Engineering Education Research in Spain A review through the Education Awards of CESEI - IEEE Inmaculada Plaza, Francisco Arcega, Manuel Castro, Martín Llamas, Edmundo Tovar, Gabriel Díaz, Francisco Falcone, José Ángel Sánchez, Francisco Mur, Manuel Caeiro, Manuel Dominguez, Rafael Pastor, Francisco Sánchez, Francisco Jurado, José Carpio Directive Board of the IEEE Education Society Spanish Chapter {iplaza, arcegafj}@unizar.es Abstract—In this paper, a review of the educational research that is being developed in Spain is realized in the areas of Electrical, Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics through the works presented to the prizes CESEI (Spanish Chapter of the Education Society of the IEEE) in his three editions. There are two categories of candidates to the prizes, one for the Doctoral Thesis and the second for the Final Degree (or Master) Projects. An analysis of the working areas, the subjects covered as well as the conferences and journals where the results are published has been done. The main goal of this paper is to have a general vision about the work done in such areas of educational research in Spain that will be very interesting for academic staff and researchers. Keywords- doctoral thesis; educational research; engineering I. INTRODUCTION The University plays a very important role in the Society as responsible for the education of future engineers and staff members of companies and Administration. University teachers must split their work in three fields: academic, research and management. For this reason, not always they can devote enough time to the academic activity. Nevertheless, in the last years an effort for empowering the research and innovation in education is being observed. This effort has been reflected in the increase of the number of reviews and conferences dedicated to the higher education, as well as in the number of papers published and research projects developed in this field. In the present paper, a review has been done about the research in education carried out in Spain in the areas of Electrical, Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics through the works presented to the CESEI prizes (Spanish Chapter of the Education Society of the IEEE) in its three editions 2007, 2008 and 2009 and for both categories, best Doctoral Thesis and best Final Degree (or Master) Projects. In section II Spanish Chapter of the Education Society of the IEEE, organizer of these prizes will be presented. In section III, the works (doctoral thesis and final degree projects) presented to the three editions of the prizes will be analyzed. An analysis of the working areas, the subjects covered as well as the congresses and journals where the results are published will be done. In section IV other reviews and conferences, not mentioned by the candidates to the prizes, but of great interest in the fields of research of the IEEE Education Society will be reviewed. Finally, section V presents the conclusions of the work. The main objective of this paper is to have a general vision about the work done in such areas of educational research in engineering areas in Spain, that we think could be very interesting for academic staff and researchers. II. CESEI PRESENTATION The IEEE is a non-profit organization and is the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology. The IEEE name is an acronym for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Today, the organization's scope of interest has expanded into so many related fields such Automation, Telecommunication or Informatics, but it continues to be referred to by the letters I-E- E-E (pronounced Eye-triple-E) [1]. IEEE includes many unique technical societies, active in the areas of publications, conferences and building technical communities. Between these organizations, the Education Society (EdSoc), was created with the main aim of “shall be scientific, literary, and educational in character. The Society shall strive for the advancement of the theory and practice of electrical and computer engineering and of the allied arts and sciences, and the maintenance of a high professional standing among its members and affiliates, all in consonance with the Constitution and Bylaws of the IEEE and with special attention to such aims within the field of interest of the Society” [2]. Its fields of interest are: “Educational Methods, Educational Technology, Instructional Materials, History of Science and Technology, and Educational and Professional Development Programs within Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and allied disciplines” [2]. In Spain in the year 2004 was created the Spanish Chapter of the Education Society of the IEEE (from now on CESEI). The CESEI has the same interests and aims that the IEEE EdSoc has and to whom it belong, but the CESEI tries to develop its interest and aims in Spain and in Spanish language [3]. At the moment, the CESEI is constituted by a Directive Board with a Director and three committees: 105 978-1-4244-6571-2/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE IEEE EDUCON Education Engineering 2010 – The Future of Global Learning Engineering Education April 14-16, 2010, Madrid, SPAIN