Rui Pedro Sanches de Castro Lopes received the MSc in Electronics and Telecommunications, and the PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He is an associate professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Braganca. His main research interests focus on distributed systems, operating systems and network management. More recently, he has been learning, reflecting and researching on methodologies and approaches that can contribute to improve the way students learn and how to keep them motivated. In this context, he structured a curricular unit around gamification, including formative assessment, educational games, student grading and feedback. He also designed learning experiences that appeal to increasing the student autonomy and other horizontal competencies, such as communication skills, critical thinking, creativity and lifetime learning.