Promotion of professional skills in engineering education: strategies and challenges

Basic engineering skills are not the only key to professional development, particularly as engineering problems are everyday more and more complex and multifaceted, hence requiring the implementation of larger multidisciplinary teams, in many cases working in an international context and in a continuously evolving environment. Therefore other outcomes, sometimes referred to as professional skills, are also necessary for our students, as most universities are already aware. In this study we try to methodically analyze the main strategies for the promotion of professional skills, mainly linked to actuations which directly affect students or teachers (and teaching methodologies) and which take advantage of the environment and available resources. From an initial list of 51 strategies (in essence aimed at promotion of different drivers of change, linked to students, teachers, environment and resources), we focus on the 11 drivers of change considered more important after an initial evaluation. Subsequently, a systematic analysis of the typical problems linked to these main drivers of change, enables us to find and formulate 12 major and usually repeated and unsolved problems. After selecting these typical problems, we put forward 25 different solutions, for short-term actuation, and discuss their effects, while bearing in mind our team’s experience, together with the information from the studies carried out by numerous teaching staff from other universities

Switching from subcutaneous to oral semaglutidein type 2 diabetes: A prospective study

Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Diseño del instrumento de ayuda para la toma de decisiones: “alternativas de tratamiento para el cáncer de mama: ¿qué opción prefiero?”

Purpose: To design a Decision-making Aid within the ‘Breast cancer’ healthcare process modelling of the Andalusian Public Health System (SSPA) for the therapeutic approach of early-stage disease. Methods: The Decision Aid design was conducted in four phases: 1) Explore the receptiveness of users and professionals in the mainstream of the SSPA Decision Aid “Breast Cancer” process. 2) Select a Decision Aid from international experiences. 3) Transcultural adaptation of above selected Decision Aid. 4) Decision Aid Validation in the SSPA. Results: The Decision Aid “Alternative treatment for breast cancer: What option do I prefer?” designed for the SSPA includes innovative contents compared to other reviewed experiences. The results of the validation of Decision Aid have shown that the design is attractive for the patient, ideal size and suitable language, and that the clinical information it contains is of quality. The Decision Aid answers your questions (95%) and summarizes the essential information to make the decision (90%). The Decision Aid offers relevant information that help the patient in the decision making process (lack of decisional confl ict: 85.31), facilitates the work in the practice and doctor-patient communication. Conclusion: Patients and professionals agree to recommend the use of Decision Aid and to encourage participation in decisionmaking while recognizing that the time factor is the main obstacle to incorporate its use in the SSPA.Objetivo: Diseñar un Instrumento de Ayuda para la Toma de Decisiones (IATD) en el Proceso Asistencial Integrado ‘Cáncer de mama’ del Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía (SSPA) para el abordaje terapéutico de esta enfermedad en estadio inicial. Método: El diseño del IATD se realizó en cuatro fases: 1) Explorar la receptividad de las usuarias y los profesionales del SSPA sobre la incorporación de IATD en el proceso “Cáncer de mama”. 2). Seleccionar un IATD entre las experiencias internacionales.; 3) Adaptar transculturalmente del IATD seleccionado al entorno del SSPA. 4) Validar el IATD en el SSPA. Resultado: El IATD “Alternativas de tratamiento para el cáncer de mama: ¿Qué opción prefiero?” diseñado para el SSPA incluye contenidos innovadores frente a otras experiencias revisadas. Los resultados de la validación del IATD han mostrado que su diseño es atractivo para la paciente, su extensión y lenguaje idóneos, y la información clínica que contiene es de calidad. El Instrumento resuelve sus dudas (95%) y resume la información esencial para tomar la decisión (90%). El IATD ofrece información relevante que prepara a la paciente para la toma de decisiones (ausencia de conflicto decisional: 85,31), facilita la labor en consulta y la comunicación médico-paciente. Conclusiones: Pacientes y profesionales coinciden en recomendar la utilización del IATD y fomentar la participación en la toma de decisiones aunque reconocen que el factor tiempo es el principal obstáculo para incorporar su uso en el SSPA

Evolution and implementation of CDIO initiatives at ETSII-UPM

The School of Industrial Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ETSII-UPM) has been promoting student-centred teaching-learning activities, according to the aims of the Bologna Declaration, well before the official establishment of the European Area of Higher Education. Such student-centred teaching-learning experiences led us to the conviction that project based learning is rewarding, both for students and academics, and should be additionally promoted in our new engineering programmes, adapted to the Grade-Master structure. The level of commitment of our teachers with these activities is noteworthy, as the teaching innovation experiences carried out in the last ten years have led to the foundation of 17 Teaching Innovation Groups at ETSII-UPM, hence leading the ranking of teaching innovation among all UPM centres. Among interesting CDIO activities our students have taken part in especially complex projects, including the Formula Student, linked to the complete development of a competition car, and the Cybertech competition, aimed at the design, construction and operation of robots for different purposes. Additional project-based learning teamwork activities have been linked to toy design, to the development of medical devices, to the implementation of virtual laboratories, to the design of complete industrial installations and factories, among other activities detailed in present study. The implementation of Bologna process will culminate at ETSII-UPM with the beginning of the Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering, in academic year 2014-15. The program has been successfully approved by the Spanish Agency for Accreditation (ANECA), with the inclusion of a set of subjects based upon the CDIO methodology denominated generally “INGENIA”, linked to the Spanish “ingeniar” (to provide ingenious solutions), also related etymologically in Spanish with “ingeniero”, engineer. INGENIA students will live through the complete development process of a complex product or system and there will be different kind of projects covering most of the engineering majors at ETSII-UPM

Design a decision-making aid: "alternative treatment for breast cancer: what option do you prefer?"

