CREARI Research group on cultural pedagogies is dedicated to the study of cultural synergies and educational actions, incorporating advances in digital technologies and visual culture. We are interested in analysing and improving the conditions of the different audiences both in artistic manifestations and in the rest of heritage realities. We are involved in arts education in both formal and non-formal education settings, with a special focus on museums and heritage environments. We consider it essential to get involved in the training of educators, taking into account the new digital settings, prioritising the criteria of cooperation and making room for new educational models. We incorporate members of different backgrounds into the group, considering that interdisciplinarity is a fundamental aspect of our research idea. We have specialised in teacher training at all educational levels, favouring the integration of the teaching staff as a cultural element of prime importance. Our group is composed of a number of people linked to educational and research institutions, people interested in the promotion, development and innovation of educational projects in the field of museums, visual arts, music and contemporary culture. We want to generate international projects, particularly cooperation projects, both in Latin America and in Europe.
Multidisciplinary analysis of the impact of digital disconnection within the framework of labour relations. The technological transformations that the current labour market is undergoing are causing significant changes in the sphere of workers and in business management. Without a doubt, this is a challenge for the agents involved in the workplace (workers, employers, Governments, trade unions and business associations) to strengthen the protective spirit of labour regulations and guarantee basic labour rights such as rest, health and safety at work, privacy, work-life balance, secrecy of communications and data protection. In this sense, the research group analyses the worker’s right to digital disconnection, as well as its possible impact on people management and business competitiveness. All this always pointing out that it is a labour right whose effectiveness ultimately comes both from a mechanism to enhance the freedom and self-determination of the worker’s plan, as well as a guarantee of effective, free and equal business competition within the framework of a social market economy. In this context, the research group clarifies a basic and fundamental labour right today, but with many edges that need to be polished. To this end, in line with its multidisciplinary nature, it deals with the legal assets protected in labour law: to a greater or lesser extent and directly or indirectly, health (art. 15 EC); freedom (art. 1.1 EC) - including freedom of enterprise and productivity (art. 38 EC) -; dignity and free development of personality (art. 10 EC); equality (arts. 1.1; and 9.2 EC); confidentiality and privacy (art. 18.1, 3 and 4 EC); honour (art. 18.1 and 4 EC); and family (39.1 EC). Succinctly, the group intends to deal with the exercise of the right, its legal-practical implications in labour relations (with special emphasis on telework), its current state in the world (with international studies of the law in other countries), its relationship with the prevention of occupational risks (computer fatigue and hyperconnectivity), as well as with gender perspective, diversity, confidentiality and privacy, work-life balance, video-surveillance and corporate control (the need for all kinds of digital software means that the control of workers is growing considerably) and the technological side of it, among other aspects: the BYOD ("bring your own device") study, internal protocols on the use of digital devices and work time management software available to private and public companies.
This line of research studies the intrinsic properties of neutrinos. It investigates the phenomenon of oscillations between neutrino families by measuring the parameters that define these oscillations and tries to elucidate the nature of the neutrino, i.e. whether it is a Dirac fermion or a Majorana fermion. IFIC is leading the NEXT experiment to search for double beta decays without neutrino production, the detection of which would imply that the neutrino is a Majorana particle. It is also involved in several neutrino oscillation experiments with accelerators: the T2K experiment, which is being carried out in Japan, and the next-generation DUNE experiment in the United States. In addition, the IFIC neutrino group develops advanced nuclear instrumentation, which could have important industrial applications, in particular in medical physics and nuclear proliferation control.
The team works in four main related and simultaneously complementary research lines:
- Pattern Recognition Techniques, Computer Vision and its applications for different problems, mainly content-based image search, distance learning and emotion detection from video sequences.
- Processing of different types of signals, particularly audio and video ones. Group works in this research line include capture, analysis and synthesis of acoustic signals, as well as analysis of video signals, all acting in coordination with the Computer Vision line.
- Design of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) with affective capacities. Part of the results obtained from the first and second line of work are used to detect emotions from videos filmed with low-cost hardware by applying techniques specific to the fields of Signal Processing and Computer Vision.
- High-performance and high-availability computer systems offering a fundamental tool for all the previously mentioned fields (pattern recognition, intelligent systems and signal processing) by providing the necessary power in real time whenever required from application areas or in case of high system availability requirements. In this regard, the latest trends focus on distributed systems, the handling of Big Data and the so-called “cloud computing”: three fundamental aspects in the context of group investigation.
