Electronic Services

Electronic Services

The ubiquity of the Internet and mobile devices allow a new paradigm, in which citizens monitor their environment through such devices collecting data (audio, video, location, etc.) in a conscious and / or unconscious way. In this context, electronic services play a key role in the exploitation of all this information and meta information.

Technologies such as location linked to social networks and its massive adoption opens new doors to services aimed at improving the quality of life in cities. Work in sporadic and distributed networks is also a field with an interesting projection in this sense.

The immense amount of all kinds of information shared forces to offer new functionalities in the field of the semantic web facilitating the personalization and recommendation of contents. The applications are multiple: from the most obvious in services added in social networks, to others with a more direct impact on the education and dissemination of knowledge in museums or other educational facilities.

On the other hand, the massive use of e-learning platforms at different levels of education has marked a turning point in teaching in different aspects and is an unbeatable source of information about students, their customs, their different ways of learning and interacting with each other, with teachers and with educational content.

Lines of Research

Líñas de Investigación

Automatic recommendation and customization

Design and development of semantic-based personalization algorithms for the generation of automatic recommendations.

WebRTC

Creation of web applications with video exchange and multimedia information between end users through computers and mobile devices.

Sporadic networks

Setting up sporadic ad-hoc networks between users who coincide at times and places in environments where it is feasible to propose some kind of cooperation that can benefit from the adequate selection of participants or the identification of common interests.

Crowd Sensing: Monitoring of activity in urban areas and early detection of anomalies

The methodology developed by the team is based on the mass analysis of data of social networks, which allows to model the activity of a city through the activity of its citizens in LBSNs.

Artificial Intelligence and Serious Games for early-detection of ageing-related diseases

Learning analytics in mixed environments (blended-learning)

In this context, the team has developed its work on the monitoring of student activity on e-learning platforms by applying spatiotemporal mathematical models, classification algorithms and clustering. Specifically, we analyze the frequency and quality of different types of interaction (consultation of documentation, visualization of audiovisual resources, participation in forums, students discussion group, etc.) to establish different profiles of students according to their activity and their relation with academic results.

Multimodal Learning Analytics.

Analysis of the data collected from different sources (LMS systems, mobile and wearable devices) in order to obtain a holistic understanding of the learning process.

Dissemination of information in distributed networks and without infrastructure

The use of wireless networks without infrastructure allows any device to connect autonomously, without the need of a coordinating entity, to other devices located in the range. This distributed form of communication allows both the collection and dissemination of information between devices, mainly mobile.

Detection of rumors in social networks

Leaving aside the advantages of social media in terms of speed of information dissemination and fairness in access to such information, widespread use is not without its problems. Particularly worrying are aspects related to the credibility of information and the dissemination of inaccurate or false information, whether accidentally or maliciously on social networks. More specifically, the spread of rumors is a recurrent area of research in recent years in which we can find a large number of results oriented to model and / or simulate the behavior of the rumor spread and its comparison with the dissemination of reliable information.

E-health Process Mining

Monitoring, process control, traceability and adherence to protocols in the health domain.

Research Groups

Facilities

The area has three research labs (approx 250 m2 in total):

One for staff collaborating in our activities and projects: contracted personnel, PhD students, visiting researchers…
Another one where different computer equipment for cross-use (servers, network equipment, storage services…) is located, as well as other laboratory equipment for experiments, projects and demonstrations (desktop computers, laptops, televisions, settop boxes…).
And a third one for work sessions of the staff that is part of the group, and for meetings with project partners or external visitors.

Application Sectors

Transport and mobility
Education and training sector (corporate, school, vocational and higher education)
Advertising
Energy
Smart City

Marketing
Toursim
Leisure activities (campsites, museums, concerts, …)
Health sector
Personal quantification
SME

Outcomes

Title	Automatic recommendation and customization
Summary	Design and development of semantic-based personalization algorithms for the generation of automatic recommendations. W3C OWL, WordNET, YAGO, DBPedia.
Application and Pros	Discovery of non-trivial relationships between profiles and / or entities that allow us to characterize degrees of affinity usable in personalization and recommendation services.
Application Sectors	Any type of sector likely to benefit from identifying the best products for its customers; leisure activities susceptible to personalization; cultural institutions or museums that wish to implement leisure activities to improve the appeal of their contents and increase their degree of assimilation.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	WebRTC
Summary	Creation of web applications with video exchange and multimedia information between end users through computers and mobile devices.
Application and Pros	Web applications for direct video exchange between end users, without the mediation of a central server; common standard software for mobile devices and laptops or desktops.
Application Sectors	Any company that wants a service that includes the establishment and recording of audiovisual conferences between users with standard devices.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Sporadic networks
Summary	Establishment of sporadic ad-hoc networks between users who coincide at times and places in environments where it is feasible to propose some kind of cooperation that can benefit from the adequate selection of participants or the identification of common interests.
Application and Pros	To promote the creation of sporadic networks that favor the creation of relations between users; favor the development of collaborative activities among initially unknown users; sporadic and dynamic networking between vehicles for the exchange of information (e.g. traffic-related).
Application Sectors	Leisure activities that require the selection of participants on the go according to their affinity (campsites, museums, concerts…); creation of user networks for participation in collaborative services.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Monitoring of activity in urban areas and early detection of anomalies
Summary	The ubiquity of the Internet and mobile devices allow a new paradigm, in which citizens monitor their environment through such devices collecting data (audio, video, location, etc.) in a conscious and / or unconscious way. In this context, Location-Based Social Networks (LBSN), which were created with the aim of allowing users to assign their position to physical locations and share them with their contacts, allows the information gathered to be enriched by adding the user’s location.
Application and Pros	To define the usual movements of citizens in an urban environment, modeling the behavior in three variables (location, time, density). This information can be used for the early detection of incidents in urban areas. In an on-the-fly monitoring phase, it can be evaluated if the behaviors are not expected for the zone, day and time, thus activating the necessary management.
Application Sectors	Smart Cities.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Learning analytics en contornas mixtas (blended-learning)
Summary	The massive use of e-learning platforms at different levels of education has marked a turning point in teaching. In this context, work has been developed to monitor student activity on e-learning platforms by applying spatiotemporal mathematical models, classification algorithms and clustering.
Application and Pros	A system of early assessment of the risk of low academic achievement (abandonment and / or failure of assessment) that feeds this information to the two groups involved: the teacher, so that he/she can take the measures he/she deems appropriate, and the student, so that can reverse its training strategy. The prototype has been developed as a module of the widely used Moodle platform. A system to identify and classify different forms of learning, allowing the teacher to know the profile of their students and tailor training techniques to different types of students. This classification is based on the different types of interaction of users with content and with other students, their frequency and the distribution of both during the teaching period.
Application Sectors	Universities, educational environments in general, e-learning platforms.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Dissemination of information in distributed networks and without infrastructure
Summary	The use of wireless networks without infrastructure allows any device to be able to connect autonomously, without the need of a coordinating entity, to other devices located in the range. In this area, we work with two support technologies: Wi-Fi direct and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).
Application and Pros	A system that allows any device to adapt its behavior to the majority considered adequate in the physical space to which it arrives. It is based on mobile phones. The prototype allows these devices to share information with those located in their environment directly (using Wi-Fi direct) and cooperatively decide how to manage interruptions (sound, alarms, messages, etc.). This process is entirely done without human intervention. The main advantage of this type of communications lies in the absence of a specific infrastructure that has to be deployed and supervised. On the contrary, any device with either of the two technologies embedded, can communicate directly with another that also has them.
Application Sectors	Smart city.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Detection of rumors in social networks
Summary	The team is working in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in the application of machine learning mechanisms on multi-variable time series and non-uniform sampling, for the detection of rumors in social networks and their possible classification according to their final certainty level: rumors that eventually become true, false or unverified facts.
Application and Pros	The scenario fits into the context of cyber-crime. Not only cyber-crime is experiencing rapid growth, but it is increasingly common for cyber criminals to use social media either as a vehicle for collaboration or as a target. In the specific case of financial crimes, market data, financial news and social sentiment have an impact on the stock market and are therefore susceptible to manipulation through online media.
Application Sectors	Smart city
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Platform of telematic services to monitor products (goods and services) based on semantic technologies
Summary	The platform establishes low cost systems of traceability and control of processes in very dynamic contexts. It is an adaptive platform that allows you to easily manage changes in workflows. Its flexibility is supported by the use of semantic technologies and self-configuring web services.
Application and Pros	Establishment of traceability services and process control services based on the HACCP methodology. The main advantages are the reduction of costs compared to the systems that exist today, the flexibility against changes and the ease of use.
Application Sectors	Particularly in those areas where fine traceability is essential, such as the food or health sector (eHealth).
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	MyCareClan. System for the support to the therapeutic adherence
Summary	This is an app for mobile devices (Android and IOS) that allows users to keep information on their mediation and manage their dosage. The app notifies the user at the time when each medicine needs to be taken. The system allows to have information of several users and to link some users with others, allowing to receive information about the intake performed by another user, alerts in case of no notice about medicines taken, chat with other patients, etc.
Application and Pros	Control of therapeutic adherence and its promotion. A “privacy by design” approach has been followed. Patient medication data is not sent at any time outside the user’s device, so it is not compromised at any time.
Application Sectors	Medical, health, personal quantification.
Intellectual Property	In process of registration

