Proyectos

Objetivo general: mejorar la toma de decisiones respecto al manejo de los recursos hídricos subterráneos durante sequias mediante una plataforma web en acceso libre con un modelo 3D de las reservas de agua subterránea en la Cuenca del Limari. Objetivos específicos: (i) crear un modelo 3D de los acuíferos del valle del Limarí a través de sondajes de resonancia magnética; (ii) desarrollar una plataforma web de acceso libre con el modelo 3D, sus productos asociados como mapa de reservas y costo de extracción, medidas de mitigación de la sequía, capas de informaciones sobre derechos de agua y perforación, y un foro para que los usuarios suban informaciones; (iii) capacitar a los usuarios finales y tomadores de decisiones en la utilización de la plataforma.

[proyecto ejecutado en 4 años, por haberse acogido a extensión de pandemia] Fluid impacts are present in a large variety of situations. For instance, the craters formed by rain--drops impacting the soil are relevant in agricultural applications. Also, wave--impact can damage coastal structures, and impact of sloshing--waves may produce over--turning of trucks or vessels that transport fluids. Therefore, the relevance (I would say the impact) of fluid impact goes from industry to environmental sciences. And also because of its beauty and scientific challenges, fluid impact is currently (and largely) studied by communities of physicist and applied mathematicians. As the field of fluid impact is vast, we focus in one particular problem: the bottle flip challenge, as (1) it provides more contoured problems to be tackled experimentally during the time limits of this proposal; (2) it could give insights about other relevant and applied problems; (3) as it already received press coverage worldwide, it is likely to have a large visibility of the results obtained. The bottle flip challenge is a game consisting in spinning a plastic bottle partially filled with water, in order to make it landing vertically after completing a single turn, or more. In recent years the challenge received huge attention in social media and some press coverage including Las Ultimas Noticias. In our opinion, such effervescence for a physical phenomenon relies in the counter-intuitiveness of the trick: as the bottle is turning, one expect it to continue turning until falling down, instead of the abrupt and stable stop in a vertical position that actually occurs. Some of the videos, magazine publication and the available physics article (Dekker et al., 2018), focus their attention in the conservation of angular momentum and the variations of momentum of inertia to explain the successful landing. Dekker et al. recognize that the physics of water sloshing is highly complex in itself and approached the problem by the side of classical mechanics. What we propose here, is indeed to take the challenge of fluid dynamics to carry conserved-quantities explanations to a greater depth. Our starting point is a high--speed camera recording of a successful throw and landing. There, one can observe at least two key fluid-dynamical events that contribute to the vertical stabilization of the bottle: (1) the impact of a water jet into the wall, strongly reducing the bottle-angular-momentum during the free traveling of the system, and (2) a violent redistribution of water taking place at landing, where water captures an important amount of the kinetic energy carried by the bottle. After describing these two key events, we can already summarize this proposal as a committed experimental study of both events, plus an effort to translate these ideas into a (engineering inspired) sloshing dynamics application. We propose first to study the landing stage asking the following question (Question 1): for a container partially filled with fluid, can fluid motion act as a shock-absorber for the impact? We propose to perform an experiment where the bottle is rotated on its vertical axis before it is released (also vertically). Then we will study the effect of fluid motion, by simply defining a restitution coefficient (valid at landing impact) and to see when the loss of bottle-energy is maximized. Bottle-energy loss implies fluid-energy absorption: a balance that will be experimentally checked. Maximal loss of bottle-energy indeed ensures greater bottle stability at landing. Then, we will focus on the effect of water--jet--impact asking Question 2: On which circumstances jet-impact may stabilize a freely rotating container? On one side, we will perform experiments of bottle throwing just as the challenge proposes (that is, throwing the bottle by hand). Also, we will construct a quasi-2D experiment, to perform computer-controlled rotations of the bottle in order to produce jet--impact on the bottle walls. In both cases, we will study angular momentum transfer and deviations from bottles without impact by filming with a high-speed camera and applying mass conservation models. In order to return to the general problem of fluid impact, our final question (3) is Can we take advantage of jet-impact to stabilize any moving container? Here we will apply the previous knowledge to the study a classical configuration exhibiting wave impact: a container subjected to horizontal excitation. After characterizing impact conditions in the solid container, we will study the consequences (in wall acceleration for instance) of having a freely moving wall.

