APRÈN. Portal de la producció docent del professorat de la UPC

With the support and subsequent validation of organizations such as ASPACE, the project focuses on improving the flight experience for people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities by developing two key aspects: an advanced health monitoring system and a new wheelchair restraint system for aircraft, specially adapted for the Airbus A320, the most widely used aircraft at Barcelona airport. The first part of the project consists of an application that overcomes the limitations of existing devices in terms of number of channels, cost and signal quality. This application allows the measurement and synchronization of physiological signals, such as ECG, EMG, respiration, temperature and skin conductivity, using advanced algorithms. The application is flexible and capable of handling signals of different sampling rates, reducing noise and facilitating the export of data for detailed analysis. Although still in beta, it has proven to be accurate and reliable, with an intuitive interface that allows it to be used in a variety of conditions. The second part of the project addresses the securing of wheelchairs in aircraft. A robust system has been designed that includes a hinged cylinder fitted to a rotating clamp with a locking mechanism based on a rotating shaft and a spring. This system ensures the stability of the chair during flight and allows a quick release by means of a release mechanism similar to bicycle brakes, both in normal situations and in emergencies. Two options for integrating the system into the aircraft have been evaluated: modifying the first row of seats or eliminating the first-row seats completely for a more robust restraint. In addition, further possible solutions have been proposed, as well as additional components that can serve to provide the safety required by the aeronautical sector. Both frameworks in this project emphasize the importance of promoting developments that benefit the widest possible audience. Additionally, a combined solution is developed and integrated during the course of the work.

Este Trabajo de Fin de Grado es una puesta en común de las diferentes tendencias hacia el desarrollo de tecnologías de bajo coste para países con bajo o muy bajo Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH). Se ha elaborado una revisión sistemática mediante la guía PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) de la que se han extraído diferentes publicaciones a analizar. Además, se ha realizado un análisis de la situación actual global y respecto a la región más sitiada por la escasez de recursos, como es el África subsahariana. La revisión de publicaciones se ha realizado principalmente con bases de datos científicas como PubMed, ProQuest, ScienceDirect y Scopus, además de otras fuentes y con adiciones manuales. Este estudio tiene como objetivo hacer más sencilla la búsqueda y aprovechamiento de estas publicaciones para diferentes actores (entidades gubernamentales, personal técnico, personal médico, etc.) para acercar la literatura en este ámbito al día a día de las personas que más lo necesitan. Por ello, se ha elaborado una base de datos en formato Excel, que puede ser de utilidad para continuar con esta línea de trabajo. Tras revisar 95 artículos, se halló que el 30,5% de las tecnologías se centran en el diagnóstico y el 26,3% en el tratamiento. La mayoría de las tecnologías se destinan a personal médico (27,4%) y especializado (18,9%). Los dispositivos son el tipo de tecnología más común (49,5%), seguido por e-Health (29,5%). Las tecnologías revisadas priorizan el diagnóstico y el tratamiento, dirigidas principalmente a personal médico cualificado. También se observa un crecimiento en tecnologías de telemedicina y e-Health, aunque la mayoría de las publicaciones provienen de la India. La implicación de las autoridades locales resulta esencial para el éxito de las intervenciones tecnológicas en salud en regiones con bajo IDH.

People with reduced mobility (PRM) have the right to accessibility at the airport, which can be ensured through a dedicated service for this community. However, this service impacts airport operations and is increasingly relevant due to the growing demand. Therefore, demand forecasting is necessary to provide quality service and optimize airport resources. This is challenging because less than two-thirds of PRMs notify in advance of their need for the service. A model based on neural networks is proposed to predict the number of PRM passengers, which determines the amount of resources the airport needs to prepare for each hour of the day. To this end, data from an anonymous airport over a specified period is used, including information on each flight, including the amount of PRMs separated by categories. The network is developed using Python, employing libraries such as TensorFlow and Keras. Data analysis is performed using Excel, with tables and graphical representations. The results show that the network is accurate when predicting a high volume of PRMs. A detailed analysis focuses on January and July, with average relative errors of 16% and 11% during peak hours, respectively, compared to the 36% error rate that would result from only considering prior notices.

