José Antonio Ballesteros Garrido

The ruins of the church of Saint Pantaleon, located in the historical center of the city of Cuenca (Spain), presents a Romanesque origin related to the Order of the Temple and a Gothic finish. Moreover, the two naves of which it would consist in the 13th century, would become a single one in the 16th century. Through the analysis of the ruins and the investigation of the architectural and stylistic characteristics of the period, as well as the comparison with other temples in Spain, two simulation models have been made for the 13th and the 16th centuries respectively. They have been validated by comparison with studies of temples of similar contexts and dimensions due to the impossibility of validating the model with in-situ measurements. As the observed behaviors are analogous, it indicates that the theorized models are accurate and, therefore, the results are reliable. These models, were simulated in an occupied and empty state for officiant, choir and populus sources. It can be highlighted a more reverberant enclosure in the 16th century, with better values of vocal clarity and definition and better intelligibility than in the case of the 13th century model. Regarding positional differences, it has been observed that there are hardly any differences among the three positions in any of the models. Finally, the inclusion of the audience has a remarkable effect on the acoustics due to the increase of absorption, which leads to a better musical clarity, definition and intelligibility and a shorter reverberation time.

Contribution: A peer-mentoring plan designed to support engineering students during their transition from high school to university. This article addresses the adaptation challenges faced by first-year students in engineering programs. Background: The transition to university is a critical period for students, marked by significant lifestyle changes and the inherent difficulties of engineering degrees. This often results in high stress levels, with some students struggling to adapt and consequently dropping out. Previous efforts to support students have shown varying degrees of success, highlighting the need for effective peer support mechanisms. Intended Outcomes: A structured peer-mentoring environment aimed at reducing stress, improving first-year students’ adaptation to university life, and decreasing dropout rates. The program is designed to be well received by both mentors and mentees, thereby enhancing the academic experience for engineering students. Application Design: Drawing on existing teaching experiences and literature, the proposed peer-mentoring program involves senior students acting as mentors to first-year students. The program begins with a training session to equip mentors with necessary tools and to define their roles and boundaries. This is followed by an initial meeting during the welcome day, and continues with formal and informal interactions throughout the first semester, under the supervision of the degree coordinator. Findings: Surveys completed by both mentors and first-year students indicate a high level of acceptance and perceived usefulness of the peer-mentoring program. The results suggest that the program effectively supports first-year students in their transition to university life, with strong recommendations for its continuation in future academic years.

It is well-known that Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguides allow not only the integration of classic waveguides, such as rectangular waveguides, into a printed circuit board maintaining the quality of traditional waveguide devices, but also keeping in these circuits the advantages of planar devices: low cost, high integration and mass production capabilities. Nevertheless, a critical point to consider in the success of manufacturing these devices is the soldering of metal covers that close the structure and create the waveguide. This paper presents a new soldering process that simplifies the former procedures, making it easier and reducing economic and time costs. To validate this new assembling procedure, two prototypes have been manufactured and measured: a back-to-back from microstrip to ESIW, and a Ku-band filter; repeteability of the fabrication process has been proved and high performance results have been obtained.

The advantages of the Substrate-Integrated Waveguide (SIW) in terms of low profile, integration with Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and low cost are maintained by the Empty Substrate-Integrated Waveguide (ESIW). Moreover, as the dielectric fill is avoided, other advantages are also added: resonators with higher quality factor and lower insertion losses. Since 2014, when it was proposed, several devices for X-band to Ka-band applications have been accurately designed and manufactured. In this way, transitions are one of the most important components, as they allow the connection between the ESIW and other planar transmision lines such as microstrip. To accomplish this aim, different transitions have been proposed in the literature: based on sharp dielectric tapers combining metallized and non-metallized parts, which increases the manufacture complexity; with a broadened ESIW section, that is less complex at the cost of increasing reflection and radiation losses due to the abrupt discontinuity; based on tapered artificial dielectric slab matrix, more difficult to mechanize; using a tapered microstrip transition, with high radiation losses; and even transitions for multilayer devices. Among all the transitions, the most versatile one is the through-wire transition, as microstrip and ESIW can be implemented in different layers and allows any feeding angle between the microstrip line and the ESIW. In this paper the through-wire transition has been properly validated at Ku- and Ka-bands. Moreover, a back-to-back transition has been accurately manufactured in Ka-band with measured insertion losses lower than 3.7 dB and return losses higher that 11.7 dB, concluding that the transition is not frequency dependent.

Lectures on science and technology constitute one of the most noteworthy activities used to promote STEM-related degrees (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This research seeks to identify the factors that pose an obstacle to promoting science and engineering via scientific and technical lectures to secondary school students, as well as their positive aspects, based on the experiences of teaching staff who conduct such lectures. An exploratory study consisting of 16 interviews was conducted with lecturers of different ages, qualifications and academic profiles at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). The software ATLAS.ti was used to perform the qualitative analysis. The results of the interviews reveal obstacles related to secondary schools, the speakers, and the university environment, mainly focusing on organisational aspects. Similarly, positive aspects have been found with regard to students, speakers, the University and society in general, all of which are geared towards promoting these studies and communicating scientific knowledge. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that science and technology lectures may be a good outreach tool, but they require greater organisational and institutional support.

