• The activity that was held at our University had the presence of Timothy Kane, the Australian Ambassador in Chile; Ian Satchwell, the Director of the International Mining for Development Centre of Australia; Dr. Aldo Saavedra, professor at the Department of Chemistry Engineering and other local experts, who analyzed the alternatives to develop mining extraction operations that care for both the environment and communities. During his speech, professor Satchwell said “We have learned many lessons from our mining experience in Australia that can be applied to the mining industry in Chile and Latin America; for example, the responsible water management, which should represent one of our main challenges”.

Chile and Australia are two of the major mining producers worldwide. Both countries have a vast experience in the mining extraction industry that can be shared with the aim of developing a sustainable mining industry that respects the environment and communities.

To face this challenge, on April 8th, our University held a panel discussion that was presented by the Australian Ambassador in Chile, Timothy Kane and had the presence of Ian Satchwell, Director of the International Mining for Development Centre of Australia; Isabel Marshall, Director of the Sustainability Committee of CESCO; Jorge Sanhueza, Manager of Environment and Communities of CODELCO; Matías Desmadryl, a lawyer expert in natural resources regulations, and Dr. Aldo Saavedra, professor at the Department of Chemistry Engineering of our University.

During the activity organized by the Australian Embassy in Chile and our Department of International and Inter-University Relations, Ambassador Kane valued the importance of this initiative and said that it was a “privilege” to have the opportunity of being at this international meeting “in one of the best educational institutions of Chile and, together with other experts, seek answers to common problems for both countries.”

This panel discussion- that took place at the Auditorium of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science- was also attended by professors and students of the Mining Engineering program of our University, who had the possibility of asking questions to the panelists.

During his speech, professor Ian Satchwell said “we have learned many lessons from our mining experience in Australia that can be applied to the mining industry in Chile and Latin America; for example, developing methods for responsible water management, which should represent one of our main challenges for the future of mining industry in the world.”

“Our main challenge is the responsible use of natural resources, understanding their real value. For example, the value that water has for people in our countries, as it is a very scarce good,” Stachwell said.

This panel discussion on the challenges faced by mining industry was held at Universidad de Santiago, in the context of CESCO Week, the World Copper Conference that took place in Santiago.

Academic partnerships

Carol Johnson, Head of the Department of International and Inter-University Relations of our University described the meeting as “successful” and informed that conversations tending to strengthen the academic links between Universidad de Santiago and Higher Education Institutions in Australia were started.

“Ambassador Ken met with President Zolezzi and expressed his interest in creating collaboration links regarding priority fields, like mining industry, exact sciences, engineering and international studies,” Johnson said.

She said that the activity “met the goals proposed and it indeed exceeded our expectations.”

“Through this activity, links were strengthened between Australia and our University. Also, it opened the possibility of having new meetings and bringing renowned foreign academics to address contingent matters of national interest, as sustainable mining industry, in this case. This debate is of interest to both our University and our country, which are important leaders in this field,” Carol Johnson concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr. Edmundo Leiva, professor at the Informatics Department of Universidad de Santiago and Jorge Segura, who is pursuing a Master´s Degree in this area, developed a software program that recognizes facial microexpressions that evidence basic emotions more effectively than the human eye does. The program can detect sadness, anger and rage - that are expressed through involuntary expressions - even when they last for less than a second. According to professor Leiva, it could have multiple applications: detecting criminals at airports, selecting and recruiting staff for key positions or helping in psychological virtual therapy on Internet.

Affective computing is a research field that relates to the interpretation of human emotions through technology. It looks like science fiction, but it is more real than it appears, and our University is making progress in this matter.

Dr. Edmundo Leiva, professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of Universidad de Santiago, together with Jorge Segura, a student at the Master’s Program of that unit, developed a software program that can identify emotions by reading human facial expressions even when someone is trying to hide them.

By means of a camera that captures facial muscles movements, it is possible to identify microexpressions, even those lasting less than a second.

“When a person is trying to deceive someone, this program recognizes his/her facial microexpressions. Microexpressions are brief facial expressions shown according to the basic emotions experienced, like anger, happiness, sadness and disgust,” professor Leiva explained.

Professor Leiva - PhD in Informatics - said that although there are experts who study and get certified in interpreting emotions through the face, their estimation range is only 63%, while “our software program has exceeded 70%.”