Con el aumento de la inestabilidad política, social y climática en el Sahel, así como la llegada, cada vez más alarmante, de pateras a costas europeas, nace la necesidad, por parte de muchas organizaciones, de actuar en los países africanos. La Cooperación para el Desarrollo en países africanos se está viendo, tanto a nivel estatal como europeo, como una de las soluciones más eficaces a medio y largo plazo. El trabajo que se presenta a continuación forma parte de un programa de cooperación con Senegal que lleva años desarrollándose. En concreto, este trabajo se focaliza en la región rural de Kolda, una de las zonas más pobres del país, donde la mitad de la población tiene o es menor a los 20 años y más de la mitad de estos jóvenes no tienen el título de la educación obligatoria. La región vive fundamentalmente de la agricultura y de la ganadería, en condiciones precarias y con los conocimientos y la tecnificación mínimas. Así pues, el objetivo principal de la presente tesis es elaborar una descripción, estudio y análisis de las condiciones y características del lugar donde se pretende ubicar el proyecto con el fin de justificar y facilitar la posterior implantación de un centro de formación en agricultura y ganadería. Dicho objetivo se pretende cumplir mediante los siguientes objetivos específicos: 1) identificando las problemáticas y necesidades del entorno, 2) conociendo la normativa que rige para los centros de formación profesional e incluyendo el centro educativo en el marco legal, 3) presentando una propuesta de plan de estudios, de infraestructuras e instalaciones y de recursos humanos para garantizar el buen funcionamiento del centro y 4) estudiando y valorando sistemas de financiación para el centro. Tras haber trabajado los puntos descritos anteriormente, se concluye que se ve claramente justificada la implantación del centro de formación agro pastoral en la región de Kolda. Por lo que se han descrito los estudios a impartir, así como, las condiciones y características del centro para permitir su reconocimiento oficial. Finalmente, se han desarrollado métodos de financiación, para los primeros años tras su implantación, como para los posteriores. La información que se expone a lo largo del trabajo es fruto de la búsqueda bibliográfica y de la visita realizada al país a finales del año 2023. Con ello se pretende ubicar y contextualizar al lector o lectora de la mejor manera posible, procurando mantener la objetividad y el espíritu crítico en todo momento.

Fiber optics are one of the most widely used data transmission technologies today, due to their high capacity, low latency and reliability. In this project, the design and deployment of a fiber optic network to the tower (Fiber To The Tower or as we will call from now on FTTT) is put into practice. The Backhaul 5G deployment that we will see later is located in the Anoia region and in the municipality of Cabrera de Mar, and is subsidized by Next Generation EU European funds. Its main objective is to accelerate the deployment of 5G technology in rural environments. To do this, we will connect several towers to an existing network using fiber optics, the most popular 5G backhaul technology today as it can transport large amounts of data at high speeds and is therefore the ideal technology to support the data traffic generated by 5G networks. These towers have to be connected to the existing network of Lyntia, a Spanish neutral telecommunications services company. We will see that the connection of the towers to the operator's network is more complex than it may seem at first glance. Therefore, it will not be enough to use Lyntia's existing infrastructure; it will be necessary to ask permission from other operators to be able to use sections of their infrastructure and at some points of the deployment we will have to resort to new construction.

Projecte MOVERE Fundació de Malalts Mentals de Catalunya

Desde hace muchos años los microscopios son una herramienta esencial para la investigación científica, aunque el coste elevado de los mismos y el difícil acceso a recambios o accesorios hace que no estén disponibles para gran parte de la comunidad científica y de los estudiantes que se inician en la ciencia, especialmente en países en vías de desarrollo. En este contexto se han desarrollado una gran variedad de microscopios de bajo coste de código libre utilizando impresión 3D y robotizándolos con microcontroladores de hardware libre como Arduino o Raspberry Pi. En este trabajo de fin de grado he construido un microscopio basado en la plataforma OpenFlexure estudiando sus posibilidades en investigación universitaria y de formación haciendo comparaciones con los microscopios ópticos convencionales de la EEABB a través de la visualización de una gran variedad de muestras proporcionadas por diferentes miembros del Departamento de Ingeniería Agroalimentaria y Biotecnología (DEAB). Obteniendo unos resultados bastante satisfactorios, se han detectado ciertas carencias en cuanto a calidad de imagen, operabilidad, la dificultad de montaje y precio más elevado de lo esperado. Aun así, cumple satisfactoriamente la mayoría de las funciones que se le atribuyen a un microscopio, y a un coste mucho más inferior en comparación con los microscopios convencionales.

