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- 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.
- THE EPS@ISEP PROGRAMME: A GLOBALISATION AND INTERNATIONALISATION EXPERIENCEPublication . Ferreira, Paulo; Malheiro, Benedita; Silva, Manuel; Guedes, Pedro; JUSTO, Jorge; Castro Ribeiro, Maria Cristina De; Duarte, Abel J.Higher Education Institutions (HEI) design and implement globalisation and internationalisation policies to promote the image, expand influence and increase both the number and quality of staff and students. This is especially important for engineering schools competing for the reduced cohort of motivated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) applicants available yearly. Moreover, to train future engineers, engineering education needs to depart from the traditional teacher-centred paradigm. Student-centred learning is central to maintain high student motivation and to drive the development of hard (scientific and technological) and soft (inter-personal) skills. For students to develop these 21st-century engineering skills, today’s curriculums must embed student-centred pedagogical methods, address the design and implementation of solutions guided by ethics and sustainability, and expose undergraduates to multicultural multidisciplinary teamwork, under strong efficiency constraints.The European Project Semester (EPS) is a project-based, international teamwork initiative, that replaces the design capstone semester of undergraduate engineering degrees. It is offered by a network of 19 HEI located in 12 different European countries. The network develops transnational projects together and exchanges students, staff, ideas, and best practices, expanding the influence of the providers. EPS at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (EPS@ISEP) runs during the spring semester. It provides 30 European Credit Transfer System Units (ECTU), with 20 ECTU assigned to the project module and 10 ECTU equally divided by five support modules: Energy and Sustainable Development, Ethics and Deontology, Foreign Language and Culture, Marketing and Communication, and Project Management and Teamwork. The programme is offered to international and local students, but during its 12-year existence most students were international. The students are placed in teams considering psychological profiles. The multiculturalism and the diversity of skills within teams also foster a more inclusive and enriching learning experience. The sustainability and ethics objectives are requirements to be considered in the solution design and in the choice of technologies and components for the project implementation. The weekly project meetings between the teams and the coaching panel (7 teachers from 6 different departments), are not only pivotal to the project-based learning process, but promote the internal dialogue between departments and scientific areas. The reduced project budget provides a strong creative stimulus, while reinforcing the sustainability criteria, since turnkey solutions and waste are incompatible with a constrained bill of materials. Besides the positive effect of the programme on student training/education, as shown by the grades and the projects' documentation, EPS@ISEP has strongly influenced the teacher's skills and performance, as attested by the number of programme-related publications and its influence on other courses and modules offered by ISEP. EPS@ISEP is an effective low-cost programme that acts as a testbed and catalyst in the process of bringing engineering education into the 21st century, following sound ethical and sustainability criteria. EPS@ISEP contributes to the globalisation and internationalisation of ISEP as well as to the dissemination and adoption of best practices in engineering education.
- Smart Supermarket Cart - An EPS@ISEP 2023 ProjectPublication . Orós, Miquel; Robu, Marian-Daniel; van Klaveren, Hessel; Gajda, Dominika; Van Dyck, Jelte; Krings, Tobias; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Cristina; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroThe technological revolution experienced over the last two decades, together with changes in shopping behaviour, has led supermarkets to consider smart shopping trolleys. Recently, several companies have tested and implemented smart services and devices, such as smart shopping carts with scanners, automatic payment methods, or self-payment locations, to maximise supermarket profits by reducing staff and improving the customer experience. In the spring of 2023, a team of six students enrolled in the European Project Semester at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) proposed FESmarket, an innovative smart shopping cart solution. The user-centred design focused on making the shopping interaction and experience more efficient, comfortable, and satisfactory. Form (balancing aesthetics with innovation), function (selecting functionalities based on the most disruptive technologies), market (fulfilling the identified needs), sustainability (minimising the use of resources), and ethics (respecting human values) are the pillars of the project. FESmarket proposes a smart shopping trolley equipped a built-in touch screen for real-time information on products and their location, cameras for product identification, an audio assistance system, a refrigeration chamber, and a mobile app interface for the customer. Finally, a proof-of-concept prototype was assembled and tested to validate the viability of the designed solution.
- 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.
- Raising Awareness to Waste Collection and Recycling in Urban Spaces – An EPS@ISEP 2023 ProjectPublication . Bohon, Nina; Durand, Olivier; Emmelot, Charlotte; Hellemans, Koen; Jasny, Lukas; Reisinger, Kathrin; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Cristina; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroThe European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) is a capstone engineering design programme in which students, organised in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, develop a solution for a proposed problem, taking into account sustainability, ethical and market concerns. This paper describes a research project aimed at raising awareness and changing behaviour in relation to waste disposal, carried out by a team of EPS@ISEP students during spring 2023. BinIt, as the project is named, targets young adults who want to live in a cleaner city. Unlike other campaigns, it simplifies and stimulates proper waste disposal and recycling, tackling the root of the problem and creating a new social norm. BinIt includes a campaign, a web app and the Garbage Gladiator bin. The app consists of a city map where users can pin and check bin locations, and an educational platform with information on waste disposal and recycling issues. Gamification is incorporated through a ranking system. The Garbage Gladiator is a physical container for urban public spaces specially designed to encourage people to dispose of their waste correctly.
