• During the Second Conference of Higher Education Learning and Teaching Centers Representatives held on January 13th, at Universidad de Santiago, Alicia Pérez, Management and Quality Coordinator of the Unit of Educational Innovation (UNIE, in Spanish), was elected executive director of this network, which goal is to formalize collaboration links to support teaching among 22 higher education institutions of the country.

For at least four years, the representatives from teaching support units and related bodies have been gathering at a national level to discuss and share education developments in that area. Up to now, they had not formalized a collaboration network that could keep them constantly connected and make them a referent in the field.

For this reason, in October 2013, they organized a new Conference of Teaching Support Centers (ECAD, in Spanish), where they proposed to create a collaboration network and set up the frame guidelines to make this body official. To continue making progress, they organized a second conference for 2014.

On January 13th, the second conference of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Centers Network Representatives was held at the Citecamp facilities, Universidad de Santiago, where the frame guidelines were refined and a temporary administrative board was appointed. This temporary board will initially be in charge of the formal affiliation with the different institutions.

This administrative board is formed by Alicia Pérez, Management and Quality Coordinator of the Unit of Educational Innovation of Universidad de Santiago, executive director; Catherine Díaz from Universidad Andrés Bello, secretary, and Paul Fuentes from Universidad de Talca, financial manager.

“We agreed in forming an initial executive board, with me as the director, to start working with more specific things and to formalize this network,” Alicia Pérez said, and she mentioned that one important aspect of this mission is to provide support to institutions that have got involved in curricular design, teacher training, classroom implementation and continuing training.

Collaboration

The institutions that make up the network are, initially, the 22 ones that committed themselves to this project last year. To be part of it, the only requirement for institutions is to have a teaching support unit and, today, the network includes professional institutes, private and public universities.

“The institutions participate through an official representative (as a minimum), but they can include anyone that they decide,” Pérez said. She added that our University has provided the facilities to hold the meetings of the network’s representatives.

“We can say that, the creation of the UNIE, dependent on the Academic Vice Presidency, has emphasized the role of teaching technical support units and creating this network backs up this idea, by collecting experiences from centers with a tradition equal to, similar or different from ours. We have an important background, and in this sense, a very complex experience. This enables us to favor the experience exchange as the University has clear where the emphasis on teacher training and class improvement should be placed,” she concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The research, led by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department, intends to optimize this process through new on-line air measurement equipment.

During the last couple of years, we have heard about a decline in copper production, and according to experts this is one of the reasons why the quality of the mineral has been reduced. One way to revert this situation is improving mining procedures, which is a priority for mining industry.

One of these processes is flotation, a method used to separate valuable minerals like copper from others. The process starts once the rock is ground and mixed with water to form a pulp. Some reagents that modify the mineral surface are added to this mixture. In this way, when bubbles of air are forced up through the pulp, they collide with particles and the ones containing copper, for example, go up to the surface making a froth rich in valuable mineral, ready to be removed.

This is the method studied by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department. “Although today improvements have been made to flotation process- by means of devices that measure the air flow forced into a flotation equipment or the use of cameras that continuously monitor de physical properties of the froth- we still do not have a full knowledge of how air dispersion in the bubbles affects the metallurgical performance of the process,” the researcher said.

This encouraged the academic to do a research project called “Estimating on-line air concentration in flotation systems,” funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt) of Universidad de Santiago.

“We believe that this variable is important when determining the process performance, as it is related to the surface area available to collect the particles containing valuable mineral and, therefore, to the complete recovery of copper,” the researcher explained.

The researcher said that the project was born while he was doing his postdoctoral research in Canada, at McGill University, considered a pioneer institution in proposing ways of measuring this variable. At that time, while he was studying this technique, he found out a problem with the interpretation of Maxwell’s equation, which would lead to a measurement error.

For this reason, the academic decided to insist on seeking new techniques in order to solve the problem; this time, with a better knowledge of the system.

At the first stage of the research, essential aspects of the error made will be studied. For this purpose, experiments to get a better understanding of the Maxwell’s equation will be performed. McGill University will also take part in this research by sending a flotation column to support the study and by developing papers together about this topic.

At the second stage, new techniques will be explored to find a method that estimates the air concentration in real time, in order to control and optimize the process.

In the academic’s opinion, “the efficient recovery of valuable minerals like copper is very important, and this measurement method could provide significant information for optimizing the process. This will have all kinds of benefits, such as reducing the reagents added or reducing the water used. This fact is also important if we consider that in most mining operations the water resource is scarce.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• University community and public authorities witnessed the opening of the envelopes containing the backgrounds of the candidates who participated in the call to cover 40 vacancies made by the U. of Santiago, on December 3^rd.

