UDP Internacional

Wednesday November 5th, 2025

• The meeting, which included representatives from the Paris Informatics Laboratory (LIP6), was held to explore possibilities for scientific collaboration, joint teaching, and academic exchange between the institutions.

As part of the efforts to strengthen the University’s academic project through the cross-cutting development of internationalization, the General Directorate of International Relations (DGRII) coordinated a meeting between UDP authorities and faculty and the visiting delegation from the Paris Informatics Laboratory (LIP6) at the Sorbonne University, France.

Thus, on Monday, November 3, two meetings were held at the Main Building to identify concrete opportunities for cooperation with one of the most important computer science research centers in Europe.

Participants in this meeting included the Director of Institutional Projects, Dr. Dora Altbir; the Director General of the DGRII, Anoek van den Berg; and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences (FIC), Louis de Grange. From the Faculty of Computer Science (FIC), Matthieu Marechal from the Institute of Basic Sciences, Lorena Hernández from the Institute of Astrophysical Studies, and Diego Dujovne and Nicolás Hidalgo Castillo from the School of Informatics and Telecommunications also attended. From the health sciences, Dr. Juan Montiel, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine, and Jorge Mauro from the Faculty of Health and Dentistry were present.

Meanwhile, the LIP6 delegation consisted of the director, Fabrice Kordon; the deputy director, Vanda Luengo; and the head of the Master’s Program Department, Olivier Fourmaux.

This visit, explained the director of LIP6, was part of the delegation’s trip to South America to identify universities and institutions with which to collaborate. In this context, “Diego Portales University was selected because members of our computer science institute have already participated in academic exchanges with this university, and there is interest in strengthening and expanding these collaborations,” he stated.

Kordon stated that the main focus was exploring possibilities for collaboration and co-supervision of doctoral and master’s students, although he did not rule out expanding the partnership to include undergraduate students.

“We discovered that the final year of the undergraduate program at UDP corresponds roughly to the level of our master’s students. So, potentially, it could also be extended to undergraduate students, and in the French part, focus on master’s and doctoral students.”

Along these lines, he commented that the idea of ​​supervising professional internships was also evaluated.

The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences (FIC), Louis de Grange, highlighted the high academic level of the meeting, which, in his opinion, positions UDP “as a university with an international vocation, oriented towards scientific cooperation and strengthening its research capacity.”

De Grange also noted the excellent willingness of the Sorbonne delegation to explore opportunities for collaboration.

“There was a genuine interest in establishing sustainable ties that would enhance joint research, academic mobility, and advanced training. Likewise, a convergence of interests was observed in strategic areas such as artificial intelligence, data analysis, and technological innovation applied to social and urban challenges,” the Dean stated.

From a biomedical perspective, Dr. Juan Montiel explained that a potential agreement with the Sorbonne University Laboratory would have a significant impact on the research conducted at the Faculty of Medicine.

“It could enhance the use of artificial intelligence, computational modeling and data mining, the prediction of therapeutic responses, the analysis of histological and medical images, and the development of clinical decision support systems. Together, these approaches would strengthen interdisciplinary research at the Faculty and open new opportunities for training and co-supervision of theses in computational biomedicine.”

Furthermore, considering the work of the Faculty’s Biomedical Research Center, the academic stated that it “would allow for the integration of its various lines of research in biomedicine with advanced computer science methodologies and biomedical data analysis,” he pointed out.

Beyond the topics discussed, and by way of reflection, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering emphasized that these kinds of initiatives “allow UDP to project itself as a reliable academic partner with capabilities in cutting-edge areas of knowledge, which contributes to expanding networks, attracting talent, and strengthening its position in the European and Latin American higher education sphere.”