• The project, led by Dr. Ricardo Salazar, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of the University, aims at decontaminating the water from dyes waste and additives, by using electricity and solar energy.

The textile industry in Chile was born in the mid-nineteenth century and expanded thanks to the measures of protection of the internal market which were implemented at that time. Another factor was the arrival of Palestinian immigrants that gave prosperity to the development of the industry.

However, as all industrial activity, this industry was also a contaminant, due to the use of water in its tasks.

This situation becomes a serious problem when you consider that our country has  supply and drought problems. In this context, Dr. Ricardo Salazar, an academic at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology at the U. Santiago, is leading the Fondecyt project: "Degradation of dyes in wastewater from the textile industry by electrochemical oxidation technologies.” With this project, he aims to provide a solution for wastewater reuse in this process.

The study comes from a previous work by this expert that consisted in analyzing water decontamination of pesticides used in the wine industry. "The first two projects involved water treatment in the laboratory and comprised a chemical study. Now, however, I proposed the construction of a pilot plant to treat more wastewater from the textile industry”, Salazar said.

The project aims to be a contribution to environmental conflict resolution. This is the vital motivation for this academic, who seeks to decontaminate waters that contain dyes wastes and additives. To achieve this, he will work with electricity and solar energy and without using chemicals.

In addition, Dr. Salazar adds that "laws are becoming more stringent for industries in terms of technology demand and waste disposal rates. Therefore, the industries will have to be prepared. The idea is to step forward and provide an approach to this conflict and be useful in the future. "

Purification Process

The purification process is performed by the hydroxyl radical, which derives from water oxidation. This element reacts with the organic components present in the water, degrades pollutants and transforms the contaminant organic compounds into carbon dioxide.

Some of the steps included in this four-year project are: to finish the work in the laboratory, which aims to observe what happens in the whole process; identify each of the compounds that are produced and, finally, build a pilot plant. In this last stage, the scholar has the direct support of Dr. Julio Romero, project co-investigator who is also a researcher at the Faculty of Engineering of the University.

For Dr. Salazar, the importance of the research that he develops lies, mainly, on the human capital formation and in the "responsibility of changing the image of research in the country. Our work could contribute to the enterprise, the industry and, obviously, the University, as we could get the latest technological equipment to develop the project and internationalize the name of the institution. "

By Marcela González

• 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 renowned Journal of Coordination Chemistry dedicated its issue 67 to Dr. Juan Costamagna, academic at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago, for his contribution to the development of this journal since 2000, when he was invited to be part of the Editorial Board. The journal aims at disseminating the investigations of renowned researchers in the field of Chemistry of Coordination Compounds in countries like the United States, France, Argentina, South Africa, and Chile, among others. 

In recognition of his significant contributions to the development of the Journal of Coordination Chemistry and in the context of his retirement from the Editorial Board, the journal dedicated a special issue to Dr. Juan Costamagna, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago.

The journal aims at disseminating the investigations of renowned researchers in the field of Chemistry of Coordination Compounds in countries like the United States, France, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, Spain, Italy, Mexico, and Chile.

Jim Atwood, who was in charge of issue 67 called “Special Issue: To honor Professor Juan Costamagna on the occasion of his retirement", highlighted in the opening pages professor Costamagna’s “valuable opinion” and his contribution over the years “with his expertise” to the development of this publication.

Atwood pointed out that Dr. Costamagna “has been a consummate collaborator and has brought his talent to the Editorial Board of this Journal; he has published over 100 papers in the field of Coordination Chemistry and has served 14 times as the Chilean delegate to the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference on Coordination Chemistry between 1974 and 2006. He was also an Advisor to the Nobel Prize of Chemistry from 1996 to 2000”. This is the background for this special issue available since December on http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gcoo20/67/23-24.
 

Contribution to Science

The participation of Dr. Costamagna in the journal dates back to 2000, when he was appointed to the Editorial Board by the journal’s general editor.

Since then, Dr. Costamagna has contributed with countless academic evaluations and several plenary “Online Annual Meetings” of the Editorial Board. The journal has positioned itself as a model in the field of Chemistry of Coordination Compounds. “I think I have modestly contributed to this growth and development,” Dr. Costamagna said.

Regarding his plans in the editorial work, Dr. Costamagna said that he will continue working as emeritus editor for “Communications in Inorganic Synthesis”, an online journal sponsored by Universidad de Santiago.


Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Researchers at Universidad de Santiago, in partnership with researchers at the University of California (USA), developed a software program that includes several applications to study reading comprehension in users of digital texts. They will analyze the reading tracks in students and professionals all over the country to understand the cognitive processes developed when approaching a text on screen.

New technologies have also had an impact on people’s reading habits, as a result of the widespread use of digital texts. However, according to different studies, this change has not improved reading comprehension in Chilean people.  Thus, researchers at Universidad de Santiago have developed a software program that includes several applications to study reading comprehension in users of this type of text.

“Reading comprehension is essential to any field of knowledge. If someone does not have a good reading comprehension level, it will be more difficult for him/her to understand science, mathematics and texts related to financial products or a contract, for example. For this reason, we designed computerized environments for users to develop information processing strategies that allow them to process this information in a way that eases their understanding,” Dr Héctor Ponce, professor at the Department of Accounting and Auditing and an expert in information systems, said.

To design these environments, Dr Ponce and other professors at Universidad de Santiago have developed several software applications to improve reading comprehension of digital texts by including information processing strategies, like note-taking, cause-effect diagrams, sequences and comparisons. These strategies were turned into applications that complement each other, proving the effectiveness of this technology.

The results encouraged researchers to conduct further research on how Chilean people read and understand. They are currently working on the Regular Fondecyt Project (1151092) “Facilitation of cognitive processes by means of different computer-aided information processing strategies: An eye movement analysis.”

“Although we process information in different ways, there area some repeated patterns that we are trying to identify through this study. This why we will asses the cognitive strategies that a person uses when reading,” the researcher explained.

“For this purpose, we will use a computer-connected device called ‘eye-tracker’. It detects where on the screen the user is looking at, it follows the eye movement and detects how long someone spends watching objective elements, like words, for example, or the eye movement track when processing a text, among other aspects,” he added.

To inquire into how strategies help in understanding a text, tests will be run with plain texts without strategies, and with other texts that involve individual and multiple strategies.

The research team includes experts in cognitive psychology, like Dr Verónica Figueroa, co-investigator and researcher at Universidad de Santiago, and Dr Richard Mayer, professor at the University of California (Santa Barbara), who is collaborating in the study.

The project implementation started in March this year and it will involve school and university students and professionals. The study is divided in three phases: first, the design of the material to be used; then, testing and data collection through the eye-tracking device; and finally, the analysis of the collected data.

According to Dr Ponce, the results of the study could have two potential impacts. One is the software improvement, as the most effective strategies could be assembled to understand what is being read. And the other, the possibility of improving the content presentation in textbooks and the presentation of specialized information, like the one related to online products sales, health care plans, and contracts, among others.

“In a society, it is very important for people to be able to understand what they read, as one of the natural consequences of a good comprehension is a better decision-making,” Dr Ponce stressed.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In large cities like Santiago, the quality of life is strongly related to the quality of the environment of the urban settings we live in. This is the core idea of the study “Socio-ecological quality in urban settings: improvements for a human-scale sustainable environment. Municipality of Quinta Normal,” a Dicyt project developed by Dr Alexandre Carbonnel and Rodrigo Martin, both professors at the School of Architecture of Universidad de Santiago. The study seeks to provide a tool for assessing the quality of urban life, considering environmental conditions (thermal, acoustic, and atmospheric ones) at urban settings.

   

  “Socio-ecological quality in urban settings: improvements for a human-scale sustainable environment. Municipality of Quinta Normal,” is the name of the study conducted by Dr Alexandre Carbonnel and Rodrigo Martin, both professors at the School of Architecture of Universidad de Santiago. The project has been funded by the university’s Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt, in Spanish) and it has the purpose of providing a tool for measuring the quality of urban life, considering environmental conditions (thermal, acoustic, and atmospheric ones) at urban settings.

  The first measurements will be done at the municipality of Quinta Normal, an area of the capital of 12.4 square kilometers wide, with a population of 105 thousand people, according to the national census of 2002.

  This municipality is significant for the study, as it displays several special characteristics: In spite of being close to Santiago Centro, it has several industries; it adjoins Quinta Normal Park, one of the largest green areas of the capital managed by the Municipality of Santiago; and it is traversed by some of the busiest streets of the city, like Matucana, Costanera Norte Highway, Avenida San Pablo, and Central Highway (General Velásquez).

  The first hurdle to be cleared was to define the study areas. For this purpose, the research team developed “a methodology to identify the use of the urban setting as of the use of transportation and schools, what will allow pinpointing the nodes of very intense use and measure their environmental quality,” Carbonnel said.

