The Challenge of Developing Entrepreneurial Competence in the University Using the Project-Oriented Learning Methodology.

One of the objectives of the United Nations and the European Commission is to encourage the implementation of education plans and strategies to develop entrepreneurial competence. This refers to the ability to identify needs or discover opportunities and to act on them in order to create value for society. This paper aims to demonstrate the impact of the project-oriented learning (POL) methodology on the development of certain generic or transversal competences associated with entrepreneurship among first-year university students in Madrid. The competences associated with entrepreneurship analyzed in this work are: selfawareness, self-reliance, achievement orientation, proactivity, cooperative teamwork, team management, planning and organization by objectives and communication. The study used a single-group pre-test/post-test, quasi-experimental methodology with a sample of over 300 students of the Francisco de Vitoria University (UFV). The results show a significant increase in self-perceived development of transversal competences associated with entrepreneurship. These findings confirm the main hypothesis that POL is an ideal methodology for the development of transversal competences associated with entrepreneurship.post-print898 K

Assessment Methods for Service-Learning Projects in Engineering in Higher Education: A Systematic Review.

Service-learning (SL) helps engineering students to be involved in community activities and to be motivated by their studies. Although several reviews and research studies have been published about SL, it is not widespread in sciences and engineering at the university level. The purpose of this research is to analyze the different community services or projects where SL is implemented by engineering students and faculty and to identify the procedures that were usually implemented to assess SL-based courses and activities. Assessment could be considered as the evaluation of a specific module and the engineering competencies, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the SL program, the assessment of the participation of the student in those programs, and the assessment of whether students have achieved certain outcomes or gained specific skills. We conducted a systematic review with a search in three scientific databases: Scopus, Science Direct, and ERIC educational database to analyze the assessment methods and what that assessment covers. From 14,107 publications related to SL, 120 documents were analyzed to inform the conclusions of this study. We found that SL is widely used in several universities as experiential education, and it is considered an academic activity. The most widely used assessment technique is a survey to evaluate the engagement and attitudes of students and, to a lesser extent, teamwork presentations.post-print828 K

Malware propagation in Wireless Sensor Networks: global models vs Individual-based models

The main goal of this work is to propose a new framework to design a novel family of mathematical models to simulate malware spreading in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). An analysis of the proposed models in the scientific literature reveals that the great majority are global models based on systems of ordinary differential equations such that they do not consider the individual characteristics of the sensors and their local interactions. This is a major drawback when WSNs are considered. Taking into account the main characteristics of WSNs (elements and topologies of network, life cycle of the nodes, etc.) it is shown that individual-based models are more suitable for this purpose than global ones. The main features of this new type of malware propagation models for WSNs are stated

Efficient high-order finite difference methods for nonlinear Klein–Gordon equations. I: Variants of the phi-four model and the form-I of the nonlinear Klein–Gordon equation

In this paper, the problem of solving some nonlinear Klein–Gordon equations (KGEs) is considered. Here, we derive different fourth- and sixth-order explicit and implicit algorithms to solve the phi-four equation and the form-I of the nonlinear Klein–Gordon equation. Stability and consistency of the proposed schemes are studied under certain conditions. Numerical results are presented and then compared with others obtained from some methods already existing in the scientific literature to explain the efficiency of the new algorithms. It is also shown that similar schemes can be proposed to solve many classes of nonlinear KGEs

Manufacturing processes in the textile industry. Expert Systems for fabrics production

 The textile industry is characterized by the economic activity whose objective is the production of fibres, yarns, fabrics, clothing and textile goods for home and decoration, as well as technical and industrial purposes. Within manufacturing, the Textile is one of the oldest and most complex sectors which includes a large number of sub-sectors covering the entire production cycle, from raw materials and intermediate products, to the production of final products. Textile industry activities present different subdivisions,each with its own traits. The length of the textile process and the variety of its technicalprocesses lead to the coexistence of different sub-sectors in regards to their business structure and integration. The textile industry is developing expert systems applicationsto increase production, improve quality and reduce costs. The analysis of textile designs or structures includes the use of mathematical models to simulate the behavior of the textile structures (yarns, fabrics and knitting). The Finite Element Method (FEM) has largely facilitated the prediction of the behavior of that textile structure under mechanical loads. For classification problems Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have proved to be a very effective tool as a quick and accurate solution. The Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) method proposed in this study complements the results of the finite element simulation, mathematical modeling and neural networks methods

Actualización de metodologías activas para moodle 2 en el taller de trabajo en grupos

Memoria ID-029. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2013-2014

Compartmental Learning versus Joint Learning in Engineering Education

[EN]Sophomore students from the Chemical Engineering undergraduate Degree at the University of Salamanca are involved in a Mathematics course during the third semester and in an Engineering Thermodynamics course during the fourth one. When they participate in the latter they are already familiar with mathematical software and mathematical concepts about numerical methods, including non-linear equations, interpolation or differential equations. We have focused this study on the way engineering students learn Mathematics and Engineering Thermodynamics. As students use to learn each matter separately and do not associate Mathematics and Physics, they separate each matter into different and independent compartments. We have proposed an experience to increase the interrelationship between different subjects, to promote transversal skills, and to make the subjects closer to real work. The satisfactory results of the experience are exposed in this work. Moreover, we have analyzed the results obtained in both courses during the academic year 2018–2019. We found that there is a relation between both courses and student’s final marks do not depend on the course

Dimension of the intersection of a pair of orthogonal groups

Let $g,h\colon V\times V\rightarrow mathbb{C}$ be two non-degenerate symmetric bilinear forms on a finite-dimensional complex vector space $V$. Let $G$ (resp.\ $H$) be the Lie group of isometries of $g$ (resp.\ $h$). If the endomorphism $L\colon \rightarrow V$ associated to $g,h$ is diagonalizable, then the dimension of the intersection group $G\cap H$ is computed in terms of the dimensions of the eigenspaces of $L$.Peer reviewe

Numerical schemes for general Klein–Gordon equations with Dirichlet and nonlocal boundary conditions

In this work, we address the problem of solving nonlinear general Klein–Gordon equations (nlKGEs). Different fourth- and sixth-order, stable explicit and implicit, finite difference schemes are derived. These new methods can be considered to approximate all type of Klein–Gordon equations (KGEs) including phi-four, forms I, II, and III, sine-Gordon, Liouville, damped Klein–Gordon equations, and many others. These KGEs have a great importance in engineering and theoretical physics.The higher-order methods proposed in this study allow a reduction in the number of nodes, which might also be very interesting when solving multi-dimensional KGEs. We have studied the stability and consistency of the proposed schemes when considering certain smoothness conditions of the solutions. Additionally, both the typical Dirichlet and some nonlocal integral boundary conditions have been studied. Finally, some numerical results are provided to support the theoretical aspects previously considered

Evaluación de la efectividad de los foros de discusión online en asignaturas de ciencias

Memoria ID-0273. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2014-2015