Ésta busca promover actividades de investigación y desarrollo al más alto nivel, a cargo de sus académico/as e investigadores/as en el marco de proyectos científicos y tecnológicos de alcance regional, nacional e internacional, en concordancia con el Plan de Desarrollo Estratégico de la Universidad.
100% de los académicos y académicas con doctoradoInvestigación
Institutos de Investigación
Convocatorias
Cifras

208
Proyectos de investigación como responsables o co-investigadoras/es entre 2017 y 2021 (66 Fondecyt)

311
Publicaciones científicas entre 2017 y 2021 (266 en Scopus)

6
Institutos de investigación interdisciplinaria en 2021

100%
De académicas/os con grado de Doctor en 2021
Proyectos
- FONDEF IT23I0012
- Diciembre 2025 - Diciembre 2025
AdjudicadoIEEE RAS
IEEE RAS Technical Education Program
Fondos para apoyar la realizacion de la Fourth Latin American Summer School on Robotics (LACORO 2025). La primera edición se realizó online en octubre de 2020; la segunda fue presencial en enero de 2023; la tercera 2024 en la Universidad de O'Higgins en Rancagua, Chile. La cuarta edición tendrá lugar en diciembre de 2025 en la Universidad de O'Higgins. https://lacoro.org/
Esta Escuela de Verano beneficiará principalmente a Estudiantes y Académicos de las Américas interesados en la Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial aplicada a la Robótica. Nuestro objetivo es fomentar la colaboración nacional y regional en esta área de investigación. Para la primera edición, alcanzamos 241 inscripciones para actividades online de todo el mundo, y la segunda versión tuvo 166 inscripciones para actividades presenciales en enero de 2023, principalmente de Chile, México, Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay.
Investigador/a Responsable
- 243587898
- Diciembre 2025 - Diciembre 2025
AdjudicadoIEEE RAS
IEEE RAS Technical Education Program
Fondos para apoyar la realizacion de la Fourth Latin American Summer School on Robotics (LACORO 2025). La primera edición se realizó online en octubre de 2020; la segunda fue presencial en enero de 2023; la tercera 2024 en la Universidad de O'Higgins en Rancagua, Chile. La cuarta edición tendrá lugar en diciembre de 2025 en la Universidad de O'Higgins. https://lacoro.org/
Esta Escuela de Verano beneficiará principalmente a Estudiantes y Académicos de las Américas interesados en la Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial aplicada a la Robótica. Nuestro objetivo es fomentar la colaboración nacional y regional en esta área de investigación. Para la primera edición, alcanzamos 241 inscripciones para actividades online de todo el mundo, y la segunda versión tuvo 166 inscripciones para actividades presenciales en enero de 2023, principalmente de Chile, México, Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay.
Co-Investigador/a
- Fondap 15130009
- Abril 2025 - Diciembre 2025
AdjudicadoAgencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo - ANID
The Schools Role in Shaping Attitudes Towards Inequality: An In-depth Inquiry in Schools with Socioeconomically Diverse Students
The school is a crucial socialisation institution that forms young peoples perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs (Gidengil et al., 2016). Moreover, it is the main socialisation space that provides the youth with broader social relationships compared to the intimate social context of the family (Vincent et al., 2018). This Fondecyt project will ethnographically analyse the schools role in socialising attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality among secondary students in classrooms with a diversified socioeconomic composition. Studying these attitudes is crucial since they might symbolically legitimise or challenge the existing social order (Sandel, 2021) and contribute to the reproduction or transformation of socioeconomic inequalities (Alesina et al., 2012). Since evidence on this issue is key for democratic governments in socioeconomically unequal societies to inform policies for reducing inequality and increasing social cohesion, the project focuses on Chile, a country with extreme levels of socioeconomic inequality (WID, 2022). By identifying opportunities and challenges for schools to promote egalitarian attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality among their socioeconomically diverse students, the project will provide decisive evidence for education policy to improve their support to school communities.
The general objective of this project is to analyse how the schools contribute to shaping attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality among secondary students in classrooms that have diversified their socioeconomic composition. The specific objectives are as follows:
1. To characterise the socioeconomic heterogeneity within schools with secondary education in Chile and identify those that have diversified the socioeconomic composition of their students in the last decade.
