• The National Institute for Standardization, an agency created by the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo, in Spanish) to promote the use of standards in Chile, has certified Universidad de Santiago’s laboratory for Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Services for 4 years. This certification enables the laboratory to provide services for large companies both in Chile and abroad, particularly in the field of mining industry.
• Dr. Alfredo Artigas, director of the laboratory, said that this is a great opportunity, because it confirms the quality of the services provided and “it also strengthens our position in the market, increasing our capacities to compete as equals with any other institution.”

Recently, the laboratory for Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Services (Simet, in Spanish) of the Faculty of Engineering was certified by the National Institute for Standardization (INN, in Spanish) for 4 years, the maximum accreditation period given by this agency. The certification that will be valid until 2018 is under the ISO 17.025 standard that regulates testing and calibration laboratories, in this case, in the areas of metallurgy and materials science.

By the end of 2012, the laboratory restarted its accreditation process which was pending since 2006. For this purpose, it invested about 30 million Chilean pesos. After the assessment carried out by the INN at the end of 2013, Simet was accredited in summer 2014.

Assistance

Simet’s goal is to provide comprehensive technical assistance in the area of materials testing and analysis for mining industry, metallurgical industry and smelting plants, among others. At Simet, they mainly carry out metal tensile and hardness testing though its great potential lies in failure analysis for mining industry and mining industry suppliers, when their products fail. All this work is addressed through a comprehensive approach of quality control for all the processes involved which has distinguished Simet in a global and demanding market.

Regarding the accreditation, Simet’s director, Dr. Alfredo Artigas said that it is a great opportunity, because it confirms the quality of the services provided and “it also strengthens our position in the market, increasing our capacities to compete as equals with any other institution, both in Chile and abroad.”

Besides, Dr. Artigas stressed the importance of this certification, “as there are 2 or 3 laboratories that are certified in the type of testing that we carry out; therefore it will open doors for us to reach large companies, like the public transport company Metro, for example. You cannot take part in their tender processes if you are not accredited.”

In Dr. Artigas’s opinion, the most difficult part of this process was to persuade the team to participate, because it involves a significant change in the procedures, from the point of view of non-compliance with standards; equipment calibration; implementation of corrective actions in case of system failures, and strict requirements controlled by the INN. “Keeping the equipment calibrated is expensive, because it should be done once a year and the results have to be compared with the ones of laboratories in other countries. Handling all this is complicated,” he said.

About Simet

In 1998, tensile and fatigue testing machines were acquired through a Fondef project, and the laboratory started to operate. With this new equipment, the laboratory designed and signed a project together with the Society for Technological Development of Universidad de Santiago (SDT, in Spanish), an agency that provides technical and technological assistance and consulting services on professional training to manage these assistance services.

Today, the laboratory has a portfolio of about 200 customers, among which there are some alumni, thanks to the University’s help in job placing in the private sector, both in large and small companies. This yielded a return of approximately a million dollars last year.

However, Simet dos not only provide services for the private sector: the laboratory also lends its facilities and equipment to seven laboratory courses of the different programs of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, graduate students, students working on their dissertations, and research projects, among others, what is in agreement with the quality goals set by the laboratory that involve never to neglect the educational role of the University.


Translated by Marcela Contreras

• By means of a Regular Fondecyt Project, researchers at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, led by Dr. Brenda Modak, are studying a treatment to protect the national salmon farming industry from the dangerous bacterium Piscirickettsia Salmonis, by using wild plants from the Atacama Desert.
• “Synthetic products have proved to be a problem where they have been used as they accumulate at the bottom of the sea. This is the reason why we refer to this as a sanitary challenge that national aquaculture has to face. Working with a natural compound will not only lead to a less invasive cure: there will also be less pollution in waters where it is used,” Dr. Modak stressed.

In the last decades, aquaculture in Chile has been constantly growing, placing Chile in the first place of producers in America, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Also, salmon production accounts for 76% of the national fish farming industry, according to the National Service of Fishing. For these reasons, infections affecting salmon farming at a national level can become a serious problem for the country.

