Abstract
Virtual labs are more likely to offer a user friendly environment as well as greater flexibility, allowing students to carry out experiments and repeat them as often as necessary. Nevertheless, they do not discard the need for a conventional system as traditional labs are a valuable asset In this context, the student is the centre of the whole process, taking on the main role and is responsible for his/her own learning process, although there may be an extra support through in-class sessions in order to keep him/her in contact with the system, to offer guidance and motivation for the challenges ahead. One of the advantages of virtual experimentation is the opportunity of using a lab in situations which might be impossible otherwise, allowing students to take part in lab sessions; another one is related with its use to improve learning results. Virtual experimentation labs create flexible learning environments suitable for different types of learners, allowing the interactive and systematic development of competences in the various areas of learning and can be used to complement the conventional type of lectures. VEMA is a practical asynchronous software tool devised to meet the needs of students who can't be present in regular lab classes in the Electrical Engineering Department of ISEC (Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra).

Abstract
In this paper is presented a methodology to identify and evaluate the influence of the external elements on the Transmission System Operator's (TSO) responsibility area. The algorithm is based on the influence factor approach and is described for this purpose. This algorithm offer a concrete support in the determination of the observability area, which at the end remains in the responsibility of a single TSO. The influence factor is a numerical value used to quantify the greatest effect of the outage of an external network component on any internal network branch. The proposed methodology was applied to identify and to assess the influence of the external elements on the Portuguese transmission network. All simulations of the Portuguese and Spanish systems were performed using the computational software package PSS/E of Siemens/PTI. The results obtained with the proposed methodology are compared with the solutions produced by the horizontal network methodology.

Abstract
The quantity of educational digital content available for the hearing impaired community is very scarce. However, due to extraordinary progress of the new technologies, remarkable opportunities to bring a better quality of life to the public in general arose. Making these opportunities available to those who endure handicap and disabilities is a core concern in today's society and a must to promote equity and inclusion. The target community addressed by our work, the hearing impaired community, has its own language, known as Sign language. The work presented in this paper consists in the development of a game to make the process of learning sign language enjoyable and interactive. In order to do this, a game was created in which the player controls a character and interacts with various objects and non-player characters with the aim of collecting several gestures from the Portuguese Sign Language. These gestures can then be represented by the character. This allows the user to visualize and learn or train the various existing gestures. To raise the interactivity and to make the game more interesting and motivating, several checkpoints were placed along the level. This will provide the players a chance to test the knowledge they have acquired so far on the checkpoints by using Kinect. A High Scores system was also created as well as a history to ensure that the game is a continuous motivating process as well as a learning process. Copyright 2014 ACM.

Abstract
Nowadays, education extends beyond the field of formal education delivered in universities and colleges, and is increasingly based on new technological developments. Long Life Learning (LLL) is a fundamental tool in today's world in order to remain competitive in the market. The ease of access to the Internet and computer technologies has turned into a new field for developing applications which can be distributed worldwide in an almost instantaneous manner, but must be appropriately designed in order to achieve their goals. Quality e-learning courseware requires several aspects to be covered in order to achieve its purposes. These include a thorough knowledge of the content as well as methods of delivery and learning theory. These requirements were taken into account in the development of a virtual-lab environment, named VEMA, developed by one of the authors and used in the Bachelor and Master's classes.

Abstract
In this paper, Electrical Engineering Education at the Master level is presented through three perspectives of collaborative projects involving industry and academia. The presented perspectives originate from three Portuguese Higher Education Institutions representing the University, Military Academy and Polytechnic School viewpoints. Throughout the presented projects, an increasing student motivation was observed, driven by the practical experience provided through the industrial sector approach. This cooperation also generates opportunities to develop new perspectives and ideas for follow-on projects as well as innovative academic publications.

Abstract
A new strategy was purposed and is being tested during this year, to increase students' participation and promote continuous learning and students' engagement in master's courses classes. With the implementation of the Bologna Process, the spectra of students has increased, which increases the difficulties faced by the lecturers since these students present different backgrounds and knowledge, thereby increasing the number of hours necessary to assure the completion of the programs. A description of a new approach design to increase students' participation, which is being tested in three different Universities and Polytechnic Institutes in Portugal is presented in this paper and some preliminary results are discussed.