Abstract
Teaching project management to engineering students demands realworld experiences in which they can apply and develop work-ready skills, such as critical thinking, empathy, and teamwork. While a shortage of these skills in new graduates is frequently claimed by engineering companies and educational bodies, there is still a lack of higher education research studies on how to foster them through teaching practice. This paper intends to contribute to filling this gap by presenting an exploratory case study research of a Project-Based Learning (PjBL) experience aimed at designing and implementing a professional (re)integration plan for social and economic deprived people (e.g., long/short-term unemployed), who depend on external food supply provided by a non-profit organization called REFOOD. The experience was carried out in Portugal, from February to June 2021, with 7 MSc mechanical engineering students from the University of Trasos-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). We firstly describe the PjBL experience in terms of the key driving question, the learning goals, the educational activities, the collaboration among students and stakeholders, the scaffolding activities, and the tangible learning artefacts produced. We further discuss the preliminary results of the study from data collected through documental analysis, participant observation, and self-completion questionnaires on students' perceptions of the PjBL experience. Data analysis shows that this experience positively impacted the development of students' project management, empathy, critical thinking, and team-working skills, by mainly having challenged their personal belief systems and biases related to the real-world scenarios they dealt with. Finally, we outline implications for the teaching practice concerning the development of similar PjBL experiences, as well as future research directions.

Abstract
Forests assume a great socioeconomic and environmental importance, requiring good management decisions to value and care for these natural resources. In Portugal, forest land use accounts for 34.5% of the continental area. The softwood species with the highest representation is maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.). Traditionally, the species is managed as pure and even-aged stands for timber production, with a rotation age of 45 to 50 years. Depending on the initial stand density, the stands are thinned 2 to 4 times during the rotation period. Disturbances associated with forest fires have a negative impact on the age structure of stands over time, as they result in a narrow range of stand ages. This age homogenization over large forest areas increases with the recurrence and size of forest fires, bringing new challenges to forest management, namely the difficulty in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the wood supply. The problem aggravates with the increasing demand pressure on pine wood. This article aims to suggest a framework of DSS for Pinus pinaster that can effectively support the management of forest areas under these circumstances, i.e., narrow age ranges and high demand of harvested timber volume. A communal woodland area in the Northern region of Portugal affected by forest fires was selected as a study case. The Modispinaster model was used as the basis of the DSS, to simulate growth scenarios and interventions along the optional rotation period. Two clear-cut ages were considered: 25 and 40 years. The results obtained were the input data for an integer linear programming (ILP) model to obtain the plan that maximizes the volume of timber harvested in the study area, during the planning horizon. The ILP model has constraints bounding the area of clearings, and sustainability, operational and forestry restrictions. The computational results are a powerful tool for guidance in the decision-making of scheduling and forecasting the execution of interventions determining the set of stands that are exploited according to the different scenarios and the period in which the clear-cut is made throughout the planning horizon. Considering all constraints, the solution allows a balanced extraction of a total of 685 m(3)center dot ha(-1), over the 50-year horizon, as well as the representation of all age classes at the end of the planning period.

Abstract
Climate change will increase the frequency of drought, heat waves, and wildfires. We intended to analyse how fire recurrence and/or induced water stress can affect seed germination and root cell division in Pinus pinaster Aiton. Seeds from stands with no prior fire history and from post-fire regeneration (in areas burnt once, twice, and thrice) in northern Portugal were germinated in distilled water (control) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) to simulate water stress for four weeks, followed by a recovery period. Roots were analysed cytogenetically. The germination index of the Pinus pinaster seeds was not statistically influenced by the induction of osmotic stress, nor by the fire recurrence of the stands. The mean germination time (MGT) was 10-29 days and 1-36 days for the stress and recovery periods, respectively, and increased with PEG concentration. The 20% PEG treatment inhibited root growth after germination. The 10% PEG treatment induced a high frequency of cytogenetic anomalies, mostly in the sites which experienced fire exposure. While fire recurrence did not affect the germination rate, it seemed to reduce the water stress response, negatively impacting cell division and impair root growth.

Abstract
With excess energy use from non-renewable sources, new energy generation solutions must be adopted to make up for this excess. In this sense, the integration of renewable energy sources in high-rise buildings reduces the need for energy from the national power grid to maximize the self-sustainability of common services. Moreover, self-consumption in low-voltage and medium-voltage networks strongly facilitates a reduction in external energy dependence. For consumers, the benefits of installing small wind turbines and energy storage systems include tax benefits and reduced electricity bills as well as a profitable system after the payback period. This paper focuses on assessing the wind potential in a high-rise building through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, quantifying the potential for wind energy production by small wind turbines (WT) at the installation site. Furthermore, a mathematical model is proposed to optimize wind energy production for a self-consumption system to minimize the total cost of energy purchased from the grid, maximizing the return on investment. The potential of a CFD-based project practice that has wide application in developing the most varied processes and equipment results in a huge reduction in the time and costs spent compared to conventional practices. Furthermore, the optimization model guarantees a significant decrease in the energy purchased at peak hours through the energy stored in energy storage systems (ESS). The results show that the efficiency of the proposed model leads to an investment amortization period of 7 years for a lifetime of 20 years.

Abstract
This study aims to develop an approach for the management of a forest of maritime pine located in the north region of Portugal. The forest is classified into five public lands, the so-called baldios, extending over 4432 ha. These baldios are co-managed by the Official Forest Services and the local communities mainly for timber production purposes. The forest planning involves non-spatial and spatial constraints. Spatial constraints dictate a maximum clearcut area and an exclusion time. An integer programming model is presented and the computational results are discussed.

Abstract
The study addresses the special case of a management plan for maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) in common lands. The study area refers to 4,432 ha of maritime pine stands in North Portugal (Perimetro Florestal do Barroso in the county of Ribeira de Pena), distributed among five common lands called baldio areas. Those lands are co-managed by the Official Forest Services and the local communities, essentially for timber production, using empirical guidance. As the current procedure does not guarantee the best thinning and clear-cutting scheduling, it was considered important to develop "easy-to-use" models, supported by optimization techniques, to be employed by the forest managers in the harvest planning of these communitarian forests. Planning of the thinning and clear-cutting operations involved certain conditions, such as: (1) the optimal age for harvesting; (2) the maximum stand density permitted; (3) the minimum volume to be cut; (4) the guarantee of incomes for each of the five baldios in at least a two year period; (5) balanced incomes during the length of the projection period. In order to evaluate the sustainability of the wood resources, a set of constraints lower bounding the average ending age was additionally tested. The problem was formulated as an integer linear programming model where the incomes from thinning and clear-cutting are maximized while considering the constraints mentioned above. Five major scenarios were simulated. The simplest one allows for silvicultural constraints only, whereas the other four consider these constraints besides different management options. Two of them introduce joint management of all common areas with or without constraints addressing balanced distribution of incomes during the plan horizon, whilst the other two consider the same options but for individual management of the baldios. The proposed model is easy to apply, providing immediate advantages for short and mid-term planning periods compared to the empirical methods of harvest planning. Results showed that maximization of production is reached when there are silvicultural restrictions only and when forest management units are regarded as a joint undertaking. The individualized management with a balanced distribution of incomes is an interesting option as it does not drastically reduce the optimal solution while assuring benefits at least every two years.