Escuela de Politécnica Superior

This paper presents a methodology applied to teaching of subjects related to structural design and analysis, as well as strength of materials, during the second year of our University studies program. The aim of this methodology is to improve the students’ understanding of the structural behaviour from the very early stages of their college education process. Students take part in a workshop that fosters their involvement within all the stages of the process of the structure design, such as characterization of the material to be used, analysis of different theoretical models based on theoretical courses, structure numerical simulation using an ad-hoc mobile app, building the model, test their model in the laboratory and drawing up conclusions explaining the model collapse.

The phase transition from graphite to diamond is an appealing object of study because of many fundamental and also, practical reasons. The out-of-plane distortions required for the transition are a good tool to understand the collective behaviour of layered materials (graphene, graphite) and the van der Waals forces. As today, two basic processes have been successfully tested to drive this transition: strong shocks and high energy femtolaser excitation. They induce it by increasing either pressure or temperature on graphite. In this work, we report a third method consisting in the irradiation of graphite with ultraviolet photons of energies above 4.4 eV. We show high resolution electron microscopy images of pyrolytic carbon evidencing the dislocation of the superficial graphitic layers after irradiation and the formation of crystallite islands within them. Electron energy loss spectroscopy of the islands show that the sp2 to sp3 hybridation transition is a surface effect. High sensitivity X-ray diffraction experiments and Raman spectroscopy confirm the formation of diamond within the islands.

El patrimonio inmobiliario debe ser accesible e inclusivo. El marco normativo asegura la accesibilidad física. Sin embargo, las discapacidades cognitivas no están cubiertas y el técnico no dispone de apoyo o referencias. La Universidad San Pablo CEU forma discapacitados como Consultores en Accesibilidad Universal. Su perfil es: inteligencia límite, problemática cognitiva y, en algunos casos, discapacidades físicas asociadas. Desde la visión única de estos alumnos se provee al proyectista y al técnico de información para dotarle de herramientas y recursos en la etapa de proyecto y construcción. El reto radica en formar personas sin preparación técnica, con limitaciones cognitivas, en grupos de alumnos de muy diferentes capacidades y habilidades. La pedagogía utilizada es la de aprender haciendo. La docencia se organiza en torno a cuatro ideas: introducción a los materiales y su comportamiento, docencia en clases taller para formar en léxico técnico, debate para desarrollar conceptos o evaluar, y aplicación de lo anterior a través del reconocimiento visual y la construcción de maquetas tridimensionales. Se trabaja en clases inclusivas con estudiantes veteranos de arquitectura obteniendo un doble beneficio: el discapacitado se entrena como consultor de apoyo y el de arquitectura trabaja en equipo y normaliza su relación con la discapacidad.

This chapter shows the proposal of a team of professors from the Universidad San Pablo-CEU to facilitate the active participation of all students regardless of their type of attendance at classes (face-to-face, virtual synchronous, and virtual asynchronous). The proposal consists of an educational game of questions and answers that has been designed. The students create the game questions themselves and upload them via a web application at any time and from anywhere in the world. The games are developed in the class sessions, and the students, distributed in mixed face-to-face and virtual teams, participate together through their mobile phones. The initiative was enthusiastically embraced by the students, who showed involvement, great interest, and significantly improved their level of comprehension and academic success.