Final Degree and Master’s Final ProjectS

Mario del Río Carazo – January 2023

Data analysis is a procedure focused on extracting and highlighting useful information from a raw database. The constant evolution of the ICT world, and especially the continuous improvement of data extraction tools from all types of electronic devices has generated a huge amount of information, which, by itself, is complex to analyze and draw conclusions for companies and institutions that generate the data. Therefore, the development of analysis methodologies that facilitate the understanding of the data and help to obtain quantifiable conclusions is one of the most relevant research fields of the digital era.

Such tools, whose usefulness is easily appreciated in large-scale projects, are in turn very beneficial in the earliest stages of young projects, helping to monitor and understand each phase of project development from a global and accurate perspective and allowing to correct and adapt the solution to the needs of the environment.

Data processing and management plays a fundamental role when carrying out projects in developing countries, due to the need for these types of interventions to ensure their economic, social and environmental sustainability. In addition, with the same level of importance, it is necessary that these interventions have usable and sustainable technology, which can be achieved by using visual formats to display the most relevant data of the projects, facilitating their understanding and subsequent decision making.

During the realization of this Final Degree Project, we will work on a rural electrification project that takes place in the Ngäbe Buglé region in Panama, the largest indigenous region of the country where only 4% of its population has access to electricity. The main objective of this project is to design and implement a data visualization tool to optimize the management of the rural electrification project.

To achieve this objective, firstly, the project will be analyzed at the level of processes and management models used. Secondly, different visualization tools will be studied and compared in order to choose the one that best suits the project. Next, a series of indicators will be proposed to facilitate decision making in project management. Finally, the visualization tool will be designed and implemented, and documentation will be generated for user training.

Ana María del Olmo Jiménez – July 2022

The main objective is to use digitalization to facilitate and transform the processes of a business model such as energy micro-franchises in order to extend its life cycle and thus to facilitate access to energy to people who currently still do not have it available.

Claudia Novoa Sancho – June 2022

The effectiveness of development policies and projects and the fight against poverty in developing countries depends not only on the absolute resources invested, but also on the appropriate design of the interventions, the identification of the impacts to be achieved, their correct measurement, and, finally, their constant evaluation.

It is essential that such projects are aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined in 2015 as Agenda 2030 by the international community. In this context, it is important to understand the concept of sustainability and sustainable development in all areas that have an impact. This will require defining the different models for assessing the sustainability of organizations, framed in principles of sustainable development and ethical theories of social responsibility at the corporate level, taking into account the origin, characteristics, modifications, applications and opinions of these models.

It is necessary to understand the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) starting with their history and ending with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Furthermore, it is important to analyze the existing methods to assess the progress of the SDGs, with special focus on SDG 7 (Ensure access to affordable, secure, sustainable and modern energy), analyzing the specific impact measurement variables and the existing correlation with the rest of the goals.

The objective of this Master’s Thesis is to analyze the impact measurement models and sustainability indicators and to design a methodology to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the impact of cooperation projects related to SDG7.

Camilo Macarrón Espinosa de los Monteros – January 2022

The limited access to technological resources and connectivity in the most rural and remote areas of the world and the low level of training of their inhabitants, makes necessary to design technology that is highly adapted to the particularities of each area.

In order to facilitate the administrative management of customers at the level of visits and consultations in a store, a tool is proposed that allows workers to continue working manually (handwritten text) but that streamlines the control processes of each store. The objective of the project is to implement a tool that allows the detection and interpretation of handwritten data to be transferred to digital format automatically.

Python language will be used to develop the tool. First, we will investigate and test different existing OCR (Optical Character Recognition) libraries and third-party APIs for handwritten text detection, in order to select those that best suit the project. At the same time, different libraries for image processing will be evaluated in order to achieve a higher quality to improve the accuracy of the tool.

Finally, after the design and implementation with the selected libraries, the results obtained will be analyzed to evaluate the degree of accuracy provided by the tool in the detection and interpretation of text.

Javier Matas Pose – January 2022

The objective of this thesis is to design a control panel of access to Universal Basic Services worldwide, with the aim of facilitating the analysis of the evolution of access over the years.

Firstly, we will study the term Universal Basic Services, its current definitions, origin and predecessors whith a characterization of these. This will be followed by a study of the most relevant indicators that evaluate access to Universal Basic Services.

Subsequently, a methodology for data collection and the design of a scorecard will be designed so that, once the Universal Basic Services and their indicators have been characterized, access figures can be analyzed and decisions can be made basing on them.

Jose María Alcañiz Doussinague – January 2022

Currently, 2.2 billion people do not have safely managed drinking water services and 13% of the world’s population does not have access to energy. As a consequence, different policies are emerging to work towards a more sustainable world, spceally after the 2030 Agenda goals are defined to address this situation. Goals 6 and 7 address access to water and energy.

In order to facilitate and improve the design of actions and decision making in the context of these goals, a study of the concepts will be carried out and a system will be designed to analyze the evolution of access to energy, water and sanitation services over the years.

First, we will study the characteristics of access to these services, the limitations and challenges they present and analyze the actions that are being carried out. An analysis of indicators will be carried out and a scorecard will be designed to reflect the most relevant figures on access to energy, water and sanitation.

María Gracia Fernández Ávila – July 2021

The objective is to design a RCT in a cooperative context, to analyze the impact of resource supply projects in developing countries. Randomized Controlled Trials are a type of impact assessment whose origin goes way back in time, standing out especially in the field of medicine where it is one of the main methods to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs and treatments. However, nowadays it has expanded to a large number of study areas due to its great effectiveness, such as cooperation and economic projects, among others. Its main objective is to measure the impact of the implementation of a program, following some variables in a group of people with certain characteristics randomly divided into control and treatment groups.

María Belén Delgado Domínguez – July 2021

Analyzing the effects or consequences of a cooperation intervention makes it possible to verify the causal relationship between the intervention and its impact. This analysis will allow to design the interventions adequately and to constantly evaluate the effects they provoke. The objective of this thesis is to design a methodology for measuring the impact of cooperation projects. 

First, we will review the context of cooperation projects and their alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were defined in 2015 in the 2030 Agenda by the International Community. In this area, it is necessary to deepen the concepts of sustainable development, appropriate technology and impact, reviewing the existing literature. Subsequently, the different methodologies for impact assessment in cooperation projects in developing countries will be reviewed. A review will be made of models already developed, as well as of the most commonly used indicators for impact quantification. Finally, an impact measurement methodology will be designed, as well as the indicators to be used in the evaluation, focusing on cooperation projects related to SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, safe, sustainable and modern energy.

Enrique Álvarez Redondo – July 2021

The objective of this thesis is to design a methodology to evaluate the impact of technology transfer in cooperation projects. Technology transfer is the process of transferring knowledge from one organization to another with the purpose of generating an improvement in development. Although it is not limited to companies and institutions, it is also used in the transfer of knowledge and technology from developed to developing countries.

Alejandro Ramírez Calonge – January 2019

Carmen pino Cuevas – July 2015

Santiago Baena Velasco – June 2013

This FMP deals with the design and implementation of the tool that is responsible for generating the supplier’s PAYG codes, customer management and billing. First, the extraction of the requirements that cover the particular needs of the project is carried out, and the necessary use cases and views are analyzed and defined. Once the tool requirements are defined and the decision is made to build a web application using the Django framework, which uses Python, we proceed to design the solution.