612 Students’ first-hand experience on the development of competences: solving interdisciplinary industry problems Alberto Bumba 1 , Ana R. Sousa 1 , Carlos Silva 1 , Catarina Barros 1 , Costa Ferreira 1 , Pedro Campos 1 , Rui M. Lima 1,2 1 Industrial Engineering and Management Integrated Master, Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal 2 Centre ALGORITMI, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal Email: 2ab@hotmail.com, raquel_sousa_11@hotmail.com, ccarlossilva96@hotmail.com, cat44627@hotmail.com, ferreiraroda@gmail.com, pedrocampo11@hotmail.com, rml@dps.uminho.pt Abstract The Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management is a very challenging degree, mainly because it encompasses so many different scientific areas. It is very common for students to feel a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of competences that need to be developed and put in practice. The University of Minho takes a lead role in terms of creating projects which allow the interaction with companies as well as promote the development of transversal competences. The Integrated Project of the 4th year of Industrial Engineering and Management of the University of Minho is a Project-Based Learning (PBL) strategy sustained by the interaction with industrial companies in an active engineering learning process. Students should be able to accomplish the project’s milestones and assimilate the company’s culture in their weekly visits, during the 5 months of the project. The main objective of the present article is to analyse the student’s visions of the work experience provided by the realization of this project. The methodology is based on the qualitative analysis of a group of students’ narratives related to their visions on the experience. The results show that they perceived the advantages of interdisciplinary learning, development of transversal competences, learning methodologies of team management, and strategies applied in order to deal with the different project’s stakeholders. The main result of this project is the recognition of PBL methodology as an efficient and ingenious form or learning that encourages the students to cope with the requirements and challenges of the actual labour market, while developing technical and transversal engineering competences. Keywords: Active Learning; Engineering Education; Project-Based Learning; University Business Cooperation 1 Introduction Active Learning strategies and principles have been promoting Engineering Education through innovative learning environments, which challenges students to reflect and experience learning in engaging and meaningful activities (Bonwell & Eison, 1991; Christie & de Graaff, 2017; Felder & Brent, 2003; Prince, 2004; Prince & Felder, 2006). Active learning can be implemented in several different approaches, e.g. Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL), Team Based Learning or Flipped class room (Lima, Andersson & Saalman, 2017). The Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) area need from its professionals, both technical and transversal competences that should be seriously taken in consideration, not only during their degree, but notably in terms of a long term projection related with the moment in which they will join the labour market (Lima, Mesquita, Rocha, & Rabelo, 2017). Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) professionals should be prepared to solve interdisciplinary problems, in other words, they must be qualified to manage and frame knowledge from different areas of expertise, such as Costs Managements, Production Systems Organization, Production Planning and Control, among others. These competences applied and related to the technical areas of IEM, are assigned as technical competences. Withal, there still are a very notable type of competences that are transferable and transversal between different professions and functions (CEDEFOP, 2012), who might be known as soft skills, for instance, teamwork, leadership, critical thinking, negotiation and conflict resolution, work ethic, communication skills, self-motivation, responsibility, flexibility, decisiveness, problem-solving, creativity, among others. A question that should be bring to the table is: Why is Active Learning in Engineering Education so needed and why it might be considered a successful teaching and learning practice? Several authors have been studying