Scientists, engineers, and undergraduate and graduate students from both universities met at the Department of Physics and Astronomy to outline future collaborative work.

A team of more than a dozen scientists, engineers and undergraduate and graduate students from the University of La Serena and the National University of Córdoba (UNC, Argentina) met at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the ULS to establish the bases of a future joint collaboration alliance between both universities, which will seek to develop projects associated with data science and high-performance computing around astronomy, from a multidimensional and collaborative perspective.

"Both universities already have a solid and prolific history of joint collaborations both academically and scientifically and even in work linking the environment. There are already successful stories of students who have completed their undergraduate studies at the ULS and their Doctoral studies at UNC, scientific research projects that have impacted dozens of articles published in high-impact journals, and social/educational projects that have been carried out in both countries with great success," commented Dr. José Luis Nilo Castellón, general coordinator of the event.

Academics, postdoctoral researchers, engineers and undergraduate and graduate students worked together during the meeting, where they presented some of the latest results obtained in their research, with the idea of ​​projecting new collaborations within the framework of this strategic alliance that is being formed between both universities.

 "I am sure that this alliance is strategic for many reasons: complementarity, temporal opportunity and shared visions. Accompanied by our work and strongly by thinking about projects together, it could become a key to development on both sides of the Andes," he expressed. Dr. Diego García Lambas, director of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Astronomy of the Astronomical Observatory of the National University of Córdoba, and one of the star guests at the event.

In agreement with Dr. García Lambas, the Director of Research and Development of the ULS, Dr. Amelia Ramírez, highlighted the synchronicity in which the members and participants of this collaboration work. "In the framework of international collaborations we must distinguish between those that are presented as agreements between institutions and others focused on specific projects. However, there are others that have a long duration and impact and focus on people. They are alliances in which there are almost no written agreements, but there is full agreement between the science that is to be developed and the type of students that are to be trained. LASECOR is this type of collaboration, successful because it grows with its people and is updated to be in the top of the area it seeks to develop. Astronomers and computer scientists from neighboring countries creating the tools for Astroinformatics of the future," he pointed out.

Another of the exhibitors, the director of the Information and Computing Center of the University of La Serena (CICULS), Mg. Andrés Moya addressed how this state campus is preparing for the future of data science. "Our University is not only prepared, it is the technological leader in the northern macro zone, where last month we have received two international awards regarding the improvement of our Data Center and network infrastructure, with Big Data and Inclusivity projects. Our Institutional Strategic Plan and the commitment of this Rectorate to continuous improvement, in Technological Infrastructure, as support for the Functional and Transversal Administration of our complex university, today leaves us as undisputed technological leaders in the northern macro zone. The Digital Transformation of the ULS It is an objective already underway and that is here to stay, it is a commitment to a paradigm shift in the management and decision-making of our University," he highlighted.

The event was held in the facilities of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University, a place that will hope to welcome the members of the LASECOR collaboration again during 2019.