Federico Santa Maria Technical University

Central University House in 1949.

The Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, also known by its acronym UTFSM or more commonly USM, is a traditional Chilean private university, belonging to the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, to the Association of Chilean Universities Regional Governments of Chile, the Cruz del Sur University Network and the G9 University Network.

Its headquarters are located in Valparaíso and it also has other campuses in Santiago de Chile (Vitacura and San Joaquín) and Guayaquil, Ecuador. It also has two offices: one in Viña del Mar and another in Concepción. The university only offers scientific and technological courses.

It is currently accredited by the National Accreditation Commission (CNA-Chile) for a period of 6 years (out of a maximum of 7), from December 2022 to December 2028. It is ranked 14th among the Chilean universities according to the SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2022 webometric classification. It is also in position 13 according to the AméricaEconomía 2021 ranking. Within Chilean universities, it is also among the 11 that appear in the QS World University Ranking 2020.It is among the 10 listed in the Times Higher Education 2020 ranking.

History

The University is mainly due to the wealthy and visionary Chilean businessman Federico Santa María Carrera, who made it possible with a large donation, and to Agustín Edwards McClure, executor of Santa María, and, therefore, executor of his testamentary will to endow his hometown, Valparaíso, from a study center made up of a School of Arts and Crafts and a College of Engineers.

Considering the suggestions made by Edwards, in the sense of assigning collaborators for this task, Santa María granted a will, closed in Paris, dated January 6, 1920. The statutes of the Federico Santa María Foundation were reduced to a public deed constituted by the executors, were approved by Supreme Decree of April 27, 1926.

Federico Santa María stipulated in his will that during the first ten years the teachers had to be foreigners. In accordance with this imperative, Edwards moved to Germany where he was able to hire the services of Professor Karl Laudien, who to date directed the High Technical School of Stettin, and had worked successfully in the reorganization of the German technical schools dismantled by the First World War. The first Board of Directors of the Foundation was established on May 24, 1929. In the same month of May 1929, the Rector of the School of Arts and Crafts, Professor Laudien, arrived from Germany.

In 1931, the majestic campus of its headquarters was inaugurated, located on the grounds of the former Fuerte Pudeto, on Cerro Los Placeres in Valparaíso. The neo-Gothic campus is considered one of the greatest works of Chilean architecture of the XX century. Its authorship is the responsibility of the architect and engineer Josué Smith Solar and his son, the architect José Smith Miller, both authors of many other important works in Chile, such as the Hotel Carrera (current headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Club Hípico de Santiago and the remodeling of the Palacio de La Moneda.

In February 1931, the Board of Directors officially appointed Professor Laudien Rector of the School of Arts and Crafts. The School of Apprentices, dependent on that one, began to function with its first course, in March 1932. The previous month the night courses of the same School had begun its operation, where the workers received instruction.

The Preparatory School, which was the first proper university course, began its activities in March 1934. In October of the same year it was agreed to create the magazine "Scientia", an organ of the School of Foundation. In it, not only would scientific and technical collaborations of high interest be published, but also numerous data and background information related to the Schools.

With the reform introduced to the Statute in September 1935, the Federico Santa María Foundation was renamed "Federico Santa María Technical University". The University would have the School of Arts and Crafts, a School of Works Boatswain, a College of Engineers and a Higher Institute for Scientific Research. These establishments would be under the dependence of the four faculties into which the University would be divided: Mathematics, Commerce and Economics, Physical and Chemical Sciences, and Biological Sciences.

In October 1935, in compliance with the new statutory provisions, the Board of Directors appointed Armando Quezada Acharán Rector of the University, while Professor Laudien continued as Rector of the School of Arts and Crafts.

After Rector Quezada Acharán died in April 1936, he was succeeded by Francisco Cereceda, appointed from June of that year. During this rectory, which lasted uninterruptedly until 1958, the University was consolidated, both in the physical aspect and in the teaching.

Under the rectorship of Francisco Cereceda, the University consolidates a solid institutional position. In the academic field, for example, the faculties were established, in practice, almost ten years after the reforms introduced in 1935 with substantial changes regarding it. In effect, in May 1944 the Faculties of Electrical Engineering, Chemistry and Mechanics were created, while in November 1948 the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics were created. In the 1940s, the University continued to increase its infrastructure to complete the workshops and laboratories, as well as the boarding school, classrooms, and administrative building, which is the characteristic central body of the entire citadel, which also includes the Library. The inauguration in 1941 of the Aula Magna deserves special mention, an event of great cultural impact in the region. Another significant contribution to the dissemination of culture was the creation of the radio station that had begun to broadcast its programs in 1937.

Institution

The traditional seal of the Santa María University, attracts students of the highest level from different latitudes. Currently, the University has more than twelve thousand students in its undergraduate and graduate programs and postgraduate courses and evening degrees.

The academic body is made up of more than 250 full-time professors and hundreds of part-time professors distributed among its campuses and venues.

The institution has a national and international extension and in accordance with the testamentary will of its founder, Mr. Federico Santa María Carrera, it seeks academic excellence and places special emphasis on facilitating the admission and permanence of those who, gathering the skills and attitudes required by academic work, do not have sufficient material means.

As in most traditional universities, admission to this house of studies is based almost exclusively on the score of the University Selection Test. The minimum score required to enter engineering and science careers is around 650 points, which is equivalent to the best 10% of scores nationwide. Among the highest scores admitted are usually students with "score nacional", that is, they have achieved the highest possible score in the university selection test.

Principal

The current rector of the University is Dr. Juan Yuz Eissmann, for the period 2022-2026.

Some notable events:^{[citation needed]}

• Two rectors have died when they were still in the development of their functions, i.e., Prof. Armando Quezada in 1936, and Commander Juan Naylor in 1977. They were replaced by interim rectors, until a new rector was elected.
• In 1968 Rector Carlos Ceruti left his post following protests at the university.
• Three delegates were appointed by the Military Board during the Augusto Pinochet regime (1973-1990). Delegates were retired members of the armed forces: Commander Juan Naylor (Period 1973-1977), Deputy Admiral Ismael Huerta (period 1977-1984), and Commander Arturo Niño de Zepeda (period 1984-1989).
• Two rectors in different periods were brothers: Jaime Chiang (period 1968-1972) and Gustavo Chiang (period 1989-1993).
• Two rectors were chosen in democratic elections involving teachers, students and officials: Jaime Chiang (1968-1972) and Domingo Santa María (1972-1973).
• Rector Juan Yuz was ratified as such by the superior council because the minimum number of democratic votes was not met to be validated as such, that is, 60% or more, according to the statute of the University.

Research

The areas in which the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María develops research are, among others, environment, economy, business administration, chemistry of natural products, chemical engineering and environmental engineering, food engineering, biotechnology, energy processes and renewable energies, electronics, physics, telecommunications and network engineering, materials technology, earthquake resistant structures, production systems management, software development, product development and quality, architecture, construction, product design and aeronautical sciences. The university is generally recognized as one of the most research-intensive in the country. Its PhD program in Physics is the only one in the country accredited for 10 years by the National Accreditation Commission.

Financing

The Federico Santa María Technical University is a private law foundation that has the character of a private university, and is governed by the general legislation applicable to Chilean universities, in addition to its own statutes.

In accordance with the statutory provisions, the higher management of the university is a function exercised by collegiate and individual authorities, its objective being to protect the maintenance of the purposes of the university, setting its global policies and approving medium and long-term plans deadline for materializing them.

Campus and venues

The Federico Santa María Technical University carries out its academic, research and extension activities through its Headquarters, the Santiago Campus (Vitacura and San Joaquín), the Rancagua Campus, the Guayaquil Campus (Ecuador), the Academy of Aeronautical Sciences and the "José Miguel Carrera", Sede Viña del Mar and "Rey Baudouin de Bélgica" Concepción Headquarters.

Valparaiso Central House

Inaugurated in 1931, it is located on the Placeres hill in Valparaíso, facing the sea, and in its more than 7 hectares there is a characteristic neo-Gothic construction visible from a large part of the city. It is attended by more than 5,000 students from undergraduate and graduate programs, concentrated in the areas of basic sciences, engineering, business administration, and architecture. It is the most important campus of the university in terms of number of students, courses taught, teaching and research activity, and it is where all the doctoral programs offered by the university are taught. It is also the headquarters of the governing bodies of the university, including its Rectory, its Vice-rectories and its Superior Council.

Inside the Central House of the university, its Aula Magna stands out, a venue where a highly recognized artistic season is held annually, in which some of the most prestigious artists in the world have performed, such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with its director Zubin Mehta, or the pianist Roberto Bravo. The Aula Magna would also be the venue for the V International Congress of the Spanish Language that would be held at the beginning of March 2010 and would be inaugurated by King Juan Carlos I and President Michelle Bachelet, but was ultimately suspended as a result of the 2010 Chile earthquake.

Santiago Vitacura Campus

Founded in 1995, it serves more than 1,700 students in engineering careers and graduate and postgraduate programs. It is located in the commune of Vitacura. The Academy of Aeronautical Sciences (ACA) also works inside, created thanks to an alliance signed by the university with LAN Airlines.

The following courses are taught on this campus:

• Industrial Civil Engineering
• Commercial engineering
• Engineering in Commercial Aviation
• University technician in Aviation Maintenance

San Joaquin de Santiago Campus

Opened in 2009, it is located in the San Joaquín district, at Avenida Vicuña Mackenna 3939, on the land that belonged to the Otto Kraus toy store and that was previously the facilities of Standard Electric in Chile, in front of the station Camino Agrícola metro. This campus is still under construction and expansion and currently more than 2,100 undergraduate students study. On the other hand, it has two buildings: building A (rooms, offices and departments) and building B (auditorium, rooms, laboratories, library and offices), as well as a soccer field, a casino and a gym. The campus dictates the following courses:

• Common Plan for Engineering and Licensing
• Civil engineering
• Electrical Civil Engineering
• Civil Engineering Computers
• Mechanical Civil Engineering
• Civil Mine Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Engineering in Design of Products

The Evening Engineering Program (PEIV) is also dictated, which arises from the need of the Higher Education Technician, to continue their personal and professional development. This is also motivated by the dizzying technological progress experienced by the XXI century. Some of the programs:

• IMIPEV - Industrial Mechanical Engineering
• Engineering in Computers with Bachelor
• Engineering Execution in Engineering Projects
• Engineering Execution in Occupational and Environmental Risk Prevention
• Execution Engineering in Industrial Control and Instrumentation
• Software Execution Engineering
• Industrial Management Execution Engineering
• Execution Engineering in Quality Management
• Industrial Mechanical Engineering for Appropriation Engineers
• Basic Sciences Leveling Course

Currently it has an area of 43,800 m² and 16,000 m² built.

Guayaquil Campus

In Ecuador, it was created in 1996, within the framework of the USM internationalization program. It has more than 1,300 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. The following courses are taught on this campus:

• Economy
• Bachelor of Business Administration
• Bachelor of Marketing
• Engineering in Management Information
• Bachelor of International Business
• Bachelor of Graphic Design

This venue was closed in 2018, due to a change in Ecuadorian legislation on foreign universities.

