Antonio J. Sierra

Establishment EHEA for telecommunication technologies engineering degree

This paper describes the results of establishment of European Higher Education Area for Telecommunication Technologies Engineering Degree at University of Sevilla aimed at carrying out a comparative analysis between the applications of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulations System and the traditional teaching and learning system to first-year students, in order to improve their performance in the subject Fundamentals of Programming.

Use of TDM pseudo-wires for an efficient NGN emulation of ISDN multi-channel circuit-mode bearer services

This paper proposes a novel top-down visual saliency detection method for optical satellite images using local adaptive regression kernels. This method provides a saliency map by measuring the likeness of image patches to a given single template image. The local adaptive regression kernel (LARK) is used as a descriptor to extract feature and compare against analogous feature from the target image. A multi-scale pyramid of the target image is constructed to cope with large-scale variations. In addition, accounting for rotation variations, the histogram of kernel orientation is employed to estimate the rotation angle of image patch, and then comparison is performed after rotating the patch by the estimated angle. Moreover, we use the bounded partial correlation (BPC) to compare features between image patches and the template so as to rapidly generate the saliency map. Experiments were performed in optical satellite images to find airplanes, and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and robust in complex scenes.

TVSP: A Tool for Validation Software Projects in programming labs

This work shows a testing tool used in Fundamentals of Programming II laboratory in Telecommunication Technologies Engineering Degree at University of Sevilla to check the student project. This tool allows students to test the proper operation of their project in autonomous way. This is a flexible and useful tool for testing the project because the tool identifies when the student has carried out a project that meet the given specifications of the project. This implies a high rate of success when the student delivers its project to the teacher.

LTI for Interoperating e-Assessment Tools with LMS

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are widely used nowadays because they let the users organize the learning process through courses, composed by documents, homework and exams, and it allows the teacher to follow students’ progress. However LMS can’t evaluate a student project due to its complexity. It can be solved by using external tools prepared for this specific task, losing the capability to track the student progress. Therefore the need of integration between them appears. To achieve a code project’s assessment, we have developed an external tool interoperating with LMS using Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI).

Computing Labs on Virtual Environments: A Flexible, Portable, and Multidisciplinary Model

Computer-aided teaching of practical subjects in engineering education poses new challenges. Computers have to be configured to support the particular requirements of each subject. Virtual environments allow the building of a virtual machine (VM) tailored to the requirements of each subject, allowing flexible, versatile, and low-cost laboratory configurations. However, the use of multiple VM at a shared computing facility poses new problems on the lab sessions, both technical and performance related. To solve these challenges, we have developed the VM on-demand tool. This tool automates the adaptation of each VM to the environment in which it is deployed. As a result, the creation of computer-aided engineering laboratories on a shared computing facility using VM is possible and profitable.

Virtualization environment in telematics labs

The aim of this paper is to show the common scenario for practical content of subjects in the Department of Telematics Engineering by means of virtualization. This Department is responsible for a high number of laboratory groups, requiring many teachers and a high workload. A common environment for all practice groups is desired. A virtual machine was built with the same environment of the Computing Centre at School of Engineering at University of Seville. Then, this virtual machine was provided to students and is used to do practices. This article describes this experience and shows the improvements obtained.

Educational resource based on games for the reinforcement of engineering learning programming in mobile devices

Educational resources are essential components in education and they have improved and evolved through information technologies and everyday use, such as mobile devices. So much time devoted to this device turns it into a very attractive means to suggest applications which serve as a reinforcement to the theoretical contents of the subjects. In this paper, it is shown the implementation of an educational resource based on games for the reinforcement of engineering learning programming for Android mobile devices. This resource serves as a support for programming in Java in an intuitive and easy way.

Emulation of ISDN multi-channel circuit-mode bearer services in next generation networks by TDM pseudo-wires

The specifications of the Next Generation Networks (NGN) agree on the need for migration mechanisms that enable the replacement of traditional networks, highlighting the ISDN networks. This requirement has a notable impact on NGN in terms of network design. Recent solutions proposed by ITU-T and ETSI for ISDN migration only include support for a subset of current ISDN services, not covering in detail the multi-channel circuit-mode bearer services. This paper examines the use of TDM pseudowires for NGN emulation of ISDN multi-channel calls between ISDN terminals, proposing new payload types.