Browsing by Author "Duarte, Abel J."
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- Active Learning Strategies for Sustainable Engineering: The case of the European Project Semester at ISEPPublication . Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroEngineering aims to improve the quality of daily life on a planet with limited resources. This chapter describes how the European Project Semester offered by the School of Engineering of the Porto Polytechnic contributes to make engineering undergraduates conscious of their environmental and societal impact. The program is a project-based active learning framework where problem-solving is supported by intercultural communication and creativity, ethical and sustainable reasoning, and global contextual analysis. This analysis shows that it fosters scientific, technical, and interpersonal competencies, emphasizing ethical and sustainable design as recommended by several reference institutions through the testimonials left on the project reports and the evolution perceived by the participants during the semester. These findings are supported by a sample of 45 projects conducted by 228 students from 23 countries and 65 degrees. All projects aimed to have a lasting impact on the future engineering practice of participants and, somehow, transform the world positively.
- Algae and Fish Farming: An EPS@ISEP 2022 ProjectPublication . Blomme, Rose-Farah; Domissy, Zoé; Dylik, Zuzanna; Hidding, Thomas; Röhe, Alina; Duarte, Abel J.; BENEDITA CAMPOS NEVES MALHEIRO, MARIA; JUSTO, Jorge; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, Pedro; Castro Ribeiro, Maria Cristina de; Silva, Manuel; Auer, Michael E.; Rüütmann, TiiaThe European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) is a capstone engineering design program where students, organised in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, create a solution for a proposed problem, bearing in mind ethical, sustainability and market concerns. The project proposals are usually aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). New sustainable food production methods are essential to cope with the continuous population growth and aligned with SDG2 and SDG12. In this context, this paper describes the research and work done by a team of Erasmus students enrolled in EPS@ISEP during the spring of 2022. Since sustainable algae farming can be a suitable source of food, the team's goal was the design and develop a proof-of-concept prototype, named GREEN·flow, of a symbiotic aquaponic system to farm algae and fish. The smart GREEN·flow concept comprises a modular structure and an app for control and supervision. The proposed design was driven by state-of-the-art research, targeted to a specific market niche based on a market analysis, and considering sustainability and ethics concerns, all of which are described in this manuscript. A proof-of-concept prototype was built and tested to verify that it worked as intended.
- Aquaponics for food production – a sustainable vertical garden at School of Engineering of PortoPublication . Brandão, Roque; A. Sousa, Cátia; Duarte, Abel J.The greatest increase in the worldwide human population will rise concerns about the sustainability of cities and soils, climatic changes and food access or security. Furthermore, in the present day, many urban areas around the world are grappling with challenges related to their food supply infrastructure. Urban agriculture can play a crucial role for impoverished households by enhancing food security and generating income. Nevertheless, traditional agriculture contributes to soil erosion and soil and groundwater pollution. Additionally, climate change disrupts animal life cycles and leads to species extinction, significantly reducing the availability of food for humans and other organisms. For this reason, aquaponics holds promise as a method for integrating urban agriculture for plant cultivation and safe fish production. This project aims to develop and install an optimized aquaponics system at the School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP). This vertical garden was created using two tanks with circa 2,000 liters of water for fish and spans three floors, featuring three flower boxes and over 120 positions for growing vegetables. Furthermore, in conjunction with this project, pedagogical activities were developed, involving students from various ISEP courses, including Bioresources, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Informatics Engineering. This project highlights a successful implementation of a soil-less vertical garden in urban buildings, embraced by ISEP, enabling the complete integration of nature into urban environments and promoting greener and more sustainable cities.
- Breeding endangered beetles - An EPS@ISEP 2024 ProjectPublication . Florus, Cedric; Lattunen, Jennifer; Knäuper, Julius; Jugiel, Krzysztof; Silva, Marion; Dekkers, Thomas; Duarte, Abel J.; BENEDITA CAMPOS NEVES MALHEIRO, MARIA; Santos Ribeiro, Maria Cristina; JUSTO, Jorge; Ferreira, Paulo; Silva, Manuel; Guedes, Pedro; Auer, Michael E.; Rüütmann, TiiaHabitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use are key threats affecting beetle populations. This paper describes Scarabreed, a project that contributes to mitigate the beetle decline crisis. It was carried out by a team of six European students from different engineering fields and nationalities within the European Project Semester (EPS) at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), a project-based and teamwork learning framework. The designed solution -- the Beetle Breeder Version 2 (BBV2) -- consists of a smart modular vivarium created especially for beetle breeding. It monitors and controls relevant habitat parameters and offers two user-friendly interfaces (on-device and a Web application). The innovative modular structure of the vivarium allows easy scaling, customisation, and transportation. As a whole, the project offers significant environmental benefits: (i) facilitates the captive breeding of endangered beetle species, promoting population restoration efforts; (ii) fosters, as an educational tool, youth and general public awareness about the crucial role beetles play in ecosystems; and (iii) adopts eco-efficient and responsible business practices by following ethics and sustainability driven design and marketing.
- Can Luminol Be a Fluorophore?Publication . Barroso, M. Fátima; Silva, Rui J. A.; Moreira, Sérgio F.; Rodrigues, Sofia S.; Gonçalves, Helena M. R.; Duarte, Abel J.In this work, we report a new chemiluminescence system using bis-(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate (TCPO) with hydrogen peroxide and luminol as fluorophore. The intense chemiluminescence reaction here described was fully investigated and it was determined that this fluorescent system has two strong light emissions at 440 and 490 nm, respectively. This new, user friendly, intense and striking light emission chemiluminescence system can be used as a very usefull tool for the design and construction of fluorescencent chemical sensors.
- Carbon dots de síntese única para deteção de espécies reativas de oxigénioPublication . Almeida, Lícia; Sousa, Cátia A.; Duarte, Abel J.(Introdução) As espécies reativas de oxigénio (reactive oxygen species – ROS), são um conjunto de radicais livres que derivam do oxigénio e provêm da cadeia respiratória. São de importância vital nos organismos vivos em quantidade muito reduzidas, funcionando como neurotransmissores ou vasodilatadores, no entanto, quando em grandes quantidades provocam o stresse oxidativo causador de inúmeras patologias. A deteção ROS é de grande importância em diversos processos biológicos, diagnóstico de doenças e triagem de drogas quimioterápicas, para isso é importante construir unidades de carbon dots (Cdots) que sejam sensores químicos de ROS por mecanismo de extinção de fluorescência. Existem algumas estratégias de construção dos CDots, as mais vantajosas são as sínteses únicas em micro-ondas.
- Cattle Monitoring Blimp – An EPS@ISEP 2023 ProjectPublication . Blommestijn, Krijn; Dallongeville, Kylian; Paulsen, Maximilian; Mamos, Michal; Gupta, Sonia; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Cristina; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroThis paper describes the project based learning experience of a multidisciplinary and multicultural team of students enrolled in the spring of 2023 on the European Project Semester at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (EPS@ISEP). Animo is an original blimp based concept that aims to help farmers better manage their livestock. Its development was motivated by the difficulty to effectively monitor cattle herds over vast areas, especially in remote locations where locating animals is challenging. This environmentally friendly solution offers real-time livestock monitoring without thermal engines. Real-time monitoring is achieved through the blimp's extensive animal data collection. Farmers may discover and handle quickly herd welfare issues by accessing information via a user-friendly App. With an emphasis on accessibility and environmental sustainability, Animo seeks to increase agricultural productivity and profitability. The user controls the blimp motion through the app to obtain a comprehensive farm view. Targeting Australia's large cattle stations, it aims to enhance productivity while minimising the environmental impact.
- Characterization of carbon dots and its impact in a breast cancer cell linePublication . Magalhães, Sofia; Luís, Carla; Fraga, Hugo; Duarte, Abel J.Carbon dots (CD) have emerged as a novel promising alternative to metal-based nanoparticles. These fluorescence carbon materials have been the subject of research since 2004 and exhibit excellent chemical and physical properties such as hydrophilicity, good biocompatibility and reduced toxicity, which allows a good interaction with biological systems. Taking this in consideration it is not surprising that CD have been introduced for the study/therapeutics of breast cancer , especially, in drug delivery system, bioimaging, biosensor, microbial therapy, photodynamic and photothermal therapy. Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer with a high morbidity rate in the female population worldwide. In this study, we considered the use of fructose derived CD for breast cancer therapy. CD were produced from D-fructose via microwave irradiation by the bottom-up method. Following purification, particles were characterized using TEM, FTIR, DLS and fluorescence microscopy. As expected, fructose derived CD consist of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. As characteristic of CD, they are fluorescent with an absorption maximum at 360 nm that when irradiated at 360 nm have an emission maximum at 520 and a broad emission band (maximum 520 nm). In what concern cell-based assays, our results using breast cancer cell line BT474 and MCF-10A breast epithelial cells show CD are able to penetrate the cell membrane and display cytotoxicity towards tumor cell lines. In still preliminary results, it appears that they have reduced toxicity versus non tumor cell line, suggesting that they can be used as anti-tumoral agents for therapeutic purposes.
- Citizen Engagement in Urban Planning – An EPS@ISEP 2022 ProjectPublication . Cardani, Carla G.; Couzyn, Carmen; Degouilles, Eliott; Benner, Jan M.; Engst, Julia A.; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Cristina; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroInvolving people in urban planning offers many benefits, but current methods are failing to get a large number of citizens to participate. People have a high participation barrier when it comes to public participation in urban planning – as it requires a lot of time and initiative, only a small non-diverse group of citizens take part in governmental initiatives. In this paper, a product is developed to make it as easy as possible for citizens to get involved in construction projects in their community at an early stage. As a solution, a public screen is proposed, which offers citizens the opportunity to receive information, view 3D models, vote and comment at the site of the construction project via smartphone – the solution was named Parcitypate. To explain the functions of the product, a prototype was created and tested. In addition, concepts for branding, marketing, ethics, and sustainability are presented.
- Collaborative Learning with Sustainability-driven Projects: A Summary of the EPS@ISEP ProgrammePublication . Silva, Manuel Fernando; Malheiro, Benedita; Guedes, Pedro; Duarte, Abel J.; Ferreira, PauloThis paper describes the collaborative learning environment, aligned with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, provided by the European Project Semester (EPS). EPS is a one semester capstone project programme offered by eighteen European engineering schools as part of their student ex-change programme portfolio. In this international programme, students are organized in teams, grouping individuals from diverse academic backgrounds and nationalities. The teams, after choosing a project proposal, become fully responsible for the conduction of their projects. By default, project proposals refer to open multidisciplinary real problems. The purpose of the project is to expose students to problems of a greater dimension and complexity than those faced throughout the degree programme as well as to put them in con-tact with the so-called real world, in opposition to the academic world. EPS provides an integrated framework for undertaking capstone projects, which is focused on multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork, communication, problem-solving, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical reasoning and global contextual analysis. Specifically, the design and development of sustainable systems for growing food allow students not only to reach the described objectives, but to foster sustainable development practices. As a re-sult, we recommend the adoption of this category of projects within EPS for the benefit of engineering students and of the society as a whole.