The professor of philosophy, ethics and logic at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic visited the UFRO School of Education and met with students of the programs Spanish and Communication Teaching and Mathematics Teaching in order to share his experience in civic education in Europe and the role of the professor in education.

Within the framework of the Civic Education class, which is part of the new curriculum of the study programs in education of the Universidad de La Frontera, more than a hundred students of these programs participated in this activity.

The professor Nenad Milicic was in charge of this activity which was called “Mission, vision and position of civic education in the scholar system in a democratic state, experience in Europe”.

During the activity, the Serbian professor referred to the context of the topics related to the relevance of the training of citizens in Europe and explained the associated conceptualizations. He also talked about the experience Europe made during the introduction of these subjects into the educational system.

Nenad Milicic pointed out that he is working on different projects that require international cooperation. This is why he is interested in consolidating his work with the Universidad de La Frontera, since it is very similar to the University of South Bohemia (Czech Republic), which he works for.

This way, the professor´s visit led to an interaction between students and teachers and created a dialogue about the similarities and differences between the educational systems, in Europe as well as in America, and Chile in particular. It was an important contribution to the civic education of the students who participate in this class during this semester and an enriching debate that strengthens the topics that are contemplated in the annual planning.

Dr. Jorge Farías and the students Stefania Short and Bryan Effer presented their research advances related to an international project for the production of a leukemia drug and the characterization of antifreeze activity in apoplastic extract of Deschampsia Antarctica.

The motivation for the participation of the Doctoral Program in Science with specialization in Applied Cellular and Molecular Biology of the Universidad de La Frontera in this international event in London with presentations by Dr. Jorge Farías and the students Stefania Short and Bryan Effer was to share their scientific advances and create international links.

The UFRO representatives participated in the 20th Global Congress on Biotechnology and the 3rd International Conference on Enzymology and Molecular Biology. “This is a high-level international event that is characterized by the exchange of scientific advances and the participation of well-known universities and companies in the field of biotechnology”, Dr. Farías said. He also specified that studies have been presented that are linked to international projects and to a Fondecyt (National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development) project led by himself (No. 1151315) and another one led by Dr. Leon Bravo (No. 1151173).

For the student Stefania Short, this was an important opportunity to show the advances of her doctoral research work, which is related to the characterization of an antifreeze protein of Deschampsia Antarctica and its potential use in salmon cryopreservation.

“I presented part of the work I did during an internship in Canada, mainly the characterization of the anti-freeze protein in the plant, and also what I have done here in the laboratory, the evaluation of its cryoprotectant capacity in the freezing process of spermatozoids of Atlantic salmon”, she explained.

Bryan Effer also presented his degree research advances he did within the framework of an international project with the participation of the UFRO and the FAPESP (Sao Paulo Research Foundation in Brazil), in which he wants to produce the first humanized drug for leukemia.

“L-Asparaginase is an enzyme used in drugs for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the work we present is the recombinant production of this enzyme, but in a different version as you can find it on the market nowadays, which basically consists of an enzyme modified with humanized sugars. The objective is to decrease secondary effects, which is the main problem of this drug at the moment”, Effer explained. He will also go to the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, which holds nine Nobel Prices at present, in order to spend three months there and to learn about genomics technologies.

Dr. Jorge Farías commented that the presented work gained the interest of the participants in the international event because of the high level they are at, and not only the interest of the scientists, but also of the ones who are linked with the entrepreneurial sector, since it is a congress to promote knowledge transfer to the company.

At the same time, the director of the Department of Chemical Engineering values these events, since they permit to show, beyond the borders, the passionate work they do in the UFRO laboratories and the quality and level of the Doctoral Program and, at the same time, to strengthen their international networks.

It is also worth to mention that the resume of the presented studies have been published in the Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials. The studies are called:

-“Design, construction and extracellular expression of L-asparaginase from Dickeya chrysanthemi in yeast”
- “Study of the potential use of antifreeze proteins of Deschampsia antarctica in the cryopreservation of Salmo salar spermatozoa”
- “Characterization of antifreeze activity in apoplastic extract of Deschampsia antarctica”

Written by: Dirección de Comunicaciones
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Within a work alliance between the Chilean Universidad de Concepción (UDEC) and the UFRO, with the help of Dr. Rodrigo Abarca del Rio, the UFRO collaborates on this mission and provides the training of advanced human capital capable of analyzing the data provided by SWOT, information that will allow to assess the existing water resources in Chile at the basins level.

The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) mission is a space mission led by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and the French CNES (National Center for Space Studies). Its objective is the better understanding of the world's oceans and its terrestrial surface waters. The mission will be launched in 2021.

The Universidad de La Frontera will collaborate on this important mission through the participation of Dr. Ivo Fustos who works at the UFRO Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Science, based on a work alliance with the UDEC, which will collaborate through the participation of Dr. Rodrigo Abarca del Rio. This way, the UFRO will be part of this important mission, providing the training of advanced human capital.

The idea is that the work team will be capable of analyzing the data provided by SWOT, since this information will allow to assess Chile´s water resources at the basins level and to contribute to the decision-making related to the management of water resources available.

SPACE MISSION

“At present, there are space missions that allow to assess basins of the size of the Amazon, which are hundreds of times bigger than the ones we have in Chile, for example in the Bio-Bio or Araukanía Region”, Dr. Ivo Fustos said. Therefore, SWOT will provide concrete information for the scientific UFRO community respect the amount of water that exists in these basins.

