• The first day of the conference was very successful. Its purpose was to contribute to the making of sport public policies and to the development, research and impact of physical activity on our society. The activity was opened on July 1^st, at Espacio Isidora Aguirre, Universidad de Santiago, and it was organized by the School of Health, Sports and Physical Activity Sciences, with the collaboration of Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Universidad de Valparaíso. 

   

  With the purpose of contributing to the making of sport public policies and to the development, research and impact of physical activity on our society, the first International Conference on Social Studies of Sport was opened on July 1^st, at Espacio Isidora Aguirre of Universidad de Santiago, and it continued on July 2^nd, at Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.

  The opening address was given by Professor Omar Fernández, Director of the School of Health, Sports and Physical Activity Sciences, ECIADES. “The seminar has the purpose of starting a debate on the development of big events carried in Chile and how these events are related to political, social and cultural processes that give additional meanings to this matter, which differ from the technical point of view of a coach or an athlete,” he said.

  “Social Sciences consider this as a more complex and complete phenomenon that demands a multidisciplinary view, with the contribution of anthropologists, sociologists, journalists, psychologists, historians and physical education teachers,” he added.

  “Universidad de Santiago has brought these issues to the agenda for reflection, debate and research and to see how different disciplines can contribute to the making of public policies, considering this sport and cultural phenomenon,” he said.

  “We have been discussing these matters for two years. Last year we had a seminar on Sociology of Sport with Pablo Alabarces, an expert in this field in Latin America, and specifically on football, and we have had some colloquiums this semester,” Professor Fernández added.

  “Therefore, our University is opening a space for Social Sciences to contribute to this debate, with the idea of furthering the policy-making in the area of sports, considering different points of view to enrich this matter,” he said.

  With regards to how this initiative was started, professor Fernández said: “It started in the course of Sociology of Sport, that considers different aspects for evaluation, relating the course with colloquiums and seminars; but, at the same time, it is related to outreach, from the sociocultural field. ECIADES opens the University to debate, where different agents and researchers meet to take responsibility for this cultural phenomenon.”

  For his part, Jorge Montealegre, Director of the Outreach Department of our University, said: “The decision of promoting the reflection on public policies related to sports and physical activity in the organization and security of mega events is a big feat.”

  Sport and State

  Director Montealegre added: “We see sport as a focal point, as a cross-cutting issue, able to be approached from different disciplines and by different civil, social and State organizations.”

  With regards to this idea, Rodrigo Soto, psychologist and professor of the Sociology of Sport course at ECIADES, stressed that his year they have the goal of conducting studies and providing consultancies on the social aspects of sports, understanding it as a social good, what would allow to reflect on role of the State, among other things.

  “When we think of policies on security in sport events, particularly football, we believe that there are more social agents than the ones that participate today. The space given by the University makes debate possible and allows recognizing that there are more social agents involved in making public policies on security for this type of event,” Professor Soto said.

  “This activity considers other aspects of sport. Sport should not only be considered as a motor practice and bodily movement, because there are social, economic and political factors that are involved,” Professor Soto concluded.

  Organization of the conference

  The event was organized by the School of Health, Sports and Physical Activity Sciences of Universidad de Santiago, the School of Psychology of Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, and the Center for Sociological Research of Universidad de Valparaíso. These three bodies formed the Sociological Studies of Football Cluster. Also, the Social Studies of Sports Center was started this year.

  Translated by Marcela Contreras

• During the 3rd Latin-American Conference on Higher Education Withdrawal held in Mexico, a team of professionals from Universidad de Santiago led by Manuel Arrieta, Vice-President of Student Support Services, shared about the different support programs promoted by the University, with great interest from peer institutions of the continent.

On November 13th, 14th and 15th the 3rd Latin-American Conference on Higher Education Withdrawal (III Clabes) was held in Mexico City, where Manuel Arrieta, Vice-President of Student Support Services, together with other six professionals from Universidad de Santiago presented the different initiatives developed by Universidad de Santiago in order to support and promote students’ permanence.
 
The five topics presented by our University in this international meeting called the attention of the foreign universities represented on that occasion.
 