It is indisputable that the technological changes that society is experiencing today are occurring at a dizzying pace. While this benefits most people, there are groups who, due to their circumstances, are unable to take advantage of them. One of the groups most affected by this problem is that of people suffering from cerebral palsy. However, there is a technology that manages to reverse the effects caused by this inequality for people with this disability. These tools, which provide autonomy and enable personal development, are called assistive technologies. This project, called My Robot Arm, details the development of such a technology that enables people with cerebral palsy to control a robot arm. The key to this application is that the robot arm is controlled by the disabled person's own technology for interaction. The implemented robotic arm, called Rotric DexArm, was chosen considering that it does not involve a large financial outlay for the user's pocket. The software of the platform is open source so anyone can contribute new ideas, report bugs or adapt it to specific needs. To ensure that the platform delivers as promised, during its development, the author maintained close contact with the therapists at ASPACE Badalona and participated in meetings at the centre where people with paralysis with different limitations made use of the application. The My Robot Arm platform has been built using the augmentative communication software Grid 3, designed for people with cerebral palsy. It can also be compatible with similar tools such as JoyToKey or AutoHotKey. The rest of the platform has been developed in Python, which due to its versatility, simplicity and its wide use today, allows reaching the largest possible number of potential designers.

Un trabajo de investigación sobre los desplazamientos humanos internos de la historia moderna de Chipre y el estudio de los nuevos hogares llamados “προσφυγικοί συνοικισμοί” (es.; asentamientos de refugiados). Un viaje entre valores tangibles e intangibles de lo temporal y lo permanente. Después de casi 50 años desde el exilio de la población grecochipriota de la parte norte a la parte sur de la isla, este estudio se realiza con la intención de descubrir como las estructuras arquitectónicas del desplazamiento interno, destinadas a realojar a la población desplazada, acaban generando nuevos núcleos residenciales y barrios urbanos, con su propia fisonomía y percepción del hogar que se transforma según las necesidades que compone la vida cotidiana con el paso del tiempo.

Nowadays, Internet access is becoming a valued and essential asset to ensure the economic development, growth and profit of any human being, company or institution. For years now, the most developed regions of the world have been investing large amounts of private and public resources into the deployment of telecommunications networks to guarantee access to this service. Nevertheless, such deployment has gradually led to a territorial inequality of access to the Internet. In addition, the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought notable changes in society in terms of lifestyle and consumption habits. All these changes have led to certain new necessities in society, including the majority of current telecommunication services in areas where the demand or necessity for connection was minimal or non-existent. It is precisely for this reason that the outlying territories and rural areas have now become the areas with the greatest demand for the deployment of a technological model that guarantees a reliable and high-quality broadband Internet service. As a result of this requirement, the project focuses on the study and analysis of the main features of all the technological models that currently offer broadband Internet services. One of the most innovative technological models is that of telecommunications via satellites in Very Low orbits; to understand such a technological system, an analysis of the business model developed by the leading company in this market, Starlink, has been carried out. Finally, in order to determine which of these systems is the most viable for all the territories that currently lack this type of service, besides considering the connection characteristics, a comparison of risks and environmental impacts has been carried out. After this investigation and research work, it has been concluded that the system of Internet access via satellites in the lowest area is the most suitable model to generate worldwide coverage; however, the irreversible impacts that this model entails have not been taken into account at the moment. Therefore, as a personal conclusion, I believe that an international balance of the benefits and impacts is essential for its further deployment.

Aeromedical rescue has been around for more than 100 years. They are being implemented in more and more countries or areas of the world and this is a consequence of the constant population growth. This growth affects both urban and rural areas differently. The latter receive less variety of health aid, due to a lack of hospitals and specialized doctors or because they do not have it directly. Public or private, there are already many organizations in charge of providing these Medevac services, which includes the rescue of a patient in a medical emergency, providing medical care to this patient during the journey until he/she arrives at the hospital. It has been proven that the implementation of these services reduces the mortality rate by shortening the emergency response time and stabilizing the patient during transfer. However, there are still many areas without this medical coverage and the organizations that offer these services are very different from one another. They can be public or private organizations, operate in urban or remote areas, have a fleet and a specific base, etc. This is the origin of the proposal to continue researching this subject by means of this final thesis: Aerial Health Care system for remote areas and under-developed regions. One of the objectives is to seek and contrast information to understand the differences and similarities between the different types of air medical services: what services are offered, what crew is needed, the special equipment carried by the fleet and the type of air bases used. The aim is to analyze the aeronautical part of the operation, the requirements and needs that must be met for the rescues to be a success. Finally, the last objective is to be able to carry out a preliminary study simulating the implementation of an air medical service in an area that requires this assistance.

