular working week was successful in finding an optimal solution. We also report results of the model using benchmarking instances available in literature.

Participants

Adérito Araújo (ECMI & FCT-UC)
Aldina Correia (CIICESI & ESTG-IPP)
Ana Borges (ESTG-IPP)
Ana Filipa Mota (ISEL & CIMOSM)
Ana Fiúza (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa)
António Maria de Brito Pina (Edilásio Carreira da Silva, Lda – Grupo Iberomoldes)
Carla Loureiro (CTT)
Carlos Mota (GALP)
Cláudia Vieira da Silva, (Biofuse)
David Figueiredo (Águas do Tejo Atlântico)
Eliana Costa e Silva (ESTG-IPP)
Guilherme Ramos Pereira (DSPA)
Gonçalo Feio (CENTIMFE)
Helena Santos (Transportes Paulo Duarte)
Iola Pinto (ISEL)
Isabel Coelho (ISEL)
Isabel Cristina Lopes (ISCAP-IPP)
José Alberto Rodrigues (ISEL & CIMOSM)
José Manuel Aldeias Valente (Iber Oleff, SA – Grupo Iberomoldes)
Juana Fortes (LNEC)
Leonel Alegria (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa)
Liliana Pinheiro (LNEC)
Lucía Suárez (ISEL)
Luís Silva (ISEL & CIMA)
Manuel Cruz (PT-MATHS-IN & EU-MATHS-IN & ISEP-IPP & LEMA)
Manuel Santos (CLOSER)
Maria Amélia Loja (ISEL & IDMEC & CIMOSM)
Nuno Domingues (ISEL)
Nuno Lopes (ISEL)
Paulo Ferreira (GALP)
Paulo Teixeira (ISEL)
Pedro Barreto (Jerónimo Martins)
Pedro Pereira (ISEL)
Pedro Trindade (Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa)
Pedro Vieira (ISEL & CELFINET)
Ricardo Enguiça (ISEL & CMAFcIO)
Sandra Aleixo (ISEL & CEAUL)
Sérgio Fernandes (IPS & CMAFcIO & INCITE)
Sérgio Lopes (ISEL & CMAFcIO)
Tiago Charters de Azevedo (ISEL)