The Engineering Congress CHILECON 2013 was held with huge attendance. Among the guests, there were important national and international researchers who presented different topics in relation to intelligent networks and solar energy.
The Engineering Congress CHILECON 2013, organized by the Chilean section of IEEE along with Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, SERC Chile (Energy Center) and the Mathematics and Physics Faculty of Universidad de Chile, was held on Monday September 9 and Tuesday 10.
The subject of the Congress was the development of Solar Energy and Intelligent Networks, two topics with great potential in relation to energy in Chile and where the technological development discussion aims at the actual supply of current systems.
Professor Hugh Rudnick from Universidad Católica was the person in charge of opening the ceremony and he emphasized the importance of reactivating the engineering congresses in Chile. “The importance of Electrical Engineering Congresses has been affected as a result of the researchers’ preference to publish on national magazines. The relevance of their reactivation is to hold forums and to have people’s participation so that they can become a place for knowledge exchange and development in the country,” he explained.
On the other hand, Rodrigo Palma, Director from SERC Chile, commented on the fact that the congress aims at becoming a meeting point for future young innovators and that motivates them to think about these topics. “The IEEE Chile section has wanted to invigorate national activities and to organize CHILECON 2013 this year, which we hope, is the first of many events that can present academic topics to students, in order to build an adequate bridge between the real and the energy world,” he said.
The first day of CHILECON focused on the status of Intelligent Networks in Chile, and began with a Panel Session led by professor Luis Vargas from Universidad de Chile, which also had the participation of Alex Alegría from TRANSELEC and Rodrigo Palma, from Universidad de Chile.
The first day concluded with the session Economic Models for Solar Energy Integration, led by Professor Carlos Silva, from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez; and the presentations of Professor Rodrigo Moreno, from Universidad de Chile; and Professor Gerardo Blanco, from Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay.
The second day of CHILECON began with the presentation of Professor Claudio Cañizares from the University Of Waterloo, Canada, and this focused on the discussion of Intelligent Networks and Systems of Communication. Afterwards, the Panel session was held and led by Professor Rodrigo Palma from Universidad de Chile; Professor Massoud Amin, University of Minnessota; and Professor Claudio Estévez, from Universidad de Chile.
During the same morning, the Micro Networks panel session was held and led by Guillermo Jiménez from Universidad de Chile and had the presentations from Rosa María Argomedo from the Ministry of Energy; Professor Reza Iravani from the University of Toronto, Canada; Professor Nikos Hatziargyriou from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece; and Professor Ryochi Jara from Hokkaido University, Japan.
Finally, CHILECON concluded with the solar energy and intelligent network challenges panel session led by Professor Samir Kouro, main researcher from SERC Chile, Line of Research 1, Solar Energy in the Industry/Mining Sector. At this point, the presenters were Cleiton Silva from ABB; Professor Claudia Rahmann from Universidad de Chile; and Professor Patricia Mendoza from Wisconsin Madison University and Universidad de Chile.
The goal of the congress was to highlight the development of intelligent networks and solar energy as an opportunity for our country. This can be achieved through the creation of instances to present these topics which are relevant as new technologies. In addition, it serves the purpose of boosting the integration between different universities in different disciplines, which will allow a great development towards renewable energies.
