Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

About: Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México is a education organization based out in Mexico City, Mexico. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Population. The organization has 1098 authors who have published 2532 publications receiving 39083 citations. The organization is also known as: Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico & Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology.

A combined algorithm for image segmentation using neural networks and 3D surface reconstruction using dynamic meshes

Abstract: Reconstructing the surface from a set of unstructured points to build a 3D model is a problem that arises in many scientific and industrial fields as new 3D scanning technology is able to produce large databases of full 3D information. 3D surface reconstruction is also important after segmenting sets of 2D images to visualise the 3D surface represented by the segmentation. In this paper we propose an algorithmic methodology that obtains a series of segmentations of human head tomographies, produces a set of unstructured points in the 3D space, and then automatically produces a surface from the set of unstructured 3D points about which we have no topological knowledge. The methodology can be divided in two stages. First, tomographic images are segmented with a Neural Network algorithm based on Kohonen's Self-Organising Maps (SOM). The output neurones that have adapted to the image, are a series of 3D points that will be fed to the second stage. Next, our method uses a spatial decomposition and surface tracking algorithm to produce a rough approximation S' of the unknown manifold S. The produced surface S' serves as initialisation for a dynamic mesh model that yields the details of S to improve the quality of the reconstruction.

Promoting productivity in manufacturing companies in developing countries: An information system for managing and querying knowledge bases in the automotive industry in Mexico

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that a low-budget information system using knowledge bases can be developed and adopted in a manufacturing firm to improve the productivity of the organization. The automotive industry uses complex software systems to perform product engineering at all stages of the production process, from conceptual design to manufacture. For each of these stages, different software tools of great complexity are employed, and the people using these tools need constant support in order to continue being productive even when problems arise with the software they are using. Given the amount and variety of queries made by product engineering personnel to the software support staff, said staff can benefit from a software tool that stores their expertise for reuse and can be queried in order to generate quick solutions to problems with product engineering software. In this article, we describe an information system that uses these ideas related to case-based reasoning in order to flexibly and efficiently reply when problem situations are encountered by the product engineering staff of a major automobile manufacturer. This setup can relieve some of the burden placed on the software support staff and reduce their response time. The information system resulted from a collaboration between a large multinational company and our university, specifically its undergraduate computer engineering students, benefitting all parties involved in the project and helping in the development of our country, Mexico. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Development of a short questionnaire for measuring service quality perceptions

Abstract: This study describes the development and initial validation of a nine-item measure for assessing customer service quality perception in fast food restaurants. The new instrument operationalizes three dimensions of perceived service quality (environment, staff, and product). The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed by computing a confirmatory factor analysis and reliability indices on the responses of 386 customers of a chain of restaurants in Mexico City. Predictive validity was also assessed, computing the relationships between the three dimensions of the questionnaire and one scale operationalizing customer behavioral intentions. The assessment of the psychometric properties of the new measure revealed that the three oblique factor structure of the questionnaire was robust, and also that the reliability of its scales was adequate. Apart from having good validity and reliability properties, the new measure provides two additional advantages: a very short administration time, plus a clear snapshot to identify which of the three dimensions of service has the highest impact on behavioral intentions.

The optimal method for pricing Bermudan options by simulation

Abstract: Least-squares methods enable us to price Bermudan-style options by Monte Carlo simulation. They are based on estimating the option continuation value by least-squares. We show that the Bermudan price is maximized when this continuation value is estimated near the exercise boundary, which is equivalent to implicitly estimating the optimal exercise boundary by using the value-matching condition. Localization is the key difference with respect to global regression methods, but is fundamental for optimal exercise decisions and requires estimation of the continuation value by iterating local least-squares (because we estimate and localize the exercise boundary at the same time). In the numerical example, in agreement with this optimality, the new prices or lower bounds (i) improve upon the prices reported by other methods and (ii) are very close to the associated dual upper bounds. We also study the method's convergence.