Different topics were addressed in the meeting, such as the internationalization of UFRO, STEM entrepreneurship, academic cooperation agreements, exchange programs, student mobility programs and English programs.

The main objective of the meeting held at the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), with representatives of UFRO and the U.S. Embassy in Chile, was to strengthen collaborative ties at the international level.

It was an in-person meeting with the presence of Paula Wikle, the Cultural Affairs Officer, Daniela González, the Coordinator for Professional Exchange Programs, Dr. Renato Hunter, the Vice-rector for Academic Affairs, Dr. Lorena Vieli, the director of the International Affairs Office, Franklin Valdebenito, the director of the Office of Innovation and Technology Transfer, and Paola Olave, the director of the Office for Outreach and Community Engagement.

In addition, Dr. Cristian Cerda, an academic of the Department of Education, Antonia Espinoza, the Coordinator of the Student Mobility Unit, and Felipe Opazo, the director of the Language Coordination Center also joined the meeting. During the meeting, the participants made use of this opportunity to present the university and its potential to establish collaborative partnerships with universities in the U.S., and specific actions and programs that might promote this approach were discussed.

“We are slowly starting to resume our in-person activities at UFRO and when it comes to international relations, it is extremely important to reconnect, especially because of the great opportunities we have to offer in terms of academic cooperation, research and development, and student mobility, thanks to our partnerships with other foreign institutions”, Dr. Renato Hunter explained.

In this regard, Dr. Lorena Vieli added that “meeting in-person with these key entities after such a long time allows us to proceed with our process of internationalization, which enhances the work of our university regarding the training of our students, our research and our community engagement. We are very pleased that we were able to meet with them in person, since this allows us to build even stronger links”.

Some of the UFRO students of the program in Spanish and Communication Education connected with students of the Spanish 101 course of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and had to put into practice their knowledge of teaching and their English skills.

The Spanish and Communication Education students Javiera Jorquera, María Carolina Oyarzún and Génesis Orellana of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) and Fabián Leal, a former student of the program, had to teach their Canadian peers about the educative and cultural contexts of UFRO and our city (Temuco, Chile).

This workshop was very interesting for the participants, since the undergraduate students of UFRO had to play the role of the teacher in front of the Spanish 101 class. Each of them had to present his or her experiences as a South American student studying at a regional state university, as well as their future goals and short-term goals. They also had to put their educational skills to the test, as well as their command of a second language – English in this case – within the framework of a first approach to teaching.

The pandemic has affected the whole world, but it also opened new doors and brought new opportunities. One example for that is the huge progress in online education. “Thanks to virtuality, we were able to participate in this opportunity of learning and cultural exchange. Otherwise, this would not have been possible. It helps us to broaden our vision of the world when we share with people from other countries, especially when you do that in another language”, explained Javiera Jorquera, one of the students who actively participated in the workshop.

In addition to the cultural exchange, it is worth mentioning the possibility for our students to put their English skills into practice, in an excellent university environment with native speakers who are not only from Canada, but also from other parts of the world, since UBC is well known for being a very multicultural university.

In this context, Genesis Orellana, who is in her third year of the program in Spanish and Communication Education and who participated for the first time in an initiative like this, explained that “it was a completely new experience. I was extremely nervous to face the challenge of teaching a group that did not know any Spanish, but it also was an excellent motivation for me to put my English language skills into practice. I am very happy that I was able to be part of this workshop and to teach these young people who are making a great effort, facing the challenge of learning a new language”.

RELATIONSHIP CHILE-CANADA

This session of the workshop was the fourth in less than a year and was made possible thanks to the collaborative work between Dr. Iris Escuer Riera of UBC (Vancouver, Canada) and Dr. Carolina Navarrete G. (UFRO, Chile), who indicated that “learning opportunities like this one, where our students can interact directly with their international peers – regardless of the pandemic – allow them to put their skills as future teachers into practice, to build partnerships and to broaden their horizons. In addition, it allows the students to increase their self-confidence and the confidence in their communicative, cultural and social skills. In this kind of activities, you can clearly see the excellent work developed by the UFRO School of Education and the program in Spanish and Communication Education regarding the training of our students – also in an international context”.

