Modelo de dirección de proyectos complejos: aplicación a la gestión integrada de la Comunidad de Regantes LASESA (Huesca)

La complejidad en los proyectos y la complejidad de la dirección de proyectos son conceptos cuyo interés va en aumento. En el ámbito de los proyectos, dado que la gestión de recursos y las actividades suceden en interacción con las personas, la complejidad en dirección de proyectos resulta ser una práctica inherentemente social. Esto ha hecho que en la actualidad se haya convertido en una necesidad profundizar en el concepto. En el primer capítulo de esta investigación, se hace una revisión del estado del arte del concepto y se construye un marco teórico que permite establecer y justificar las dimensiones de la complejidad en esta disciplina. De igual manera, con una revisión similar de los estándares internacionales existentes, se descubren las herramientas y modelos para el análisis de la complejidad en dirección de proyectos, con la que se pretende, a través de la práctica profesional desde organismos y alianzas internacionales, ayudar a contrastar la utilidad e interés de los conceptos propuestos. En el segundo capítulo, se presenta un marco conceptual sobre la certificación de competencias, se analizan y comparan los principales sistemas de certificación de competencias vigentes en el ámbito de la dirección de proyectos. En el tercer capítulo, se presenta un proceso metodológico novedoso para valorar, desde la integración del conocimiento experto y experimentado, dos aspectos complementarios de la complejidad de la dirección de proyectos: (a) la valoración del nivel de complejidad del proyecto; y (b), la valoración de los efectos en el desarrollo de las competencias de comportamiento de las partes implicadas. La metodología propuesta se aplica a la Comunidad de Regantes LASESA en Huesca (España), proceso que se presenta en el cuarto capítulo. LASESA es un proyecto complejo que gestiona los recursos hídricos de 10.000 hectáreas y con más de 600 propietarios implicados. Los resultados evidencian como la gestión de un proyecto complejo genera efectos positivos en el desarrollo de las competencias de comportamiento de las personas que se implican y participan en los trabajos….. ABSTRACT The complexity of the projects and the complexity of project management are concepts whose interest is increasing. In terms of projects, since the management of resources and activities occur in interaction with people, the project management complexity makes an inherently social practice. This has now has become a necessity to deepen the concept. In the first chapter of this study, we review the state of art of the concept and builds a theoretical framework that allows to establish and justify the dimensions of the complexity in this discipline. Likewise, a similar review of existing international standards, we discover the tools and models for the analysis of complexity in project management, with which it is intended, through professional practice from agencies and international alliances, help to compare the usefulness and interest of the proposed concepts. In the second chapter, we present a conceptual framework for the certification of competences, are analyzed and compared the main skills certification systems in force in the field of project management. In the third chapter, we present a novel methodological process to assess, since the integration of expert knowledge and experienced, complementary aspects of the complexity of project management: (a) the assessment of the level of complexity of the project, and (b ), the assessment of the effects on the development of behavioral competencies of the parties involved. The proposed methodology is applied to the Community Irrigation LASESA in Huesca (Spain), a process that is presented in the fourth chapter. LASESA is a complex project that manages the water resources of 10,000 acres and more than 600 landowners involved. The results show as managing a complex project generates positive effects on the development of behavioral competencies of people who are involved and participate in the work.

Systems and technologies for objective evaluation of technical skills in laparoscopic surgery

Minimally invasive surgery is a highly demanding surgical approach regarding technical requirements for the surgeon, who must be trained in order to perform a safe surgical intervention. Traditional surgical education in minimally invasive surgery is commonly based on subjective criteria to quantify and evaluate surgical abilities, which could be potentially unsafe for the patient. Authors, surgeons and associations are increasingly demanding the development of more objective assessment tools that can accredit surgeons as technically competent. This paper describes the state of the art in objective assessment methods of surgical skills. It gives an overview on assessment systems based on structured checklists and rating scales, surgical simulators, and instrument motion analysis. As a future work, an objective and automatic assessment method of surgical skills should be standardized as a means towards proficiency-based curricula for training in laparoscopic surgery and its certification.

