Thanks to platforms such as Zoom, Dr. Patricio Valenzuela, who is currently living in Sweden, was able to teach an elective subject for the Civil Electrical Engineering and Civil Electronical Engineering students of the Universidad de La Frontera in Chile.

The health crisis caused by COVID-19 forced us to find new ways of teaching and learning. At the beginning, the distance learning modality brought its difficulties with it, but over time, we learned to make the most out of it, and now, it even allowed the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) to carry out a subject 100% online from Sweden for the students in Chile.

The seminar about automatic control systems is an elective course for the senior year students of the programs in Civil Electrical Engineering and Civil Electronical Engineering and was taught in the second semester of 2021 by the Chilean Engineer Dr. Patricio Valenzuela, who is living in Sweden for almost ten years now.

“Due to our previous collaborations with Dr. Patricio Valenzuela, whose knowledge in the industry is very extensive, we started to look into the possibility to carry out a subject in the modality of distance learning at our department, since it would be a great learning opportunity for our students,” explained Dr. Iván Velásquez, an academic staff member of the Department of Electrical Engineering at UFRO, who is the counterpart in Chile.

According to Dr. Valenzuela, who has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) and who is currently working as the Technology Strategy Manager, Automation, Software and E/E at the CTO Office of TRATON AB (SCANIA), it had already crossed his mind to start teaching in order to share his experience and knowledge with the students.

“About a year ago, we started to plan this undergraduate course together with Dr. Velásquez, based on the interest of the university to establish early links with the industries abroad. Therefore, we created this course, in which we contextualize and deepen the contents related to automatic driving systems,” he explained.

After agreeing on schedules and with the support of his family, Dr. Patricio Valenzuela sees this first approach to teaching as a very positive experience. “It was a very nice experience and personally enriching to start teaching and to collaborate with UFRO. I think that it was challenging for the students that I was not physically there, so it was very important to have Dr. Velásquez at UFRO to support them. But the collaboration was very successful and I hope to be able to continue this partnership through this course and also through other projects in the long term,” he concluded.

Written by:Daphne Bormann Parada
Faculty of Engineering and Science, UFRO
Translated by: UFRO Communications Office

The Universidad de La Frontera successfully concluded the welcome week for the freshmen of 2022. This event marked the official return to face-to-face classes at the university, with high participation in the numerous activities, in which the new students were able to get to know their peers and the university.

This year, more than 1,900 new students enrolled in the undergraduate programs of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO). Therefore, the university organized a welcome week for these new students of the generation 2022, which was full of activities that aim at getting to know the university and the students’ peers.

The Office of Student Development and the Office of Comprehensive Training and Employability organized this event that marked the official return to face-to-face classes at UFRO after the pandemic, of course, respecting the sanitary protocols and guidelines of the health authorities.

The first day started with a welcome speech of the rector of UFRO, Dr. Eduardo Hebel, and included an activity called ‘Getting to know my study program’. During the following days, the students were able to participate in fun activities and games under the title ‘living UFRO’, in which the teams were made up according to faculty and study program; to participate in different tours under the title ‘Campus life’, in order to get to know their new study environment; and to visit a little fair with different stands with information about the UFRO units, student organizations and associations, among others. Another part of the program were different informative talks about possible student benefits, the English diagnostic tests, etc.

Juan Méndez, the director of the Office of Comprehensive Training and Employability at UFRO highlighted the importance of the return to face-to-face classes and activities. “We are overwhelmed by the high participation of the students in this welcome week. We are convinced that this level of participation is an indicator for the motivation of the new students of the generation 2022 and for the enthusiasm with which they are going to encounter the challenges during their time at university,” he explained.

According to Barbara Raposo, the director of the Office of Student Counselling and Development, it is important that the students actively participate in the different in-person activities, in order to have a good start into their lives as college students.

“We noticed that the students are very motivated and we are happy to see how the older students of UFRO accompany the freshmen in their adaptation process. These actions create a great atmosphere on our campus and help the freshmen to not only get to know their faculties and programs, but also how our university works,” she explained.

WELCOME EVENT FOR THE GENERATIONS OF 2020 AND 2021

One of the big questions these days was if there would also be a welcome event for the students of the generations 2020 and 2021, who were not able to attend face-to-face classes or to get to know the campus because of the pandemic, during which they only had online classes. In this regard, the Office of Student Development announced that they already planned different cultural and sportive activities organized by the student organizations during the first week of April.

