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VirtualWorlds (VWs) are popular tools for teaching/learning in the twenty-first century classroom. The challenge remains however, to provide the means by which teachers could sustainably analyse and assess the performance of large groups of students in such environments. Unfortunately, external game features such as game scores and play duration have turned out to be unfair in some assessments. In this context, a case study was carried out in a foreign language course, illustrating how teachers could easily retrieve a number of performance indicators from VW-interaction logs and harness them to conduct a fine-grained analysis of students’ performance, while facilitating at the same time valuable tools for their assessment. Objective performance indicators in a server database were made accessible using an end-user development programming language. This way, a range of data visualisation methods could be employed to contrast different assumptions regarding learner performance when playing a VW-based game, which was designed to help CEFR A1 level students to learn German. This way, factors such as randomisation of game tasks, which could negatively affect learner performance, were alleviated., This research was funded by Spanish National Research Agency (AEI), through the projects VISAIGLE (TIN2017-85797-R) and DeepBio (TIN2017-85727-C4-3-P) with ERDF funds

Los recursos educativos abiertos (OER, por sus siglas en inglés) son aquellos que son distribuidos con una licencia que permite su libre modificación y redistribución, lo que supone una gran oportunidad para facilitar que el conocimiento se comparta y llegue a más personas. Pero cuántos más OER se crean y de distribuyen, más complicado se vuelve encontrar el recurso adecuado para cada persona y para cada contexto. Crear sistemas de recomendación automáticos de OER que faciliten la labor de descubrimiento plante una serie de retos. Por un lado, existen muchos perfiles de usuarios distintos que pueden estar interesados: profesores, alumnos en un curso, autodidactas. . . De esa multiplicidad de perfiles, llegamos también a una multiplicidad de objetivos, en las que incluso el mismo usuario puede cambiar de objetivo con el tiempo. Hasta ahora, se han creado muchos sistemas enfocados a cada uno de esos objetivos, pero el panorama actual de "un problema, una propuesta" dificulta que se aprovechen las sinergias que pueden surgir en un entorno en el que se comparta más información entre algoritmos de recomendación. Por otro lado, los OER son en sí mismos muy diversos. Existen muchas fuentes de OER, estructuradas de distintas formas, que ofrecen distintas facilidades de acceso y que se enfocan al final a distintos perfiles de usuario. Así mismo, los propios OER se presentan en muy distintos formados (vídeos, texto, audio, software. . . ). En este trabajo se presenta una propuesta de arquitectura para la creación de un sistema de recomendación de OER multipropósito, basado en el principio de divide y vencerás, que pueda trabajar con múltiples fuentes, formatos y algoritmos de recomendación, para así lograr un sistema que aproveche todas las sinergias. Junto a esta arquitectura, se exploran propuestas de implementación para cada una de las cinco etapas que componen la arquitectura.

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática. Fecha de lectura : 26-09-2017, Tesis financiada por tres proyectos de investigación, desarrollo e innovación ejecutados con la participación de tres universidades colombianas, la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana Seccional Montería, la Universidad de Córdoba y la Universidad del Valle. Y dos proyectos de investigación de la red e-Madrid.

El uso de las nuevas Técnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (TIC) se han convertido en una herramienta muy versátil en todo tipo de campos. Fomentar su uso en el ámbito del aprendizaje y la educación es de vital importancia. Los cursos MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) es uno de los ejemplos más importantes de integración de las TIC en el campo del aprendizaje y la educación. El objetivo de este Trabajo de Fin de Grado consiste en la creación de una aplicación modular y escalable que, a partir de los datos recogidos de MOOCs, permita aplicar de forma sencilla un proceso completo de Data Science, donde se aplicarán algoritmos de Machine Learning para generar modelos predictivos con los que poder predecir qué estudiantes han aprobado el curso y obtenido por tanto un certificado. La aplicación desarrollada ayuda al usuario a analizar y comparar la calidad de predicción de distintos algoritmos de Machine Learning, permitiendo la posibilidad de exportar los resultados para realizar a posteriori un análisis más exhaustivo., The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has become a versatile tool in different types of fields. Promoting their use in the field of learning and education is of vital importance. The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is one of the most important examples of ICT integration in the field of learning and education. The objective of this End-of-Grade Study is the creation of a modular and scalable application that, based on the data collected from a MOOC course, allows the simple application of a complete Data Science process, where Machine Learning algorithms will be applied to generate predictive models which could be used to predict which students have passed the course and therefore obtained a certificate. The developed application helps the user to analyze and compare the prediction quality of different Machine Learning algorithms, allowin the possibility of exporting the results in order to do a more exhaustive analysis.

Leer es un aprendizaje determinante para la vida de las personas, supone una integración en todos los ámbitos. La lectura otorga una independencia, siendo esta un medio de comunicación y al mismo tiempo, una herramienta indispensable para desenvolvernos en la sociedad actual. En el caso específico de las personas con Trastornos del Espectro Autista (TEA), tienen que adquirir las habilidades sociales y de comunicación, de las que carecen, para poder relacionarse adecuadamente [1]. Desde el punto de vista educativo, se ha observado que los niños con TEA presentan numerosas dificultades a la hora de aprender siguiendo el método de imitación o modelado, por lo que es necesario utilizar estrategias específicas dirigidas al aprendizaje lector. En concreto todas estas personas presentan una característica en común, que son aprendices visuales. Por este motivo, una de las maneras de trabajar es a través de la relación imagen-objeto, debido a que en ocasiones los niños presentan dificultades a la hora de relacionar la palabra con el objeto que representan [2]. Este proyecto desarrolla una aplicación basada en el método de lectura global, dirigido a las personas con TEA con objeto de acercarlas a la lectura y favorecer su aprendizaje posterior de carácter más formal. El objetivo de este trabajo fin de grado es, en primer lugar, proporcionar los materiales utilizados en el proyecto “Leo con Lula”1 para pizarra digital, método de lectura global, de manera estructurada y ordenada para facilitar el aprendizaje. En segundo lugar, obtener información de la progresión de los usuarios por parte de los educadores. La tecnología y especialmente las tabletas tienen todo lo necesario para cumplir estos objetivos. Se decidió realizar el trabajo para el sistema operativo Android, debido a las ventajas en cuanto a accesibilidad y facilidad de uso que tiene respecto a otros sistemas. Este documento describe el proceso llevado a cabo para la consecución de estos objetivos. En él se recogen las diferentes etapas llevadas a cabo, se explican las fases de análisis, diseño, así como la implementación del sistema y la evaluación. Se puede concluir que se alcanza una aplicación que cumple los objetivos. Se ha conseguido que la aplicación sea atractiva y motivadora para los usuarios teniendo de manera ordenada el material de aprendizaje, así como las capacidades de uso y gestión pedidas por los expertos., Reading is a specific life skill required in todays world, it supports integration in all areas. Reading provides independence, it is a communication media and at the same time, an indispensable tool to increase development in today's society. In the specific case of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), they have to acquire social and communication skills, which they may lack, in order to be able to relate properly [1]. From the educational point of view, it has been observed that children with ASD face many difficulties in learning following the method of imitation or modelling, which is why it is necessary to use specific strategies aimed at reading learning. Specifically all these people have a common characteristic, that they are visual apprentices. For this reason, one of the ways of working is through the image-object relationship, because children can sometimes present difficulties in relating the word to the object they represent [2]. This project develops an application based on the global reading method, aimed at people with ASD in order to bring them closer to reading and improve their later learning of a more formal nature. The aim of this final grade paper is, firstly, to provide the materials used in the "Leo con Lula" project for digital slate, a global reading method, in a structured and orderly way to facilitate learning. Second, get information on the progression of users by educators. The technology and especially the tablets have everything necessary to fulfil these objectives. It decided to do the work for the Android operating system, due to the advantages in terms of accessibility and ease of use it has with respect to other systems. This document describes the process carried out to achieve these objectives. It covers the different stages carried out, explains the phases of analysis, design, as well as the implementation of the system and evaluation. It can be concluded that an application is achieved that meets the objectives. It has made the application attractive and motivating for the users having in an orderly way the learning material, as well as the use and management capacities requested by the experts.

This paper proposes the minimization of α-divergences for approximate inference in the context of deep Gaussian processes (DGPs). The proposed method can be considered as a generalization of variational inference (VI) and expectation propagation (EP), two previously used methods for approximate inference in DGPs. Both VI and EP are based on the minimization of the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The proposed method is based on a scalable version of power expectation propagation, a method that introduces an extra parameter α that specifies the targeted α-divergence to be optimized. In particular, such a method can recover the VI solution when α → 0 and the EP solution when α → 1. An exhaustive experimental evaluation shows that the minimization of α-divergences via the proposed method is feasible in DGPs and that choosing intermediate values of the α parameter between 0 and 1 can give better results in some problems. This means that one can improve the results of VI and EP when training DGPs. Importantly, the proposed method allows for stochastic optimization techniques, making it able to address datasets with several millions of instances, The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of the facilities of Centro de Computación Científica (CCC) at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The authors also acknowledge financial support from Spanish Plan Nacional I+D+i, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, grant PID2019-106827GB-I00 / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033

Mutation testing is a valuable technique for measuring the quality of test suites in terms of detecting faults. However, one of its main drawbacks is its high computational cost. For this purpose, several approaches have been recently proposed to speed-up the mutation testing process by exploiting computational resources in distributed systems. However, bottlenecks have been detected when those techniques are applied in large-scale systems. This work improves the performance of mutation testing using large-scale systems by proposing a new load distribution algorithm, and parallelising different steps of the process. To demonstrate the benefits of our approach, we report on a thorough empirical evaluation, which analyses and compares our proposal with existing solutions executed in large-scale systems. The results show that our proposal outperforms the state-of-the-art distribution algorithms up to 35% in three different scenarios, reaching a reduction of the execution time of—at best—up to 99.66%, This work was supported by the Spanish MINECO/FEDER project under Grants PID2021- 122270OB-I00, TED2021-129381B-C21 and PID2019-108528RBC22, the Comunidad de Madrid project FORTE-CM under Grant S2018/TCS-4314, Project S2018/TCS-4339 (BLOQUES-CM) cofunded by EIE Funds of the European Union and Comunidad de Madrid and the Project HPC-EUROPA3 (INFRAIA-2016-1-730897), with the support of the EC Research Innovation Action under the H2020 Programme

This paper presents a framework for the efficient management of renewable energies to charge a fleet of electric buses (eBuses). Our framework starts with the prediction of clean energy time windows, i.e., periods of time when the production of clean energy exceeds the demand of the country. Then, the optimization phase schedules charging events to reduce the use of non-clean energy to recharge eBuses while passengers are embarking or disembarking. The proposed framework is capable of overcoming the unstable and chaotic nature of wind power generation to operate the fleet without perturbing the quality of service. Our extensive empirical validation with real instances from Ireland suggests that our solutions can significantly reduce non-clean energy consumed on large data sets, This work received funding from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) Research, Development and Demonstration (RDD) 2019 programme under the grant number 19/ RDD/519

El uso de las nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (TIC) hace ya tiempo que no quedaron restringidas a grandes empresas o entidades. Su evolución y desarrollo las han convertido en una de las herramientas más versátiles y con un sin fin de posibilidades, por lo que no es de extrañar que las entidades educativas las hayan incorporado para mejorar sus sistemas educativos y alcanzar a un mayor número de estudiantes. El recurso elegido por varias universidades de la Comunidad de Madrid para promover estas nuevas TICs ha sido la plataforma de cursos online masivos edX/Open edX [28]. Existen dos formatos que se han implementado en el entorno académico local, los MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) y los SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) [43]. El objetivo de este Trabajo Fin de Grado consiste en la creación de un sistema que permita el análisis de la actividad de los estudiantes en los cursos on-line a partir de la generación de unos indicadores que ayuden a detectar el posible absentismo de los participantes en los mismos y predecir quienes podrían ser los alumnos con mayor probabilidad de abandono. La herramienta analizará la información a partir de datos anonimizados para proteger la privacidad de los estudiantes. Estos datos servirán para generar una serie de indicadores basados en la interacción de los estudiantes en los foros, actividad con el contenido del curso y en la realización de los problemas, contrastados con sus calificaciones del curso. Estos indicadores serán los usados para predecir el abandono estudiantil. Palabras clave: analizar y predecir, anonimizar, absentismo, indicadores, MOOC y SPOC., The use of new Information Technology and Communication (ICT) is no longer restricted to the use of large companies or organizations. Its evolution and development have made ICTs one of the most versatile tools with endless possibilities. Therefore, it is logical to think that educational institutions would want to use them in order to improve their education systems and reach a greater number of students around the world. The solution chosen by some many universities in the Comunidad de Madrid to promote these new ICTs has been through the platform of massive online courses, edX [28]. There are two types of courses that could be deployed; the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and the SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) [43]. The aim of this project is to create an application that allows the analysis of the activity of students in the courses created by the Autonomous University of Madrid and generate indicators in order to analyze the causes of student absenteeism and predict the students most likely to drop with the objective of trying to alleviate it. The application will be used by the members of the UAMx Office [44] responsible for receiving data from edX and the only team with permission to handle files containing student information. To share this information with teachers and keep private information of students safe, it has created a module in the application that will anonymize the most sensitive information so that they can share data from students to professors and university researchers ensuring the privacy of students. Keywords: analyze and predict, anonymize, absenteeism, indicators, MOOC and SPOCs.