Enhancing skills in solving open-ended problems using game-based exercises

Some requirements for engineering programmes, such as an ability to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice, as well as an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility or an ability to communicate effectively, need new activities designed for measuring students’ progress. Negotiations take place continuously at any stage of a project and, so, the ability of engineers and managers to effectively carry out a negotiation is crucial for the success or failure of projects and businesses. Since it involves communication between individuals motivated to come together in an agreement for mutual benefit, it can be used to enhance these personal abilities. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of mixing playing sessions and theory to maximise the students’ strategic vision in combination with negotiating skills. Results show that the combination of playing with theoretical training teaches students to strategise through analysis and discussion of alternatives. The outcome is then more optimised.

The Effect That Project Management Certification Has on Employability: Agent's Perceptions from Spain

This study analyses the effects that the project management certification has on employability. This analysis started with a participative process in which various groups of experts who are involved in the certification of people were consulted. A personal interview was carried out amongst 106 professionals —certifying bodies, training institutions, the civil service, and international organisations— and amongst professional who are certified in project management by the International Project Management Association in Spain. The results show that the certification emerges as a powerful tool for improving employability. The effects are demonstrated across two complementary aspects: internal company aspects and external aspects relating to the labour market. Finally, by compiling the different agents’ opinions, a series of measures emerge for improving the accreditation processes as an employability tool and increasing the mutual learning between public and private actors.

Methods and Tools for Objective Assessment of Psychomotor Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery

Training and assessment paradigms for laparoscopic surgical skills are evolving from traditional mentor–trainee tutorship towards structured, more objective and safer programs. Accreditation of surgeons requires reaching a consensus on metrics and tasks used to assess surgeons’ psychomotor skills. Ongoing development of tracking systems and software solutions has allowed for the expansion of novel training and assessment means in laparoscopy. The current challenge is to adapt and include these systems within training programs, and to exploit their possibilities for evaluation purposes. This paper describes the state of the art in research on measuring and assessing psychomotor laparoscopic skills. It gives an overview on tracking systems as well as on metrics and advanced statistical and machine learning techniques employed for evaluation purposes. The later ones have a potential to be used as an aid in deciding on the surgical competence level, which is an important aspect when accreditation of the surgeons in particular, and patient safety in general, are considered. The prospective of these methods and tools make them complementary means for surgical assessment of motor skills, especially in the early stages of training. Successful examples such as the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery should help drive a paradigm change to structured curricula based on objective parameters. These may improve the accreditation of new surgeons, as well as optimize their already overloaded training schedules.

Negotiation Games: Acquiring Skills by Playing

This paper shows the research done at the School of Industrial Engineers (ETSII) of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), in two consecutive academic courses. In this negotiation game each team is formed by three students playing different roles, with a different degree of complexity. The game is played three different times changing the conditions and doing the Zones of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) smaller so the negotiation is going “harder” and it was more difficult for the team to achieve an agreement. Roles were distributed according to the student’s experience, since it was understood that difficulty of the roles was different, especially when there was set a time limit for negotiation. The combination of playing and training has shown that students without particularly good negotiating skills at the beginning of the experiment attained better final results than those who have natural negotiating skills, but no benefit of training.

Application of virtual certification techniques to vehicle design and track maintenance

Virtual certification partially substitutes by computer simulations the experimental techniques required for rail vehicle certification. In this paper, several works were these techniques were used in the vehicle design and track maintenance processes are presented. Dynamic simulation of multibody systems was used to virtually apply the EN14363 standard to certify the dynamic behaviour of vehicles. The works described are: assessment of a freight bogie design adapted to meter-gauge, assessment of a railway track layout for a subway network, freight bogie design with higher speed and axle load, and processing of the data acquired by a track recording vehicle for track maintenance.

Experiments in abstract interpretation-based code certification for pervasive systems

