Sustainable development is acquiring high attendance in higher education. In fact, one of the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals announced by the United Nations in September 2015 aims to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, thorough education on sustainable development. The current study focuses on the evaluation of individual works based on the sustainable development suggested to students in a subject of the Master's of Thermal Engineering at the University of Vigo. In addition, a sustainable holistic rubric is presented, which was used to analyze the ability of the students to incorporate sustainability principles in their work. The rubric was based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the associated targets of the United Nations, more specifically on the Goals 7, 8, 12, and 13. A total of 10 works were evaluated. As a general conclusion, it was found that the students generally do not consider or consider to a lower extent the economic criteria opposite to the environmental, technical, and social dimensions. The environmental sub-criterion were applied to a greater extent in the development of the works. However, the technical and social dimensions were included to a greater or lesser extent depending on the type of work developed.

The existence of a high university dropout rate in Spain is undeniable. Data shows that approximately one out of five students drop out from college. During the economic expansion period (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007) more students abandoned their studies than during the crisis period (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011). This situation also affects unemployment rates due to the fact that higher education leads to lower unemployment rates. Galicia presented slightly higher dropout rates than Spain from 2006 to 2009; nevertheless during the 2009/2010 academic year this rate was lower. The reasons for dropout can be divided into six distinct factors: psycho educational, evolutionary, family, economic, institutional and social factors. The main drop-out motives are related, among others, to incompatibility with work, economy, university (environment, teachers and difficulties) and so on. According to the BBVA research, the dropout rate imposes a great cost on the entire economy reaching the sum of 5,772 euros per year and per student and exceeding the amount of 1,500 million euros if the student drops out during the first cycle. Due to the urgent need of reducing the dropout rate, the Ministry of Education developed an action plan to increase the number of young people enrolled in a higher education course; so that, consequently, Spain can redirect its economic growth model.

Advantages, such as thermal storage improvement, are found when using PCMs (Phase Change Materials) in storage tanks. The inclusion of three different types of materials in a 60 𝓁 test tank is studied. Two test methodologies were developed, and four tests were performed following each methodology. A thermal analysis is performed to check the thermal properties of each PCM. The distributions of the water temperatures inside the test tanks are evaluated by installing four Pt-100 sensors at different heights. A temperature recovery is observed after exposing the test tank to an energy demand. An energetic analysis that takes into account the energy due to the water temperature, the energy due to the PCM and the thermal loss to the ambient environment is also presented. The percentage of each PCM that remains in the liquid state after the energy demand is obtained.

No abstract

No abstract

Learning by doing is essential in engineering education, along with topics such as systems automation and control and energy efficiency. This article presents work including all of these different topics. A micro-cogeneration facility located at the University of Vigo is studied. The experimental plant is automated after detecting the most important variables and actuations. A system responsible for the control, supervision, and monitoring of the system was developed using the programming software LabVIEW. All of these processes are explained in depth here. Finally, a complete practice experience is proposed for the next course of the Master of Thermal Engineering programme taught at the University of Vigo. Different tasks are included: the study of the operating principle of a micro-cogeneration system, the analysis of measurement devices and actuators for the automation of an experimental facility, LabVIEW programming, and interaction with the integrated system. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology will be evaluated through a five-point Likert-type scale survey. ß 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 24:723-735, 2016; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary. com/journal/cae;

No abstract

The increasing use of smartphone technology in people's daily lives and its continuous development lead to the inevitable use of mobile applications because of their easy access anytime and anywhere. In this study, a new Android application for smartphones is developed and presented for the remote control of a micro‐cogeneration system from a mobile device without the need to be near the system. The mobile application consists of five different windows through which real‐time data on the most important variables of the system can be observed at any time. Additionally, the application allows the user to select the system's desired operating mode among a total of five possibilities. Alarms and warnings are also shown along with the detailed status of the main variables of the groups forming the system. Moreover, the application can graphically show the progression of variables at any time, and a history of the changes to the system is available. An experimental practice based on the “use of current mobile applications” for a subject of the Master of Thermal Engineering is proposed as a pedagogical method that involves the procedure “learning by doing,” in which students can realize the great advantages of using these technologies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 24:497–507, 2016; View this article online at http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI