Problemas geométricos de variación y el uso de software dinámico

En este artículo se presentan dos problemas geométricos que involucran la noción de variación, analizados desde la perspectiva de la resolución de problemas y la incorporación del software dinámico como un medio que puede potenciar el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. Los objetivos al presentar un análisis desde diferentes procedimientos de solución a estos problemas son: exhibir distintos acercamientos a situaciones, los cuales puede ir desarrollando el estudiante y el grupo al abordarlas, proporcionar al profesor elementos que le permitan proponer trayectorias hipotéticas del aprendizaje vinculadas con los conceptos y habilidades matemáticas que se requieren para abordar el problema y para comprenderlo, así como proveer de elementos al docente para identificar los momentos en los cuales puede intervenir en el proceso de solución para encauzar o enfatizar conceptos o habilidades matemáticas.

Contenidos transversales y aprendizaje de la matemática: haciendo uso de la tecnología (software libre)

El trabajo trata de mostrar los logros en el aprendizaje de la matemática –área de Geometría– a través del contenido transversal Educación para la gestión de riesgos y la conciencia ambiental, usando recursos tecnológicos como Google Maps y Google Earth. El tema desarrollado para tal fin fue el problema sismológico en el Perú. Finalmente, se señalan temas de geometría involucrados, así como temas anexos a través del uso de contenidos de Estadística, Geografía y Ciencias Naturales. La experiencia se hizo con un grupo de 50 alumnas del Tercer año de Educación Secundaria de una escuela pública del Perú.

Uso de software en la enseñanza de la matemática

Las clases de matemáticas no debieran tener como objetivo fundamental el aprendizaje de contenidos (definiciones, teoremas, axiomas…) que posteriormente serán aplicados a la resolución de un gran listado de ejercicios y problemas propuestos por el profesor y que justificará el aprendizaje de dichos contenidos, sino que, por el contrario, debieran partir con un problema concreto y familiar para el alumno. Una vez planteado éste y discutido por todos, estudiantes y profesor, traerá como consecuencia la obligación de resolverlo y por tanto la necesidad del aprendizaje de las técnicas que son necesarias para ello y recurrir al uso de tecnología disponible. Es muy importante destacar que durante todo el proceso el alumno hace conjeturas que irá verificando en cada paso. Se dará cuenta que algunas de las conjeturas que hizo son correctas y que otras no lo son, es decir, cometerá errores y aciertos, en función de los cuales irá cimentando su aprendizaje. Pero, por sobre todo, debe aprender que “va al colegio a equivocarse”, pero que no debe quedarse en el error, que en la discusión con sus compañeros y el profesorado encontrará la(s) solucione(s), que es probable que más de una sirva, pero que también unas son mejores que otras, que en algunos casos hay una solución óptima, en definitiva irá “aprendiendo a aprender”. Se ilustra lo anterior planteando resolver un clásico problema de construcción de cajas utilizando como herramienta de aprendizaje el software DERIVE 5.

El software matemático y los lenguajes de programación

Se lleva a cabo un análisis de los lenguajes de programación desde el punto de vista de sus relaciones con el software matemático. Para ello se comienza con una definición bastante flexible de software matemático, para continuar con un análisis metodológico de los lenguajes de programación, estudiando los paradigmas imperativo, funcional, la programación lógica y la orientación a objetos. Por último se realiza un estudio histórico de los lenguajes de programación, así como de los lenguajes de programación más adecuados para la implementación de algoritmos matemáticos.

Software educativo en línea para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de temas de Cálculo Numérico

En un proyecto de investigación finalizado, se diseñó un software de escritorio para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del tema Resolución Numérica de Ecuaciones no Lineales, usando el paquete MatLab.

Implementación del análisis en componentes principales con el software estadístico R

El Análisis en Componentes Principales (ACP) constituye la técnica base para el Análisis Multivariado de Datos. Su objetivo principal es reducir la cantidad de variables, manteniendo la máxima cantidad de información, presente en una tabla de datos de variables cuantitativas. En el presente artículo se expone un panorama general sobre la estructura que fundamenta un ACP y se implementa un caso concreto en el software estadístico R. Para ello es necesario un conocimiento básico de este software.

PHYSICA - A software environment for the modelling of multi-physics phenomena

A brief description of a software environment in FORTRAN77 for the modelling of multi-physics phenomena is given. The numerical approach is based on finite volume methods but extended to unstructured meshes (ie. FV-UM). A range of interacting solution procedures for turbulent fluid flow, heat transfer with solidification/melting and elasto-visco-plastic solid mechanics are implemented in the first version of PHYSICA, which will be released in source code form to the academic community in late 1995.

Bulk synchronous parallelization of industrial electromagentic software

The parallelization of existing/industrial electromagnetic software using the bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) computation model is presented. The software employs the finite element method with a preconditioned conjugate gradient-type solution for the resulting linear systems of equations. A geometric mesh-partitioning approach is applied within the BSP framework for the assembly and solution phases of the finite element computation. This is combined with a nongeometric, data-driven parallel quadrature procedure for the evaluation of right-hand-side terms in applications involving coil fields. A similar parallel decomposition is applied to the parallel calculation of electron beam trajectories required for the design of tube devices. The BSP parallelization approach adopted is fully portable, conceptually simple, and cost-effective, and it can be applied to a wide range of finite element applications not necessarily related to electromagnetics.

