The planting of the species will be carried out once a month, covering the sector of the northern, western 1 and western 2 slopes of the Andrés Bello Campus. The initiative also includes maintenance, cleaning and permanent irrigation for all areas involved.

Aware that we must be respectful of the environment, the members of the community of the University of La Serena actively participated in the planting of more than 100 tree species on the slope of the Andrés Bello Campus, as part of the Comprehensive Reforestation Program that develops the institution.

The program, which has been carried out in phases since 2018 and has required the coordination of different units of the central administration, at the request of Rector Nibaldo Avilés, began the planting stage, mainly of native plant species with low water requirements. , and the implementation of physical works that make its use more efficient.

“The execution of this program will contribute to the Strategic Institutional Development Plan 2016-2020, which declares the assurance of an adequate quality standard for university functions,” said the academic of the Department of Biology and Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Cristian. Ibáñez, who was charged with the mission of coordinating this work.

The manager added that the first day of forestation "marks a very important milestone, since the three groups, AFULS, FEULS, and academics, have been committed to a sensitive issue that seeks to raise awareness among the entire community about the environmental issue."

It should be noted that those who participated in this first forestation were volunteers who freely signed up to cooperate in an initiative that seeks not only to beautify the environment of one of the most emblematic campuses of the University, but also to raise awareness, in some way, of the value that vegetation has for the environment.

One of the student volunteers, Heidi Mansilla, from Civil Mining Engineering, highlighted the initiative and said she was happy to be part of it. “It is very good that these types of things are done together, because in this way we are creating awareness of how important it is to take care of the environment. We just hope that the entire community takes care of what we are doing, and that it serves as an example for future generations,” she said.

Written by Patricia Castro, DirCom

This course seeks to provide support to the academics of the university, in the process involved in publishing on teaching in higher education.

After the great participation and interest of the university's academics in its first version, the Vice-Rector's Office for Research and Postgraduate Studies of the University of La Serena began the second version of the academic writing course, which seeks to support to the institution's teachers in the process that academic publication entails, whether in a relevant educational experience or research on teaching.

As in its first version, this course is aimed at academics who are beginning to prepare academic publications, with a topic focused on teaching in higher education.

“This second version of the academic writing course is being given following the acceptance of its first version. This is a course that seeks to strengthen research in teaching within the University, providing the tools so that academics are able to write and publish the work they do within the university," indicated the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Eduardo Notte, regarding the beginning of this course.

One of its participants, the academic from the Department of Industrial Engineering, David Gómez, expressed that these “are important instances for teachers who work on research topics and it is always good to be learning. I think it is excellent that the University is concerned about creating this type of spaces that contribute to the development of research.”

The course is taught by Dr. Haylen Perines, from the ULS Multidisciplinary Research Institute in Science and Technology, and consists of 4 sessions, with a total of 14 hours of work.

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom

Laboratories open to the community, functions of the Mobile Planetarium and talks are part of the activities that will take place next Sunday, October 6 at the Andrés Bello Campus.

For the second consecutive year, the State Universities of Chile will celebrate the National Day of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, through scientific fairs, talks and open laboratories throughout the country.

That is why the University of La Serena will open its doors to families in the region and will celebrate this day through various activities at the Andrés Bello Campus (Raúl Bitrán 1305, La Serena), from 11:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m.: XNUMX hrs.

During the day, visits will be made to learn about the laboratories of the departments of Food Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy, the initiatives of the Physics and Mathematics departments, in addition to the Digital Campus and an exhibition of the Intikallpa solar car from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, a prototype that has had an outstanding participation in the world competition held in Australia.

There will also be functions of the Mobile Planetarium and a keynote talk on water scarcity will be held by the academic of the Department of Agronomy and Director of the PROMMRA Laboratory, Dr. Pablo Álvarez.

“The invitation is to come to the University of La Serena as a family, to learn and enjoy the sciences, innovation and technologies developed by our institution, which fulfills its mission of sharing knowledge that improves life,” said the Rector of the ULS, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés.

Science Week is part of the work carried out by the Research Network of State universities. 

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom

The proposal indicates the use of NASA technology called “MOXIE” (Mars Oxigen In situ Experiment), a device that allows producing oxygen in the Martian atmosphere itself.

A few months ago NASA, exploring the surface of Mars, found methane in the air, a gas in the earth that is linked to the existence of life. Although there is no total certainty of the existence of living beings on the red planet, there are studies that indicate how to generate oxygen on Mars. This was announced by Natalia Aguirre and Sebastián Olivares, graduates of the Mining Civil Engineering career of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of La Serena, who were awarded "Green Mars" in a national contest organized by the Technical University Federico Santa María, the College of Engineers of Chile AG and the Chilean Association of Space AG (ACHIDE).

The professionals stood out with solutions for obtaining water, air, food and energy on the red planet. The project contemplated 3 proposals for obtaining oxygen. Natalia Aguirre explained that “by means of a greenhouse system, CO2 can enter from the Martian atmosphere and then the O2 is extracted. NASA MOXIE technology could also be used, a device to generate oxygen through the electrolysis of water”.

In relation to food on Mars, Sebastián Olivares indicated that “to feed the crew members, the consumption of vegetables generated in the greenhouse is proposed. This is a fundamental piece of the proposal since oxygen and nutrition depend on its functioning, and for this you need soil suitable for plant life, since the planet Mars is not suitable because it has perchlorates, but it can be solved by diluting it. ”.

For the crew's settlement, Natalia Aguirre specified that “it was decided to go to the North, near the Korolev crater, which has a good source of water in the form of ice. In addition, it was suggested that the settlement was inside craters in the twilight zone to protect from space radiation, and thus obtain water from the ice of the Korolev Crater and a second way is to generate it through the Sabatier reaction.

