On July 28, the registration process ends for the event that will take place between October 16 and 18.

The search for answers to the current challenges in the application of semiconductor materials, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, promoting multidisciplinary interaction, is the main theme that will be addressed by the International Congress on Energy, Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability (CEES) organized by the University of La Serena and the REDES 180038 Project.

The speakers at this second version will be Dr. Gianluca Li Puma, from Loughborough University (United Kingdom), an expert in Chemical Engineering; Dr. Mohamed El – Roz, from the University of Caen (France), researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research; and Dr. María Barnechea, from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), an expert in Nanomaterials for clean energy, (photo) catalysis and bio image, who will develop presentations focused on environmental sustainability.

This is the second version of this event, after the one held in 2017, an opportunity where the topics related to materials and processes for energy and environmental decontamination, energy efficiency and renewable energy were deepened.

The event, aimed at researchers, academics and post and undergraduate students, will be held on October 16, 17 and 18, 2019 at the Hotel Club La Serena, and registration will be open until July 28 at http://doctoradoeama.userena.cl/cees-2019/.

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom

The ULS participates as a Consortium together with the University of Valparaíso and the U. Técnica Federico Santa María in their project “Our future, our responsibility: an innovative alliance for the transfer of science and strengthening of local, national and international development”. 

With the idea of ​​raising and prioritizing fundamental aspects for the design of the Strategic Plan of the Consortium, to establish a desired state according to the ULS strategic objectives and those who make up the collaborative project "Science and Innovation 2030", a workshop was held that sought agreements and bases for joint collaborative work.

In this project, the institution participates as a Consortium together with the U. de Valparaíso and the U. Técnica Federico Santa María in its initiative called: “Our future, our responsibility: an innovative alliance for the transfer of science and strengthening of local, national development and international”.

The Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Dr. Amelia Ramírez, pointed out that the Ciencia 2030 project "is a challenge with one year to define, together with the U. of Valparaíso and the Federico Santa María Technical University, a work strategy that allows respond to a gap that exists between what the faculties of Sciences do in their student, undergraduate, postgraduate, research project and relationship with the environment training, and begin to visualize themselves with strategies already coupled to our individual strategies in innovation and entrepreneurship”.

The specific objective of this workshop was to begin the process of defining the desired state as the driving axis of the design of the Strategic Plan of the Consortium under a participatory logic. This is the third workshop that has been carried out, and all have had the purpose of contributing each one, from his experience, to do joint work.

Science and Innovation for 2030

The purpose of this program is to support Chilean universities in the process of generating strategic plans or roadmaps, to promote a process of transformation in their faculties, where they teach study programs in the areas of basic sciences and thus allow a greater participation of the same in technology transfer, innovation and scientific-technological entrepreneurship in the country.

In addition to Dr. Amelia Ramírez, directors of different units, academics, the Engineering 2030 team, PROMMRA teams and the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Science and Technology also participated in the workshop. In addition, the coordinators of Science 2030 of the U. of Valparaíso and the U. Técnica Federico Santa María supported the activity.

Written by Patricia Castro, DirCom

The online course called "General Astronomy applied to the skies of the Coquimbo Region" is available at http://univrso.userena.digital/ and in its first edition it had a participation of more than 500 people.

The Univrso Project of the University of La Serena is an initiative that seeks to strengthen astrotourism in the Coquimbo Region through citizen training. In this sense, it has begun to teach e-learning courses that are open to the entire community.

The first, called "General Astronomy Applied to the skies of the Coquimbo Region" has been widely accepted by the public, who positively value the development of the course. "I am very grateful to be able to enjoy this course and that it helps me to better contemplate the universe in my region, I do not have much knowledge of astronomy but I do want to learn," says Professor Macarena Olivares, a course participant.

For his part, Humberto Farías, Director of the project, highlights the broad participation of citizens in the first edition of this course. "We had more than 500 people registered from the region and the country, which was very gratifying for us because we were able to see the feedback from the participants, who positively valued this ULS initiative," says the professional.

In its first edition, 110 certificates have been delivered to the participants who approved with the activities. "This makes us very happy because it reflects the interest of the community in learning about our skies and most importantly, which is the reason for this project, is to provide knowledge and tools so that the first tourist guides, who are the inhabitants from this area, we can share this knowledge with tourists”, explains Farías.

New edition

The second edition of the course began on July 8, registration for which is still available through http://univrso.userena.digital/.

Among the topics covered in the course are the Solar System, Positional Astronomy, Galactic, Extragalactic and Stellar Astronomy. In this regard, Yanett Leiva, instructional designer at Campus Digital, the unit that executes this project, explains that "the course has academic support from prominent astronomers from our University, and its design considers a curricular structure that contains sequences with different learning resources. , such as learning videos, complementary support material and evaluation activities, which are considered to deliver a Certificate of Participation”.

Finally, Dr. in Astronomy, Marcelo Jaque, ULS academics and one of the course speakers, invites the community to register and participate in these courses. “You will surely like them, we have thought a lot about how to bring astronomy closer to the entire community, using words and terminologies that we can all understand and this course has all these characteristics, which is why we invite you to enroll”, he concludes.

The work of the academic from the University of La Serena, Jaime Pizarro-Araya, was chosen by the prestigious magazine to publish an infographic and an animated video in its May issue, related to the spiders of Robinson Crusoe Island.