“Very few people are able to detect microexpressions, because an evident anger expression could hide or mask sadness, what could show for half a second. This microexpressions detector can read that emotion in a fraction of a second,” he explained.

Apps
 
Professor Leiva explained that this innovative tool has a wide scope of applications, from supporting police work to detecting the truthfulness of data provided in recruitment and selection processes of staff for key positions.

“It could be useful for detecting terrorists at airports, or even for virtual therapy given by some psychologists through Internet and Skype. The therapist could have some indications if the patient is lying or, for example, in case of senior people, if they took their medication or not,” professor Leiva said, betting that the list of possibilities could be very long. He also thinks that in the future, it could become an application for mobile devices.

“We speculate that in the future, even Google Glasses (optical displays connected to Internet networks) could have a microexpression recognition device, so that everyone would be able to detect if a person is trying to hide an underlying emotion,” he stressed.

The psychology field that related to facial expression metrics was developed by the American psychologist Paul Ekman, who is a pioneer in detecting the facial expressions of seven basic emotions considered to be linked to the atavistic part of the brain. “Sadness, anger, happiness, fear, surprise, contempt and disgust, which are emotions that all human beings show as a species heritage and not as a trait of a particular culture,” professor Leiva concluded.

The Department of Informatics Engineering is planning to show its work in this line and other research lines to the University community through different stands displaying related technology. Professor Leiva will participate to show this interesting program to anyone who is interested in knowing better about this matter.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• According to Scopus database, the most cited article of Universidad de Santiago during 2012 belongs to Mario Inostroza, of the Department of Informatics Engineering, who is part of an interdisciplinary team of Australia that has provided findings related to different organisms’ genomes and has developed computational biology studies.

In 2012, Universidad de Santiago de Chile published 421 scientific articles, according to Scopus database. Out of these articles, the most cited one was the article written by Mario Inostroza, PhD, a researcher at the Department of Informatics Engineering, of the Faculty of Engineering. This result included 2012 and the record was closed on November 28th, 2013.

The work called “Genome-wide analysis of long noncoding RNA stability”, was published on the American journal Genome Research (Q1), and gives information about new findings regarding different organisms’ genomes and about computational biology studies, among others.

For the author, an expert in Computer Science, “being cited by the scientific community is recognition of the research work that I am doing. My goals are to continue working on this research line and to contribute, from Computer Science, to new areas of development.”

This work is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration work with research groups of Australia, where professor Inostroza contributed from his discipline. “My particular contribution has been from the world of Computer Science and the development of data analysis advanced tools,” Inostroza said.

The results show new evidence of how some DNA sequences work, that before were considered only as noncoding DNA. “Particularly, we found a stable behavior in a large group of these sequences, that shows that they may have an important role in complex metabolisms and different functions,” he explained.

For the academic, besides being a purely scientific contribution, this work is also important because it reflects the spirit of the Department of Informatics Engineering, where the knowledge of Computer Science is applied to different areas, collaborating with top-quality research groups.

Quality versus quantity

An issue that is constantly debated among the scientific community is that, when it comes to publishing articles, a researcher should favor quantity or quality. Regarding this, Dr. Inostroza said that an article goes under several proof procedures, what in turn results in a good-quality and good-level article.

First the researcher’s work is studied. He has to comply with all the steps demanded by scientific rigor. Then, the article undergoes a revision process by the corresponding journal or conference committee. In the end, the scientific community is the one that judges the article’s quality by citing it or using its results.

“During the last years, what has been mainly judged is the number of publications that a researcher has, acknowledging and considering the ones with a larger number of publications. The nature of the different research areas has long been discussed and the number of publications in each considerably varies. I believe that a differentiated acknowledgement policy according to the research area would positively contribute to improve the quality and the impact of the works presented,” Inostroza said.

Regarding to what the University should promote in this area, professor Inostroza has a clear opinion: “Together with encouraging teachers to do research and publish articles in high-impact journals, the University should strengthen collaborative work and the generation of networks with high-level international institutions and research groups. This will benefit not only the researcher. It will make possible the visit of renowned researchers and the exchange of undergraduate and graduate students.”

