Dr. Fariña is an academic member of the Universidad de Chile, Dr. Arriagada is a maxillofacial Surgeon at Linares Hospital and the doctors Alister, Uribe and Olate are part of the academic body of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad de La Frontera.

The work “Indications of free grafts in mandibular reconstruction, after removing benign tumors: treatment algorithm” by Rodrigo Fariña, Juan Pablo Alister, Francisca Uribe, Sergio Olate and Álvaro Arriagada received an important acknowledgement by the prestigious Plastic and Reconstructive Sugery Global Open Journal, which awarded the article as “Best Latin American Paper” in 2006, published in this journal.

Dr. Fariña is part of the academic body of the Universidad de Chile, Dr. Arriagada is a maxillofacial Surgeon at Linares Hospital and the doctors Alister, Uribe and Olate are part of the academic body of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad de La Frontera.

The team of researchers who participated in this publication, a collaborative work, sent the article, which was awarded as the best article in Latin America of the last year, to this renowned journal of the area of plastic and reconstructive surgery.

This acknowledgement makes the experts very proud and was recently given to them in Orlando, Florida (United States).
“This is very important for us, because it is an international acknowledgement of one of the most prestigious journals in this field and it supports our work and the methodology of our clinical and research activities. This helps us to continue with the progress, since it values our work in the field of reconstructive surgery, which is very complex”, emphasized Dr. Juan Pablo Alister.

The researcher said that the award was given in consideration of the number of quotes and downloads of the article, in addition to the evaluation by peer evaluators.

Written by: Soledad Millapán
Faculty of Dentistry 

“We received this news with the satisfaction that we accomplished to put a program of excellence together, which now is acknowledged through its first accreditation for a period of four years”, commented the director of Master´s Programs, Dr. René Montalba.

The Master´s Program in Natural Resource Management of the Universidad de La Frontera received an important acknowledgement of the quality of its processes by being accredited for four years, from 2017 to 2021, granted by the Qualitas Agency.

The director who led the process, Dr. René Montalba, said that the notification was well-received by the Master´s team. “We received this news with the satisfaction that we accomplished to put a program of excellence together, which now is acknowledged through its first accreditation for a period of four years”, he commented.

This accomplishment could only have been achieved through meticulous processes, led by Dr. Montalba and a commission, comprised of Dr. Christian Salas, Dr. Alejandra Ribera and Dr. Adison Altamirano, in cooperation with the civil engineer, Denise Lisperguier, in order to take forward the self-assessment process, which was awarded with this accreditation.

This acknowledgement was also appreciated by the dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Science, Rodolfo Pihán, who emphasized that the accreditation of the Master´s Program is part of the priorities of the Faculty to assure the quality of processes and it reflects the excellent work and the commitment of the people who are part of the Program.

“This acknowledgement makes us happy because it adds public recognition to the quality this postgraduate program offers in the mission of training advanced human capital in an area, which is fundamental for the development of our region, the country and the relation to ournatural resources”,he said.

PROGRAM
This positive result is the result of a deep analysis and redesign of the Program, driven by the actual requirements of the professional world, which is linked to the environment and natural resources.

“An important part of this modification is the creation of three areas of specialization (Applied Agroecology, Analysis and governance of Socio-ecological Systems, and Natural Resource Assessment) that cover relevant aspects of natural resource management from a complex and multidisciplinary perspective”, he explained.

One of our strengths to receive this acknowledgement is that we have an academic body of more than 20 teachers of excellence, with a high scientific productivity and who are committed to the Program, in addition to a group of students and graduates who are working in the area, which, according to them, requires the use of applied science in order to resolve problems of the real world.

“In addition to academic excellence and the link with the environment, one of the main strengths of this Master´s Program is its diversity and the uninterrupted dialogue between different visions, perspectives and professional areas that are part of the management of natural resources”, he added.

He also added, that this significant accreditation is not the culmination of an improvement process, but an impulse to keep improving in the area of academic excellence, the cooperation with companies and institutions of the center and the south of Chile, and the consolidation of an active and united Master´s community that is committed to the development of the region and the country.

ADMISSION 2018
The admission process for the Master in Natural Resource Management starts on November 13th, 2017. For more information about the Program (in Spanish), please click here: http://magrecnat.ufro.cl/.

For the first time, Chile hosted the Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS) Conference in Santiago, where representatives of 34 different countries came together, among them an UFRO delegation.

A delegation of UFRO students and scholars of the Faculty of Engineering participated in the most important astroinformatics conference worldwide, which, for the first time in its 27 years of existence, took place in Chile and Latin America.

The 27th version of the International Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS) Conferencetook place in Santiago and was organized by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Technical University Federico Santa María.

Representatives of 34 different countries participated in this conference, among them 44 speakers, scholars, professionals in the area of science and engineering, innovators in the development of astronomical data software and systems, and more than 180 scientific posters were presented.

The Universidad de La Frontera was represented by the ASTROUFRO group, composed of undergraduate students of the Civil Industrial Engineeringwith specialization in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Civil Electronics Engineering Programs. In this context, it is also important to say that, since 2015, the UFRO and ALMA are maintaining a cooperation for the development of academic and professional initiatives and links in the areas of engineering and science.

UFRO PARTICIPATION

The UFRO delegation that participated in this event presented an experimental prototype of a monitoring station for the measurement of environmental variables, which operatesunder the same platform that is used by the ALMA Observatory to control their telescopes.

In this context, the academic member of the Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Engineering and Scienceand head of the UFRO delegation, Patricio Galeas, commented that “our participation allows to give visibility to the Universidad de La Frontera and positions us as one of the universities that are working on the development of astronomy at a national level, since it is a topic that will become more relevance in Chile during the next years, because the increase in the construction of telescopes in Chile will position our country as a leader in the field of space observation, at the international level”, he stated.

Galeas added that “we think that being present as a universityfrom the beginning in this development gives us an advantage compared to other institutions and offers new opportunities to learn and improve for our students and scholars.”

With regard to the importance of this congress for the students, Galeas said that “the experience has been very positive, since they could interact with top-level specialists who are associated with engineering applications for the astronomical world. At the same time, this participation motivates them to keep working on astroengineering projects and to include new students in this field. In this context, we hope to be able to use the prototype we presented at the conference on a larger scale during the next semester and to create software products for the functioning of the telescopes installed in our country.”

Written by: Mauricio Antivil
Engineering Project 2030

The International Fair will take place on November 16th, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. near the refectory Las Araucarias, where undergraduate students of different nationalities will present their culturesand student exchange experiences.

Getting to know people from different cultures is an enriching experience on a personal and professional level. With this in mind, the Student Mobility Office of the Vice-rectorate of Academic Affairs invites the undergraduate students of our University to share an intercultural experience at the first International Fair that will take place on November 16th, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., near the refectory Las Araucarias.

The main actors of this International Fair are UFRO students who have spent some time at international universities and exchange students from foreign countries at our University, from Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, USA, Spain, France, Belgium, Portugal and Italy, who are looking forward to meeting fellow students and telling them about the advantages of a student exchange and the considerations that you might need to keep in mind.

“The idea is to motivate the students to make use of the mobility opportunities the University offers and to get together with students from other cultures in order to enrich each other by sharing their experiences. It is a space to generate networks within the same University”, said Antonia Espinoza of the Student Mobility Office.

The International Fair includes cultural presentations, stands with typical food, information about foreign universities and different contests. It is worth to mention that during the first semester of 2017, 31 undergraduate students of our six faculties went to foreign universities and 68 students from ten different countries came to the Universidad de La Frontera.

The eventwill end with an invitation to our Linguistic Café, which is organized by the Student Development Office, at 5 p.m., at the Casino Los Notros, where the students have the chance to speak different languages, such as German, French, English, Chinese, Mapudungun and sign language.

Antonia Espinoza, who is in charge of the Student Mobility Office, also invited the whole University Community to visit the photographic exhibition of UFRO students and foreign students who took the photos themselves during their exchange period. Thisis an itinerant exposition that will be put in different places of the University, starting on Monday, November 13th, in the central hallway of our University.