One of the topics presented was related to the experience and positive results of the Program for Inclusive Access, Equity and Permanence (Paiep, in Spanish) of Universidad de Santiago. This presentation was given by Rafael Miranda, Coordinator of the Subprogram “Developing Your Talents” (“Desarrollando Tus Talentos”).
 
Also, Beatriz Painepán, a professional of the University’s Health Promotion Department gave the presentation “Academic Integration of Engineering First-Year Students with the support of a course on study methods.”
 
The Vice-President of Student Support Services, Manuel Arrieta, expressed his satisfaction before the University’s presentations given at the Latin-American Conference and he stressed the significant role of Universidad de Santiago in promoting students’ permanence.
 
“Our representatives had an excellent participation in the meeting and they were able to catch the interest of other institutions’ representatives,” he said.
 
“In comparison with other higher education institutions, we were able to see that our University is very well positioned regarding matters like permanence promotion. Now, the challenge that we face is to put these initiatives together under a criterion of systematic team work,” he added.
 
According to Manuel Arrieta, it is also worth to mention the fact that Universidad de Santiago is the only institution that this year, in the context of the International Conference, conducted a survey of 375 former students who dropped out their studies for different reasons, in order to find what these reasons were and create then mechanisms to prevent this situation.
 
Teaching Actions to Promote Students’ Permanence
 
Alicia Pérez, Teaching Quality and Management Coordinator of the Teaching Innovation Unit (UNIE, in Spanish), participated in the meeting in Mexico and shared her reflection “on university teachers’ practices as mechanisms to reduce students’ dropout rates.”
 
She said that her presentation caught the audience’s attention “because none of the other presentations addressed the students’ dropout from the teaching- practice point of view.”
 
Most of the speakers approached students’ drop out from the point of view of leveling or tutorial courses; however, if we consider that students’ dropout has multiple causes, we see teaching practice as one of them,” she added.
 
“If teachers are not able to deal with a varied student audience using motivating strategies to achieve a participative learning, students’ dropout will continue,” Alicia Pérez concluded.
 
Alfa-GUIA Project
 
The 3rd Latin-American Conference on Higher Education Withdrawal is an international activity organized by the Alfa-GUIA (Integral University Management of Dropout) project, co-funded by the European Union, which gathers together higher education institutions from 16 countries (12 from Latin-America and 4 from Europe), among which Universidad de Talca and Universidad de Santiago are the Chilean representatives.
 
“Our University has promoted this initiative from the beginning (2011), and due to the fact that the project concludes next year and there is still much work to do, we would like to continue with it, although this time we will not be co-funded by the European Union,” Vice-President Arrieta said.
 
The 4th Conference has been scheduled for next year in Medellín, Colombia. Meanwhile, the work published on the program web page http://www.alfaguia.org will be continued.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The benefit of using geophysical techniques to recover historical remains was one of the main conclusions of the “Taller de Geofísica aplicada al Patrimonio Críptico Heredado.” “By using mining technologies, we want to bring our country’s historical riches out of the depths of the Earth, without impacting the environment,” Dr Lucio Cañete, one of the organizers, said.

On July 02^nd, the closing ceremony of the third “Taller de Geofísica aplicada al Patrimonio Críptico Heredado” was held at the Conference Room of the Technological Faculty. The workshop was led by the Dean of that Faculty, Gumercindo Vilca Cáceres and was attended by several university authorities.

The workshop gathered together almost one hundred men and women of different ages and from different professional areas.

The workshop was given in the context of the outreach activities developed by the Technological Faculty. This is the reason why “We emphasized that the participants should not be part of the university community: to have an impact at a society level,” Dr Lucio Cañete explained.

The workshop

According to Dr Cañete, the purpose of the workshop was to give basic knowledge of geophysics and its potential applications to a general audience interested in the inherited cryptical material, “that is to say, a paleontological or archaeological resource that it is not visible, that remains under ground, covered by vegetation or ice.”

“We referred to gravimetry, seismology, magnetometry and electrical resistivity, which are used to prospect for mining resources. Chile is very rich in these resources,” the researcher said, regarding the techniques addressed during the workshop.

