Cuantificación da perda das novas xeracións de mulleres técnicas. O caso da UDC

[RESUMO] Existe a impresión de que nos últimos anos a presenza das mulleres nas carreiras universitarias dos ámbitos técnicos, no canto de continuar avanzando cara á equiparación ao número de homes, está a sufrir un preocupante retroceso. Coa finalidade última de confirmar ou refutar esta percepción xeralizada, este traballo cuantifica a evolución do número de mulleres matriculadas e tituladas en estudios do eido tecnolóxico na Universidade da Coruña, nos últimos trece anos; e ofrece unha visión actualizada da situación das novas xeracións de mulleres, coa finalidade de axudar a determinar os avances obxectivos na equiparación da presenza de mulleres e homes neste eido. Os resultados obtidos confirman que nos últimos trece anos a presenza de mulleres nalgunhas titulacións técnicas chegou a reducirse a unha terceira parte, pasando dun 32% a un 10%, a pesares de que o número de alumnas e alumnos en toda a UDC distribúese case perfectamente no mesmo período en proporción 1:1. Como únicas excepcións, pódense mencionar os estudos de Arquitectura e Deseño Industrial, que acadaron e manteñen desde o curso 2007- 2008 a paridade matemática no número de estudantes dun e doutro sexo. A porcentaxe de persoas que completan unha titulación técnica é un dato mais optimista, segundo o cal as mulleres pasaron de representar o 30% no curso 2000-2001 a supor un 35% no curso 2012-2013, o que supón que a pesares de todo as estudantes incrementaron a súa eficiencia á hora de completar os seus estudos. Porén, queda claro que non estamos ante un problema de competencia, senón doutro cariz. Asi pois, determínase a necesidade dunha intervención institucional mediante o establecemento de políticas normalizadoras para romper a tendencia e avanzar na normalización da presenza das mulleres no eido técnico

Software Design for Success

Technical books focus most of the times in technical stuff, as one should expect. However, this creates the illusion that technology is somewhat free of bias, always neutral, thus fitting everyone. Reality, later on, when the product is already there, proofs us otherwise. Inclusion and representation are crucial from the design and modeling stages. Visibility of minorities or underrepresented groups is on the rise, yet so much of the way is left for us technicians to walk. In this chapter, we will analyze, from an architectural point of view, which non-functional requirements are most sensible to this and how to start the conversation about them to maximize the possibilities for success of our software products

Role-playing software architecture styles

[Abstract]: Software Architecture, from definition to maintenance and evolution, is a complex aspect of software development and, consequently, a challenging subject when it comes to teaching it, and learning it.Many research efforts have been devoted to designing teaching approaches, strategies and tools. Most of them, however, focus on the knowledge itself and the ways to convey it to students, rather than on the different learning styles of students themselves.Teaching methods which predominantly rely on verbal and written communication, are very well aligned with some learning styles. However, students with learning styles that benefit more from physical activity or first-hand experience, need to defer to cognitive processes that are less natural to them.In this work, we propose an innovative use of role-playing as teaching strategy for architecture models of reference (i.e. layered, pipe & filter, client-server, etc.). This role-playing of different software architectures, in which students play the part of specific components in the system, intends to complement other classical teaching materials, such as in-person or recorded lectures, lab assignments, or development projects.Addressing all learning styles within a classroom is key to ensure that we favour and foster the students' different learning processes, and give everyone an even playfield in which to best develop their capabilities as Software Architects.Supported by the Centro de Investigación de Galicia “CITIC”, funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Regional Development Fund (grant ED431G 2019/01).Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

Validation of SDN policies: a property-based testing perspective

[Abstract] Software-defined networks are being widely adopted and used in large and complex networks supporting critical operations. Their increasing importance highlights the need for effective validation of SDN topologies and routing policies both prior and during operation. The policies that configure an SDN deployment come from several, possibly conflicting sources. This may lead to undesired effects such as node isolation, network partitions, performance drops and routing loops. Such effects can be formulated as automatically testable reusable conditions using property-based testing (PBT). This approach allows to automatically determine and formulate as a counterexample the minimum set of conflicting rules. The approach is especially useful when policies are configured in an incremental manner. PBT techniques are particularly good at automatic counterexample shrinking and have the potential of being extremely effective in this area.Swedish Foundationfor Strategic Research; RIT17-0035

Unveiling the Dark Side of Social Media: Developing the First Galician Corpus for Misogyny Detection on Twitter and Mastodon

Cursos e Congresos, C-155[Abstract] This work aims to develop the first Galician corpus for the detection of misogyny on Twitter and Mastodon. We collect and analyze linguistic data in Galician on these social media platforms, identifying manifestations of misogyny in digital communication. The process involves data collection, text selection, and normalization, followed by thorough cleaning. We apply machine learning techniques to train accurate models for classifying the presence of misogyny. The resulting corpus facilitates analysis and study by research teams interested in misogyny in Galician. This scientific advancement contributes to the understanding and prevention of misogyny in the Galician-speaking community, promoting equality and respect in digital communication in Galicia