[proyecto ejecutado en 4 años, por haberse acogido a extensión de pandemia] Fluid impacts are present in a large variety of situations. For instance, the craters formed by rain--drops impacting the soil are relevant in agricultural applications. Also, wave--impact can damage coastal structures, and impact of sloshing--waves may produce over--turning of trucks or vessels that transport fluids. Therefore, the relevance (I would say the impact) of fluid impact goes from industry to environmental sciences. And also because of its beauty and scientific challenges, fluid impact is currently (and largely) studied by communities of physicist and applied mathematicians. As the field of fluid impact is vast, we focus in one particular problem: the bottle flip challenge, as (1) it provides more contoured problems to be tackled experimentally during the time limits of this proposal; (2) it could give insights about other relevant and applied problems; (3) as it already received press coverage worldwide, it is likely to have a large visibility of the results obtained. The bottle flip challenge is a game consisting in spinning a plastic bottle partially filled with water, in order to make it landing vertically after completing a single turn, or more. In recent years the challenge received huge attention in social media and some press coverage including Las Ultimas Noticias. In our opinion, such effervescence for a physical phenomenon relies in the counter-intuitiveness of the trick: as the bottle is turning, one expect it to continue turning until falling down, instead of the abrupt and stable stop in a vertical position that actually occurs. Some of the videos, magazine publication and the available physics article (Dekker et al., 2018), focus their attention in the conservation of angular momentum and the variations of momentum of inertia to explain the successful landing. Dekker et al. recognize that the physics of water sloshing is highly complex in itself and approached the problem by the side of classical mechanics. What we propose here, is indeed to take the challenge of fluid dynamics to carry conserved-quantities explanations to a greater depth. Our starting point is a high--speed camera recording of a successful throw and landing. There, one can observe at least two key fluid-dynamical events that contribute to the vertical stabilization of the bottle: (1) the impact of a water jet into the wall, strongly reducing the bottle-angular-momentum during the free traveling of the system, and (2) a violent redistribution of water taking place at landing, where water captures an important amount of the kinetic energy carried by the bottle. After describing these two key events, we can already summarize this proposal as a committed experimental study of both events, plus an effort to translate these ideas into a (engineering inspired) sloshing dynamics application. We propose first to study the landing stage asking the following question (Question 1): for a container partially filled with fluid, can fluid motion act as a shock-absorber for the impact? We propose to perform an experiment where the bottle is rotated on its vertical axis before it is released (also vertically). Then we will study the effect of fluid motion, by simply defining a restitution coefficient (valid at landing impact) and to see when the loss of bottle-energy is maximized. Bottle-energy loss implies fluid-energy absorption: a balance that will be experimentally checked. Maximal loss of bottle-energy indeed ensures greater bottle stability at landing. Then, we will focus on the effect of water--jet--impact asking Question 2: On which circumstances jet-impact may stabilize a freely rotating container? On one side, we will perform experiments of bottle throwing just as the challenge proposes (that is, throwing the bottle by hand). Also, we will construct a quasi-2D experiment, to perform computer-controlled rotations of the bottle in order to produce jet--impact on the bottle walls. In both cases, we will study angular momentum transfer and deviations from bottles without impact by filming with a high-speed camera and applying mass conservation models. In order to return to the general problem of fluid impact, our final question (3) is Can we take advantage of jet-impact to stabilize any moving container? Here we will apply the previous knowledge to the study a classical configuration exhibiting wave impact: a container subjected to horizontal excitation. After characterizing impact conditions in the solid container, we will study the consequences (in wall acceleration for instance) of having a freely moving wall.

Esta Propuesta de Instalación se da en el contexto de una Universidad nueva que se encuentra en pleno periodo de conformación de su planta académica; el Dr. Diego Muñoz Carpintero será el primer experto en el área de control automático del Instituto de Ciencias de la Ingeniería y la Universidad, complementado de este modo la planta docente y de investigación en Ingeniería Eléctrica. La Universidad y el Instituto de Ciencias de la Ingeniería consideran como aspectos centrales de su misión una vocación de excelencia académica y profesional, y de responsabilidad social con un sentido de pertenencia regional. Respecto del último punto, es prioritaria la investigación relevante para las actividades principales de la región, minera y agroindustrial, y en temáticas de relevancia local y global, como energía, sustentabilidad, y en ciencias físicas y matemáticas. La selección del investigador para este concurso cumple todos los criterios de excelencia en investigación, docencia, y de relevancia de su investigación en un contexto regional y global. La propuesta de investigación se centra en temas de electro-movilidad y eficiencia energética. En particular, abordará problemáticas relacionadas con vehículos eléctricos (EVs): ruteo de flotas de EVs para maximización de vida útil de las baterías, control tolerante a fallas de EVs, diseño de estrategias de control de servicios auxiliares brindadas por estaciones de carga de EVs, y el diseño y análisis de estrategias de control y optimización para estos problemas. La investigación en estos temas posee relevancia local por su impacto en sustentabilidad y utilidad para las principales actividades económicas de la región (minería y agroindustrial), y también poseen relevancia global por enmarcarse en las tendencias globales de conversión al uso de energías limpias y eficientes. Finalmente, existen sinergias entre este proyecto de investigación y el perfil del Dr. Muñoz, con otros proyectos y el perfil de otros académicos del Instituto.

In general, machine learning aims to learn a model from the input data in order to make reliable and repeatable decisions. The learning of a model is either done automatically or semiautomatically. While deep learning can be used to automatically learn a model from arbitrary raw data, the number of successful application domains is still very restricted. This proposal is concerned with supervised learning - a machine-learning technique that aims at learning a model from input-output examples. A crucial task in supervised learning is the engineering of the features. Features are used to extract the relevant information from the raw data in order to learn a classifier that is based on the extracted data. A classifier is a function that partitions the input data into different categories. Feature engineering is a time-consuming process that includes a lot of trial and error, and stepwise addition or deletion of features. We aim at automating that process and learn a classifier based on some automatically generated features.

Dislocations are the main source of plastic behavior of metals, however, it is very difficult to quantitatively study their influence. In order to improve this situation, it is proposed to use its interaction with elastic waves as a non-invasive probe in Aluminum and Steel 304L at different strain-rates. The long-term objective of the research presented in this proposal is to obtain a standardized methodology for the characterization of materials by means of ultrasonic tests. The proposed technique is based on in-situ measurements of wave pulse propagation in rectangular samples (with ASTM Standard) under standard tensile tests, with maximum deformations of the order of 3% to 7%, which includes both the elastic regime and the plastic, additionally considers traction speeds between 0.001 mm / s and 0.5 mm / s. The results are contrasted with measurements of ultrasonic resonance spectroscopy (RUS) and density measurements of dislocations by XRD of pieces of the material obtained from the test pieces under traction study, which will be carried out in collaboration with Prof. Claudio Aguilar of the University Santa Maria. We will also explore a correlation of the results with the microstructural characterization using TEM images On the other hand, it is proposed to implement non-linear measures in-situ during tensile tests, which have been shown to be much more sensitive to the presence of dislocations of a material. The non-linear measurements are based on the application of a continuous ultrasonic wave and the analysis is performed on the amplitude of the first harmonic A2ω as a function of the amplitude of incident mode Aω, those that are related of the form A2ω = βAω, with β a non-linear parameter. For this analysis it is proposed to develop the theory, until now non-existent, between the non-linear parameter and the density of dislocations in collaboration with Prof. Fernando Lund of the Physics Department of the FCFM of the University of Chile. Emphasis will then be placed on in situ measurements, where a quantitative and continuous relationship between the density of dislocations and the stress applied during a tensile test has recently been found, as well as an indication of universality and independence of the initial condition once that the system enters the plastic deformation regime.