“We are the world’s second leading country in salmon farming, after Norway. So, everything related to infectious diseases becomes important, even more, when it comes to Piscirickettsia salmonis, a bacterium that has killed about 50% of the salmon population in the country,” affecting an industry that generates more than 60 thousand jobs in the south of the country,” Dr. Brenda Modak stressed.

In order to find effective solutions to this problem, Dr. Modak, together with a multidisciplinary research team from Universidad de Santiago’s Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, are working on the Regular Fondecyt Project “Evaluation of natural products with potential antibacterial activity against P. Salmonis.”

“We are trying to test the activity of natural products isolated from plants against this bacterium (P. Salmonis), which has been difficult to combat with common synthetic antibiotics. However, our compounds have proved to be effective as antiviral drugs and immunostimulants for salmons, so this is where the idea of testing them in salmons already infected came from,” she said.

To develop the treatment, researchers will work with plants that grow wildly in the Atacama Desert, which produce a resin that covers the plants to protect themselves against the unfavorable environment in which they grow.

“We will extract the resin from the plant and then we will separate its different components. We have seen that the resin is made of two groups of compounds, from which we will take some samples and test them against the bacterium,” she said.

Three Universidad de Santiago’s laboratories are taking part in this study: the Laboratory of Chemistry of Natural Products, the Laboratory of Immunology and the Laboratory of Virology. First, the study of the extracted resin will be started until the pure compounds are obtained. This will be followed by the bacterial cell growth. Then, the in vitro work will be done, observing how the bacterium is affected by the compounds. Finally, in the in vivo work, salmons will be infected and then they will be given an injection with the elaborated product.

“Synthetic products have proved to be a problem where they have been used as they accumulate at the bottom of the sea. This is the reason why we refer to this as a sanitary challenge that national aquaculture has to face. Working with a natural compound will not only lead to a less invasive cure: there will also be less pollution in waters where it is used,” Dr. Modak stressed.
 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Universidad de Santiago’s Innovo Center was awarded these funds to run the Flexible Allocation Seed Grant Fund for four years in order to accelerate the development of innovative scientific and technological business ventures of international impact.
• “This grant is in recognition for the work done by the Center’s Business Incubator, which has dedicated itself to promote the innovation and entrepreneurship culture and has helped to create new technology-based companies,” Innovo’s Director said.

In order to strengthen scientific and technological business ventures, the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO, in Spanish) awarded Universidad de Santiago’s Innovo Center 2,600 million pesos to run the Flexible Allocation Seed Grant Fund (SSAF, in Spanish) for four years. These funds will be earmarked for supporting innovative, high-impact start-up companies.

“The objective is to accelerate the development of local scientific and technological business ventures at an early commercial stage which are based on technologies in their last mile of development and have a potential international impact. We have 500 million pesos available for the first year and then, 700 million pesos every year,” Luis Lino, Innovo’s Director, explained.

These resources will be given to scientific and technological entrepreneurs through contestable funding. Those who are interested and meet the requirements will have to apply for it. For the business ventures that are granted SSAF funds, Innovo Center considers a first stage of international commercial validation. For this purpose, Innovo has 10 million pesos available, and for the second stage of commercialization support, it has 50 million pesos. Both stages require co-funding, as entrepreneurs will have to provide 25% of the total cost of the project.

“The contestable funding call will include entrepreneurs with technological projects, as well as other Chilean academic or research centers. The first call is scheduled between August and October this year and the projects will be evaluated according to their innovation degree, teamwork, technology development and their impact on the country,” Lino explained.

In Director Lino’s opinion, this grant is in recognition for the work done by the Center’s Business Incubator, which has dedicated itself to promote the innovation and entrepreneurship culture and has helped to create new technology-based companies.

Today, 33 companies are being incubated in fields like engineering, life science, biomedicine, and information technology with impact on industry. Some business ventures that are worth to mention are the development of a tidal power harvesting equipment, a biotechnological treatment for mining industry liquid wastes, the first electric car developed in Chile and a new energy dissipation system for buildings, among others.


