This contribution deals with the development of a new sensor for measuring stress in massive concrete structures. It starts with a technical overview regarding the apparatus and its theory of operation. At least some application examples from building sites ard results will be shown.

This paper describes a successful approach of integration of Marie Curie Chairs (EXC) project based course on "Smart Sensors Systems Design" into the current curricula in "Sensors and Signal Conditioning" at Technical University of Catalonia (UPC-Barcelona, Electronic Engineering Department) for graduate and postgraduate students. It is strongly connected with new research results obtained during the SMARTSES project in this emerging field. The course main objectives, contents, teaching methodology, laboratory activities and qualification criteria are discussed.

Plagiarism and fraud by students have increased considerably in the past decade. Information technology plays an important role here, because it provides techniques that make it possible to copy text, images and other materials almost effortlessly. Educational institutions are aware of this, and try to halt it. The problem of monitoring and dealing with fraud and plagiarism is a matter of perception in two respects: 1. it is often difficult to identify fraudulent student papers because of the large scale and intelligent techniques for cheating, and 2. students who are blamed of plagiarism often claim a different perception or qualification of their acts. Information technology can play a role in identifying plagiarism and fraud. There are a number of computer programs in existence that will check large numbers of documents to do exactly that. Conventional measures as well as effective anti-fraud policies remain necessary as students often do not perceive their actions as illegal or unethical, or use their own “perception” as an excuse.

This paper describes a method to reduce the space of stored indicator time series data collected from a telecommunications network. The method takes advantage of the cyclic nature of the collected time series and behavioral clusters of the network elements. The method separates the shape of the daily activity cycle of a network element from volume of the traffic and clusters the daily patterns to coherent groups in which each sample can be presented with the amount of traffic in the network element and a prototype pattern. Dynamic thresholds are used to determine the samples that deviate from the prototype too much and require being stored separately.

In this paper a simulation tool for ferrofluidic transducers is presented. The aim of the tool developed is twofold: to provide the designer with a useful tool which carries out both the behavioral analysis and the quantitative analysis of ferrofluidic devices and to support educational activity on the subject in advanced academicals courses.