Social and scientific relevance of systems engineering undergraduate theses in Latin America

Pilar Hidalgo-Leon, Ana Luna, Lornel Rivas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle in a journalpeer-review

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)306-314
Number of pages9
JournalRevista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias del Aprendizaje
Volume19
DOIs
StateE-pub ahead of print - 8 Oct 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.

Keywords

  • Sustainable development goals
  • Social relevance
  • Scientific relevance
  • System engineering theses
  • scientific relevance
  • system engineering theses
  • social relevance

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