The first compulsory board gender diversity quota law in the United States was approved in 2018 in California. In this study, we aim to analyse how public perception has been influenced by the application of this gender quota law, using Twitter Sentiment Score of public companies affected by it. Specifically, the whole Twitter history between 2016-2021 of approximately 200 firms has been scrapped and the daily, monthly and yearly sentiment score has been computed. Moreover, the gender of the account associated with the tweet has been analysed in order to test differences between male and female sentiment. The results show that there is a positive effect of the increase in share of women in the board on the percentage of positive tweets. Moreover, the effects of the pool of tweets of women and men are opposite, positive for women and negative for men. Finally, the effect of the California gender quota law on Twitter sentiment has been studied. Those companies with a lower share of women(do not comply with the law after it was passed) experienced a higher increase in share of positive tweets in the post law period compared with the companies that were already complying with the law

Since 2000, the aging of the Spanish population has increased considerably, mainly due to the increase in life expectancy and the sanitary improvements. On one hand, people with disabilities account for 8% of the Spanish population, most of whom have reduced mobility problems and they're people older than sixty-four years with many accessibility problems on a daily basis. On the other hand, the market in this sector is constantly changing and growing. This project is based on the design and validation of a walker for persons with reduced mobility, with the intention of providing a solution to the accessibility problems for this group of the population, considering different aspects such as the functionality, convenience, manoeuvrability and adaptability of the walker, while obtaining an aesthetic product. A series of activities are concentrated on this work for the development of the walker: the generation of design proposals, the different studies of ergonomics, safety or functionality, the selection of components and materials, the analysis of the environmental impact and the economic viability of the project, all this considering the existing legal regulations, in order to achieve a functional product for users of reduced mobility.

Resum Aquest projecte justifica el càlcul d'estructures i la distribució en planta d'un laboratori destinat a la formació profesional agrària de 96,94m2, situat a Mecuburi, al nord-est de Moçambic. La solució estructural proposta consta de 4 pòrtics metàl'lics amb 4,3 m de separació entre ells. Els pilars tenen un perfil IPE-200 i 4 i 5 m d'alçada, mentre que les bigues son de perfil IPE-180 i mesuren 7,47 m. Formen la coberta a una aigua amb un 13,5% de desnivell. El projecte cobreix les exigències del promotor quant a l'aforament (24 alumnes), realitza el càlcul estructural dels pòrtics mitjançant el software WinEva 7, es calculen les corretges de coberta, les plaques d'ancoratge i la cimentació amb el programa CYPE, a més de la il'luminació utilitzant el programa informàtic Dialux. Sempre seguint el Código Técnico de la Edificación (C.T.E.). Per a la caracterització de l'edifici, s'han elaborat 5 plànols. A més, el document de pressupost, acredita el cost de l'obra, el qual té una xifra d'execució per contracta de 72.211,11.

Every year, local, regional, national and European authorities offer public funding and calls to enhance the rehabilitation of buildings or the installation of renewable power sources in buildings, to improve their energy efficiency and reduce the overall CO2 emissions. This work is done in the framework of the H2020 EmpowerMed Project, which tackles to empower people affected by energy poverty, with special focus on women. Under this framework, and taking the base that access to energy is a human right, this study will analyze the different calls offered by public authorities promoting building energy efficiency improvements. Also, it will evaluate the barriers and opportunities that these vulnerable groups have to participate in, so they may have the chance to leave behind energy poverty. Moreover, a categorization and classification of the calls will be performed in order to best assess which are the best practices analyzing the economic, social and environmental impacts

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a permanent disorder that affects communication, social, emotional, comprehension, and movement skills along with others. However, it has been shown that we are dealing with users who have the same needs as anyone else, with the only premise that they are born with this disorder that will be with them all their lives. Through the years and methods studied, we know that this disorder can be worked on so that people who suffer from it can achieve autonomy in society. This project aims to design a toy to encourage the inclusion of these children in society, and to work on the skills affected by the disorder. I wanted to achieve this goal without forgetting such important requirements as the quality of the product itself, not focusing only on the tangible proprieties. The environmental, economic, and social impacts will also be taken in consideration. This project is based on the Design Thinking Method, which is based on people-focus design. It consists of 5 phases; Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. There have been used methods such as surveys, interviews, empathy maps, mind maps, insights, brainstorming, morphological charts, matrices, prototyping, Customer Journey Map, and software such as Solidworks, Illustrator, and Keyshot. Thanks to the whole process of research, definition, and development, the final product achieves all the main goals, except the fact that the price exceeds the limits initially expected due to local production and the use of sustainable materials Finally, this project has all the necessary technical documentation such as plans, materials, graphic design, and its final result is analyzed, determining its price and economic viability.