2. To determine the schools pedagogical, organisational and community responses to the increase in their socioeconomic diversity and examine how these responses promote particular attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality.
3. To describe the students' inter-class relationships and identify how these relate to particular attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality, including awareness of inequality, perceptions of the fairness of social inequalities, meritocratic beliefs, and egalitarian preferences.
The study will use a sequential mixed methods design, with a first quantitative phase aimed at answering Specific Objective 1 and informing the selection of the sample of schools for the second - ethnographic - phase, which is the predominant one and seeks to answer Specific Objectives 2 and 3:
a) Quantitative phase: A Socioeconomic Diversity Index (SDI) will be created using data from the Quality of Education Agency through its SIMCE questionnaire to parents of secondary students for 2014-2024, which asks about the families socioeconomic information. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe SDI and its temporal variation by school.
b) Ethnographic phase: Ethnographic fieldwork will be deployed in three schools with increased socioeconomic diversity, as measured in the SDI. Fieldwork in each school will last approximately two months, and the following methods will be used:
- Interviews with staff members: 10 in each school (30 total), including the Principal, two Deputy Principals, three professionals from a psychosocial support team and four teachers.
- Friendship maps and interviews with students: Maps of the students social relationships will be built with secondary students, seeking to include the whole class in each school (approximately 100 students in total). Maps will be followed by interviews.
- Observations: They will be conducted in classrooms, playgrounds, and school events for approximately 100 hours in each school (approximately 300 hours of observation in total).
The expected results include a) a map of all Chilean schools according to their current socioeconomic diversity and its temporal variation; b) in-depth evidence of inter-class relationships between secondary students and how these affect their attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality; and c) a systematisation of the schools responses to the students socioeconomic heterogeneity, their links to the development of attitudes towards socioeconomic inequality, and their facilitating and hindering elements. These findings will be useful for other schools that are diversifying their student body, wish to do so, or are interested in promoting egalitarian attitudes among their students. Ultimately, the project will provide critical evidence for public policy to promote schools that foster the development of egalitarian attitudes and potentially contribute to reducing social inequalities.
Co-Investigador/a
- 11251528
- Abril 2025 - Marzo 2028
AdjudicadoAgencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo - ANID
HAMFLIP: Hamiltonicity and Diameter of Flip Graphs
Combinatorial objects frequently appear in various areas of computer science and discrete
mathematics. These objects are central to questions in algorithmic design, where we aim to program a
computer to efficiently perform tasks involving them. These tasks may include counting objects based on
certain parameters, sampling an object uniformly at random, optimizing with respect to an objective
function, searching for objects that satisfy specific properties, or generating all objects exactly once. This
project focuses on two of these problems: combinatorial generation and the search for highly distinct
combinatorial objects.
While many of the aforementioned tasks have general-purpose techniques that allow them to tackle
multiple problems simultaneously, the situation becomes less clear when dealing with combinatorial
generation or the search for distant objects. Much of the effort in these areas has been devoted to
developing ad hoc methods. Despite this, these last two problems can be naturally phrased in the language
of flip graphs, which encode the similarity between combinatorial objects. In this context, the problem
transforms into the traditional graph problems of Hamiltonicity (finding a path that traverses all the
vertices exactly once) and diameter (finding two vertices that are farthest apart). Recent research has
highlighted the significant value of exploiting polytopal properties and symmetry of flip graphs, leading to
unified frameworks that can address many problems simultaneously. The main objective of this project is
to contribute to this perspective. Specifically, it aims to enhance our understanding of the polytopal and
symmetric properties of flip graphs and use this knowledge to develop efficient algorithms for tackling
Hamiltonicity and diameter problems
Investigador/a Responsable
- 112031001-PI2406
- Abril 2025 - Marzo 2028
AdjudicadoAgencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo - ANID
Título del Proyecto: ¿Cree la ciudadanía en los principios penales liberales que sustentan la justicia penal chileno? Estudio mixto sobre sus factores explicativos y consecuencias político criminales.
Beccaria y la escuela clásica pusieron en tela de juicio el sistema de justicia medieval caracterizado por su arbitrariedad y excesiva crueldad. De esta forma, propusieron un conjunto de ideas (p.ej. legalidad, humanidad y proporcionalidad de las penas, debido proceso) para limitar el poder de castigo estatal, racionalizar el uso de la fuerza y disminuir la aplicación de la crueldad, llevando reformar el sistema penal de la época. El pensamiento de otros autores y la emergencia de los derechos humanos permitieron que estas ideas se incorporaran en las actuales democracias liberales comprometidas con el Estado de derecho. Así, en el ámbito penal, a nivel de leyes, constitucional y del derecho internacional, se construyó un sistema de protección del individuo frente al ius puniendi, y que aquí englobamos ampliamente bajo el término Principios Penales liberales (en adelante PPL) para referirnos a aquellos principios, sub-principios, ideas, derechos y/o garantías destinadas a limitar y racionalizar el ejercicio de la justicia penal.
Aunque estos PPL se encuentran incorporados e institucionalizados, corrientes actuales como el Populismo Penal , la cultura del Control, la punitividad pública, el Derecho Penal del enemigo o los estudios en actitudes punitivas permitirían pensar que los PPL tendrían hoy un bajo respaldo ciudadano. Además, en el actual contexto chileno caracterizado por un incremento en la preocupación por la seguridad, es esperable que la opinión pública vea con reticencia estos PPLL por considerarse que favorecen a los delincuentes y limitan la capacidad estatal para controlar el crimen. Desde el ámbito político, que descansa en buena medida en la opinión pública, algunos actores plantean restablecer la pena de muerte, buscan limitar derecho a defensa gratuito o aumentar desproporcionadamente las penas. También, desde ciertos sectores políticos se ha presionado o cuestionado el actuar de jueces/as y fiscalía sin evaluar las consecuencias de estas acciones para la imparcialidad, en un contexto en el que el término de garantismo jurídico parece ser concebido como como una característica negativa del sistema jurídico. Medidas y acciones de este tipo amenazan este conjunto de PPL y la protección del individuo frente al Estado.
Dado que, desde el punto de vista politológico, las instituciones requieren de cierto umbral de respaldo subjetivo para su legitimidad social, resulta fundamental estudiar el apoyo ciudadano a los PPL que subyacen al sistema de justicia penal. A pesar, sin embargo, de la relevancia de este tema, la literatura en torno a lo que en adelante llamaremos las Actitudes Ciudadanas hacia los Principios Penales Liberales (en adelante APPL) es sumamente escasa. Investigaciones previas solo han abordado el respaldo hacia ciertos principios aislados, hacia un set de PPL , pero no hacia el conjunto completo de PPL subyacentes al sistema de justicia. Sin embargoA pesar de lo anterior, investigación seminal y exploratoria en torno al tema se ha realizado en el contexto chileno identificándose una baja adhesión ciudadana a los PPL y, también,a la vez que, esto se han encontradomantendría un correlatos con el género, la educación y la orientación política de las personas. Por últimoOtro ejemplo de investigación emergente en la temática es, en Reino Unido. En este último páís -con sistema jurídico consuetudinario- se ha validado a nivel confirmatorio una escala (actualmente en revisión) para medir las APPL (en adelante E-APPL). Empero, esta escala no ha sido aplicada aun en otros países, o contextos con sistema de derecho escrito. Adicionalmente, tampoco hay hallazgos sobre los posibles factores explicativos de las APPL y sus consecuencias, relevándose entonces un vacío de conocimiento necesario de abordar.
Considerando esto, y mediante una metodología mixta (cuantitativa y cualitativa), nuestra investigación busca estudiar las APPL en población residente en Chile. Específicamente, se busca a) describir los niveles y tipos APPL, b) los posibles factores que explican o dan cuenta de las APPL, y c) las consecuencias de las APPL para la legitimidad y confianza en el sistema de justicia chileno.