Objetivo General: Generar colaborativamente un conjunto de instrumentos de evaluación diagnóstica inicial para carreras de pedagogía en enseñanza básica, que evalúen habilidades esenciales del buen desempeño profesional docente, a fin de mejorar los procesos formativos conducentes al logro de los perfiles de egreso de las instituciones formadoras, y que cumplan estándares técnicos de calidad en medición. Objetivos Específicos: 1. Desarrollar y adaptar instrumentos que evalúen habilidades características del buen desempeño docente según la literatura científica. 2. Implementar estudios empíricos cuantitativos y cualitativos en muestras de estudiantes de pedagogía básica que permitan garantizar el cumplimiento de estándares técnicos de medición (evidencias de validez, confiabilidad). 3. Explorar la relación de las habilidades evaluadas con los instrumentos con oportunidades de formación y con la experiencia académica y práctica acumulada por los estudiantes de pedagogía. 4. Formalizar la asociación institucional involucrada en el

Evaluaciones recientes de los entornos de aprendizaje chilenos han determinado que las dimensiones más deficientes en Educación Parvularia son aquellas relacionadas con la calidad de las oportunidades de aprendizaje, actividades creativas y oportunidades de juego. Esto es particularmente cierto para actividades dirigidas a fortalecer los aprendizajes matemáticos, las cuales se realizan (en promedio) apenas 15 minutos al día y generalmente no fortalecen el dominio y comprensión de los procesos matemáticos, sino que priorizan el trabajo mecánico y procedimental contribuyendo escasamente al fortalecimiento del pensamiento matemático complejo. Este proyecto va dirigido a mejorar la calidad de estos aprendizajes en el nivel de transición de la Educación Parvularia. Aquí se plantea el desarrollo de un modelo de enseñanza soportado en dos herramientas tecnológicas integradas: un conjunto de materiales concretos, representacionales y abstractos (CRA) que permita a los docentes diseñar experiencias de aprendizajes matemáticos de alta calidad y un software para realizar evaluaciones automatizadas de los objetivos de aprendizaje del pensamiento matemático (OAPM) utilizando tareas en formato de actividades lúdicas y juegos computarizados. Abundante literatura internacional ha demostrado que la estimulación de habilidades como el procesamiento espacial y el razonamiento analógico fortalece las habilidades lógico-numéricas y tienen efectos positivos en los desempeños matemáticos posteriores. En este contexto, estudios recientes realizados por nuestro equipo han delineado algunas maneras en que el razonamiento analógico y el procesamiento espacial se pueden explotar en el diseño de materiales y estrategias efectivas para enseñar matemáticas. Este proyecto busca aplicar estas investigaciones al diseño de materiales CRA y evaluaciones informatizadas del modelo de enseñanza propuesto. La hipótesis de desarrollo es que la utilización de este modelo de enseñanza en las aulas incrementará significativamente los aprendizajes matemáticos de los niños y la calidad de las prácticas pedagógicas de los docentes. En este proyecto se desarrolla una prueba de concepto del modelo de enseñanza para verificar si su utilización en las aulas es viable y tiene efectos benéficos en los aprendizajes de los niños y las prácticas pedagógicas de los docentes. Nuestro equipo de investigadores diseñará un prototipo del conjunto de materiales CRA y encargará la manufactura de éstos a una empresa externa. Durante este proyecto también se desarrollará una versión piloto de un instrumento computarizado que permita evaluar los OAPM de manera automatizada utilizando tareas en formato de actividades lúdicas y juegos. Para verificar que el uso de estos materiales en las aulas incrementa los aprendizajes matemáticos se realizará una intervención escolar controlada en alrededor de 10 aulas de prekínder, reclutando al menos 300 participantes. Esta intervención tiene un diseño experimental, que controla el efecto del profesor y con línea base (pretest-postest). Algunas variables de desarrollo cognitivo y manejo del lenguaje de los niños se medirán para realizar controles estadísticos en el análisis de datos. El incremento en la calidad de las prácticas pedagógicas será determinado mediante el análisis de registros audiovisuales obtenidos durante la intervención escolar, los cuales serán codificados y analizados acorde a un instrumento bien conocido en la literatura internacional.

El objetivo es estudiar los determinantes metabólicos que influyen en el deposito ectópico de tejido adiposo intermuscular en pacientes obesos