Rodrigo Olivares and Alejandro Orellana presented their research titled: “Urban growth of the La Serena Coquimbo conurbation, challenges for a future metropolitan area.”

In the city of Mendoza, Argentina, between September 05 and 07, the Director of the School of Construction Engineering, Rodrigo Olivares, and the academic of the Department of Architecture, Alejandro Orellana, participated as speakers at the XII International Congress City and Virtual Territory “Smart Cities and Territories”, organized by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, in conjunction with the National University of Cuyo, Argentina.

The Virtual City and Territory Congresses have been taking place since 2004, starting in the city of Barcelona. Initially, the meeting was planned to present developments of virtual models and tools for representing the built environment, within the framework of the Forum of Cultures -Barcelona 2004. In the following year, the event was held at the University of Bío Bío, Concepción, Chile , and in subsequent years they alternated between cities in America and Europe, among them, Guadalajara, Mexico; Lisbon Portugal; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Krakow, Poland. Over the years, lines of research regarding the contemporary city have been added.

The current version of the Congress had as its central axis the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the territories and urban systems on a metropolitan scale. In this context, professors Olivares and Orellana, together with Dr. Carlos Aguirre, from the University of Las Américas, presented their research titled: “Urban growth of the La Serena Coquimbo conurbation, challenges for a future metropolitan area”, the which accounts for a first exercise in the integration of spatial cadastres and databases of urban indicators to evaluate the real estate growth patterns of Greater La Serena as a metropolitan system.

This activity constitutes a first link through research between the areas of Construction Engineering and Architecture of the University of La Serena. For Professor Olivares, the research carried out is a first step for a series of initiatives and projects that strengthen interdisciplinarity around urban themes in the university.

The activity presented the repair and reconstruction actions of adobe homes in the Coquimbo Region, carried out after the earthquake of September 15, 2015.

Within the framework of the linkage activities with the environment of the Architecture degree, Abel Espinoza and Solange Miranda, architects of the Housing and Urban Planning Service (SERVIU) Coquimbo Region, gave a talk to the students of the Housing and Quality subject of Life in the School of Architecture.

In the talk, the architects Espinoza and Miranda presented the actions to repair and reconstruct adobe homes in the Coquimbo Region, carried out after the earthquake of September 15, 2015. These actions, which in principle were outside the regulations and public policies, were possible thanks to the management of regional SERVIU professionals, by achieving modifications in the application of subsidies from the Family Heritage Protection Program.

The work carried out benefited more than 500 families and led to the generation of local skills through a highly participatory process, where not only specialized knowledge was transferred, but local construction techniques were also rescued, contributing to local development and sustainability.

Abel Espinoza, an architect who graduated from the University of La Serena and is in charge of the program, highlighted the importance of transmitting to students the possibilities of modification within the framework of state policies. For her part, Solange Miranda, a specialist in earth construction and who led the initiative, highlighted the values ​​of vernacular building in the region, in terms of heritage, quality of life and sustainability.

For his part, the subject's professor, architect Alejandro Orellana, valued the great contribution that this initiative means for the local development of our country, along with the possibilities that open up at the regional level for the professional practice of our graduates.

The event was attended by different university, technical and trade institutions, and the presence of branches of the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement.

The XI version of the Professional Orientation Student Fair was held at the La Serena Municipal Coliseum, which brought together students from all over the Coquimbo Region with the objective of providing them with information about the different higher education institutions and their professional careers and/or techniques.

During the activity, which brought together more than 2 thousand students from different educational establishments in the region, the University of La Serena was present with a stand, publicizing the academic offer, services and benefits of the institution, interacting with visitors and explaining how they can study at the only state university in the Coquimbo Region.

This activity, supported by the different educational centers in the area and organized by the SP-21 Agency, had a high turnout and, according to the developers of the activity, the young people were very cooperative, making it clear that they are attentive to their future. and interested in knowing the different options offered by institutions in the region.

These activities, coordinated by the Department of Corporate Communications of the university, are part of the University's commitment to community ties and the interests shown by the organizers in showing the academic offerings of the only state university in the Coquimbo Region.

This test is aimed at secondary school students of the second, third and fourth levels.

This Saturday, September 08, the activities of the 2018 Chemistry Olympics will begin, with the first regional test to be held from 10:00 a.m. in Room 109 “Claudio Gebauer” of the Department of Chemistry and wings 212 and 213 provided by the Directorate of the School of Journalism of the University of La Serena (Andrés Bello Campus).

This test is aimed at secondary school students of the second, third and fourth levels, participating in private, subsidized private and municipal schools in the Coquimbo Region.

From the Province of Choapa, students from schools in Illapel, Salamanca and Los Vilos participate, who will take the test at the Domingo Ortiz de Rozas High School in Illapel.

While the students from the establishments in Ovalle, Limarí Province, will do so in the premises of the Limarí Campus of the ULS (Room 4 of the Department of Agronomy).

Meanwhile, students from the schools of Coquimbo, La Serena and Andacollo (Province of Elqui) will take this first test in the designated rooms of the Andrés Bello Campus (Avenida Raúl Bitrán 1305, La Serena).

The second test will be held on Saturday, October 20 at the Department of Chemistry of the U. de La Serena (Andrés Bello Campus), and the 20 best students in each category will participate.

The Board of Directors agreed to take the election process back to the stage of preparing the electoral roll and holding the election again, setting the date for next September 26.

In an extraordinary session on the 4th of this month, the Election Process carried out on August 29 to elect Rector at the University of La Serena for the period 2018-2022 was reviewed, as a result of which the Board of Directors reported that by virtue of the known antecedents In the aforementioned session, especially considering the notes of challenge presented by each candidate, it was unanimously agreed to declare the final count of the election and the result derived from it as null, since it has been objectively verified that the information with the The voter registry that was generated contained an error, because it included professors whose appointment had not been fully processed, who, despite this, participated in the election without having this right.

Due to the above, the Board of Directors agreed to take the election process back to the stage of preparing the electoral roll and holding the election again, setting the date for next September 26, as established by Law No. 19.305.

It was agreed to instruct the Electoral Board to adopt all the measures it considers appropriate to comply with the deadline and the preparation of the electoral roll, paying special attention to the observations made in the indicated extraordinary session.

In this way, the statement reports “we are convinced, as the Board of Directors, that the Rector election process will have the necessary guarantees of transparency and sobriety that such a great event deserves.”

Among the activities carried out in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions, are the Schools of Social and Territorial Management, training for public officials and talks open to the community.

The University of La Serena, through the Inclusive Projects Management Team, has been awarded over the last two years, funds from the Territorial Inclusive Participation Program of the National Disability Service (SENADIS), to be executed in the Atacama and Coquimbo a series of products aimed at promoting the full social inclusion of people with disabilities.

One of the actions implemented are the Schools of Social and Territorial Management (EGST), defined as training courses for leadership and the strengthening of skills and practical knowledge on territorial and social management, and whose purpose is to strengthen, through social empowerment , political and cultural, to organizations of and for people with disabilities belonging to each region and the development of skills for associativity.

During the months of July and August, the ULS Inclusive Projects Team developed two Social and Territorial Management Schools, one of them in the Freirina commune and the other, of a provincial nature, held in the city of La Serena, with the participation of organizations from La Higuera, Coquimbo, Vicuña and the regional capital.

Another of the initiatives implemented is the training of public officials and they are based on the premise that the generation of empowered citizens through the Schools of Social and Territorial Management requires counterparts in public services that have the skills necessary to guarantee and facilitate inclusion. This is taken as a strategy to level the knowledge and tools in terms of social inclusion from the legal perspective, contributing to the reduction of the barriers faced by people with disabilities, their families and communities in their own territories.

The objective of these trainings is to promote the development of skills in public officials that allow them to guarantee and facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities, contributing to the reduction of barriers and guaranteeing their inclusion in the formulation of local policies.

During these months, training was carried out for public officials, also in the Freirina commune, and another for officials of the Community Mental Health Center of the Las Compañías sector. Currently, the Team is developing these products in the communities of Chañaral and Salamanca.

Regarding the activities in Freirina, the coordinator of the ULS Inclusive Projects Team, Karla Rivera, stated that participating in this instance "has been super gratifying as a team, because we found a quite empowered civil society, eager to participate, very committed municipal officials to improve their services”, also highlighting the presence of authorities, such as the mayor and the councilors of the commune.


For his part, the mayor of Freirina, César Orellana, highlighted the completion of this training, noting that it has allowed municipal officials to acquire knowledge to "deliver a better service, particularly to our people who suffer from some level of disability" (see video of the activity here ).

In parallel, there have been talks open to the community in the communes of Río Hurtado, La Higuera and Salamanca, called: "Disability from the perspective of Human Rights".

All these actions are framed within the vision of the University of La Serena which, as the only state university in the Coquimbo Region, has acquired a strong commitment in recent years to contribute to cultural change, fostering a culture of respect for diversity. as a substantial aspect to build a society with greater social justice.