The main purpose of IDAL is the study and application of intelligent methods of data analysis for pattern recognition, with applications that struggle with prediction, classification or trend determination.
Its members apply classic statistical methods and automatic learning techniques to large databases: statistical hypothesis testing, linear models, feature selection and extraction, neural networks, clustering algorithms, decision trees, support vector machines, probabilistic graphical models, manifold visualization, fuzzy logic, reinforcement learning, etc.
The ultimate goal of the application of these methods is to generate mathematical models which enable the optimization of processes and resources, as well as to reach the optimal decision making stage. A clear example of this is the area of health, where IDAL has developed clinical decision support application based on data analysis. These applications make it possible to improve the patient’s quality of life (establishing optimal clinical guidelines) while reducing healthcare costs.
Complementing this knowledge, the group has extensive experience in signal processing (spectral analysis, digital filter, adaptive process, etc.) due to their work of over 10 years in biosignal processing (mainly ECG and EEG). With all this background, IDAL is able to analyse a wide range of data and signals. This fact is backed up by the large number of both private and public contracts it has developed in different areas of knowledge. Furthermore, most of the practical work carried out has been displayed in important scientific publications with high impact parameters and in a large number of communications to international congresses within the area of data analysis.
Among the developed applications, (outside the health area already mentioned) are the following, i.a: web recommendations, models for optimal incentive management to gain customer loyalty, measurement-based shoe recommendations, and other data analysis consultancy works. In addition to its practical work IDAL, it develops new data analysis algorithms improving the performance of the existing ones. This research work is also reflected in a wide dissemination in the form of different publications in journals of impact and in congresses of data analysis relevant to the scientific community.
This group brings together researchers from different universities and disciplines who share a common goal: to develop research aimed, firstly, at providing a comprehensive education that contributes to the personal, intercultural and social education of 21st century students and, secondly, at developing their reading, linguistic, critical and creative skills and abilities.
To this end, we combine educational research with didactic innovation to study the pedagogical value of the use and impact of multiliteracies and multimodal resources in the classroom, through the approach of several cross-disciplines related primarily to the humanities, art education, foreign language teaching and new technologies for learning and knowledge (TAC).
The aim of Lit(T)erart is to deepen the contribution of these areas, mainly in teacher training and in the development of curricular proposals that promote the cognitive, conceptual, socio-cultural and aesthetic dimensions, and then focus on the design of an evaluation system based on the creation of rubrics that show the progress of students and the validity of the proposed methodology.
In line with the EHEA guidelines, we propose to build a didactic scaffolding based on the pedagogy of multiliteracies that not only considers language as an exclusive form for the construction of meanings, but also incorporates multimodality as a mode of representation for creating and expressing ideas.
With regard to the motivations of this group for research into music teaching and learning processes, it should be noted that the practical music teaching institutions have been distanced from research into specific music teaching and learning processes. This has not been so much due to their own decision or to the lack of research training of Spanish conservatory teachers -which is a fact-, but rather to the scant importance given to music studies in the different reforms of the Spanish educational system until the LOGSE, as well as to the traditional separation between music practice and research, the former being relegated to music conservatories and the latter to the university. What is more, after the establishment of the so-called Higher Artistic Education within the European Higher Education Area, neither the LOE -and even less the LOMCE- have established effective mechanisms for the research training of music conservatory teachers. As a result, there is a lack of research in conservatories and, as a consequence, little knowledge of what really happens in the teaching and learning processes.
We believe that this is a very important area of expertise in the training of individuals, in addition to its importance in the training of musicians and music teachers. The members of this research group have a long-established track record in different fields of music. Thus, research has been carried out on training processes in music education; on the influence of the use of score editors on the formation of mental images of sound in students; on the effect of multimodal presentations of musical information versus unimodal presentations; on the effects of different modes of information presentation on the learning of musical parameters (texture, melody, rhythm.... ); on the creation of specific software for certain musical tasks and its effects on musical learning; on the influence of music in the media on the stereotypes of primary school pupils; on the use of technology as a mediator in the development of musical skills. All this is materialised in an extensive quality scientific production (publications in impact journals indexed in JCR and Scopus) in the sub-disciplines of music technology, music education, musical creativity, musical performativity and musical cognition. They have also executed European, American (Organización Estados Americanos, CONICYT), national (Plan Nacional i+d+i, FNEA, FONDEF-TIC-EDU (Chile), Fondo Nacional de la Cultura de Chile) and regional (C.Valenciana, Gobierno de La Rioja, Gobierno Vasco, Junta de Andalucía) projects. The members of the group have directed doctoral theses and works related to the aforementioned fields, including works derived from the training capacity of the groups executing R&D projects.
The lines of the group are related to training processes for music education teachers; music education processes in non-formal contexts; dynamisation processes in socio-educational projects through music; technology in music education; software design for music education; science-art interaction; musical performativity and creation.
The master's degrees and postgraduate and doctoral programmes in which members of this group have participated are: Postgraduate course of musical specialisation: ENSENYAMENT MUSICAL MIJANÇANT L'ORDINADOR (UPV-GVA); Postgraduate course of musical specialisation: INFORMÁTICA MUSICAL (Xunta Galicia-U. de A Coruña); Postgraduate course of musical specialisation: LENGUAJE MUSICAL Y EDUCACIÓN AUDITIVA (Gobierno de La Rioja-U. de La Rioja); university postgraduate course of musical specialisation: TEACHING MUSICAL EXPRESSION (Diputación Gral. de Aragón); doctorate course: RESOURCES FOR TRAINING AND CHANGE. TEACHING AND INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES within the Doctorate Programme of the Department of Human Sciences of the University of La Rioja; I University Expert in DESIGN AND CREATION OF VIRTUAL TRAINING ENVIRONMENTS (2004-05. U. of Malaga); II University Expert in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. U. of Malaga); II University Expert in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. U. of Malaga); III University Expert Course in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. U. of Malaga); III University Expert Course in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. de Málaga); III University Expert Course on Methods and Resources in Music Education (2005. u. de La Laguna); Doctorate Programme on Methods of Educational Research and Innovation (2005. u. de Málaga); I Master's Degree in New Technologies Applied to Education (U. de Málaga); IV University Expert Course on Methods and Resources in Music Education (2006. u. de La Laguna); II Master's Degree in New Technologies Applied to Education (U. de Málaga); IV Expert Course in Virtual E-learning Environments (U. de Málaga); Master's Degree in Musical Pedagogy (2009. U. de Valencia); Master's Degree in Research in Specific Didactics (University of Valencia. 2010 editions to date); Doctorate in Specific Didactics (U. de Valencia. From 2010 to the present); Master of Research in Musical Skills Development (2010. U. Pública de Navarra); Doctorate Course in Technology and Musical Learning Processes (U. Nacional Autónoma de México. 2011); Master of Research in Musical Skills Development (2011. U. Pública de Navarra); Master and Doctorate Programme in Music. Course on Technology and Musical Learning Processes. (U. Nacional Autónoma de México. 2012); Master of Research in Musical Skills Development (2012. U. Pública de Navarra); Master in Secondary Education Teaching (U. de Valencia. Several editions to date).
The group researches and develops several fields of optical and digital image processing. The activity includes considerable academic research (supported by a high number of publications in high impact journals) as well as applied research (with transfer in the form of patents, licensed patents and contracts with companies in development and consultancy work).
Generally speaking, the research activity is based on Fourier optics techniques, which are applied from image processing to conventional imaging and holography.
The main areas of activity are the following:
- SUPER-RESOLUTION: Multiple techniques have been proposed for resolution enhancement in optical systems. Under certain conditions, the limits imposed by diffraction or sensors can be overcome. These techniques have application in microscopy, typically diffraction limited, and in all areas where imaging is performed, such as infrared imaging, where the resolution limit is usually the pixel size of the sensor.
- PHASE IMAGE AND 3-D IMAGE: This field exploits the ability to perform wavefront capture by holographic methods to obtain phase measurements of objects, mainly in microscopy. The techniques are analogous to those required for 3-D capture in metrology. In this area, the activity is academic and consultancy in systems for the capture and analysis of three-dimensional objects.
