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The conference will take place online, on Thursday, November 26. |
National and international experiences related to the practical training process of engineers, based on virtual and augmented reality, and the work with remotely operated equipment, will be the main topics in the first international conference organized by the Macro-Faculty of Engineering in Chile. The international conference, called “How to ensure the practical training of engineers in times of pandemic”, will take place online, on Thursday, November 26, starting at 10 a.m. (Chilean time), and is supported by the Training and Internationalization Nodes of the consortium, which is composed of the Faculties of Engineering of the universities Universidad de Talca, Universidad del Bío-Bío and Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO). The conference consists of two panels. The first one addresses the topic “Experiences with Virtual and Augmented Reality”, with participation of international speakers, such as Uriel Cukierman, the director of the Research Center for Innovative Education (CIIE) of the National Technological University in Argentina, and Peter Cleveland from Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. The Chilean speakers are Jorge Baier, the director of the Office of Education in Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and Diógenes Hernández of the Faculty of Engineering at Universidad de Talca. The second panel deals with the topic “Experiences with remotely operated equipment”, which will be addressed by the speakers Dr. Manuel Macías of the School of Engineering and Sciences at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico, Dr. Víctor Tenorio of the Mine Intelligence Research Group of the University of Arizona in the United States, as well as by the Chilean speaker Dr. Iván Cornejo of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Federico Santa María Technical University. “Virtual and augmented realities are being used in educational environments to complement other standard teaching material. Remote laboratories, which can be accessed through the Internet, have a great potential and competitive advantages, such as the fact that they can be used and accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a simple reservation,” explained Ivonne Gutiérrez, the director of the Training Node of the Macro-Faculty at UFRO. “These are all mature technologies that we must adopt and that allow us to create new learning scenarios based on innovative technologies and methodologies,” she added. Meanwhile, Susana Candia, the director of the Internationalization Node of the consortium at UFRO, explained that “distance learning is a topic that will continue to position itself in the future; and practical training in a distance mode for future engineers is a topic that has been widely discussed during this second semester of 2020. We think that it is important to introduce tools that are commonly used in the field of engineering, such as remote operation technologies and augmented reality, which can also be used within universities, in order to ensure that the training of our engineers has the same quality as usual, no matter if we use in-person or remote classes”. “For the Internationalization Node, it is important to maintain our networks and to be active during this pandemic, and we believe that this kind of activity is a great way to discuss current issues and to get together with other people in our field of knowledge,” she concluded. Written by: Mauricio Antivil Morgado
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Once again, UFRO achieved a leading position in a prestigious ranking. This time, it is the Shanghai Global Ranking of the best Sport Science Schools and Departments 2020, which concentrates on scientific productivity related to sport science. |
Only two Chilean universities are included in this recent report of the Shanghai Ranking, which ranked the best higher education Sport Science Schools and Departments in the world. It is a great achievement for the university Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), which is ranked second best in Chile and fourth best in South America. This year’s version of the Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments ranked more than 400 universities around the world, with UFRO being in range 101-150 (as well as the Chilean university Universidad de Los Lagos). This is a notable achievement, considering that the last version of this ranking (published in 2018) did not rank any university from Chile. The focus of this ranking lies on the research performance of sport universities or a university’s sport-related unit(s). Therefore, five different indicators have been used: papers indexed in Web of Science, total citations, citations per paper, papers published in top 25% journals, and percentage of papers with international co-authorship. Regarding this important achievement, Dr. Renato Hunter, the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at UFRO, congratulated the research team of the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Recreation, who are the driving force behind this success, for their great work that has been recognized in this important international ranking. “This is the first time that UFRO appears in this ranking and, on top of that, in a very good position. It is a recognition of the scientific output and commitment of the researchers of the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Recreation, which has turned into a complex academic unit that is not only concerned about a good teaching quality at the undergraduate and graduate level, but also about high-impact knowledge creation and dissemination in the very important fields of physical activity and healthy lifestyle,” Dr. Hunter added. The academic staff of the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Recreation received this news with pride and satisfaction. “We are pleasantly surprised. This is something we did not expect, considering that none of the Chilean universities appeared in the first version in 2018, and now, the first time that we are in this ranking, we achieved such a good position, nationally as well as in South America,” commented Dr. Cristian Martínez, the director of the Department. According to Dr. Martínez, ten years ago, the academic body of the Department started to do research in the fields of physical activity, sports and healthy lifestyle. That was accompanied by institutional support and investments in infrastructure, laboratories, equipment and the recruitment of new academic staff. “This is the result of years of work. It encourages and challenges us to maintain or even improve our scientific productivity and the results regarding the indicators used in this ranking,” Dr. Martínez concluded. Written by: UFRO Communications Office
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13 UFRO projects have been awarded a Fondecyt Initiation in Research Grant 2020, what puts the university in eighth place at the national level. |
The university Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) maintains its leading position in scientific productivity in Chile, after adding 13 projects that have been awarded a Fondecyt Initiation in Research Grant in the competition of 2020. This achievement puts UFRO in eighth place at the national level and among the best state universities in Chile regarding the number of awarded projects. According to Dr. César Arriagada Escamilla, the Vice-rector of Research and Graduate Studies, this achievement is the result of the growth strategies in research that have been implemented at UFRO and of the commitment and talent of the researchers themselves. “We generate knowledge in almost all fields and contribute to in-depth studies of high-impact research ideas that contribute to the solution of scientific and social problems at the regional, national and international level. That way, we position the La Araucanía Region as a knowledge hub in the southern macro-zone,” he explained. It is worth mentioning that UFRO has about 120 active projects that are funded by FONDECYT, which is a significant number at the national level. In this context, Dr. Pamela Serón Silva, the research director, congratulated the researchers, who are the ones who help the university to achieve its goal to provide the society with knowledge, on their success. “Over the past decade, the number of awarded FONDECYT projects has increased by 144%, positioning us always among the ten universities in Chile with the highest number of awarded projects,” she said. THE PROJECTS This year, the awarded projects cover the fields of Agronomy, Biology, Law and Politics, Education, Geography and Urbanism, History, Engineering, Chemistry, Animal Health and Production, and Sociology. Project name: MACROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS THROUGH MULTICOMPONENT REACTIONS WITH MICROTUBULE-STABILIZING EFFECT
Project name: THE IN VITRO EFFECT OF NEUTROPHIL EXTRACELLULAR TRAPS (NETs) ON BOVINE SPERM FUNCTION AND ITS IMPACT IN THE FERTILIZATION OUTCOME
Written by: Karimme Riadi Millas
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This is another great achievement of UFRO, which climbed 11 places in the prestigious QS Latin America University Rankings compared to last year. |
This is an important step forward for the university Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), which climbed from 71st (in 2020) to 62nd place in the QS Latin America University Rankings 2021, what brings it even closer to the top 50 in Latin America. Regarding the Chilean universities, UFRO has been ranked 11th overall, and is the fourth best state university in the country. These great results position UFRO as one of the universities that are among the top 16% of the ranking. It is the fifth year in a row that UFRO appears in this ranking. The first time was in 2016, when the university had been ranked in 92nd place. This year, the QS Ranking of the best Latin American universities featured 410 institutions, including 40 Chilean universities. One of the facts that made the improvement in this ranking possible are the indicators in which UFRO stands out: Papers per Faculty (14), one of the most consistent indicators at UFRO; Citations per Paper (33), what means that the scientific productivity of its researchers is significant, sought and cited by peers; and International Research Networks (53), which reinforces the just mentioned. According to Renato Hunter, the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, this improved position in the ranking is a significant step forward that shows where UFRO stands in the Latin American scenario, but also in the national scenario, where it maintains a leading position. “These 11 places that UFRO climbed compared to last year’s ranking support each of our efforts made to ensure UFROs quality and excellence. At the same time, this is an expression of the institutional commitment towards scientific productivity, and we are proud that the indicators measured by QS also reflect that,” he explained. This ranking uses different indicators to evaluate the universities, such as Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Faculty to student Ratio, Staff with PhD, International Research Networks, Citations per Paper, Papers per Faculty and Web Impact. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RANKINGS
Written by: UFRO Communications Office |
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This year’s Research Exhibition of UFRO will take place online, starting on October 19, on a special online platform that will allow the community to access the contents of the different exhibition stands. |
This year, the traditional Research Exhibition ‘FIUFRO’ of the university Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) will take place online, what allows it to reach a much greater audience and to keep up the university’s commitment to research dissemination, by sharing its knowledge with the entire community. The preparations for the 14th version of FIUFRO, which has become one of the most important scientific events in the south of Chile, with more than three thousand visitors last year, are in full swing. In this context, Dr. Pamela Serón Silva, the director of the UFRO Research Office, pointed out that “it is important to us to carry out this event that represents our talents and vocation as a university, and to share our advances in science and technology with the public. Although the pandemic doesn’t allow us to carry out this event as we usually do, the virtual platforms allow us to overcome the physical distance, so that anyone with access to the internet can access the exhibition”. FIUFRO 2020 will take place on a special online platform (http://feriainvestigacion.ufro.cl/), where you can find the different virtual stands, as well as dissemination activities through the social networks of the Vice-rectorate for Research and Graduate Studies. This year’s presentation format contains audiovisual contents and infographics, which convey the messages of the researchers or working groups in an innovative way both of the processes, results and impact of their research. The Vice-rector for Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. César Arriagada Escamilla, considers that FIUFRO 2020 is very important regarding the university’s purpose of sharing its knowledge with the public, especially in complex times like the current health crisis. “Despite the difficulties, the interest and commitment of our academic staff encourages us to carry out this scientific event that has become one of the most important ones in the south of Chile. We believe that this first online version of FIUFRO will lay the foundation for its future versions,” he added. The online platform will allow you to visit each of the 40 exhibition stands of FIUFRO 2020, to access and download information about scientific projects, laboratories, centers and research results, to communicate with the researchers through social media, and to participate in some of the activities from home. Written by: Karimme Riadi Millas
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