According to the European Law, noise maps in cities have to be worked out and updated every 5 years. Because of this, it is interesting to establish new methodologies to develop and update the noise maps in a more efficient way. Although there are specific standards to carry out noise maps and a good practice guide was defined, there is not a common procedure in the definition of the noise map. In each research, a specific methodology is defined based on the experience of the researchers and the characteristics of the town. In this work, a methodology based on a street typology classification is proposed to be applied to noise maps. This methodology allows allocation of the mean power and the temporal behavior to each street from its characteristics and the time profiles measured with semi-permanent noise monitoring systems. The methodology was developed, tested, and validated in the city of Cuenca (Spain) and the results obtained are shown in this chapter.

The benefits of empty substrate integrated waveguide (ESIW) are already well-known and contrasted in the literature, as well as the benefits of designing filters and other devices according to this technology. Recently, the Folded-ESIW (FESIW) has been presented, that halves the width of the original ESIW waveguide and maintains the cross-section area with good performance indexes and a similar bandwidth. This paper discusses three alternatives to design bandpass filters based on FESIW using irises, vertical cylindrical soldered posts or short-circuits along the folding gap. The most robust and effective way of manufacturing them is objectively determined. A prototype example is, for the first time, completely designed, manufactured and measured, with results of 3.71% fractional bandwidth at the central frequency of 14 GHz, 1.39 dB of filter insertion loss and Q-factor around 1300; this proves the feasibility and reliability of this new type of filters in comparison with other filters based on similar topologies.

Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide (ESIW) technology preserves the many advantages of the Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) such as low cost, low profile, and easy integration with Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). Moreover, it has additional advantages due to the avoidance of dielectric filling: lower insertion losses and resonators with higher quality factor. In order to connect the ESIW line to classical planar lines, the design of transitions becomes specially important. Due to this, some microstrip-to-ESIW transitions have been published in recent years. Problems of these transitions are usually the complexity of the manufacturing process or increased radiation losses. Knowing the aforementioned disadvantages of the published solutions, in this paper, the transition with an expanded ESIW section has been improved, by adding an easy-to-manufacture dielectric taper that minimizes the undesired radiation losses. Additionally, the new proposed transition can be mechanized easier than previous solutions based on sharp tapers. Moreover, the slight overlap between the microstrip line and the upper ESIW metal cover has been avoided, thus enhancing the return losses of the proposed transition. To validate the proposed transition, two back-to-back prototypes have been manufactured both in Ku- and Ka-band, obtaining insertion losses lower than 0.31 dB and return losses higher than 20.8 dB in Ku-band, and insertion losses lower than 1.36 dB and return losses higher than 14.75 dB in Ka-band.

The connection between education and a country's economic and social development is unquestionable, and science and technology-related careers are of particular importance. Given the lack of vocations in these degrees, a number of mechanisms have been used to attract students, including science and technology conferences in secondary schools. Focusing on this type of lectures, this article aims to analyse the didactic aspects used by university lecturers who deliver this type of lectures. To this end, 16 teachers were interviewed using a structured interview. From the qualitative analysis of the interviews, we reached a series of results and conclusions, among which we would like to highlight the following: teachers see these lectures as a form of scientific dissemination which also helps to promote the degree courses they teach and serves as a support for attracting students; when choosing the content of the lecture, they mainly take into account the secondary school curriculum, including striking aspects and the results of their own research; the mediums used are mainly visual and supported by Do It Yourself techniques; the content is normally presented through presentations or practical laboratory exercises; finally, the documentation provided to students depends on the teacher giving the lecture, and there is no consensus on this point.

Empty substrate integrated coaxial line (ESICL) technology preserves the many advantages of the substrate integrated technology waveguides, such as low cost, low profile, or integration in a printed circuit board (PCB); in addition, ESICL is non-dispersive and has low radiation. To date, only two transitions have been proposed in the literature that connect the ESICL to classical planar lines such as grounded coplanar and microstrip. In both transitions, the feeding planar lines and the ESICL are built in the same substrate layer and they are based on transformed structures in the planar line, which must be in the central layer of the ESICL. These transitions also combine a lot of metallized and non-metallized parts, which increases the complexity of the manufacturing process. In this work, a new through-wire microstrip-to-ESICL transition is proposed. The feeding lines and the ESICL are implemented in different layers, so that the height of the ESICL can be independently chosen. In addition, it is a highly compact transition that does not require a transformer and can be freely rotated in its plane. This simplicity provides a high degree of versatility in the design phase, where there are only four variables that control the performance of the transition.