- REMOTE MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS BY MEANS OF SPECKLE: Using the self-interference produced when coherent light strikes a diffusing surface, techniques are employed that allow the detection of nanometre-amplitude motion of the objects under analysis. This allows vibrations and sound to be measured over long distances (up to hundreds of metres) with simple and robust systems. This activity has led to several patents and their commercialisation. Its use can range from sound measurement to mechanical vibration analysis and includes the developing field of non-contact biomedical parameter monitoring.
- LENS-FREE MICROSCOPY: The possibility of wavefront recording has as a potential application the realisation of microscopy techniques in which no objectives are used for imaging. Various techniques are developed, using a variety of light sources for the inspection of microscopic samples.
- LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS: Both theoretical and experimental studies of the operation of liquid crystal displays are carried out. These displays allow beam shaping, polarisation control and polarimetric imaging.
- ADVANCED TECHNIQUES IN OPTOMETRY AND OPHTHALMOLOGY: The aim of this activity is to design and propose systems to improve measurements, images and techniques in optometric and ophthalmological practice.
The PHOTONICS AND SEMICONDUCTORS (FOSE) group focuses its research activity on the preparation and characterisation of devices and materials, covering fundamental aspects and the development of applications, mainly in photonics. The group is structured in three main lines of research.
- SEMICONDUCTORS AND EXTREME CONDITIONS. This line develops several topics of work, in materials science, linked by the use of spectroscopic techniques under extreme conditions (high pressures and high temperatures) for the understanding of the synthesis, crystal structure and electronics of the following materials:
- Wide gap semiconductors for optoelectronic applications, including materials derived from ZnO and its alloys and delafosites (CuMIIIO2), prepared by thin film deposition techniques.
- Materials of geophysical interest due to their role in the composition of the earth, such as MgO or quartz.
- Materials for green technologies such as photocatalysis (rare earth vanadates) or CO2 sequestration (zeolites and different forms of porous silica). The team of this line has specialised in the use of a wide variety of devices for the generation of high pressures and temperatures that are used in-situ in laboratory spectroscopic equipment (optical absorption, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, transport) or in large synchrotron radiation facilities, of which its members are regular users.
- OPTICAL FIBRES. The research and technological activity of this line of research focuses on the manufacture of fibre optic components, their modelling and their applications. The Laboratory has four techniques for the manufacture of fibre optic components based on:
- the manufacture of photonic crystal fibre optics,
- the recording of fibre Bragg networks,
- the assembly of acousto-optical devices in fibre, and
- the preparation of optical fibres narrowed by melting and stretching. The fields of application of the laboratory's research activity include the development of fibre optic lasers, new light sources (photon pairs, supercontinuum spectrum white light, etc.), sensors and optical communications. The work team of the fibre optics laboratory maintains stable collaborations with numerous research groups in Latin America and Europe, as well as an intense activity of collaboration with companies and transfer of research results.
- OPTOELECTRONIC MATERIALS AND DEVICES works on the chemical-physical synthesis of nanomaterials (metallic nanoparticles, quantum dots, multi-functional polymers), their processing in the form of thin films, as well as the study of their structural, electronic and optical properties. This work is the starting point for developing photonic/plasmonic/optoelectronic structures and devices, as well as developing applications in the fields of sensors, photovoltaics and telecommunications. Moreover, research is also being carried out on the optical properties of III-V quantum dots at the isolated level, including the quantum nature of the light they emit, its origin and control, for its future impact in the field of quantum computing and communications. More recently, other types of two-dimensional, atomic-thick, semiconducting nanostructures are starting to be prepared and characterised for their great potential in future electronic/optoelectronic nanotechnology in combination with two-dimensional metallic nanostructure electrodes such as graphene.
The concept of “language variation” is key for the study of the evolution of languages and of social, professional and educational communicative systems. Social, cultural, health, economic, technological and educational transformations are developed, conveyed and reflected through their linguistic and communicative manifestations. The aim of the group is to study the progress that current society is undergoing through the analysis of the essential linguistic variables that are involved and interact in human communication. These variables depend on the profiles of speakers (e.g. idiolectal, dialectal variation, according to gender, age, social status, level of education, etc.) and on the uses they make of language according to the interpersonal identities they adopt (i.e. register variation), the codes they use to communicate (i.e. variation of mode), the different textual platforms they use (i.e. variation of discursive genre) and the different persuasive strategies with which they convey their intention and image (i.e. stylistic variation). The analysis of these variables requires approaching the study of communication at different scales, from its macro and hyper discursive aspect (e.g. interrelation between the variables that interact in business or academic communication, or the complexity of multimodal communication of social media and digital platforms) and also of its micro discursive components (e.g. variation of phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic units). As highlighted by experts in language variation (Bayley, 2013; Chambers and Schilling, 2018), in order to address comprehensive and innovative studies in this field, it is necessary to keep up to date the methodology needed to define and classify the categories, criteria and parameters essential to understand and analyse these variables and their interrelation.
