Today, the Strategic Communication Department launched the new Newsletter "ULS - The best of the week", another option to stay connected by sharing knowledge. We invite you to meet him. 

Researcher's work is published in National Geographic magazine

“Science and Innovation 2030” begins the process definition of desired state for su Strategic plan

Last registrations for the Second International Congress on Energy, Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability

University of La Serena teaches free e-learning courses about astronomy themes

Exchange students talk about the political and cultural reality of their countries

ULS and Municipality of Coquimbo hold a meeting of organizations focused on social and environmental awareness

Prepared by the Strategic Communication Department of the University of La Serena Communication Plan 2019

The activity, carried out in the Irma Salas Silva Central Library of the study house, had the participation of the Diversity and Non-Discrimination Office of the Municipality of Coquimbo.

Generating spaces for reflection on topics such as the integration of different social groups is one of the focuses that the University of La Serena has worked on through the 1799 project of inclusion and universal accessibility and on this occasion it held the discussion on inclusion and sexuality " “As many sexualities as there are people.”

The activity included the participation of the Diversity and Non-Discrimination Office of the Municipality of Coquimbo, who gave a presentation focused on the sexual diversity that exists within society and the work that the integration of these people means.

“We are working on various activities focused on inclusion as a human right, in terms of the inclusion of indigenous peoples, sexual diversity, migration and everything that has to do with disability, and we have had a great reception from the university community, who are committed to inclusion,” commented Yazmin Lecourt, part of the work team of the ULS 1799 project on inclusion and universal accessibility, about the work carried out by the University regarding integration.

For her part, for Alejandra Díaz, coordinator of the Diversity and Non-Discrimination Unit of the Buenos Aires municipality, it is important to be able to work together with the ULS. “For us it is super important, because it is a way to make visible an issue with so many barriers to advancing rights, and working with an institution as important as the University of La Serena makes it easier for us to generate more support networks for people with sexual diversity.” , held.

The University of La Serena will continue to carry out activities of this type, seeking to integrate new actors to involve the community with the educational and social inclusion of historically excluded groups.

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom

The scholarships from this Research Center of excellence will allow students to develop their degree work on topics on the quality of surface and underground waters in Choapa, and continue a study on the factors related to the presence of wells in Punitaqui.

The final year students of Environmental Civil Engineering at the University of La Serena, Nataly Díaz, Valeria Núñez and Matías Aguirre, were benefited by the Center for Water Resources for Agriculture and Mining, CRHIAM (Center of Excellence in Research, Program FONDAP of CONICYT), with a scholarship for financial support for the development of his memoirs.

CRHIAM is financed by the Fund for Financing Research Centers in Priority Areas of the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research. It is led by the University of Concepción and also has the participation of the Universidad de la Frontera and the Universidad del Desarrollo, as well as the collaboration of leading universities from the US, Europe and Australia.

The academic of the Department of Mining Engineering of the ULS, Dr. Ricardo Oyarzún, pointed out that “the first stage of CRHIAM was developed between 2013 and 2018. The second stage is currently underway, an instance in which I was invited to participate as research associate. In that sense, the doors were also opened to students to formally participate with a research center of excellence and already form their contact networks.”

For his part, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the U. de La Serena, Dr. Ing. Mauricio Godoy, thanked the academic for his support to the students: “we are very proud of the professor's work, as well as the students. students, who worked hard to get this scholarship and we urge them to continue working and wish them the greatest success in their degree workshops and extend my congratulations to the entire work team.” 

The Environmental Civil Engineering student and beneficiary of the scholarship, Valeria Núñez, indicated that “we are happy to have received this support, in my degree workshop an indirect method is being applied to evaluate the evolution of groundwater storage in selected basins.” .

While the student Matías Aguirre commented that his “memory will allow us to determine how agriculture and mining are related to the water quality of the Choapa River Basin.”

Nataly Díaz, also a student and beneficiary of the scholarship, explained that this support is key since it will allow her to develop an analysis of the factors that determine the availability of groundwater in the Estero de Punitaqui basin.

Written by María José Barraza, FIULS 2030 Project

On July 28, the registration process ends for the event that will take place between October 16 and 18.

The search for answers to the current challenges in the application of semiconductor materials, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, promoting multidisciplinary interaction, is the main theme that will be addressed by the International Congress on Energy, Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability (CEES) organized by the University of La Serena and the REDES 180038 Project.

The speakers at this second version will be Dr. Gianluca Li Puma, from Loughborough University (United Kingdom), an expert in Chemical Engineering; Dr. Mohamed El – Roz, from the University of Caen (France), researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research; and Dr. María Barnechea, from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), an expert in Nanomaterials for clean energy, (photo) catalysis and bio image, who will develop presentations focused on environmental sustainability.

