Project management is a critical metacompetence in engineering and scientific fields, requiring higher-order thinking to navigate human factors, emerging technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and alignment with strategic business objectives in a rapidly changing environment. Despite its significance, enhancing this competence among students poses considerable challenges. This study aims to improve project management skills among engineering students through the practical application of the International Project Management Association's (IPMA) competence framework, Individual Competence Baseline. Five senior engineering physics students from Tecnologico de Monterrey undertook the design and simulation of the mechanical structure of the Cherenkov Sensor for Japan's Hyper-Kamiokande project—a cutting-edge initiative in high-energy physics, building upon predecessors that have been recognised with two Nobel Prizes. The project's broad and flexible scope allowed the students to manage it comprehensively under faculty guidance, successfully concluding with limited resources while maintaining high-quality standards. An evaluation of their PMBOK-structured report against IPMA standards revealed advanced competencies in project design, scope management, and risk management, highlighting systematic management practices and meticulous documentation. Qualitative interviews demonstrated their proficiency in applying structured methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban, a disciplined approach to documentation, and an enhanced ability to address unforeseen challenges—underscoring the importance of planning and adaptability in project execution. These findings are highly relevant to current educational challenges, emphasizing the necessity of integrating competence-based and challenge-based models to prepare students for future demands. In an era characterized by rapid technological advancements and evolving global business requirements, fostering robust project management skills is essential. Continuous education in this domain not only equips engineers to adapt effectively but also ensures the success of large-scale projects, ultimately contributing to societal progress.

This study addresses the remediation of mathematical knowledge in engineering education, a critical issue as many students lack foundational skills upon entering essential courses. We conducted a quasi-experimental study that compared traditional instruction methods with a self-study strategy across three phases: diagnosing initial knowledge, providing tailored self-study resources to an experimental group, and assessing the effectiveness of the intervention. During the first period of the Fall 2024 semester, an initial diagnostic test on key mathematical topics was administered via CANVAS in a first-year Engineering and Sciences course. The experimental group received CANVAS instructional videos, supplementary documents, and access to the AI tool Jungle for optional self-study. In contrast, the control group had access to voluntary tutoring sessions. Post-intervention, both groups completed a final exam to measure improvements in problemsolving abilities. Additionally, a follow-up survey gathered feedback on self-study materials and Jungle. The analysis shows a positive correlation between Jungle usage and academic improvement. Jungle users initially scored slightly lower, saw greater improvements, and achieved higher post-test and final scores. The experimental group of Jungle users showed a statistically significant score improvement over the control group ($p=0.05$). Qualitative feedback highlights Jungle's effectiveness, feedback, and ease of use, though students suggested enhancing question variety. Results demonstrate the potential of structured self-study interventions to improve mathematical understanding among engineering students. The theoretical implications of this work are that by emphasizing tailored resources, this study aims to contribute effective strategies for bridging knowledge gaps in STEM education, enhancing student retention, and supporting academic success in engineering programs.

The emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) has posed significant challenges to various institutions since its launch. The education sector, in particular, requires an urgent regulatory framework. This work provides guidelines for the incorporation of GenAI into the teaching-learning process of undergraduate students, in which generative tools are promising to revolutionize both their academic and professional trajectories. Despite ongoing debates among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) decision-makers on whether GenAI should be used for education, students are at odds on the prohibition of its use. Instead, they promptly provided specific recommendations for their peers, after a workshop on AI basics, GenAI applications, and analysis. Five student groups of divergent engineering fields collaboratively proposed usage guidelines for ChatGPT in the learning-teaching process. The authors categorized, compared, and consolidated these into a Decalogue of Use. Employing a qualitative methodology, these guidelines were contrasted with those issued by four institutions: UNESCO, Universidad de los Andes, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Universidad Iberoamericana. Notably, these institutions concurred with students in only five out of the ten guidelines. These guidelines are of broad nature and therefore applicable across various sectors within HEIs. HEIs, as other governmental and international institutions, have been lagging in developing and implementing regulatory frameworks for GenAI, in contrast to the rapid advancement of this technology. This work offers valuable insights into students’ perceptions of GenAI use. Such evidence is instrumental for HEIs in making informed decisions regarding the regulations of these tools. Our findings encourage not only HEIs but also organizations and decision-makers to propagate the debate about ethical GenAI usage to different societal sectors. Promisingly, working as a community will empower us to make the best and pertinent decisions regarding the adoption of GenAI and other future emergent technologies.

In recent years, research has emphasized a widening skills gap between job requirements and graduate qualifications. This gap hinders university-to-industry transitions, exacerbating unemployment and talent shortages. Tecnologico de Monterrey introduced TEC21 in 2019, an educational model emphasizing challenge-based and competency-based learning to tackle these issues. A qualitative research design with semi-structured interviews was used to explore the college-to-work transition experience of ten third-year engineering students. The present research reports their perceptions during internships regarding the gains and tools enhanced by the educational model toward improved performance at professional practice within the industry. We analyzed the seven transversal competencies postulated by TEC21. As a result of this exploratory study, participants reported that this model could be considered effective training for improved internship performance. Results included the competencies that students identified as relevant to their professional practice and their level of proficiency in each competency (incipient, intermediate, or advanced). Beyond the limitations of the research, these results contribute to the broader discourse on bridging the gap between academic and industry competencies and highlight the need for incorporating continuous improvement systems to increase the adaptability of the educational models to the fast-evolving requirements of Industry 4.0. Moreover, they could inspire other higher education institutions to implement similar methodologies to keep up with the changing demands of the labor market and continue to be a driving force for societal improvement.

Recognizing the critical role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in addressing global challenges, this study addresses the persistent talent shortage and gender disparity in these fields. Early intervention is key to increasing female participation in STEM, necessitating initiatives targeting high school students or younger. This work presents “Code Explorers,” a summer camp exclusively for girls, designed to empower them to objectively evaluate their STEM competencies and make informed career decisions. Developed in collaboration with Coder Bloom and the Industrial Engineering Program at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Leon, this free, three-day workshop provided 90 girls from various high schools in Guanajuato, Mexico, with technical education, coding sessions in Python, inspirational talks from successful Latin women in tech, and empowerment activities. The camp aimed to transform participants from mere technology users to creators, innovators, and leaders in the tech industry. The workshop's curriculum combined Python programming lessons, presentations by international tech leaders, empowerment activities, and a programming contest. To gauge the effectiveness of the camp, participants took part in monthly programming contests and completed a survey assessing their STEM competencies and career interests. Remarkably, 76% of the participants expressed interest in pursuing technology or engineering careers. Qualitative analysis of the data revealed a shift in attitudes toward STEM among both students and instructors, as well as a change in the teenagers' self-perception of their STEM abilities. These outcomes are promising for altering high schoolers' perceptions of STEM at a crucial stage in their academic decision-making. The diverse backgrounds and STEM experiences of our participants highlight the camp's success in offering a broader perspective of STEM fields. This experience has equipped them to make informed career choices, recognizing the importance of coding and the array of opportunities in STEM careers. Ongoing participation in international programming contests post-camp fosters a sense of community and mentorship, further aiding their career decisions in STEM. This study showcases an impactful learning experience for girls, fostering their interest and attitudes toward STEM fields and addressing the gender disparity that limits societal progress through technology.

The perception of mathematics as a complex and inapplicable subject among social science undergraduates has been a persistent issue in higher education. This lack of engagement and motivation towards mathematics can hinder the students' ability to effectively participate in the Globalized and Knowledge Society. This study aims to contribute to the solution of this problem by analyzing their perception when learning mathematics through contextualized problems in their professional practice. The results show that learning mathematics through contextualized problems in professional practice improves the perceived usefulness of mathematics by social science undergraduate's, potentially increasing their engagement and learning motivation toward the subject. Moreover, the study found that both conventional analysis and analysis using data mining techniques complement each other, although both approaches lead to similar conclusions. Conventional qualitative analysis provides a deeper understanding of the data, while text analysis holds the advantage of analyzing large datasets, but its interpretation heavily depends on the researcher's expertise.

Establishing a context for the application of knowledge, developing their sense of belonging, and using materials that play a social role in their lives engage undergraduates and makes them core of their own learning. However, this is complicated to achieve in courses without laboratories or under restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic. Current work reports the implementation and impact of EDU Movies, a student-centered learning asynchronous activity to generate learning scenarios using fiction movies. It was carried out in the Ecological Processes for Human Development online course with 57 undergraduates (29 females and 28 males) enrolled in different programs. EDU Movies addressed the topics of environment, sustainable development and ethics and citizenship. To measure the impact, the participants perceptions were gathered using a survey and their answers were analyzed using statistics and text analysis. The evidence shows that over 69% of the students perceived that the movies were a great aid for learning the topics, particularly for female undergraduates.

Students’ evaluation of professors is commonly performed at all academic levels whereby a number of skill sets are evaluated and the opinion of the students is recorded as a means for professors’ assessment. How the students view professors for their teaching competencies is an essential indicator for optimizing the teaching and learning setup. However, the reports of the literature suggest that students can be partially biased in their judgement based upon the gender of the professor. In this study, we have analyzed the results of the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) from 103,833 responses which were collected as a result of evaluating 5,083 professors of higher education. With a target to take a close look at the influence of professors’ gender on their evaluation results we broke down the study into schools and analyzed the assessment based on 7 teaching competencies. In addition, the responses provided to an open-ended question underwent textual and sentiment analysis to further understand the students’ view of their professors. Against a solid body of the literature that suggest female professor can be assessed in a harsher manner than their male colleagues, we have not detected traces of gender bias across schools. While Engineering students have rated their male professors slightly higher for the intellectual challenge they incorporated in the classroom, in the rest of the competencies and across the schools, female professors were rated slightly but systematically higher than their male counterparts. The sentiment analysis shows the exact same set of keywords associated to both sexes of professors even though the order and the frequency of use for each sex were different.

Changes in everyday activities, such as adapting to the new online format due to lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic and being far away from family and friends, greatly influenced the emotions and feelings of students and their parents. Assessing the emotions of students’ parents at the higher education level is necessary since their emotional well-being has a direct impact on the emotional well-being of students throughout their distant learning experience. In this article, we held a quantitative study over 8 subsequent weeks from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in students and parents from the Mexican institution Tecnologico de Monterrey. Using a questionnaire from Inteligencia Audiencias (Intelligence Hearings), students and their parents could register their feelings and their valence from April 13thto July 20th, 2020. The results indicate that the most predominant emotions in both groups were very unpleasant and unpleasant in nature, being "worried" and "tired" the most common ones. The current study also provides some approaches for addressing the negative repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic

Three of the most reported strategies for students with disabilities (SWD) along their stay in higher education institutions include adapting changes in management and facilities through protocols that focused on Admission, Retention and Graduation. These strategies are important, although they do not guarantee full inclusivity during the teaching, learning and evaluation process. In this work, through a qualitatively methodology, we describe the perceptions of inclusivity of five lecturers, eight undergraduates and one SWD in science courses for Computer Systems Engineering. Furthermore, we report one successful experience to design an inclusive evaluation in a Mathematics course. The evidence found in this work suggests that the center of every protocol for SWD should be focused on Attention, as a new and longer stage. This stage includes e.g. teacher training, inclusive curriculum (for teaching and evaluation), student service and university extension programs, and inclusivity-focused research. Our purpose is to address this experience to the engineering community and promote the establishment of policies towards a more inclusive higher education system.