This activity, created by the Student Development Office, is open to the university community and permits to learn and practice seven languages at different tables, guided by a native speaker or a language expert.

This Wednesday 6th of September, there will be another session of the UFRO Linguistic Café, which was created by the Student Development Office in cooperation with the Division of Student Orientation and Development, at the refectory Los Notros.

This activity permits to get together for conversation with other students that are interested in the same language. You can practice the languages English, French, German, Mapuzungun, Arabic and Italian, and for this Wednesday´s session the organizers also added the Portuguese language.

The conversations take place at different language tables and are guided by a native speaker or a language expert.

The activity is free of charge and the participation is voluntarily. It is open to our students and employees, as well as to everyone who is interested and not part of the Universidad de La Frontera community. It takes place at the refectory Los Notros, at the intersection of the streets Uruguay and Montevideo.

“This activity has been introduced and developed in different parts of the world in order to promote and practice different languages. Considering our reality at the UFRO, we thought of these languages, including Mapudungun as a kind of responsibility and because of its relevance for our environment”, says Camilo Vásquez who is responsible for this activity and has the support of the Student Development Office.

He also adds that the Linguistic Café is a valuable alternative for those students of the University who plan to do an exchange period abroad, because this way they can practice the language of their destination and listen to the experiences of other students who have already completed their exchange period abroad.

Written by: Sergio Valenzuela

The Network for Extreme Environment Research (NEXER) already has its first projects awarded, which makes the cooperation between researchers of the Universidad de La Frontera, the Universidad de Magallanes and the Universidad de Antofagasta official.

This collaboration between three Chilean universities – Universidad de La Frontera, Universidad de Magallanes and Universidad de Antofagasta – with the support of the BIOREN-UFRO, realizes high-level research in extreme environments and aspires to become one of the most successful projects at the national level.

Chile has a wide range of ecosystems, from the desert in the north, the fertile areas in the center, the pampa, to the ice fields in the south. This converts the country into a natural laboratory for exploration. Due to the big amount and diversity of organisms and the role of the flow of materials and energy in nature – biogeochemical cycles, fertility in terrestrial and aquatic environments, gene transfer – the need to realize research in collaboration with different universities emerged.

This is how the Network for Extreme Environment Research (NEXER) came to life, which is an organism that brings three Chilean universities together and seeks to get to know and discuss research in extreme environments at an international level, taking advantage of the experience of well-known researchers; to identify, analyze and discuss the issues of investigation with the three participating universities; to create projects together, find new research areas and establish new collaborative networks for research and postgraduate programs.

The last two points are in full swing and at the moment, the three universities are preparing themselves for the development of four new projects in this area, which are presented by the doctors Cristina Ortiz (UA), Ricardo De Pol-Holz (UMAG), Francisco Matus (UFRO) and León Bravo (UFRO).

“This initiative shows that there is still a lot of knowledge to explore, especially in the regions where the three participating universities are located: the desert in the north, the mountains and volcanos in the central area, and the entrance to the Antarctica in the south. We have remarkable research resources”, commented the Vice-rector of Research and Postgraduate Programs, Dr. Eduardo Hebel.

He also pointed out that this cooperation is a clear sign of the significance of the associativity as one of the pillars that sustain the research work, which the Vice-rectory wants to continue tosupport. “The key is to work in a network. And in this case in particular, the international connections are relevant because they are going to be our window to the world”, added Dr. Hebel.

The Director of the BIOREN-UFRO, Dr. María de la Luz Mora, sees this as an opportunity not only for the universities that are involved, but also for the students of the undergraduate and postgraduate programs and for the researchers. “We can continue the exchange of questions and create knowledge in other areas. The Nucleus is going to contribute within all of its possibilities to make this happen. We bet on collaboration for being able to keep growing”, she added.

This seminar is a prelude for the Ibero-American Conference for Quality of Life, Sustainability and the Environment in 2018.