Technologies are increasingly present in society for their use and development, providing a notable improvement (simplicity and speed) in the development of daily activities. There is a social stratum, in some aspect, not sufficiently attended, which causes social inequality. This is the case in older adults with difficulty in adaptation or digital learning. This generates dependencies that are not always covered. This TFG values this situation by proposing technical solutions (development of a device prototype, both hardware and software level) and even business solutions so that it could have the necessary opening, access or divulgation. To achieve it, first, was made an inquest to population (including future users), where the existence of this problem and the need for a solution were ratified, also were obtained the applications considered of interest to contain the device. Next, were investigated the market and possible competition, concluding that there are devices dedicated to this sector of the population, but they are insufficient. Those that provide more than one service remain complex to use autonomously, and those that only provide one service lack of more services despite the fact that, they are easy to use. Previous to the development of the prototype, the idea was presented to the accelerator Peninsula, obtaining a first positive assessment and the possibility of a second meeting once the prototype was finished and presented to institutions/companies in the sector. According to that, were done meetings with the ONCE Foundation and workers in charge of older adults (after developing the prototype), from whom very positive feedback was obtained and all the comments mentioned were taken into account. Due to the pandemic situation and its consequent access limitations to centers for the elderly, even having validated the prototype also with some elderly, following advice from ONCE, we would have liked to validate it with more potential users. With all, a validated prototype with future projection is obtained, which achieves the non-dependence of this sector of the population on third peopleand offers them the possibility of having these services of interest, as it currently has the great part of society.

Over the last few years, web services have evolved enormously, from archaic text-only websites where only the web master can upload and update content, to the most modern applications such as social networks with video calls and real-time video streaming where all users interact and create new content. All these advances in the way services are built and how we interact with them have been made possible by major technological improvements and contributions, such as the increasing speed of access networks, the evolution from desktop to laptop computers, the emergence of pocket devices such as smartphones and the development of even more powerful wireless access networks, such as the evolution of mobile telephony standards. Despite all this evolution, technology has not stagnated and continues to evolve to provide us new ways to build services and interact with virtual worlds. In recent years, new technologies have appeared, and these technologies have produced a paradigm shift in the relationship we will have with web-based services, and some companies are even talking about the beginning of a fully immersive metaverse. In this thesis we will analyze some of these technologies, such as blockchain networks, their possible social implications and we will develop an application based on this technology following a circular economy framework.

The following Project has the objective of finding possible improvements to the thermal conditions of a house located in the Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona at risk of energy poverty. The solutions that are studied must be fast, efficient and, above all, cheap. Using the simulation software ‘Fluent', a fluid dynamics study has been carried out in which the different alternatives regarding the improvement of thermal insulation proposed by the collaborating entity, the NGO Oasiurbà, have been tested. It will act on different elements of a House such as the Windows, the facade and the roof. To carry out the study of possible solutions, the thermal efficiency in winter has been carefully analysed, where temperatures tend to be lower. This document collects the processes related to the relevant simulations, dealing with the investigation of the appropriate boundary conditions, the results obtained and the conclusions corresponding to the latter.

The development of new technologies in the field of telecommunications has a great impact on how we communicate with other people and even with some objects. The incorporation of 5G, IoT and 6G will require new means of transmission that could provide the world population with bandwidth internet with close to zero latency. One of these new means is HAPS, which would offer a solution when it comes to bringing the internet to remote areas and zones affected by conflicts or environmental disasters. HAPS could also serve as support in large cities in situations of network traffic peaks. Although such technology has great benefits for humanity, falling into the wrong hands could compromise the privacy of people, anywhere in the world. The study will mainly focus on applying a system that allows detecting HAPS that enter an airspace to check whether they have been authorized or not, but also it will deepen into the concept of HAPS and its possible use in the coming years, as well as making a comparison with other similar projects that would compete with HAPS