  In order to relate the urban environmental quality to the use of urban infrastructure and services, variables and indicators related to transportation, health care and education coverage, cultural and commercial spots, green areas, and others, will be analyzed. The researchers will use some software programs (QGis and Grasshopper3d) to cross-check the information and identify the places with higher people density and more use of space.

  Once they know the places with higher density and more use, they will measure the urban environmental quality. This process will be based on thermal, acoustic and atmospheric variables, providing a true and varied environmental record of the places to be studied 

  Study impact

  According to Dr Carbonnel, the study impact is aimed at “providing municipalities, regional governments and the community with an important information tool that includes environmental indicators to orient them at managing and making local public policies and to contribute to a better use of the funds invested in infrastructure.”

  Dr Carbonnel also said that this methodology will open doors to the creation of a new line of products. “These innovations should aim to democratizing environmental information, in agreement with the vision of the Smart City Lab research center of our university.” Both researcher work at this center, together with other professionals of the School of Psychology and the Departments of Industrial Engineering, Geographic Engineering, Electric Engineering and Computer Engineering.

  Translated by Marcela Contreras

• With a space of 2,755 m², the five-floored building will be home to the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center and the Soft Matter Center. The cost of the building construction amounted to about CLP 5,000 million.

In a context in which Chile only invests 0.39 of its GDP in research, the President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, highlighted the importance of this new space that will contribute to research and development in the country.

“This is one of the state-of-the arts buildings in Chile with regard to university research and it is an incentive for new researchers to continue innovating in key areas for the development of Chile,” he said. He added that Universidad de Santiago de Chile is a leader in technology transfer.

Senator Guido Girardi, who heads the Challenges for the Future. Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of the Upper House, valued the work done by public universities.

“These universities take charge of basic sciences on their own. Particularly, Universidad de Santiago has had the wisdom to connect basic sciences to the problems of the country and to generate innovation to solve these problems,” he said.

A few months ago, Dr Girardi visited the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Cedenna, in Spanish) where he met with professionals in this significant research field. After the opening ceremony he congratulated the university on the new facilities.

The centers

Representatives of the centers that will occupy the new facilities expressed their satisfaction with the architectural configuration of the building that facilitates research development.

Dr Francisco Melo, Head of the Soft Matter Center that gathers together scientists in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering, said that the new space will offer endless opportunities for a better science development and for positioning the university at an international level.

For her part, Dr Dora Altbir, Head of the Cedenna, said that the possibility of bringing together scientists from different fields will allow a more active collaboration than the one that the university has now.

Eugenio Spencer Ossa, Head of the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center (CBA, in Spanish) said that the new building will allow to further scientific research and contribute to improve domestic industrial production, like salmon farming.

Architecture

The Rector Eduardo Morales Santos Research Building, with a total surface of 2,755.15 m², is located in the central campus of the university. Its design is a geometric reinterpretation of the heritage buildings of the institution designed by the architects Héctor Valdés, Fernando Castillo Velasco, Carlos García Huidobro and Carlos Bresciani and built between 1957 and 1967. The building’s name is a tribute to the first democratically-elected university president after the dictatorship.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• After the success of Nutrisato- an innovative natural fertilizer that increases by 50% the size of fruits, vegetables and plants- in the international market, its creators opened an agricultural additives company.

In his search for environmentally friendly biotechnological solutions, Alejandro Muñoz, biochemist and student at the Biotechnology doctoral program of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago, developed an interesting plant biostimulant based on organic molecules which is able to increase fruits, vegetables and flowers twice their size in the same period of time.

Later, Carla Céspedes, an agronomist from Universidad de Chile, and Rodrigo Ferreira, student at the Commercial Engineering program of the Faculty of Administration and Economics of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, joined the project team and took the responsibility of placing the product in the agricultural market.

After the positive outcomes of testing Nutrisato in peppers and tomatoes, the students participated in the Brain Chile program contest and won the first place. They used the funds that they were awarded to continue developing the product to a level that they never expected: today, they have their own company called Ingeniería y Biotecnología Limitada, Atama Biotech Ltda.

Nutrisato in the market

After the Brain Chile Contest, they continued testing Nutrisato. They found that it was harmless to people and the environment and it also “doubled the size of the products, increased the production of fruits by 50% and the production of biomass in vegetables by 30%,” Alejandro Muñoz explained.

Carla Céspedes, who is responsible for the agronomic development of Nutrisato, explained: “The first products in which we tested the biostimulant were harvested in April, but after the contest, they were left abandoned in an area with Andean climate. In that context, we realized that the fertilizer reduced the cold stress in plants and enhanced their hygroscopic properties.”

Supported by recent tests, the researchers confirmed that the fertilizer worked in every product in which they used it, like spinach, celery, parsley, coriander, tomatoes, peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes and ornamental plants like tulips, roses and daisies.

Now they are testing the product in hydroponic lettuces and tomatoes, and in berries and citrus fruits, in Valdivia.

With regard to the marketing of the product, Rodrigo Ferreira, who is in charge of the company’s management and sales, says that they created Nutrisato Hogar, a product which is targeted at people who grow their own vegetables in home gardens. The product will be in the market soon.

The researchers say that they have enjoyed their work with Nustrisato, because they are doing what they like to do. For this reason, they have continued developing innovative products, like Raizato. “Raizato is a super soil enhancer that adds organic matter to the soil and enhances the growth of roots and leaves,” Alejandro Muñoz said.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• For the second consecutive year, our  University was positioned in the third place of the largest national patent requests prepared by the National Industrial Property Institute (INAPI,  in Spanish). Dr. Louis Magne,  director of the Department of Technology Management, attended the awards ceremony  and he highlighted the efforts of the University to generate technological innovations.

Our University has managed to gradually increase the protection of intellectual property of the technologies  generated through its research and development. In 2011 it presented a total of 28 requests  at national and  international levels and through the Cooperation Treaty about Patenting Matters (PCT, in Spanish).

The number of nine national patent records required in 2011, helped to put the University in third place, according to the "INAPI Report 2012". The leader of this ranking was Universidad de  Concepción and P. Pontificia Universidad Católica, with a total number of thirteen requests for inventions each.

The award ceremony for this important achievement was held last Thursday in the new premises of INAPI and was chaired by Tomás Flores the Vice Secretary of Economics, and Maximiliano Santa Cruz, INAPI director.  Dr. Louis Magne, director of the Department of Technology Management from the office of Research and Development attended the ceremony and  represented our University. He  noted that patenting is a priority for the institution.

"The University has an important increase of the research that has  potential for new businesses, and this has allowed  the  identification of the results that might get a patent and which are the basis of innovative technologies that could be transferred to the productive sector," he said.

Throughout its history, the  Universidad de Santiago de Chile has presented 63 requests  for national patents. At the international level, it has presented 50 requests  in various countries, mostly in the United States. Of the total applications, 28 patents have been given, eleven  in Chilean territory, three in the U.S. and the rest in other countries.

"We are currently working to achieve that these patents generate licenses and then royalties, meeting  the challenge that Chile has about becoming a generator of technology," Magne explained.

What is the meaning of patenting?

A patent is an exclusive right granted by the State for the protection of an invention, so it recognizes and guarantees the exclusive commercial exploitation for the holder of the invention, thus preventing others from appropriating the benefits involved in its exploitation.

Obtaining these patents in the University is paramount as it demonstrates the ability to generate appropriable knowledge, and states the basis of technological products that have a future to contribute to the country and become  part of  the national and international markets.

To achieve this, the Technology Management Department is responsible for encouraging researchers to conduct applied research projects whose results are evaluated in its appropriability and evaluated for their further development, until the patent is generated.

The patents that are requested belong to the University, with the recognition of the authorship  for the inventors. If the invention is commercialized, 50 percent is for the group of researchers that  generates the patent and the remaining 50 percent for the University.

• The motion patterns typical of volcanoes can be predicted with a high rate of effectiveness as of data sent from the slopes of the Llaima Volcano in La Araucanía Region. This has been possible thanks to the work by Dr. Max Chacón, professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of Universidad de Santiago, who developed a software program for this purpose. “In Chile, it is essential to increase the knowledge on volcanoes. In this way, we will be able to face emergency situations like eruptions, and even predict them and make timely decisions,” Dr. Chacón said.

Due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Chilean territory has the second largest volcanic chain in the world, with more than 2,000 volcanoes, many of them located in the southern part of the country. Although they are considered among the most active volcanoes in Latin America, only 43 of them are being monitored. The main concern about these geological structures is their potential for eruptions and their seismic activity is a key factor in prevention. 

Researchers of Universidad de Santiago, Universidad de La Frontera, and the Southern Andean Volcano Observatory, Ovdas by its acronym in Spanish, conducted the study “Pattern recognition applied to seismic signals from the Llaima Volcano: an analysis of the events’ features”, which is available in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.

