Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial (INEGI)

INEGI is an interface Institution between the University of Porto and the industry, oriented towards the activities of research and development, innovation and technology transfer. INEGI was founded in 1986 and is currently considered an active agent playing a significant role in the development of the Portuguese industry, and in the transformation of its competitive model.

The mission of INEGI is to contribute to economic and social competitiveness, through technology-based innovation applied to industrial processes, products and business models, as well as the development of R&D, technology transfer and innovation management best-practices. INEGI’s core competences are experimental mechanics, engineering design, materials, industrial processes, renewable energies, and industrial engineering and management.

Tiago Morais

Tiago Morais has held the position of Head of INEGI’s Sea Technologies Group since 2010 and is responsible for overseeing all consultancy, research and development projects. Tiago’s expertise is in the fields of electrical power systems, renewable energy, computation and numerical modelling. He graduated in Electrical and Computers Engineering - Power Systems in 2005 and specialised in Electrical and Computers Engineering - Renewable Energy in 2006 from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto. In 2009, he completed a Master's Degree in Electrical and Computers Engineering with the Study of Operation of Wave Energy Converters, also in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto. From 2005 to 2009, he held the roles of Researcher and Project Manager of a prototype for the conversion of wave energy into electricity at the Martifer Group in the Research and Development department of Martifer Energy SA. Tiago joined INEGI in 2010 and has since participated as Project Manager in several national and international projects related to Sea technologies and in doing so has had the privilege of collaborating with technical and internationally recognised researchers. More recently, as editor in chief, Tiago published the book "OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY - CURRENT STATUS, Future Perspectives for Portugal". This book provides the reader with a global perspective on the state of Portuguese and international development of offshore renewable energy technologies as well as support technologies. His work has been published in reports, scientific papers and patents of wave energy converters.

João Paulo Geraldes Touro Pereira

João Paulo Geraldes Touro Pereira has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Portugal. In 1998, he finished a MBA at the School of Management, Porto, and is engaged in the Doctoral Programme of Mechanical Engineering at FEUP. Since 2005, he is the head of the Product and Systems Development Division of INEGI, having led or collaborated on many projects with industrial companies. His research interests are in the field of methodologies and tools for product and systems design, with special focus on ecodesign and life cycle assessment of complex systems (e.g. machine-tools).

António Baptista

António Baptista received his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Coimbra in 2002, and his PhD degree in Production Technology, Computational Mechanics field, at the same institution in 2007. After that, he worked from January 2007 until May 2011 at an automotive industry technical centre (Sodecia Group). There he gained experience in the project of tools for the production of automotive sheet metal parts and in international simultaneous engineering projects with Fiat and Ford. He was also responsible for continuous improvement programmes (kaizen activities, root cause analysis, cost reduction analysis, productivity improvement). He joined INEGI in 2011, where he is assuming responsibilities as project manager and senior researcher. The main research topics of his activity involve the study of product development and management tools, and lean methodologies associated both to the product development cycle and to eco-efficiency issues regarding systems efficiency analysis. He is co-author of the original methodologies MSM - Multi-Layer Stream Mapping, ecoPROSYS and Lean Design-for-eXcellence.

Sofia Alves

Sofia Alves holds an MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Porto, specialised in Manufacturing, Product Development and Automobile Engineering. She joined INEGI for an internship in 2013 during her Master’s degree where the objective was to characterise aluminum at high strain rates. For her Master’s thesis, she developed a system able to measure high velocities through optical fibers and Doppler Effect (Photon Doppler Velocimeter), developed in the laboratory of optics and experimental mechanics in INEGI. After her thesis, she continued at INEGI in the field of experimental mechanics, where she made fatigue tests in which she applied digital image correlation (DIC). These tests lead to scientific papers presented in conferences and after in Procedia Engineering. Presently, she is part of the group of Sea Technologies in INEGI where she is part of a consulting project financed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Ricardo Barbosa graduated in 1999 in Chemical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University, and specialised in fluid mechanics for his Master’s degree in 2005 in the same faculty. In 2012, he enrolled for Project Management training. In 1999, he joined INEGI and, since then, has been involved in projects regarding different domains of activity such as product development, thermodynamics, combustion, bioenergy, solar energy and energy efficiency. He is currently responsible for the management of INEGI’s Group of New Energy Technologies and Energy Management. Between 2004 and 2006 he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management of Polytechnic Institute of Viseu Technology School.

Ana Magalhães

Ana Magalhães has a MSc in Fluid Mechanics from the Faculty of Engineering of Oporto University. She is an expert in the design and development of thermal systems and worked in applied research and product development for thermal industry. Currently she is responsible for activities at INEGI related to the direct integration of solar technologies in industrial processes in order to promote sustainability and eco-efficiency. She also collaborates on several projects and consulting work related to energy efficiency.

Role in GENIALG

INEGI will participate in WP3 on land-based cultivation methods. A modular harvesting mechanism will be designed, assembled and tested, the current energy flow existent in the small-scale full operation will be monitored, to find improvement slots before design of large-scale unit. The use of alternative energy-sources (wind and sun) will be investigated based on in-situ measurement campaigns and state-of-the art. On large-scale unit, INEGI will design the layout production, management water resources, design aeration and harvesting systems, and validate the operation of a demonstrator pond cultivation system at the ALGAplus IMTA site.