Universidad Politécnica de Aguascalientes (UPA) was inaugurated on June 9, 2002. Nowadays, it is a public institution of higher education in the State of Aguascalientes recognized as one of the leading study houses of the state.
UPA academic programs are based on a market study derived from the needs of the state for having high-ranking professionals who solve the real needs of the environment. UPA has distinguished itself because its graduates are quickly positioned in the labor market and are linked to the productive sector. Some of the UPA’s achievements and partnerships in recent years are:
• He is part of the Advisory Council of the Common Space of Technological Higher Education.
• He has the SEP recognition for Academic Excellence.
• His careers are accredited by bodies such as CACEI and CACECA.
• His students have achieved outstanding grades in the EGEL exams.
The UPA’s mission is to “Transform the environment through a comprehensive higher education of excellence for the benefit of society.” and a vision for 2022. “We are a recognized university, in society and the environment, for the educational, technical, and human excellence of our graduates and researchers.” UPA’s mission defines the four institutional objectives:
1. Promote and deliver higher education at different levels and modalities. It aims to prepare professionals with a solid technical and human background, aware of their environment in the economic, political, and social aspects.
2. Conduct applied research and practice technological development relevant to economic and social development.
3. Promote and disseminate knowledge and culture through university extension.
4. Provide technological and advisory services, which contribute to improving the performance of the economic and social sectors.
In addition to institutional objectives, UPA maintains a Quality Policy to adopt continuous improvement through innovation, service to the university community, and the various sectors of society, complying with the operational and strategic requirements of the institutional regulatory framework.
Undergraduate Careers
Currently, Universidad Politécnica de Aguascalientes offers seven engineerings, a bachelor’s degree:
• Aeronautics Engineering
• Energy Engineering
• Electronics engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Computer Systems Engineering
• Engineering in Automotive Mechanics
• Engineering in Mechatronics
• Bachelor of Business International
Educational supply has a technological approach due to the high demand that exists in the labor market of this type of professionals.
The careers taught by Universidad Politécnica de Aguascalientes are supported by studies of relevance that are carried out every three years with the business sector in order to review their coherence with the needs of the work environment.
UPA’s tuition plans and programs are approved with the more than 60 campuses that make up the Coordination of Technological and Polytechnic Universities and are located in different states of the Mexican Republic, which brings as an advantage that students can make academic mobility naturally to any form of the country, as long as the institution has the career it is pursuing.
UPA envisages in its curriculum a system called Industrial Projects, which aims to provide its students with practical academic training to increase their operational maturity and that leads to professional qualifications that contribute to the technological development of companies, tailored to the needs that the labor sector currently requires. The Industrial Projects system directly benefits the production plant since, in a selfless way, students professionally support special projects with the advice of teachers-researchers who have extensive experience in the labor sector of their specialty.
Graduate Programs
In addition to graduate careers, the UPA offers two postgraduate degrees in master’s mode:
• Master of Science in Engineering
• Master’s Degree in Science Teaching
The Master of Science in Engineering (MCI) is a program with an applied research approach that is taught in weekend mode. The program has three specialties
• Networks and Systems
• System Optimization
• Control and Automation
The MCI has as an educational model Skills-Based education applied to both research and project development. Its mission is to deliver a relevant and quality higher education through an innovative educational model in the generation, research, and application of knowledge, training professionals of values, and the highest technical and human quality standards. The MCI is aimed at all those whose current or future professional performance is part of the engineering science application processes.
The Master of Science in Engineering (MECI) is a program oriented to Educational Research that is taught in an online mode. The program has four areas of expertise:
• physics
• mathematics
• chemistry
• biology
The objective of the MECI is training competent teachers in the design and implementation of scientific-technological learning environments allowihng the development of the competencies established in the subjects of the areas of Mathematics and Physics, using educational research methodologies, as well as to raise the quality of the educational services offered by the different institutions of higher education of the country.
Academic Bodies
Academic bodies (CAs) represent the set of teachers-researchers who share one or more lines of study, whose objectives and goals are intended for the generation and/or application of new knowledge.
At the UPA, CAs aims to consolidate the specialization of their teachers to practice their teaching from good quality education, as well as to promote a solid platform to face the increasingly demanding future in human capital formation, as well as to lead scientific and technological development projects for the strengthening of the undergraduate and graduate programs of the institution.
Currently, the UPA has four academic bodies registered with PRODEP:
1. UPA-CA-15 Information And Telecommunications Technologies: Software security-based telecommunications technologies, design and modeling of information technologies and information systems.
2. UPA-CA-10 Renewable, alternative and sustainable energies: Energy Science and Technology.
3. UPA-CA-12 Electronic Engineering: Bioelectronics, automation and applied electronic systems.
4. UPA-CA-16 Alternative Learning Strategies: Gamification as a meaningful learning strategy in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, appropriation of science as a channel for learning.
Science and Technology Projects
Currently, the UPA is developing applied research projects related to the impact of the environment, health, and engineering. The projects are:
• Oxygen-free biodiesel through hydrodeoxygenation reactions with Ni/C sulfonated catalysts.
• LED lighting to increase the foliar area of the basil.
• Extraction of essences of aromatic plants for therapeutic purposes.
• Acquisition of power in microbial cells.
• Electromechanical characterization of biodiesel.
• Plant propagation and automation of high-tech greenhouses.
• Development of biometric prototypes applied to sport (UPA jump).
• Recycling of damaged or obsolete photovoltaic module materials.
• Design and enablement of the solar energy laboratory.
• Automation of Protected Agriculture.
• Brushless motor failure detection for light electric vehicle applications.
• System to Identify Probability of Aggravation in PATIENTS with COVID-19 based on Chest Tomography and Blood Chemistry Analysis.
• Embedded system for Intelligent Automatic Control Assistant with Multicriteria Optimization and Evolutionary Algorithms.
• Automatic mathematical modeling with Artificial Intelligence techniques for energy consumption prediction in LED luminaires.
• C5 Risk Conditions and Situation Classifiers Prediction System
These projects contribute directly to strengthening and consolidating the lines of generation and applying knowledge of master’s degree in engineering science.