This proceedings book, which collects selected results produced in engineering doctoral programs, focuses on development and application of Cloud-based Engineering Systems. These systems leverage the emerging “network effect” and rely on the access to large pools of computational resources that are available in the “cloud” to overcome the limitations of environments with scarce processing and information storage capability. Potential benefits can be found in all engineering fields and at all levels, eg, supporting management, operation, and services provision in small and medium enterprises, facilitating high-level sensorial perception based on sensor networks with limited local intelligence, supporting monitoring, and diagnosis of a machine with limited computer power, etc.

This approach is changing the way engineering systems are designed, giving rise to new subareas such as the so-called cloud manufacturing, while leading to exciting challenges for researchers and industrial practitioners. Instead of trying to increase local computational resources at the level of each component/subsystem, which in some cases might be technically difficult, the efforts can be channeled to give connectivity and communication capabilities to such components, connecting them to “the cloud”. As a result, not only elasticity and more robust security mechanisms may be acquired, but also wider access to larger pools of resources available on the Internet, opening the opportunity for the development of higher value-added services. Furthermore, it also challenges systems engineers to pay attention to the underlying business models, security concerns, and user acceptability aspects. The DoCEIS series of advanced doctoral conferences on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems aims at creating a space for sharing and discussing ideas and results from doctoral research in these interrelated areas of engineering, while promoting a strong multidisciplinary dialog. As such, participants were challenged to look beyond their specific research question and relate their work to the selected theme of the conference, namely to identify in which ways their research topics can benefit from, or contribute to cloud-based solutions. Current trends in strategic research programs are confirming the fundamental role of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches in innovation. As a matter of fact, more and more funding agencies are including this element as a key requirement in their calls for proposals. In such a way, the “exercise” requested by DoCEIS can be seen as a contribution to the process of acquiring such skills, which are mandatory in the profession of a PhD. The sixth edition of DoCEIS, which is sponsored by SOCOLNET, IFIP, and IEEE IES, attracted a considerable number of paper submissions from a large number of PhD students and their supervisors from 23 countries. This book comprises the works selected by the International Program Committee for inclusion in the main program and covers a wide spectrum of application domains. As such, research results and ongoing work are presented, illustrated, and discussed in areas such as: