Federico Santa María Technical University

Coordinates: 33°02′06″S 71°35′42″W / 33.035021°S 71.595079°W / -33.035021; -71.595079

Federico Santa María Technical University
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
Motto	Ex umbra in solem
Motto in English	From the shadow into the light
Established	1929
Type	Private, Traditional
Rector	Darcy Fuenzalida O’Shee (2014–2018)
Academic staff	794[1]
Undergraduates	10,418[1]
Postgraduates	1,076[1]
Location	Valparaíso, Chile
Campus	Urban, 92,414 square metres (9.2414 ha) (main campus)[1]
Colors	Azure, Gules and Or[2]
Nickname	Sansanos
Website	http://www.usm.cl

The Federico Santa María Technical University (Spanish: Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María) (UTFSM) (or simply Santa Maria University) is a Chilean university founded in 1926 in Valparaíso, Chile. The University has campuses in Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, Santiago, Talcahuano and Rancagua, as well as an international campus in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Santa María University is the alma mater of several prominent businessmen, engineers and Chilean scientists. Its students and Alumni are known as "Sansanos".

UTFSM was the first Chilean university to confer a doctorate in engineering in 1962 and the first higher-education institution in Latin America to confer this degree.^[3] The university has special emphasis in basic sciences, engineering and technical fields ^[4] with a more recent growth into economics and business sciences.^[5]

Admission is very competitive and, in general, the last selected students every year have obtained around 650 points in the national admission test (PSU), which corresponds to the best 10% of the country. Santa Maria University has been historically perceived as one of the most prestigious engineering schools in the country and more recently, with the appearance of national and international rankings, has been placed among the top Universities in Chile and South America.^{[6] [7]}

It is ranked 1st in Chile and 2nd in south america by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015.^[8]

History

The university takes its name from Federico Santa María, a Chilean philanthropist that lived in France. He raised a huge fortune as a broker in the sugar market in Paris. Before his death, he donated all his fortune to create a university in Valparaíso, his hometown. Although the amount of his fortune is unknown, it is believed to have been around 2 billion dollars of today's currency. In his testament, Santa María donated his fortune with the idea of building a high-standard technical and scientific institution. This institution would accept and prepare the best students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to gain technical and scientific knowledge that contribute to the progress of the country.

Following his philosophy, on March 31, 1926, an institution was created to develop Santa María's legacy. Finally on 1931 the School of Crafts and Arts and School of Engineering José Miguel Carrera was founded. In 1935 its name changed to Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María.

The condition imposed by Federico Santa María was that, during the first 10 years, the university must receive academics from the best schools of sciences and engineering. Following this imperative, the executor of this project, Agustín Edwards McLure, moved to Germany where he contacted Dr. Karl Laudien,^[9] who was the first Rector (Chancellor) of the university. From that moment, the university received a strong German engineering education. Several German engineers and scientists arrived before and after the second world war from institutions such as TU Berlin,^[10] Berlin University,^[11] Leipzig University ^[12] among other German institutions. They brought to the University cutting edge knowledge in physics, chemistry and engineering. Research in new areas such as Solar Energy,^[13] or Chemistry of Natural Products (National Sciences Prize 1971 and 1998) ^[14][15] were created.

In 1960 the Graduate School was created. In 1962 the university became the first higher-education institution in Latin America to confer a doctorate in engineering, in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1960s the University started a strategy of national and international expansion. In 1966 the Technical campus "Viña del Mar" was founded.

In 1972 the campus "Rey Balduino de Bélgica" in the southest city of Concepción with orientation in technical-professional areas was founded. The project received strong financial support from Baudouin King.

Campuses

The university has four campuses and two branch campuses (sedes). These are in four Chilean cities and Guayaquil, Ecuador:

• Casa Central, main campus. Inaugurated in 1931 in Valparaíso
• Campus Santiago Vitacura and Campus Santiago San Joaquín, in the capital, Santiago.
• Campus Guayaquil, located in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
• Sede José Miguel Carrera, located in Viña del Mar.
• Sede Rey Balduino de Bélgica, in the seaport city of Talcahuano.

While the campuses are focused on undergraduate, graduate and university academical activities, sedes are mainly dedicated to technical degrees.

Main Campus, Valparaíso

The main UTFSM campus (or Casa Central) is located in Valparaíso, covering most of the front area of Los Placeres hill. The site faces the Pacific coast and it is visible from many parts of the bay of Valparaíso.

The building was designed by Josué Smith Solar, one of the most respected Chilean architects of the 20th century, and his son José Smith Miller. The American Neo-Gothic style campus is considered one of the foremost works of Chilean architecture. The campus is also recognised for its beautiful gardening, with native and exotic species.

In 2001, the illumination of the university frontis was renewed through a contest organised by the Chilean branch of Philips.

The main campus has a gothic scholastic architecture with a privileged view to the Pacific Ocean. In 2008 it was chosen as one of the most remarkable national architectural works of the 20th century.^[16]

Organization

Due to the focused nature of the university, its organisation does not include different faculties, only different academic departments. Within the Chilean campus level, there are 12 departments, which carry out research and graduate/undergraduate educational programs.

UTFSM is the only Chilean engineering school that includes sports as an obligatory course in the curriculum.

The university offers careers of Commercial Pilot and Aeronautical Engineering in its Academia de Ciencias Aeronáuticas in a joint venture with Chilean airline Lan Chile.

Education

The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. The undergraduate degrees can be of 12 academic semesters (engineering), 10 semesters (engineering, pure sciences and architecture), 8 semesters (Applied Engineering) and 6 semesters (technical careers). The graduate degrees (Masters and Doctorate) have a structure that can be described as follows: 2 years for masters of science and 3 to 5 years for Doctorate degrees.

Engineering degrees

The engineering degrees at UTFSM (and throughout Chile) are offered in different degrees of difficulty. The highest degree corresponds to 12 academic semesters..

To differentiate it from the engineering studies of 10 semesters, the degree has the suffix of Civil. For example, the degree for 12 academic semester in chemical engineering has the title of Ingeniero Civil Químico, while the degree of 10 semesters has the title of Ingeniero Químico.

Chemical Engineering

The Chemical Engineering School at UTFSM was founded together with the foundation of the School of Engineers in 1935, being one of the oldest degrees offered by the university. The first Chilean and latinamerican doctorate degree in chemical engineering was given to Walter Gaete Castro in 1962, with a cooperation between UTFSM and University of Pittsburgh, USA.^[3] Nowadays, the chemical engineering department has the name of Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (IQA, in Spanish), where Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering degrees are offered. The research topics at IQA are:

• Design of industrial processes
• Environmental Engineering
• Food Science and Bioprocesses
• Minerals Processing
• Automation and process control

The Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering has 12 associate professors, 11 with PhD degrees. The department offers the graduate programs of Master of Science and PhD in Chemical Engineering.

Research

Since 2010 UTFSM has been awarded with nearly US$8 million for 76 research projects.^[17][18][19] Many of these projects involve national and international collaborations with prestigious institutions in Latin America (ANDES Laboratory Project, RIABIN Biotechnology Network), Europe (CERN, Max Planck Institut, Politecnico di Milano), and USA (MIT, SLAC), among others.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]}

National and International Rankings

For 10 consecutive years, UTFSM has been ranked among the three best Universities in Chile in terms of quality perception given by more than 1000 important national business executives.^[29][30] In 2012, the University was ranked 5 between 9.500 schools of engineering in the world according to their impact factor in the last 5 years (Microsoft Academics),^[31] as the latinoamerican university with the largest normalized impact factor, and as the first school of engineering in South America.^[32] According to Times Higher Education Ranking 2014, UTFSM is among the first 300 best Universities in the World, 2nd in South America and 1st in Chile.^[33][34]

Notable alumni and faculty

• Robert Frucht, German-Chilean mathematician, known for developing the Frucht's theorem, emeritus professor 1970.^[11]
• Raul Zurita, Civil Engineer, Poet, National Literature Prize.
• Ivan Schmidt, Chilean physicist. He developed, in cooperation with Dr. Stanley Brodsky from Stanford University, the basic theoretical aspects to create antihydrogen atoms in the Laboratory. Based in this methods, Swiss scientists have created the first antimatter atom in the world.
• Robert Breusch, mathematician. Breusch was known for his new proof of the prime number theorem and for the many solutions he provided to problems posed in the American Mathematical Monthly.^[35]
• Miguel Kiwi, National Sciences Prize 2007.^[36]
• Abelardo Quinteros, composer and industrial designer
• Karl Laudien, first Rector (Chancellor) of the University.
• Carlos Cerutti, the first Chilean who received the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by an international institution: University of Pittsburgh, USA.
• Sergio Contreras, Bishop of Temuco.
• José Rodríguez Pérez, Rector of the University (2006–2014). National Applied Sciences and Technology Prize 2014.

References

External links

• Official site
• Alumni Association UTFSM
• Alumni Association News UTFSM
• Alumni Association TV Channel

Greater Valparaíso Cities Valparaíso Viña del Mar Concón Quintero Quilpué Villa Alemana Universities Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso Federico Santa María Technical University University of Valparaíso University of Educational Sciences "Playa Ancha" Culture and sports El Mercurio de Valparaíso newspaper Everton de Viña del Mar Football Club Santiago Wanderers Football Club Trolleybuses in Valparaíso (national monument)

Chilean Traditional Universities (Consejo de Rectores) Arturo Prat University Austral University of Chile Catholic University of the Holy Conception Catholic University of the Maule Catholic University of the North Federico Santa María Technical University Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences Metropolitan University of Technology Playa Ancha University of Educational Sciences Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso Temuco Catholic University University of Antofagasta University of Atacama University of Concepción University of Chile University of La Serena University of La Frontera University of Los Lagos University of Magallanes University of Santiago, Chile University of Talca University of Tarapacá University of Valparaíso University of the Bío-Bío