Translated by Marcela Contreras

• President Bachelet made public a new government’s initiative in favor of education: it is the Programa de Acompañamiento y Acceso Efectivo para la Educación Superior (PACE), which goal is to help the most vulnerable students in Chile improve higher education access, just as Universidad de Santiago has been doing since 1992.
• At its first stage, the measure will benefit more than 7 thousand high school students. The Mineduc will take charge of the program and Universidad de Santiago, together with Universidad Técnica Santa María, Universidad Católica del Norte, Universidad de Antofagasta and Universidad Católica de Temuco will collaborate to implement it this year. During the ceremony, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago, emphasized that “we will use everything that the State gives us to improve our Propedéutico Program.”

During a ceremony held at Palacio de La Moneda, President Michelle Bachelet, together with the Minister of Education, Nicolás Eyzaguirre, officially launched the Program for Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education, (PACE, its acronym in Spanish), a measure that seeks to guarantee youngsters from vulnerable high schools and with the ability to study the access to higher education.

The initiative replicates the existing University Preparatory (Propedéutico) Programs in the country, an initiative that was pioneered by our University in 2006 and that was preceded by the bonus score to the admission test results added by Universidad de Santiago since 1992.

President Bachelet emphatically assured that “inequality in our country cannot continue. We have to give support to young people who exert themselves and who deserve it. Therefore, together with making deeper structural changes, we want to start now,” taking actions before the first 100 days of her administration.

“This program will provide academic, psychological and vocational support to the best students coming from schools and high schools in vulnerable areas so that they enter a university, professional institute or technical training center, if they want, and keep studying until they graduate,” the President said when she explained the PACE.

At a pilot stage, this initiative seeks to help 7,583 students who are today in third year of high school, in 67 educational establishments of 34 communes of the country.

These vulnerable youngsters and schools will be supported by 5 universities that have a Preparatory Program recognized by UNESCO, are members of the Cruch and have been awarded an Academic Leveling Scholarship for 2014. These institutions are Universidad de Antofagasta, Universidad Católica del Norte, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Universidad Católica de Temuco and Universidad de Santiago, that drove this initiative.

Universidad de Santiago’s Preparatory Program to be strengthened

“Precisely today we start an important process: the expansion of the Propedéutico, that was created by Universidad de Santiago in 2006,” Universidad de Santiago’s President, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, proudly said.

He stressed that, although now it became a public policy, “we are not going to take away the funds that we have been assigning for this purpose since 2006. We are going to use everything that the State gives us to improve and enhance the program”, he said.

For his part, the Director of the Unesco Chair Program, Francisco Javier Gil, said that he was very happy because after several years “we have been heard”, referring to the Preparatory Program experience of more than 20 years in our corporation.

“What this program does is going to places where it is not possible to identify through other mechanisms those youngsters who have made the most of their learning opportunities. We identify them and invite them, since the first year, to dream of studying at a higher education institution, if they want to. Through this, the motivation to study develops and when adding motivation to the classroom, the entire educational environment gets better,” Professor Gil said.

A day to celebrate

Fernanda Kri, Academic Vice President of Universidad de Santiago, who also attended the ceremony, said that she was satisfied “because it is a policy that was mostly started at Universidad de Santiago, but mainly because it is an action going in the right way that will allow us to progress in equity and quality at the same time. Therefore, I believe this is a day to celebrate, but also a day to start working, because we know how to do it. If we want to increase the program’s coverage, we have many things to think together with the other universities and with the Ministry,” she said.

For his part, the Director of the Program at Universidad de Santiago, Máximo González, said that he was proud of “the number of capable youngsters, although they have not had the possibility of developing their talents until now.” He hopes that, in the future, Preparatory Programs will not exist. “When higher education will be free in Chile, these Preparatory Programs will not make sense anymore, because students’ merits and the work that they do during high school will be recognized by the School Grades Ranking, and the economic problems that they have will be replaced with free education. We are patient, optimistic and we believe that this step is a good signal in that way.”