Como consecuencia de los avances de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) que se producen día a día, los métodos de comunicación se encuentran en continuo cambio. Fomentar el empleo de las tecnologías en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje se ha convertido en una meta en las instituciones educativas. Uno de los principales objetivos de la integración de los tradicionales métodos educativos con la tecnología, es la mejora de la calidad de la enseñanza en cursos con gran participación, también llamados cursos masivos en línea (más conocidos como MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses). El papel de los docentes está cobrando mucha importancia en estos nuevos entornos educativos. Los docentes centran sus esfuerzos en diseñar actividades de aprendizaje en línea, pero además se necesitan herramientas que les ayuden a medir las consecuencias de sus acciones, así como evaluar las actuaciones de sus estudiantes y estimar el nivel de mejora que se ha logrado en el aprendizaje. El presente trabajo de fin de grado propone el diseño y desarrollo de una herramienta que facilita un cuadro de mando educativo basado en analíticas de aprendizaje (más conocidas como Learning Analytics), que mediante una interfaz clara y sencilla presente la información generada en los cursos tanto a instructores como a administradores, de tal forma que puedan identificar qué formato de curso recibe mejor captación en este entorno y realizar un seguimiento de la trayectoria académica de los estudiantes a través del tiempo. Se han elaborado cursos de prueba en la plataforma Open edX [1], con el objetivo de obtener una visión general de su estructura, y sobre los que se han realizado las pruebas de las primeras fases de la herramienta propuesta. Para la pruebas de aceptación se han mantenido entrevistas con miembros de la oficina UAMx [2] y profesores de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid [3]. Estas pruebas se han realizado por tanto en un entorno real, con usuarios administradores e instructores de los MOOCs propuestos por la Universidad en la plataforma edX [4]., As a result of the continuous advances in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that occur day to day, the methods of communication are undergoing an ever-changing process. Promoting the use of technologies in the teaching and learning processes has become the focal point of discussions by educational institutions. One of the main objectives of the integration of the traditional education methods with technology is the enhancement of the quality of teaching in courses with a large number of participants, also called massive open online courses (known as MOOCs). The role played by teachers is becoming very important in these new educational environments. Teachers do their best, in order to design on-line learning activities, but they also need a kit of tools that helps them to gauge the consequences of their actions, and to assess their students’ progress and evaluate the level of improvement achieved in the learning process. This document proposes the design and development of a tool that provides a learning dashboard based on Learning Analytics, which, through a clear and simple interface, may present information generated in the courses to instructors and administrators, in order to identify which course format gets better uptake in this environment and track the academic records of students over time. Test courses have been developed in the Open edX platform [1], in order to obtain an overview of its structure. For the acceptance tests, the team has conducted interviews with the members of the UAMx office [2] and professors of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid [3]. Therefore, these tests have been performed in a real environment with administrator users and instructors of MOOCs proposed by the university in the edX platform.

Un sistema de gestión académica y de comunicación directa entre centros educativos y familias es una aplicación que permite que los distintos miembros de la comunidad educativa, como son profesores, alumnos y familia de éstos, estén en continuo contacto para conocer las novedades que involucran a los alumnos. Actualmente existen herramientas en el mercado que ayudan a los centros educativos a gestionar su personal docente, sus alumnos, sus cuentas financieras, etc. Aun así, no todos los centros educativos hacen uso de estas herramientas por diversos motivos. En relación con las necesidades que puedan llegar a tener estos centros se ha desarrollado SchoolPipe, una herramienta web que pretende integrar las nuevas tecnologías en la educación, hacer más fácil la gestión de un centro escolar y mejorar la comunicación entre las familias y los profesores. Esta herramienta es intuitiva y fácil de usar: no provoca dudas en el usuario. La herramienta, además de prestar el servicio de gestión y comunicación de un colegio, está implementada alrededor de un núcleo genérico que le permita ser implantada en otro sistema configurándola a medida. El sistema es utilizado mediante clientes web por sus características y por ser uno de los medios más utilizados en el mundo de Internet. Los motivos por los que se ha elegido esta tecnología son su bajo coste y su gran facilidad para ser implantado en diferentes navegadores. Como principal línea de trabajo futuro queda implementar más funcionalidad que pueda servir de ayuda a los centros educativos además de mejorar la funcionalidad de esta primera versión. En particular, por ejemplo, gestión más detallada de exámenes, datos de matriculación completos, etc., A School Information Management System (SIMS) is a platform that facilitates the management of educational institutions that increases direct communication between all education players such as school center teachers, families and students, in order to improve the teaching and learning processes. Currently, there are some tools in the market that help school centers a manage educators, students, financial accounts, etc. Even so, not all educational institutions use these tools for a variety of reasons, including cost, difficulty of use, resistance to change, etc. In order to fulfill the needs of the educational institutions, we have developed SchoolPipe, a web tool that pretends to integrate new technologies in education, facilitate school centers management and improve the communication between families and teachers. This intuitive tool is easy to use and to install and is designed to provide a pleasant and intuitive user experience. The tool can also be used in other scenarios and markets, thanks to its general-purpose kernel, which allows its implementation in other systems in a customized way. The characteristics of the system suggested its implementation as a server-side application accessed through web browsers one of the most important and most used media in internet world. This yielded the additional advantages of low cost and high accessibility. This work results in a complete and usable application. Nevertheless as all projects developed in the dynamic environment of the web, this application is work in progress. Envisioned future development include extending its functionality, improving the management of test and adding the possibilities of meaning academic fees.

Outlier detection, i.e., the task of detecting points that are markedly different from the data sample, is an important challenge in machine learning. When a model is built, these special points can skew the model training and result in less accurate predictions. Due to this fact, it is important to identify and remove them before building any supervised model and this is often the first step when dealing with a machine learning problem. Nowadays, there exists a very large number of outlier detector algorithms that provide good results, but their main drawbacks are their unsupervised nature together with the hyperparameters that must be properly set for obtaining good performance. In this work, a new supervised outlier estimator is proposed. This is done by pipelining an outlier detector with a following a supervised model, in such a way that the targets of the later supervise how all the hyperparameters involved in the outlier detector are optimally selected. This pipeline-based approach makes it very easy to combine different outlier detectors with different classifiers and regressors. In the experiments done, nine relevant outlier detectors have been combined with three regressors over eight regression problems as well as with two classifiers over another eight binary and multi-class classification problems. The usefulness of the proposal as an objective and automatic way to optimally determine detector hyperparameters has been proven and the effectiveness of the nine outlier detectors has also been analyzed and compared, The authors acknowledge financial support from the European Regional Development Fund and the Spanish State Research Agency of the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness under the projects TIN2016-76406-P (AEI/FEDER, UE) and PID2019-106827GB-I00. They also thank the UAM–ADIC Chair for Data Science and Machine Learning and gratefully acknowledge the use of the facilities of Centro de Computación Científica (CCC) at UAM

Sustainable forest management is concerned with the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. As a contribution to the field, this paper combines the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) (in which the vehicles are harvesters) with the Multiple Stock Size Cutting Stock Problem under uncertainty (in which the stock is logs). We present an Integer Linear Program that dynamically combines the cutting of the uncertain stock with vehicle routing, and uses it to address real-life problems. In experiments on real data from the forestry harvesting industry, we show that it outperforms a commonly used metaheuristic algorithm, This publication has emanated from research conducted with the fnancial support of Science Foundation Ireland under Grant Number 12/RC/2289-P2 which is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Science Foundation Ireland CONFIRM Centre for Smart Manufacturing, Research Code 16/RC/3918

In this paper, we focus on developing automatic assessment (AA) for a topic that has some difficulties in its practical assessment: object oriented programming (OOP). For evaluating that the OOP principles have been correctly applied to a real application, we use unit testing. In this paper, we focus on prioritizing that the students understand and apply correctly complex OOP principles and that they design properly the classes (including their relationships). In addition, we focus on the Python programming language rather than the typical previous works' focus in this area. Thus, we present a real case study of a practical assignment, in which the students have to implement characters for a video game. This assignment has the particularities and advantages that it is incremental and that it applies all four OOP principles within a single assignment. We also present its solution with the UML class diagram description. Furthermore, we provide unit testing for this case study and give general advice for generalizing the unit tests to other real case scenarios. Finally, we corroborate the effectiveness of our approach with positive student evaluations

We present MESMOC+, an improved version of Max-value Entropy search for Multi-Objective Bayesian optimization with Constraints (MESMOC). MESMOC+ can be used to solve constrained multi-objective problems when the objectives and the constraints are expensive to evaluate. It is based on minimizing the entropy of the solution of the optimization problem in function space (i.e., the Pareto front) to guide the search for the optimum. The cost of MESMOC+ is linear in the number of objectives and constraints. Furthermore, it is often significantly smaller than the cost of alternative methods based on minimizing the entropy of the Pareto set. The reason for this is that it is easier to approximate the required computations in MESMOC+. Moreover, MESMOC+’s acquisition function is expressed as the sum of one acquisition per each black-box (objective or constraint). Therefore, it can be used in a decoupled evaluation setting in which it is chosen not only the next input location to evaluate, but also which black-box to evaluate there. We compare MESMOC+ with related methods in synthetic, benchmark and real optimization problems. These experiments show that MESMOC+ has similar performance to that of state-of-the-art acquisitions based on entropy search, but it is faster to execute and simpler to implement. Moreover, our experiments also show that MESMOC+ is more robust with respect to the number of samples of the Pareto front, The authors acknowledge financial support from Spanish Plan Nacional I + D+i, grant PID2019-106827 GB-I00/ AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033

Recommender systems are widely adopted as an increasing research and development area, since they provide users with diverse and useful information tailored to their needs. Several strategies have been proposed, and in most of them some concept of similarity is used as a core part of the approach, either between items or between users. At the same time, Siamese Neural Networks are being used to capture the similarity of items in the image domain, as they are defined as a subtype of Artificial Neural Networks built with (at least two) identical networks that share their weights. In this review, we study the proposals done in the intersection of these two fields, that is, how Siamese Networks are being used for recommendation. We propose a classification that considers different recommendation problems and algorithmic approaches. Some research directions are pointed out to encourage future research. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first comprehensive survey that focuses on the usage of Siamese Neural Networks for Recommender Systems, This work has been funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (reference PID2019-108965GB-I00). The authors thank the reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions

Biohybrid circuits of interacting living and model neurons are an advantageous means to study neural dynamics and to assess the role of specific neuron and network properties in the nervous system. Hybrid networks are also a necessary step to build effective artificial intelligence and brain hybridization. In this work, we deal with the automatized online and offline adaptation, exploration and parameter mapping to achieve a target dynamics in hybrid circuits and, in particular, those that yield dynamical invariants between living and model neurons. We address dynamical invariants that form robust cycle-by-cycle relationships between the intervals that build neural sequences from such interaction. Our methodology first attains automated adaptation of model neurons to work in the same amplitude regime and time scale of living neurons. Then, we address the automatized exploration and mapping of the synapse parameter space that lead to a specific dynamical invariant target. Our approach uses multiple configurations and parallel computing from electrophysiological recordings of living neurons to build full mappings, and genetic algorithms to achieve an instance of the target dynamics for the hybrid circuit in a short time. We illustrate and validate such strategy in the context of the study of functional sequences in neural rhythms, which can be easily generalized for any variety of hybrid circuit configuration. This approach facilitates both the building of hybrid circuits and the accomplishment of their scientific goal, This research was supported by grants AEI/FEDER PID2021-122347NB-100, PGC2018-095895-B-I00, and PID2020- 114867RB-I00 (funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF - "A way of making Europe”)

El objetivo de este TFG es el desarrollo de una aplicación web para el aprendizaje autónomo del lenguaje de programación C. La aplicación proporciona información detallada al profesor sobre el proceso de aprendizaje, permitiendo así mejorar el contenido del curso entre ediciones sucesivas. La aplicación podría llegar a ser de mucha utilidad para las asignaturas de programación de los grados de la Escuela Politécnica Superior de la UAM. Además, se puede adaptar con facilidad a otros lenguajes de programación como Java o Android. Existen muchos sitios web de aprendizaje autónomo para lenguajes naturales como el inglés, pero en el caso de los lenguajes de programación, estos son relativamente escasos. Actualmente, han surgido nuevas iniciativas que están teniendo mucho éxito como codecademy o codeschool. La mayoría ofrecen cursos de lenguajes de marcado como HTML o lenguajes interpretados como JavaScript, que permiten al estudiante probar su código rápidamente y sin instalar ningún entorno de desarrollo. En este trabajo, se extiende esta idea a los lenguajes compilados como C. Uno de los objetivos del trabajo, además del educativo, ha sido el desarrollo desde cero de una aplicación web sencilla pero profesional. Se ha hecho un esfuerzo didáctico para que este documento sirva para futuros desarrollos web similares. Por un lado, se explican las distintas actividades de desarrollo de un producto software, haciendo uso de los conocimientos adquiridos a lo largo de la carrera. Por otro lado, se aplican estos conocimientos en un entorno de desarrollo en concreto, llamado Laravel, un framework para implementar código PHP de forma simple y elegante, con una gran influencia de otros como Ruby on Rails y ASP .NET., The objective of this Bachelor Thesis is to develop a web application for the autonomous learning of the C programming language. The application gives detailed information to the teacher about the learning process, so as to improve the course’s contents between successive editions. The application could be very useful for the programming subjects of the degrees of the Escuela Politécnica Superior of the UAM. Moreover, it can be easily adapted to other programming languages such as Java or Android. There exist many web sites for the autonomous learning of natural languages such as English, but with respect to programming languages, these sites are relatively few. Lately, some new initiatives such as codecademy and codeschool have emerged. Most of them offer programming courses for markup languages such as HTML or interpreted programming languages such as JavaScript, which allow the student to check her code very quickly and without the setting of any development environment. In this work, this idea is applied to compiled languages such as C. One of the objectives of this work, apart from the educational, is the development from scratch of a simple but professional web application. A considerable effort has been made for this document to help in future similar developments. On the one hand, the various phases in the development of a software product have been explained, making use of the knowledge acquired during the degree. On the other hand, this knowledge has been applied to a concrete development environment, called Laravel, an elegant and simple PHP framework, greatly influenced by Ruby on Rails and ASP .NET.

Cada día, el crecimiento de dispositivos móviles es más importante y se refleja en los distintos lugares que necesitan de sus servicios para llevar una vida más cómoda. Es normal que todo el mundo se muestre interesado por la amplitud de posibilidades que ofrece un dispositivo móvil. Uno de los sectores que se están beneficiando de estas mejoras es el sector educativo. Gracias a las nuevas tecnologías, los estudiantes tienen más facilidad de acceso autónomo. Sin embargo, no todas las materias están utilizando estos nuevos medios disponibles para el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. El presente proyecto viene a aportar nuevas formas de aprendizaje en la educación a través de videojuegos en el ámbito histórico. Con este proyecto se pretende enseñar a los estudiantes algunas nociones básicas acerca de las épocas históricas, los materiales utilizados en las mismas y poder realizar construcciones con bloques creados por el estudiante. También la aplicación permitirá al profesor seguir el progreso del estudiante. Este proyecto pretende ser la idea inicial de orientación educativa para las materias históricas. Gracias a los juegos de este tipo, los estudiantes aprenden de forma más dinámica, divertida y menos monótona. El siguiente documento presenta toda la información necesaria para comprender el trabajo realizado en el proyecto. Se comenzará con una breve descripción del juego desarrollado, con los objetivos y retos propuestos, y se analizarán cada una de las fases por las que ha pasado la aplicación, desde el estudio inicial hasta las pruebas realizadas. Por último, puede encontrarse un manual de uso para el estudiante y otro manual de uso para el profesor., Each day, the growth of these devices is more important and this is reflected in the different places that need their services to achieve a more comfortable life. It is normal that everyone shows interest in the wide range of possibilities offered by a mobile device. One of the sectors that is benefiting from these improvements is the educational sector. Thanks to new technologies, students have easier autonomous access. However, not all subjects are using these new means available for student learning. This project is to provide new ways of learning in education through games in the historic area. This project aims to teach students some basic notions about historical periods, the materials used at the time and be able to constructions with blocks created by students. The application also allows the teacher to follow the student's progress. This project aims to be the initial idea of an educational guidance for history subject. Thanks to these games, students will learn in a more dynamic, entertaining and less monotonous way. The following document presents all the information necessary to understand the work done in the project. It will begin with a brief description of the game developed, taking into account the proposed objectives and challenges, and an analysis of each of the developing phases that the application has experienced, from the initial study to the tests carried out. Finally, you may find a user manual for the student and one manual for the teacher.

Los teléfonos inteligentes han cobrado un papel muy importante en la sociedad. Debido al auge de estos dispositivos, la mayoría de la población hace un uso diario de los servicios que ofrecen, siendo Android el sistema operativo más presente en el mercado. Actualmente, la comunicación entre alumnos y profesores a nivel universitario reside, principalmente, en el correo electrónico y plataformas educativas. Aunque eficientes, son alternativas desarrolladas en un inicio para otros sistemas operativos. Por ello, el objetivo principal del proyecto se basa en ofrecer una nueva alternativa de comunicación para alumnos y profesores, más especializada y dirigida a los actuales avances tecnológicos. De este modo, se ha desarrollado una aplicación móvil para Android que permita alcanzar dicho objetivo, ofreciendo una opción más rápida y efectiva de comunicación. La aplicación creada está estructurada por asignaturas en las que los usuarios pueden tratar diferentes temas a partir de un servicio de mensajería instantánea. Desde el punto de vista docente, se podrán agilizar los procesos de notificaciones masivas a alumnos, como pueden ser: alertar de una posible modificación de clase, la publicación de calificaciones o material didáctico en la plataforma educativa. Además, alumnos y profesores podrán establecer tutorías e interactuar entre sí mediante mensajería privada. A lo largo del documento se presenta la aplicación desarrollada, exponiendo las fases por las que ha pasado el proyecto y las posibilidades que ofrece de cara a un futuro., Smartphones play a very important role in our society. Due to the rise of these devices, the main part of the population uses daily their services, with Android as the more popular operating system in market. Currently, communication between students and teachers at university is carried out through email and educational platforms. Although efficient, alternatives are developed initially thinking of other operating systems. Therefore, the aim of the project is to offer a new alternative communication for students and teachers, more specialized and using current technological advances. For this reason, it has been developed an Android mobile application which would achieve this goal by offering a faster and more effective communication option. The application created is structured by subjects in which users can try different themes through an instant messaging service. From the educational point of view, teachers can streamline the process of mass notifications to students, warning of a possible change in class, posting grades or teaching material in the educational platform. In addition, students and teachers can establish tutorials and interact with each other by private messaging. Throughout the document the developed application is presented, exposing the phases of development of the project and the possibilities that it offers regarding the future.

Este documento presenta la aplicación “TT-209”, una solución para dispositivos móviles y tablets Android orientada a los alumnos de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) y extensible a cualquier estudiante con interés por la historia y la arqueología, así como, cualquier docente que pueda desempeñar sus enseñanzas ayudado por esta herramienta. El proyecto software “TT-209” se inició con el objetivo de dar a conocer la misión arqueológica para el estudio y la restauración de la Tumba Tebana 209 en Luxor (Egipto). Así como, solventar las deficiencias docentes causadas por la lejanía geográfica de esta expedición, utilizando material audiovisual que pudiera explicar los avances de la excavación y divulgar las investigaciones realizadas hasta el momento. El trabajo se ha realizado con la colaboración del Departamento de Historia Antigua, Medieval, Paleografa y Diplomática de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) y el Departamento de Arqueología de la Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) procedente de Tenerife (Islas Canarias). Entre las principales funcionalidades ofrecidas por esta herramienta docente se encuentran: el registro de alumnos, la gestión de mapas sobre los que establecer eventos relacionados con la época de uso de la tumba, la divulgación de material fotográfico de la excavación y vídeos sobre las conclusiones de las investigaciones realizadas, la gestión de la visita virtual 3D de la tumba, la divulgación de cuentas oficiales de entidades que apoyan esta investigación y el desarrollo de un videojuego sobre preguntas y respuestas relacionadas con la Historia Antigua. Con el fin de proporcionar la documentación sobre la que se sustenta la elaboración de este proyecto, se adjuntan unos anexos relacionados con los trabajos llevados a cabo en la tumba por el equipo arqueológico.

The introduction of technologies in teaching-learning environments is a possibility that brings many promising hopes. The areas where technology can contribute to education are very wide, and so, this work is focused on the evaluation process. Based on the principles of the Computer Adaptive Tests (CAT) and Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH), as a result of this project an online and adaptive system for asistence learning process is presented: e-valUAM. The development of e-valUAM has aspired to achieve the following objectives: a) allow teachers, in any discipline, to create adaptive online questionnaires that serve teachers and students to measure their knowledge in a way that challenges students; b) avoid the need of having advanced knowledge in computer science to respond, or create questionnaires; c) make available automatic analysis tools to facilitate teachers' work on identifying de ciencies in the evaluation process; and d) implement a robust, exible system that properly abstracts the dynamics of evaluation, so it can be used in real environments. Throughout the life of this project two functional and incremental prototypes have been created, which have been used during the academic years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. To create both prototypes, a complete analysis of requirements has been conducted, which has collected the characteristics and needs that the system should cover. Then, the system has been designed, which includes the domain, user and adaptation models that have been implemented afterwards in e-valUAM. Both prototypes have been successfully tested in real environments, which have encompassed diverse disciplines. Thanks to this tool, students have been available to perform self-assessment questionnaires that have provided them with early feedback. In addition, teachers have been able to create automatic correction tests in which er rors have been detected quickly. Moreover a group of researchers has been able to test new models of adaptive testing., La introducci on de las tecnolog as en los procesos de ense~nanzaaprendizaje es una posibilidad que trae consigo muchas y prometedoras esperanzas. Las areas en las que la tecnolog a puede aportar a la educaci on son muy amplias, por lo que este trabajo se centra en el proceso de evaluaci on. Bas andose en los principios de los Computer Adaptive Tests (CAT) y la Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH), como resultado de este Trabajo Fin de Grado se presenta un sistema de ayuda al aprendizaje online y adaptativo: e-valUAM. Con la creaci on de e-valUAM se ha aspirado a alcanzar los siguientes objetivos: a) Permitir crear a profesores de cualquier disciplina cuestionarios online adaptativos que sirvan para que los profesores o los propios alumnos puedan medir sus conocimientos de una forma que resulte un reto justo a cada alumno; b) que no sea necesario disponer de un conocimiento avanzado en inform atica para responder o crear los cuestionarios; c) poner a disposici on del profesor herramientas autom aticas de an alisis que faciliten su labor de detecci on de de ciencias en el proceso de evaluaci on; y d) implementar un sistema robusto, exible y que abstraiga correctamente las din amicas de una evaluaci on, para que pueda ser utilizado en entornos reales. A lo largo de la vida del proyecto se han creado dos prototipos funcionales e incrementales que han sido utilizados durante los cursos de 2013/2014 y 2014/2015. Para crear ambos prototipos se ha llevado a cabo un completo an alisis de requisitos que ha recogido las caracter sticas y las necesidades que deb a cubrir el sistema. A continuaci on, se ha realizado un dise~no en el que se han creado modelos de dominio, usuario y adaptaci on que despu es han sido implementados en e-valUAM. Ambos prototipos han sido probados con exito en entornos reales que han englobado disciplinas dispares. Gracias a esta herramienta, los alumnos han tenido a su disposici on cuestionarios de autoevaluaci on que les han aportado retroalimentaci on temprana, los profesores han podido crear ex amenes de correci on autom atica en los que han detectado rapidamente errores y, tambi en, un conjunto de investigadores han podido probar nuevos modelos de cuestionarios adaptativos.

En el presente trabajo de fin de máster se realizó el diseño, implementación y evaluación de una interfaz de usuario tangible para la educación mediante realidad mixta llamada FlyStick. En primer lugar se han revisado proyectos relacionados con experiencias del uso de tangibles y mundos virtuales como material de apoyo en la educación desde el punto de vista del constructivismo. Adicionalmente se revisaron proyectos relacionados con interfaces de usuario para captar la interacción del usuario sobre objetos tridimensionales. En segundo lugar, se diseñó una experiencia educativa en mundos virtuales mediante el desarrollo de una interfaz de usuario tangible que permite la interacción con objetos virtuales en seis grados de libertad teniendo en cuenta dos tipos de contracciones musculares, ya sea mediante la fuerza o el desplazamiento. La combinación de estas interacciones permite elaborar experiencias de pedagogía constructivista, gracias a la percepción de participación directa en el mundo virtual. En el presente proyecto la experiencia propuesta está orientada al aprendizaje de conceptos abstractos, concretamente a la enseñanza de las secciones cónicas en geometría. Para evaluar la tecnología de realidad mixta desarrollada con usuarios reales se contó con la participación de estudiantes y profesores de la institución de educación secundaria “Florida Secundaria” ubicada en Valencia (España) para quienes se diseñaron dos actividades educativas. La primera actividad emplea la interfaz tangible FlyStick con el objetivo de enseñar geometría. La segunda actividad persigue el mismo objetivo, pero mediante una metodología tradicional. Estas actividades fueron evaluadas cuantitativamente en función a los conocimientos adquiridos y cualitativamente en cuanto a la experiencia percibida por los participantes. Los resultados empíricos obtenidos sugirieren que las experiencias en realidades mixtas pueden ser significativas para el estudiante, logrando crear conocimiento a largo plazo., The present project is the design, implementation and evaluation of a tangible user interface for education using mixed reality; the tangible captures both isotonic and isometric user interactions. Through the adaptation of middleware, these interactions are reflected as actions within a virtual world, the proposed interface was given the name of FlyStick. Projects related to experiences of using virtual worlds and tangible interfaces to support in education from the standpoint of constructivism, were reviewed. Also projects related with interfaces to capture user interaction on a device were reviewed. Consequently, an educational experience in virtual worlds was developed through a tangible user interface that allows interaction with virtual objects in six degrees of freedom. This interaction, takes into account two types of muscle contractions, either by force or displacement. The combination of these interactions will allow the development of experiences based on constructivist pedagogy, due to the perception of direct involvement with the virtual world. In this project, the experience proposal is aimed to teaching abstract concepts, namely teaching geometry conic sections. In order to evaluate the mixed reality technology developed with real users, two educational activities were designed with the collaboration of students and teachers from "Florida High School" located in Valencia (Spain). The first activity uses FlyStick as tangible interface for virtual worlds with the aim of teaching geometry. The second activity pursues the same objective, but using a traditional teaching methodology. These activities were evaluated quantitatively according to the acquired knowledge and qualitatively by using a user experience questionnaire. The empirical results obtained extend the range of application of constructivist methodology, suggesting that experiences in mixed realities may also be significant for the student, even creating long-term knowledge.

Aunque los Mundos Virtuales y Videojuegos estaban orientados principalmente al entretenimiento, su utilización con fines educativos cada vez es más frecuente. Por su parte, los Sistemas Adaptativos puede cambiar la tanto la información que muestran al usuario como el modo en que lo hace. En este Trabajo de Fin de Máster (TFM) se busca aunar ambos entornos a fin proporcionar una experiencia más enriquecedora al usuario mediante el uso de perfiles de usuario para llevar a cabo un proceso de adaptación en Juegos y Mundos Virtuales en entornos no lúdicos. Para ello se aplica un proceso de adaptación que permite motivar al usuario al empleo de este tipo de entornos a la vez que facilitar su proceso de aprendizaje. Con esto, a lo largo del presente TFM se determinan un conjunto de reglas de adaptación de acuerdo al perfil de jugador y estilos de aprendizaje, las cuales han sido implementadas en un escenario de pruebas (Videojuego Educativo) y evaluadas mediante una experiencia con usuarios para identificar el nivel de aceptación que tuvieron las mencionadas reglas. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que las reglas de adaptación tuvieron un nivel de aceptación alto y motivó a los usuarios a realizar la experimentación relacionando el componente lúdico con el componente educativo., Although Virtual Worlds and Videogames were primarily conceived to entertainment, educational purposes are becoming more common. For its part, Adaptive Systems can change both the information it shows to the user and the way it does. In this Master’s Thesis (MT) we try to combine both environments to provide a richer user experience through the use of user profiles to undertake a process of adaptation in Virtual Worlds and Videogames in no leisure environments. To do so, we implement an adaptation process that allows the user to motivate the use of this type of environments while facilitating the learning process. Thus, throughout this MT we define a set of rules for adaptation according gamer profile and learning styles, which have been implemented in a test scenario (Educational Game) and evaluated by means of an experience with users in order to identify the level of acceptance that the aforementioned rules had. The results show that the adaptation rules had a high level of acceptance and they encouraged users to perform the experimentation by combining the playful component with the educational component.

En los últimos tiempos las tecnologías de la información (TIC) se han abierto hueco en la vida cotidiana de las personas. Nos encontramos en la era de la información, en la cual casi todos los electrodomésticos, vehículos o dispositivos móviles están interconectados y permiten el acceso a la información desde cualquier lugar. La intención de este trabajo es utilizar el avance de la tecnología para reforzar el trabajo del profesor desarrollado en el aula mediante herramientas de autor potentes y versátiles, con las cuales se crean actividades educativas. La herramienta de autor elegida es JClic, una aplicación de software libre para el desarrollo, realización y evaluación de actividades educativas multimedia, tales como rompecabezas, asociaciones, ejercicios de texto, palabras cruzadas, etc. Esta aplicación está muy extendida entre la comunidad educativa y es ampliamente usada para reforzar el contenido estudiado en la clase y acercar las nuevas tecnologías a los alumnos. Los datos de un proyecto desarrollado con JClic se almacenan en formato XML, lo cual facilita su reutilización en otras aplicaciones. El objetivo de este proyecto es conseguir desarrollar una aplicación Android que permita utilizar proyectos desarrollados con JClic en dispositivos móviles que utilicen el sistema operativo Android, consiguiendo una nueva plataforma para la realización de las actividades y aprovechando las ventajas que tienen los dispositivos móviles. Inicialmente se pretende que la aplicación desarrollada permita que funcionen las actividades tipo asociación, memoria y sopa de letras y en un futuro poder ampliar el número de actividades hasta conseguir una integración completa con el programa de autor. Con la realización de este trabajo se espera aportar un nuevo soporte para la enseñanza que facilite la labor del personal docente, creando una aplicación completamente funcional y que sea puesta en práctica en un entorno real. El contenido de este resumen se estudiará y ampliará de manera más detallada en los siguientes apartados del proyecto., In recent times the information technologies (ICT) have opened hole in the everyday lives of people. We are in the information age, in which almost all appliances, vehicles and mobile devices are interconnected and provide access to information from anywhere. The intention of this work is to use technological advances to enhance the work of the teacher developed in the classroom through by powerful and versatile author tools, with which educational activities are created. The tool chosen JClic author is a free software application for development, implementation and evaluation of educational activities, such as puzzles, associations, text exercises, crosswords, etc. This application is widespread among the educational community and is widely used to enhance the content studied in class and bring new technologies to students. Data from a project developed with JClic are stored in XML format, making it easy to reuse in other applications. The objective of this project is to develop an Android application that allows using projects developed with JClic in mobile devices using the Android operating system, getting a new platform for the implementation of activities and taking advantage with mobile devices. Initially it was intended that developed application allow such activities as the association, memory and word search and in the future expand the number of activities to achieve full integration with the program author. With the completion of this work is expected to provide new support for education to facilitate the work of teachers, creating a fully functional application and is implemented in a real environment. The content of this summary will be studied and expanded in more detail in the following sections of the project.