Vina del Mar Headquarters

Also called the José Miguel Carrera headquarters, it was created in 1971 after the School of Arts and Crafts, founded by the testamentary will of the philanthropist Federico Santa María. It has 2,800 students in university technical careers, engineering programs, and postgraduate programs. Check out the races:

• University technicians in:
  • Construction.
  • Food control.
  • Environmental control.
  • Electricity.
  • Electronics.
  • Renewable energies
  • Industrial maintenance.
  • Matrics for plastics and metals.
  • Automotive mechanic.
  • Industrial mechanic.
  • Risk prevention.
  • Computer.
  • Project and mechanical design.
  • Engineering projects.
  • Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry.
  • Telecommunications and Networks
  • Mining and Metallurgy
• Engineering in:
  • Prevention of occupational and environmental risks.
  • Manufacturing and Industrial Design
  • Computer
• Engineering with Technological Base:
  • Engineering in Industrial Maintenance with a Bachelor of Industrial Maintenance
• PEIV (Vepertine Engineering Program)
  • Engineering in Construction, with Bachelor's degree
  • Engineering in Occupational and Environmental Risk Prevention, with Bachelor's degree
  • Execution Engineering in Industrial Control and Instrumentation
  • Execution Engineering in Quality Management
  • Industrial Management Execution Engineering
  • Engineering in Industrial Maintenance with a Bachelor of Industrial Maintenance
  • Engineering Execution in Engineering Projects
  • Computer Systems Execution Engineering
  • Basic Sciences Leveling Course
  • Programa de Reconversión Ingeniería en Prevención de Risks Laborales y Ambientales, con Licenciatura

Concepción Headquarters

Located in the commune of Hualpén, the "King Baudouin of Belgium" It was founded in 1971 thanks to the contributions of the King of Belgium, local companies and the Archbishopric of Concepción. The following courses are currently taught in it:

• Engineering:
  • Prevention of Occupational and Environmental Risks, a degree in engineering.
  • Process Mechanics and Industrial Maintenance.
• Continuity of Studies:
  • • Execution Engineering in Industrial Management.
    • Industrial Maintenance Execution Engineering.
    • Execution Engineering in Industrial Control and Instrumentation.
    • Engineering in Engineering
    • Software Execution Engineering
    • Engineering Execution in Chemistry, Mention Control

• University technician in:
  • • Business Administration
    • Automation and Control.
    • Construction.
    • Environmental control.
    • Proyectist blur.
    • Electricity.
    • Electronics.
    • Computer.
    • Automotive mechanic.
    • Industrial mechanic.
    • Risk prevention.
    • Chemical mention Industrial Chemistry.
    • Robotics and Mechatronics.
    • Telecommunications and Networks.

Symbols

In 1931, the year of the inauguration of the School of Arts and Crafts and College of Engineers "José Miguel Carrera", the Board of Directors believed it necessary to give it certain "external attributes that accentuate among the students and even in the teaching staff, esprit de corps, in influencing in giving establishments their own character and collective soul"

Undoubtedly, it was necessary to have distinctive elements that would define the educational establishments that would be created, given the unprecedented experience at the beginning: inspired by the testamentary purposes of Federico Santa María around creating technical education centers different from those traditional. On the other hand, almost the entire teaching body was foreign, consisting basically of 19 professors and the rector, all of German nationality. With these conditions the adoption of emblems was imposed.

Recurring to the same means adopted in other foreign educational institutions, especially in England, the United States and Germany, said Council agreed to give it its own banner, coat of arms, motto, uniform and anthem. Currently, the representation symbols of the University are indicated by the Institutional Manual of Corporate Visual Identity.

Banner

In the memory of the board of directors corresponding to the year 1931, referring to the creation of the banner, the following is read:^{[citation required]}

"..as the School of Arts and Crafts bears, by will of the founder, the name of José Miguel Carrera, the Council believed that the colors for the banner should be those of the flag of the Patria Vieja, created by that one..". The colors of the University banner were finally given as red, yellow and blue, the colors of the Carrera family shield.