The integration of an intelligent knowledge-based system into engineering software using the blackboard structure

Over recent years there has been an increase in the use of generic Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software packages spread across various application fields. This has created the need for the integration of expertise into CFD software. Expertise can be integrated into CFD software in the form of an Intelligent Knowledge-Based System (IKBS). The advantages of integrating intelligence into generic engineering software are discussed with a special view to software engineering considerations. The software modelling cycle of a typical engineering problem is identified and the respective expertise and user control needed for each modelling phase is shown. The requirements of an IKBS for CFD software are discussed and compared to current practice. The blackboard software architecture is presented. This is shown to be appropriate for the integration of an IKBS into an engineering software package. This is demonstrated through the presentation of the prototype CFD software package FLOWES.

Flo/Stress: an integrated software module to predict stress in electronic products

Software technology that predicts stress in electronic systems and packages, developed as part of TCS Programme, is described. The software is closely integrated within a thermal design tool providing the ability to simulate the coupled effects of airflow, temperature and stress on product performance. This integrated approach to analysis will help decrease the number of design cycles.

The development of an advanced ship evacuation simulation software product and associated large scale testing facility for the collection of human shipboard behaviour data

When designing a new passenger ship or modifying an existing design, how do we ensure that the proposed design and crew emergency procedures are safe from an evacuation point of view? In the wake of major maritime disasters such as the Herald of Free Enterprise and the Estonia and in light of the growth in the numbers of high density, high-speed ferries and large capacity cruise ships, issues concerned with the evacuation of passengers and crew at sea are receiving renewed interest. In the maritime industry, ship evacuation models offer the promise to quickly and efficiently bring evacuation considerations into the design phase, while the ship is "on the drawing board". maritimeEXODUS-winner of the BCS, CITIS and RINA awards - is such a model. Features such as the ability to realistically simulate human response to fire, the capability to model human performance in heeled orientations, a virtual reality environment that produces realistic visualisations of the modelled scenarios and with an integrated abandonment model, make maritimeEXODUS a truly unique tool for assessing the evacuation capabilities of all types of vessels under a variety of conditions. This paper describes the maritimeEXODUS model, the SHEBA facility from which data concerning passenger/crew performance in conditions of heel is derived and an example application demonstrating the models use in performing an evacuation analysis for a large passenger ship partially based on the requirements of MSC circular 1033.

Across the bridge: CLEF 2001 - Non-English monolingual retrieval. The French task.

This paper presents work on document retrieval based on first time participation in the CLEF 2001 monolingual retrieval task using French. The experiment findings indicated that Okapi, the text retrieval system in use, can successfully be used for non-English text retrieval. A lot of internal pre-processing is required in the basic search system for conversion into Okapi access formats. Various shell scripts were written to achieve the conversion in a UNIX environment, failure of which would significantly have impeded the overall performance. Based on the experiment findings using Okapi - originally designed for English - it was clear that, although most European languages share conventional word boundaries and variant word morphemes formed by the additon of suffixes, there is significant difference between French and English retrieval depending on the adaptation of indexing and search strategies in use. No sophisticated method for higher recall and precision such as stemming techniques, phrase translation or de-compounding was employed for the experiment and our results were suggestively poor. Future participation would include more refined query translation tools.

Solder life prediction in a thermal analysis software environment

This paper describes recent developments made to the stress analysis module within FLOTHERM, extending its capability to handle viscoplastic behavior. It also presents the validation of this approach and results obtained for an SMT resistor as an illustrative example. Lifetime predictions are made using the creep strain energy based models of Darveaux. Comment is made about the applicability of the damage model to the geometry of the joint under study.

Advanced evacuation simulation software and its use in warships

The newly formed Escape and Evacuation Naval Authority regulates the provision of abandonment equipment and procedures for all Ministry of Defence Vessels. As such, it assures that access routes on board are evaluated early in the design process to maximize their efficiency and to eliminate, as far as possible, any congestion that might occur during escape. This analysis can be undertaken using a computer-based simulation for given escape scenarios and replicates the layout of the vessel and the interactions between each individual and the ship structure. One such software tool that facilitates this type of analysis is maritimeEXODUS. This tool, through large scale testing and validation, emulates human shipboard behaviour during emergency scenarios; however it is largely based around the behaviour of civilian passengers and fixtures and fittings of merchant vessels. Hence there existed a clear requirement to understand the behaviour of well-trained naval personnel as opposed to civilian passengers and be able to model the fixtures and fittings that are exclusive to warships, thus allowing improvements to both maritimeEXODUS and other software products. Human factor trials using the Royal Navy training facilities at Whale Island, Portsmouth were recently undertaken to collect data that improves our understanding of the aforementioned differences. It is hoped that this data will form the basis of a long-term improvement package that will provide global validation of these simulation tools and assist in the development of specific Escape and Evacuation standards for warships. © 2005: Royal Institution of Naval Architects.