Purpose: To design a Decision-making Aid within the ‘Breast cancer’ healthcare process modelling of the Andalusian Public Health System (SSPA) for the therapeutic approach of early-stage disease. Methods: The Decision Aid design was conducted in four phases: 1) Explore the receptiveness of users and professionals in the mainstream of the SSPA Decision Aid “Breast Cancer” process. 2) Select a Decision Aid from international experiences. 3) Transcultural adaptation of above selected Decision Aid. 4) Decision Aid Validation in the SSPA. Results: The Decision Aid “Alternative treatment for breast cancer: What option do I prefer?” designed for the SSPA includes innovative contents compared to other reviewed experiences. The results of the validation of Decision Aid have shown that the design is attractive for the patient, ideal size and suitable language, and that the clinical information it contains is of quality. The Decision Aid answers your questions (95%) and summarizes the essential information to make the decision (90%). The Decision Aid offers relevant information that help the patient in the decision making process (lack of decisional confl ict: 85.31), facilitates the work in the practice and doctor-patient communication. Conclusion: Patients and professionals agree to recommend the use of Decision Aid and to encourage participation in decisionmaking while recognizing that the time factor is the main obstacle to incorporate its use in the SSPA

Izaña Atmospheric Research Center. Activity Report 2015-2016

This report is a summary of the many activities at the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center to the broader community. The combination of operational activities, research and development in state-of-the-art measurement techniques, calibration and validation and international cooperation encompass the vision of WMO to provide world leadership in expertise and international cooperation in weather, climate, hydrology and related environmental issues

Stellar Astrophysics and Exoplanet Science with the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE)

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is a planned 11.25-m aperture facility with a 1.5 square degree field of view that will be fully dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy. A rebirth of the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Maunakea, MSE will use 4332 fibers operating at three different resolving powers (R ~ 2500, 6000, 40000) across a wavelength range of 0.36-1.8mum, with dynamical fiber positioning that allows fibers to match the exposure times of individual objects. MSE will enable spectroscopic surveys with unprecedented scale and sensitivity by collecting millions of spectra per year down to limiting magnitudes of g ~ 20-24 mag, with a nominal velocity precision of ~100 m/s in high-resolution mode. This white paper describes science cases for stellar astrophysics and exoplanet science using MSE, including the discovery and atmospheric characterization of exoplanets and substellar objects, stellar physics with star clusters, asteroseismology of solar-like oscillators and opacity-driven pulsators, studies of stellar rotation, activity, and multiplicity, as well as the chemical characterization of AGB and extremely metal-poor stars.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures; To appear as a chapter for the Detailed Science Case of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explore

Referencias para la actividad docente en la UPCT y glosario de términos EEES

Continuando con el trabajo de los equipos docentes se ha realizado este libro en el curso 2011/2012 como resultado de la maduración de los dos años anteriores, en los que este equipo ha realizado el libro “Manual de elaboración de guías docentes adaptadas al EEES” en 2010, la participación en el I Congreso Internacional de Innovación Docente, en julio de 2011 y la realización de un capítulo del libro “Equipos docentes: una nueva apuesta en el EEES” en 2011. El reconocimiento de la calidad de las guías docentes realizadas por el profesorado de nuestra universidad, y enviadas a ANECA dentro del programa piloto MONITOR viene expresamente en el informe global de seguimiento recibido en noviembre de 2011 en el que textualmente comenta “Las guías docentes sólo se pueden calificar de excelentes”

Desert dust outbreak in the Canary Islands (February 2020): assessment and impacts

World Weather Research Programme (WWRP 2021–1

Izaña Atmospheric Research Center. Activity Report 2019-2020

Editors: Emilio Cuevas, Celia Milford and Oksana Tarasova.[EN]The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), which is part of the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), is a site of excellence in atmospheric science. It manages four observatories in Tenerife including the high altitude Izaña Atmospheric Observatory. The Izaña Atmospheric Observatory was inaugurated in 1916 and since that date has carried out uninterrupted meteorological and climatological observations, contributing towards a unique 100-year record in 2016. This reports are a summary of the many activities at the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center to the broader community. The combination of operational activities, research and development in state-of-the-art measurement techniques, calibration and validation and international cooperation encompass the vision of WMO to provide world leadership in expertise and international cooperation in weather, climate, hydrology and related environmental issues.[ES]El Centro de Investigación Atmosférica de Izaña (CIAI), que forma parte de la Agencia Estatal de Meteorología de España (AEMET), representa un centro de excelencia en ciencias atmosféricas. Gestiona cuatro observatorios en Tenerife, incluido el Observatorio de Izaña de gran altitud, inaugurado en 1916 y que desde entonces ha realizado observaciones meteorológicas y climatológicas ininterrumpidas y se ha convertido en una estación centenaria de la OMM. Estos informes resumen las múltiples actividades llevadas a cabo por el Centro de Investigación Atmosférica de Izaña. El liderazgo del Centro en materia de investigación y desarrollo con respecto a las técnicas de medición, calibración y validación de última generación, así como la cooperación internacional, le han otorgado una reputación sobresaliente en lo que se refiere al tiempo, el clima, la hidrología y otros temas ambientales afines