TY - JOUR
T1 - Social and scientific relevance of systems engineering undergraduate theses in Latin America
AU - Hidalgo-Leon, Pilar
AU - Luna, Ana
AU - Rivas, Lornel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.
PY - 2024/10/8
Y1 - 2024/10/8
N2 - Contribution: The main objective of this research is to contribute with a methodology based on data science techniques that allows the identification of undergraduate Latin American Systems Engineering theses that have social and scientific relevance. Background: All scientific research must be rigorous and generate knowledge without neglecting relevance and social impact. The Sustainable Development Goals promulgated by the UN with a view to 2030 research guidelines capable of influencing society. Hence, the importance of having a tool that allows obtaining indicators related to the research’s scientific and social relevance. Research question: Is it possible to identify, through a systematic methodology, Systems Engineering undergraduate Latin American theses whose approach has scientific and social relevance? Methodology: Free access repositories from 21 Latin American countries were used, and the search for System Engineering undergraduate theses published between 2015 and 2022 was restricted. We used scrapping and crawling techniques to demonstrate the social and scientific relevance, considering the title, the abstract, and the keywords of the analyzed theses as sources. After applying these techniques, the collected data are stored in a dataset. To refine it, we used filters based on language, and we narrowed down the results by including only titles with keywords mentioned in the selection criteria. Finally, we refine the exploration using the Google Scholar search engine and the SERP API to obtain version and citation metrics. Findings: A new methodology implementation for searching undergraduate theses with social and scientific relevance yielded successful results. However, a great heterogeneity was identified in the lines of research addressed by different Latin American countries, which shows different regional priorities, but at the same time, opportunities to channel research work in pursuit of a social impact. The research provides baseline information to drive theses aligned with social development and sustainability priorities.
AB - Contribution: The main objective of this research is to contribute with a methodology based on data science techniques that allows the identification of undergraduate Latin American Systems Engineering theses that have social and scientific relevance. Background: All scientific research must be rigorous and generate knowledge without neglecting relevance and social impact. The Sustainable Development Goals promulgated by the UN with a view to 2030 research guidelines capable of influencing society. Hence, the importance of having a tool that allows obtaining indicators related to the research’s scientific and social relevance. Research question: Is it possible to identify, through a systematic methodology, Systems Engineering undergraduate Latin American theses whose approach has scientific and social relevance? Methodology: Free access repositories from 21 Latin American countries were used, and the search for System Engineering undergraduate theses published between 2015 and 2022 was restricted. We used scrapping and crawling techniques to demonstrate the social and scientific relevance, considering the title, the abstract, and the keywords of the analyzed theses as sources. After applying these techniques, the collected data are stored in a dataset. To refine it, we used filters based on language, and we narrowed down the results by including only titles with keywords mentioned in the selection criteria. Finally, we refine the exploration using the Google Scholar search engine and the SERP API to obtain version and citation metrics. Findings: A new methodology implementation for searching undergraduate theses with social and scientific relevance yielded successful results. However, a great heterogeneity was identified in the lines of research addressed by different Latin American countries, which shows different regional priorities, but at the same time, opportunities to channel research work in pursuit of a social impact. The research provides baseline information to drive theses aligned with social development and sustainability priorities.
KW - Sustainable development goals
KW - Social relevance
KW - Scientific relevance
KW - System engineering theses
KW - scientific relevance
KW - system engineering theses
KW - social relevance
KW - Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible
KW - Relevancia social
KW - Relevancia científica
KW - Tesis de ingeniería de sistemas
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85208601256&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/RITA.2024.3476154
DO - 10.1109/RITA.2024.3476154
M3 - Article in a journal
SN - 1932-8540
VL - 19
SP - 306
EP - 314
JO - Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias del Aprendizaje
JF - Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias del Aprendizaje
ER -