Marta Peña

• Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Universities play a crucial role in advancing gender equality by implementing gender equality plans (GEPs). A key element of these plans is gender‐in‐teaching training for educators, which equips them to integrate gender dimensions into their subjects. This initiative benefits students by challenging entrenched gender norms and stereotypes and fost...

Two primary factors contributing to disparities in engineering degrees are the low female enrolment and their high dropout rates. Understanding the reasons behind female students’ choices related to engineering and the factors leading to their departure remains critical. This study presents empirical findings on the contrasting factors influencing...

This research aims to increase our understanding about active learning effects, applying PBL methodologies, students’ to increase the motivation in various class groups of a Graphic Engineering subject. The measurement instruments were a cross-sectional survey carried out (n = 269) during the years 2015 to 2019 through triangulation of data analysi...

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education has the potential to revolutionize how students engage in academic activities and tasks. This research empirically analyses the influence of AI on creative ideation within educational settings to validate AI's role in enhancing human creativity since creative tasks, which inherently rel...

Forest fires pose a significant threat to ecosystems, property, and human life, making their early and accurate detection crucial for effective intervention. This study presents a novel, lightweight approach to real-time forest fire detection that is optimized for resource-constrained devices like drones. The method integrates multi-task knowledge...

Early prediction of student performance in online programming courses is essential for implementing timely interventions to enhance academic outcomes. This study aimed to predict academic success by comparing four machine learning models: Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Neural Network (Multilayer Perceptron, ML...

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly in Generative Pre-trained Transformers, have the potential to reshape educational methodologies by offering students quick assistance and new learning tools. However, concerns persist regarding the impact of AI on student creativity and critical thinking. This study evaluates the influenc...

Purpose: This paper aims at introducing the importance and the relevant concepts and tools for including gender dimension in teaching, with a special focus in the Operations Management knowledge field.Design/methodology/approach: The methodology is based on a literature review and on the knowledge and experience of the authors in teaching in the fi...

The application of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in a Reinforced Concrete course through the development of a real-life civil engineering project from its conception, as a coursework, is a challenged experience for students. As long as the coursework evolves, students develop real ways to think as an engineer and they work in an environment similar...

The under-representation of women in male-dominated STEM fields is a worldwide concern. However, there are other academic fields, like some non-STEM degrees, where female students are over-represented. Previous research has identified five critical factors influencing student participation rates: career choice, satisfaction, self-esteem, discrimina...

This study introduces a novel hierarchical domain-adaptive learning framework designed to enhance wildfire detection capabilities, addressing the limitations inherent in traditional convolutional neural networks across varied forest environments. The framework innovatively employs a dual-dataset approach, integrating both non-forest and forest-spec...

This study explores the potential of RGB image data for forest fire detection using deep learning models, evaluating their advantages and limitations, and discussing potential integration within a multi-modal data context. The research introduces a uniquely comprehensive wildfire dataset, capturing a broad array of environmental conditions, forest...

This work explores how gender mainstreaming can be included in the teaching and research of engineering, a framed discipline belonging to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (known with the acronym STEM), an area of knowledge known for having (especially in the Western countries) a low proportion of female students. There is little res...

The underrepresentation of foreign-born students in engineering degrees is persistent and fosters social disparities in job opportunities and income for future generations. On the one hand, this underrepresentation is related to the fact that foreign-born students choose engineering studies less frequently than native-born students. On the other ha...

In recent years, Jupyter Notebooks have become a very useful free and open‐source tool in teaching, as they allow you to combine text, images, mathematical expressions, links and code into a single document. This gives students an interactive document with which they can experiment and learn with the help of high‐level mathematical calculus. In Flu...

Contribution: The present research provides new evidence on the predictors of foreign-born (FB) students’ dropout and the situations of discrimination that emerge on engineering campuses. Background: Ethnic minority students remain underrepresented in engineering degrees and have higher dropout rates than their White peers. Previous literature po...

The alteration of the educational model caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has not affected all university faculty equally. This work explores the academic, digital and gender inequalities caused by the pandemic on the teaching and research staff of a technological university for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines in S...