However, the team of experts led by Dr Lucio Cañete learned that these techniques could mean a significant contribution to a different type of excavation: the digs for the past.

“Chile has hidden riches that we want to reveal through these techniques: the riches of our past,” Dr Cañete said.

According to him, our territory is rich in archaeological elements; for this reason, we need the tools to unearth the past without altering the ecosystem.

“Historical research has shown that the first settlements in our territory started 13 thousand years ago. The first remains of human settlements in the American continent were confirmed in Chile,” he said.

“We have a whole rich past that must be revealed, but this must be done with techniques that will not impact the heritage while we are trying to bring it out,” Dr Cañete stressed.

Digging is a very intrusive method; therefore, if it is used, “The destruction of the evidence of the past is highly probable. However, geophysical techniques use disturbances that allow “seeing without touching,” he added.

Geophysical techniques

Gravimetry measures the variation of the strength of a gravitational field; magnetometry measures how a magnetic field changes; seismology, by means of man-caused little microseisms, allows to see what is under the surface, and, finally, the electrical resistivity measures the changes in ground resistance when introducing an electric current into the subsurface.

Regardless of the surface, the use of these techniques “Produce a sort of disturbance that does not affect the part of the patrimony that we want to know,” Dr Cañete said.

In this regard, the main goal of the workshop was to understand these techniques and see how their use in the mining industry can be a real contribution to surveying archaeological, historical and paleontological remains.

“We saw this and, and in our role as a public and state university, we called for the development of all these techniques that, although they are traditional in mining industry, could be used in a new scientific field: the field of the sciences that study the past,” he added

“By using these mining technologies, we want to bring our country’s historical riches out of the depths of the Earth, without impacting the environment,” Dr Cañete concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The implementation of this new research instance was announced by the University’s President, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, on December 3rd, during the launching of a Program for Institutional Improvement (PMI, in Spanish), funded by the Ministry of Education. The purpose of this new Information Technology Innovation Center for Social Applications (Citiaps, in Spanish) is to be an intermediary between research and its viability as software products that could be commercially developed, based on the premise of integrating innovation and science.

The PMI was created by this Corporation as a strategy to achieve world-class excellence in an innovative way, integrating three research areas to develop science- based innovation: Information technology, psychology and neuroscience. The University was awarded a grant from the Ministry of Education’s contestable fund to finance the program through a performance agreement.

“With this project we intend to improve our international competitiveness, increase the University’s scientific productivity in a significant way, and reach higher levels of teaching and scientific discoveries. All this will be done through the highly specialized and interdisciplinary research centers that we already have and through others that we are committed to create,” said President Zolezzi.

In the program’s launching ceremony, held on December 3rd in the University’s Salón de Honor, the University’s President said that the PMI will outline the future of applied research and that a significant share of this goal will lie on this new Information Technology Innovation Center for Social Applications.

Applied innovation for society

“The Citiaps will integrate the work done until now and it also considers the technological origins of this University and the great development of social sciences during the last years,” President Zolezzi said, emphasizing at the same time the center’s efforts to develop strategic partnerships among researchers, entrepreneurs and companies, doing a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary work.

“The PMI will strengthen the Vice Presidency of Investigation, Development and Innovation (Vridei, in Spanish) and to consolidate a technology transfer platform to do research in association with companies and to transfer and commercialize the R+D results,” the President added.

Oscar Bustos, Vice President of Investigation, Development and Innovation said that, although the Citiaps will be focused on three main areas (Information technology, psychology and neuroscience), its goal will be to cover all disciplines. “We want our students- who are very creative- to channel their ideas through the center, so that researchers develop these ideas and create products which are useful to society.”

“The idea is to generate innovation based on high-impact science. We have set ambitious but real goals,” the Vice President said.

Contributing to the country

Alberto Vásquez, Head of the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Division, referred to the excellent assessment that the PMI had during the contest, which meant being granted the funds, and to the significance of contributing with new knowledge for Chile. “We would like to congratulate and support this initiative and say that for our country is good, important and relevant to award this performance agreement to Universidad de Santiago.”

