Every year, through its Open Seed Fund program, the School of Engineering finances the start of new collaborations between our academics and researchers from international universities and institutions of excellence. Through this program, it is possible to explore new lines of cooperation and strengthen international academic exchange, benefiting both professors and students participating in the projects with resources for exchange stays and for the execution of research activities. Selected projects receive an average amount of approximately $10,500 USD funded by the School of Engineering and an equivalent contribution from the international counterpart.
This year, funding was awarded to the following research proposals:
Amin Hekmatnejad
Assistant Professor in the Department of Mining Engineering, with the project “Geomaterial damage characterization using a novel data-driven acoustic emission and X-ray micro-computed tomography,” in collaboration with Professor Hamid Roshan of the University of New South Wales (Australia).
Denis Parra
Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, with the project “TokenLens: An Interactive Tool for Interpreting Deep Language and Multimodal Models” in collaboration with Professor Diego Gomez-Zara from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA).
Diego Valdivieso
Assistant Professor in the Departments of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Engineering and Management, with the project “Toward Functional Recovery of Timber Buildings under Multi-Hazard Scenarios,” in collaboration with Professor Pouria Kourehpaz of University College London (United Kingdom).
Iván Navarrete
Assistant Professor in the Department of Construction Engineering and Management, with the project “Mitigating the Impact of Environmental Conditions on Mechanical Behavior in 3D-Printed Concrete through Hybrid Microfibers,” in collaboration with Professor Liberato Ferrara of the Politecnico di Milano (Italy).
José Joaquín Jara
Assistant Professor in the Department of Mining Engineering, with the project “Multi-proxy geochemical and geomorphological approach to unravel the genesis of placer gold deposits in Tierra del Fuego (the Land of Fire), Patagonia, South America,” in collaboration with Professor Jing (Camille) Zhao of the University of New South Wales (Australia).
Marcelo González
Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Construction Engineering and Management, with the project “Exploring valorization pathways for copper slag (CS) in Portland cement concrete (PCC) and other construction materials,” in collaboration with Professor Ruben Snellings of KU Leuven (Belgium).
Miguel Gutiérrez
Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, with the project “STINGRAY: Swarm-oriented real-Time wIreless networkiNG for mobile Agent sYstems,” in collaboration with Professor Francisco Javier Cruz Naranjo from the University of New South Wales (Australia).
Néstor Escalona
Full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses, with the project “New Catalytic Systems Based on Hollow Fibers for the Selective Gas-phase Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol,” in collaboration with Professor Francisco García-García from the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom).
Pedro Bouchon
Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses, with the project “Towards nutritious plant-based meat analogs from less refined ingredients: basic engineering principles for TEXture control from comPLEX multicomponent interactions (TEXPLEX),” in collaboration with Professor Deniz Gunes from KU Leuven (Belgium).
We look forward to sharing the results of these collaborations with the global research community as the development of these high-impact projects that expand our School’s international networks is consolidated.