The UFRO academic staff member added that “at present, in Latin America we do not have such capacities to explore this information, and in this context, the French government and NASA established this collaboration with the UFRO and UDEC.” From here to 2021, it will be necessary to have professionals capable of handling the SWOT protocols.

Therefore, both universities have done valuable efforts in order to train students capable of analyzing and transferring the data of this mission to the community.

As part of the training, two UFRO students in Civil Engineering at the Universidad de La Frontera, Nataly Manque and Ardy Gatica, recently participated in the conference “Water from Space”, in Santiago, Chile. They went with Dr. Ivo Fustos to this event, in which different experts of NASA´s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the French CNES came together and presented the current status of South America´s surface water and explained how the SWOT mission will improve the understanding of it.

For Nataly Manque, the participation in the International South American Water from Space Conference was important for getting to know the current status of Chile´s and Latin America´s surface water, which is crucial information for taking social responsibility and forming criteria in engineering.

“To share with speakers from all over the world allowed me to analyze different visions and to find a big variety of similarities among the obstacles in the advance in this subject. I was able to assimilate the impact of the lack of data to analyze – and its validity – and the constant constraints in funding at the moment of implementing improvements.

However, the techniques and the scope of the remote sensing project and the SWOT launch will improve the analysis”, she pointed out.

Another aspect both students pointed out was the possibility of getting to know and interact with professionals of NASA and CNES, a professionally and personally enriching experience.

They also had the possibility to learn to use the Orfeo ToolBox software, which is developed by CNES, in a workshop led by one of the developers.

“All of these experiences, among others during this meeting, permitted that our students could see that engineering is a universal language and that what we are developing on a micro level in Chile can be extrapolated to any other part of the world”, Dr. Ivo Fustos concluded.

Written by: Daphne Bormann
Faculty of Engineering
 

The Doctor in English Philology and director of the Program in English Philology at the University of Tampere, Mark Kaunisto, travelled from Finland to Temuco and met with authorities and professionals of the Universidad de La Frontera in order to give a new impetus to the agreement.

The University of Tampere is located north of Helsinki in the city of Tampere and has more than eleven thousand undergraduate students, two thousand more than the Universidad de La Frontera. Both higher education establishments signed a Cooperation Agreement, five years ago, which stipulates the exchange of Finnish teachers who come to our University to teach and strengthen the English skills of our undergraduate students, while they get to know the local culture and learn Spanish.

In order to give a new impetus to this agreement, the Doctor in English Philology and director of the Program in English Philology at the University of Tampere, Mark Kaunisto, travelled from Finland to Temuco. He met with UFRO authorities and professionals to address the specific agreement that, in August 2018, will bring two English teachers of the University or Tampere to the UFRO for the first time. They will be collaborating at the Language Coordination Center (CODI) for undergraduate students and in the English Teaching Program.
Margot Godoy, CODI coordinator at the UFRO, appreciates this important agreement and emphasized the importance of English as a second language. “It is fundamental for us to promote the internationalization of our University, and in this context, the Undergraduate Affairs Division gives all the support in the field of English. Therefore, the presence of Finnish professionals who speak three or four languages plays an important role.”

At the same time, Dr. Mark Kaunisto expressed his satisfaction with how the English program is developed for all UFRO study Programs. “In recent times, we have been contacted by universities from different parts of the world and that created trust regarding the result of our work, and the interest in supporting the Universidad de La Frontera came up because it is part of our institutional policy to share the results of our experience with the rest of the world”, he explained.

“I was anxious to see how the English language is taught here and, in this context, I was impressed when I saw the classroom equipment and also the space and big local development of the educational material the Language Coordination Center works with, such as the platform and educational videos for English teaching. They involve methodologies in the context of real life for the students in this country”, Kaunisto pointed out.

THE FINNISH SECRET

Finland is a country with a very good reputation worldwide, for its education but also for its quality of life. In addition, according to the Annual World Happiness Report of 2018, an initiative of the UN, the Nordic country is the happiest in the world. Apart from that, its population of more than five million people is at least trilingual, since Finnish and Swedish are the native languages and the English language is learnt from a young age.

The academic staff member of the UFRO Department of Language, Literature and Communication and coordinator of the Minor in English, Lilian Gonzalez, expressed her concern about the poor command of English in the country and emphasized the importance of this agreement between both universities.

“The level of English has to be significantly improved. In Finland, a person who finishes secondary education is trilingual, with Finnish, Swedish and English. Therefore, their standards are very high. At the same time, the University of Tampere showed its interest and is open to this concept, because several of its teachers have come to our University to work with us, with excellent results and a good evaluation by the students.”

How do they teach English in Finland? And why do they have such a good language command? These were the questions Dr. Mark Kaunisto has been asked and he explained that they do intensive teaching starting in elementary education.

“Finnish and Swedish are the official languages and English is a foreign language we start teaching intensively in elementary education. One of the main motivations the kids have for learning English is that the media uses this language and it is not translated. For example the shows on television do not have subtitles and therefore it is normal for children to see and hear the programs in English. This way, they also train their sense of hearing and that is an important support for their progress at school.”

“And since this immersion in the English language happens in such a natural way, it facilitates the learning process of other languages, such as Spanish, German or French. It is like sports: if you already play soccer, it is easier to learn how to play basketball or tennis. The second language is difficult to learn, but the next ones are easier, since your brain is already trained and flexible, and also your attitude”, Kaunisto assured.