With participation of national and international experts and with help of four tables of analysis, the seminar “Quality of Life, Sustainability and Environment” will take place at the Universidad de La Frontera, at the Auditorium Selva Saavedra on this Thursday, September 7th, starting at 8:30a.m.

The seminar will be a prelude for the Ibero-American Conference for Quality of Life, Sustainability and the Environment that will take place in 2018. According to the coordinator of the Organizing Committee, Jorge Cortés, the idea of this seminar is to create a space to foster development, especially in the most vulnerable territories. “This is the reason why this event takes place in the Araukanía Region, because we are one of the poorest and less developed regions in Chile”, he commented.

He added that this seminar is based on the cooperation between three entity types: public, private and for research. Without this cooperation, the development would always be incomplete.

The event will be carried out at four different tables with specialists that focus on the questions: “How can we measure human development from the human perspective?”, “Sustainability: What is that and how can we measure it?”, “How much more can we improve human life without compromising the ecosystems that support life on our planet?”, and “Development in the Araukanía Region: role and challenges of the university in the century XXI”.

LECTURES

On Friday, 8th of September,as part of the encounter there will be two related lectures. The first one is called “Quality of Life: as a system of indicators for the evaluation of social, public and private organizations”, which will be held by Miguel Ángel Verdugo, a Dr. of Psychology at the Universidad de Salamanca. This activity will take place in room 201 at the Aula Magna of the institution, at 9 a.m.

The second lecture is about “Post-Truth and Complex Networks” and will be held by CristiánHuepe, researcher of complex systems at the Northwestern University, USA, in the Auditorium Selva Saavedra, at 9 a.m. He will explain the complexity of the phenomenon of post-truth in social networks.
For more information and questions about the lectures or the seminar, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Written by: Jassna Sepúlveda Beltrán

The delegation of the UFRO stayed in Brazil until August 22nd. They fulfilled a busy agenda of activities which reflects partnerships of excellence and collaborative work beyond the borders.

The relationship between the Universidad de La Frontera and prestigious Brazilian institutionshas been very productive over the years, as a result of the actions taken in order to foster internationalization. At this moment, the UFRO has a series of agreements with Brazilian institutions and the positive experiences in research and postgraduate programs contributed to the consolidation of networks and established trust for cooperation.

In order to strengthen the link with the institutions of cooperation in Brazil and to explore new spaces to build networks that permit to strengthen the internationalization of the work of the UFRO, a delegation of the UFRO went to Brazil with a busy agenda of activities and stays until august 22nd.

Head of the delegation is the Academic Vice-Rector Dr. Rubén Leal, accompanied by the Director of Analysis and Institutional Development, Dr. Ricardo Herrera; the Director of International Cooperation, Dr. Pamela Leal; the Director of the Center of Excellence in Translational Medicine, Dr. Raúl Sánchez; the Director of the Doctorate Programs in Science with mention in Applied Cellular and Molecular Biology, Dr. Luis Salazar; and the Director of the Doctorate Program in Morphological Science, Dr. Mariano del Sol.

Several meetings with universities and institutions in different parts of Brazil are part of this institutional visit, starting in Brasilia with a meeting at the Chilean Embassy and continuing at the Capes Foundation and the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development).

Afterwards, the representatives of the UFRO went to meetings at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and the FAPERJ (Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro), which is an institution for the promotion of science, technology and innovation, and has shown positive results as collaborative partner ofthe UFRO. The emphasis of these encounters lied on the possibility to expand the field of work in agriculture, geography, education, food, phytopharmaceuticals, etc.

The activities will go on in the city of Porto Alegre from August 18th, mainly at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul with which we hope to extend our cooperation and the framework for action.

Sao Paulo will be the last destination of the UFRO delegation, at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), a prestigious institution of higher education and one of the best universities in Latin America, with which we have a productive cooperation and an auspicious program of double degree for postgraduate students. The visit continues at the FAPESP and at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo.