Proactive engineering

This paper presents two initiatives run by groups of engineering students at the University of Porto: the Microelectronics Students´ Group and BioStar. These groups are student-led initiatives that promote different scientific fields through self-guided projects. Both experiences have proven to be very successful in increasing the undergraduate student´s interest in science and technology. This work reports the activities, organization and main methodologies employed by these groups, which can be seen as successful approaches to enhance the technical curriculum of students.