On Friday 4^th , the public opening of envelopes containing the resumes  of more than 240 applicants for 40 positions was held in the Salón de Honor. This was another step in the national and international teachers’ application process, designed to cover this number of vacancies for the seven Faculties of the U. Santiago.

The event was chaired by Juan Manuel Zolezzi the University President. Some other authorities attending this meeting were:  Fernanda Kri, Academic Vice President, Dr. Oscar Bustos, Vice President for Research and Development and the lawyer Gustavo Robles, the General Secretary, who also served as Attesting Minister.

The deans, department heads, members of the academic units involved, and members of the university community, who wanted to follow this public and transparent process in detail, were also present.

The application remained in force during December and there were candidates for all the positions offered.

"Today is an important day because this is the continuation of an initiative that began in 2008 and it involves the incorporation of top-level academics to our university", president Zolezzi said.

The rules stipulate that those selected should teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and participate in current research projects and publications. They must also develop technical assistance, outreach and engagement and contribute to the university management, the continuous teaching improvement processes, the accreditation processes of careers, and syllabus revision, among other tasks.

If there are no candidates who meet the requirements for each position, the vacancy will be declared void.

The process also includes the job candidates’ psychological evaluation. This stage will be crucial and exclusive. "Those who do not comply with the rules and the spirit which the University seeks, will not continue in the process,” the president warned.

• During the Second Conference of Higher Education Learning and Teaching Centers Representatives held on January 13th, at Universidad de Santiago, Alicia Pérez, Management and Quality Coordinator of the Unit of Educational Innovation (UNIE, in Spanish), was elected executive director of this network, which goal is to formalize collaboration links to support teaching among 22 higher education institutions of the country.

For at least four years, the representatives from teaching support units and related bodies have been gathering at a national level to discuss and share education developments in that area. Up to now, they had not formalized a collaboration network that could keep them constantly connected and make them a referent in the field.

For this reason, in October 2013, they organized a new Conference of Teaching Support Centers (ECAD, in Spanish), where they proposed to create a collaboration network and set up the frame guidelines to make this body official. To continue making progress, they organized a second conference for 2014.

On January 13th, the second conference of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Centers Network Representatives was held at the Citecamp facilities, Universidad de Santiago, where the frame guidelines were refined and a temporary administrative board was appointed. This temporary board will initially be in charge of the formal affiliation with the different institutions.

This administrative board is formed by Alicia Pérez, Management and Quality Coordinator of the Unit of Educational Innovation of Universidad de Santiago, executive director; Catherine Díaz from Universidad Andrés Bello, secretary, and Paul Fuentes from Universidad de Talca, financial manager.

“We agreed in forming an initial executive board, with me as the director, to start working with more specific things and to formalize this network,” Alicia Pérez said, and she mentioned that one important aspect of this mission is to provide support to institutions that have got involved in curricular design, teacher training, classroom implementation and continuing training.

Collaboration

The institutions that make up the network are, initially, the 22 ones that committed themselves to this project last year. To be part of it, the only requirement for institutions is to have a teaching support unit and, today, the network includes professional institutes, private and public universities.

“The institutions participate through an official representative (as a minimum), but they can include anyone that they decide,” Pérez said. She added that our University has provided the facilities to hold the meetings of the network’s representatives.

“We can say that, the creation of the UNIE, dependent on the Academic Vice Presidency, has emphasized the role of teaching technical support units and creating this network backs up this idea, by collecting experiences from centers with a tradition equal to, similar or different from ours. We have an important background, and in this sense, a very complex experience. This enables us to favor the experience exchange as the University has clear where the emphasis on teacher training and class improvement should be placed,” she concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The research, led by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department, intends to optimize this process through new on-line air measurement equipment.

During the last couple of years, we have heard about a decline in copper production, and according to experts this is one of the reasons why the quality of the mineral has been reduced. One way to revert this situation is improving mining procedures, which is a priority for mining industry.

One of these processes is flotation, a method used to separate valuable minerals like copper from others. The process starts once the rock is ground and mixed with water to form a pulp. Some reagents that modify the mineral surface are added to this mixture. In this way, when bubbles of air are forced up through the pulp, they collide with particles and the ones containing copper, for example, go up to the surface making a froth rich in valuable mineral, ready to be removed.

This is the method studied by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department. “Although today improvements have been made to flotation process- by means of devices that measure the air flow forced into a flotation equipment or the use of cameras that continuously monitor de physical properties of the froth- we still do not have a full knowledge of how air dispersion in the bubbles affects the metallurgical performance of the process,” the researcher said.

This encouraged the academic to do a research project called “Estimating on-line air concentration in flotation systems,” funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt) of Universidad de Santiago.

“We believe that this variable is important when determining the process performance, as it is related to the surface area available to collect the particles containing valuable mineral and, therefore, to the complete recovery of copper,” the researcher explained.

The researcher said that the project was born while he was doing his postdoctoral research in Canada, at McGill University, considered a pioneer institution in proposing ways of measuring this variable. At that time, while he was studying this technique, he found out a problem with the interpretation of Maxwell’s equation, which would lead to a measurement error.

For this reason, the academic decided to insist on seeking new techniques in order to solve the problem; this time, with a better knowledge of the system.

At the first stage of the research, essential aspects of the error made will be studied. For this purpose, experiments to get a better understanding of the Maxwell’s equation will be performed. McGill University will also take part in this research by sending a flotation column to support the study and by developing papers together about this topic.

At the second stage, new techniques will be explored to find a method that estimates the air concentration in real time, in order to control and optimize the process.

In the academic’s opinion, “the efficient recovery of valuable minerals like copper is very important, and this measurement method could provide significant information for optimizing the process. This will have all kinds of benefits, such as reducing the reagents added or reducing the water used. This fact is also important if we consider that in most mining operations the water resource is scarce.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• University community and public authorities witnessed the opening of the envelopes containing the backgrounds of the candidates who participated in the call to cover 40 vacancies made by the U. of Santiago, on December 3^rd.

On Friday 4^th , the public opening of envelopes containing the resumes  of more than 240 applicants for 40 positions was held in the Salón de Honor. This was another step in the national and international teachers’ application process, designed to cover this number of vacancies for the seven Faculties of the U. Santiago.

The event was chaired by Juan Manuel Zolezzi the University President. Some other authorities attending this meeting were:  Fernanda Kri, Academic Vice President, Dr. Oscar Bustos, Vice President for Research and Development and the lawyer Gustavo Robles, the General Secretary, who also served as Attesting Minister.

The deans, department heads, members of the academic units involved, and members of the university community, who wanted to follow this public and transparent process in detail, were also present.

The application remained in force during December and there were candidates for all the positions offered.

"Today is an important day because this is the continuation of an initiative that began in 2008 and it involves the incorporation of top-level academics to our university", president Zolezzi said.

The rules stipulate that those selected should teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and participate in current research projects and publications. They must also develop technical assistance, outreach and engagement and contribute to the university management, the continuous teaching improvement processes, the accreditation processes of careers, and syllabus revision, among other tasks.

If there are no candidates who meet the requirements for each position, the vacancy will be declared void.

The process also includes the job candidates’ psychological evaluation. This stage will be crucial and exclusive. "Those who do not comply with the rules and the spirit which the University seeks, will not continue in the process,” the president warned.

• During the Second Conference of Higher Education Learning and Teaching Centers Representatives held on January 13th, at Universidad de Santiago, Alicia Pérez, Management and Quality Coordinator of the Unit of Educational Innovation (UNIE, in Spanish), was elected executive director of this network, which goal is to formalize collaboration links to support teaching among 22 higher education institutions of the country.

For at least four years, the representatives from teaching support units and related bodies have been gathering at a national level to discuss and share education developments in that area. Up to now, they had not formalized a collaboration network that could keep them constantly connected and make them a referent in the field.

For this reason, in October 2013, they organized a new Conference of Teaching Support Centers (ECAD, in Spanish), where they proposed to create a collaboration network and set up the frame guidelines to make this body official. To continue making progress, they organized a second conference for 2014.

On January 13th, the second conference of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Centers Network Representatives was held at the Citecamp facilities, Universidad de Santiago, where the frame guidelines were refined and a temporary administrative board was appointed. This temporary board will initially be in charge of the formal affiliation with the different institutions.

This administrative board is formed by Alicia Pérez, Management and Quality Coordinator of the Unit of Educational Innovation of Universidad de Santiago, executive director; Catherine Díaz from Universidad Andrés Bello, secretary, and Paul Fuentes from Universidad de Talca, financial manager.

“We agreed in forming an initial executive board, with me as the director, to start working with more specific things and to formalize this network,” Alicia Pérez said, and she mentioned that one important aspect of this mission is to provide support to institutions that have got involved in curricular design, teacher training, classroom implementation and continuing training.