This paper presents a simplified model of the population migration problem, addressed to first-year engineering students in order to show them the use of linear algebra tools. The study consists of predicting the census in the city centre and in the suburbs, determining the city population equilibrium point, and making a sociological interpretation...

The current situation derived from the COVID-19 crisis is generating unprecedented challenges throughout the educational community, although higher education institutions have demonstrated their ability to adapt very quickly and with great flexibility to the crisis. Since the beginning of the pandemic, students are experiencing new learning environ...

The teaching of mathematics has always concerned all the professionals involved in engineering degrees. Curently students have less interest in these studies, what has caused an increase of this concern. The lack of awareness of students about the significance of mathematics in their careers, provoke the decrease of undergraduate students’ motivati...

This study assesses the implementation of different gamification tools and learning complexity in the of the subject Shipbuilding Principles of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC). This experience has been carried out under a triple new scenario: the virtuality due to the Covid‐19 pandemic, added to the gamified training,...

There has always been a great concern about the teaching of mathematics in engineering degrees. This concern has increased because students have less interest in these studies, which is mainly due to the low motivation of the students towards mathematics, and which is derived in most cases from the lack of awareness of undergraduate students about...

The unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the closure of universities worldwide and has forced the transition to online learning. This exceptional context compels us to understand students' experience with online learning. Previous literature identifies relevant factors that intervene in the online education experience and can...

The need to incorporate the gender dimension in higher education is a central element of gender equality policies within the European Union (EU). When most institutions of higher education have already strengthened and consolidated their curricula, the next challenge is to include and ensure that all people have the same opportunities to progress i...

Learning through digital media is currently considered as a mixture of methodologies that aim to approach the reality of students to motivate them. Gamification emerges as one of the pedagogical methodologies on the rise in digital classrooms, but is it really practical? What are its effects? A gamification longitudinal case-study experience was ca...

This Research Work in Progress paper examines the perception of discrimination that foreign-born students feel in engineering degrees. To this end, a survey was distributed to 928 engineering students, of which 298 responded. The first results suggest that foreign-born students feel more discriminated against than native-born students and that this...

Encouraging the use of active‐learning methodologies, both inside and outside the classroom by means of planned activities, is a key factor in effective learning, as well as being essential for students to achieve the goals set for each subject by making them responsible for their own learning. In this longitudinal and quantitative study, we descri...

This paper outlines a practical intervention aiming to collect the effects of introducing flexible learning in engineering higher education. The work discusses the implementation of the flipped classroom method and the threshold concepts in the Turbomachinery section of Fluid Engineering course in the third year of Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor'...

We tackle the obtaining of canonical forms for classifying linear control systems with regard to changes in the state variables. Although it was solved in the 1980s for controllable systems, it is still an open problem for the general case of multiparametric non-necessarily controllable systems. Here we obtain a general reduced form which is canoni...

Description of the pilot project on Gender in Teaching at the UPC. https://igualtat.upc.edu/ca/projectes-clau/convocatoria-genere-docencia

The classification of invariant subspaces is an open problem related to other important ones like the Carlson problem. Here we obtain a reduced form of these invariant subspaces as a new tool to tackle these problems. In particular, it allows us to prove quite easily partial results already known. The key point is assigning to each invariant subspa...

We continue the study of the structural stability and the bifurcations of planar continuous bimodal linear dynamical systems (that is, systems consisting of two linear dynamics acting on each side of a straight line, assuming continuity along the separating line). Here, we complete the study when one of the subsystems is a saddle, leading to a 3D b...

We complete the study of the bifurcations of saddle/spiral bimodal linear systems, depending on the respective traces T and τ: one 2-codimensional bifurcation; four kinds of 1-codimensional bifurcations. We stratify the bifurcation set in the (T,τ)-plane and we describe the qualitative changes of the dynamical behavior at each bifurcation point.

Structural stability ensures that the qualitative behavior of a system is preserved under small perturbations. We study it for planar bimodal linear dynamical systems, that is, systems consisting of two linear dynamics acting on each side of a given hyperplane and assuming continuity along the separating hyperplane. We describe which one of these s...

We consider bimodal linear control systems consisting of two subsystems acting on each side of a given hyperplane, assuming continuity along it. For a differentiable family of planar bimodal linear control systems, we obtain its stratification diagram and, if controllability holds for each value of the parameters, we construct a differentiable fami...

