Abstract:

University teacher submit proposals for research projects that are a clear advance in knowledge. In this context, a group of professors proposes a teaching experience in which educational work will be proposed to incorporate undergraduate students in the resolution of real problems within the framework of a research project.

The teaching experience is carried out during two academic courses (21/22 and 22/23),in which 18 engineering students complete their training during the development of their final degree work or internships with research initiation competences. This is supported by two mentors, with a research profile and advanced training, who help the teachers, in a closer way,to solve any doubts in the training process of the students. The students will participate in the research project by carrying out their final project or internships.

This teaching experience proposes a methodology based on individualized mentoring in which the students will consult with the mentors about the doubts that may arise in the realization of the work proposed by the tutors. In this way, the mentors will allow the students to easily integrate into the research group and the research project work in which they will collaborate by developing their initiation to research. Mentors can provide students with important information about the research project, the methodological approach and the skills required to deal with it. In addition, they can help students to develop research skills, such as writing research reports, searching for relevant information, handling specific equipment and software, and data interpretation. In addition, the mentor will serve as a link between the tutors and the students. The methodology is completed with group mentoring in which the tutors also take part. For this purpose, four training seminars are planned with all the groups involved to address the main stages of the realization of a research project (background and hardware and software equipment, methodology to be developed, results achieved, discussion of results and drawing of conclusions).

The result of the experience is positive, usually only 5% of the students defend the academic works in the first call. In this case 43 % of the students have achieved it, which evidences the motivation provided by the mentors. In addition, students are encouraged to acquire degree competencies that are difficult to work on in the classroom, such as training in initiation to research, teamwork and solving real problems. For research groups, the mentoring of undergraduate students can be an opportunity to incorporate new collaborators who bring different ideas and perspectives to the projects that the research group carries out.

Keywords:

Mentoring, teaching experiences, research initiation, active training, clean energy generation.