Abstract
This paper presents the study carried out in the Electric Power Systems Project (EPSP) of the Electrical Engineering course, by a student's team, using PBL, under a protocol between the Law Court and the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra (ISEC / IPC). The purpose of the Electric Power Systems Project is to involve students in a project team, aiming to develop and test a system with a specific function, using concepts and technologies in the field of Electric Power Systems. Upon completing the course, students should demonstrate autonomy in identifying and analysing problems and propose, implement and test the specific solutions. In this work, the Project Based Learning (PBL) methodology was used. The Problem to be solved was presented to the students, by the Professors. The aim of the students was to provide a global framework for the problem of road lighting in Portugal, identifying the technologies used, existing legislation, national plans for improving energy efficiency in the sector, identify the most efficient technologies, learn how to work with software for simulation, propose a solution to the specific problem and justify the solution from a technical and economic point of view.

Abstract
Over the last years, there has been an increase in hearing-impaired students who use sign language as their main form of communication attending higher education institutions around the world. The knowledge that their comprehension of texts is reduced due to sentence structure differences causes a need for more solutions to improve communication and support students in environments where they are unable to be accompanied by sign interpreters. This article details the improvements and current structure of the VirtualSign platform, a bidirectional sign language to text translation tool that has been in development since 2015. The platform is divided into two main parts, sign to text and text to sign, and both components are described and explained. The solution has received positive feedback on several tests and a pilot experiment, and is being developed with partnerships with sign interpreters from six different European countries. Some planned improvements and future functionalities for the tool are also mentioned and detailed.

Abstract
Close collaboration between schools and industry can lead to better results, providing effective improvements in electrical engineering education. The Electric Energy Systems Projects whenever possible should be developed under a cooperation agreement with an industry partner or with an institution, in order that the students have the opportunity to apply the knowledge and techniques learned in the academic course. The ability to design, fabricate and test, providing hands-on experience is very valued by the students and is the essential part of the paradigm of engineering. This paper describes how real engineering design problems were integrated in Electric Energy Systems final project and the learning methodologies that were applied to achieve this purpose.

Abstract
Deaf students, who use sign language as their mother language, continuously experience difficulties to communicate with non-deaf in their daily lives. This is a severe handicap in education settings seriously jeopardizing deaf people chances to progress in their professional career. Deaf people's comprehension of texts is limited due to grammar differences between sign and oral languages. There is a need to improve the communication between deaf and non-deaf and to support deaf students in environments where they are unable to be accompanied by sign interpreters. This article details the improvements and current structure of the VirtualSign platform, a bidirectional sign language to text translation tool in development since 2015. The platform has two main components, sign to text and text to sign, that are both described. Translation from text to sign relies on a 3D avatar. Translation from sign to text relies on a set of data gloves and Kinect. In this paper we discuss the relevance of different types of data gloves. VirtualSign is being developed in cooperation with the deaf communities from six different European countries and Brazil. This solution to support deaf students in educational settings has received positive feedback on several tests and pilot experiments. Some planned improvements and future functionalities for the tool are also mentioned and detailed.

Abstract
Optimizing the participation of a large number of prosumers in the electricity markets is a challenging problem, especially for portfolios with thousands or millions of flexible resources. To address this problem, this paper proposes a cluster-based optimization approach to support an aggregator in the definition of demand and supply bids for the day-ahead energy market. This approach consists of two steps. In the first step, the aggregated flexibility of the entire portfolio is computed by a centroid-based clustering algorithm. In the second step, the supply and demand bids are defined by an optimization model that can assume the form of a deterministic or a two-stage stochastic problem. A case study of 10,000 prosumers from the Iberian market is used to evaluate and compare the performance of the bidding optimization models with and without pre-clustering. The numerical results show that the optimized bidding strategies outperform an inflexible strategy by more than 20% of cost savings. The centroid-based clustering algorithm reduces effectively the execution times of the bidding optimization problems, without affecting the quality of the energy bids.

Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to present a new and cost-effective Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool that can lead to efficient energy management in buildings and optimal operation of electricity networks with increased share of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Electric Vehicles (EVs). The new ICT infrastructure is based on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) standard and its interoperability with smart metering technology, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Building Automation Systems (BAS). The main idea involves the attachment of a DAB receiver to electric devices (from small household appliances up to EVs and solar systems and other RES). In this paper, the DAB protocol is described, enabling high cyber-physical security. Moreover, the results of addressing a thermostatically-controlled load using DAB-signaling in Switzerland are also presented. The next steps envisioned are i) the validation of the final protocol version and of the DAB receivers for various electric appliances and DR schemes and, ii) demonstration of the new technology in real-life cases through the National DAB broadcaster in Greece. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.