Polytechnic Institute of Setubal (IPS) is a Portuguese higher education institution created in 1979 with the aim of promoting both professional expertise and scientific knowledge. In cooperation with its social partners, IPS seeks to contribute to the improvement and development of society, through the provision of higher education, research and services that contribute to the creation, development, dissemination and transfer of knowledge, promoting science and culture.
As a higher education institution, training is its main activity, offering a wide choice of training activities in different areas: Engineering, Science, Technology, Education, Sports, Art, Communication, Business, Administration and Health Care.
Research is considered a strategic factor to update the scientific knowledge transferred to students and to society, since it regularly provides consulting, research and auditing services for the business community.
IPS participates in several national and European projects, as a partner but also as a coordinator, this project involves ALMaSS:
Sónia's research interests include the development of sustainable pest management strategies for crop protection and biological control in Mediterranean woody plants (olive, chestnut, almond trees and vineyards). As part of the ALMaSS International Team, she is contributing for the development of agent-based simulation models that can be used to preview/evaluate the effects of farming practices on key ecosystem services in olive groves.
Raquel's research lies at the interface between mathematics and experimental sciences and seeks to propose, develop, analyse and simulate new mathematical and computational approaches applied to experimental sciences.
As part of the ALMaSS International Team, she is working on the computer model development for the project OLIVESIM.
Maria studies ecosystem functioning using my background in geophysics. As part of the ALMaSS International Team, she is developing models for insects present in the Portuguese landscape, namely in olive groves, for the project OLIVESIM.