Mujeres en estudios científico-tecnológicos en la Universidade da Coruña: evolución de estudiantes y personal docente e investigador

En la universidad, la presencia de las mujeres se reduce conforme se aumenta el rango académico. Todo apunta a una segregación vertical de género –techo de cristal– en la carrera investigadora y la segregación horizontal en ciertas áreas científicas y tecnológicas. Existen importantes evidencias de desequilibrios en materia de género entre el estudiantado, pero también en el personal docente e investigador, especialmente en ciertas áreas de conocimiento como ciencias y tecnología. En este trabajo se analizan los datos oficiales de la Universidade da Coruña para conocer la evolución del personal, atendiendo principalmente a proporción, rango y centro asociado. Los resultados del estudio refuerzan la evidencia de un desequilibrio todavía existente en el ámbito científico y tecnológico, con especial incidencia en algunas áreas, entre ellas las Ciencias de la Computación. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la falta de vocaciones femeninas en los estudios científicos y tecnológicos así como, la carrera de fondo a la que se enfrentan las mujeres hasta ejercer con éxito una profesión en este campo.In the academia, the presence of women decreases as the academic rank increases. Everything points to a vertical gender segregation –glass ceiling– in the research career and horizontal segregation in certain scientific and technological areas. There is significant evidence of gender imbalances among students, but also among teaching and research staff, especially in certain areas of knowledge such as science and technology. In this contribution, the official data of the University of A Coruña are analyzed to know the evolution of the research staff, attending mainly to proportion, rank and associated center. Likewise, we will look for possible matches with the number of students (men and women) enrolled in such centers to analyze the effect of the lack of references. The results of the study reinforce the evidence of a still existing imbalance in the scientific and technological field, with special incidence in some areas, among them Computer Science. The results show the lack of female vocations in scientific and technological studies, as well as the long-term career they face until they successfully practice a profession in this field

Mujeres en Ciencias de la Computación: presencial desigual y tipos de enseñanza

La docencia es una profesión históricamente feminizada, sin embargo, la presencia de la mujer es desigual según los niveles educativos, las materias académicas o los puestos de decisión. Las diferencias por tramos educativos son significativas, las mujeres son mayoría en enseñanzas no universitarias (72,3% en total con el 97,6% en Educación Infantil) y minoría en la docencia universitaria (42,4 %). En la enseñanza universitaria la presencia de la mujer se reduce conforme aumenta el rango académico y es minoritaria en ciertas áreas científicas y tecnológicas, con especial incidencia en el área de Ciencias de la Computación. En este trabajo se investiga si la presencia de la mujer en labores docentes y de coordinación sigue la tendencia de la enseñanza no universitaria y se concentra en la formación básica o, por el contrario, es uniforme y significativa en las diferentes titulaciones y cada uno de los cursos que las constituyen. Además, analizaremos las diferencias existentes entre hombres y mujeres en el tipo de docencia impartido. Para ello se han analizado dos titulaciones de grado y un máster de la Facultad de Informática de la Universidade da Coruña, vinculadas a Ciencias de la Computación, revelando que la presencia de la mujer es, en general, superior en la docencia de cursos iniciales.Teaching is a historically feminized profession, however, the presence of women is unequal according to educational levels, academic subjects or decision-making positions. The differences by educational segment are significant; women are the majority in non-university education (72.3% in total with 97.6% in Early Childhood Education) and a minority in university education (42.4 %). In university education, the presence of women decreases as the academic rank increases and is a minority in certain scientific and technological areas, with special incidence in the area of Computer Science. This work investigates whether the presence of women in teaching and coordination tasks follows the trend of non-university education and concentrates on basic training or, on the contrary, is uniform and significant in the different degrees and each of the courses that constitute them. In addition, we will analyze the differences between men and women in the type of teaching given. For this, two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree from the Faculty of Informatics of the University of A Coruña, linked to Computer Science, have been analyzed, revealing that the presence of women is, in general, higher in the teaching of initial courses