Finally, the academic suggested the need of protecting quality over quantity regarding the scientific production of the institution. “Nowadays, most of the University’s incentives are short-term (for example, number of publications in a year) and I don’t have information about long-term approaches. One example of this is the process called Evaluación de Antecedentes de Investigación (Research Background Evaluation) and the Asignación de Estímulo a la Excelencia en Investigación (Incentives for Excellence at Research), which consider the number of publications and not the impact that they have had.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Cristian Lara and Alonso Martínez, both students at the Industrial Civil Engineering program of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, created Reciclapp, an application for mobile phones that allows everyone to recycle from his/her own house.

A year ago, Cristian Lara (23) and Alonso Martínez (23), both students at the Industrial Civil Engineering program of Universidad de Santiago, gave a presentation at an international meeting of innovation and technology entrepreneurs (known as hackathons) about the project that they had been working on: an application for mobile devices to promote recycling and contribute to environmental care.

And this how the story of Reciclapp started: and innovative initiative that outpaced its competitors and allowed the two friends to access the Santiago Innova business incubator.

According to the Chilean Ministry of the Environment, the country generates almost 17 million metric tons of waste solids a year, and 6.5 million of them come from households, but only 10% is recycled. Cristian Lara highlights that by using Reciclapp, anyone can inform from his/her own house about the material they will give to the recycling-material collectors.

“For example, you can inform about plastic or glass bottles, cans, cardboard boxes and paper that you plan to discard and the date and time when this material can be collected. We prepare a map and a schedule with all the information, we send it to the collectors and they organize their roadmaps,” he says.

Work placement abroad

After winning the hackathon, Lara and Martínez faced new challenges to raise funds and continued quickly positioning Reciclapp.

In November 2015, they presented their project in fiiS, the largest social innovation international festival in the country, and a month later, they became the first Universidad de Santiago students in winning the largest entrepreneurship contest for university students in Chile and Latin America: Jump Chile.

The prize they were awarded included a work placement abroad, in Bolivia. Once in that country, they implemented pilot schemes in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, El Alto y La Paz. “We were warmly welcomed; we met with some Bolivian Ministers and we managed to establish the company there,” he says. 

Later, new members joined the work team: Ian Bofill and Christian Torreblanca, both students at the Industrial Civil Engineering program; Bárbara Urrutia, a student at the Business Engineering program; Manuel Fonseca, a student at the Industrial Engineering program of Universidad de Chile, and Efraín Rebolledo, a computer engineer from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and current programmer at Microsoft.

Back in Santiago, they entered the Start-Up Chile acceleration program, which allowed them to raise 25 million pesos and gave them the possibility of participating in the program.

Early in August, they won another victory during the GeekCamp, an activity that gathers together investors and mentors from all over the world, particularly from Silicon Valley.

This allowed them to raise at least 60 million pesos and they also received two special awards for the best pitch and the best business model. Now, they are planning to travel in Latin America and the United States by the end of this year.

Besides, the project will be one of the first Chilean entrepreneurships included in the Facebook Messenger application. For now, it is only available for Android OS.

“Our recycler’s data base is larger than the one of the Ministry of the Environment; they are more than 250, in 35 different cities in Chile and we are very close to them. In Bolivia, we are working with more than 400 recyclers. We are planning to add more cities in Chile and Bolivia next year and we also expect to be operating in Colombia, Mexico and the United States, in California.

University support

Cristian Lara says that, without the support of Universidad de Santiago, the project would not have been successful. He highlights the support given by the Industrial Engineering Department (DIIND, in Spanish), particularly by director Miguel Alfaro Marchant and professors Juan Sepúlveda Salas and Marcela Rosinelli Contreras.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Varua Touch is a wireless touch device that allows to move a cursor on a computer screen, tablet or smartphone by moving the hands, feet or as best suitable for each user.

In a couple of weeks, Álvaro Monserrat Aguirre, a student at the Electrical Civil Engineering program of Universidad de Santiago de Chile will present his degree examination. In his thesis project, he has been working on designing the prototype of a device for people with mild motor impairment. “I have always liked the mix of disciplines, like engineering and health care; for this reason, my idea is to develop a universal product for disabled people,” Álvaro Monserrat says, regarding the Varua Touch, a wireless touch device that allows to move a cursor on a computer screen, tablet or smartphone by moving the hands, feet or as best suitable for each user.

