Centro de investigación en Mecatrónica y Sistemas Interactivos
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Educational Quality in Teaching Magnetism Using Dedicated Mobile Devices

2024 , Junta, Christian , Varela Aldas, José , Washington Collay , David Rivas-Lalaleo , Guillermo Palacios-Navarro

New technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to enhance classroom education, especially in practical subjects like physics, where experiments can be controlled via mobile devices. This facilitates both theoretical and practical learning. This study assesses the impact of using dedicated mobile devices in educational settings compared to traditional teaching methods. The application allows students to view educational information on an M5Stack Core2 device that also includes an electromagnet. We use the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) to gather feedback and evaluate various aspects of the learning experience. Results indicate significant improvements in learning, enthusiasm, organization, group interaction, individual relationships, and breadth of device usage. Evaluations show that device-assisted classes outperform traditional classes in most categories, highlighting the benefits of integrating technology into education. The findings emphasize the importance of adapting teaching methods to enhance the overall quality of education and student engagement using dedicated mobile devices.

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Web Accessibility and Inclusion in Online National Population Censuses: Insights from Ecuador

2024 , Sandra Sanchez-Gordon , Arias Flores, Hugo Patricio , Mary Sánchez-Gordón

The creation of smart societies involves harnessing technological innovations to improve the quality of life of all citizens. Web accessibility and inclusion are fundamental pillars for achieving this goal. Population censuses provide demographic information that allows governments to develop public policies that address the specific needs of diverse communities. Although many countries have adopted population census strategies involving online questionnaires, implementation of online population censuses with web accessibility and inclusivity considerations has not been addressed in the scientific literature. While digitization of population censuses provides benefits, it can also exclude those facing online participation barriers. One of the challenges is the lack of web accessibility for citizens with disabilities. This exploratory study focuses on technical aspects and analyzes the web accessibility issues detected in the online population census conducted in Ecuador in 2022. In general terms, this online census did not comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, thus making interaction difficult for people with blindness, low vision, and limited movement, among other disabilities. Likewise, there are other issues related to data privacy and the inclusiveness of online censuses. People with disabilities and other underrepresented social groups may have limited access to devices and internet connections, reducing their ability to participate in online population censuses. This can cause a bias in the data collected, affecting the accurate representation of the population. In the case of Ecuador's 2022 population census, this might be the cause of a contradiction that arose between the data collected, the previous data, and the growth projections regarding the Afro-descendant population.

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Dragon Ball Z, The Legendary Tribes: A Gamified Experience in English

2024 , Harry Chica , Marcos Chacón-Castro , Jadán Guerrero, Janio

Gamification is a methodology as well as a ludic medium that is growing in popularity and is increasingly used to motivate students and enable active learning. The objective of this research is to design and evaluate a contextualized gamification such as “Dragon Ball Z” to improve the communicative skills of students in a high school in Colombia at A1 level of English. This study used a mixed non-experimental design approach, where an intervention was conducted with a sample of 22 high school students, divided into 4 groups (tribes). For the application, interactive digital tools were used in a series of 26 sessions composed of activities divided into “missions”, which allowed students to acquire English skills in a playful and participatory way. Students’ progress was assessed using rubrics and qualitative data were collected. Finally, it was shown to be a successful strategy for learning English; this methodology generated a playful, motivating and enriching environment, which promoted student participation, interest and meaningful learning. The results support the importance of using this type of strategies in language teaching, and suggest that contextualizing learning methods to the students’ current context can improve their academic performance and classroom participation.