Title	GAME·TEL
Summary	It is an open source software system to design, develop, execute and evaluate educational games and simulations adapted to different characteristics of the student, such as the training itinerary, user profile, educational objectives, personal preferences or feedback. The system comprises several interconnected modules that allow the integration and communication between games and simulations and several resources of wide penetration and use in the teaching communities.
Application and Pros	The system will be multiplatform, multiformat and multi-device.
Application Sectors	Health sector.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	SAM-TV
Summary	Platform to deliver interactive digital services to older people through SmartTV technologies.
Application and Pros	Residential care.
Application Sectors	Health sector.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Panoramix
Summary	Serious games pool for the early detection of mild cognitive impairment and diseases related to dementia.
Application and Pros	Residential care.
Application Sectors	Health sector.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	ToCP
Summary	Telematic services platform for the implementation of products and services monitoring plans, mainly in the health domain. The platform facilitates the deployment, at low cost, of HACCP based systems of traceability, process control and/or control of adherence to protocols in very dynamic contexts. It is an adaptive platform that allows to easily manage changes in workflows.
Application and Pros	Its flexibility is supported by the use of mobile devices, semantic technologies and self-configuring web services.
Application Sectors	Health sector.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	Edu-AREA
Summary	Repository and lesson management system based on the Open Educational Resources model. The system consists of two parts directed to differentiated user profiles. On the one hand, it is a web application for teachers to create their own educational proposals, based on lessons, including educational resources of different types (documents, applications, events, people). This part is aimed at teachers sharing and seeking educational resources of other users using Creative Commons licenses and facilitating the classification of resources. On the other hand, it is a management system to be used by both teachers and students during the development of the lessons. An Android app is available that allows you to follow the lessons even in offline mode. Both teachers and students can register evidences for the construction of e-portfolios.
Application and Pros	Support for the educational work of teachers.
Application Sectors	Education sector.
Intellectual Property	N/A

Title	BeA (Blended e-Assessment)
Summary	It’s a tool that allows transferring written exams into the digital world. Considering the life cycle of an exam from its creation, inscription and distribution in students classrooms, to the answer, assessment and review of it, BeA allows to carry out each of these steps through Internet, with the exception of completing the exam, so the student can keep using pen and paper.
Application and Pros	Improvement of procedures associated with teaching environment.
Application Sectors	Education sector.
Intellectual Property	N/A