In 2011, Álvaro Monserrat entered Universidad de Santiago de Chile and two years later, his inquisitiveness led him to become part of “Open Cree” a group of engineering students for project development.

In 2015, a new opportunity was offered to him by the first version of the Despega USACH contest. He already had an idea to apply for the contest: the “Nurse Eye” project. This initiative arose from the need that he and a kinesiologist friend detected in a hospital. “By using digital cameras, we captured photos of people´s injuries in order to monitor their evolution, considering different variables,” he explains. 

The Director of the Chilean National Institute of Injuries invited them to the institute and gave them the possibility of working with patients and equipment to develop their idea. “It was a commercial validation,” Álvaro says. As his project was one of the five that won the Despega Usach contest, he had the opportunity of travelling to San Francisco, USA, and work at the Stanford Research Institute for two weeks.

“Technological innovation means to create something new using existing resources in order to benefit someone,” he explains. “It is a creative process beyond technical knowledge, with a mixture of inspiration, paying attention to problems, seeking solutions and being inquisitive.”

Sustainable social venture

Together with a multidisciplinary team of students, they began to visit people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. “We made both a medical and technical evaluation and helped them to install the application in their cell phones. The app allowed them to write, push a key and communicate their needs,” he remembers. The idea for his thesis project arose from this experience.

“The Varua Touch should be accompanied by a medical evaluation conducted by a kinesiologist or a speech therapist who can detect the communication needs of each patient,” he explains. He highlights that the device offers the possibility of setting its level of sensitivity. “In some cases, getting closer to the sensor would be enough to move the cursor, to click or select a letter,” he adds.

“My idea is to develop a universal product for disabled people as a sustainable social venture, because in our country, disability does not mix with technology. There are many challenges, but more resources are required,” he says. My goal is to help a specific segment of society, by improving their quality of life,” he concludes.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The contest organized by the Ministry of Energy seeks to generate efficient solutions for households and neighborhoods and improve the access and use of renewable energies in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, will be part of the contest jury.

The “Impacta Energía” contest, organized by the Chilean Ministry of Energy and supported by the Laboratorio de Gobierno, seeks to generate innovations in the field of energy by attracting and encouraging talented entrepreneurs and innovators, and inviting them to get involved in the public challenges of the country with ideas, technologies, products or services.

“Impacta Energía” is an open contest for public innovation that seeks to find efficient energy solutions for households and neighborhoods and improve the access and use of renewable energies in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their productivity.

The call includes a Bootcamp stage or accelerated incubation process, where the selected teams will have the possibility of co-creating, improving and modifying their projects with the mentoring of representatives of the Government and the support of real users.

The four winners- who will be announced in November this year- will receive 75 million pesos each for piloting their ideas. They will have six months to implement their projects and will have the support of the Ministry of Energy in order that their ideas can become public policies.

Applications can be submitted in the link www.impactaenergia.cl, until August 23^rd. Both Chilean and foreign applicants can participate, as well as small, medium and large-sized companies from Chile or abroad.

Partnership between universities and companies

As one of the 16 members of the jury that will select the winning projects, Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, highlighted that innovation is an essential matter in this public and state university. 

He invited “students and young people in general to face these problems and propose ideas to progress in this challenge.”

For his part, Máximo Pacheco, Minister of Energy, said that he was proud to have President Zolezzi in the jury and also of the relation with Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Asimismo, destacó la relación entre la academia, el Estado, la sociedad civil y el mundo empresarial para trabajar en conjunto y enfrentar los desafíos en el ámbito de la energía. “Tenemos la convicción de que la energía no es solamente algo estratégico, sino que es a partir de ella que se construyen las civilizaciones”, expresó el ministro.

He also stressed the importance of the relation among the State, universities, civil society and business world as partners to face energy challenges. “We are certain that energy is not only a strategic issue: it is the base on which civilizations are built,” the Minister said.

“Companies need to work in partnership with universities like Universidad de Santiago de Chile,” he concluded, insisting on the importance of committing to innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Nueva Ingeniería 2030 Project organized a contest in which 21 academics were selected to visit foreign institutions focused on innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Faculty of Engineering of Universidad de Santiago and the International Partnerships Program of the Nueva Ingeniería 2030 Project organized a contest to select academics who will visit renowned foreign universities with the purpose of consolidating, broadening and building links between the faculty and those institutions.

