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The role of ISEL in the START project

02/02/2011

The Lisbon Higher Institute of Engineering (ISEL) is an institution boasting over 150 years of tradition and hence is a point of reference for Engineering within Portugal. At the present time, there are more than 6,150 students attending and around 650 teaching and administration staff working therein. They are spread amongst the four traditional areas of engineering: civil, mechanical, chemical and electro-technical as well as the more recently established areas such as electronics, IT and telecommunications. Given its position as a higher education polytechnic, its purpose is a practical one with a focus on collaboration with industry and services.

ISEL’s involvement in the START project is rooted both in Portuguese engineering tradition and the institution’s strength in building partnerships for the creation and development of innovative solutions and in their application; in this instance, in the domain of Public Transport.

The START project has brought new challenges to ISEL, not just those challenges associated with innovation and international collaboration but also challenges within the institution itself.

A “Transport Partnership” was created for the first time within ISEL, involving teaching staff specialising in transport (from a civil engineering background) and those specialised in IT (from a computer engineering background). This partnership allows us to bring together these skills, focusing on one common goal: dealing with the problems associated with the development of solutions (INTEGRA and others) implemented within the START environment. This common goal is of course aided and substantiated by the other partnerships involved, namely those Portuguese partners whose activities centre on Public Transport.

ISEL’s contribution to START focuses on the development of the INTEGRA portal, wherein its key tasks are as follows:

· - To collaborate with and support the EIGSI (the Industrial Systems School of Engineering in France), the partner responsible for the implementation of technological solutions linked to the portal’s development and assessment.

· - To provide and integrate data about Portugal.

· - To assist in the creation of solutions linked to the evolution of the INTEGRA concept.

In addition to this, ISEL is also assisting in the promotion and promulgation within Portugal of the recommendations for good practice arising from discussions between partners on the subject of START’s other areas of activity (including accessibility, journey planning, ticketing etc.).

ISEL’s participation in START allows the direct involvement of students in the debating of ideas and in the creation of prototypes which involve the incorporation of recent technological advances. As a consequence, various applications based on the INTEGRA and START specifications have already been developed within the IT and Computer technology specialisations. As well as this, new technologies and other innovative concepts have been tried out (some of the prototypes can be tested via the website http://start.guiaa.isel.pt/). Two PhD papers will also be researched in 2011 on the subjects of “Accessibility of Public Transport” and “Barrier-free Information Systems on Public Transport”. Various undergraduate and post-graduate projects are currently underway in the areas of IT and computer engineering (these will be published on the aforementioned website when they have been completed).

ISEL’s “Transport Partnership”, along with the START’s other nation-wide partnerships, look forward to welcoming all partners, both those formally invited as well as anyone who has an interest in START, to Lisbon in October 2011.

This will be an opportunity to present and jointly debate all ideas, concepts and those solutions which have been tried and tested throughout the project’s lifetime, which will, undoubtedly, foster continuity and also create a new model of local and regional use of Public Transport in the European Union.