This is the second version of this event, after the one held in 2017, an opportunity where the topics related to materials and processes for energy and environmental decontamination, energy efficiency and renewable energy were deepened.

The event, aimed at researchers, academics and post and undergraduate students, will be held on October 16, 17 and 18, 2019 at the Hotel Club La Serena, and registration will be open until July 28 at http://doctoradoeama.userena.cl/cees-2019/.

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom

The ULS participates as a Consortium together with the University of Valparaíso and the U. Técnica Federico Santa María in their project “Our future, our responsibility: an innovative alliance for the transfer of science and strengthening of local, national and international development”. 

With the idea of ​​raising and prioritizing fundamental aspects for the design of the Strategic Plan of the Consortium, to establish a desired state according to the ULS strategic objectives and those who make up the collaborative project "Science and Innovation 2030", a workshop was held that sought agreements and bases for joint collaborative work.

In this project, the institution participates as a Consortium together with the U. de Valparaíso and the U. Técnica Federico Santa María in its initiative called: “Our future, our responsibility: an innovative alliance for the transfer of science and strengthening of local, national development and international”.

The Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Dr. Amelia Ramírez, pointed out that the Ciencia 2030 project "is a challenge with one year to define, together with the U. of Valparaíso and the Federico Santa María Technical University, a work strategy that allows respond to a gap that exists between what the faculties of Sciences do in their student, undergraduate, postgraduate, research project and relationship with the environment training, and begin to visualize themselves with strategies already coupled to our individual strategies in innovation and entrepreneurship”.

The specific objective of this workshop was to begin the process of defining the desired state as the driving axis of the design of the Strategic Plan of the Consortium under a participatory logic. This is the third workshop that has been carried out, and all have had the purpose of contributing each one, from his experience, to do joint work.

Science and Innovation for 2030

The purpose of this program is to support Chilean universities in the process of generating strategic plans or roadmaps, to promote a process of transformation in their faculties, where they teach study programs in the areas of basic sciences and thus allow a greater participation of the same in technology transfer, innovation and scientific-technological entrepreneurship in the country.

In addition to Dr. Amelia Ramírez, directors of different units, academics, the Engineering 2030 team, PROMMRA teams and the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Science and Technology also participated in the workshop. In addition, the coordinators of Science 2030 of the U. of Valparaíso and the U. Técnica Federico Santa María supported the activity.

Written by Patricia Castro, DirCom

The online course called "General Astronomy applied to the skies of the Coquimbo Region" is available at http://univrso.userena.digital/ and in its first edition it had a participation of more than 500 people.

The Univrso Project of the University of La Serena is an initiative that seeks to strengthen astrotourism in the Coquimbo Region through citizen training. In this sense, it has begun to teach e-learning courses that are open to the entire community.

The first, called "General Astronomy Applied to the skies of the Coquimbo Region" has been widely accepted by the public, who positively value the development of the course. "I am very grateful to be able to enjoy this course and that it helps me to better contemplate the universe in my region, I do not have much knowledge of astronomy but I do want to learn," says Professor Macarena Olivares, a course participant.

For his part, Humberto Farías, Director of the project, highlights the broad participation of citizens in the first edition of this course. "We had more than 500 people registered from the region and the country, which was very gratifying for us because we were able to see the feedback from the participants, who positively valued this ULS initiative," says the professional.

In its first edition, 110 certificates have been delivered to the participants who approved with the activities. "This makes us very happy because it reflects the interest of the community in learning about our skies and most importantly, which is the reason for this project, is to provide knowledge and tools so that the first tourist guides, who are the inhabitants from this area, we can share this knowledge with tourists”, explains Farías.

New edition

The second edition of the course began on July 8, registration for which is still available through http://univrso.userena.digital/.

Among the topics covered in the course are the Solar System, Positional Astronomy, Galactic, Extragalactic and Stellar Astronomy. In this regard, Yanett Leiva, instructional designer at Campus Digital, the unit that executes this project, explains that "the course has academic support from prominent astronomers from our University, and its design considers a curricular structure that contains sequences with different learning resources. , such as learning videos, complementary support material and evaluation activities, which are considered to deliver a Certificate of Participation”.

Finally, Dr. in Astronomy, Marcelo Jaque, ULS academics and one of the course speakers, invites the community to register and participate in these courses. “You will surely like them, we have thought a lot about how to bring astronomy closer to the entire community, using words and terminologies that we can all understand and this course has all these characteristics, which is why we invite you to enroll”, he concludes.