PreLectO: An App for Cognitive Stimulation through Games in Early Childhood

Presented at the 4th XoveTIC Conference, A Coruña, Spain, 7–8 October 2021.[Abstract] The goal of this work was to develop a mobile application for Android devices, with the objective of stimulating the cognitive skills of children from 0 to 6 years old who are suffering from learning disabilities, while focusing on the most common learning impediments such as reading and writing disorders. This application is based on games specifically designed to meet the needs of this group. For this purpose, we collaborated with professionals from an organization in the area of A Coruña who established the functional requirements of the application and carried out the validation tests. The application monitored the progress of its users, thus allowing the therapists to track them and adapt the training program to each of their individual needs.This work was funded by the Xunta de Galicia (through grant ED431C 2020/15, and grant ED431G 2019/01 to support the Centro de Investigación de Galicia “CITIC”), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain (through grants RED2018-102668-T and PID2019-104958RB-C42), and ERDF funds of the European Union (FEDER Galicia 2014–2020 and AEI/FEDER Programs, EU).Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2020/15Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

Reinforcement and Homework Control for Children with ASD using a Mobile Application for Apple Watch

Cursos e Congresos, C-155[Abstract] The article shows the design and development of a pair of mobile applications for Apple Watch and iPhone devices to reinforce and control tasks for children with autism disorders. This work takes advantage of the possibilities of smartwatches, such as internet connectivity, access to biometric sensors and ease of communication with users, to improve their autonomy in carrying out everyday routines. The application has been designed taking into account the needs and characteristics of this group, collaborating with two non-profit organisations in the area of AIXunta de Galicia; ED431C 2020/15This work has been supported by grant ED431C 2020/15 funded by Xunta de Galicia and ERDF Galicia 2014-2020; by grant PID2019-104958RB-C42 (ADELE) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; and by project TED2021-130240B-I00 (IVRY) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRT

Acquisition of general competences using project-based learning

[EN] During years, professors of higher education focused on the outcome of the assimilation of information through learning (i.e., in the acquisition of knowledge).  In a European context, the Bologna Process has accelerated and spread the process of defining explicit learning outcomes for higher education programs, including those in terms of general competences and transferable skills. Our teaching experience in engineering degrees have shown that these students have difficulties for understanding the math basics of some disciplines. For greater effectiveness in knowledge acquisition, we consider as an essential issue the inclusion of laboratory activities based on computer simulations performed using software. For acquiring those general competences and transferable skills, our proposal also includes several projects in which our students must develop skills such as communication, teamwork or problem solving. We have observed that such projects allow students the development of their creativity, an improvement in oral and written communication, and also an optimal training for the B.S. degree project work and even for their future professional life.This work has been funded by the Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2016-045, ED341D R2016/012, ED431G/01), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain (TEC2015-69648-REDC, TEC2016-75067-C4-1-R) and ERDF funds of the EU (AEI/FEDER, UE)http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Laport, F.; Dapena, A.; Castro, P.; Vazquez-Araujo, F. (2018). Acquisition of general competences using project-based learning. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 355-364. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.7994OCS35536

Moving to e-Service Learning in Higher Education

[Abstract] Service Learning is a methodology in which students achieve academic and transversal competences related to the curriculum of a subject while performing a service for the benefit of the community. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary to reorganize the Service Learning activities developed in recent years so that they do not lose their pedagogical value and community service. This scenario has been an opportunity to kick-start an e-Service Learning experience. For that purpose, this work shows how different Information and Communication Technology tools are integrated into an online platform to develop both activities and assessment following an e-Service Learning methodology. Since the experience was performed with two collaborating entities serving people with autism and in two schools of the University of A Coruña, the tools are available not only to professors and students, but also to entities. Our experience includes the assessment of both competences and service satisfaction using different resources for virtual collaborative work. The main contribution of our work is that we have greatly simplified our previous project on-site and also the monitoring of the student’s progress, the work of both professors and students, and the analysis of results, providing a virtual service that responds to user needs.This work has been funded by the Xunta de Galicia (by grants ED431C 2019/17 and ED431C 2020/15, and grant ED431G 2019/01 to support the Centro de Investigación de Galicia “CITIC”), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain (by grants PID2020-11697RG-I00, PID2020-118857RA-I00 and PID2019-104958RB-C42), and ERDF funds of the EU (FEDER Galicia 2014–2020 and AEI/FEDER Programs, UE)Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2019/17Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2020/15Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

Hybrid Supervised-Unsupervised Channel Estimation Scheme with Dynamic Transmission of Pilots

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11063-010-9161-x[Abstract] Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) digital communications standards typically include pilot symbols in the definition of the transmit signals with the purpose of acquiring the Channel State Information (CSI) using supervised algorithms at the receiver side. Such pilot symbols convey no information and, therefore, system throughput, spectral efficiency and transmit energy consumption are all penalized. In this article, we propose to acquire the CSI combining supervised and unsupervised algorithms. Our strategy avoids the periodical transmission of unnecessary pilots by using a simple decision criterion to determine the time instants when the performance obtained with an unsupervised algorithm degrades or, equivalently, the time instants when pilots are required. We show the performance of this scheme for MIMO systems with Decision-feedback equalizers at the receiver.Galicia. Consellería de Economía e Industria; 09TIC008105PRMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación; TEC2007-68020-C04-01Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; TIN2009-0573Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; CSD2008-0001

Service-Learning Projects in University Degrees Based on Sustainable Development Goals: Proposals and Results