John Fraser, American expert and professor at the Florida State University, who was a special guest at the ceremony, valued this interdisciplinary initiative from an international point of view saying that this was the best moment to invest in knowledge and to promote creativity, considering the economic success of the country.

Finally, Luis Magne, Head of the Vridei’s Technological Management Department awarded the winners of the First Patent Contest for Students: Roberto Santiago, from the Department of Chemical Engineering; Jaime Lagos and Álvaro Espejo, from the Department of Physics; Camila Manfredi, from the School of Architecture, and Loreto Acevedo, from the Department of Food Science and Technology.

Fernando Vial, Head of the Ministry of Education’s Institutional Financing Department; Mauricio Marín, PMI and Citiaps’ Scientific Director; Pablo Vera, Citiaps’ Deputy Scientific Director; Ramón Blasco, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering; Rafael Labarca, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Augusto Samaniego, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and other authorities, also attended the ceremony.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In order to analyze the Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs) that affect thousands of people as a result of long working days using unsuitable furniture, national and international experts gathered together at the “Pensamiento Complejo, Ergonomía de Concepción y Creatividad” conference that was held at Universidad de Santiago.

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National and international experts gathered together at the “Pensamiento Complejo, Ergonomía de Concepción y Creatividad” conference held at Universidad de Santiago. Its purpose was to analyze the Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs) that affect many people as a result of long working days using unsuitable furniture.

The activity was organized by the Industrial Design Technology program and the National Chair in Ergonomics of the Department of Industrial Engineering of Universidad de Santiago.

Ergonomics

Thousands of people work every day in poorly furnished physical spaces that are not always the best in relation to the number of working hours. Most of the time, they are using computers.

In the activity, the relation between furniture and physical postures was analyzed. Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)- which involve muscle and bone problems- were the focus of the conference and the experts showed the contribution of ergonomics to designing suitable environments for people.

Poor postures while sitting on a chair, the constant contact with some tools, the effort to lift weight or repeated actions (like typing on the computer) can cause these disorders.

María José Araya, architect, ergonomist and professor at the Department of Management Technologies, explained that this is a very important matter, as “long working hours demand the use of ‘neuro-sensory motor’ energy and usually some tolerance thresholds are crossed for the lack of spaces for resting and for leisure and recuperation activities, causing CTDs, with different levels of severity.”

With this activity, “we would like to strengthen international networks with other higher education centers, like Elisava, to address disability and socio-labor inclusion issues from the “Design for all” concept in the National Chair in Ergonomics of the Department of Industrial Engineering of Universidad de Santiago.

Lecturers

In the activity, Giselle Golcovic, who is a graphic designer of Universidad de Chile and has a Master’s degree in Education from Universidad UCINF, gave the presentation “Pensamiento Complejo y Creatividad en Leonardo da Vinci”.

The architect Antonio Bustamante, ergonomist and professor at the Barcelona School of Design and Engineering (Elisava, in Spanish), the first school of design founded in Spain, presented “El hombre de Vitruvio, el de Leonardo y el de Castaño”. In his conclusions, he referred to the importance of understanding users in movement, a viewpoint that differs from conventional anthropometry, which approaches humans as static beings.

José Miguel Araya, industrial civil engineer, ergonomist and professor at Universidad de Santiago analyzed the works presented from an ergonomics point of view 

It is important to understand ergonomics as a key element at designing office and home furniture in order to help people to prevent posture-related diseases

Professor María José Araya said that this type of activity gives students at programs like Industrial Engineering, Design and Architecture the possibility of learning about these matters before they leave the university.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• To contribute with a cleaner and safer energy source and help our country to achieve energy independence, the “Hydrogen Economy and Sustainable Development” Seminar was held at our university. The activity was organized by the Faculty of Engineering, in the context of its 100^th anniversary and it gathered national experts from the public and the academic sectors. The key lecture was delivered by the international speaker Dr Walter Theodor Czarnetzki, Vice President of Research and Technological Transfer of the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

To contribute with a cleaner and safer energy source and help Chile to achieve energy independence from other countries, the “Hydrogen Economy and Sustainable Development” Seminar was held at the Enrique Froemel Auditorium of Universidad de Santiago. The activity was organized by the Faculty of Engineering, in the context of its 100^th anniversary.

The activity was headed by Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago, who said that universities, as dynamic centers for knowledge building, cannot keep out of the important sustainability processes that our countries are undergoing today, as they are the best tool to develop the foundations for a good future for our societies.

“Hydrogen produced in a clean and economical way could be used to compensate most of the energy insufficiency that we have,” he stressed.

“Our corporation, true to its public service tradition, has committed its best research and teaching resources and infrastructure to contribute with professionals, research and developments that help in policy making and at implementing a “Hydrogen Economy” in Chile,” he said. 

“A scientific work commitment made among universities, state-run bodies and the private sector will allow to find a sustainable energy alternative to reduce the current dependence on hydrocarbons and greenhouse gas emissions,” Dr Zolezzi said.

For his part, Juan Carlos Espinoza, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering said that the activity “is an example of the constant interest that this academic unit has in the field of energy, what facilitates the reflection on the need to progress in generating technological innovations that contribute to this area.”

The seminar

The seminar was introduced by Andrés Romero Celedón, Executive Secretary of the National Energy Commission, who said, “To address climate change, we shall change from a hydrocarbon-based civilization to a hydrogen-based one. Besides, this seminar is relevant, as in Chile we are trying to make a long-term energy policy for 2050, to overcome the energy problems that our country constantly faces.”

He added that all initiatives aimed to this goal should be supported by universities and professionals of all over the country, to have more security, sustainability and independence in this matter.

Presentations and speakers

During the activity, Dr Walter Theodor Czarnetzki, Vice President of Research and Technological Transfer of the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Germany, gave the key lecture “Hydrogen Economy for a Sustainable Future.” Patricio Rousseau, Electrical Engineer of Universidad Católica de Chile, and Dr José Zagal Moya, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of our university gave presentations too.

The participants in the “Hydrogen Economy in Chile” panel discussion were Dr Walter Theodor Czarnetzki; Anselmo Peiñan, representative of the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo, in Spanish); José Miguel Arriaza, Regional Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, and Professors Dr Fernando Corvalán and Patricio Rousseau. The discussion was moderated by the lawyer Gonzalo Salgado, an expert in energy regulations.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

Universidad de Santiago was awarded 900 million Chilean pesos in the V version of the Contest Anillos Research Projects in Science and Technology. The contest was announced by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research.

Universidad de Santiago was awarded 900 million Chilean pesos for the execution of two projects in the context of the V version of the Contest Anillos Research project in Science and Technology 2014.

Thanks to the Associative Research Program (PIA, in Spanish), 17 projects will be funded nationwide, all of them top-class studies with international scope.

Dr Óscar Bustos Castillo, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation, said that he was very pleased with the results, adding that “this type of project allows developing cutting-edge research that goes beyond our borders, and this is highly significant to contribute to our university’s internationalization.”

Dr Bustos highlighted that two of the projects that were awarded funding belong to consolidated research groups that, in the short term, could become research centers.

“These study projects will be executed over three years and will allow us to face issues of national interest and global challenges, restating the role we play as a state and public university,” he said.

The projects

One of the projects is led by Dr Maritza Páez and Dr María Victoria Encinas, researchers at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, and Dr Jenny Blamey, researcher at Fundación Biociencia, who will address the problems generated by the spontaneous and undesirable damage of materials, known as corrosion or biocorrosion. The name of the study is “Functionalized surfaces: protection against corrosion and biocorrosion.”

They have the goal of replacing the anti corrosion procedures that involve chemical compounds of high toxicity, like chromates, and provide effective and eco-friendly solutions.

Dr Francisco Melo (surface mechanics), Dr José Zagal (electrochemistry) and Dr Manuel Azocar (bioinorganic chemistry) will participate in the project.

Dr Marcela Urzúa (polymers) and Dr Marco Flores (surface physics), both researchers at Universidad de Chile, will take part in the project too, as well as Dr Jenny Blamey and Dr Freddy Boehmwald (microbiology), of Fundación Biociencia, and Dr Mamie Sancy (corrosion-electrochemistry), of the Chilean Air Force.