Another goal of these academic missions will be to boost the development of exchange mechanisms and/or programs for academics and researchers who will contribute in turn to promote student exchange both at an undergraduate and graduate level.

According to Jack Brady, assistant director of the International Partnerships Program of the project, “these missions will result in agreements that will connect Universidad de Santiago with world-class universities. This will directly contribute to the goals of the project in terms of undergraduate and graduate students exchange and collaboration in different areas.”

Many academics of the faculty have already contacted different universities which focus is innovation. They will have the mission of “bringing Fab Lab models that we can adapt to our faculty and facilitate the development technology-based graduate programs,” Brady said.

The activity was led by the dean of the faculty, Juan Carlos Espinoza, and the co-director of the Nueva Ingeniería 2030 Project, Dr Mario López. On the occasion, the academics signed the missions’ commitments.

Some of the universities that the 21 academics will visit are: Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau (France), Università di Bologna (Italy), Università di Torino (Italy), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland), Politécnico di Milano (Italy), Universidad de Navarra (Spain), University of Washington (USA), Stanford University (USA), University of British Columbia (Canada), Ecole Polytechnique (France), Université de Lorraine (France), Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña (Spain), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (Spain) and others.

These missions will allow building a direct relationship with institutions that can generate networks to contribute to the development of the Observatory for University Internationalization and will help to identify strategies to become part of university international networks and innovation and entrepreneurship centers. 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The five winners of the first version of the Despega USACH contest organized by the Department of Technology Management had an intense work period at the Stanford Research Institute International (SRI), in Menlo Park, California, USA. The purpose of this contest is to promote science- and-technology-based innovation among students at Universidad de Santiago.

The five winners of the first version of the Despega USACH contest organized by the Department of Technology Management, had an intense work period at the Stanford Research Institute International (SRI), in Menlo Park, California, USA. The purpose of this contest is to promote science-and-technology-based innovation among students at Universidad de Santiago

The group was made up of Sofía Michelson, a biochemist who is working on the development of an ointment to combat melanoma; Dr Daniela Toro Ascuy, who is in charge of the platform for the development of vaccines for the salmon farming industry; Pablo González Alarcón, leader of Class Track, a curriculum management software; Sebastián Sanhueza Tapia, representative of Crea en 3D, a company for 3D parts and design, and Álvaro Monserrat, representative of NurseEye, a clinical instrument to assess and measure wound surface areas.

All members of the group agreed that their experience at Silicon Valley, the world’s land of entrepreneurship, was “an incredible experience” where they learned to come up with ideas, create a company, look for investors and sell a product, allowing them to strengthen their ventures and market their products.

High level students

Phillip Whalen and Robert Schoettle, both with large experience in innovation programs to transform original ideas into successful solutions were in charge of the internship.

According to Robert Schoettle, the team of Universidad de Santiago had been well prepared for the program before arriving in Silicon Valley. “All the teams were able to discover important things to expand their understanding of the world market opportunities,” he said.

“This information significantly changes the business approach of many teams and, in all cases, they said that they would not have been able to get the information in Chile or it would have taken them longer,” he added.

He also highlights the importance of this experience at the world’s capital of entrepreneurship, a transforming opportunity for Chilean youngsters.

“Understanding how business owners think and act will allow innovation to flourish among new generations. World economy is becoming really global and Chilean people have the chance of thinking beyond their own country’s boundaries to produce a big and significant impact on global markets,” Schoettle explained.

After our students’ stay at the SRI, Robert Schoettle says that he thinks that Chilean business people and the ideas coming from our country are exceptional and provide examples of how early knowledge of  marketing activities can be useful. “All this knowledge can be used both immediately and in the future, in the flourishing Chilean business ecosystem,” he said.

Despega Usach 2016                                       

The winners of the first version of the contest call on their classmates to participate in the next Despega USACH 2016, for they can learn about innovation and entrepreneurship besides meeting students who are working similarly at the university.

Soon, the Department of Technology Management of the Vice Presidency of Research, Development and Innovation will be informing about the contest.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

·         The amount awarded will be supplemented by institutional funds, through the Vice Presidency of Research, Development and Innovation. This will allow the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology to renovate and acquire new equipment for the important research work that they develop.