[Abstract] We present several Service-Learning projects developed considering Sustainable Development Goals to provide the students skills for the support of a sustainable society. This project begins with collecting initial impressions from surveys and reflections to know both the students’ expectations and their degree of involvement in the development of a sustainable society. Next, the students design academic projects taking into account the needs of the specific collective to which the Service-Learning activity is oriented. When this design has finished, such projects are developed with the users and the activity is evaluated. During 2019–2020, these projects were done with four entities oriented to people either with Asperger’s syndrome, Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease or mental health illnesses. A total of 35 and 10 students, respectively, from the Bachelor’s Degree of Engineering in Industrial Design and Product Development and from the Master’s Degree in Professorship of High School have participated in this experience. We analyze the results from the perspective of the different agents involved, considering both qualitative and quantitative metrics. The results show that both users and staff are satisfied with this collaboration between the university and their entities. Moreover, this experience clearly has contributed to a better personal and professional student’s development.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2020/15Xunta de Galicia; ED431G2019/01Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2016-75067-C4-1-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación de España; RED2018-102668-TAgencia Estatal de Investigación de España; PID2019-104958RB-C4

Modalidad presencial y no presencial de trabajos prácticos en la materia de tecnología del máster de profesorado

Con el objetivo de fomentar la adquisición tanto de competencias transversales y profesionales como de valores sociales, las prácticas de la asignatura de Tecnología del máster de profesorado han sido realizadas mediante pequeños proyectos de ingeniería orientados a colectivos con diversidad funcional y cognitiva. De esta forma, los estudiantes adquieren las competencias curriculares mediante un servicio a la comunidad de su entorno más próximo, lo que se conoce como aprendizaje-servicio. Esta iniciativa comenzó en el curso académico 2019-2020, en el que tanto la docencia universitaria como el servicio a los usuarios de una entidad del entorno pudieron realizarse íntegramente de forma presencial. La situación sanitaria del curso 2020-2021 supuso un reto para la educación del siglo XXI, en general, y para este tipo de actividades, en particular. En nuestro caso, con el objetivo de eludir las probables cancelaciones de las actividades propuestas, fue necesario replantear todo el proceso, incorporando mecanismos que soportasen la enseñanza y evaluación virtual, y un servicio no necesariamente presencial. Con estas lecciones aprendidas, en el curso 2021-2022 se optó por un método híbrido que aprovecha las ventajas de cada una de esas modalidades docentes. Este artículo pretende divulgar a otros educadores las experiencias desarrolladas con estas tres modalidades y los resultados obtenidos.With the aim of promoting the acquisition of transversal and professional competences as well as social values, the internships of the Technology course of the master’s degree in teaching have been carried out through small engineering projects aimed at groups with functional and cognitive diversity. In this way, students acquire the curricular competences through a service to the community in their immediate environment, known as learning-service. This initiative began in the 2019-2020 academic year, in which both the university teaching and the service to the users of an entity of the environment could be carried out entirely in person. The health situation in the 2020-2021 academic year was a challenge to 21st century education, in general, and to this type of activities, in particular. In our case, in order to circumvent the probable cancellations of the proposed activities, it was necessary to rethink the entire process, incorporating mechanisms that support virtual teaching and evaluation, and a service that is not necessarily face-to-face. With these lessons learned, a hybrid method has been chosen in the 2021-2022 academic year, taking advantage of the benefits of each of these teaching modalities. This article aims to disseminate to other educators the experiences developed with these three modalities and the results obtained.El trabajo fue financiado por la Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2020/15, ED431G 2019/01 del CITIC), la Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España (PID2020-118857RA-I00 y PID2019-104958RB-C42) y fondos ERDF de la UE (FEDER Galicia 2014–2020 & programa AEI/FEDER)

A MATLAB Tool for Visualizing the 3D Polar Power Patterns and Excitations of Conformal Arrays

[Abstract] This paper describes the implementation of a MATLAB® tool to plot the three-dimensional polar radiation diagram generated by a conformal antenna array. A related tool has also been developed for visualizing the geometrical arrangement (positions and orientations) of the elements, as well as the relative values of the amplitudes and phases of their excitations. Supporting M-files are available.Xunta de Galicia; 09TIC008105PRMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación; TEC2007-68020-C04-01Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; CSD2008-0001

Detection of channel variations to improve channel estimation methods

“The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/[10.1007/s00034-014-9767-8]”[Abstract] In current digital communication systems, channel information is typically acquired by supervised approaches that use pilot symbols included in the transmit frames. Given that pilot symbols do not convey user data, they penalize throughput spectral efficiency, and transmit energy consumption of the system. Unsupervised channel estimation algorithms could be used to mitigate the aforementioned drawbacks although they present higher computational complexity than that offered by supervised ones. This paper proposes a simple decision method suitable for slowly varying channels to determine whether the channel has suffered a significant variation, which requires to estimate the matrix of the recently changed channel. Otherwise, a previous estimate is used to recover the transmitted symbols. The main advantage of this method is that the decision criterion is only based on information acquired during the time frame synchronization, which is carried out at the receiver. We show that the proposed criterion provides a considerable improvement of computational complexity for both supervised and unsupervised methods, without incurring in a penalization in terms of symbol error ratio. Specifically, we consider systems that make use of the popular Alamouti code. Performance evaluation is accomplished by means of simulated channels as well as making use of indoor wireless channels measured using a testbed