The second project is led by Dr Raúl Cordero, researcher at the Department of Physics. This is the second time that he leads an Anillo Project (the first time was in 2010). This time, he seeks to better understand the effects of black carbon at the Andean cryosphere. 

Black carbon or soot is a pollutant generated by the use of fossil fuels in the cities that is carried by the wind over the Andean snow, changing its reflectivity and its melting speed. 

According to Dr Cordero, the study “is mainly focused on measuring the content of black carbon in the snow on the west side of the Andes.” For this purpose, they will conduct campaigns to collect samples and analyze their carbon content across the country, from Putre to the Patagonia.

With this data, “we expect to generate a map that shows the black-carbon content in the Andean cryosphere, highlighting the areas of impact. This information will be useful to evaluate the effect of black carbon on glaciers melting,” the researcher explained.

The project is really important, because the country’s long-term sustainability depends on the availability of water resources coming from the Andean snows. However, just like many cold regions of the planet, the Andean cryosphere has doubled the global warming rate. “Although green-house gas emissions seem to be the main cause of this problem, black carbon may be playing a role too,” he added.

“Universidad de Santiago is a leader in interdisciplinary studies that address different aspects of sustainability, what largely explains the successful results of our applications. This project involves an interdisciplinary team of physicists, chemists, glaciologists and engineers of six renowned Chilean universities. Besides, ten international institutions will collaborate with the project, like the German Aerospace Center (DLR, in German) and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC),” Dr Cordero concluded.

Nationwide results

The other 15 projects that were awarded funds belong to the following universities: five to Universidad Católica de Chile; four to Universidad de Chile; two to Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and one to Universidad de La Frontera, one to Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, one to Universidad Andrés Bello and one to Universidad Autónoma de Chile.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

•  Universidad de Santiago de Chile made a significant contribution to Expo Food Process 2015, a technical and business platform that brought together different productive sectors related to food industry, facilitating the access to new technologies and solutions in different production processes. 

Universidad de Santiago de Chile had an outstanding participation in Expo Food Process 2015, a technical and business platform that brought together different productive sectors related to food industry, facilitating the access to new technologies and solutions in different production processes.

The activity was held at Espacio Riesco, Santiago, between November 04^th and 06^th. Researchers at the Food Science and Technology Research Center (Cecta), the Department of Food Science and Technology, and the Department of Chemical Engineering of our university participated at the exhibition and led two specialized seminars. One of them was focused on biotechnological research and development for the food and beverages sector, and the other, on food packaging.

The university delegation was led by Dr Oscar Bustos Castillo, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation. He told the attendees that Universidad de Santiago has strongly been related to the development of the country since its beginnings, what has led it to incorporate new lines of work.

“Today, our society is more aware of improving its quality of life by means of healthy food; therefore, the university considers the food sector a priority area,” he explained.

The scientific productivity in this field of research concentrates 10% of the total number of publications of the university and the 17% of the projects awarded funds from different sources.

Research with impact

Many researchers at Universidad de Santiago participated in the two seminars.

During the first day, Dr Laura Almendares gave the presentation “Generación de Productos Innovativos para la Empresa Alimentaria” (Generating innovative products for Food Industry) and Dr Julio Romero presented his work “Tecnología de membranas y solventes alternativos: ejemplos de transferencia y adaptación tecnológica” (Technology of membranes and alternative solvents: examples of technological adaptation and transfer).

Dr Claudio Martínez, Cecta’s director, presented his work “Mejoramiento del vino a través de la microbiología, una tecnología aplicable a otras bebidas fermentadas” (Improving wine production through microbiology: a technology that can be applied to other fermented drinks), and Raúl Ciudad, member of the I+D Committee of the Social- Business Development Council of Universidad de Santiago, gave the presentation “Desafíos I+D+i Universidad-Empresa” (University-Business I+D+i Challenges).

Gonzalo Jordán, Executive Chairman of CORFO’s Food Strategic Program gave the presentation “La Especialización Inteligente de la Industria Alimentaria: Nuevos Espacios de Competitividad” (Smart specialization in Food Industry: new spaces for competitiveness).