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Bioeconomic Strategies for Sustainable Efficiency in Rice Production: An Adaptive Approach to Optimizing Yield, Cost, and Environmental Impact

2025 , Susana A. Arias T. , Victor H. Dominguez , Tania Carolina Tapia , Jadán Guerrero, Janio

The challenge for rice production today is how to improve yields without overly increasing pressure on natural resources. Modern farm practices often orient toward short-term returns, leading to runoff, soil erosion, greenhouse gas emissions, and other negative consequences. It underscores the urgent need for measures that balance productivity against environmental stewardship. This research explores a flexible model aimed at enhancing yield efficiency in rice cultivation while reducing the ecological impact. The first and foremost issue addressed is that of input dependency, nitrogen fertilizers in particular, which may result in economic loss as well as environmental consequence. We want the input to be optimized and the system to be sustainable for production. An adaptive efficiency model was applied to simulate different combined reductions and changes of inputs from heterogeneous rice-growing regions. The system also provided real-time feedback on data allowing for dynamic adjustments to inputs such as fertilizers and irrigation, making recommendations based on actual performance. We also included environmental metrics like CO2 emissions to evaluate potential sustainability benefits. The study showed that modest reductions in fertilizer application substantially increased N use efficiency, reducing emissions by up to 20%, without compromising yield. Productivity gains were further modified by cost adjustments across domains without straining any resource. These results suggest that a responsive, feedback-driven approach can reconcile high-yield production with stewardship. The model addresses this issue by optimizing input utilization, making it a potential solution for resilient, eco-friendly rice cultivation

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Geo-colonizing Mars: A fun way to raise awareness about environment caring and teach Geometry

2021 , Arroyo-Cruz L. , Chacón-Castro M. , Jadán Guerrero, Janio

The technological boom in which we are immersed has caused the game rules in education to change to adapt to the new educational needs demanded by society. An increasingly digital age, where speed, change and transformation have become its fundamental characteristics. This article describes a pedagogical strategy that integrates elements, dynamics and games' mechanics in order to increase motivation in learning geometry, making it more active, lasting, meaningful and fun for Primary Education students. This proposal is based on a Breakout called Geo-Colonizing Mars, an immersive game that includes problem solving activities, experimentation, debates, and research related to geometry. The immersion is supported by a narrative that raises awareness about environment caring through videos and interactive material developed with Genially, Kahoot, Edpuzzle and Flippity. To evaluate this proposal, an intervention was carried out with 51 6th year Primary Education students from a public institution in Spain. The results showed a motivational change that led to a proactive attitude towards learning, collaborative work and problem solving. © 2021 ACM.

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Obstacle Detection with Differences of Normals in Unorganized Point Clouds for Mobile Robotics

2023 , Velasco-Sánchez E. , Olivas A. , Recalde, Luis F. , Guevara B.S. , Candelas F.A.

In mobile robotics, there is an increasing need for algorithms that accurately identify in real-time the environment in which a robot is operating, especially when these environments are unstructured. Thus, identifying a safe navigation path is a critical aspect to ensure the safety and smooth operation of autonomous robots. In this paper, we present an algorithm for mobile robotics that identifies potential obstacles in an unstructured environment using the Difference of Normals in the point cloud generated by a 3D LiDAR sensor. The aim of our algorithm is to detect obstacles from point clouds with a fast, low-complexity approach that is specifically designed for autonomous driving applications. Our method has been shown to identify obstacles in real-time and differs from the rest of the state-of-the-art by accurately distinguishing obstacles such as potholes and sidewalks from sloping and unevenness terrain. The algorithm has been successfully tested on an ackermann robot equipped with a 128-layer Ouster OS1 LiDAR sensor. The processing time of our system is 52 ms. © 2023 IEEE.

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University Students’ Rejection to Learning Statistics: Research from a Latin American Standpoint

2023 , Ramos Galarza, Carlos , Ramos V. , Cruz Cárdenas, Jorge , Bolaños-Pasquel, Mónica

Introduction: Negative beliefs, fear, avoidance behaviors, and superficial attitudes surrounding the learning of statistics create significant problems for university students in Latin America. Objective: To analyze the impact of fearful behavior, superficial work, and avoidance displayed by university students when it comes to statistics. Method: In this article, we give details about a quantitative research project carried out by two independent studies. The first (N = 310) focused on the development of a scale to assess negative beliefs, fears, and avoidance behaviors towards statistics, in which goodness of fit was determined in a 3-factor model. In the second study (N = 250), it was hypothesized that undergraduates perform superficially due to negative beliefs and avoidance behaviors when learning statistics. Findings: The proposed model explained 42% of the variance. In addition, in the analysis of the proposed mediation model, an adequate adjustment was found. In the discussion of this research project, the need to intervene in the negative beliefs, fears, and avoidance behaviors displayed by university students towards statistics is highlighted. Novelty: This research project explains why college students dislike or avoid learning statistics in depth. The findings will allow for a modification in the way statistics is taught so that Latin American professionals achieve better performance in this field. © 2023 by the authors. Licensee ESJ, Italy.

