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The UFRO maintains collaborative work with the largest and most important Astronomic Observatory in the world, since 2014. |
The visit of directors and students of the Universidad de La Frontera at ALMA, the largest and most important astronomic observatory in the world, is an important event in the cooperation that lasts since 2014. The delegation was led by the dean of the UFRO Faculty of Engineering and Science, Rodrigo Navia; the Outreach coordinator, Iván Velásquez; the director of the Program in Physical Engineering, Robert Guzmán; and the academic of the Department of Physical Science, Pablo Díaz. It has been the second visit of directors of the university at ALMA, and their partnership serves for the development of initiatives and academic and professional collaboration. At present, the collaboration focuses on the field of big data (software) and will be extended to different fields of engineering (hardware), scientific operations, academic development and, in medium-term, technology transfer. “This cooperation with ALMA opens a new field for us, for internships and perhaps future jobs for engineers of different fields of expertise. Therefore, it is a field in which our students can acquire important skills for their future”, Rodrigo Navia, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Science, explained. He added that “we will elaborate a plan for the next two years, which will be reviewable each year, in which we will extend the collaboration spectrum we had so far and which basically focused on computer science. We are thinking about fields like electronics, mechatronics, physics engineering and telematics. We want more students to be able to do their internship at ALMA. Eventually, this plan will also include the possibility for postgraduate students to do internships there.” EXPERIENCE AND OPPURTUNITIES The delegation also consisted of ten students of the Physical Engineering, Civil Industrial Engineering with specialization in Computer Engineering and Electronic Engineering programs, who started to work in the field of astroengineering, an UFRO initiative led by the academic Patricio Galeas. “The visit was a tremendous opportunity in order to see how the work at the international level, regarding infrastructure, technology and human resources, works”, Felipe Garrido, student in Physical Engineering, said. “ALMA is a model to aspire, no matter which path we take or the resources we have. This experience marks the future for the ones who want to follow a path towards cutting-edge research and engineering applied on science or technology”, he added. According to that, Iván Aburto, student in Civil Industrial Engineering with specialization in Computer Engineering, said that “it was a unique experience, since we were able to share with professionals who guided us and explained some of the tasks they regularly work on. Here in Chile, there is a wide range of working options for engineers in the different fields. Opportunities exist, you just have to know how to find and make use of them”, he assured. “It is important to emphasize the quality of our visit, as well as the politeness and deference the ALMA experts treated our delegation with, while receiving us and showing us around the installations”, Navia concluded. Written by: Mauricio Antivil Morgado |