After more than five years of international collaborative work between these two academics, Dr. Iris Escuer Riera emphasized the importance of this educational exchange of experiences between students of UBC and UFRO. “It has been a great pleasure to bring two cultures together and to enjoy interesting conversations, as well as the possibility of making new friends. I want to express my deep gratitude to the students of UFRO and to Dr. Carolina Navarrete for their active participation in my Spanish classes at UBC”, Dr. Escuer Riera said.

Written by: Communications Office, UFRO

The ranking assesses the best universities in Latin America. Forty Chilean universities were assessed, among which the Universidad de La Frontera achieved the 11th place.

This is an important step forward for the university Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), which climbed from 62nd (in 2021) to 55th place in the QS Latin America University Rankings 2022, what brings it even closer to the top 50 in Latin America.

Regarding the Chilean universities, UFRO is ranked 11th overall, and is the fourth best state university in the country. This year’s ranking features 418 institutions, of which 40 are from Chile.

The 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.

With regard to the UFRO indicators that were evaluated, an improvement can be observed in papers by faculty, staff with PhD, and international research networks; while scientific production and citations are mainly marked by the fields of Life Sciences and Medicine.

According to Dr. Renato Hunter, the Vice-rector for Academic Affairs, this improved position in the overall Latin America Ranking is a significant step forward that maintains UFRO in a leading position in Latin American and in Chile.

“Rankings such as QS, which are highly recognized in the whole world, give us the opportunity to look at ourselves not only in the national context, but also beyond our borders. These rankings are always a good opportunity, especially for us as a public and state university”, Dr. Hunter explained.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE QS LATIN AMERICA UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2022

Written by: UFRO Communications Office

This initiative, financed by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), through the FONDEQUIP (Fund for Scientific and Technological Equipment) program, will strengthen the development of R&D applied to the study of materials such as polymers, thermoplastics and biomaterials, and the numerical modeling of composite materials, among others.

The university Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), through the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, made another step towards continuous improvement by adding a scientific equipment that is unique in Chile.

This Equipment is for Dynamic Materials Testing and is part of the FONDEQUIP project no. EQM180111, called “Associative development of new isotropic and anisotropic materials based on broad-spectrum dynamic mechanical conditions”.

The purchase of this equipment was approved and financed by ANID, with an amount of more than 210 million Chilean pesos (ca. 275,500 USD), and will strengthen the development of R&D applied to the study of new materials, such as polymers, thermoplastics and biopolymers. At the same time, it will provide essential information for the numerical modeling of composite materials, among others.

According to Dr. Renato Hunter, the director of the project and Vice-rector for Academic Affairs at UFRO, “the acquisition of this equipment puts the Universidad de La Frontera in a leading position in the development of mechanical material characterization tests. It also puts us in a position of excellence regarding the promotion and strengthening of the development of research and the training of advanced human capital at the universities Universidad de La Frontera, Universidad de Talca, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, and the Scientific and Technological Bioresource Nucleus (BIOREN-UFRO), by focusing the development of basic and applied R&D on new materials and biomaterials”.

He also explained that this new equipment would give UFRO the opportunity to open new lines of research and to work together with other international universities through the Doctoral Programs of UFRO, and especially through the new Doctoral Program in Engineering, which was developed together with the universities Universidad de Talca and Universidad del Bio Bio, through the Project Engineering 2030.

“This new equipment will allow us to establish a collaborative network with the universities that are part of this initiative, as well as with companies in the industrial sector that require the determination of the mechanical properties of materials through static and dynamic tests at different temperatures”, Dr. Hunter added.

The Composite Materials Laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering is currently working together with a group of companies on a permanent basis. In this context, the acquisition of this new equipment will allow to increase the collaboration with these companies, thanks to the increased testing possibilities that it offers.

Written by: UFRO Communications Office