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Sensory Substitution in Music: Enhancing Deaf Perception Through Vibrotactile Feedback

2024 , Johann Jadán , Zapata, Mireya , Remache Vinueza, Byron

Music experienced through vibrotactile interfaces is a method of perceiving musical elements through the sense of touch, often involving vibrations. This technology functions by converting audio signals into physical sensations that can be sensed through the skin, typically via a wearable device like a wristband. Beginning with an initial audio file devoid of tactile feedback, the procedure entails altering it through sinusoidal modeling and, if necessary, implementing a Space-Fixed Audio transformation by utilizing the Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF). In this study, we successfully transformed sound files into tactile stereo vibrations using specialized hardware. This process was rigorously tested and validated through experimentation involving ten individuals. Our findings confirm that psychophysical sensations can indeed be perceptible. Notably, the most consistent responses were observed when applying the Vibrato and Tremolo effect, following an HRTF transformation. The Space-Fixed Audio transformation primarily introduced variations in azimuth, covering 360∘ in a clockwise direction. Consequently, this processing led to significant spectral changes, effectively rescaling and compressing the audio’s frequencies into lower equivalents. These modified spectral characteristics were subsequently transmitted through vibrotactile actuators, thereby transforming the essence of sound into a tactile experience. This innovative system creates a sensory replacement approach based on the psychophysical sensations perceived on the skin. It has proven to be exceptionally beneficial, particularly for individuals with hearing impairments who may not perceive music in the same way as individuals with typical hearing abilities.

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Technology in Favor of Disability: Prevalence Study in Ecuador

2021 , Arias Flores, Hugo Patricio , Acosta-Rodas P. , Jadán Guerrero, Janio , Ramos Galarza, Carlos

People with disabilities and special needs are very important part of the society, their needs have not been covered over time. Globalization and technological development helped identify the importance of various groups with disabilities. In Ecuador, this identification allows this social group to be visible and particularly people with visual disabilities, who represent approximately 11% of the population with disabilities. The objective of this research is to identify Ecuador’s cities that maintain a higher prevalence of people with disabilities. To comply with the study, a descriptive analysis was conducted from public information about people registered by the authorized government control body. Obtaining this information makes it possible to establish a baseline of attention with real data, which allows getting a greater focus on the development of this social group and the attention they should receive. © 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Behavioral Report from Professors and Self-Report from University Students

2018 , Ramos-Galarza C. , Fiallo-Karolys X. , Ramos V. , Jadán Guerrero, Janio

In this article, we analyze the internal consistency of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th ed. (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria for attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the adult population, in addition, we analyze the correlation between the teacher's report and the student's own, the prevalence of the disorder and the risk of presenting it according to gender. The sample was composed by 175 university students aged between 16 and 36 years old (M = 21.49, SD = 3.22) that belonged to the private higher education system of Quito, Ecuador. As measurement instruments, two scales were used based on the 18 items of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD described in the DSM-5. As a result, it was determined that the scales used present adequate internal consistency coefficients (attention deficit α = .77 & α = .90; hyperactivity/impulsivity α = .74 & α = .91 & the total scale α = .83 & α = .92 filled by the student and the professor, respectively), all scales correlated significantly between .15 and .88. As far as the ADHD prevalence percentage in university students, findings showed that the subtypes would be present between 7.42% and 26.85% of the time. As a risk factor, it was found that men present more probability to have ADHD than women. The article concludes pointing out the importance to implement intervention programs for university students that could present ADHD, since the condition could influence negatively the spheres in which the students with the disorder perform. © 2018 American Psychological Association.

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