- The Joint Committee of the Fundación Cepsa Chair for Innovation and Energy Efficiency at the Universidad de La Laguna has approved the program of activities for 2020
- Awards for the best Final Undergraduate Projects and Final Master’s Projects and the development of an Internship Program are just some of the initiatives planned
The Joint Committee of the “Fundación Cepsa Chair for Innovation and Energy Efficiency at the Universidad de La Laguna” has approved the program of activities planned for 2020, which includes a total of 16 actions to promote technology, innovation, skill development and research, as well as to strengthen the collaboration with other university areas and entities with which Cepsa shares interests.
This was the main item on the agenda of the meeting that the Joint Committee held this week via video conference, in which Andrea Brito, Chair Director and Professor of Chemical Engineering; Emilia María Carmona, Vice-Rector of Culture and Social Participation and the Ofra and La Palma Campus; Ernesto Pereda, Vice-Rector of Research; and Manuel González, Director of the ULL Chairs Secretariat, participated on behalf of the university.
On behalf of Cepsa, Jesús Velasco, Director of Corporate Relations of Cepsa Sites; Joana Frontela, Director of the Cepsa Research Center; José Juan Macías, Digital Program Manager of Refino; and Belén Machado, head of the Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, also participated.
Among the innovation and research actions approved for 2020, one highlight is the launch of a project for a doctoral thesis on the co-processing of oils and greases in the diesel hydrotreating process. This will be co-directed by the Cepsa Research Center and the Heterogeneous Catalysis Group of the Universidad de La Laguna.
Collaboration with the student project TeideSat is also planned, which aims to design, build, put into orbit, and operate a nanosatellite based on the CubeSat standard, while trying to bring the Internet of Things (IoT) closer to university and high school students through the LORA project.
Another important new feature of this year's program is the very first awards for the best Final Undergraduate Projects (TFG, for its acronym in Spanish) and Final Master’s Projects (TFM, for its acronym in Spanish). With this endeavor, we want to recognize studies related to the objectives of the Chair, such as using waste for energy, transport logistics, building energy efficiency studies, and the carbon footprint.
The creation and implementation of a classroom/workshop within the ULL, which bears the name of the Fundación Cepsa and helps build bridges between academic research and society, will also be promoted.
In terms of outreach, various training actions are planned, both face-to-face and online, including workshops, courses and seminars on various topics, such as digital transformation, big data, the circular economy, or hydrocarbon exploration and production, among others.
At the same time, the development of an Internship Program is being planned, which includes awarding three four-month scholarships, two curricular and one extracurricular.
With all these initiatives, the Fundación Cepsa Chair at the Universidad de La Laguna, founded in 2018, aims to become a benchmark in the relations between private enterprises and academic institutions.
In line with this objective, this year's program of activities includes collaboration on events promoted by other entities and departments, such as the Antonio González Science Week, organized by the ULL Department of Organic Chemistry, as well as meetings to contact Cepsa and ULL work groups in order to seek new areas that might get involved in the Chair.