Some of these have been extensively studied (e.g. dialectal variation) and others are currently being studied (e.g. variation of discursive genre), but there are still many ambiguous and controversial aspects of other relevant variables, such as those involved in communicative register variation. This type of interpersonal and contextual variation covers the whole spectrum of human interaction, from that which takes place in the most sophisticated and conventional contexts to that which takes place in the most intimate and familiar settings. There are different degrees of dependence and interrelation between various registers in the same communicative act, which has posed a difficult challenge for experts, particularly when it comes to accessing real data and compiling large and representative corpora. Moreover, throughout history, its study has been approached from many different perspectives, including heterogeneous, ambiguous and confusing variables that have generated controversy within this field of research. This theoretical heterogeneity and methodological complexity have hindered the development of in-depth and wide-ranging studies on this language variety, which could effectively transfer their results to society and the labour market, offering practical methods and tools for understanding, learning and mastering it. There are other variables in a similar situation (e.g. idiolectal variation, stylistic variation, genolects, chronolects, etc.).
With the aim of contributing to the advancement of this field, the main objectives of the SILVAGroup are the following:
- To delve into the fundamental categories, criteria and parameters for the study and analysis of language variation, and the factors involved in its current behaviour in the English language and other majority languages, such as Spanish and German.
- To investigate language variation from a comprehensive pragmatic approach, highlighting its interpersonal and multimodal dimensions in its fluctuation throughout everyday communication from public to private settings.
- To work from emerging technologies, corpus linguistics and other multidisciplinary fields of human communication, contrasting advances and results between languages.
- To design methodologies for the study of language variation, useful in the search and detection of distinctive features that shed light on definition and typology of its parameters of analysis, and also practical for learning and mastering them, especially at a social and professional level.
- To participate in platforms and projects for the dissemination of research, especially in international conferences and impact publications, in order to encourage further study of RV and to publicise the results of the group’s activity.
- To constitute a national and international support platform for research in this field and for its dissemination.
The group’s research activity will be structured from the IULMA, based at the Universitat de València, to which most of the members of the group belong, and is made up of a multidisciplinary team of both young and experienced researchers from the UV, UPV and UA.
All the members of the group share the essential research lines for the study of RV: language variation, corpus linguistics and contrastive linguistics. The group also has experts in other relevant research lines. This multidisciplinary nature provides this team with the advantage of approaching language variation from different but complementary areas of knowledge and research lines, allowing an innovative depth and perspective and results that can really bring a significant advance in the field.
The group's research activity focuses on the design of instrumentation and measurement for radiation detector systems. Specifically, the group applies research in two scientific-technical fields: experimental nuclear physics (AGATA, NEDA and TRACE experiments corresponding to European collaborations) and hospital medical physics (collaborations with the La Fe Hospital, Radiophysics Service, and companies in the sector, specifically in radiotherapy and dosimetry).
As regards experimental nuclear physics (the main activity of the group), the group has extensive experience in the design of electronic instrumentation for nuclear physics experiments (originally in experimental particle physics experiments at CERN, specifically in the DELPHI / LEP and ATLAS / LHC experiments) and participates continuously in the National Programme for Particle Physics and Accelerators.
In terms of activity in medical physics (most recent activity), the group is currently collaborating with the La Fe hospital centre (through the IRIMED IIS La Fe-UV Joint Research Unit), as well as with leading European companies in intraoperative radiotherapy and dosimetry. In parallel to these two research activities, the group has transferred technology to the Valencian productive sector, through collaborations with companies.
As a result of the research carried out within the group, some of its members are co-authors of more than 100 indexed articles, as well as co-authors of 2 working patents and have published several book chapters in major North American publishers.
