The last Bionature meeting was open for first time to a big group of students who are not members of this multidisciplinary group, which is focused on bioprocesses and resources management. Bionature is composed of four institutions, among them the Center of Mathematical Modeling (CMM), and is one of the seven research teams of Ciric-Inria Chile.
This event took place on 22th August 2014 at CMM, where attendees heard nine relevant presentations of master and PhD students, as well as postdoctorate researchers belonging to Bionature.
“Students appreciated to discover how mathematical modeling applies to specific problems. Even though they have studied about applications during their carriers, they would like to know further. Thus, here they had the opportunity to learn deeper about optimization of bioprocesses”, explained Professor Héctor Ramírez, researcher at CMM and director of Bionature.
This meeting, whose objective was to disseminate the ideas generated by Bionature, gathered its researchers, as well as mathematical and biochemical engineering students of Universidad de Chile, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Universidad de la Frontera.
“We discovered that bioprocess is an interdisciplinary area. With the help of mathematics, we can optimize these actions”, pointed out Leslie Meller, student from Universidad de la Frontera.
Presentations were about micro-algae and biogas production, and watertreatment processes, an important issue of concern in today´s society. For instance, it was shown the development of integrative models for odoriferous compounds generation and winds simulations in order to avoid odors production in wastewater plants.
The goal of this kind of events is to examine the breakthroughs that have been achieved in the last months by Bionature researchers. Next edition of this activity is expected to be held at the end of this year.