Co-Investigador/a
- #635276
- Abril 2025 - Septiembre 2024
AdjudicadoAgencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo - ANID
How do minority groups in Chile relate to and position themselves when interacting with the police? An analysis of procedural justice and motivational postures
In democratic countries, the effectiveness of police work relies on having public support. When the public believes in the police's legitimate authority, they are likelier to follow their orders and cooperate with law enforcement. Conversely, perceptions of unjust behavior, such as not allowing citizens to explain themselves during interactions (procedural injustice), can lead to defiance of police orders (defiant motivational postures). In fact, over recent decades, we have witnessed numerous violent protests, police brutality, and human rights violations by police forces worldwide, including in Chile. The Carabineros, Chile's primary police force, were once highly trusted by the Chilean population. However, incidents of corruption and excessive use of force during the October 2019 social outbreak severely damaged public trust in the police (Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos [INDH], 2021). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the extent to which individuals perceive the police as acting fairly and correctly (i.e., procedural justice) and how they interact with and view the police in Chile (i.e., motivational postures). Additionally, it is well documented in the international literature that people who belong to minority groups (such as migrants, indigenous people, black Americans, among others) may have more tense interactions with the police and suffer higher levels of discrimination when interacting with police officers. Particularly, in Chile, there is evidence that police forces have used, both historically and in the present day, excessive use of force in particular against minority groups, namely among Mapuche people, immigrants living in Chile, as well as youths from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, we argue that these interactions between citizens and police are not only theoretically significant but also have societal implications, potentially influencing levels of conflict or cohesion within a community.
Furthermore, international studies have also shown that disproportionate use of force by law enforcement often targets marginalized communities, particularly minority groups. Members of these groups also experience higher levels of discrimination compared to more privileged social groups within specific contexts (Feldman et al., 2019; Gee & Ford, 2011). Such experiences erode trust in law enforcement and may provoke protests against the police or demands for police reforms, as well as the avoidance of the police, even their work may be necessary (Woods et al., 2015). Therefore, understanding the interplay between perceptions of procedural justice (Lind & Tyler, 1988; Tyler & Lind, 1992) and motivational postures (Braithwaite, 2003) is crucial for understanding police-minority interactions.
In this light, the current project aims to understand how police-minority interactions in Chile are experienced and perceived in terms of procedural justice and motivational postures by considering the perspectives of three minority groups (namely, Mapuche people, immigrants living in Chile, and youths from low socioeconomic backgrounds) and police officers.
To our knowledge, there is a scarcity of studies focusing on police-minority interactions in Chile. Thus, by developing three interconnected studies with minority group members (Studies 1 and 3) and police officers (Study 2), this projects expected results aim to, firstly, contribute to the state-of-the-art from a theoretical perspective, with the aim of advancing our understanding of police-minority interactions, through a combination of different frameworks combining procedural justice and motivational postures. Second, from a practical standpoint, we aim to generate empirical evidence that enables our understanding of police- minority interactions and provide practical guidelines and public policy recommendations about ways in which minority-police interactions can improve and lead to higher levels of procedural justice and more compliance with law enforcement.
To achieve our main objective, we will conduct three interconnected studies. First, we will implement a longitudinal qualitative analysis through focus groups with minority group members (Study 1). Secondly, we will conduct semi-structured interviews with police officers (Study 2) and, finally, we will conduct an experimental study to test the causal relationship between procedural justice and motivational postures from the perspective of minority group members (Study 3). Data will be collected in the North (Antofagasta), Center (Santiago) and South (Temuco) of Chile).
We expect to publish four articles in peer-reviewed journals, organize three academic seminars with national and international scholars, and present our findings in different national and international conferences. We will also organize four dissemination activities with policy makers and Human Rights Organizations concerned with police violence and how this phenomenon particularly affects minority groups, as a means to contribute to and potentially influence the development of public policies in the area of police- minority interactions. Finally, we also aim to disseminate our results among Carabineros and other relevant actors within Chilean society, as well as civil society in general.
Investigador/a Responsable
Últimas Publicaciones
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A Mini Review of mycotoxin’s occurrence in food in South America in the last five years: research gaps and challenges in a climate change era
• Claudia Foerster Guzmán • Andrea Julieta Müller Sepúlveda
- REVISTA Front. Chem. Biol
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A Mini Review of mycotoxin’s occurrence in food in South America in the last five years: research gaps and challenges in a climate change era
• Claudia Foerster Guzmán • Andrea Julieta Müller Sepúlveda
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A decolonial and intersectional approach to identity in multicultural education: The case of the Haitian community in Chile
• Carolina Pérez Arredondo
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Intersecting inequalities: towards a critical discursive approach
• Eleonora Esposito • Carolina Pérez Arredondo • Angela Zottola
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Transmit power policies for stochastic stabilisation of multi-link wireless networked control systems
• Alejandro I. Maass • Dragan Nesic • Romain Postoyan • Vineeth S. Varma • Samson Lasaulce
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