Camilo Ballesteros, former Feusach’s President and current Director of the Government’s Division of Social Organizations, attentively followed the activity.

He stressed that this initiative expresses Universidad de Santiago’s spirit. “This evens the field up, giving all youngsters the same opportunities at entering higher education. It is also a recognition of the historical role that the University has played. First, in the 90s, with the bonus score for lower-income students and, today, with the Propedéutico. It is a recognition of the work done by the University.”

According to the President’s proposal, the PACE plans to include 339 vulnerable schools and high schools by 2015, with students from first to fourth year and by 2017, it should include all the most vulnerable educational establishments in the country.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

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• In the context of a series of seminars ran by the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, Dr. Ricardo Salazar informed about the scope of the research on treating waters contaminated by textile and pharmaceutical industry effluents through electrochemical methods.

In order to inform about the progress made by the Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry’s research group, Dr. Ricardo Salazar gave the presentation “Elimination of persistent organic pollutants in water by using electrochemical methods,” in the context of a series of seminars organized by the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology.

The activity gathered together academics and students who learned about the research being conducted at Universidad de Santiago with regards to eliminating organic compounds in water through advanced oxidation electrochemical processes. Particularly, the presentation referred to the Fondecyt project called “Degradation of dye-containing effluents from textile industry through electrochemical oxidation,” in which Dr. Salazar is the responsible investigator.

The objective of the study is to decontaminate waters that contain dyes and additives by means of electricity and solar energy, avoiding the use of chemical reactants.

“Today, we are working on the treatment of real samples of textile industrial effluents. To do so, we have built a pilot plant to treat larger volumes of contaminated water. We are also testing new electrodes for the process and we have extended the contaminant spectrum to pharmaceutical industrial effluents,” Dr. Salazar says about the status of the study, in which Dr. Julio Romero, from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of Universidad de Chile, takes part as a co-investigator.

SERC Chile

Thanks to his achievements in this field, Dr. Salazar has accepted an invitation to take part as an investigator in a FONDAP project for the Chilean Solar Energy Research Center, SERC Chile, an agency that seeks to become a world leader in solar energy scientific research, with a particular emphasis in developing the potential of the Atacama Desert, Chile.

“I was invited as an associate investigator in the research line of “Solar Water Treatment”, which is coordinated by Dr. Lorena Cornejo Ponce, tenured professor at the Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Industrial, Informática y Sistemas (EUIIIS) of Universidad de Tarapacá. The idea is to contribute to the treatment of persistent organic pollutant-containing waters and their treatment through Solar photoelectro-Fenton degradation”, he says.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Latin American Network of Educational Portals included the work done by Dr. Juan Silva, director of the Center for Research and Innovation in Education and ICT (CIIET, in Spanish), in a publication that gathers together renowned Latin American experts in this field.

Professor Juan Silva Quiroz’ work was selected by the Latin American Network of Educational Portals (Relpe, in Spanish) to be included in a recently published compendium that gathers several papers and reflections on the use of technologies in the educational process. The name of the book is “Mirada Relpe: Reflexiones iberoamericanas sobre TIC y Educación” (Relpe’s view: Latin American reflections on ICT and Education), and it started to be developed in 2011.

Dr. Silva reflects on the relation between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and education policies, particularly in the incorporation of these ICT in the Early Teaching Training (FID, in Spanish) process, as he considers them a determining factor to improve the quality of education, by training professionals in this field and enabling them to understand these tools and implement them in the classroom.

Relpe’s initiative has the purpose of establishing a regional view on how technologies are understood in education.

In the same way, professor Silva highlights the international significance of this initiative, as it provides different points of view on this matter. “Two of us wrote about ICT in teacher training; other expert wrote about videogames and another one wrote on Personal Learning Environments (PLE), etc. It is then a wide variety of work subjects or problems about technology and education presented, referenced or argued by leaders in this field,” he said.

He also added that the book includes some subjects that should be addressed since university education, particularly, in teacher training.