Making Property-Based Testing Easier to Read for Humans

Software stakeholders who do not have a technical profile (i.e. users, clients) but do want to take part in the development and/or quality assurance process of software, have an unmet need for communication on what is being tested during the development life-cycle. The transformation of test properties and models into semi-natural language representations is one way of responding to such need. Our research has demonstrated that these transformations are challenging but feasible, and they have been implemented into a prototype tool called readSpec. The readSpec tool transforms universally-quantified test properties and stateful test models - the two kinds of test artifacts used in property-based testing - into plain text interpretations. The tool has been successfully evaluated on the PBT artifacts produced and used within the FP7 PROWESS project by industrial partners

On the development life cycle of distributed functional applications: a case study

[Abstract] In a world where technology plays a major, increasing role day after day, efforts devoted to develop better software are never too much. Both industry and academia are well aware of this, and keep on working to face the new problems and challenges that arise, more efficiently and effectively each time. Companies show their interest in cutting-edge methods, techniques, and tools, especially when they are backed up with empirical results that show practical benefits. On the other hand, academia is more than ever aware of real-world problems, and it is succeeding in connecting its research efforts to actual case studies. This thesis follows the mentioned trend, as it presents a study on software applications development based on a real case. As its main novelty and contribution, the integral process of software development is addressed from the functional paradigm point of view. In contrast with the traditional imperative paradigm, the functional paradigm represents not only a different way of developing applications, but also a distinct manner of thinking about software itself. This work goes through the characteristics and properties that functional technology gives to both software and its development process, from the early analysis and design development phases, up to the final and no less critical verification and validation stages. In particular, the strengths and opportunities that emerge in the broad field of testing, thanks to the use of the functional paradigm, are explored in depth. From the analysis of this process being put into practise in a real software development experience, we draw conclusions about the convenience of applying a functional approach to complex domains. At the same time, we extract a reusable engineering methodology to do so

Atención a la diversidad de estilos de aprendizaje: experiencia en la docencia de arquitectura del software

La arquitectura del software (AS) es una parte de la ingeniería del software que cobra importancia a medida que los proyectos software son más ambiciosos, complejos y críticos. Por la naturaleza de los conceptos de los que se ocupa, y sus efectos desde la definición hasta el mantenimiento y evolución de los sistemas, la AS es una disciplina compleja en sí misma, con grandes desafíos a la hora de diseñar su docencia. La mayoría de los métodos de docencia-aprendizaje se apoyan en la comunicación verbal y escrita, lo que hace que se alineen con aquellos estilos de aprendizaje para los que este tipo de comunicación resulta más significativa. En este contexto, quienes presentan un estilo de aprendizaje que se beneficia más de actividades psicomotrices o kinestésicas, deben recurrir a procesos cognitivos que les resultan menos naturales. Este trabajo presenta una experiencia docente diseñada para favorecer la atención a la diversidad de estilos de aprendizaje en el aula, en el contexto de la arquitectura del software (AS), y como complemento a otros elementos más clásicos (clases magistrales, prácticas de laboratorio). En concreto, se propone un innovador uso del role-playing, donde el alumnado adopta el papel de componentes software, como estrategia para la adquisición efectiva de conceptos y características de un conjunto de modelos arquitecturales de referencia.Software architecture (SA) is an aspect of software engineering that becomes increasingly important as projects grow more ambitious, complex and critical. SA is a complex discipline, due to the nature of the architectural concepts, and their effects on systems’ definition, maintenance, and evolution. Teaching SA, thus, is an ongoing challenge. Most teaching methods rely on verbal and written communication, which aligns them with those learning styles for which this type of communication is most significant. In this context, people who have a learning style that benefits more from psychomotor or kinaesthetic activities, must resort to cognitive processes that are less natural to them. This work presents a teaching experience designed to favour attention to the diversity of learning styles in the classroom, in the context of software architecture (SA), and as a complement to master classes or lab work. Specifically, we propose an innovative use of role-playing, where students adopt the role of software components, as a strategy for the effective acquisition of concepts and characteristics of a set of architectural reference models

Development of CAPS markers for Nicotiana

Abstract only availableThe area in which the ranges of Nicotiana longiflora and Nicotiana plumbaginifolia overlap presents an ideal system for studying the interaction and hybridization of a selfing and an outcrossing species. N. longiflora is characterized by long corollas and self compatibility but sets little fruit on its own due to anther stigma separation. N. plumbaginifolia exhibits shorter corollas and self pollinates almost all of it's flowers. A third morph with medium length corollas is found in populations comprised of both species. It seems likely that this morph is a hybrid. In order to better understand how hybridization occurred and the genetic consequences of species interaction, we plan to perform pollen races in which we will allow self, out crossed, and inter-specific pollen to compete on the same style. Pollen competes and is selected through a variety of mechanisms including stigma and/or style clogging, pollen tube germination success and speed of growth, and differential seed abortion. The winners of the races will be determined through paternity tests of the resulting off spring. Using this method allows us to examine the genetic consequences of all the stages of pollen competition. We will test for paternity using molecular markers in the form of single nucleotide polymorphisms in restriction enzyme recognition sites (CAPS markers). We used DNA sequences of randomly chosen genetic loci to develop CAPS markers. We found a high degree of variability within our population, however only loci at which an individual is heterozygous are useful, so most of the polymorphisms we found cannot serve as markers. At this point the most promising marker seems to be SNPs in the recognition site for Taq I on the gene for Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase.NSF-REU Program in Biological Sciences & Biochemistr