Learning Engineering with EPS@ISEP: Developing Projects for Smart Sustainable Cities

Abstract

This paper presents an overview on how the European Project Semester capstone programme offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (EPS@ISEP) fosters learning by challenging engineering, business and product development undergraduates to address sustainability issues afflicting cities and communities nowadays. This will be done by analysing the reports and the learning journey of three multicultural and multidisciplinary EPS@ISEP teams during the design, development and test of a smart billboard, a self-oriented solar mirror and a level monitoring system for waste oil bins. These three projects were conducted within EPS@ISEP, a project-based learning framework dedicated to the development of key engineering skills, namely multidisciplinary teamwork, inter-cultural communication, ethical and sustainability-oriented problem-solving. The involved students contributed, not only, to make cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, one of UNESCO’s sustainable development goals, but learnt and practiced together sustainability-driven design, while searching for an innovative solution for a smart city problem. This conclusion is supported by the analysis of the content the three project reports.