Given the set of vertical pairs of matrices M subset of M-m,M-n (C) x M-n (C) keeping the subspace C-d x {0} subset of C-n invariant, we compute miniversal deformations of a given pair when it is observable, and the subspace C-d x {0} is marked. Moreover, we obtain the dimension of the orbit, characterize the structurally stable vertical pairs, and...

We consider bimodal linear control systems consisting of two subsystems acting on each side of a given hyperplane, assuming continuity along the separating hyperplane. For a differentiable family of controllable planar ones, we construct a differentiable family of feedbacks which point wise stabilizes both subsystems.

Structural stability ensures that the qualitative behavior of a system is preserved under small perturbations. We study it for planar bimodal linear dynamical systems, that is, systems consisting of two linear dynamics acting on each side of a given hyperplane and assuming continuity along the separating hyperplane. We describe which one of these s...

We consider bimodal linear systems consisting of two linear dynamics acting on each side of a given hyperplane, assuming continuity along the separating hyperplane. We prove that the study of controllability can be reduced to the unobservable case, and for these ones we obtain a simple explicit characterization of controllability for dimension $2$...

Given the set of matrix pairs M ⊂ Mm,n(C) × Mn(C) keeping a subspace S ⊂ Cn invariant, we obtain a miniversal deformation of a pair belonging to an open dense subset of M. It generalizes the known results when S is a supplementary subspace of the unobservable one. Postprint (published version)

We consider the set of bimodal linear systems consisting of two linear dynamics acting on each side of a given hyperplane, assuming continuity along the separating hyperplane. Focusing on the unobservable planar ones, we obtain a simple explicit characterization of controllability. Moreover, we apply the canonical forms of these systems depending o...

Given a pair of matrices representing a controllable linear system, we study its equivalence classes by the single or combined action of feedbacks and change of state and input variables, as well as their intersections. In particular, we prove that they are differentiable manifolds and we compute their dimensions. Some remarks concerning the effect...

It is well known that, when a full rank observable pair (C,A) is slightly perturbed, the new observability indices k′ are majorized by the initial ones k, k≻k′. Conversely, any indices k′ majorized by k can be obtained by perturbing (C,A). The aim of this paper is the explicit construction of perturbations of (C,A) which have the desired indices k′...

Given an (A,B)-invariant subspace, we prove that the set of friend feedbacks is a linear variety, which can be considered as the direct sum of the feedbacks of the restriction to and the co-restriction to ⊥. In particular, when the natural controllability hypothesis hold, both pole assignments are simultaneously possible by means of a convenient fr...

The Bologna process is a good opportunity to bring together first-year mathematics courses of engineering degrees and technology courses offered in subsequent years. In fact, the Faculty Council has decided that 20% of the credits from basic courses must be related to technological applications. To this end, during the past academic year a mathemat...

Piecewise linear systems constitute a class of nonlinear systems which have recently attracted the interest of researchers because of their interesting properties and the wide range of applications from which they arise. Different authors have used reduced forms when studying these systems, mostly in the case where they are observable. In this work...

Given a family of linear systems depending on a parameter varying in a differentiable manifold, we obtain sufficient conditions for the existence of a (global or local) differentiable family of controllers solving the output regulation problem for the given family. Moreover, we construct it when these conditions hold.

Given a general local differentiable family of pairs of matrices, we obtain a local differentiable family of feedbacks solving the pole assignment problem, that is to say, shifting the spectrum into a prefixed one. We point out that no additional hypothesis is needed. In fact, simple approaches work in particular cases (controllable pairs, constanc...

Keywords: Bimodal piecewise linear system, miniversal deformations, reduced forms. Bimodal linear systems are those consisting of two linear systems on each side of a given hyperplane, having continuous dynamics along that hyperplane. In this work, we focus on the derivation of (orthogonal) miniversal deformations, by using reduced forms. Postprint...

We consider the set of bimodal linear systems consisting of two linear dynamics acting on each side of a given hyperplane, assuming continuity along the separating hyperplane. Focusing on the unobservable planar ones, we obtain a simple explicit characterization of controllability. Moreover, we apply the canonical forms of these systems depending o...