Proof carrying code (PCC) is a general is originally a roof in ñrst-order logic of certain vermethodology for certifying that the execution of an un- ification onditions and the checking process involves trusted mobile code is safe. The baste idea is that the ensuring that the certifícate is indeed a valid ñrst-order code supplier attaches a certifícate to the mobile code proof. which the consumer checks in order to ensure that the The main practical difñculty of PCC techniques is in code is indeed safe. The potential benefit is that the generating safety certiñeates which at the same time: i) consumer's task is reduced from the level of proving to allow expressing interesting safety properties, ii) can be the level of checking. Recently, the abstract interpre- generated automatically and, iii) are easy and efficient tation techniques developed, in logic programming have to check. In [1], the abstract interpretation techniques been proposed as a basis for PCC. This extended ab- [5] developed in logic programming1 are proposed as stract reports on experiments which illustrate several is- a basis for PCC. They offer a number of advantages sues involved in abstract interpretation-based certifica- for dealing with the aforementioned issues. In particution. First, we describe the implementation of our sys- lar, the xpressiveness of existing abstract domains will tem in the context of CiaoPP: the preprocessor of the be implicitly available in abstract interpretation-based Ciao multi-paradigm programming system. Then, by code certification to deñne a wide range of safety propermeans of some experiments, we show how code certifi- ties. Furthermore, the approach inherits the automation catión is aided in the implementation of the framework. and inference power of the abstract interpretation en- Finally, we discuss the application of our method within gines used in (Constraint) Logic Programming, (C)LP. the área, of pervasive systems

Abstract interpretation-based mobile code certification

Current approaches to mobile code safety – inspired by the technique of Proof-Carrying Code (PCC) [4] – associate safety information (in the form of a certificate) to programs. The certificate (or proof) is created by the code supplier at compile time, and packaged along with the untrusted code. The consumer who receives the code+certificate package can then run a checker which, by a straightforward inspection of the code and the certificate, is able to verify the validity of the certificate and thus compliance with the safety policy. The main practical difficulty of PCC techniques is in generating safety certificates which at the same time: i) allow expressing interesting safety properties, ii) can be generated automatically and, iii) are easy and efficient to check.

Abstract Interpretation-based verification/certification in the ciaoPP system

CiaoPP is the abstract interpretation-based preprocessor of the Ciao multi-paradigm (Constraint) Logic Programming system. It uses modular, incremental abstract interpretation as a fundamental tool to obtain information about programs. In CiaoPP, the semantic approximations thus produced have been applied to perform high- and low-level optimizations during program compilation, including transformations such as múltiple abstract specialization, parallelization, partial evaluation, resource usage control, and program verification. More recently, novel and promising applications of such semantic approximations are being applied in the more general context of program development such as program verification. In this work, we describe our extensión of the system to incorpórate Abstraction-Carrying Code (ACC), a novel approach to mobile code safety. ACC follows the standard strategy of associating safety certificates to programs, originally proposed in Proof Carrying- Code. A distinguishing feature of ACC is that we use an abstraction (or abstract model) of the program computed by standard static analyzers as a certifícate. The validity of the abstraction on the consumer side is checked in a single-pass by a very efficient and specialized abstractinterpreter. We have implemented and benchmarked ACC within CiaoPP. The experimental results show that the checking phase is indeed faster than the proof generation phase, and that the sizes of certificates are reasonable. Moreover, the preprocessor is based on compile-time (and run-time) tools for the certification of CLP programs with resource consumption assurances.

Abstract interpretation-based code certification for pervasive systems: Preliminary experiments

Proof carrying code is a general methodology for certifying that the execution of an untrusted mobile code is safe, according to a predefined safety policy. The basic idea is that the code supplier attaches a certifícate (or proof) to the mobile code which, then, the consumer checks in order to ensure that the code is indeed safe. The potential benefit is that the consumer's task is reduced from the level of proving to the level of checking, a much simpler task. Recently, the abstract interpretation techniques developed in logic programming have been proposed as a basis for proof carrying code [1]. To this end, the certifícate is generated from an abstract interpretation-based proof of safety. Intuitively, the verification condition is extracted from a set of assertions guaranteeing safety and the answer table generated during the analysis. Given this information, it is relatively simple and fast to verify that the code does meet this proof and so its execution is safe. This extended abstract reports on experiments which illustrate several issues involved in abstract interpretation-based code certification. First, we describe the implementation of our system in the context of CiaoPP: the preprocessor of the Ciao multi-paradigm (constraint) logic programming system. Then, by means of some experiments, we show how code certification is aided in the implementation of the framework. Finally, we discuss the application of our method within the área of pervasive systems which may lack the necessary computing resources to verify safety on their own. We herein illustrate the relevance of the information inferred by existing cost analysis to control resource usage in this context. Moreover, since the (rather complex) analysis phase is replaced by a simpler, efficient checking process at the code consumer side, we believe that our abstract interpretation-based approach to proof-carrying code becomes practically applicable to this kind of systems.