Efecto de la evaluación docente por COVID-19. Influencia en los resultados académicos en titulaciones y materias con diferente número de alumnos

El estado de alarma causado por el COVID-19 ha propiciado una situación sin precedentes en el ámbito universitario que ha afectado a todos sus estamentos. Desde el punto de vista docente, la suspensión de las actividades presenciales y el cambio inmediato a la modalidad virtual provocó una adaptación apresurada de los materiales docentes para ajustarse al nuevo escenario, asimismo fue necesario replantear el sistema de evaluación. La disparidad en el número de estudiantes matriculados en las distintas titulaciones universitarias condiciona el diseño y aplicación de metodologías y su correspondiente proceso de evaluación. En este trabajo se exponen los resultados académicos de dos titulaciones del área tecnológica con diferencias importantes en el número de alumnos matriculados. Estos resultados muestran que ambas titulaciones experimentaron variaciones notables en el número de aprobados comparado con cursos anteriores. Adicionalmente, se analiza una materia de cada titulación, ambas relacionadas con el aprendizaje de programación, para ver qué estrategias ha aplicado el profesorado en tal situación sobrevenida y qué diferencias se observaron en los resultados académicos.The state of alarm caused by COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented situation in the university environment that has affected all levels. From the teaching point of view, the suspension of face-to-face activities and the immediate change to the virtual modality caused a hasty adaptation of the teaching materials to adjust to the new scenario; it was also necessary to rethink the evaluation system. The disparity in the number of students enrolled in the different university degrees conditions the design and application of methodologies and their corresponding evaluation process. In this work, the academic results of two degrees in the technological -with important differences in the number of students enrolled- area are exposed. These results show that both degrees experienced notable variations in the number of passed compared to previous courses. A subject of each degree related to programming learning is analyzed to see what strategies the teaching staff have applied in such a situation and what differences were observed in the academic results

Descubriendo efectos inesperados en la programación en parejas [Discovering unexpected effects on pair programming]

Aprender a programar supone un esfuerzo importante e incluso un reto para muchos estudiantes dando lugar a elevadas tasas de fracaso. La programación en parejas (“pair programming”) es una actividad de aprendizaje colaborativa considerada en el entorno académico como una estrategia propicia para la enseñanza de programación. Distintos estudios demuestran los beneficios que genera la aplicación de esta técnica en un primer curso de programación. Por ello se aplica en la asignatura de Programación II, del primer curso del Grado en Ingeniería Informática de la Universidade da Coruña (España). El estudio realizado muestra que, a pesar de las motivaciones iniciales por parte del profesorado, los alumnos que conforman una misma pareja, de manera general, no se desenvuelven igual y exhiben notables diferencias de rendimiento académico. [Learning to program is a major effort and even a challenge for many students resulting in high rates of failure. Pair programming is a collaborative learning activity considered in the academic environment as a propitious strategy for teaching programming. Several studies show the benefits of applying this technique in a first programming course. Therefore, it is applied in the subject of Programming II at first course of the Degree in Computer Engineering of the University of A Coruña (Spain). The study carried out in this paper shows that, despite the initial motivations of the teaching staff, the students that form the same pair, in general, exhibit remarkable differences of academic performance.

An Intelligent and Collaborative Multiagent System in a 3D Environment

[Abstract] Multiagent systems (MASs) allow facing complex, heterogeneous, distributed problems difficult to solve by only one software agent. The world of video games provides problems and suitable environments for the use of MAS. In the field of games, Unity is one of the most used engines and allows the development of intelligent agents in virtual environments. However, although Unity allows working in multiagent environments, it does not provide functionalities to facilitate the development of MAS. The aim of this work is to create a multiagent system in Unity. For this purpose, a predator–prey problem was designed in which the agents must cooperate to arrest a thief driven by a human player. To solve this cooperative problem, it is required to create the representation of the environment and the agents in 3D; to equip the agents with vision, contact, and sound sensors to perceive the environment; to implement the agents’ behaviors; and, finally but not less important, to build a communication system between agents that allows negotiation, collaboration, and cooperation between them to create a complex, role-based chasing strategy.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/34Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/0

