Two projects developed by students from the Department of Production and Systems (DPS) and the ALGORITMI Centre, at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, were awarded international prizes at the PAEE/ALE 2025 – International Conference on Active Learning in Engineering Education, which took place between 25 and 27 June at the Portuguese Catholic University in Porto.
The international jury for the event had the difficult task of selecting the three best projects from among 16 papers submitted by students from various institutions, involving authors from Denmark, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. UMinho took two of the three places on the podium, which highlights the excellence of the work carried out in the area of active learning. In addition, these works reinforce the advantage of dealing with international challenges posed within the scope of the EGALITARIAN project.
The 1st Prize was awarded to PDEIS doctoral student Erik Teixeira Lopes for his article “Using a Chatbot for Student Onboarding and Learning in Projects: Technology as an Enabler of Active Learning”. The work, co-authored by students from Brasília, Yasmim Bezerra Oliveira Altoé, Pedro Gonçalves Prazeres and Luiza Oliveira de Araujo, and supervised by professors from Brasília, Portugal and Denmark, Simone Borges Simão Monteiro, Diana Mesquita, Rui M. Lima and Jens Myrup Pedersen, explores the use of a chatbot as a tool to facilitate student integration and learning in international ERASMUS+ project environments, reinforcing the role of technology as an ally in promoting active teaching practices.
The 3rd Prize was awarded to a group of students from the Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (MEGI), as part of the Integrated Project in Industrial Engineering and Management (PIEGI) course, for their article ‘From Classroom to Industry: PBL in Action from the Point of View of a Team of Students’. The students, Ana Carolina Gonçalves da Cunha, Ana Catarina Ramos Martins Abreu, Ana Luísa da Silva Machado, Bárbara Isabel Ribeiro da Silva, Carolina Dantas da Cunha Pereira, Catarina Gomes Wilson, Inês Gonçalves Araújo, Lara Francisca da Cunha Correia, Raquel Costa Dantas, supervised by Rui M. Lima, developed a paper that reports on their experience with the Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology, highlighting the bidirectional transfer between the academic context and the industrial environment, reinforcing the value of active and authentic learning.
These recognitions reinforce the impact of the pedagogical and scientific work developed at DPS and ALGORITMI, as well as the School of Engineering’s commitment to innovative and student-centred practices, in interaction with professional and international environments.
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