Las pizarras digitales son uno de los grandes avances de los últimos tiempos y clave en la innovación docente actual. Bien utilizada, es capaz de ayudar a los profesores a enseñar a los niños de una manera más amena, y que llame la atención de estos para que aprendan divirtiéndose. En esto se fundamentan nuevas técnicas de enseñanza como la gamificación, que es el uso de técnicas y dinámicas propias de los juegos y el ocio en actividades no recreativas. Para que este avance sea útil es necesario que exista una herramienta y un repositorio de recursos para poder crear contenido que permita aprovechar las pizarra digitales en el aula. Hablando con profesores de diferentes edades y capacidades informáticas se llegó al a conclusión de es que existen algunos recursos pero son confusos, limitados, o difíciles de entender y manejar tanto por los profesores como por los alumnos. Por otra parte, la aparición de tablets, que tan intuitivas resultan para los niños y que utilizan una interacción equivalente a las pizarras digitales , abre la posibilidad de extender este tipo de aprendizaje basado en juegos desde la pizarra a casa. Con este proyecto se ha tratado de solucionar esos problemas, creando una herramienta de autor, pensada y orientada para que los profesores puedan crear, editar y almacenar recursos educativos fácilmente, para mejorar e incentivar el uso de las pizarras digitales en las aulas, así como intentar llevar este tipo de juegos educativos a las tablets. La herramienta ha sido implementada en HTML5+JavaScript, de esta manera se logra la compatibilidad de la herramienta con diferentes tipos de dispositivos y sistemas operativos haciendo uso del navegador como plataforma de ejecución. Aprovechando las ventajas de HTML5, se ha creado una herramienta que funciona totalmente en local, sin necesidad de conexión a Internet, y que, haciendo uso de la exportación de archivos en formato json permite compartir juegos. Finalmente será posible ejecutar la aplicación desde un servidor para jugar a los juegos desde las tab9lets donde no es posible ejecutar dicha aplicación haciendo uso del sistema local de archivos. Para evaluar la funcionalidad y usabilidad de la herramienta hemos contado con la colaboración del colegio Mater Immaculata que nos ha dejado realizar varias pruebas en las aulas de Infantil, y con la opinión de varios profesores para la correcta evaluación de la aplicación., Digital whiteboards are one of the greatest advances in recent times, key for actual teaching innovation. When properly used, they help teachers to teach children in a more entertaining way, attracting their attention to learn while having fun. On these grounds new teaching techniques arise, such as gamification, which is applying techniques and dynamics from games and leisure to non-recreational activities. For this advance to be useful, a Tool and a Resources Repository are necessary to enable easily create content that will make possible to take advantage of digital whiteboards within classrooms. Conversations with professors of different ages and computer knowledge, allowed to realize that some resources do exist, but disorganized, limited or difficult to understand and maintain for pupils and teachers alike. On the other hand, the appearance of tablets, which are so intuitive to children and equally interactive as digital whiteboards are, opens the possibility to extend this type of learning based on games from whiteboards to home. These are the problems this project intends to resolve, by creating a tool for authors, thought and oriented to enable the teachers to create, edit and store educational resources easily, to improve and encourage the use of digital whiteboards in class, as well as to take this kind of educational games to tablets. The tool is implemented in HTML5+JavaScript, which allows it to be compatible with different devices, operating systems, and browsers used as the platform for its execution. Leveraging on HTML5 advantages a fully functional locally tool has been created, without Internet connection, and able to share games by exporting Json format files. Finally, it is possible to run the application from a server to play games from tablets where the application cannot be executed by making use of local file system. To evaluate tool’s functionality and usage, we have counted on the collaboration of the Mater Immaculata school, which has let us to do several tests in its Infant classrooms and gather several teacher's opinions to correctly evaluate the application.

El objetivo principal que se ha perseguido a la hora de realizar este trabajo ha sido el de permitir diseñar videojuegos educativos de una manera sencilla a usuarios con escasos conocimientos informáticos. Durante el desarrollo del trabajo se han generado dos aplicaciones diferentes: se ha desarrollado por un lado un motor de videojuegos configurable y por otra parte una aplicación que permite al usuario diseñar y crear sus propios videojuegos utilizando el motor creado anteriormente. El motor configurable de videojuegos se ha implementado sobre el motor XNA 4.0 desarrollado por la empresa Microsoft, dicho motor utiliza el lenguaje de programación C#. Las principales razones que me han llevado a utilizar XNA 4.0 han sido las siguientes: En primer lugar XNA 4.0 es fácilmente accesible para una gran cantidad de usuarios, es gratuito y no se requiere un sistema potente para ejecutar los juegos creados con este motor. Por otra parte, ya tenía una cierta experiencia tanto con el motor XNA 4.0 como con el lenguaje C#, concretamente el motor de XNA lo utilice cuando curse la asignatura “Introducción a la programación de videojuegos y gráficos” y el lenguaje C# lo había utilizado para desarrollar algunas aplicaciones. Respecto a la aplicación encargada de la creación de videojuegos, he optado por utilizar el lenguaje Visual Basic 6. He decidido utilizar este lenguaje principalmente porque tengo experiencia a la hora de desarrollar aplicaciones escritas en este lenguaje. En el desarrollo del proyecto he intentado priorizar la sencillez de uso del producto para que pueda ser utilizado por usuarios con un escaso nivel de conocimientos informáticos, ya que este era uno de los objetivos principales del TFG. Por ello todo lo referente al código del juego es invisible al diseñador del videojuego, de manera que este solo tiene que preocuparse del diseño. Es decir el usuario solo tiene que preocuparse por cómo quiere que sea su juego y no en cómo implementarlo. El desarrollo de este proyecto se ha estructurado en tres fases claramente diferenciadas entre sí: Primera fase – Esta fase ha sido la fase principal de desarrollo de este proyecto, en ella se han aclarado las principales líneas a seguir durante el desarrollo de la aplicación y se ha generado una primera versión de las aplicaciones. Segunda fase – En esta fase se ha interaccionado con personas del departamento de Historia de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid para obtener su opinión de la aplicación y que cosas creen que deberían de ser cambiadas para hacer la aplicación más fácil de utilizar y más completa. Tercera fase – Durante esta última fase del proyecto se ha implementado diversos cambios a partir de las opiniones obtenidas anteriormente para generar la versión final de la aplicación. Mediante este proceso de desarrollo en tres fases se ha buscado conseguir una aplicación que no sea difícil de utilizar por usuarios sin conocimientos informáticos avanzados pero que a su vez tenga una funcionalidad lo más completa posible., The main goal of this project was to allow people without advanced knowledge of computers to design their own educational videogames. This project can be divided in two different applications: A configurable videogame engine and an application that allows the user to create and design their own videogames using that engine. The configurable videogame engine has been developed using the XNA 4.0 engine, this engine uses C# programming language. I decided to use this engine mainly because: First of all, XNA 4.0 is easily accessible for a large amount of users, it is free and it doesn’t require a powerful computer to run the games. I had some previous experience using XNA and the programming language C#, specifically I used XNA when I took part on the subject called “Introducción a la programación de videojuegos y gráficos” and I have also used the language C# to develop some applications. In reference to the application that allows the user to create and design their own videogames, I decided to use the programming language Visual Basic 6, I decided to use this language because I got some experience with it because I developed a few applications in this language. During the development of this project, I tried to focus into making an easy to use application so it can be used by people without advanced knowledge of computers, since this was one of the main goals of the project. Because of this, all the coding part of the project is invisible to the videogame designer, this way the designer only has to worry about the design, in other words he only needs to think about how he wants the game to be and not about how to make it work. The development of this project has been structured in three different phases: First phase – This phase has been the main phase of the development of the project, during this phase we have set the main lanes to follow during the process of development and the first versions of the applications were developed. Second phase – During this phase we worked with people of the History department of the University in order to get their opinion about the application and what would they change in the application to make it better and easier to use. Third phase – During this last phase of the project, we made changes in the application based on the feedback received from the people of the History department, we make this changes in order to make the final version of the application as good as possible. What we tried to achieve with this three phases process was not only to get and easy to use application but also a powerful application.

Autonomous robotic search problems deal with different levels of uncertainty. When uncertainty is low, deterministic strategies employing available knowledge result in most effective searches. However, there are domains where uncertainty is always high since information about robot location, environment boundaries or precise reference points is unattainable, e.g., in cave, deep ocean, planetary exploration, or upon sensor or communications impairment. Furthermore, latency regarding when search targets move, appear or disappear add to uncertainty sources. Here we study intrinsic and environmental factors that affect low-informed robotic search based on diffusive Brownian, naive ballistic, and superdiffusive strategies (Lévy walks), and in particular, the effectiveness of their random exploration. Representative strategies were evaluated considering both intrinsic (motion drift, energy or memory limitations) and extrinsic factors (obstacles and search boundaries). Our results point towards minimum-knowledge based modulation approaches that can adjust distinct spatial and temporal aspects of random exploration to lead to effective autonomous search under uncertainty, This work was supported in part by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), under Grants PGC2018-095895-B-I00, TIN2017-84452-R, and PID2020-114867RB-I00

Tesis Doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática. Fecha de Lectura: 21-02-2023

Context: Testing is essential to improve the correctness of software systems. Metamorphic testing (MT) is an approach especially suited when the system under test lacks oracles, or they are expensive to compute. However, building an MT environment for a particular domain (e.g., cloud simulation, model transformation, machine learning) requires substantial effort. Objective: Our goal is to facilitate the construction of MT environments for specific domains. Method: We propose a model-driven engineering approach to automate the construction of MT environments. Starting from a meta-model capturing the domain concepts, and a description of the domain execution environment, our approach produces an MT environment featuring comprehensive support for the MT process. This includes the definition of domain-specific metamorphic relations, their evaluation, detailed reporting of the testing results, and the automated search-based generation of follow-up test cases. Results: Our method is supported by an extensible platform for Eclipse, called GOTTEN. We demonstrate its effectiveness by creating an MT environment for simulation-based testing of data centres and comparing with existing tools; its suitability to conduct MT processes by replicating previous experiments; and its generality by building another MT environment for video streaming APIs. Conclusion: GOTTEN is the first platform targeted at reducing the development effort of domain-specific MT environments. The environments created with GOTTEN facilitate the specification of metamorphic relations, their evaluation, and the generation of new test cases, Work supported by the Madrid government, Spain and the Complutense University (grant PR65/19-22452), the Spanish Ministry of Science (PID2021-122270OB-I00), and the Madrid region, Spain (P2018/TCS-4314, S2018/TCS-4339)

Tesis Doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingenieria Informática. Fecha de Lectura: 20-01-2023, El aprendizaje automático, ML por sus siglas en inglés, es una rama de la inteligencia artifcial que permite construir sistemas que aprendan a resolver una tarea automáticamente a partir de los datos, en el sentido de que no necesitan ser programados explícitamente con las reglas o el método para hacerlo. ML abarca diferentes tipos de problemas; Uno de ellos, la regresión, implica predecir un resultado numérico y será el foco de atención de esta tesis. Entre los modelos ML utilizados para la regresión, las máquinas de vectores soporte o Support Vector Machines, SVM, son uno de los principales algoritmos de eleccón, habitualmente llamado Support Vector Regression, SVR, cuando se aplica a tareas de regresión. Este tipo de modelos generalmente emplea la función de pérdida ϵ−insensitive, lo que implica asumir una distribución concreta en el ruido presente en los datos, pero recientemente se han propuesto funciones de coste de ruido general para SVR. Estas funciones de coste deberían ser más efectivas cuando se aplican a problemas de regresión cuya distribución de ruido subyacente sigue la asumida para esa función de coste particular. Sin embargo, el uso de estas funciones generales, con la disparidad en las propiedades matemáticas como la diferenciabilidad que implica, hace que el método de optimización estándar utilizado en SVR, optimización mínima secuencial o SMO, ya no sea una posibilidad. Además, posiblemente el principal inconveniente de los modelos SVR es que pueden sufrir problemas de escalabilidad al trabajar con datos de gran tamaño, una situación común en la era de los grandes datos. Por otro lado, los modelos de Aprendizaje Profundo o Deep Learning, DL, pueden manejar grandes conjuntos de datos con mayor facilidad, siendo esta una de las razones fundamentales para explicar su reciente popularidad. Finalmente, aunque los modelos SVR se han estudiado a fondo, la construcción de intervalos de error para ellos parece haber recibido menos atención y sigue siendo un problema sin resolver. Esta es una desventaja signifcativa, ya que en muchas aplicaciones que implican resolver un problema de regresión no solo es util una predicción precisa, sino que también un intervalo de confianza asociado a esta predicción puede ser extremadamente valioso. Teniendo en cuenta todos estos factores, esta tesis tiene cuatro objetivos principales: Primero, proponer un marco para entrenar Modelos SVR de ruido general utilizando como método de optimización Naive Online R Minimization Algorithm, NORMA. En segundo lugar, proporcionar un método para construir modelos DL de ruido general que combinen el procesamiento de características altamente no lineales de los modelos DL con el potencial predictivo de usar funciones de pérdida de ruido general, de las cuales la función de pérdida ϵ−insensitive utilizada en SVR es solo un ejemplo particular. Tercero, describir un enfoque directo para construir intervalos de error para SVR u otros modelos de regresión, basado en asumir la hipótesis de que los residuos siguen una función de distribución concreta. Y finalmente, unificar los tres objetivos anteriores en un marco de modelos unico que permita construir modelos profundos de ruido general para la predicción en problemas de regresión con la posibilidad de obtener intervalos de confianza o intervalos de error asociados

