Validation of PhD project theses at the University of Cádiz, Spain

Daniel Rodríguez visited Cádiz on 5th Feb, for the validation of some PhD projects. There was a small tornado that afternoon very nearby (San Fernando), but luckly we didn’t notice anything at the hotel… uff!! Thanks to Mercedes Ruiz for sending me the picture!

 

Ph.D. dissertation: Josep Prieto

Miguel-Angel spent a couple of days at Barcelona. Monday it was a meeting of project SUMA. SUMA is about integrating learning technology via OKI interfaces.

Tuesday it was the Ph.D. dissertatio of Josep Prieto Blázquez, a faculty member of the Open University of Catalonia. The Ph.D. was about an ontology for Virtual Laboratories (VLAb), and the results included an ontology-driven generation of VLab arrangements in Moodle.  Below the Ph.D. candidate respectfully listening the veredict of the committee (luckily, the result was positive).

The Ph.D. candidate listening the veredict (the public is at the left, out of the picture)

 

PhD dissertation: Enric Mor at Castelldefels

– I (Miguel-Angel) served as committee member for the Ph.D. dissertation of Enric Mor (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). I have been in contact with Enric for years, especially in the context of the Spanish conferences on learning objects we organize (SPDECE). The thesis was successful and I have to say that I was positively surprised, since it dealt with mining navigation patterns inside the virtual campus of the UOC, the methodology was rigorous and the results really interesting. Mining educational data is gaining momentum (check the conferences on the topic), so the thesis was also timely in my view.

 

Thesis at Brunel University

Daniel has served as external examiner of Elahe Kani-Zabihi’s thesis at Brunel University (West London, UK). She successfully defended her thesis entitled: “Implications of users’ involvement in the development of Digital Libraries”.

Congratulations to Elahe and her supervisor, Dr George Ghinea!

Below there is a picture of Stephen Gulliver (left, internal examiner) and Daniel with some paperwork before the thesis.

 

Fredrik Paulsson PhD dissertation at KTH

Miguel-Angel is visiting KTH to act as the opponent in the PhD dissertation of Fredrik Paulsson.

Ambjörn Naeve with Miguel-Angel at the entrance of KTH.On top of them, the Kerberos. In Greek Mythology, the Kerberos is a nice animal (three-headed dog with a serpent’s tail, a mane of snakes, and lion’s claws) which guarded the gates of Hades. He was posted to prevent ghosts of the dead from leaving the underworld. Sounds like a job. Since at KTH there are no ghosts (or a least they are not apparent during the morning) it is said that the Kerberos is guarding the workpeace of the researchers inside.

It is really curious that are two Kerberos in the entrance, and the one in the right (not in the picture) has small pig-like mammaries. So there is one male and one female! The artist wanted to save the species, which is someting remarkable given the large amount of endangered species nowadays. Herakles was sent to fetch Kerberos forth from the underworld as one of his twelve labours. Sometimes it looks that we are wrestling the Kerberos in the field of Web technology research since when we have a head controlled, the others are bitting us.

The dissertation of Fredrik Paulsson Ph.D. was the second day at 10.00 am.

 

Miguel-Angel and Fredrik during the Ph.D. dissertation. Miguel-Angel plays the role of the opponent, so criticizing the Ph.D work and asking questions (row above, left). Fredrik replies and defends the validity of his positions (row above, right).After the opponent is satisfied with the discussion, the committee starts a question round (right). This procedure is not common in Spain, but it fosters a much deeper discussion than only having a round of questions from the committee.After the deliberation of the committee, Fredrik received the good news that he got his Ph.D. It was a really good dissertation. Now we wish Fredrik a productive and exciting academic career!

 

Jesus Soto’s PhD dissertation

Today Jesus Soto, a lecturer of the Pontifical University of Salamanca who regularly collaborates with our group, successfully completed his PhD dissertation. The ceremony was held in our base camp at the Polytechnic building (University of Alcala). His work was about the application of semantic technologies and mechanisms to learning object repositories, with the aim of providing flexibility and enhancing search capabilities.

It was also a perfect opportunity to meet old friends, who gathered around for the occasion. It was particularly emotive the reunion of the so-called “gangrena group” (see snapshot above), formed by previous co-workers at the Pontifical University of Salamanca. From left to right: Miguel A. Sicilia, Juan Manuel Dodero, Hector Castan and Salvador Sanchez-Alonso.

In the snap just above these lines, the new doctor with his supervisors and some members of the PhD committee after celebrating the good news in La Cupula, a nice restaurant in the old town of Alcala de Henares. From left to right, Ainoha Serna (committee), Elena García (supervisor), Ana Fermoso (committee), Jesus Soto (man of the day), Juan Manuel Dodero (committee) and Salvador Sanchez-Alonso (supervisor).

 

Erla Morales Ph.D dissertation – Salamanca University

I (Miguel-Angel) formed part of the committee evaluating the Ph.D. dissertation of Erla Morales (April 24th 2008), about pedagogy, quality and learning objects. You can get an idea of the work presented by reading this paper (coauthored with her two Ph.D. supervisors):

http://www.jucs.org/jucs_13_7/improving_lo_quality_through

It was a really good dissertation and I enjoyed discussing on issues as reusability, context and quality of leaning resources and metadata. After the dissertation we had a really nice dinner at restaurant La Hoja.

 

Since the dissertation was friday at 18. 30, I went with my wife and two kids to Salamanca. Saturday morning I was with Miguel-Angel (my son) visting the rests of the Church of San Cebrián, known as the “Cueva de Salamanca” which is surrounded by legends and mysteries. It is said that the devil was something like a “professor” of black arts at that cave, contrasting his with the teachings of the University. The place gives you an extrange feeling, if you have the opportunity go and visit it, especially in the night!