Voice assistants are becoming increasingly significant in promoting active aging and digital skills to utilise these technologies fully. This study investigates the acceptance of standalone voice-only assistants among digitally competent older adults in Spain. Besides, it identifies features deemed significant by older adults, providing insights for designers of voice assistants. The research addresses three key questions: the impact of the co-creation process on technological acceptance, factors influencing adoption, and ethical considerations in developing voice-only assistants for older adults. The method employed was an exploratory mixed-methods design in an online co-creation process comprising three stages: an initial session for familiarisation, a game-based co-creation session utilising the Activity Design Cards Toolkit to extract primary requirements for prototype design considering ethics and inclusive values, and a final session to evaluate and refine the prototypes. Findings indicate that the co-creation process significantly enhances technology acceptance among older adults with high digital competence.

While women remain underrepresented in STEM fields, our study reveals insights from an overlooked frontier: preschool classrooms. Despite decades of global initiatives aimed at increasing female participation in technology fields, gender-interest stereotypes continue to discourage girls from pursuing computer science careers. Our research challenges these barriers by implementing an innovative educational program integrating Computational Thinking (CT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with$N=114$preschoolers, we assessed the impact of hands-on activities in algorithms, debugging, and control structures through the TechCheck questionnaire. Our findings challenge prevailing assumptions: while initial CT skills showed no gender disparity (boys M=58.8, girls M=53.95, p=,445), post-intervention results revealed girls significantly outperforming boys (girls M=66.11, boys M=51.61,$p=,022$). On the contrary, AI literacy assessments showed complete gender parity (p=,995). These results suggest that early childhood education could be the key to dismantling gender barriers in computer science, demonstrating that when learning environments are equitable, girls not only match but can exceed traditional performance expectations. This study opens new pathways for understanding how early educational interventions can reshape the future of gender equity in STEM fields, beginning with our youngest learners.

The prevalent underrepresentation of women in computer science remains a global challenge with profound implications for academic institutions and industries. Despite concerted efforts to address the gender gap, female representation remains alarmingly low, particularly among engineering graduates and information and communication technology (ICT) professionals. This paper revolves around the design and development of a user-centric web interface for the Women@INF project. Leveraging modern web development technologies using NuxtJS, Vue.js, and Bulma, the platform provides an engaging and accessible space for promoting IT projects led by women in computer science. The interface design prioritizes user experience, allowing seamless navigation and exploration of diverse projects. Furthermore, this initiative involves the development of an interactive data visualization tool. Utilizing technologies such as React.js and Recharts, the tool empowers users to explore and analyze data dynamically related to women-led initiatives in computer science. We explore the multifaceted approach of the research, emphasizing its role in promoting gender diversity in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. These contributions collectively enhance the Women@INF research, promoting visibility and providing interactive platforms for users to engage with and derive insights from the initiative's data. Both contributions are pivotal in addressing the gender gap in computer science, offering valuable resources for decision-makers and fostering a sense of community. The tools developed are versatile, showcasing broader applicability to other related projects. This article explores the transformative impact of collaborative initiatives and technological innovations on reshaping the narrative of women in computer science, providing a vital blueprint for sustained progress and increased gender diversity in STEM fields.

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, marked by the proliferation of artificial intelligence and robotics, the role of engineering education stands as a cornerstone of sustainable progress. Recognizing this imperative, engineering curricula are increasingly incorporating a competency-based approach that reflects the complexities of the real world, for lifelong learning, using enabling and disruptive technologies such as humanoid robotics. We present a case study from the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus, where NAO robots are used in social projects with immediate impact in the fields of health and education, addressing sustainable development objectives. This research shows projects that have had a significant social impact in different communities in Mexico, in the areas of education and health with innovative solutions that motivate and engage the attention of the audience. A group of students from different engineering careers design, develop and implement application scenarios for the accompaniment and social appropriation of challenges such as: the incorporation of girls in STEM areas, support for groups with intellectual disabilities, dissemination and knowledge of sign language and dissemination of the cultural heritage of Xochimilco as a cultural heritage of humanity. Preliminary results indicate that this pedagogical approach not only inculcates students with essential skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork, but also makes them more aware of the social implications of their engineering studies. Evidence and results of the involvement of undergraduate students in social scenarios are shown, showing that, by integrating these elements, engineering programs aspire to train professionals capable of harnessing their technical knowledge for the general good of society as well as the perception of the participants and audiences reached.

