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The member countries of the European Union (EU) have prioritized the incorporation of hydrogen as a key component of their energy objectives. As the world moves towards reducing its dependence on fossil fuels, alternative sources of energy have gained prominence. With the growing development of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs), the establishment of an infrastructure for hydrogen production and the creation of a network of service stations have become essential. This article’s purpose is to conduct a methodical review of literature regarding the use of green hydrogen for transportation and the planning of imperative infrastructure in the territory of the EU, specifically Hydrogen Refueling Stations (HRS). In order to increase the acceptance of fuel cell vehicles, a comprehensive network of hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) must be built that enable drivers to refuel their vehicles quickly and easily, similar to gasoline or diesel vehicles. The literature review on this topic was conducted using the Web of Science database (WOS), with a variety of search terms proposed to cover all the key components of green hydrogen production and refueling infrastructure. The implementation of HRS powered by renewable energy sources is an important step in the adoption of fuel cell vehicles, and overcoming the obstacles that come with their implementation will require cooperation and innovation from governments, private businesses, and other stakeholders.

Accurate characterization of the transmittance parameter (U-value) is decisive when assessing energy demand or energy consumption of buildings. The U-value of building envelopes is usually estimated using commercial devices. These commercial solutions present several drawbacks such as their high cost, the fact that they require contact sensors to measure the surface temperature on a limited number of points and the difficulty to meet the standards for ideal measuring conditions. To solve these issues, a Hyper Efficient Arduino Transmittance-meter (HEAT) was recently proposed by the authors for monitoring the U-value based on low-cost technology. This system is now completed with the recording of time series of data based on Internet of Things protocols and the use of non-contact temperature sensors. Studying the applicability, in this case HEAT is used for characterizing walls and ceiling of a building room. To check its performance, the obtained results were compared with those derived from standards and conventional building modelling tools. The results show that the developed system is reliable according to the U-values obtained and expected for the monitored elements, with an acceptable range of uncertainty compared to the ones presented in the literature.

Owing to the high energy consumption in the building sector, appraising the thermal performance of building envelopes is an increasing concern. Recently, a few in situ methodologies to diagnose the thermal parameters of buildings have been considered. However, because of their limitations such as low accuracy, limited number of measurements, and the high cost of monitoring devices, researchers are seeking a new alternative. In this study, a novel hyper-efficient Arduino transmittance-meter was introduced to overcome these limitations and determine the thermal parameters of building envelopes. Unlike conventional methodologies, the proposed transmittance-meter is based on synchronized measurements of different parameters necessary to estimate the transmittance parameter. To verify the applicability of the transmittance-meter, an experimental study was conducted wherein a temperature-controlled box model was thermally monitored, and the outputs of the transmittance-meter employed were compared with those captured by a commercial device. The results revealed a high level of reduction in cost and a low range of difference compared with the latter, thereby validating the applicability of the proposed thermal monitoring system.

In recent years, many scholars have dedicated their research to the development of low-cost sensors for monitoring of various parameters. Despite their high number of applications, the state of the art related to low-cost sensors in building monitoring has not been addressed. To fill this gap, this article presents a systematic review, following well-established methodology, to analyze the state of the art in two aspects of structural and indoor parameters of buildings, in the SCOPUS database. This analysis allows to illustrate the potential uses of low-cost sensors in the building sector and addresses the scholars the preferred communication protocols and the most common microcontrollers for installation of low-cost monitoring systems. In addition, special attention is paid to describe different areas of the two mentioned fields of building monitoring and the most crucial parameters to be monitored in buildings. Finally, the deficiencies in line with limited number of studies carried out in various fields of building monitoring are overviewed and a series of parameters that ought to be studied in the future are proposed.

The current work presents an activity developed by first-year undergraduate students of Civil Engineering at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Due to the character of this activity and the type of organisation of the students in small groups (3 people in each group), this activity can be defined as Cooperative Learning (CL). In this process, students must estimate by using an experimental design the Young’s Modulus of a rubber elastic band, which has been previously delivered to the students by the professor. Before the beginning of this task, students have studied all the necessary theoretical concepts to develop this experiment, however neither kind of extra indications have been given to them about how to resolve it, so that they should elucidate on their own a testing methodology which allow them to reach the goal of this task. This activity has been carried out for five years, and in spite of its non mandatory character, students have showed a great interest and motivation for it. Paying attention to several criteria such as evaluation, reached objectives or the involvement of the students. The results obtained from the activity have been highly satisfactory both for professors and students.The content of this document is structured as follow: first, the educational context is exposed including the development the subject and the most singular characteristics of the degree. After that, both the curriculum of the subject and the traditional way of teaching Elasticity are exposed. Moreover, it is described the learning strategy proposal and some of the solutions adopted by students. Finally, themost relevant conclusions are drawn.