Tesis Doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingenieria Informática. Fecha de Lectura: 20-01-2023

Fairness is fundamental to all information access systems, including recommender systems. However, the landscape of fairness definition and measurement is quite scattered with many competing definitions that are partial and often incompatible. There is much work focusing on specific – and different – notions of fairness and there exist dozens of metrics of fairness in the literature, many of them redundant and most of them incompatible. In contrast, to our knowledge, there is no formal framework that covers all possible variants of fairness and allows developers to choose the most appropriate variant depending on the particular scenario. In this paper, we aim to define a general, flexible, and parameterizable framework that covers a whole range of fairness evaluation possibilities. Instead of modeling the metrics based on an abstract definition of fairness, the distinctive feature of this study compared to the current state of the art is that we start from the metrics applied in the literature to obtain a unified model by generalization. The framework is grounded on a general work hypothesis: interpreting the space of users and items as a probabilistic sample space, two fundamental measures in information theory (Kullback–Leibler Divergence and Mutual Information) can capture the majority of possible scenarios for measuring fairness on recommender system outputs. In addition, earlier research on fairness in recommender systems could be viewed as single-sided, trying to optimize some form of equity across either user groups or provider/procurer groups, without considering the user/item space in conjunction, thereby overlooking/disregarding the interplay between user and item groups. Instead, our framework includes the notion of statistical independence between user and item groups. We finally validate our approach experimentally on both synthetic and real data according to a wide range of state-of-the-art recommendation algorithms and real-world data sets, showing that with our framework we can measure fairness in a general, uniform, and meaningful way, This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain (references PID2019-108965GBI00 and PID2021-124361OB-C32)

La tecnología está muy presente en el día a día de las personas: smartphones, redes sociales, videojuegos etc. La educación no es una excepción, cada vez se observan más ordenadores y pizarras digitales en las aulas de nuestro país. Se ha pretendido crear un prototipo de plataforma educativa orientada a la enseñanza, especialmente diseñada para la educación especial, aunque extensible a otros ámbitos. Consta de un sistema hardware basado en Raspberry Pi, junto con una interfaz de juego con matrices LED personalizables diseñada para llamar la atención de este tipo concreto de alumnos y mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza. Los juegos ejecutables, pueden ser creados por los padres y los profesores a través de una interfaz WIFI y cualquier dispositivo con un navegador, y no hace falta ningún conocimiento técnico. Con el diseño de la plataforma, se pretende proveer a los educadores de una plataforma simple, barata y mantenible para mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza y hacerla más personalizable, y que de esta forma, los padres sean también protagonistas de la educación de sus hijos., Nowadays, technology is notably present in people’s life: smartphones, social networks, videogames, etc. Education is not an exception, as technology evolves, we can see even more computers and interactive whiteboards in the classrooms all over our country. The goal of this proyect, is creating a prototype of an educational platform, designed for special education and even applicable to other ranges. It is built over a hardware system based on Raspberry Pi, completed with a game interface made of several personalizable LED matrices, specially designed for calling student’s attention. These games, can be made by parents and teachers, using a WIFI interface accesible from any device equipped with a web browser, and it is not necessary to have any tecnical formation to create them. The point of designing this system, is provide the teachers with a simple, cheap and mantenible platform to produce a better teaching experience, and enabling the parents to be the main actors in their child’s education.

La implantación desde 2009 de las nuevas titulaciones de Grado, de acuerdo con el nuevo marco educativo establecido a través del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES), ha supuesto un crecimiento notable en la oferta de títulos en las distintas Universidades del estado español. En particular, en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, la oferta académica de títulos es cercana al centenar. En estas circunstancias, el aprovechamiento de los recursos de la Universidad es una máxima para cualquier equipo de gestión bien al nivel de centros (Facultades y Escuela) e, inclusive, al nivel de la propia Universidad. Por tanto, el objetivo que se ha pretendido realizar mediante este Trabajo Fin de Grado ha sido el de crear una aplicación que facilite y de soporte a la gestión de las sesiones de examen, con el propósito de automatizar toda la funcionalidad que supone la realización de múltiples pruebas de evaluación coincidentes en el espacio y en el tiempo. La implantación de sistemas de gestión y control como el que proponemos posibilitaría la coincidencia de pruebas de distintas asignaturas en un mismo aula, permitiendo un aprovechamiento de los recursos, materiales y humanos, más adecuado que en la actualidad. En el procedimiento actual no se llevan a cabo tareas como el control de estudiantes en la entrada y salida de la sesión, la realización de exámenes de distintas asignaturas en el mismo aula o la asignación de los asientos en el aula, entre otras. Todas estas funciones se podrían realizar con la aplicación que se ha desarrollado en este proyecto: “Gestión de aulas de examen”. Para ello se ha realizado un estudio de distintas tecnologías para averiguar cuáles se adaptaban mejor a este proyecto, además de analizar los aspectos más importantes a tener en cuenta a la hora de realizar una sesión de exámenes. Por otra parte se precisa que esta gestión sea fluida, lo que requiere aportar una interfaz intuitiva a la aplicación y el uso de un lector de código de barras que agilice la entrada y salida de los estudiantes de la sesión. La aplicación desarrollada está orientada al uso por parte de los miembros de un tribunal, desde el momento que se inicia la sesión de examen hasta que concluye. En su estado actual constituye una aplicación piloto de posibles proyectos de innovación docente futuros., The implementation since 2009 of the new degree, according to the new educational framework established by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has been a remarkable growth in the supply of securities in the various universities of the Spanish state. In particular, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the academic offerings of securities is close to hundred. In these circumstances, the use of University resources is a maximum for any management team either at the level of schools (Colleges and School), and even at the level of the university. Therefore, the objective has sought performed through this Bachelor Thesis was to create an application that facilitates and supports management review sessions, in order to automate all the functionality that involves making multiple matching evaluation tests in space and in time. The implementation of management and control systems such as we propose would allow matching tests in different subjects in the same classroom, allowing use of resources, material and human, more appropriate today. In the current procedure does not perform tasks like checking students in and out of the meeting, the holding of examinations in different subjects in the same classroom or the allocation of seats in the classroom, among others. All these functions could be performed with the application that has been developed in this project: "Managing examination rooms." This has made a study of various technologies to determine which are best suited to this project, in addition to analyzing the most important aspects to consider when performing a test session. Furthermore it is stated that this management is fluid, which requires providing an intuitive interface to the application and use of a barcode reader to expedite the entry and exit of students in the session. The developed application is geared for use by members of the court, from the time the review session begins until concludes. In its current state is a pilot application of possible future teaching innovation projects.

This Project has been mostly motivated by the important and current technological improvements. My stay in Finland one year ago allowed me to be introduced in interesting aspects about technology in the educational field. Impair people have a limitation when using these technologies in education due to they can only use their hearing sense. For this reason, it would be interesting to give these people the chance to obtain information by hearing, but also by touch throughout vibrations. To start with this objective, it has been built an application for mobile devices called ‘PicRead’ that simulates the colours with sounds and vibrations, so the user, when touching the screen, may be able to obtain information that cannot be reached by sight. If at the end of the project development the visual impair people can read graphics and colours, then a learning opportunity is built to include this technology to the actual ecology of resources to support the transmission of information., Este proyecto ha estado motivado principalmente por los grandes avances tecnológicos que tenemos actualmente. Mi estancia en Finlandia hace un año me permitió conocer interesantes aspectos de la tecnología aplicada a ámbitos educativos. Las personas con problemas visuales tienen una limitación a la hora de usar estas tecnologías en educación, puesto que solamente pueden usar su sentido del oído. Por este motivo, es interesante el poder darle a estas personas la oportunidad de obtener información mediante el oído, pero también mediante el tacto a través de vibraciones. Para comenzar con este objetivo, se ha creado una aplicación para dispositivos móviles llamada ‘PicRead’ que va a simular los colores con sonidos y vibraciones, de tal manera que cuando el usuario toque la pantalla, sea capaz de obtener esa información que visualmente no puede tener. Si los usuarios al final del desarrollo de esta aplicación son capaces de reconocer colores y figuras a través de sonidos y vibraciones, se habrá creado una gran oportunidad en el campo educativo para incorporar estos recursos como apoyo en la transmisión de información.

La audición es una de las habilidades más importantes relacionadas con la adquisición del lenguaje. Por ella somos capaces de obtener información de nuestro entorno y de interactuar con él. Los problemas auditivos pueden influir en el comportamiento de las personas, provocando sentimientos negativos y obstaculizando el proceso de comunicación. Si un individuo no es capaz de escuchar adecuadamente, la comprensión e integración de los sonidos supondrá conflictos que pueden derivar en el retraso de la aparición del lenguaje y en su correcto aprendizaje. Dicho es el caso de las personas con Síndrome de Down, dado que entre el 50 y 60 por ciento de ellas sufren algún tipo de trastorno auditivo. Lamentablemente, observamos que el déficit auditivo que presentan, al ser generalmente de carácter leve a moderado, no suele recibir la atención necesaria en el ámbito educativo. Si bien es cierto que se pueden adaptar algunas de las numerosas terapias auditivas existentes a las personas con Down, no existe ninguna que sea específica para ellas. Además, algunas de estas terapias requieren equipos especiales y la mayoría necesita la presencia de un terapeuta especializado. En estos casos, la familia tiene un papel secundario en la enseñanza de estimulación auditiva. En la actualidad, gracias a las aplicaciones móviles, podemos cambiar la forma de aplicar las terapias. Ahora, los familiares pueden encontrar fácilmente actividades educativas y pueden ser ellos los que las impartan en cualquier momento y lugar. Sin embargo, seguimos encontrando un defecto: la inmensa mayoría de aplicaciones auditivas va dirigida solo a niños en etapa pre-escolar y escolar. Así pues, por todas las razones anteriormente mencionadas, se propone desarrollar una herramienta logopédica para dispositivos móviles dirigida a desarrollar las habilidades auditivas de los jóvenes con síndrome de Down. La aplicación, denominada Ability, empleará diversos ejercicios de estimulación auditiva que habrán sido diseñados en colaboración con la Fundación Síndrome de Down de Madrid. Ability contará con 76 ejercicios divididos en tres grandes categorías: Identificación y discriminación auditiva, Asociación auditiva y Causa - Efecto de sonidos. Todos estos ejercicios serán finalmente testeados en usuarios finales., Hearing is of vital importance to the acquisition of language, it helps us obtain information about our surroundings and interact with them. Hearing problems may affect the behavior of people, provoke negative emotions and hinder communication. If a person is not able to hear adequately, the lack of comprehension and integration of sound may lead to conflicts that cause a delay in the acquisition of language and individual development. Among people with Down’s Syndrome, between 50 and 60 percent suffer from some kind of hearing disorder. Sadly, we observe that people with this disorder, whether it be mild or severe, does not receive necessary attention in the educational field. It is true that some of the numerous hearing therapies, which exist right now, can be adapted to people with Down’s Syndrome, but there is no therapy developed specifically for them. Furthermore, some of these therapies require special equipments and most of them need the presence of a specialized therapist. This renders the patients family unable to assist with the treatment. Currently, thanks to mobile applications, we can change the way in which therapies are applied. Families can now easily find educational material and engage in educational activities by themselves in a time and place that fits them. Even so, a large problem still remains: most of the hearing applications are aimed towards children in kindergarten and elementary school only. So, for all the reasons mentioned above, it was proposed to develop a logopedic tool for mobile units aimed to aid the development of the hearing abilities of young people with Down’s Syndrome. This tool, named Ability, will use diverse exercises that stimulate the users hearing. This was done in collaboration with Down’s Syndrome Foundation of Madrid. Ability will contain 76 exercises split into three large categories: Identification and auditory discrimination, Auditory association and Cause-Effect of sound. All of the exercises will be tested on end users.