This paper presents findings on participants of a massive open online course named "Educational Robotics for all" developed under Open edX platform. The document describes the organization and structure of the MOOC and some of its preliminary results. As an example, Module 2 about Gender and STEAM is presented and discussed.

Equality and inclusion are part of the strategic plans of the universities. In particular, the Spanish government has established that the universities should have equality units to apply the principle of equality between women and men. These units are in charge of the definition of the Equality Plans. These Plans vary from one university to another, but they are focused on including the gender perspective in the university's different activities. Teachers' specific training about gender mainstreaming should be one of the key actions to foster equality in higher education. This work presents findings on participants of a course about "Introduction of the gender perspective in the University teaching" developed in the University of Salamanca in June 2020. The document describes the organization and structure of the course with a particular focus on the adaptation to online format due to the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, we share some of the results about the participants' perceptions and opinions on the inclusion of nonsexist language in Spanish and their educational practices.

Gender inequality in STEM careers is a global problem and avoid bias in education can be a solution. This paper presents a framework for inclusion of gender perspective in engineering courses. The methodology followed in its design was divided into two phases: the developed of different educational innovation projects and a co-creation workshop. Several instruments have been created and validated, such as questionnaires, canvas model and rubrics. The framework includes elements such as the self-diagnosis and redefinition of curriculum, contents and practices, specific learning outcomes and gender and sex balanced methods and learning environments for equity.

In the fields of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, both in career and professional contexts, the society is underrepresented. Technology is part of daily life for most of the population, the introduction of concepts such as diversity and inclusion when developing technology is a crucial objective to achieve a society built on these values. Software and technology must be developed taking into account people, converting diversity and equity concepts related to technological development. The main objective of this work is to describe a case study implemented in the Software Engineering I subject of the Degree in Computer Engineering of the University of Salamanca (Spain) to lay the foundations to establish actions to foster diversity and inclusion into engineering curricula.

A common problem is how to motivate students to learn. Most of the studies concern only one topic. That is, Engineering studies, for example. In the present paper we deal with the problem of motivating students from different degrees using different teaching strategies and the assessment of their motivation and learning strategies.

There is a social and economic concern for the low representativeness of women in the technology industry. The timeline of recent years shows a drop in the interest of women in studying a career related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), just when the demand labor in these fields is growing rapidly and new jobs will continue to emerge, and it is feared that they will not have enough people to cover It There are many social organizations that are taking measures to alleviate this situation, including educational branches, government agencies, industry and technological communities composed of women. In this research, the cases of industry and communities are studied. It is intended to dissect how these two ecosystems work to strengthen mechanisms that minimize the gender gap. On the one hand, the paper addresses, what are the communities, why they arise, what are their objectives, what they contribute to society and what actions they develop to contain the problem. Regarding companies, three major leaders of the sector, namely, Google, IBM and Microsoft, show their weaknesses and successes, and present development programs created to improve the internal situation in the themes of diversity and inclusion.

Gender inequality is a global problem present in all facets of life to a greater or lesser degree. In the fields of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, both in career and work contexts, the gender gap continues. The percentage of women who study or work in the technology sector is around 25% according to different international reports. The incorporation of gender studies in the curricula is considered one of the main actions to close the gender gap in tertiary education. Education programs should approach conceptual mismatches between gender or sex and change its foundations to guarantee equal education for any person by limiting the influence of social stereotypes and dominant culture. There are few studies that aim at describing what is the main stream viewpoints among students from research instruments previously validated. This work describes the process to elaborate a questionnaire on gender perspectives and its validation in order to describe what students of Computer Engineering careers think and what changes can be implemented accordingly in future education programs to close the gender gap.