Spiders are excellent colonizers of new territories due to their ability to transport themselves through the air, thanks to the fact that they produce strands of silk that are trapped by the air, a behavior known as ballooning (from the English ballon which means to inflate or go in a balloon). ). In fact, we already know today that spiders are able to navigate through the wind and take off from the surface of the water, even during sea turbulence. Spiders also have the ability to slow down their metabolism to withstand periods of starvation, which also allows them to survive and establish themselves in remote habitats.

A recent international collaborative work published in the specialized scientific journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution studied species of spiders that inhabit Robinson Crusoe Island, belonging to the Juan Fernández Archipelago National Park. The work focused specifically on spiders of the genus Philisca (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), which, although endemic to the Valdivian rainforest, have been described in high numbers on the island. The objective of this work was to perform various molecular analyzes to recreate the story of how these spiders managed to colonize and diversify in this habitat.

One of the members of this work, which brought together scientists from Argentina, Brazil and Spain, was the Chilean and entomology expert Jaime Pizarro-Araya, who is an academic at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of La Serena and a researcher at the Ecological Entomology Laboratory. (LEULS). His fieldwork was essential in discovering that these spiders come from a unique lineage that dates back to the origins of Robinson Crusoe Island, but then rapidly diversified. And although everything indicates that in its origins this genus lived among the foliage, the study allowed us to identify two habitat changes during its history on the island, which allowed us to conclude that during its evolution these spiders have undergone adaptations that have allowed them to distribute themselves in the island, with a unique and extremely wild geography.

The academic, who has been doing enormous work in the area of ​​Entomology and Arachnology in northern Chile, and who is currently in charge of the Arthropods group of the First National Inventory of Biodiversity (SIMEF) of Chile, comments that "it is fascinating how which means carrying out studies in places as particular as the Juan Fernández National Park, an island ecosystem that is home to a unique biota”.

After its publication, the impact of this work in the area was such that at the beginning of this year the academic and the rest of the team were contacted by the National Geographic to publish part of this story in the may issue from your magazine. The post resulted in a two-page infographic titled Soaring Spiders, referencing their ability to branch out through the air. As if this were not enough, the magazine also produced a animated video which today has more than 320 views on its YouTube channel and which explains how spiders manage to travel long distances through the air.

The Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University, Dr. Amelia Ramírez, points out that “a classic Chilean book tells that Chile is a crazy geography and has a bit of all climates and landscapes. Indeed, our habitats have given Chilean entomologists the joy of dedicating their lives to studying insects, arachnids, exotic aphids, and various other species. One of these scientists is the entomologist Jaime Pizarro, who from our University projects himself to the world for his excellence in the subject”. And he adds that "the recognition for a scientist is given in large congresses, but the recognition of the community is given in the publication of their achievements in an impact communication medium such as Nat Geo. That makes us proud, because the production of knowledge The science that is generated in the ULS gives is the patrimony of all Chileans and must be known”.

Written by Marcela Gatica, Faculty of Sciences

The Coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree in Astronomy and the Director of the School of Journalism were part of the process that seeks to know the opinion of citizens and authorities regarding the operation and future challenges that should be addressed for the next five years.

Within the framework of the elaboration of the Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2025 of the Judiciary, the Court of Appeals of La Serena organized a discussion with the objective of knowing the opinion of the citizens and authorities regarding the operation and future challenges, opportunity in which the Coordinator of the Degree in Astronomy, Dr. Héctor Cuevas, and Director of the School of Journalism, Mg. Cristian Munoz.

The latter referred to his satisfaction with the inclusive view of the Judiciary. “It is a very innovative initiative on the part of the Judiciary, by developing these work groups where there are various entities represented, which in some way transforms the image and the way in which such a traditional and important institution interacts. Undoubtedly, it is the keynote of what all institutions should be in this phase of transformation and adaptation to cultural changes in our society, ”he said.

This consultation was carried out for the first time at the national level and was highly valued by the guests, who appreciated the opportunity to join this instance that emphasizes the importance of access to justice for all people.

The meeting was held on July 4 at the Francisco de Aguirre Hotel in La Serena and on the occasion both academics from the house of studies provided a vision from the point of view of technology and communications in their capacity as experts in the area.

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom

The work has focused on reviewing the questions proposed for each of the key informants in the process.

Commitment and active participation have characterized the collaborative work carried out by the members of the Investigation Subcommittee, who in the last sessions on Fridays have focused on reviewing the questions that were proposed for each of the key informants of the Institutional Self-assessment process.

The sessions, led by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. Eduardo Notte, contemplated the formulation and definition of questions by each of the subgroups of this Subcommittee, and their subsequent analysis and consensus among the participants.

“We focused on reviewing the questions that were proposed for each of the relevant actors, according to each of the dimensions that are evaluated in the CNA. We try to reduce the number of questions to be able to provide suggestions for queries that can be used in surveys or focus groups for the entire Research area”, explained Dr. Cristian Ibáñez, Director of Postgraduate and Postgraduate Studies and member of the Subcommittee.

The manager also highlighted the work carried out by the members of the Investigation Subcommittee: “it has been quite interesting and fruitful, because there has been a good commitment on the part of the members, and that must be valued and rescued. The fact that we are doing this exercise of meeting weekly, analyzing each of the aspects that concern us to see the CNA criteria with which we are going to be evaluated, on the one hand, has generated that the researchers who are involved are getting to know each other, They are already well consolidating the groups, and that is generating synergy among all the people, which makes our work stronger”.

The work carried out by the Subcommittee will be presented during the plenary session scheduled for July 24.

Written by Gonzalo Lozano, DirCom