Potential of ICT tools

Regarding the advantages of using collaborative tools like ICT, professor Silva said that most of the teachers, especially at university level, do not see the potential of ICT tools, in terms of having opportunities to share knowledge at a national and international level. Assignments and presentations, he explained, can be modified and improved and will always be available in Prezi, blogs and Wikis, for example, under the logic of Web 2.0.

He also said that these participative and collaborative models are very useful, especially in teaching, which is normally perceived as an individualistic work. “In the traditional model, the teacher presents knowledge and students receive it. On the other hand, in a collaborative model, the teacher acts as a facilitator, as a mediator, and students have an active role in their knowledge- building process,” he added

Nowadays, Dr. Silva is part of a commission set up by the Ministry of Education to address the inclusion of ICT in the training of future teachers, and soon he will publish a book about different experiences of using ICT in early teacher training in Latin American, thanks to a teaching innovation project of the Academic Vice Presidency and sponsored by the Ministry of Education’s Center of Education and Technology (CET, in Spanish).

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Before an audience of over 800 people at the Aula Magna, Universidad de Santiago de Chile bestowed an honorary doctorate on Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, for his academic merits, his strong commitment to universities’ development, for favoring links between Chile and his country, and for contributing to South American integration. Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago, said that this high academic honor was promoted by the Faculty of Administration and Economics and also highlighted President Correa’s contributions, specifying that he has driven “the largest educational reform in the history of his country, in order to improve the quality of primary, secondary and higher education; a public policy that has become an example for all Latin America”. After receiving a gold medal, the highest institutional distinction, President Correa said he was “honored” and he invited the University community “to believe in talent and in the transforming power of education, science and technology.”

On May 14th, our University bestowed an honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) to his Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado.

The highest academic distinction, bestowed by Universidad de Santiago on distinguished figures who contribute to knowledge and humanity, was awarded to the Ecuadorian head of state in a crowded ceremony held at Aula Magna, headed by Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of our University.

Distinguished Ecuadorian and Chilean guests attended the solemn activity. Diplomatic delegations from several countries and high authorities of our University, like Dr. Silvia Ferrada, Dean of the Faculty of Administration and Economics, were also present. This faculty was the one that promoted President Correa’s distinction.

Members of the University’s community and other guests, like Joan Turner, Víctor Jaras’ widow and his daughter Amanda Jara Turner also attended the ceremony.

Dr. Zolezzi highlighted President Correa’s achievements and significant social contributions, particularly, to education in his country, the reasons why he deserved the Honorary Doctor distinction and the “Universidad de Santiago de Chile Medal”, gold category.

Contribution to education

Dr. Zolezzi said that President Correa “has driven the largest educational reform in the history of his country, in order to improve the quality of primary, secondary and higher education; a public policy that has become an example for all Latin America.”

“This fact has a special meaning to us- he added- when we are before the Chileans’ majority clamor asking for large educational reforms (…) we are certain that this is the time to implement them, because education is the best tool to defeat inequality.”

Dr. Zolezzi said that through this distinction to the Ecuadorian head of state, “we are expressing our highest respect and admiration for him as an example to the world’s young generations, which are constantly fighting for noble, just and viable causes that identify men as men, by understanding humanity and justice; that identify men with their origins, with nature; that make them feel as part of a world vision, as citizens of the world.”

After President Zolezzi’s words, Universidad de Santiago’s General Secretary Gustavo Robles read the official resolution document by which President Correa was distinguished, for his contribution to favoring links between the Republic of Chile and his country, his strong commitment to universities’ development, as well as for his academic merits and contribution to the South American region integration.

“Believe in human talent”

In his speech, President Correa, an economist who has been re-elected for a third period to the Presidency of his country, said he felt “honored” for being conferred this distinction by our University and expressed his admiration for Chilean people and Chilean historical figures like Salvador Allende, Víctor Jara and Pablo Neruda.

With great eloquence and knowledge of the reality of the countries of what he called “Patria Grande” (Latin America), President Correa reviewed his major achievements during his tenure regarding matters like economy, health, labor policies and, especially, education, where he highlighted the progress made by his administration.