El aprendizaje colaborativo en red es uno de los temas más actuales en el contexto e-Learning. Con la aplicación de las TIC a la educación, está surgiendo un nuevo modo de aprendizaje en el que se aprovechan las ventajas que ofrecen los sistemas de gestión de aprendizaje (LMS, sus siglas en ingles de Learning Management System). Éstos presentan escenarios donde el proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje se puede realizar mediante la interacción y la colaboración. La interacción entre los involucrados en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje genera información que puede ser medida, analizada y utilizada y es, en ese punto, donde surgen las Analíticas de Aprendizaje (Learning Analytics, LA). Las LA toman esos datos generados para analizarlos, procesarlos y utilizarlos con el fin de mejorar el proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje. El presente trabajo de fin de grado propone la creación de una serie de herramientas, integradas e implementadas en el LMS Moodle, para aplicar Analíticas de Aprendizaje en un entorno colaborativo. El trabajo realizado incluye la reutilización y modificación del formato de curso Social Media Format (SMF), desarrollado para Moodle, y la creación de un módulo Moodle de tipo Bloque, llamado Learning Analytics Block (LAB). El desarrollo implementado tiene como principal objetivo facilitar a los profesores el seguimiento, diagnóstico y evaluación de los estudiantes mediante la aplicación de LA. Las herramientas creadas han sido utilizadas y puestas a prueba en dos experiencias con estudiantes de grado y de postgrado en dos asignaturas impartidas en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Los resultados alcanzados son positivos y se ha podido observar los beneficios de la aplicación de Analíticas de Aprendizaje en un entorno real de aprendizaje colaborativo., Collaborative Learning Network is one of the current topics in the context of e-Learning. With the application of ICT to education, there is a new emerging way of learning, where we take advantage of the benefits of Learning Management Systems (LMS). These are able to present a new scenario where teaching-learning process takes place through interaction and collaboration. The interaction between those involved in the teaching-learning process generates information that can be measured, analysed and used. At that point is where the Learning Analytics (LA) arise, taking this generated data to analyse, process and use it in order to improve the teaching-learning process. This End-Of-Grade paper proposes the creation of a collection of tools, integrated and implemented in the Moodle LMS, to apply Learning Analytics in a collaborative environment. The work done includes reuse and modification of the course format Social Media Format (SMF), developed for Moodle, and the creation of a new block-type Moodle module, called Learning Analytics Block (LAB). The implemented development has as its main objective providing teachers with tools to monitor, diagnosis and assess the students learning through the application of LA. The tools created have been used and tested in two experiments with undergraduate students and graduate ones within two subjects taught at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The results achieved are positive and it has been observed the benefits of the application of Learning Analytics in a real environment of collaborative learning.

Aprovechando la predisposición psicológica de los seres humanos a participar en juegos, la Gamificación (del inglés Gamification) es la aplicación de conceptos, modelos y técnicas usadas en juegos sobre otros contextos, con el fin de que las personas involucradas en esos contextos los encuentren más atractivos y adopten en ellos ciertos comportamientos. La Gamificación busca convertir una actividad que en un principio puede resultar aburrida o tediosa en una tarea entretenida y divertida, sin tener que por ello modificar el objetivo de la misma. Para ello, emplea aquellos elementos característicos de juegos y videojuegos que hacen que estos sean atractivos, e incluso adictivos, para las personas. Los juegos en general siguen una estructura similar a la de cualquier tarea: se parte de un estado inicial para llegar a un estado u objetivo final, y el camino para llegar a ese estado final plantea pruebas, obstáculos y dificultades que un jugador debe superar siguiendo unas determinadas reglas. Este planteamiento se realiza mediante mecánicas de diversa índole, como sistemas de puntuación y niveles, asignación de roles, desafíos y retos con dificultad creciente, competición con otros jugadores, etc. La Gamificación pretende aplicar estos elementos a entornos no necesariamente relacionados con los juegos, como el comercio electrónico, marketing y negocios, acciones gubernamentales, noticias, arte y educación, por mencionar algunos. Este trabajo se centra en la aplicación de Gamificación en educación, y tiene como objetivo final el diseño y desarrollo de sencillas aplicaciones software para la creación de actividades docentes que incluyan elementos de Gamificación. Para tal fin, en primer lugar el trabajo presenta un análisis detallado de qué es la Gamificación, revisando ejemplos existentes de su aplicación en distintos contextos. A continuación se centra en aquellas aplicaciones orientadas al ámbito educativo, identificando aquellos elementos de juegos y videojuegos que pueden motivar o incentivar a estudiantes en su proceso de aprendizaje. Finalmente, presenta la implementación y evaluación de dos herramientas educativas con elementos de Gamificación; en concreto, dos plugins para la bien conocida herramienta de e-learning Moodle., Taking advantage of the psychological predisposition of human beings to take part in games, “Gamification” is the application of gaming concepts, models and techniques in different contexts. The aim of Gamification is to make such contexts more attractive for people, in order to make people adopt certain behaviors. Gamification looks for transforming an activity that may be boring or tedious into something entertaining and fun, without modifying the purpose or final objective of the activity. In order to achieve this, it uses common elements of games, which are attractive or even addictive for people. In general, games follow a pattern similar to any other task: they start from a scratch point and have an end point consisting of achieving certain goal. The path between these two points poses obstacles and difficulties that a player must overcome under certain rules. This is fulfilled by using different mechanics like rating and ranking strategies, role assignment, competitions with other players, and challenges with increasing difficulty. Gamification attempts to apply these elements in environments that are not necessarily related with games, such as electronic commerce, marketing and business, governmental actions, news, art and education. This work is focused on the application of Gamification in education, and aims to design and develop simple software applications for building educational activities that involve Gamification elements. With this purpose, we will first present a detailed description of Gamification, analyzing existing examples of its application in different contexts. Next, we will focus our analysis on those applications oriented to the education field, identifying those elements of games or videogames that could motivate and engage students in their learning process. Finally, we present the implementation and evaluation of two educational tools that have Gamification elements, specifically two plugins for the well-known Moodle e-learning tool.

La educación es un pilar fundamental para el desarrollo de las personas. Existen ciertas habilidades que se desarrollan principalmente mediante la realización de actividades en grupo, como las habilidades adaptativas. Este tipo de aprendizaje se denomina aprendiza colaborativo (AC), y las actividades planteadas suelen ser de tipo lúdico cuando están orientadas al colectivo infantil. Resulta esencial proporcionar los medios adecuados tanto para facilitar la adquisición de dichas habilidades, como para obtener información sobre la evolución de los usuarios para su posterior análisis por parte de los educadores. La tecnología, y en concreto las superficies multicontacto, muestran un gran potencial para ofrecer soluciones informáticas ante estas necesidades, presentándose como atractivas para los más jóvenes y permitiendo llevar a cabo la colaboración de forma natural. El objetivo de este proyecto es, en primer lugar, diseñar y desarrollar un sistema interactivo capaz de dar soporte a la realización de actividades lúdicas colaborativas a través de una mesa multicontacto. En segundo lugar, durante la interacción de los usuarios con la mesa, el sistema capturará automáticamente toda la información sobre estas interacciones para facilitar su posterior análisis. Este documento recoge el proceso llevado a cabo para la consecución de estos objetivos. En él se detallan las distintas actividades realizadas, comenzando por el análisis de usuarios, de juegos, de requisitos y de tecnologías. Se presentan y explican las actividades de diseño llevadas a cabo (de lógica, de interacción y de interfaz), así como las de elaboración de prototipos e implementación del sistema. Se concluye el documento con una exhaustiva fase de pruebas que abarca desde las pruebas unitarias hasta pruebas de funcionamiento en un entorno real con usuarios reales. Se puede concluir que se ha desarrollado un sistema que ha alcanzado los objetivos propuestos. Se ha logrado un sistema atractivo para los usuarios más jóvenes, y con las capacidades de almacenamiento y gestión requeridas por los expertos. Cabe destacar que a la conclusión de este proyecto, se deja tras de sí un sistema completo, general y modular que facilita la creación de nuevos juegos y permite una sencilla integración de aplicaciones diversas dentro de la mesa multicontacto en el futuro., Education is a fundamental pillar on the human being development. There are some abilities like the adaptative abilities that can only be developed by participating in group activities. This kind of learning is called collaborative learning (CL), and the activities are usually ludic when children are the target. It is essential to provide adequate means for the acquiring of those abilities, and for obtaining information about the evolution of the users for a later analysis. Technology, and in particular, multitouch surfaces, are showing a great potential of solving those necessities, and are presenting itself as an attractive device for young people and allowing collaboration in a natural way. The objectives of this project are, rst, designing and developing an interactive system able to handle ludic-collaborative activities on the multitouch table. Second, during the interactions of the users on the table, the system has to automatically collect all the information about those interactions for a later analysis. This document presents the whole process carried out to achieve these objectives. In the document, users' analysis stages, activities, requirements and technologies are detailed. Design phases (logic, interaction and interface) as well as prototypes development and system implementation are also shown and explained. The document is concluded with an exhaustive tests stage including from unitary tests until tests with real users. It is fair to conclude that the system ful lls the objectives derived as motivation's answer. An attractive system for the users has been developed, with the storage and management capacities required by the experts. It is worth to emphasize that this project presents a complete and modular system for an easy integration of new applications in the multitouch table for future projects.

The World Wide Web has become a common platform for interactive software development. Most web applications feature custom user interfaces used by millions of people every day. Information architecture addresses the structural design of information to build quality web applications with improved usability of content, navigation, and findability. One of the most frequently utilized information architecture methods is card sorting—an affordable, user-centered approach for eliciting and evaluating categories and navigable items. Card sorting facilitates decision-making during the development process based on users’ mental models of a given application domain. However, although the qualitative analysis of card sorts has become common practice in information architecture, the quantitative analysis of card sorting is less widely applied. The reason for this gap is that quantitative analysis often requires the use of customized techniques to extract meaningful information for decision-making. To facilitate this process and support the structuring of information, we propose a methodology for the quantitative analysis of card-sorting results in this paper. The suggested approach can be systematically applied to provide clues and support for decisions. These might significantly impact the design and, thus, the final quality of the web application. Therefore, the approach includes proper goodness values that enable comparisons among the results of the methods and techniques used and ensure the suitability of the analyses performed. Two publicly available datasets were used to demonstrate the key issues related to the interpretation of card sorting results and the overall suitability and validity of the proposed methodology, This work was partially supported by the Spanish Government [grant number RTI2018-095255-B-I00]; and the Madrid Research Council [Grant Number P2018/TCS-4314]

Quite often a machine learning problem lends itself to be split in several well-defined subproblems, or tasks. The goal of Multi-Task Learning (MTL) is to leverage the joint learning of the problem from two different perspectives: on the one hand, a single, overall model, and on the other hand task-specific models. In this way, the found solution by MTL may be better than those of either the common or the task-specific models. Starting with the work of Evgeniou et al., support vector machines (SVMs) have lent themselves naturally to this approach. This paper proposes a convex formulation of MTL for the L1-, L2- and LS-SVM models that results in dual problems quite similar to the single-task ones, but with multi-task kernels; in turn, this makes possible to train the convex MTL models using standard solvers. As an alternative approach, the direct optimal combination of the already trained common and task-specific models can also be considered. In this paper, a procedure to compute the optimal combining parameter with respect to four different error functions is derived. As shown experimentally, the proposed convex MTL approach performs generally better than the alternative optimal convex combination, and both of them are better than the straight use of either common or task-specific models, With partial support from Spain’s grant TIN2016-76406-P. Work supported also by the UAM–ADIC Chair for Data Science and Machine Learning.