Universidad de Santiago was awarded 571 million 528 thousand Chilean pesos in the IV Scientific and Technology Equipment Fund (Fondequip) Grant Contest. Fondequip is a program led by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (Conicyt).

The funds will benefit different research projects.

Dr Raúl Cordero, professor at the Department of Physics of Universidad de Santiago is leading the project “Characterization of Clouds in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Southern Ocean” that seeks to better understand the interrelation between clouds and polar climate.

“Through interactions with short wave and long wave radiation, clouds significantly impact the energy balance, contributing to warming (or cooling) the Earth surface. The clouds are the biggest source of uncertainty in global climate models and affect the forecast of future climate scenarios,” the researcher said.

Therefore, in a context of climate change, “a better understanding of the clouds over the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic Peninsula is urgent,” the researcher said.

Thanks to the funds awarded, Dr Cordero will be able to acquire a Micro Pulse LIDAR (MPL), a high- tech remote sensing laser system that provides constant and independent follow-up of clouds profiles and properties. The equipment will be assembled on Universidad de Santiago’s Research Platform (62º 12’ S; 58º 57’ W), on San Jorge Island, located in the Austral Ocean, to the north of the Antarctica Peninsula.

To guarantee the access and dissemination of the measurements and data generated by the new equipment, it will be connected to the NASA’s “Micro Pulse Lidar Network” (MPLNET).

Confocal microscope

The Faculty of Chemistry and Biology was also granted funds for two projects. One of them is led by Dr Claudio Acuña Castillo, head of the Department of Biology. According to the researcher, they seek to “renovate the confocal microscope to keep our competitiveness and increase the number of papers published by the areas of Biology and Biomedicine.”

The third initiative that received funding was the project for updating and acquiring new accessories for a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer that will strengthen different research areas in chemistry. Dr Juan Guerrero of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology is leading this project.

Impact of new equipment

According to Dr Raúl Cordero, “by means of the acquisition of cutting edge technology, this contest allows Chile to strengthen the scientific instrumentation of the Universidad de Santiago’s Antarctic Platform and contributes to training advanced human capital, at an undergraduate and graduate levels, with an specialization both in the polar atmosphere and climate change.”

For his part, Dr Acuña says that having this type of funds available allow us to have the leading-edge equipment required to generate competitive research.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

The product, a particular type of rice, produced by a project of the Facultad Tecnológica in 2008, with the support of the Fundación para la Innovación Agrícola  (FIA), is in the process of obtaining its corresponding patent.

There was a high national and international impact in May 2008, because of this  new type of reconstituted rice obtained from by-products  of  the polishing process of this cereal, such as spikes, defective pieces, flour and others. The important finding is that it requires less time and only a quarter of water than the traditional rice usually used for cooking. It has also been developed with a variety of flavors, nutrients and fiber to make it competitive.

The leader of this project was Laura Almendares, researcher at the Department of Science and Food Technology, Facultad Tecnológica. She was supported by the Fundación para la Innovación Agrícola  and by  other researchers from the University and rice producers from Parral, in the Maule Region, and El Huique, in the O'Higgins Region.

Four years after this stage of research, Professor Almendares is now actively working in obtaining the corresponding patent for  her creation and in the generation of projects to achieve the commercialization of this innovative product.

In this context, the academic recently presented a paper in Brazil at the workshop "Potential and Qualities of Rice from the West Frontier area." This event brought together researchers, farmers and rice entrepreneurs from Santa Marta - where 80 percent of Brazil’s rice is produced- and   was organized by the Federal University of Pampa, with funding from the National Council for Scientific and National Development.

"With the support of Unipampa we generated contacts with businessmen with the aim of consolidating the business model of our rice, so that it can be produced industrially and enter the market" said the specialist Almendares on her visit to Brazil.

Efforts are also made in Chile. In this regard, this researcher of the Facultad Tecnológica explores different tools to market her product among consumers in a massive way, even at the Corfo level.

"It wasn’t easy because it’s unusual for a university to generate a patent for a product to be marketed (in a  massive way)", she said. However, she  recognizes that there is a large Chilean rice company interested in producing and distributing the rice created in the laboratories of our university. Thus, this kind of rice could be soon on Chilean and foreign supermarkets shelves.