The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, through its Office of Research, launched the first version of the Research and Creation Competition: Avanza UC in October of last year. This initiative, part of the UC 2026-2030 Strategy, seeks to support bold, cutting-edge, and high-risk research and creation projects with high potential impact.
The goal is to support proposals in the arts, humanities, sciences, and technology that address strategic challenges for Chile, with global relevance, placing special value on innovative international and interdisciplinary collaborations. The competition functions as a seed fund to attract new resources, talent, and world-class networks.
In this first round of funding, academics from the School of Engineering stood out with fourteen projects as Leading Investigators and twelve as Principal Investigators. Each project will receive $35,000,000 (CLP) to be carried out over a period of 12 months:
Combination of Seismic Isolation and Fire-Resistant Hybrid Connectors (CHRF) for Resilient and Sustainable Mass Timber Building
Led by Associate Professor of the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, José Luis Almazán, and Assistant Professor of the Departments of Engineering and Construction Management and of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Diego Valdivieso.
Dynamic Representation of Agricultural Systems through Multimodal Sensing for Sustainable Management
Led by Assistant Professor of the Departments of Electrical Engineering and of Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering, Tito Arévalo, and Professor of the Faculty of Agronomy and Natural Systems, Marlene Ayala.
Connecting the Surface and Interior of the Earth: Interaction between Tectonic, Volcanic, and Surface Processes in Southern Chile
Led by Assistant Professor Leoncio Cabrera of the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, and Professor Esteban Sagredo of the Institute of Geography.
Photorealistic Modeling of Wave Propagation towards the Coasts of Chile using WebGPU and Augmented Reality
Led by Associate Professor of the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Rodrigo Cienfuegos, and Assistant Professor of Engineering Design, Leonel Merino.
Decarbonizing Construction Industry: CO₂-Based Construction Materials (CO₂–BCMs) for Climate Change Mitigation
Led by Associate Professor of the Department of Construction Engineering and Management, Marcelo González, and Assistant Professor of the Departments of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, and of Construction Engineering and Management, Elodie Blanco.
SCORPIO: Satellite Communication and Radio Propagation for the Internet of Things
Led by Assistant Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Miguel Gutiérrez, and Associate Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Christian Oberli.
Risk Analysis and Scenario Planning for Chile's Critical Minerals Strategy
Led by Assistant Professor of the Department of Mining Engineering, José Joaquín Jara.
AI-enhanced 3D Cardiac Cine MRI at 0.55T for affordable and efficient congenital heart disease assessment
Led by Full Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Claudia Prieto, and the Director of the Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering, and Associated Full Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, René Botnar.
Unmasking silent heart damage in children: an AI-driven digital twin for early diagnosis from standard echocardiography
Led by Assistant Professor of the Department of Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering and of the Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering, Francisco Sahli.
Determining the residual post-earthquake resistant capacity of masonry shear walls via crack image analysis and AI models
Led by Associate Professor of the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Cristián Sandoval.
Biophysical characterization of extreme environments using remote sensing: sustainable assessment of high-Andean salt flats under climate change and the energy transition
Led by Associate Professors Francisco Suárez and Pablo Pastén of the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering.
Sound Matter: Instruments of the South
Led by Full Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Institute of Music, Patricio de la Cuadra, and the professor of the School of Art, Luis Prato.
COMDASUAR: Reconstruction and reactivation of the first Chilean musical computer
Led by Full Professor Rodrigo Cádiz of the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Institute of Music and Professor Miguel Farías, from the Institute of Music.
From mining waste to wealth: optimization of extracellular polysaccharides production by metabolic engineering using sulfobacillus acidophilus
Led by Associate Professor Mario Vera of the Department of Mining Engineering and the Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering, and Assistant Professor Pedro Saa of the Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.
Exploding waste: Steam explosion upcycling of fruit pomaces for functional foods for healthy aging
Led by Assistant Professor Francisca Echeverría of the School of Health Sciences and Full Professor Pedro Bouchon of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses.
Ecofilie Lab UC Experimental Station Fog Oasis in Alto Patache, Tarapacá Region, Atacama Desert
Led by Associate Professor Pedro Alonso of the School of Architecture and Associate Professor Rodrigo Escobar of the Department of Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering.
Non-invasive quantification of inspiratory effort in acute respiratory failure: Validation and prototype development of a mouth occlusion monitoring system
Led by Assistant Professor Felipe Damiani of the School of Health Sciences and Full Professor Daniel Hurtado of the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering.
Construction LAB 5.0: Digital tools to enhance Construction Sites, focusing on improved Productivity, Health, and Safety (CoLAB 5.0)
Led by Assistant Professor of the School of Civil Construction, Diego Calvetti, and Assistant Professor of the Department of Construction Engineering and Management, Beda Barkokebas.
CAPPY: Device for the identification of venous congestion through automated analysis of colorimetric changes in capillary refill time in critically ill patients
Led by Assistant Professor Eduardo Kattan of the School of Medicine and Full Professor Domingo Mery of the Department of Computer Science.
Neurocomputational convergences between language pragmatics in the brain and in transformer models
Led by Associate Professor Edmundo Kronmuller of the School of Psychology and Associate Professor Álvaro Soto of the Department of Computer Science.
The paradox of antimicrobial peptides: Why do they fail in physiological environments? The role of oxidation and molecular crowding
Led by Assistant Professor Eduardo Fuentes of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, and Assistant Professor Nicolás Gajardo of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses.
Innovation from Scarcity: Strategies for the Integration of New Water Sources
Led by Professor Óscar Melo of the Faculty of Agronomy and Natural Systems, and Associate Professor Sebastián Vicuña of the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering.
Weed precision mapping: an intelligent system for monitoring and managing weeds in forest systems
Led by Professor Rodrigo Figueroa of the Faculty of Agronomy and Natural Systems, and Assistant Professor Tito Arévalo of the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering.
AI-Assisted exploration of massive biological knowledge sources to improve plant nitrogen-use efficiency
Led by Full Professor Rodrigo Gutiérrez of the Faculty of Biological Sciences, and Associate Professor Álvaro Soto of the Department of Computer Science.
Two-dimensional materials for electrochemical hydrogen and green ammonia catalysis: computational exploration and initial experimental validation
Led by Full Professor José Mejía of the Institute of Physics, and Associate Professor César Sáez of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses.
Hidden water in permafrost: a completely unknown reserve, yet to be determined. Case Study: Cancha de Carreras, Santiago mountain range
Led by Professor Juan Luis García of the Institute of Geography and Associate Professor Francisco Suárez of the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering.
These interdisciplinary research proposals that aim for high-impact scientific, technological, and artistic disruptions are part of an unprecedented institutional effort, which includes collaboration with research groups from more than 20 countries in strategic areas for Chile with global impact.
