My PhD resources page

To organize the resources I use in my PhD research, I created a web page to list relevant references. The first version of this page, xml-based, is now available here. I hope it will help me in the future.

New MSc webpage

I created a page for my MSc work at the CG&M website. Currently, it is a preliminary version, submitted for appreciation to my advisor, but the revised final version could be used to define the template for MsC's web pages. This page is available here. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

First phase of DecoSketch II user testing

Today, I've helped our students at the first phase of user testing within their "DecoSketch II" senior year project.

A testing session.

Released blog for my weekly reports

Finally I found a solution for the weekly reports publishing problem. This solution was a compromise between sending these reports by e-mail to my advisor and publishing them in this blog. I created a new blog just for my weekly reports (in Portuguese).

Last weekend for Christmas shopping

... for lots of people. Not for me! I'd rather prefer to paddle in the Tagus river. A few photos of this trip are published in a fotos.sapo album.

Kayak trip on Tagus river, this weekend.

Final version of abstract for WSCG 2006

We have just submited the final version of the abstract for our paper accepted at WSCG 2006.

Second version of IR project proposal

A second version of the project proposal for the Information Retrieval course is ready. Now, it will be submitted for approval.

Correct abstract for WSCG 2006

We have corrected the abstract of our paper accepted at the 14th International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2006). After all authors agree with its content, it can be submitted to the conference web site as a final version.

Paper acepted at WSCG 2006

Our paper titled "A Calligraphic Interface for Managing Agents" was accepted to be presented as as short communication at the 14th International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2006). Now, we need to correct the abstract, according to reviewer's comments, until December 16th. Then, we need to produce a camera-ready version of the paper by January 3rd.

Out of Office

For several reasons, last week I have been out of office. Thus, no real work were done in this period of time.

Converting editION to VC++7.1

After a couple of months on the hold I restarted my work in the editION prototype. However, during this period of time I had updated the C++ compiler from VC++6.0 to VC++7.1. Thus, I needed to make a few changes in the prototype. The more mind-boggling task was related with socket communication. I could not understand, but exactly the same code that before works well, now doesn't. It only started to work well when I forced the system to wait for connection, blocking the GUI. Before it could go on normally and if after a given timeout, the connection could not be established, a error message was displayed.

Short Survey on Tablet PC's

We need to buy a new Tablet PC for our research group. Therefore, I made a short survey in leading brands: Toshiba, Acer and HP. In my humble opinion I think the best offer is the Acer Travelmate C200, but the final decision is not mine...

PhD 2005 yearly report submitted

My PhD 2005 yearly report was submitted to the department server. Next monday I will deliver a printed version of it, signed by my advisor, in the department.

First draft of IR project proposal

The first draft of the project proposal for the Information Retrieval course is ready. Now it will be reviewed in order to produce a more elaborate version of it.

Protocol for Task Analysis in DecoSketch

In a near future my PhD work will be used in the DecoSketch project. More precisely, a few months from now a simple 3D shape retrieval mechanism should be integrated in our Computer Aided Decoration prototype. Thus, I am now fully engaged in this project. Today I write the first draft of the protocol for the task analysis. This document is now to be completed in cooperation with the senior year students of this project.

Reviewing a paper for WSCG 2006

I've reviewed a paper for the 14th International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2006). This paper focused on a hierarchical topological structure for a discrete modeling tool and presents a multi-level approach which provides an effective way to propagate changes in one level of representation to another.

A large video wall

Last Friday we visited the Brisa Operational Control Centre (CCO). Brisa owns most of the Portuguese highways. In their control centre they manage the entire infrastructure. To help them in such task they installed there a large video wall. This device was the main reason for our visit.

View of Brisa's CCO

Restarting work on editION

After a couple of months in stand by, we are going to focus our attentions again on the evolutION platform and its calligraphic interface, editION. This decision were formalized in a meeting between the team members.

PhD 2005 yearly report 2nd version

The second version of my PhD 2005 yearly report is finished [PDF 67KB]. The major changes were made on the work plan and the abstract. Now, if my advisor agrees, I can submit it to the department.

BiblioPad

Regarding my last week post on personal bibliographic/research software, Daniel Gonçalves reminded me of a senior year project he advised two years ago. The BiblioPad were developed to help researches organize bibliographic references. This application extracts information from papers, such as title, authors and references. With this data it establishes relationships among papers, organizing automatically the bibliography.

However, this is not what I am looking for. I want a tool that allows me not only to organize but also classify the bibliographic references I use during my research work. This classification should not only focus on the content of the paper but also other information, such as relevance, source, author credibility, affiliated institutions, related projects, etc...

So, I am still looking for such a tool.