Assessing the participatory design of a project-based course on computer network applications

New teaching methodologies which foster student involvement, such as project-based learning, are nowadays part of the study curriculum of many engineering schools. Project-based learning courses, however, often build upon other previously taught technical courses, where the technical content for the project to be developed is studied. That type of course design focuses on building the transversal capabilities of students, and the technical challenges of the project are the mean to acquire these non-technical skills. In this paper, we present and assess a project-based course on computer network applications of a computer science school, which has been designed to improve within the same course both the transversal and technical skills of the students. The proposition of interest is that the course not only aims to train the students’ transversal skills by a group work project, but also to practise new technical topics and technologies. We argue that the key element of the proposed course design is that each student project group defines with the instructor the project they would like to develop in the course. We present first the design of the course and then an assessment with questionnaires, which were conducted over two semesters with the students enrolled in the course. The obtained results indicate that the students achieved both technical and transversal skills, while the instructors need to be flexible to adapt to diverse technical topics of the proposed projects.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

El rendimiento académico: concepto, investigación y desarrollo

El presente artículo describe una perspectiva en tres vertientes acerca del fenómeno del rendimiento académico, desde su conceptualización hasta las experiencias de algunos países Iberoamericanos en materia de programas compensatorios para su desarrollo, incluyéndose dentro del mismo, un marco referencial sobre diversas investigaciones que han permitido la comprensión incipiente de ésta dimensión educativa. El propósito medular de esta aproximación al rendimiento académico como objeto de estudio, se dirige a estimular el interés multidisciplinario por generar alternativas de reflexión e investigación para su abordaje

Extracting Knowledge Bases from table-structured Web resources applied to the semantic-based requirements engineering methodology softwiki

Projecte realitzat mitjançant programa de mobilitat. Universität Leipzig. Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik Institut für Informatik Betriebliche InformationsssystemeOver the last years the use of the Internet by users has evolved drastically from just consulting to publishing, sharing and modifying contents, turning the Internet into a social net in which the possibilities to collaborate and communicate grow every day bigger. A good example are the Wiki systems, which are collaborative, content-focused platforms in which the work of a community is the key to its good performance. Another of the biggest web technology developments of the Internet nowadays is the so-called Semantic Web, a Web in which every piece of data has its context clearly specified and machines are able to understand it. The OntoWiki project merges both Semantic Web and Wiki technology, enabling the definition, modification and visualization of agile, distributed knowledge engineering scenarios. Profiting from the complex extension system of OntoWiki, the SoftWiki platform was born. Thanks to this tool and the associated Agile Requirements Engineering methodology, potentially very large and spatially separate stakeholder groups are able to gather, semantically enrich, classify and aggregate software requirements in an easy manner. Originally created from the desire to import non-semantic requirement data from the Google Code Issues platform to SoftWiki, the CSVLoad extension for OntoWiki enables importing plain data out of CSV table files into OntoWiki with the help of an administrator-defined RDF semantic template, defined with a modified subset of the Turtle (N3) language with support of input and mapping values. The use of CSVLoad and the already defined Google Code Issues Template makes importing the requirements of a project hosted in Google Code into SoftWiki (in other words, into a SWORE ontology) very easy. Some platforms permit exporting only a part (or in some cases none) of their information in standard formats like CSV or RDF. Instead they just show their data in HTML documents, which makes creating general, effective plain-to-semantic importing tools an extremely difficult (and in some cases impossible) task, forcing developers to build custom-made tools. The Gcode extension is a tool specifically built to extract additional requirements information from the Google Code Issues platform HTML code and, together with the CSVLoad tool, it turns importing all the requirements information from Google Code Issues into SoftWiki into an easy, automatic process. By comparing both extensions, their input data and features, the advantages of using structured, view-independent data compared to view-representation-embedded data (e.g. data in a HTML document) become clear. But this data needs a next step, the semantic mark-up, so that computers are able to know the context of the information in an expandable, flexible environment

A new countermeasure against side-channel attacks based on hardware-software co-design

This paper aims at presenting a new countermeasure against Side-Channel Analysis (SCA) attacks, whose implementation is based on a hardware-software co-design. The hardware architecture consists of a microprocessor, which executes the algorithm using a false key, and a coprocessor that performs several operations that are necessary to retrieve the original text that was encrypted with the real key. The coprocessor hardly affects the power consumption of the device, so that any classical attack based on such power consumption would reveal a false key. Additionally, as the operations carried out by the coprocessor are performed in parallel with the microprocessor, the execution time devoted for encrypting a specific text is not affected by the proposed countermeasure. In order to verify the correctness of our proposal, the system was implemented on a Virtex 5 FPGA. Different SCA attacks were performed on several functions of AES algorithm. Experimental results show in all cases that the system is effectively protected by revealing a false encryption key.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Hardware architecture implemented on FPGA for protecting cryptographic keys against side-channel attacks

This paper presents a new hardware architecture designed for protecting the key of cryptographic algorithms against attacks by side-channel analysis (SCA). Unlike previous approaches already published, the fortress of the proposed architecture is based on revealing a false key. Such a false key is obtained when the leakage information, related to either the power consumption or the electromagnetic radiation (EM) emitted by the hardware device, is analysed by means of a classical statistical method. In fact, the trace of power consumption (or the EM) does not reveal any significant sign of protection in its behaviour or shape. Experimental results were obtained by using a Virtex 5 FPGA, on which a 128-bit version of the standard AES encryption algorithm was implemented. The architecture could easily be extrapolated to an ASIC device based on standard cell libraries. The system is capable of concealing the real key when various attacks are performed on the AES algorithm, using two statistical methods which are based on correlation, the Welch’s t-test and the difference of means.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Virtual sensor of insufficient lubrication in variable speed compressors