- Insect Farming – An EPS@ISEP 2022 ProjectPublication . Copinet, Benjamin; Flügge, Finn; Margetich, Leonie Christine; Vandepitte, Marie; Petrache, Paul-Luchian; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Maria Cristina de Castro; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroIntensive cattle farming as a means of protein production contributes with the direct emission of greenhouse gases and the indirect contamination of soil and water. The public awareness towards this issue is growing in western cultures, leading to the stagnation of meat consumption and to the willingness to adopt alternative sustainable sources of protein. A solution is to farm insects as they present a reduced environmental impact and constitute a well-known source of protein. However, for westerners, eating insects implies a cultural change as they are still seen as dirty and disgusting. In 2022, a team of five EPS@ISEP students chose to design a solution for this problem followed by the assembly and test of the corresponding proof-of-concept prototype. They decided to design a home farming kit to grow mealworms driven by ethical, sustainable and the market needs. Exploring the insect life-cycle, the kit provides protein for humans and animals, chitin for soil bacteria and frass for plants. It can also be used as an educational tool for children to learn about sustainability, social responsibility and insect life-cycles, helping to overtake the cultural barrier against insect eating from a young age.
- Waste to FungiPublication . Winter, Alexander; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, Pedro; Pedro, Erendiro; Ślasko, Julia; Battaglini, Julien; Faelker, Mäike; Kivipelto, Ronald; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Castro Ribeiro, Maria Cristina DeThis paper describes the journey of a multinational and multidisciplinary team enrolled in the European Project Semester (EPS) at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) during the spring semester of 2019. The team embraced the idea of repurposing coffee leftovers to cultivate oyster mushrooms and benefited from the background diversity of the team members as well as from newly acquired marketing, sustainability and design ethics skills to consolidate and strengthen the overall feasibility of the project. The project was set to design, develop and test grey oyster mushroom growth kits with an automated monitoring system, using coffee grounds as growing substrate and complying with the applicable regulations and pre-defined requirements. The ulterior aims of the project were to reconnect people with the food they eat and to disseminate sustainable food production processes, which are not only healthy but environmentally friendly. To achieve these goals, the team developed a circular economy business model where grey oyster mushroom growth kits reuse coffee grounds as growing beds and food buckets as containers. The designed growth kits include a controlled fruiting chamber with an integrated monitoring system. This allows easy domestic cultivation, monitoring through a smart phone. Moreover, the proposed solution contemplates information sharing on the mushroom cultivation process, monitoring system and recipes as well as the maintenance of a dedicated discussion forum. Tests have been conducted to test the concept, cultivation process, monitoring system and fruiting chamber from the incubation of mycelium all the way to the harvesting. Results show the feasibility of creating a business based on the devised concept
- Smart Adjustable Furniture – An EPS@ISEP 2023 ProjectPublication . Prończuk, Astrid; Mertz-Revol, Clément; Hinzpeter, Jan; Smeets, Julie; Chmielik, Mario; Duarte, Abel J.; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Cristina; Justo, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroSmall living spaces require ingenious solutions that are functional, ergonomic and, above all, reconfigurable. This project for smart, ergonomic and adjustable furniture was embraced by a team of students from different countries, universities and study areas enrolled in the European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). EPS is a design project where international students work in teams to create a solution to a real problem from scratch, analysing the state of the art, the market and the associated ethical and sustainability issues. As a project-based learning process, EPS aims to prepare engineering students to work together in multidisciplinary teams, develop personal skills and address the challenges of the contemporary world. The current project aims to design, simulate and test an ethically and sustainability-driven safe and transformable furniture. Amplea is the adjustable furniture solution developed by five EPS students in spring 2023. It transforms into a kitchen counter, dining table or standing desk. By transforming easily, Amplea’s design provides more comfort and saves space in small living spaces. This paper summarises the research, the design of the solution and the development and testing of the proof-of-concept prototype.
- Education for Sustainable Development: Engineering Student Success with EPS@ISEPPublication . Malheiro, Benedita; Guedes, Pedro; Duarte, Abel J.; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, PauloMotivation is the key to academic success. In the case of engineering, autonomous project teamwork guided by ethics and sustainability concerns acts as a major student motivator. Moreover, it empowers students to become lifelong learners and agents of sustainable development. Engineering schools can thus address simultaneously these two essential education goals – learning and academic success – by challenging students to find innovative, sustainable solutions in a learner-centred set-up.This paper describes how the European Project Semester (EPS), a capstone engineering programme offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), combines challenge-based learning, ethics and sustainability-driven problem-solving, and international multidisciplinary teamwork to achieve both goals.
- Polluted Rivers—A Case Study in Porto, PortugalPublication . Lemos, Patrícia; Silva, Paulo; Sousa, Cátia A.; Duarte, Abel J.; A. Sousa, Cátia; Duarte, Abel J.; Sierra, José Ramón Arévalo; Karydis, Michael; Azzaro, MaurizioRiver contamination by microorganisms, or another chemical source, poses a serious threat to both the environment and public health. Taking immediate and appropriate actions is essential to mitigate the contamination and prevent further spread. As such, regular monitoring of these pollution agents is essential to act in time and control its minor extension. However, there is a lack of commitment to this emergent concern and respective actions around the world. This work aims to study the contamination of a Portuguese river (Tinto River) within Porto city (a highly populated urban area) regarding the total aerobic microorganisms, coliforms, and Enterococcus (as colony-forming units (CFUs) using specific solid culture media) and total organic matter (TOC). Different locations were considered along the Tinto River course (i.e., 14 locations within 11 km) and samples were collected on distinct days throughout September 2022. The overall results showed microbial contamination of aerobic microorganisms (up to 2 × 105 CFU/100 mL), total coliforms (up to 7 × 104 CFU/100 mL), Escherichia coli (up to 9 × 103 CFU/100 mL), and Enterococcus (up to 8 × 103 CFU/100 mL). The results also surpassed the maximum recommended values (MRVs) described in Portuguese decree-law no. 236/98 for irrigation waters. Moreover, TOC was found in a range of 4.54 mg/L to 57.2 mg/L. This work highlights the dangerous microbial contamination and higher amount of organic matter than would be expected for a surface water resource.