Given a family of linear systems depending on a parameter varying in a differentiable manifold, we obtain sufficient conditions for the existence of a (global or local) differentiable family of controllers solving the output regulation problem for the given family. Moreover, we construct it when these conditions hold.

Given a pair of matrices (A, B) we study the Lipschitz stability of its controlled invariant subspaces. A sufficient condition is derived from the geometry of the set formed by the quadruples (A, B, F, S) where S is an (A, B)-invariant subspace and F a corresponding feedback.

In order to study stress–strain tensors, we consider their representations as pairs of symmetric 3 × 3-matrices and the space of such pairs of matrices partitioned into equivalence classes corresponding to change of bases. We see that these equivalence classes are differentiable submanifolds; in fact, orbits under the action of a Lie group. We comp...

Specific algorithms, such as those involving the supremal of the invariant subspaces contained in a suitable subspace, are known to be able to test whether a Disturbance Decoupling Problem (DDP) is solvable. Here, by reducing the system to its Molinari form, we obtain an alternative description of this supremal object and compute its dimension. Hen...

In order to study the perturbations of stress-strain tensors by means of versal deformations techniques, we consider their representations as pairs of symmetric matrices, partitioned in equivalent classes corresponding to change of bases. Both when only orthonormal bases are considered or for general ones, these equivalence classes are differentiab...

Given a pair of matrices (A,B) we study the stability of their invariant subspaces by means of the geometry of the manifold of quadruples (A,B,S,F) where S is an (A,B)-invariant subspace and F is such that (A+BF)S⊂S. In particular, we derive a sufficient computable condition of stability in terms of the maximal rank of a projection map defined on t...

Consideramos en el espacio de parejas de tensores tension y deformacion la relacion de equivalencia que se corresponde con cambios de base ortonormales. Identificandolas con parejas de matrices cuadradas, podemos utilizar la tecnica de las deformaciones miniversales para averiguar, dada una pareja de tensores cualquiera, cuales son las parejas de t...

Given an observable pair of matrices (C, A) we consider the manifold of (C, A)-invariant subspaces having a fixed Brunovsky–Kronecker structure. Using Arnold techniques we obtain the explicit form of a miniversal deformation of a marked (C, A)-invariant subspace with respect to the usual equivalence relation. As an application, we obtain the dimens...

We study the set M of pairs (f, V), defined by an endomorphism f of Fn and a d-dimensional f-invariant subspace V. It is shown that this set is a smooth manifold that defines a vector bundle on the Grassmann manifold. We apply this study to derive conditions for the Lipschitz stability of invariant subspaces and determine versal deformations of the...

Given an observable pair of matrices (C;A) we consider the manifold of (C;A)-invariant and observable subspaces having a fixed Brunovsky- Kronecker structure. Using Arnold’s techniques we obtain the explicit form of a miniversal deformation of a marked and observable (C;A)- invariant subspace with regard to the usual equivalence relation. As an app...

Given a nilpotent endomorphism, we consider the manifold of invariant subspaces having a fixed Segre characteristic. In [Linear Algebra Appl., 332–334 (2001) 569], the implicit form of a miniversal deformation of an invariant subspace with respect to the usual equivalence relation between subspaces is obtained. Here we obtain the explicit form of t...

Consideramos la subvariedad diferenciable M de Mn(C)xGrd(Cn), donde Grd(Cn) es el conjunto de subespacios de dimension d, dado por los pares (f;W) donde f es un endomorfismo de Mn(C) y W es un subespacio invariante de dimension d con respecto a f. Recordamos las definiciones de subespacios estable y espectral y obtenemos una caracterizacion de los...

We consider the manifold M of pairs (f;W) where f is an endo- morphism of Fn and W is a d-dimensional invariant subspace with regard to f. By means of this dierentiable structure and using Arnold tech- niques, we describe a miniversal deformation of a pair (f;W) 2 M with regard to the usual equivalence relation. In addition, we obtain the explicit...

Given a pair of matrices (A;B) we study the stability of their invariant subspaces from the geometry of the manifold of quadruples (A;B; S; F) where S is an (A;B)-invariant subspace and F is such that (A + BF)S ½ S. In particular, we derive a su±cient computable condition of stability.