On Friday 06^th, Dr Abel Guarda Moraga gave his presentation “Envases de Alimentos. Requerimientos y Necesidad de desarrollo” (Food packaging. Requirements and need for development, and Dr María José Galotto, “Innovación en el área de envases de alimentos. La nanotecnología como herramienta para el desarrollo” (Innovation in food packaging. nanotechnology as a development tool).

For his part, Dr Francisco Rodríguez talked about “Envases para productos hortofrutícolas” (Packaging for fruit and vegetables) and Dr Julio Bruna, about “Envases y Biodegradabilidad: Realidades y Mitos” (Packaging and biodegradability: myths and facts). Finally, Dr Alejandra Torres closed the presentations with “Requerimientos de Innocuidad en envases plásticos para alimentos” (Innocuousness requirements for plastic food packaging).

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In a presentation given at Universidad de Santiago a few days ago, Iván Núñez Prieto, recipient of the National Award of Education 2015, emphasized that he still shares “the utopia” that education contributes to “build a fairer and more caring society, regardless of the fact that it may be a difficult task that requires many years, and maybe, there have been some mistakes in viewing the difficulties at its implementation.” The renowned researcher and state professor of History, Geography and Civic Education addressed these issues in his presentation “Two moments at teacher training in Chile: 1928 and 1974: Present echoes.”

On October 28^th, at the Armando Quezada Auditorium, the recipient of the National Award of Education 2015, Iván Núñez, gave the presentation “Two moments at teacher training in Chile: 1928 and 1974: Present echoes.” The activity was organized by the Faculty of Humanities and the Department of Education of Universidad de Santiago in the context of the Teachers’ Day celebration.

Professor Núñez was presented by Dr Jorge Rueda, Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Humanities. The director of the Department of Education, Dr Saúl Contreras also addressed the audience.

Dr Rueda emphasized the role of education as the driving force for human development and better communal living, in the midst of the individualistic and discriminatory society of current days, as well as the educational role that our university has played through the School of Arts and Crafts, the Pedagogical Institute and the State Technical University (UTE, in Spanish).

For his part, Dr Contreras highlighted the importance of the visit of professor Núñez at a critical time for Chilean education, as well as the contributions made by the university to teacher training, one of the core components of the university development. 

Inconsistent development

Professor Núñez started by mentioning that the development of Chilean education has not been progressive or linear: it has moved forward and backward through history. 

In his presentation, he deeply analyzed two significant moments in the history of teacher training: the closure of teacher training schools (escuelas normales, in Spanish), for different reasons, in 1928, under Carlos Ibáñez del Campo’s dictatorship (1927-1931), and in 1974, under General Augusto Pinochet’s regime.

He reminded the audience that teacher training schools started in 1842, when they were created by the Argentinean Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, under the conservative oligarchic government of Manuel Bulnes, who was able to recognize the importance of peoples’ training. Bulnes founded Universidad de Chile, among others. The first escuela normal was located in the vicinity of Matucana Street.

At that time, teachers did not only receive free training but they had free accommodation and free meals, though they were separated by sex. In return, the had to work for seven years at public schools, but many did not fulfill that commitment and engaged in other crafts and professions.

The first rebellion

He said that later, the saltpeter boom allowed bringing a group of German teachers at the beginning of the 20^th century. At the same time, a combative teachers association was created. They criticized teacher training as they considered it “authoritarian.” Núñez remembered that one of its weaknesses was pedagogical training.

In 1928, there were 15 escuelas normales. Under the pressure of teachers grouped together in the General Association of Teachers (AGP, in Spanish) for an “integral reform of Chilean education”- the escuelas normales included- Ibáñez decided to close them (he closed the Pedagogical Institute of Universidad de Chile too) and appointed its principal leaders to the Ministry of Education, “so that they could implement the reform” that they were demanding.

Although this situation did not last long, as the Government in the end decided to appoint a “commission of experts” to solve the problems, many of the association’s demands were subsequently taken up. For example, the minimum requirement to enter the school changed from four to six years of primary education.