The ability to modulate the compressor’s speed and adapt the capacity to the load has permitted to decrease the annual energy consumption in many applications. However, in the compressor, having the correct lubrication at high speeds usually imply having insufficient lubrication at low speeds. This fact has to be considered by manufacturers as it limits the speed range of the compressor. In this study, a methodology to establish the working limit of a compressor is proposed. It is based on the specific consumption surface of the compressor and no oil circulation measurements are required. A compressor working between 6600 and 900rpm with propane and POE oil has been used to test the proposed methodology. The results show that lubricating issues in this compressor start at 1800rpm and rise as speed decreases.The authors would like to acknowledge the Spanish “MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y COMPETITIVIDAD”, through the project ref- ENE2017-83665-C2-1-P “Maximización de la eficiencia y minimización del impacto ambiental de bombas de calor para la descarbonización de la calefacción/ acs en los edificios de consumo casi nulo” for the given support. In addition, Ruben Ossorio would like to thank the Spanish government for his PhD scholarship with reference PRE2018-083535

European integration and regional business cycles - a test for the Spanish case

It is a well-known fact that economic integration processes tend to link business cycles among participating economies. Strengthening of commercial relationship, changes in direct investment patterns, capital flows, etc. contribute to explain this progressive coincidence of economic fluctuations. The aim of this contribution is to show empirical evidence of this cyclical pattern at regional level. Nevertheless, what could be true at national level may differ when considering regions: regional business cycles can show convergence or divergence patterns simultaneously. Using Regio date base and National Accounts figures referred to a group of EU regions, the paper will be focused to analyse if the European integration process have led to more regular (synchronised) business cycles. Some explanatory variables of these results will be tested and some policy recommendations could be derived from the findings.

Categorizing Teaching Knowledge from the Perspective of Students: Narratives about Memorable Teachers

The following article approaches, as an object of research, the teaching knowledge of memorable teachers from the perspective of the students; narrative analysis was chosen as a methodological strategy, by categorizing 28 texts written by undergrad students at the University of Veracruz in México, belonging to the bachelors in pedagogy program. The objectives were aimed at categorizing the meanings of teacher’s educational knowledge, explaining those samples of knowledge that left a mark in the lives of pupils, describing educational knowledge in the technical and professional realms, and distinguishing between those categories that involved bad teachers. The results show eight categories that answer to the objectives in this research; these categories are didactic knowledge, human knowledge-patience-comprehension, the ability to explain—gift of teaching, educational knowledge strategies, educational knowledge specific to memorable teachers, planning and assessment knowledge, knowledge on strictness-tidiness-formats, and knowledge on good attitudes of teachers

La Política Regional de la Unión Europea: quo vadis?

La Política Regional Europea (PRE) se encuentra, en la actualidad, en una encrucijada. Su progresiva consolidación, en paralelo al proceso de construcción europea, ha experimentado un cierto detenimiento en la actualidad motivado sobre todo por las tensiones presupuestarias en el seno de la Unión Europea (UE). Las posiciones entre los países contribuyentes netos al presupuesto comunitario y aquellos más beneficiados de los Fondos Estructurales Europeos dibujan un panorama de incertidumbres que se ve acrecentado por la necesidad de ofrecer una reorientación clara de la PRE ante uno de los retos más importantes a los que se enfrenta la Unión: la ampliación al Este. Este fenómeno, sin precedentes en la historia de la UE, obliga a acometer reformas en todos los frentes: reformas institucionales de difícil encaje como se ha demostrado en Niza y en la Convención Europea y reformas de las Políticas Comunitarias más importantes, la agraria y la estructural, donde el perfil político supera en numerosas ocasiones la racionalidad económica. Pero la ampliación, pese a ser un elemento clave, no es el único factor que hace necesarias las reformas. En concreto, la PRE ha de responder a determinadas amenazas para la cohesión económica y social derivadas del propio proceso de integración y de la globalización económica que tienen claros impactos territoriales. Estos fenómenos demandan planteamientos novedosos y una apuesta decidida por una dimensión territorial europea que, por el momento, está en un segundo plano en la agenda política, más focalizada en aspectos presupuestos y en el juego, clásico en la UE, de ganadores y perdedores que ha favorecido el statu quo o los cambios muy graduales. De todos estos aspectos se ofrecen reflexiones en las páginas siguientes con una estructura dividida en seis grandes apartados. El primero lo constituye esta introducción. En el segundo punto se realiza una revisión crítica de la PRE desde sus inicios hasta la actualidad. Seguidamente, se analizan las dos amenazas más importantes para la cohesión económica y social: el propio proceso de integración y la mundialización de los intercambios, la globalización económica y el desarrollo de la sociedad del conocimiento y los servicios. El cuarto punto se ocupa del proceso de ampliación hacia el Este. El quinto ofrece una síntesis del debate sobre la reforma de la PRE y, finalmente, el sexto recoge las principales conclusiones