Conceptual framework for the design, implementation and validation of psychomotor skills’ assessment systems in minimally invasive surgery

Las técnicas de cirugía de mínima invasión (CMI) se están consolidando hoy en día como alternativa a la cirugía tradicional, debido a sus numerosos beneficios para los pacientes. Este cambio de paradigma implica que los cirujanos deben aprender una serie de habilidades distintas de aquellas requeridas en cirugía abierta. El entrenamiento y evaluación de estas habilidades se ha convertido en una de las mayores preocupaciones en los programas de formación de cirujanos, debido en gran parte a la presión de una sociedad que exige cirujanos bien preparados y una reducción en el número de errores médicos. Por tanto, se está prestando especial atención a la definición de nuevos programas que permitan el entrenamiento y la evaluación de las habilidades psicomotoras en entornos seguros antes de que los nuevos cirujanos puedan operar sobre pacientes reales. Para tal fin, hospitales y centros de formación están gradualmente incorporando instalaciones de entrenamiento donde los residentes puedan practicar y aprender sin riesgos. Es cada vez más común que estos laboratorios dispongan de simuladores virtuales o simuladores físicos capaces de registrar los movimientos del instrumental de cada residente. Estos simuladores ofrecen una gran variedad de tareas de entrenamiento y evaluación, así como la posibilidad de obtener información objetiva de los ejercicios. Los diferentes estudios de validación llevados a cabo dan muestra de su utilidad; pese a todo, los niveles de evidencia presentados son en muchas ocasiones insuficientes. Lo que es más importante, no existe un consenso claro a la hora de definir qué métricas son más útiles para caracterizar la pericia quirúrgica. El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es diseñar y validar un marco de trabajo conceptual para la definición y validación de entornos para la evaluación de habilidades en CMI, en base a un modelo en tres fases: pedagógica (tareas y métricas a emplear), tecnológica (tecnologías de adquisición de métricas) y analítica (interpretación de la competencia en base a las métricas). Para tal fin, se describe la implementación práctica de un entorno basado en (1) un sistema de seguimiento de instrumental fundamentado en el análisis del vídeo laparoscópico; y (2) la determinación de la pericia en base a métricas de movimiento del instrumental. Para la fase pedagógica se diseñó e implementó un conjunto de tareas para la evaluación de habilidades psicomotoras básicas, así como una serie de métricas de movimiento. La validación de construcción llevada a cabo sobre ellas mostró buenos resultados para tiempo, camino recorrido, profundidad, velocidad media, aceleración media, economía de área y economía de volumen. Adicionalmente, los resultados obtenidos en la validación de apariencia fueron en general positivos en todos los grupos considerados (noveles, residentes, expertos). Para la fase tecnológica, se introdujo el EVA Tracking System, una solución para el seguimiento del instrumental quirúrgico basado en el análisis del vídeo endoscópico. La precisión del sistema se evaluó a 16,33ppRMS para el seguimiento 2D de la herramienta en la imagen; y a 13mmRMS para el seguimiento espacial de la misma. La validación de construcción con una de las tareas de evaluación mostró buenos resultados para tiempo, camino recorrido, profundidad, velocidad media, aceleración media, economía de área y economía de volumen. La validación concurrente con el TrEndo® Tracking System por su parte presentó valores altos de correlación para 8 de las 9 métricas analizadas. Finalmente, para la fase analítica se comparó el comportamiento de tres clasificadores supervisados a la hora de determinar automáticamente la pericia quirúrgica en base a la información de movimiento del instrumental, basados en aproximaciones lineales (análisis lineal discriminante, LDA), no lineales (máquinas de soporte vectorial, SVM) y difusas (sistemas adaptativos de inferencia neurodifusa, ANFIS). Los resultados muestran que en media SVM presenta un comportamiento ligeramente superior: 78,2% frente a los 71% y 71,7% obtenidos por ANFIS y LDA respectivamente. Sin embargo las diferencias estadísticas medidas entre los tres no fueron demostradas significativas. En general, esta tesis doctoral corrobora las hipótesis de investigación postuladas relativas a la definición de sistemas de evaluación de habilidades para cirugía de mínima invasión, a la utilidad del análisis de vídeo como fuente de información y a la importancia de la información de movimiento de instrumental a la hora de caracterizar la pericia quirúrgica. Basándose en estos cimientos, se han de abrir nuevos campos de investigación que contribuyan a la definición de programas de formación estructurados y objetivos, que puedan garantizar la acreditación de cirujanos sobradamente preparados y promocionen la seguridad del paciente en el quirófano. Abstract Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques have become a standard in many surgical sub-specialties, due to their many benefits for patients. However, this shift in paradigm implies that surgeons must acquire a complete different set of skills than those normally attributed to open surgery. Training and assessment of these skills has become a major concern in surgical learning programmes, especially considering the social demand for better-prepared professionals and for the decrease of medical errors. Therefore, much effort is being put in the definition of structured MIS learning programmes, where practice with real patients in the operating room (OR) can be delayed until the resident can attest for a minimum level of psychomotor competence. To this end, skills’ laboratory settings are being introduced in hospitals and training centres where residents may practice and be assessed on their psychomotor skills. Technological advances in the field of tracking technologies and virtual reality (VR) have enabled the creation of new learning systems such as VR simulators or enhanced box trainers. These systems offer a wide range of tasks, as well as the capability of registering objective data on the trainees’ performance. Validation studies give proof of their usefulness; however, levels of evidence reported are in many cases low. More importantly, there is still no clear consensus on topics such as the optimal metrics that must be used to assess competence, the validity of VR simulation, the portability of tracking technologies into real surgeries (for advanced assessment) or the degree to which the skills measured and obtained in laboratory environments transfer to the OR. The purpose of this PhD is to design and validate a conceptual framework for the definition and validation of MIS assessment environments based on a three-pillared model defining three main stages: pedagogical (tasks and metrics to employ), technological (metric acquisition technologies) and analytical (interpretation of competence based on metrics). To this end, a practical implementation of the framework is presented, focused on (1) a video-based tracking system and (2) the determination of surgical competence based on the laparoscopic instruments’ motionrelated data. The pedagogical stage’s results led to the design and implementation of a set of basic tasks for MIS psychomotor skills’ assessment, as well as the definition of motion analysis parameters (MAPs) to measure performance on said tasks. Validation yielded good construct results for parameters such as time, path length, depth, average speed, average acceleration, economy of area and economy of volume. Additionally, face validation results showed positive acceptance on behalf of the experts, residents and novices. For the technological stage the EVA Tracking System is introduced. EVA provides a solution for tracking laparoscopic instruments from the analysis of the monoscopic video image. Accuracy tests for the system are presented, which yielded an average RMSE of 16.33pp for 2D tracking of the instrument on the image and of 13mm for 3D spatial tracking. A validation experiment was conducted using one of the tasks and the most relevant MAPs. Construct validation showed significant differences for time, path length, depth, average speed, average acceleration, economy of area and economy of volume; especially between novices and residents/experts. More importantly, concurrent validation with the TrEndo® Tracking System presented high correlation values (>0.7) for 8 of the 9 MAPs proposed. Finally, the analytical stage allowed comparing the performance of three different supervised classification strategies in the determination of surgical competence based on motion-related information. The three classifiers were based on linear (linear discriminant analysis, LDA), non-linear (support vector machines, SVM) and fuzzy (adaptive neuro fuzzy inference systems, ANFIS) approaches. Results for SVM show slightly better performance than the other two classifiers: on average, accuracy for LDA, SVM and ANFIS was of 71.7%, 78.2% and 71% respectively. However, when confronted, no statistical significance was found between any of the three. Overall, this PhD corroborates the investigated research hypotheses regarding the definition of MIS assessment systems, the use of endoscopic video analysis as the main source of information and the relevance of motion analysis in the determination of surgical competence. New research fields in the training and assessment of MIS surgeons can be proposed based on these foundations, in order to contribute to the definition of structured and objective learning programmes that guarantee the accreditation of well-prepared professionals and the promotion of patient safety in the OR.

Advanced Topics in Resource Analysis: Certification, Incrementality, Concurrency and Array-Sensitivity

El Análisis de Consumo de Recursos o Análisis de Coste trata de aproximar el coste de ejecutar un programa como una función dependiente de sus datos de entrada. A pesar de que existen trabajos previos a esta tesis doctoral que desarrollan potentes marcos para el análisis de coste de programas orientados a objetos, algunos aspectos avanzados, como la eficiencia, la precisión y la fiabilidad de los resultados, todavía deben ser estudiados en profundidad. Esta tesis aborda estos aspectos desde cuatro perspectivas diferentes: (1) Las estructuras de datos compartidas en la memoria del programa son una pesadilla para el análisis estático de programas. Trabajos recientes proponen una serie de condiciones de localidad para poder mantener de forma consistente información sobre los atributos de los objetos almacenados en memoria compartida, reemplazando éstos por variables locales no almacenadas en la memoria compartida. En esta tesis presentamos dos extensiones a estos trabajos: la primera es considerar, no sólo los accesos a los atributos, sino también los accesos a los elementos almacenados en arrays; la segunda se centra en los casos en los que las condiciones de localidad no se cumplen de forma incondicional, para lo cual, proponemos una técnica para encontrar las precondiciones necesarias para garantizar la consistencia de la información acerca de los datos almacenados en memoria. (2) El objetivo del análisis incremental es, dado un programa, los resultados de su análisis y una serie de cambios sobre el programa, obtener los nuevos resultados del análisis de la forma más eficiente posible, evitando reanalizar aquellos fragmentos de código que no se hayan visto afectados por los cambios. Los analizadores actuales todavía leen y analizan el programa completo de forma no incremental. Esta tesis presenta un análisis de coste incremental, que, dado un cambio en el programa, reconstruye la información sobre el coste del programa de todos los métodos afectados por el cambio de forma incremental. Para esto, proponemos (i) un algoritmo multi-dominio y de punto fijo que puede ser utilizado en todos los análisis globales necesarios para inferir el coste, y (ii) una novedosa forma de almacenar las expresiones de coste que nos permite reconstruir de forma incremental únicamente las funciones de coste de aquellos componentes afectados por el cambio. (3) Las garantías de coste obtenidas de forma automática por herramientas de análisis estático no son consideradas totalmente fiables salvo que la implementación de la herramienta o los resultados obtenidos sean verificados formalmente. Llevar a cabo el análisis de estas herramientas es una tarea titánica, ya que se trata de herramientas de gran tamaño y complejidad. En esta tesis nos centramos en el desarrollo de un marco formal para la verificación de las garantías de coste obtenidas por los analizadores en lugar de analizar las herramientas. Hemos implementado esta idea mediante la herramienta COSTA, un analizador de coste para programas Java y KeY, una herramienta de verificación de programas Java. De esta forma, COSTA genera las garantías de coste, mientras que KeY prueba la validez formal de los resultados obtenidos, generando de esta forma garantías de coste verificadas. (4) Hoy en día la concurrencia y los programas distribuidos son clave en el desarrollo de software. Los objetos concurrentes son un modelo de concurrencia asentado para el desarrollo de sistemas concurrentes. En este modelo, los objetos son las unidades de concurrencia y se comunican entre ellos mediante llamadas asíncronas a sus métodos. La distribución de las tareas sugiere que el análisis de coste debe inferir el coste de los diferentes componentes distribuidos por separado. En esta tesis proponemos un análisis de coste sensible a objetos que, utilizando los resultados obtenidos mediante un análisis de apunta-a, mantiene el coste de los diferentes componentes de forma independiente. Abstract Resource Analysis (a.k.a. Cost Analysis) tries to approximate the cost of executing programs as functions on their input data sizes and without actually having to execute the programs. While a powerful resource analysis framework on object-oriented programs existed before this thesis, advanced aspects to improve the efficiency, the accuracy and the reliability of the results of the analysis still need to be further investigated. This thesis tackles this need from the following four different perspectives. (1) Shared mutable data structures are the bane of formal reasoning and static analysis. Analyses which keep track of heap-allocated data are referred to as heap-sensitive. Recent work proposes locality conditions for soundly tracking field accesses by means of ghost non-heap allocated variables. In this thesis we present two extensions to this approach: the first extension is to consider arrays accesses (in addition to object fields), while the second extension focuses on handling cases for which the locality conditions cannot be proven unconditionally by finding aliasing preconditions under which tracking such heap locations is feasible. (2) The aim of incremental analysis is, given a program, its analysis results and a series of changes to the program, to obtain the new analysis results as efficiently as possible and, ideally, without having to (re-)analyze fragments of code that are not affected by the changes. During software development, programs are permanently modified but most analyzers still read and analyze the entire program at once in a non-incremental way. This thesis presents an incremental resource usage analysis which, after a change in the program is made, is able to reconstruct the upper-bounds of all affected methods in an incremental way. To this purpose, we propose (i) a multi-domain incremental fixed-point algorithm which can be used by all global analyses required to infer the cost, and (ii) a novel form of cost summaries that allows us to incrementally reconstruct only those components of cost functions affected by the change. (3) Resource guarantees that are automatically inferred by static analysis tools are generally not considered completely trustworthy, unless the tool implementation or the results are formally verified. Performing full-blown verification of such tools is a daunting task, since they are large and complex. In this thesis we focus on the development of a formal framework for the verification of the resource guarantees obtained by the analyzers, instead of verifying the tools. We have implemented this idea using COSTA, a state-of-the-art cost analyzer for Java programs and KeY, a state-of-the-art verification tool for Java source code. COSTA is able to derive upper-bounds of Java programs while KeY proves the validity of these bounds and provides a certificate. The main contribution of our work is to show that the proposed tools cooperation can be used for automatically producing verified resource guarantees. (4) Distribution and concurrency are today mainstream. Concurrent objects form a well established model for distributed concurrent systems. In this model, objects are the concurrency units that communicate via asynchronous method calls. Distribution suggests that analysis must infer the cost of the diverse distributed components separately. In this thesis we propose a novel object-sensitive cost analysis which, by using the results gathered by a points-to analysis, can keep the cost of the diverse distributed components separate.

EVA: Laparoscopic instrument tracking based on endoscopic video analysis for psychomotor skills assessment

INTRODUCTION: The EVA (Endoscopic Video Analysis) tracking system a new tracking system for extracting motions of laparoscopic instruments based on non-obtrusive video tracking was developed. The feasibility of using EVA in laparoscopic settings has been tested in a box trainer setup. METHODS: EVA makes use of an algorithm that employs information of the laparoscopic instrument's shaft edges in the image, the instrument's insertion point, and the camera's optical centre to track the 3D position of the instrument tip. A validation study of EVA comprised a comparison of the measurements achieved with EVA and the TrEndo tracking system. To this end, 42 participants (16 novices, 22 residents, and 4 experts) were asked to perform a peg transfer task in a box trainer. Ten motion-based metrics were used to assess their performance. RESULTS: Construct validation of the EVA has been obtained for seven motion-based metrics. Concurrent validation revealed that there is a strong correlation between the results obtained by EVA and the TrEndo for metrics such as path length (p=0,97), average speed (p=0,94) or economy of volume (p=0,85), proving the viability of EVA. CONCLUSIONS: EVA has been successfully used in the training setup showing potential of endoscopic video analysis to assess laparoscopic psychomotor skills. The results encourage further implementation of video tracking in training setups and in image guided surgery.

Strengthening communication skills in an innovative context of engineering project management learning

This document presents an innovative, formal educational initiative that is aimed at enhancing the development of engineering students’ specific competences when studying Project Management (PM) subject. The framework of the experience combines (1) theoretical concepts, (2) the development of a real-case project carried out by multidisciplinary groups of three different universities, (3) the use of software web 2.0 tools and (4) group and individual assignments of students that play different roles (project managers and team members). Under this scenario, the study focuses on monitoring the communication competence in the ever growing PM virtual environment. Factors such as corporal language, technical means, stage, and PM specific vocabulary among others have been considered in order to assess the students’ performance on this issue. As a main contribution, the paper introduces an ad-hoc rubric that, based on previous investigations, has been adapted and tested for the first time to this new and specific context. Additionally, the research conducted has provided some interesting findings that suggest further actions to improve and better define future rubrics, oriented to communication or even other competences. As specific PM subject concerns, it has been detected that students playing the role of Project Managers strengthen their competences more than those ones that play the role of Team Members. It has also been detected that students have more difficulty assimilating concepts related to risk and quality management. However those concepts related with scope, time or cost areas of knowledge have been better assimilated by the students.