“We are also concerned about the students who started their studies in 2020 and 2021. Due to the pandemic, they never had the chance to get to know their peers in person or to have classes on our campus. Although we organized welcome activities for both generations online back then, we understand that that is not the same, so we are preparing some fun activities for them, too,” said Alex Seguel, the director of the Office of Student Development.

Written by: UFRO Communications Office
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These six international students represent the reactivation of the inbound student mobility at UFRO after the pandemic, during which the students were only able to participate via classes, conferences and meetings online.

The International Affairs Office and the Student Mobility Office of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) organized a welcome event together with the Office for Comprehensive Training and Employability and the Language Coordination Center for the six students from Germany and Spain, giving them valuable information for the first days in Chile, Temuco and at the university.

Some of the topics at this welcome ceremony were the English, German, French and Portuguese language courses offered by the Language Coordination Center (CODI) and the variety of student groups, which are more than 90, and the issues they address, which the Office of Student Development presented.

Besides the subjects in their fields of studies, the students were able to select elective subjects and programs that are part of the undergraduate programs at UFRO. After these organizational issues, the students participated in a city tour organized by the program “UniverCiudad” (“UniverCity”) and the municipality of the city of Temuco in order to get to know the city they are going to live in.

This city tour included public spaces such as the natural monument “Cerro Ñielol”, the stadium and park “Germán Becker”, the municipal theater, the “Pablo Neruda” railway museum and the main square “Plaza de Armas”, among others.

According to Antonia Espinoza, the head of the National and International Student Mobility Office of UFRO, this group of students represents the reactivation of the inbound student mobility at UFRO. “This is a step forward regarding the partnerships and internationalization of our university, because during the pandemic the academics, scientists, students and teachers promoted the international relations mainly via online meetings, conferences, and digital platforms,” she said.

THE STUDENTS

	Simon Beike, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany History, Geography and Civic Education Pedagogy “I am from the north of Germany and my university has a cooperation agreement with the Universidad de La Frontera. I am going to carry out an internship at a school in Temuco and I am very happy, because I like the south of Chile because of its nature and the people who are very nice.”
	Lidia Prieto, University of Jaén, Spain Social Work “I am interested in studying at this university because I think that this experience will enrich my career as a social worker and bring me personal growth. In Latin America, we can learn from different cultures – indigenous cultures – that we do not have in Spain. I know a lot of students who came to Chile and fell in love with the country.”
	Madeleine Walter, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany Business Administration “I wanted to come to Chile to learn Spanish and get to know the culture of this country. I am a Business Administration student and I am going to take subjects related to this field. I love the climate and nature of the La Araucanía Region, which I chose because of the cooperation agreement between my university and the Universidad de La Frontera.”
	Sara Jaque, Universidad de La Frontera, Chile Exchange student guide “I am part of our Association of Exchange Student Guides at UFRO. We help the incoming students to get to know the university, the city and Chile and to understand and overcome possible complications. I love this work, because through the contact with the incoming students we are able to ‘travel’ through them and to get to know their cultures, too.”

Written by: UFRO Communications Office
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This year, one of the participants in the inauguration ceremony for the new academic year at the Faculty of Law and Business of the Universidad de La Frontera will be the dean of the College of Law of Michigan State University.

This year, one of the highlights of the traditional inauguration ceremony for the academic year at the Faculty of Law and Business (FCJE) of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) will be a conference held in English by Dr. Linda Greene, a well-known academic, researcher and dean of the College of Law of Michigan State University in the USA. In addition, she will participate in several activities related to the constitutional process, within the context of the collaboration of the academic staff of the UFRO Department of Law with the Constitutional Convention.

The visit of Dr. Greene at UFRO is possible thanks to the Fulbright Specialist Program, which is a program of the U.S. Department of State that fosters the exchange of knowledge and collaboration around the globe through academics and established professionals who get the opportunity to engage in two- to six-week, project-based exchanges.

According to the dean of the Faculty of Law and Business of UFRO, Dr. Paulina Sanhueza Martínez, the presence of Dr. Greene is a great highlight this year. In this context, she invites and encourages everyone to participate in the inauguration ceremony for the academic year 2022 on Wednesday 22, as well as in the different seminars the Dean of the College of Law of Michigan State University will participate in on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 of March.

The inaugural conference takes place at the Aula Magna of UFRO, with an interpreting service, which requires a previous registration. At the same time, it is broadcasted live on the YouTube Channel of FCJE-UFRO.

Written by: Karen Campos Reyes
Faculty of Law and Business
Translated by: UFRO Communications Office