Aportaciones e ideas para el rediseño de la asignatura de Fundamentos de Informática al EEES

En este trabajo se exponen las nuevas experiencias realizadas para la adaptación al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior de la asignatura Fundamentos de Informática, de la Ingeniería Técnica Industrial en la Universidad de A Coruña. El nuevo planteamiento se centra principalmente en la realización de nuevas actividades, la incorporación de recursos virtuales y el sistema de evaluación empleado. Asimismo, se presentan los resultados sobre el rendimiento académico y las encuestas del alumnado. Con este planteamiento, el 52.7% de los alumnos presentados superaron la materia

How Agent-based modeling can help to foster sustainability projects

[Abstract] The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations require relevant social changes that sometimes involve the development of innovative projects that cause rejection and confrontation. Agent-Based Models (ABM) are powerful tools to represent the behavior of systems, and they have become valuable for the social sciences as they can simulate the behavior of a society under different conditions. Superblocks are innovative city projects that reorganize urban space and minimize private motorized transport. In this paper, we present an ABM that simulates the implantation of superblocks in two Spanish cities: Vitoria-Gasteiz and Barcelona. The interest of this model is to provide policymakers with relevant scientific information that can be used to support their planning and decision-making processes by running possible alternative policy scenarios. This paper presents the details of the designed model and the simulation of different policy scenarios to increase the acceptability rates of citizens about the project, demonstrating how the model takes into account local differences and its usefulness for those political leaders from other cities interested in implementing this type of project.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C2018/34Xunta de Galicia; ED431G2019/01The work on this document has been supported by Horizon 2020 of the European Commission SMARTEES project (grant agreement no. 7639). We also wish to acknowledge the funding received from the Xunta de Galicia, together with the ERDF funds of the European Union, through its grants to research groups (Grant no. ED431C 2018/34) and CITIC, as a Research Center of the University System of Galicia (Grant no. ED431G 2019/01

A comparison of performance of K-complex classification methods using feature selection

The final publication is available at ScienceDirect via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2015.08.022[Abstract] The main objective of this work is to obtain a method that achieves the best accuracy results with a low false positive rate in the classification of K-complexes, a kind of transient waveform found in the Electroencephalogram. With this in mind, the capabilities of several machine learning techniques were tried. The inputs for the models were a set of features based on amplitude and duration measurements obtained from waveforms to be classified. Among all the classifiers tested, the Support Vector Machine obtained the best results with an accuracy of 88.69%. Finally, to enhance the generalization capabilities of the classifiers, while at the same time discarding the existing irrelevant features, feature selection methods were employed. After this process, the classification performance was significantly improved. The best result was obtained applying a correlation-based filter, achieving a 91.40% of accuracy using only 36% of the total input features.Xunta de Galicia; 09SIN003CTMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad; TIN2013-40686PMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad; TIN2012-37954Xunta de Galicia; GRC2014/3

Testing Scenarios to Achieve Workplace Sustainability Goals : Using Backcasting and Agent-Based Modeling

[Abstract] Pro-environmental behaviors have been analyzed in the home, with little attention to other important contexts of everyday life, such as the workplace. The research reported here explored three categories of pro-environmental behavior (consumption of materials and energy, waste generation, and work-related commuting) in a public large-scale organization in Spain, with the aim of identifying the most effective policy options for a sustainable organization. Agent-based modeling was used to design a virtual simulation of the organization. Psychologically informed profiles of employees were defined using data gathered through a questionnaire, measuring knowledge, motivations, and ability. Future scenarios were developed using a participatory backcasting scenario development methodology, and policy tracks were derived. Dynamic simulations indicated that, to be effective, organizational policy should strengthen worker participation and autonomy, be sustained over time, and should combine different measures of medium intensity for behavior change, instead of isolated policies of high intensity

Sin / Sense

Sexto desafío por la erradicación de la violencia contra las mujeres del Institut Universitari d’Estudis Feministes i de Gènere «Purificación Escribano» de la Universitat Jaume