This paper presents a new class of multiple-follower bilevel problems and a heuristic approach to solving them. In this new class of problems, the followers may be nonlinear, do not share constraints or variables, and are at most weakly constrained. This allows the leader variables to be partitioned among the followers. We show that current approaches for solving multiple-follower problems are unsuitable for our new class of problems and instead we propose a novel analytics-based heuristic decomposition approach. This approach uses Monte Carlo simulation and k-medoids clustering to reduce the bilevel problem to a single level, which can then be solved using integer programming techniques. The examples presented show that our approach produces better solutions and scales up better than the other approaches in the literature. Furthermore, for large problems, we combine our approach with the use of self-organising maps in place of k-medoids clustering, which significantly reduces the clustering times. Finally, we apply our approach to a real-life cutting stock problem. Here a forest harvesting problem is reformulated as a multiple-follower bilevel problem and solved using our approach, This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2289

Tesis Doctoral inédita cotutelada por la Masaryk University (República Checa) y la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática. Fecha de Lectura: 24-10-2022, Cryogenic Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM) is a vital field in current structural biology. Unlike X-ray crystallography and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, it can be used to analyze membrane proteins and other samples with overlapping spectral peaks. However, one of the significant limitations of Cryo-EM is the computational complexity. Modern electron microscopes can produce terabytes of data per single session, from which hundreds of thousands of particles must be extracted and processed to obtain a near-atomic resolution of the original sample. Many existing software solutions use high-Performance Computing (HPC) techniques to bring these computations to the realm of practical usability. The common approach to acceleration is parallelization of the processing, but in praxis, we face many complications, such as problem decomposition, data distribution, load scheduling, balancing, and synchronization. Utilization of various accelerators further complicates the situation, as heterogeneous hardware brings additional caveats, for example, limited portability, under-utilization due to synchronization, and sub-optimal code performance due to missing specialization. This dissertation, structured as a compendium of articles, aims to improve the algorithms used in Cryo-EM, esp. the SPA (Single Particle Analysis). We focus on the single-node performance optimizations, using the techniques either available or developed in the HPC field, such as heterogeneous computing or autotuning, which potentially needs the formulation of novel algorithms. The secondary goal of the dissertation is to identify the limitations of state-of-the-art HPC techniques. Since the Cryo-EM pipeline consists of multiple distinct steps targetting different types of data, there is no single bottleneck to be solved. As such, the presented articles show a holistic approach to performance optimization. First, we give details on the GPU acceleration of the specific programs. The achieved speedup is due to the higher performance of the GPU, adjustments of the original algorithm to it, and application of the novel algorithms. More specifically, we provide implementation details of programs for movie alignment, 2D classification, and 3D reconstruction that have been sped up by order of magnitude compared to their original multi-CPU implementation or sufficiently the be used on-the-fly. In addition to these three programs, multiple other programs from an actively used, open-source software package XMIPP have been accelerated and improved. Second, we discuss our contribution to HPC in the form of autotuning. Autotuning is the ability of software to adapt to a changing environment, i.e., input or executing hardware. Towards that goal, we present cuFFTAdvisor, a tool that proposes and, through autotuning, finds the best configuration of the cuFFT library for given constraints of input size and plan settings. We also introduce a benchmark set of ten autotunable kernels for important computational problems implemented in OpenCL or CUDA, together with the introduction of complex dynamic autotuning to the KTT tool. Third, we propose an image processing framework Umpalumpa, which combines a task-based runtime system, data-centric architecture, and dynamic autotuning. The proposed framework allows for writing complex workflows which automatically use available HW resources and adjust to different HW and data but at the same time are easy to maintain, The project that gave rise to these results received the support of a fellowship from the “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is LCF/BQ/DI18/11660021. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713673

Recommender systems are information filtering systems used in many online applications like music and video broadcasting and e-commerce platforms. They are also increasingly being applied to facilitate software engineering activities. Following this trend, we are witnessing a growing research interest on recommendation approaches that assist with modelling tasks and model-based development processes. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping review (based on the analysis of 66 papers) that classifies the existing research work on recommender systems for model-driven engineering (MDE). This study aims to serve as a guide for tool builders and researchers in understanding the MDE tasks that might be subject to recommendations, the applicable recommendation techniques and evaluation methods, and the open challenges and opportunities in this field of research, This work has been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 813884 (Lowcomote [134]), by the Spanish Ministry of Science (projects MASSIVE, RTI2018-095255-B-I00, and FIT, PID2019-108965GB-I00) and by the R&D programme of Madrid (Project FORTE, P2018/TCS-4314

There is an increasing demand nowadays for low-code development platforms (LCDPs). As they rely heavily on graphical languages rather than writing code, these platforms enable citizen developers to participate in software development. However, creating new LCDPs is very costly, since it requires building support for graphical modelling and its integration with services like model validation, recommendation systems, or code generation. While Model-driven Engineering (MDE) has developed technologies to create these components, most of them are not cloud-based, as required by LCDPs. In particular, a cloud-based graphical workbench capable of providing the scalability required by industrial applications and adequately supporting technological heterogeneity is currently missing. To fill this gap we introduce Dandelion, a cloud-based graphical language workbench for LCDPs built following an MDE approach. The tool handles model heterogeneity by using a harmonising meta-model to uniformly represent models from diverse technologies, and supports a customisable level of conformance between models and meta-models. Scalability is addressed by persisting models in a distributed, highly flexible database whose infrastructure is designed to conform to the harmonising meta-model, thus favouring model retrieval. Additionally, a customisable scalability component is introduced for lazy model loading. This paper describes the concepts and principles behind the tool design and reports on an evaluation on large synthetic process mining models, and on domain-specific languages and large industrial models used within the UGROUND company, showing promising results, This project has been funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813884, the Spanish Ministry of Science (PID2021-122270OBI00), and the R&D programme of Madrid (P2018/TCS-4314)

Because of their level of abstraction, Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) enable building applications that ease software implementation. In the context of web applications, we can find a lot of technologies and programming languages for server-side applications that provide fast, robust, and flexible solutions, whereas those for client-side applications are limited, and mostly restricted to directly use JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, JSON and XML. This article presents a novel approach to creating DSL-based web applications using JSON grammar (JSON-DSL) for both, the server and client side. The approach includes an evaluation engine, a programming model and an integrated web development environment that support it. The evaluation engine allows the execution of the elements created with the programming model. For its part, the programming model allows the definition and specification of JSON-DSLs, the implementation of JavaScript components, the use of JavaScript templates provided by the engine, the use of link connectors to heterogeneous information sources, and the integration with other widgets, web components and JavaScript frameworks. To validate the strength and capacity of our approach, we have developed four case studies that use the integrated web development environment to apply the programming model and check the results within the evaluation engine

Tesis Doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática. Fecha de Lectura: 05-07-2022, Machine learning is a set of methods that learn patterns from some observed data and allow to make predictions about previously unseen data. They can be divided in supervised and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning the observed data have associated labels representing the target that we want to learn, which can be categorical (classification) or real-valued (regression). Bayesian models have become popular in the recent years given their ability to provide uncertainty estimates about the predictions made, which is critical from some applications such as autonomous cars. The models are also less prone to overfitting than other popular models such as neural networks. Gaussian processes (GPs) are a type model that can be used to address both supervised and unsupervised learning problems. Besides being Bayesian models they are also non-parametric, so their expressiveness grows with the number of training data points. Furthermore, prior knowledge can be introduced by means of a covariance function like in kernel methods. This makes GPs more interpretable than other models, as the parameters of the covariance function characterize the properties of the function that we are trying to learn. However, GPs suffer from several limitations. First, their computational cost is cubic with respect to the number of training points. Also, exact inference is only feasible for regression problems. Sparse GPs combined with approximate inference techniques, such as variational inference (VI) or expectation propagation (EP), allow these models to scale to larger datasets and to be used for other types of problems. Both VI and EP rely on minimizing the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence between the posterior distribution and its approximation. This thesis proposes several GP models based on an approximate inference algorithm called power EP that allows to minimize a family of divergence measures called a- divergences that is a generalization of the KL-divergence. First, in the context of multiclass classification problems. Later, we extend this framework to a generalization of GPs called deep GPs which, unlike GPs, can be useful for problems where the functions that we are modeling are non-smooth or non-stationary or where the predictive distribution is not Gaussian. Next, this thesis proposes a new model based on sparse GPs and VI that takes into account noise in the inputs for multi-class classification problems. It was motivated by a problem coming from astro-physics, where having noise in the inputs is common due to errors in experimental measurements. Finally, this thesis proposes a new method that improves the training cost of sparse GPs. This method can reduce drastically the number of inducing points needed to train a model by making them input dependent through a non-linear transformation, e. g.a neural network

© ACM 2021. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/10.1145/3428076, Models are the central assets in model-driven engineering (MDE), as they are actively used in all phases of software development. Models are built using metamodel-based languages, and so objects in models are typed by a metamodel class. This typing is static, established at creation time, and cannot be changed later. Therefore, objects in MDE are closed and fixed with respect to the class they conform to, the fields they have, and the well-formedness constraints they must comply with. This hampers many MDE activities, like the reuse of model-related artefacts such as transformations, the opportunistic or dynamic combination of metamodels, or the dynamic reconfiguration of models. To alleviate this rigidity, we propose making model objects open so that they can acquire or drop so-called facets. These contribute with a type, fields and constraints to the objects holding them. Facets are defined by regular metamodels, hence being a lightweight extension of standard metamodelling. Facet metamodels may declare usage interfaces, as well as laws that govern the assignment of facets to objects (or classes). This article describes our proposal, reporting on a theory, analysis techniques, and an implementation. The benefits of the approach are validated on the basis of five case studies dealing with annotation models, transformation reuse, multi-view modelling, multi-level modelling, and language product lines, Work partially funded by the R&D programme of the Madrid Region (project FORTE, S2018/TCS-4314) and the Spanish Ministry of Science (project MASSIVE, RTI2018-095255-B-I00)

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11257-020-09285-1, One common characteristic of research works focused on fairness evaluation (in machine learning) is that they call for some form of parity (equality) either in treatment—meaning they ignore the information about users’ memberships in protected classes during training—or in impact—by enforcing proportional beneficial outcomes to users in different protected classes. In the recommender systems community, fairness has been studied with respect to both users’ and items’ memberships in protected classes defined by some sensitive attributes (e.g., gender or race for users, revenue in a multi-stakeholder setting for items). Again here, the concept has been commonly interpreted as some form of equality—i.e., the degree to which the system is meeting the information needs of all its users in an equal sense. In this work, we propose a probabilistic framework based on generalized cross entropy (GCE) to measure fairness of a given recommendation model. The framework comes with a suite of advantages: first, it allows the system designer to define and measure fairness for both users and items and can be applied to any classification task; second, it can incorporate various notions of fairness as it does not rely on specific and predefined probability distributions and they can be defined at design time; finally, in its design it uses a gain factor, which can be flexibly defined to contemplate different accuracy-related metrics to measure fairness upon decision-support metrics (e.g., precision, recall) or rank-based measures (e.g., NDCG, MAP). An experimental evaluation on four real-world datasets shows the nuances captured by our proposed metric regarding fairness on different user and item attributes, where nearest-neighbor recommenders tend to obtain good results under equality constraints. We observed that when the users are clustered based on both their interaction with the system and other sensitive attributes, such as age or gender, algorithms with similar performance values get different behaviors with respect to user fairness due to the different way they process data for each user cluster, The authors thank the reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (Reference: 123496 Y. Deldjoo et al. PID2019-108965GB-I00) and in part by the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsors