NUVEM Research Strategic Unit

The increasing use of computers, tablets and smartphones in modern society, communities and social networks and multimedia applications make the amount of data and produced and made available online content, increase considerably every day. Access to this content is dependent on broadband networks that have adequate data transfer rates to the needs of users. The latest generation wireless access technology of the Internet have high data transfer rates over considerable distances, as well as eliminating the need for technicians and local and dedicated facilities and potentially reduces the final cost.

The consumption of information has changed due to the appearance of new channels of information such as news portals, blogs and production and collaborative multimedia content services. The appearance of communities, collaboration services and communication tools has allowed the construction and dissemination of information and knowledge collaboratively with reflections on society and the citizen's behavior. Education , dialogue between government and citizens and many services promoted through Digital TV are among the many possibilities related to research and development of interactive and collaborative services for the citizen.

There are several risks associated with using the Internet, such as contact with malicious people, identity theft, theft and loss of data, the difficulty of maintaining confidentiality, access to inappropriate or offensive content, plagiarism and breach of copyright. On the Internet, it is very common occurring raids on email and social networking accounts, disclosure of videos and images without permission, collecting information and restricted data stored on computers and service providers and the transfer or sale of information to third parties.

In the early years of the Internet, the ultimate goal of the research in this area concentrated on making it work effectively and add value, primarily for researchers and military and then also to ordinary citizens. Having this goal was fulfilled in the years 2000 a next step is to imagine what will the Internet of the Future. Themes closely linked to design and deployment of Future Internet is the Internet of Things, Internet of Services and Internet of People.

Currently, the Internet is highly dependent on the intervention of humans for the treatment of information. The problem is that people have time, limited attention and precision, and therefore are not the best for capturing data about things in the real world, they have their focus toward the production and comprehension of ideas and small selective information portions. If computers could learn about things in the real world, through the processing of data without the help of people, it would be possible to improve processes and reduce waste, minimizing losses and maximizing the cost. The Internet of Things connects several different natures devices on the network, that somehow can interact and enhance our experience with the environment around us.

The technological sophistication of the energy matrix has not matched the demand for high-quality, value-added services and attention to the demands of end users. The term smart grid, or intelligent electricity network, refers to a system that aggregates ICT to traditional grid to provide a better performance of the energy matrix and support the development of additional services to consumers.

Smart cities have a high capacity for learning and innovation, built on creativity of its people, their knowledge production institutions and their digital infrastructure for communication and knowledge management. From the perspective of ICTs, the intelligence of a system can be characterized by its flexibility, adaptability, memory, learning, temporal dynamics and performance before the uncertainty and accurate information. In a smart city, production, management and dissemination of knowledge are essential, as well as the management of the cities themselves and the data related to it.

The citizen science, enables collaboration of ordinary citizens in the progress of science. The intention is that the community can participate actively, so that it does not take a scientist to collaborate with the progress of science. Citizen science is even more relevant aspects of collection or data analysis are beyond the scientific team's ability, so that a distributed network of volunteers can accelerate the progress of science.

Also known as "serious games", are offered to society to approach issues not only entertainment but mainly aiming the simulation of practical situations of day-to-day. Aims to provide the training of professionals, critical situations in companies, awareness for children, youth and adults. Through attractive simulations and recreational activities, this approach results in the absorption of concepts and the development of psychomotor skills. Research with these types of games will be focused on specific applications in the areas of education and health.

The fast spread of smartphones and tablets is as much a result of the availability of 3G cellular networks and Wi-Fi as generates a need for new technologies of this type. Smart devices are becoming increasingly present in society because the very digital information and the means for their communication are increasingly considered essential services.

The displacement of private data center computing resources of organizations to data center cloud service providers on the Internet and its use following a services model has the potential to cause major changes in the market and the behavior of users. Cloud computing provides the user computing services as a public utility, that is, like water and electricity. The user uses the computational capabilities of your cloud provider and pay for exactly the amount of resources used. This feature is also essential mobile computing. You can also check information about Cloud Computing in the NUVEM Cloud Computing page

Energy savings and sustainability are more than buzzwords today. They are a necessity, by the fact that the planet's resources are not infinite. As a large share of energy consumed in the world is already used to provide the Information and Communication Technologies uses (ICT), research is needed for the computing, communications and computer networks seek more sustainable solutions with lower power consumption.

There are several mechanisms for storing and processing large amounts of data distributed in the cloud computing environment. There are two main options: use more robust machines (scaling up) and divide the data into a larger number of machines (scaling out). The option of scaling up has physical limitations, so that scaling out is the option adopted by most companies that need to process large volumes of data from Web applications. These data are called Big Data, a collection of data as large and complex that it becomes difficult to process it using tools common databases.

In many specialized fields, virtual reality is becoming a powerful new tool for training professionals and treatment of patients and increasing utilization in various forms of entertainment. Virtual reality is already being used in industrial design, for example. Engineers are creating whole cars and airplanes "virtually" in order to test the principles as design, ergonomics, security systems and access for maintenance.

Decisions taken during the design phase of large-scale engineering projects are often the most delicate, because of its possible impact on the final results, time and costs. The virtual prototyping enables designers to test and improve their design, but better and earlier than using physical models. One example is the high-performance visualization system used by manufacturers of commercial aircraft during the design phase.