While he was speaking, the new Universidad de Santiago’s Honorary Doctor- the 14th awarded since the institutional regulations were established in 2000- was interrupted several times by loud applause by an audience that crowded the Aula Magna. Regarding education, he highlighted, for example, the creation of four new universities during his tenure, the closure of 14 “deficient” universities and the higher rate of participation in higher education of the lowest income quintile of his country.

Also, President Correa reiterated his support to the idea of education as a human right and he called for “believing in human talent.”

“I strongly believe in the transforming power of education, science and technology; even more, my hopes rely on this power: my hope for the future of our planet, for a sustainable way of living, for the possibility of offering a good life to all humankind (…),” he emphasized.    

“Promoting knowledge will allow a higher scientific and technological progress, but what is most important, its application for the common good. In Ecuador we have banked on investing in talent in order to achieve sustainable and sovereign development,” President Correa concluded.

To see the photo gallery, click on the following link: http://www.udesantiagoaldia.cl/content/presidente-de-ecuador-rafael-correa-doctor-honoris-causa-por-la-universidad

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Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Optics and Photonics Group of Universidad de Santiago, led by graduate student Pablo Fredes, organized an educational astrophotography camp aiming to promote knowledge on how to handle different state-of-the-art technologies to observe the stellar panorama, capturing unprecedented photographs.

About 15 students of the Engineering Physics program participated at the First Southern Night Skies Astrophotography Camp organized by the Optics and Photonics Group of our University, which is one of the Student Chapters of the Optical Society of America (OSA).

During two nights, the young group made up of undergraduate and graduate students of the Engineering Physics program participated in the activity that was sponsored by Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna. They were taken to Observatorio Turístico y Educativo Roan Jasé, at Cajón del Maipo to become familiar with observational field work using different telescopes and high-resolution CCD cameras that operate together with a computer to capture images of the night sky.

About 15 students, together with five members of Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna, had the possibility of observing the surface of the sun and its spots during the day and enjoyed interesting talks about the life cycle of stars, constellations, exoplanets, the Mapuche world view and astrobiology, among others.

“We learned so much: setting the telescopes in ‘station’, understanding the use of mirrors and lenses, distinguishing different types of telescopes and finding celestial bodies in the sky. Watching planets directly is amazing,” the student Daniel Barrientos said. He considered the experience to be rewarding, even from a spiritual point of view.

For these young students, this approach to astronomy also represents a view to the wide variety of employment opportunities related to their program and it allows them to start exploring the possibility of working in any of the important astronomical observatories in our country.

Astronomy at Universidad de Santiago

Pablo Fredes, president of the Optics and Photonics Group of our University, one of the OSA’s Student Chapters, is also a professor at the Department of Physics and is writing his dissertation to complete his Philosophy of Science graduate program. From his experience as a teacher, he thinks that astronomy is a field that could be strengthened by our University, especially because of the relations fostered by the Planetarium and the enthusiasm shown by the students of his Department.

“All physics students are interested in astronomy,” he said, considering the advantages offered by the skies of our country for this activity and for research. “Maybe this camp can contribute to develop this field at the University,” Fredes added.

He explained that the camp idea was born last year, when the members of the group were thinking thought about the activity that they wanted hold in 2014 with funds provided by the OSA.

The OSA, through its student chapters, funds activities aiming to spread, promote and encourage studying some physics branches, like optics and photonics (the study of photons’ properties and flux).

“The OSA’s grant allowed us to buy a CCD camera- that we attached to a telescope- and to cover transportation, food and entry-fee expenses,” Fredes said.

The activity was organized together with Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna, which members are astronomy amateurs willing to share their knowledge and equipment.

“We are very happy with the results, because the activity included young people who knew much about optics but who had not had the chance of watching through a telescope or taking photographs with this type of instruments. Besides, the images we were able to capture are a valuable material, so we are doubly satisfied,” Manuel Tobar, a member of Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna, said.

In October, the members of the group are planning to hold the Second National Congress of Optics and Photonics, where they expect to exhibit the photographs taken during the camp that took place on April 4-6.

“We would like to have more activities, establish more links and have the possibility of applying for other grants, maybe at a university or at a national level,” Fredes concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The National Institute of Industrial Property recognized Universidad de Santiago as the third Chilean university with the highest number of invention patent requests that seek to contribute to the country development in fields like chemistry and biology, engineering and technology. Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi’s National Director and Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation of Universidad de Santiago,   encouraged the University community to continue constantly producing industrial innovations to contribute to society.

On April 25th, in the context of the World Intellectual Property Day, our University was recognized as the third best national institution in requesting invention patents during 2013.

The National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi, in Spanish)- an agency responsible to the Ministry of Economy in charge of registering, managing and promoting industrial property rights in Chile- granted our University an award in a ceremony led by Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi´s National Director.

During the activity that took place at Inapi’s building, Santa Cruz highlighted the important role played by our University in producing creative innovations that contribute to our country’s development.

“Universidad de Santiago de Chile is absolutely essential to our patenting system. It has always been in the highest positions at the patent request ranking and this is not a coincidence: it is the result of serious intellectual property policies,” Inapi’s director said.

For Maximiliano Santa Cruz, our University’s interest in industrial property “is a powerful signal to its researchers, professors and innovators, in general.”

“I ask Universidad de Santiago’s innovators to continue creating new things and using the patenting system for it is a powerful tool to protect intellectual property,” he added.

Dr. Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation (Vridei, in Spanish) of our University, who received Inapi´s award, showed himself very pleased with the position in the ranking at a national level.

“We are very satisfied with our exceptional position among the institutions that request for invention patents (…) We would have been happy to keep the second place like we did last year, but being among the main institutions that file patents requests in Chile is excellent news indeed,” Dr. Bustos said.

Pontifica Universidad Católica was at the first place in the patent request ranking while Universidad de Concepción was at the second place.

Finally, Vice President Bustos said that the high position of our University in the ranking reflects that “our researchers have become aware that not only scientific publications are important for our country: developing specific technological projects in key areas for Chile is important too.”

According to data provided by the Department of Technology Transfer of our University, during 2013, this state and public institution filed 11 invention patent requests in Chile, and at the same time, it filed other 42 requests with foreign agencies in charge of registering industrial inventions.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• The Red de Mentores network is made up of businessmen and executives with more than 10 years of experience, who will transfer their knowledge and experience to start-up companies incubated in this center, in order to give value added to their business.

On April 16th, Innovo Center of the Vice Presidency of Research, Development and Innovation of Universidad de Santiago presented an initiative called Red de Mentores (Mentoring Network). This network is made up of businessmen and executives with more than 10 years of experience who will transfer their knowledge and experience to start-up companies incubated in this center in order to give value added to their business.

They are professionals that voluntarily join this network to provide knowledge about areas such as marketing, sales, exportation, finances, accountability, administration, business strategies, production and distribution, human resources, regulatory issues, technologies, leadership, team and conflict management, among others.

“The idea is that the mentor will be able to give new points of view and foster new questions directly, as well as to expand the business vision of the mentee, who in turn will develop new abilities and acquire new knowledge to strengthen his/her new business,” Luis Lino, Director of Innovo Center, explains.

The process will benefit those start-up companies that show significant progress at a commercial level and need to incorporate new knowledge and join networks to boost their businesses.

“The initiative involves entrepreneurs who have companies and business projects based on science and technology, with at least one year in the incubation process, grouped together in areas like engineering sciences, food science, biotechnology and nanotechnology,” Lino adds.

The first gathering was held on April 16th, where 10 mentors and 6 incubated entrepreneurs had the possibility of meeting each other. After the meeting, the mentoring process will be initiated and it will last for six months. During that time, each mentor will work with one startup, transferring his/her know-how, vision, attitudes and competences.

“With this idea, we expect to benefit entrepreneurs with increased contact networks, professional advice, high level knowledge at no cost, acceleration of business growth, access to networks of potential investors, opportunities to implement ideas and plans, and feedback on professional and personal development areas, among others,” Innovo Center’s Director concludes.

Translated by Marcela Contreras