The civil engineering undergraduate program in our branch campus in Quito is celebrating 19 years of existence, years through which the university has educated professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to plan, design, manage projects, build roads, sanitary systems, urban constructions and hydraulic systems.

In this regard, the university's Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) organized a number of virtual conferences from the 7th – 30th of April in order to provide up to date information on structures, seismology, hydraulics and geotechniques. 

The first conference was led by Nelson Lopez, from Chile, a specialist in hydraulic resources. His talk was on the "interaction of soil structure in a regular 6 story concrete building"

Paola Aguilar, a graduate of civil engineering and member of the EERI Research Group, spoke about "The influence of technology in construction", where she highlighted the BIM tool, based on a 3D model, for collaborative project management. Raúl Rosado, manager of Hidrosoft, spoke about "High-level software applied to Civil Engineering: presentation of the Ecuadorian GIS-APAL program (comprehensive management of drinking water and sewerage systems).

Gabriela Soria, director of the undergraduate program, stated that the curriculum has been improved to meet the demands of the labor sector. "Students work from the classroom with tools and processes that they will use in their professional practice," she said. Daysi Chicaiza, president of the EERI Research Group, commented that the conferences were held after a survey to know the topics people were interested in. 

The following topics will be presented from the 27th to the 30th of April:

• "Determination of response spectra considering non-linear behavior" by Byron Calo, UPS professor.

• "Design of water networks with WaterCad and Excel" by Cristian Flores, professor at Universidad Central del Ecuador 

• "University Research and Innovation" by Juan Pablo Salgado, Head of Research at UPS.

• "Analysis of non-permanent flow in a high load pipeline with ramifications", by Gabriela Soria, director of the Civil Engineering undergraduate program at UPS - Quito.