Colombia does not produce the number of systems engineers it needs to compete in emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence (part of a global trend) - but now students at the Universidad del Valle (Univalle) are exploring the use of serious games to open up engineering to many more people through STEAM learning.
Although there are 26,000 women and 62,000 men with degrees in Systems Engineering in Colombia, and 5,400 professionals graduate each year in this field, a deficit of 42,000 male and female engineers is projected in 2025 and, moreover, between 2016-2020 the representation of women dropped to 22.5% (down from 35% between 2006 and 2010), according to figures from the Colombian Ministry of Education.
Globally, women make up half of the human population, but only 28% of engineering professionals and 40% of computer science graduates and 20% in fields such as artificial intelligence, according to World Bank figures.
To this end, two professors of Systems and Computer Science at Univalle's Faculty of Engineering are leading an initiative to renovate a laboratory for research in Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) to include integrated teaching in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics (STEAM). The new name under which the laboratory will be registered will be TEL & STEAM LAB.
Professor Laura Sofía Rodríguez Pulecio, a titular professor of the School of Systems and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering; co-founder of Grupo Mujeres STEM explained that the goals of the initiative are very broad.
“Los objetivos principales que hemos definido para esta iniciativa son explorar cómo el TEL puede mejorar la gestión curricular mediante el uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC); impulsar la formación en los campos STEAM, y potenciar las habilidades de las mujeres en áreas STEAM para reducir la disparidad en su participación en estos sectores.” dijo la profesora Rodríguez.
Professor Beatriz Eugenia Florián Gaviria, appointed professor at the School of Systems and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, member of the Women STEM Group and initial founder of the TEL Lab, hopes that students will be able to develop projects that incorporate "gamification for STEAM", i.e. in this case STEAM learning through serious games.
"We also want to make sure that our developments here in the lab have a gender perspective, i.e. whenever we design and evaluate the software we make here we think about the needs of both men and women," said Professor Florián.
The Research
At the renowned TEL & STEAM lab inside the School of Systems and Computer Engineering building of Univalle's Faculty of Engineering, four undergraduate students from the Systems Engineering programme presented their research and technological development projects that are part of the lab.
Lina Marcela Rivas, an undergraduate student from the Systems Engineering programme is exploring the feasibility of a serious game to teach users to be more cautious with their cybersecurity on the Internet.
"We want to ensure that these users have the knowledge to reduce the power of hackers and keep their data more secure," Rivas said.
Karen Paola Moreno Palacios, a seventh-semester undergraduate student in the Systems Engineering programme, will address gamification strategies for women and men in the prevention of gender-based violence.
"It has always been a topic that caught my attention; and the mess is to try to address, in a different way, all the concepts of gender violence," Moreno said.
Aida Milena Mina Caicedo, another undergraduate student in the Systems Engineering programme, said she will focus on spatial reasoning for children in the fourth grade of primary school through games.
The idea is to develop a prototype to measure the development of spatial reasoning competencies, that is, to validate that students are really learning the skills that the children are learning through the game," she said.
Esteban Cantor is initiating the development of a learning outcomes assessment and curriculum management system for virtual laboratories in educational robotics, led by Professor Florián in conjunction with Professor Bladimir Bacca from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EIEE).
"During the pandemic, we experienced the need for education to be remote: for example, if there is a remote student, from anywhere they can programme a robot located, for example, at the Melendez site," Cantor said.
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Read more from Univalle’s Women in STEM group: Women researchers seek technological solutions with a gender perspective Leer más de Mujeres en STEM: Investigadoras buscan soluciones tecnológicas con perspectiva de género  Photo: Teachers and students of the TEL & STEAM lab. Credit: Edgar Bejarano/NCC-FI/Univalle |
Closing the gaps
Professor Rodriguez explained that studies show that there is no relationship between women's biological ability and their academic difficulties with learning logic and mathematics.
"But rather a lack of skills in these two areas, due to situations from childhood, for example role-playing," said Rodriguez, adding that gamification is thus emerging as a valuable tool to address these issues.
"Studies also show that there are differences in motivation between the genders: men are more competitive, while women are more oriented towards service and finding solutions for their community," said Rodríguez.
Professor Florián explained that in 2018 she opened a new space (TEL Lab) to work in the area of technology supporting education or "Technology Enhanced Learning".
"We have worked on curriculum management, supported by technology; education with robotics; extension courses and computer education; as well as extension projects involving education and technology in the company of the PSI group of the EIEE," said Professor Florián.
Image: Laboratory logo. Credit: TEL & STEAM Lab
Professor Eval Bladimir Bacca Cortes, a researcher in the Perception and Intelligent Systems Research Group (PSI) at the EIEE explained that the group already has a long-standing partnership with the lab to teach robotics and the TEL & STEAM lab is another step forward on this joint path.
"The question is how to present a more friendly image with other different techniques of learning engineering and mathematics through things like the arts," Bacca said.
Professor Eduardo Caicedo, the director of PSI, explained that the results of the joint work with the lab, have already been very useful, for example, the Colombian energy company Celsia has some training courses created through joint work using augmented reality and virtual reality.
"What he did in partnership with the group was to make a methodological transfer of how to do knowledge management and use these new methodologies to transfer and train new engineers and technologists in new trends," said Professor Caicedo.
If you are interested in contacting the researchers or learning more about the project, please write to the Communications Office of the Faculty of Engineering: comunicaingenieria(at)correounivalle.edu.co
Cover photo: Teachers and students in the TEL & STEAM lab.
Credit: Edgar Bejarano/NCC-FI/Univalle
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