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Students must face up to decision making situations since early ages, in order to keep on the chase of some professional competences. However, the suitability of people in jobs or studies is not only based on their preferences. Other factors are involved: capacities, skills, social attitudes, etc. that must be taken into account to successfully decide (Salgado, 1996). Many countries have created a so-called advisor figure, whose role is to guide them in decisions regarding their academic future. Advisors consider different criteria and indicators in their task, the key one being the student’s marks. Marks mean much more than a simple assessment: they indicate not only knowledge, but also skills, preferences about fields, attitudes, etc. Advisors generally are required to guide support several hundreds of students and hence analyze large amounts of information. The aim of this contribution is to support them in their task of guiding students by means of Decision Support systems (DSS) that uses students’ marks and provides linguistic information about the choices that students can make.

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This paper illustrates the use of a computer model in the design of a twin belt rising conveyor. A parcel is raised up an inclined section of the conveyor on a load carrying belt. It is prevented from rolling back by a second weighted belt draped over it. The model calculates the changes in geometry of the draped belt and the forces acting on the parcel during its ascent, and discharge over the head roller. This facilitates comparison between different conveyor configurations in order to optimize the design of high cost capital plant. The computed results are proved experimentally.

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