Development of research competence of undergraduate engineering students in the process of graduation: methodological proposal and experience

A mentoring methodology for research works applied in the degree unit of the Computer Engineering career of the Universidad Politecnica Salesiana, in Guayaquil -Ecuador, during 2019-2020 is presented. This methodology develops a formative process, proposes a set of resources, in addition to proposing a series of principles and results. Students in the process of graduation are guided in the development and presentation of the results of their research in the form of articles to be submitted for evaluation by scientific committees in international academic events of relevance (with indexing) or scientific journals. In fact, each student develops a process of mentoring, five months of work (average), from the initial contact to the preparation of the document to be submitted to the respective journal or exhibition at the congress where the work was accepted. This methodology leads the undergraduate to research, with a technical approach, addressing real problems in areas where computer science and engineering can solve them. Through observation and survey, the perceptions, needs and feedback required by the student according to their level of training were determined. As a result of the application of this methodology, twenty-three students published articles with indexation.