Pedro Guedes

Abstract
Intensive 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. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Abstract
Tourists nowadays tend to avoid tourist traps and are looking for engaging ways to explore cities in the limited time they have. Standard options to explore cities seldom offer a combination between efficiency and fun. Furthermore, a search for an exploration city app returns an unlimited supply of lookalike websites and apps, all claiming to be the best. This paper reports the development of QRioCity, an efficient and exciting way to explore cities, by the “Dragonics” student team. QRioCity offers users the option to sign up for a playful tour through the city of Porto using a public kiosk with an interactive touchscreen. There is no limit to the number of teams playing simultaneously nor there is need to provide personal data. The teams are led through the city using clues and are proposed assignments, like scanning QR codes, to earn points. At the end of the game, every team receives discount coupons for local shops or stores depending on their score, even when they play alone. This way QRioCity helps tourists enjoying the local city life while offering municipalities a chance to strengthen their local economy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Abstract
Each year millions of tons of plastic end up in the oceans, lakes and rivers. In the spring of 2020, an European Project Semester team, composed of multicultural and multidisciplinary undergraduate students, decided to tackle this problem. This was achieved by designing, modelling and simulating a floating trash collector named Soaksy. The collector is expected to operate continuously and automatically on lakes at the view of everybody, becoming an educational and an environmental tool. This paper reports the team's journey from the initial studies, through the design, till the final simulation and tests.

Abstract
This paper reports the research and design of a foldable disaster shelter for people left homeless due to natural disasters, by a multinational team composed of six students, from six different countries. The team was enrolled in the European Project Semester (EPS), a project-based capstone programme offered by Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), to students who have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies. The main objective of the project was to design, simulate and test an ethics and sustainability driven foldable shelter. This goal was pursued by conducting a series of studies to derive the solution requirements, involving a survey on shelter concepts and solutions, a review on worldwide natural disasters, as well as an analysis of the shelter market. The latter led to the definition of a business plan, a marketing strategy, a logo and a brand name. The solution comes with a Web application to help rescue organisations to follow the scheduled maintenance plan and keep track of the deployed units.

Abstract
This paper reports the development of WalkSafe, a Smart Pedestrian Crossing solution, by a multinational and multidisciplinary team of students during the spring semester of 2020. The team was enrolled in the European Project Semester (EPS), a project-based capstone programme offered by Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). Motivated by the idea to reduce the number of pedestrians hit by cars at road crossings, and associated injuries and deaths, the team surveyed pedestrian behaviour to conclude that people often ignore pedestrian crossings. Thus, this project intended to motivate people to use pedestrian crossings, increasing the safety of both pedestrians and drivers. The proposed solution can be implemented on any pedestrian crossing and involves up to three components: (i) a box to be fixed on each side of pedestrian crossings with a radio-frequency identification reader as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi interfaces; (ii) a smartphone mobile app; and (iii) a personal bracelet for children and elderly, with a passive radio-frequency identification tag.