According to Dr. Max Chacón, professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of Universidad de Santiago and one of the developers of the program, “Based on the machine learning approach, we developed a piece of software that identifies the type of the seismic signal as of data sent by sensors located on the slopes of the volcano,” with an 80% accuracy in the Llaima Volcano.

“Volcano seismic signals are not related to the earthquakes typical of tectonic plate collisions, as one could deduce from a first interpretation of these phenomena. These movements are specific to volcanoes and they are caused by their distinctive features, like their activity, magma movement, gas movement, stiffness of components, etc.

Previously, the research team had studied the Villarrica Volcano, detecting the existence of three characteristic seismic event patterns: the LP (Long Period) event, which is related to the pressure of gas and other fluids in the conduit; the Tremor, which is related to changes in gas and magma densities; and lastly, the VT (Volcano Tectonic) event, which is associated to the fracture of the solid parts of the volcano or the conduits.

The researchers used the program again in a study on the Llaima Volcano, but they also tried to identify the features of data sent by the sensors in the volcano. Among these data, the amplitude, frequency and phase of the signals, and the way in which they appear together in each seismic signal, were particularly considered.

“With this, we tried to give more information to volcanologists, so that they could identify the signals more easily, also analyzing the way in which these features appeared in seismic events,” Dr. Chacón, an expert in system models, said.

According to Dr. Chacón, one of the most interesting conclusions was the similarity of the results in the two volcanoes, what contradicts the current idea that each volcano has unique seismic movements. The researcher says that for now, the hypothesis is that the similarity is due to the proximity between the two volcanoes; however, this has not been proved.

For the above, there are two potential steps to follow in the context of this research. First, a comparative study on these volcanoes to measure the exact differences between them; and second, the improvement of the program with the purpose of detecting the correlations between these seismic signals at the moment of the eruption.

“In Chile, we live with many volcanoes, so it is essential to increase the knowledge about them. The more we know, the better we will be able to face emergency situations like eruptions, and even predict them and make timely decisions,” Dr. Chacón said.


Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The National Institute of Industrial Property recognized Universidad de Santiago as the second Chilean university at filing the highest number of patent applications in 2014. “Chile has a scientific tradition that places the country at the forefront of the Latin American productivity, and numbers reflect this fact, like the second place reached by Universidad de Santiago (last year).” The award ceremony was held in the context of the World Intellectual Property Day.

Once again, Universidad de Santiago was among the three most outstanding universities in the patent category- a category related to the rights given by the Chilean State to an inventor for the development of a new technology- in the annual award ceremony organized by the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi). 

The ceremony was held at Patio Los Naranjos of Universidad de Santiago and it was headed by Katia Trusich, Under Secretary of Economy, Development and Tourism, and Inapi’s NationalDirector, Maximiliano Santa Cruz. The Under Secretary said that last year was a consolidation period for Inapi. And she added that the challenge now is to set out a long-term strategy to allow “the development of industrial property considering the specific requirements of the country with regards to productive development, innovation and business ventures.”

For his part, Inapi’s National Director emphasized that our institution has a very important commitment with regards to patent application processing. “In Chile, universities are doing a good job at patenting and, if they are considered all together, in 2014 they almost doubled the number of patent applications filed, in comparison to the previous year.”

Besides congratulating Universidad de Santiago for its great work and interest in patent matters, she said that our University “is making big efforts to obtain patents, something that should be continued and promoted. Generating new knowledge through scientific activity at universities is an essential tool for economic, social and cultural development.”

“Chile has a scientific tradition that places the country at the forefront of the Latin American productivity, and numbers reflect this fact, like the second place reached by Universidad de Santiago in the national patent application ranking of 2014”, Maximiliano Santa Cruz said.

Luis Magne, Head of the Department of Technology Management of Universidad de Santiago- the unit in charge of processing patent applications of the University, among other tasks- said: “Universidad de Santiago continues to keep its spirit of technological university, so it puts an emphasis on applied research and innovation in order to contribute to the society welfare and to have an impact on Chile and the world.”

According to the information given by the Department of Technology Management, in 2014, Universidad de Santiago filed 23 new patent applications with Inapi, doubling the number of patents filed in 2013. This placed the University in the third position of the ranking that year. In addition, it filed 44 invention and protection patent applications with international agencies.

These patents are related to the fields of Sciences, Engineering, Technology, and Chemistry and Biology, and most of them belong particularly to the areas of Biotechnology, Manufacturing and Aquaculture.

Universidad de Concepción was at the first place in the patent application ranking while Pontificia Universidad Católica was at the third place.

Translated by Marcela Contreras