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- 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.
- Reconfigurable and Ergonomic Smart Desk – An EPS@ISEP 2021 ProjectPublication . Vandoorne-Feys, Anastasia; Nicoara, George-Gabriel; Carasel, Ioana-Silvia; Karpiak, Marcel; Kocheski, Nikola; Malheiro, Benedita; Ribeiro, Cristina; JUSTO, Jorge; Silva, Manuel F.; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, PedroThe European Project Semester (EPS) offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) provides engineering, business and product design undergraduates with a project-based learning experience in a multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork environment. This paper reports the research and development of a reconfigurable and ergonomic three-level desk, for people who live in small spaces, by a multicultural and multidisciplinary team of five students. The main objective of the project was to integrate ethics- and sustainability-driven practices in the design, simulation and test of an ergonomic, transformable desk. The FREE desk proposal aims to create a comfortable and dynamic working environment for people while providing a transformable space for different daily activities. This goal was pursued by designing a reconfigurable product, a smart desk that offers the user three levels of adjustability: bench level, sitting desk level, and standing desk level. The desk includes a folding light-sensor lamp into the table top and an integrated battery, in order to create a proper working space. The selected materials have a low environmental impact. The solution comes with different options regarding the table top lifting mechanism. This paper describes the state-of-the-art research, the ethics, sustainability, and marketing analyses, the design and simulation of the FREE desk as well as the obtained results.
- 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.
- The EPS@ISEP - European Project Semester Program at ISEP - Implementation results and ideas for improvementPublication . Silva, Manuel; Malheiro, Benedita; Guedes, Pedro; Ferreira, Paulo; Castro Ribeiro, Maria Cristina De; José Ferreira, Fernando; Duarte, Abel J.EPS is a one semester student-centred capstone programme designed by Arvid Andersen in Denmark, being currently offered by several European engineering schools. Its goal is to promote the development of scientific, technical and soft skills in students through multicultural teamwork and open, multidisciplinary project based learning. EPS, while an active learning framework, is focussed on problem-solving, communication, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical reasoning and global contextual analysis. The School of Engineering of the Porto Polytechnic is an EPS provider since 2011, offering a 30 ECTU package with two-thirds assigned to the project module and one-third to project supportive complementary modules. A total of 138 students from 18 countries participated in the EPS@ISEP, while developing 28 multidisciplinary projects. Based on this experience, this paper identifies strengths, weaknesses and proposes ideas for the improvement of the programme
- Smart Pill Dispenser for Children - An EPS@ISEP 2024 ProjectPublication . Ehrenhofer, Lena; Borowski, Łukasz; Oliveira, Noé; Steyaert, Stijn; Kronshagen, Tamara; Clauwaert, Tibo; Duarte, Abel J.; BENEDITA CAMPOS NEVES MALHEIRO, MARIA; Castro Ribeiro, Maria Cristina de; JUSTO, Jorge; Silva, Manuel; Ferreira, Paulo; Guedes, Pedro; Auer, Michael E.; Rüütmann, TiiaPeople around the globe struggle with health issues requiring regular medication. Children, in particular, suffer more and more from chronic illnesses. In 2024, a team of six EPS@ISEP students chose to design a solution for this problem, followed by the assembly and testing of the corresponding proof-of-concept prototype. The aim was to design a solution for children to take the right medication, at the right time and in the right dose, in a pleasant and engaging way, based on technical, ethical, sustainability and market analyses. Focusing on children between the ages of 8 and 12, the team decided to incorporate a motivational system based on rewards to ensure that they take their medication correctly. The outcome is billy, a pill dispenser controlled via an app which allows carers to plan doses and release rewards, and children to autonomously take their medication. The system dispenses up to 21 doses of medication to the child through fingerprint authentication, and photographs the child taking the medication to reassure carers.