Knowledge and Culture Conference, 40 years
On Thursday, April 15 and Friday, April 16, the 40-year edition of Knowledge and Culture Days were held, for the anniversary of the Faculty of Science and Technology, with the theme "Looking to the Future", which were carried out virtually through the Zoom platform and transmitted by Facebook Live.
On the first day, various professionals specialized in specific topics of interest participated; the first day the topics to be discussed were:
Demystifying Science: a mining point of view. Mining engineering
Talk by José Charango Munizaga-Rosas about the environment within mining, common myths about it, community relations, among others.
Science and innovation in last mile logistics. Production engineering
This second talk was given by Daniel Merchán, who spoke about the future of science and technology.
Use of germinated seeds in planning. Food Engineering
The author of 90 scientific articles and international conferences Alessandra Marti gave a lecture on germination.
Optical Fiber Sensors: Fundamentals and Applications. Electronic Engineering.
Brazilian Leticia Munhoz Avellar shared her knowledge and work plans in telecommunications, sensory processing, fiber optics and textiles.
Structural behavior of steel bridges with inclined supports. Civil Engineering.
This talk was given by the professor of the University of Azuay Telmo Andrés Sánchez.
The second day of the event focused on the thematic axis of Climate Change and Sustainability.
"These are two issues that call us to think about how to face the future and who else than the academy to project knowledge of the impacts and what may happen, but also proposing some actions", commented Pablo Guzmán , member of the organizing committee of the conference.
The first speaker was Christian Huggel, Director of the Research Group on Environment and Climate: Impacts, Risks and Adaptation at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Huggel spoke about climate change and its effects on high Andean ecosystems and on society in the Tropical Andes. Through his research, he found that most of the glaciers located in the Andes have disappeared or have suffered a significant loss, in the case of Ecuador from 1980 to 2017 more than 54% of its area has disappeared.
The next speaker was Javier Ordoñez, specialist in Quantitative Risk Analysis in Infrastructure Projects at the University of Maryland. Ordoñez spoke about risk management in infrastructure projects in the face of natural hazards.
Later, Sandra Guzmán, a specialist in sustainable financing from the University of Oxford, spoke about sustainable finance and stressed the importance of “achieving the transition towards a development that allows us to face climate change will not be possible if we do not achieve a transformation of economies that depend on fossil fuels ”.
The fourth talk of the day was led by Vicente Dolz, a researcher at the CMT - Thermal Engines institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, who referred to the most sustainable cold production systems.
Finally, the conference concluded with a talk given by Adriana Ocampo, Executive Director of the NASA “New Frontiers” mission program.
Ocampo shared details about the Lucy Mission, in which the planetary origins of the solar system will be explored for the first time. The mission will start on October 16, 2021 and end in March 2033; It is intended to visit 8 of the Trojan asteroids or "planetary formation fossils".
We invite you to relive the talks, through the following links: first day, second day
UDA Correspondents