Collaboration

The institutions that make up the network are, initially, the 22 ones that committed themselves to this project last year. To be part of it, the only requirement for institutions is to have a teaching support unit and, today, the network includes professional institutes, private and public universities.

“The institutions participate through an official representative (as a minimum), but they can include anyone that they decide,” Pérez said. She added that our University has provided the facilities to hold the meetings of the network’s representatives.

“We can say that, the creation of the UNIE, dependent on the Academic Vice Presidency, has emphasized the role of teaching technical support units and creating this network backs up this idea, by collecting experiences from centers with a tradition equal to, similar or different from ours. We have an important background, and in this sense, a very complex experience. This enables us to favor the experience exchange as the University has clear where the emphasis on teacher training and class improvement should be placed,” she concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The research, led by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department, intends to optimize this process through new on-line air measurement equipment.

During the last couple of years, we have heard about a decline in copper production, and according to experts this is one of the reasons why the quality of the mineral has been reduced. One way to revert this situation is improving mining procedures, which is a priority for mining industry.

One of these processes is flotation, a method used to separate valuable minerals like copper from others. The process starts once the rock is ground and mixed with water to form a pulp. Some reagents that modify the mineral surface are added to this mixture. In this way, when bubbles of air are forced up through the pulp, they collide with particles and the ones containing copper, for example, go up to the surface making a froth rich in valuable mineral, ready to be removed.

This is the method studied by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department. “Although today improvements have been made to flotation process- by means of devices that measure the air flow forced into a flotation equipment or the use of cameras that continuously monitor de physical properties of the froth- we still do not have a full knowledge of how air dispersion in the bubbles affects the metallurgical performance of the process,” the researcher said.

This encouraged the academic to do a research project called “Estimating on-line air concentration in flotation systems,” funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt) of Universidad de Santiago.

“We believe that this variable is important when determining the process performance, as it is related to the surface area available to collect the particles containing valuable mineral and, therefore, to the complete recovery of copper,” the researcher explained.

The researcher said that the project was born while he was doing his postdoctoral research in Canada, at McGill University, considered a pioneer institution in proposing ways of measuring this variable. At that time, while he was studying this technique, he found out a problem with the interpretation of Maxwell’s equation, which would lead to a measurement error.

For this reason, the academic decided to insist on seeking new techniques in order to solve the problem; this time, with a better knowledge of the system.

At the first stage of the research, essential aspects of the error made will be studied. For this purpose, experiments to get a better understanding of the Maxwell’s equation will be performed. McGill University will also take part in this research by sending a flotation column to support the study and by developing papers together about this topic.

At the second stage, new techniques will be explored to find a method that estimates the air concentration in real time, in order to control and optimize the process.

In the academic’s opinion, “the efficient recovery of valuable minerals like copper is very important, and this measurement method could provide significant information for optimizing the process. This will have all kinds of benefits, such as reducing the reagents added or reducing the water used. This fact is also important if we consider that in most mining operations the water resource is scarce.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• University community and public authorities witnessed the opening of the envelopes containing the backgrounds of the candidates who participated in the call to cover 40 vacancies made by the U. of Santiago, on December 3^rd.

On Friday 4^th , the public opening of envelopes containing the resumes  of more than 240 applicants for 40 positions was held in the Salón de Honor. This was another step in the national and international teachers’ application process, designed to cover this number of vacancies for the seven Faculties of the U. Santiago.

The event was chaired by Juan Manuel Zolezzi the University President. Some other authorities attending this meeting were:  Fernanda Kri, Academic Vice President, Dr. Oscar Bustos, Vice President for Research and Development and the lawyer Gustavo Robles, the General Secretary, who also served as Attesting Minister.

The deans, department heads, members of the academic units involved, and members of the university community, who wanted to follow this public and transparent process in detail, were also present.

The application remained in force during December and there were candidates for all the positions offered.

"Today is an important day because this is the continuation of an initiative that began in 2008 and it involves the incorporation of top-level academics to our university", president Zolezzi said.

The rules stipulate that those selected should teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and participate in current research projects and publications. They must also develop technical assistance, outreach and engagement and contribute to the university management, the continuous teaching improvement processes, the accreditation processes of careers, and syllabus revision, among other tasks.

If there are no candidates who meet the requirements for each position, the vacancy will be declared void.

The process also includes the job candidates’ psychological evaluation. This stage will be crucial and exclusive. "Those who do not comply with the rules and the spirit which the University seeks, will not continue in the process,” the president warned.