Anthem

The Hymn of the Federico Santa María Technical University, created in 1931, is one of the oldest university hymns in the country. At the meeting of the Board of Directors on February 20, 1931, it was agreed to call a contest for the selection of the lyrics of the anthem of the School of Arts and Crafts and the College of Engineers and, when appropriate, to commission the professor and composer Humberto Beyond the composition of music. The conditions for the call for tenders were set at the following meeting, on March 13 of the same year. In short, said conditions were: a) Award two prizes, one of one thousand pesos and the other of three hundred; b) to ask the poets of Valparaíso, Mr. Elizalde, Mr. Bardina and Mr. Muñoz Mena to set the bases of the contest, centered on the subject of Sciences and Arts; c) decide on the works that will be presented with a jury made up of the president of the Foundation, Agustín Edwards Mac-Clure and the directors Emiliano Figueroa Larraín and Armando Quezada Acahrán and, finally, d) publish the call for competition through the press of Valparaíso, Santiago and Concepción.

Up to the closing date of the contest, May 10, 1931, the literary composition of forty-six hymns had been received. The jury's resolution favored for the first prize the composition signed "Excelsior" corresponding to Alejandro Galaz, from Valparaíso, and second place to the signed composition "Tupac Yupanqui", by the author Alejandro Escobar Carvallo, from Traiguén.

At a subsequent meeting of the Board of Directors, the proposal of Mr. Agustín Edwards to entrust the Chilean professor and musician Próspero Bisquert with the composition of the music for the hymn was considered, remunerating him with the amount of two thousand five hundred pesos, thus modifying forms the original agreement to commission the composition to the musician Humberto Allende. Both the author of the lyrics and the music ceded their copyright to the Santa María Foundation.

Motto

Another of the distinctive elements of the University is the Latin motto "Ex Umbra in Solem", which translates as "from shadow to light". Given the character of educational renewal and the changes that it was intended to develop, the Board of Directors of the Santa María Foundation considered it appropriate for the establishments that were created, adding it in the form of a currency to the shield (which is also subject to prescriptions). heraldic).

Uniform

From 1931, a uniform was also adopted for the students, choosing a complete trousseau for each student. The President of the Board of Directors, Mr. Agustín Edwards McClure, personally chose the models, fixing the costumes and the number of pieces that would correspond to each student, for which he sought the cooperation of the department that dealt with this matter at the Army and Navy Stores. of London, who had long experience and a well-established reputation in this field. This uniform was basically made up of two gray outfits (jacket and pants) with which the students attended classes and wore during their free time; overalls for the workshop and an outfit for ceremonies, made up of a blue jacket with the University insignia on its upper pocket, gray pants, a tie with the colors of the banner, and a cap or bicoca that also bore the institutional shield.

The uniform is no longer required.

Shield

The Coat of Arms is made up of those of the Santa María and Carrera families, both joined at the vertex, as a symbolic expression of the origin of Don Federico Santa María.

Cultural activities

Chamber Choir

The Chamber Choir of the Federico Santa María Technical University was founded on August 4, 1951, at its Headquarters in Valparaíso. Since its creation, it has performed a wide repertoire, including various manifestations of Western choral music, from the Middle Ages to the present time. The choir's first performance was during the closing ceremony of the academic year in December 1951, in the Aula Magna of the University.

Demosthenes Penna, an engineering student at the central house, was the founder of the chamber choir as well as its first director until 1954. From March 1955 the choir was directed by Prof. Silvio Olate for more than 28 years until March 1983. From 1983 to 1987 it was directed by Prof. Mauricio Pergelier. For the next 23 years, from 1987 to 2010, the choir was directed by Prof. Eduardo Silva Cerda. Since 2010, the choir has been directed by Prof. Felipe Molina.

The Santiago Campus Choir was born from the concern of the students, who in 2011 carried out a choral project on the Vitacura Campus. Subsequently, they carried out a similar initiative at the San Joaquín Campus during the second semester of 2012. Both projects were carried out quite successfully and that is why in April 2013 they wanted to support this idea by creating an institutional choir on the Santiago Campus, which currently students and officials participate.^{[citation required]}

Since 2015, the Guayaquil campus of the University has had a chamber choir directed by Juan Carlos Sampértegui.^{[citation required]}

Outstanding graduates