Infrastructure for learning and discovery in engineering [P2.S1]
AIM: Create the necessary infrastructure to develop global impact discoveries and the right engineering education by including more and better experimentation and hands-on work with real situations and concerns, and to facilitate interactions among scholars which are key to generate good applied science and technology. We are aiming to develop an infrastructure with general construction standards (not equipment) comparable with that of the world best engineering schools.
The learning infrastructure will be placed in new buildings and spaces with enabling technology for ubiquitous student interaction, hands-on physical and numerical experimentation, and creation of new knowledge. Spaces will be designed to keep students motivated and engaged in their learning process, while interacting most of the time in teams. The research infrastructure will focus on creating appropriate spaces for cross-disciplinary research centers, open co-work spaces, and open laboratories with focus in the grand challenges described. These research laboratories and spaces must lead to a clear differentiation of this Consortium relative to other peer institutions in Latin America, and also be an incentive to world researchers to come to Chile.
Both initiatives of spaces for learning and discovery will bring together knowledge and equipment currently scattered in different departments and campuses under single collaborative spaces; bringing a major cultural change within the institutions toward a sharing policy of resources and the creation of synergies through team work. This will boost our capacity for working in interdisciplinary projects and more complex issues, increasing the impact of our research, and accelerating the knowledge transfer process to society.
MAIN ACTIVITIES:
• Development of learning infrastructure
• Development of integrated high-tech discovery infrastructure