A joint initiative between the Academic Vice-Rector's Office and the Directorate of Liaison with the Environment and Extension (DIVEULS).

Six projects obtained the desired resources to enhance the activities they have been developing in the area of ​​links with the environment and that fully responds to the objective of this call, which is to promote and strengthen activities of a disciplinary, technological, productive, professional or cultural nature. that generate a bidirectional relationship and/or a feedback effect towards teaching and research.

In this third call for competitive funds destined for “Environmental Linkage Projects” 2018, six initiatives led by the institution's academics were awarded: Marco Gutiérrez, from the Design major; Sandra Álvarez, Pedagogy in History and Geography; Alejandra Jana, from the Nursing career; Mauricio Godoy, Mechanical Engineering; Christian Castillo, from Dentistry; and Jorge Cepeda, from the Department of Biology.

One of the awarded projects is titled “Production and evaluation of teaching materials to support the development of mathematical thinking abilities in blind and low vision children at the Luis Braille School of La Serena”, and is led by academic Marco Gutiérrez, who He commented on the feelings of his entire work team. “We are very happy because this year we decided to work with a different technology than several of the projects, which is 3D printing with polymer materials and we are just getting to know that technology and it has inputs that have their costs (…), and this time the project "It allows us to do something else that is impossible in other years, which is to visit Santiago to share experiences in a school for the blind that has more resources, that has done projects with other universities," he explained.

Likewise, they awarded the projects titled: “Sowing champions Universidad de La Serena / Antakari and its solar car Intikallpa”, by Professor Mauricio Godoy; “Maxillofacial Rehabilitation with ocular prosthesis”, by Christian Castillo; “Promoting self-care in sexual and reproductive health, a tool to improve quality of life. Recipients: groups of adult women organized and recruited by SERNAMEG”, by Alejandra Jana; “Development of an application for mobile devices for the Network of History and Geography Teachers of the University of La Serena”, by Sandra Álvarez.

Regarding this last project, the academic commented that the objective is to strengthen a network of professors in the Ped career. in History and Geography. “For several years now, the program has had a network of professors, the vast majority of whom are graduates of our program, and we are constantly getting together, updating ourselves, both disciplinary and pedagogically, that is, in one way or another the program has contributed to that updating. through certain meetings and professional ties in general.”

Likewise, the academic explained why they worked on a digital proposal. “We need a strategy that allows us to first capture their attention because we know that they are people who are working in the system, that they are always very busy, that they do not always have the possibility of coming to our meetings and we think about an online application that allows us to link and be interconnected, and on the other hand, we also think about a mobile application, for mobile devices, because today we have to be aware and in tune with new technologies.”
 
Finally, the director of DIVEULS, Dr. Catalina Cvitanic, highlighted the importance of encouraging, supporting and collaborating with these initiatives. “For this Directorate and for the Academic Vice-Rector's Office, it is very pleasing to support these projects because the connection with the environment that academics carry out in their departments has to be strengthened much more, to continue and continue advancing in our institutional accreditation process in this area. I can only congratulate all those who applied, and especially the winners, because their projects, apart from being very interesting, demonstrate that the academics who apply understand the bidirectional relationship that the connection with the environment must have."

This call is made jointly between the Academic Vice-Rector's Office and the Directorate of Liaison with the Environment and Extension (DIVEULS).

Source: DIVEULS press