Transparency and ethics are the key issues to improve in the future generations of bots and robots. Communication between users and bots or robots must be clear and transparent to be audited. Empathy will be a valuable asset in a symbiotic domain (user/bot, bot/bot, bot/robot, robot/robot, user/robot). We expose some guidelines to UX designers to cope to new paradigms in HCI communication challenges.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field in general, and Engineering, suffer from a lack of diversity. Yet there is growing evidence that more diverse organizations are more successful and effective. There is also a global shortage of STEM and engineering skills that can be tackled by addressing the lack of diversity in the field. One obvious way to view this problem is by looking at gender. Women make up 50% of the population, but in Engineering the number of female students and professionals is clearly less than this, often around 10–25% in many parts of the world. This underrepresentation of women leads us to think about other groups that are underrepresented in Engineering; these include Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and those from socially deprived backgrounds. This paper examines a number of approaches to support diversity and inclusion to encourage a greater uptake of engineering by underrepresented groups and to retain people in the sector.

Physical and active games can attract young people and children to have regular physical exercise and to promote healthy habits. The PROVITAO project has developed a gamified educational program for healthy habits, based on video games assets and motor games. The developed program consists of a plan of activities specifically designed on healthy habits with motor games, commercial video games (WII fit plus and apps) and own such as TANGO:H, that they can be developed at home and in group face-to-face sessions. PROVITAO was applied to a total of 45 children and girls with childhood obesity and their caregivers during the school year, in two phases. The design of the research used It was a mixed type with two control groups (GC) and two experimental groups (GE). The project has created and validated a frame of reference for emotional intervention, monitoring and evaluation, biomedical, interactive, social, psychological and educational, based on games, applied to the treatment of childhood obesity and prevention of complications associated, in addition, with different technological products (exergames, serious games, webapps, sensory libraries, wareable devices, etc.).

In this paper, a methodological approach based on constructivism and collaborative work is presented. In particular, a semi-automatic and automatic validation of this methodology is described. A rubric has been defined using 4 main indicators: a student's role in the group, a student's level of participation and interaction, results, and the quality of messages exchanged. Additionally, several technologies have been used for the process of automatic evaluation, these being natural language processing, social networks and fuzzy reasoning.

A systematic review of the scientific literature in a specific area is important for identifying research questions, as well as for justifying future research in said area. This process is complex for beginners in scientific research, especially if you have not developed skills for searching and filtering information, and do not know which high-level databases are relevant in their field of study. The method proposed leads the researcher from "My" to "The" current state of the problem; we propose an adaptation of the method by Kitchenham and Bacca, which divides the process into three sub-parts: planning, conducting and reporting results. From the approach of the research problem in the preliminary phase research questions (recommended between 3 to 5) and "mentefacto conceptual" is drawn; this last one gives originality to the method and facilitates the development of the thesaurus for searches and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Early research requires doing a basic systematic study to identify work done to review the literature in the area and, if any is found, to verify if those results yield an answer to our research questions. As part of planning the search process, general and specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined, along with some complementary inclusion and exclusion parameters. The method followed with rigor, returns to the researcher a list of impact journals in the study area, and a detail of articles that are related to each category of the research questions. A study case has been considered as a guide to expose each of the phases of the methodology in a practical way, with results that support the proposal.

Laboratory work and experimentation is the most important cornerstone in engineering education. However often times there are not resources enough in the laboratories of industrial automation, or enough time to apply the knowledge acquired in lectures. Therefore, it is necessary to have support systems that enable students to learn in an autonomous way and teach them in the management of physical resources available in the laboratory. This paper describes an intelligent educational system based on adaptive tests, concept maps and simulations of a FESTO educational training plant, as a proposal to improve the teaching and learning of the subject of Advanced Industrial Automation.

At present, not all of the universities understands the usefulness of social networks for teaching and working insertion. However, both the teachers and the students make use of them. In USA, 100% of the universities make use of social networks in some way. The most widely used social network among American students is Facebook (98%), followed by Twitter (84%) and Linkedin (47%). In this paper, different uses of social networks in education and working insertion at School of Computer Science of University of La Laguna will be described (educational use, work insertion and social media).

Transversal competences are of great importance to enterprises which wish to recruit students after their graduation. This paper presents an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) methodology to track the acquisition of the transversal competences by the students and to assess these skills. This methodology is being currently developed in the Engineering Schools of the University of La Laguna (Spain).