ity and Automotive Electronics; Automation and Robotics;. Instrumentation and ... the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the. University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain, in 1994. Currently, he is an Associate Professor with the University of. Vigo.
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Annual Seminar of Automation, Industrial Electronics and Instrumentation SAAEI 2012 Alfonso Lago Ferreiro, Senior Member, IEEE, Inmaculada Plaza García, Senior Member, IEEE, and Manuel Caeiro Rodríguez, Senior Member, IEEE
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HE current edition of the Latin American Learning Technology Journal (IEEE-RITA: Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologías del Aprendizaje) includes a selection of papers presented in the conference SAAEI 2012 (Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación), held at Guimaraes (Portugal) in July 2012. The Annual Seminar of Automation, Industrial Electronics and Instrumentation, SAAEI, is a meeting for university researchers and industry experts to exchange ideas, share project results and concerns towards the promotion of new initiatives for future projects with a higher impact and effectiveness. This conference has an international character open to researchers worldwide. Although most of the attendees come from Spain and the language for most of the contributions is Spanish, there are also delegates from other countries, especially from Latin America. In the past, the conference was held in other countries out from Spain (Cuba 2001, France 2004, Mexico 2007 and next year Morocco 2014). The conference schedule was organized around several thematic areas to arrange the contributions, grouping researchers working in the same areas. This organization facilitated the sharing of ideas and the dissemination of research results. The goal was to support a more dynamic and interactive dissemination platform, as long as the presentations were provided to experts in the same research areas. Eventually, the aim was to promote purposeful ideas and future professional links. In this way, the conference guarantees the enrichment of knowledge base. The thematic areas used to arrange the contributions in this edition of the conference were the following ones: Power Conversion Techniques; Control Techniques in Power Converters; Renewable Energy, Power Quality, Control and Efficiency of Electrical Systems; Electrical Mobility and Automotive Electronics; Automation and Robotics; Instrumentation and Measurement Systems; Micro Systems and Embedded Systems; Industrial Applications; Educational Applications. As a part of this last thematic area a Technical Cooperation agreement was signed between the SAAEI Permanent Committee and the Spanish Chapter of the IEEE Education Society. Among other aspects, this agreement includes a resolution to select two contributions of each edition of the SAAEI conference to be considered for their potential publication in IEEE-RITA. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/RITA.2013.2273113
Among the contributions presented in the current edition, the two papers receiving the best marks and assessment results by the reviewers, both during the general review process and during the presentation and explanation of the works in the conference, were selected. The first paper, authored by Iñigo J. Oleagordia Aguirre, Mariano Barrón Ruiz, and José I. San Martín Díaz, from the Universidad del País Vasco/ Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), is entitled “Test and Measurement Platform Based in PC” (original in Spanish: Plataforma para Test y Medida basada en PC). The goal of this work is to put at the students’ disposal an integrated environment based on virtual instrumentation that enables to optimize learning through experimentation using basic electronics instrumentation. This environment includes: a function generator, a multichannel oscilloscope and a spectral analyzer. A preparatory virtual laboratory is available for students in addition to the traditional laboratory. In this way, they can study the theoretical materials, but also practice the technical disciplinesaway from the classroom. In addition, students can complement the lab sessions already planned in the electronic instrumentation related syllabus with out-of-class and blended activities such as test and measurement practices in electronic circuits. This availability is proposed in the frame of the active teaching methodology coming from the European Higher Education AREA (EHEA). The three virtual instruments have been developed and implemented in the LabVIEW 2009, environment that supports the compilation of the designed programs into executable files. In this way, learners just need a PC available, a data acquisition card and a protoboard to implement circuits, to make tests and measurements. The second selected paper was authored by M. Teixidó, D. Font, T. Pallejà, M. Tresanchez, and J. Palacín, from the Universitat de Lleida, and it is entitled “Developing a Learning Case Study Combining Computer Vision and Robot Arm” (original in Spanish: Desarrollo de un Caso Práctico de Aprendizaje Combinando Visión Artificial y un Brazo Robot). The specific goal of this practical learning case is to detect the random positioning of a small object over an enclosed area, to capture this object using a robot arm and finally to place it on a specific place. Learning results show that the performance of this practical case increases the motivation of engineering students and improves the acquisition of the theoretical concepts. The development of this practical case by learners demands previous theoretical knowledge about artificial vision and control of an educational robot arm.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT From these pages we want to transmit our most sincere thanks to the Organizing and Permanent Committees of the SAEEI 2012 Conference, and also to all the involved reviewers and authors. Their great work has been the key to this very successful event. Finally, we want to take this opportunity to encourage readers to participate in the future editions of this conference. The 2013 edition will be held at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (www.saaei.org).
Alfonso Lago Ferreiro (SM’94) was born in Lalín, Spain, in 1962. He received the M.Sc. degree in physics from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1988, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain, in 1994. Currently, he is an Associate Professor with the University of Vigo. His current research interests include switching mode power supplies, systems for fast battery chargers, reliability of electronic systems, control applied to power converters, and educational innovation. He is a Chapter Coordinator of the IEEE Spanish Section. He is a member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, the IEEE Power Electronic Society, the IEEE Education Society, and EPE Association.
Inmaculada Plaza García (M’02–SM’06) received the M.S. degree in physics, the Advanced Studies Diploma degree in design and manufacturing engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. She has been a Quality Consultant and Leader in a security firm. She is currently a Senior Lecturer with the Electronics Department, Polytechnic University School of Teruel, University of Zaragoza. Her current research interests include quality (applied in R&D&I activities and in the education area), open hardware/software, and digital electronic systems. She is the Coordinator of the Research Group EduQTech. Currently, he is a PastChair of the Spanish Chapter of the IEEE-Education Society and the Head of the “Chair in Innovation and Technological Quality,” University of Zaragoza.
Manuel Caeiro Rodríguez (M’05–SM’09) was born in Catoira, Spain, in 1975. He received the Telecommunication Engineering degree and the Ph.D. degree in communication and information technologies from the University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain, in 1999 and 2007, respectively, where he is currently is an Associate Teacher with the Department of Telematic Engineering. He lectures subjects related to computer programming, software engineering, and computer architecture. His current research interests include the application of information and communication technologies to support education, particularly in the field of educational modeling languages. He actively participates in the Spanish Chapter of the IEEE Education Society.