The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr. Ing. Mauricio Godoy, pointed out that “we are very proud of our former students and the presentation of this great project. We train professionals, but without a doubt, thanks to their great abilities and perseverance, they are proposing to the world today. I congratulate you and urge you to continue working and fulfilling your goals; and at the same time, indicate that as a Faculty we have the doors open to support graduates who require it”.

The award ceremony for the activity took place at the National Aeronautical and Space Museum, as part of the ceremony that celebrated the 50th anniversary of man's arrival on the Moon.

NASA Technology

The proposal also indicates the use of NASA technology called "MOXIE" (Mars Oxygen In situ Experiment), which is a device to produce oxygen in the same Martian atmosphere from the abundant carbon dioxide (96%). With a power of 300 watts and a production rate of 10 grams per hour, the “MOXIE” collects CO2, compresses it and puts it through an electrochemical process at more than 800 degrees to produce oxygen by electrolysis.

Written by María José Barraza, FIULS 2030 Project

These types of workshops are frequently held for regular students and those with a graduate profile from the institution.

A new cycle of training sessions was carried out by professionals from the Graduate Monitoring Office for students of the University of La Serena. On this occasion it was the Pedagogy major in Basic General Education, Ovalle, who participated with a total of 31 attendees, in addition to the active participation of the teachers present at the Limarí Campus.

In the activity, participants received information from the therapist, Elba Andrea Soto, on practices linked to asanas, meditation, ergonomics in the workplace and breathing techniques to manage stressful situations. On the other hand, the unit's psychologist, Maximiliano Jiménez, addressed the topic of time management, in addition to delving into definitions, signs and symptoms of stress.

In this regard, Jiménez highlighted that “this workshop seeks to provide necessary tools for stress management and promote a culture of self-care in the work environment. I would like to highlight that this is the third workshop that the Graduate Monitoring Office holds this year at the Limarí Campus. The first was job insertion, where they were taught how to prepare a CV and review everything that is the recruitment and selection process.”

The professional added that “subsequently, a workshop on teamwork and work under pressure and stress management was held. Given that the workshops are requested by the coordinators or directors of the courses or School, I would like to highlight the initiative of this campus and remember that we are at the disposal of all courses to carry out the workshops that we have available.”

For more information or to request workshops from the courses, contact the OSE team at email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., to the telephone numbers 51-2-204436 and 51-2-204667 or to the emails This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. y This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Written by Jenifer Araya, DIVEULS

Professionals from the ULS Institutional Analysis Office were in charge of guiding the workshop where they showed the PDI team the software and hardware tools and the evolution of large volumes of data analysis strategies.

Within the framework of the “BIG DATA ULS: Digital Transformation of the Coquimbo Region” project, which was awarded by the University of La Serena in December 2018, through the Mineduc Regional Higher Education financing line - which seeks to transfer information products for effective decision-making among agents of the regional territory - is that the Director and professionals of the Directorate of Strategic Development and Quality (DIDEC) of the study house met with officials from the Criminal Analysis Office of the Elqui Provincial Prefecture of the Investigative Police, with the clear purpose of sharing experiences and working collaboratively in the analysis of large volumes of data.

On the occasion, DIDEC professionals showed the tools used for data analysis - a unit that has already been in operation for 9 years - and that has specialized in working with large volumes of data and information, from the use of analytics and business intelligence hardware and software for these processes, as well as the organization of analysis model designs.

For the Director of Strategic Development and Quality of the ULS, Dr. César Espíndola, “this instance is another important opportunity for the University of La Serena to link and share knowledge with the institutions of the regional territory, since as well as the PDI there are others institutions that, from their own functions, are also faced with working with large volumes of information and are collaborating in this project. Thus, on this day we have held a specific workshop to present the analysis work and the strategies that each of the institutions carries out based on their objectives."

The manager added that “this work day constitutes the first step in a relationship of collaboration and exchange of technical experience and technological transfer in modeling, analysis, collection and processing of information with the tools used by each unit and that is projected in the framework of the execution of the BIG DATA ULS initiative and is part of the digital transformation agenda of this house of higher education, adopting it as a tool to improve both its academic and administrative management processes.”

The Government has placed special emphasis on the Digital Transformation Agenda, which will continue with the progress made in the so-called Digital Agenda 2020, which will integrate new measures, with a focus on accelerating the process of appropriation and use of technologies in all sectors. areas of action of society.

It is for the above reason that the PDI has also joined this challenge, where data analysis is of vital importance for the institution, since they have a Criminal Analysis Center in Santiago; However, they are also providing analysis capabilities to the different provinces and communes. Since then, for a year now the prefecture has had an analysis office that is working on training its analysts and installing processes and management of information processing and, in this task, which is an innovation task of the PDI itself, they are “looking for strategic allies that will allow us to accelerate this work.”

Regarding the approach to the police institution, Dr. Espíndola stated that “it is an exercise that is being replicated in different parts of the country, but the Elqui Provincial PDI is a pioneer in this approach to a higher education institution, and as a university of the State of Chile we are available within the framework of this initiative where the ULS shares knowledge to improve the well-being of people.”

The person in charge of the Elqui Provincial PDI Analysis Office, Deputy Commissioner José Fuentes, highlighted that “for us this meeting has been very beneficial, exploring a new area and where the University of La Serena has been a reference from the point of view of analysis of information. The ULS has experience and we, through the Analysis Office, are taking the recommendations of professionals.”

Both institutions were committed to continuing with the workshops and holding practical meetings, where professionals from the ULS Institutional Analysis Office will be in charge of guiding the police officers who today perform tasks in analysis and processing of large volumes of data.

Written by Patricia Castro, DirCom