The 60’s

During the following years, the escuelas normales increased their number, but they underwent some changes, especially in the 60’s, during the Education Reform of President Eduardo Frei (1964-1970), when the requirement to enter the school was completing secondary education. Although there was a co educational boarding school in Chillán, the boarding facilities were closed for financial reasons. On the other hand, an evening teacher training school was created at that time.

After the military coup, when there were more than twenty public and private (owned by the Catholic Church) escuelas normales, General Pinochet closed them for considering them “a focus of rebellion.”

The dictatorship imposed that, from then on, teacher training was to be part of university education. In spite of its controversial nature, professor Núñez considers that this action established “a common institutional framework, with the most similar bases possible.” In 1976, during the dictatorship, professor Núñez was detained and tortured.

He concluded by saying that, for his part, he still shares “ the utopia” that education contributes to “build a fairer and more caring society, regardless of the fact that it may be a difficult task that requires many years, and maybe, there have been some mistakes in viewing the difficulties at its implementation.”

“History has left us a few things and, in the midst of the battle of daily life, we should take a look at them,” he finally said.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Engineers, architects and civil constructors of the Service of Housing and Urban Development of all the country will be trained by the Department of Chemical Engineering of Universidad de Santiago in order that they may incorporate the installation of thermal solar panels into all the houses that they supervise or deliver.

• The training program has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and the university, with the support of the Ministry of Energy. It started on October 13^th with a first group of 25 civil servants in charge of the construction works to meet the housing needs of the victims of the last disasters in the regions of Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo and Los Lagos (earthquakes, mudslides and the Calbuco volcano’s eruption). 

• According to Francisco Cubillos, Director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, “It is extremely useful that these catastrophic events are considered as opportunities to implement non-conventional renewable energies that will help all beneficiaries.”

• For his part, Christian Santana, Chief of the Renewable Energy Division of the Ministry of Energy and one of the directors of the Centre for Innovation and Promotion of Sustainable Energy, said that this agreement will allow contributing to energy efficiency in the context of the comprehensive public policies of the country. This will also strengthen the links between the Ministry and our university.

   

  The first training course jointly developed by the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and with the support of the Ministry of Energy was recently started to train professionals at the Service of Housing and Urban Development (Serviu, in Spanish) in order that they may incorporate solar energy into all the new houses built in the different zones affected by the last natural disasters in the country.

  Engineers, architects and civil constructors of that state agency will be able to provide houses in their corresponding regions with thermal solar panels, what will also contribute to the country’s energy efficiency.

  In this way, our corporation, in its commitment to the country, contributes to the fifth item of the Government’s energy agenda, which proposes to strengthen the use of non conventional renewable energy (NCRE) through this type of training course. 

  According to Francisco Cubillos, Director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, “It is extremely useful that these catastrophic events are considered as opportunities to implement non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE) that will help all beneficiaries. The houses to be built will include solar panels.”

   

  “The university is contributing to include this technology in the government policies, which are oriented to the poorest sectors of the population,” director Cubillos said.

   

  For his part, Christian Santana, Chief of the Renewable Energy Division of the Ministry of Energy and who is also one of the directors of the Centre for Innovation and Promotion of Sustainable Energy (CIFES, in Spanish), highlighted that this agreement will allow to contribute to energy efficiency in the context of the comprehensive public policies of the country. This will also strengthen the links between the Ministry and our university.

   

  Theory and practice

  Mario Céspedes Córdova, professor of energy efficiency at the Faculty of Engineering of Universidad de Santiago said that in this type of course, “We provide knowledge to civil servants in order that they may control the variables involved in a solar technological system, learn about the corresponding regulations and norms and learn how to inspect a system and its pattern of use. In this way, they may supervise the entire national reconstruction plan.”

  “Besides, we have a solar energy laboratory, where we can show how to install this type of system and how it works. Those who complete the course will be able to correctly certify the houses with this system,” he explained.

  The program started on October 13^th with a first group of 25 participants. It includes theoretical and practical sessions, with a total of 10 hours, for two days. The objective is to train these civil servants so that they can help to improve the houses built after the last disasters in the country (earthquakes, mudslides and the Calbuco volcano’s eruption) and to face future disasters in a better way.

   

  Translated by Marcela Contreras